richardmurray

@ProfD Well, not all battles are the same but when it comes to history, harlem or the greater black populace in nyc shows the way. Libraries can be private. What libraries do black people in florida have/own/control? Do they have any publishers in florida? The two key elements any community need for history is their own library/libraries + a way to publish books. In NYC I recall as a kid the black community in nyc had a bunch of initiatives for such a thing. Do the black people of florida have it? and if they don't then they need to ask about. I have said this before. The black financial aristocracy today has no excuse. Dwayne Wade has money. Gabrielle Union? who are the wealthy blacks of florida ? Invest in the black populace of florida. People may not want to hear it but it wasn't the white community that built the colleges/schools/libraries/museums/business quarters in NYC, it was rich whites that built up the white populaces infrastructure in nyc. So rich blacks get busy. Black people have to stop the fantasy of the community building in fiscal capitalism. Rich chinese built up chinatown, it wasn't the common folk, the tong the triad they did it. Yeah ok, money was from crimes or illegalities but they did it. Black Harlem, Black Brooklyn, Black Queens were all built up by black people. Black people built up the schomburg, medgar evers college, et cetera . So black flordiians of wealth, get busy.

@ProfD yeah the tariffs is a blunt way to change the global financial order, if you take the usa out of the equation most governments financial activity lacks crucial elements and in that chaos , the usa can benefit off of any other governments realignment. That is the positive potential side that the white isolationist have desired since woodrow wilson started the usa organizing intergovernmental bodies. but the negative potential side is the chaos will create fissures or strengthen fissures that can lead to an age of woe at a scale nearest apocalyptic

@Chevdove remember the primary reason for the immigration act was to win the cold war with russia. Russia had accused the usa of being a country of tiered groups. Immigration didn't make the whole of humanity better, but it allowed a small percentage of people from each country, usually the wealthiest, to come to the usa and take part of the empire. Sequentially, the wealthiest group in each country in humanity is pro usa. The fact that the immigration act 1960s led to a shift among a growing populace of black people in the usa was a positive side win for non blacks. Well to erasure, remember, wherever you live Chevdove, you can organize, get parents together, and with that can set up a program to instill a certain education amongst DOSers of all ages.

@Pioneer1 No because the prisons that exist now aren't as i described the prisons need to be for he mentally ill. The key is type of prison

@Pioneer1 I did say the following.... Prison by default is an abuse. Being abused in prison is a double abuse. but as my words show I am convinced the human abuse can be minimized based on the design of the prison. That is key. Not rather, the treatments of the mental hospitals were greater abuses. Said mental hospitals were in truth places of inquisition, as in spain, than hospus. and a prison, away from those who broke the law or criminals , designed for cruel mean eternal isolation is an alternative. And I Said in a position of power i defined what I am willing to do to reach said alternative. And I would reject the bill the second any allowance of doctors or pharmacist or experimentist were placed in the prison for their so called treatments.

@ProfD yeah and the usa is poorly run. Joining a country that is dysfunctional internally, lies to itself constantly, is full of variant peoples who have at best a connection only to live on top of each other.why join that? yes your correct about sovereignty and being favored by the usa. A good satrap is unbothered by the persian emperors. But, the usa in my view is not a place of positive value outside of militaristic strength. Take the usa military out and the remainder of the usa i argue is worthless.

@Pioneer1 Well ok i will answer your questions from my position of voting yes The abuse. For me, it is not negligible. Are all mental asylums in the usa the same? no. Did all mental asylums have abuse ? yes. Did over half of mental asylums abuse all the people in it? yes, in varying ways. Why does it matter? IF the point of this place is to make people better, the failure is complete. If the goal is merely to incarcerate then they might as well go to prison. this leads to the second question death isn't an alternative, that is a destination for all who live. Many alternatives haven't been tried but or implied or suggested but one alternative you didn't state is most statian and fits the usa the best, is slightly similar to what you mentioned. Prison is the alternative. The key is a prison for the mentally imbalanced for the condition of being mentally imbalanced. But the prison has no doctors, no pharmacists, no chemist, no brain surgeons, no psychiatrist. The prison i speak of has no one researching or studying these people which all leads to abuse in one form or another. solitary confinements they can't leave. I will not go into specifics of design. In the same way First Peoples children were herded into prisons called state schools, for the label/crime of being native american. Will the prisons i mention make them mentally balanced? no abuse them? yes, but only the prison's conditions, not any human operatives or agents in the prison, like the mental asylums. are mental asylums? no, they are prisons. be good or make me a good guy? no, the point of the prisons i mention is to get the mentally imbalanced contained If I was an elected official , I will sign a bill for these prisons into law , make an act, if I can get an act of direct democracy for the bill. I restate, if the people in my district or state are allowed to vote in an election for referendum of yes, make the bill an act, or no, don't make the bill an act, to the bill I will cosign the bill and if the referendum is majority yes, i vote the bill into an act, if the referendum is majority no or even , i don't vote the bill into an act. Yes I am willing as an elected official to do a cruel thing, if the people i represent sign off on it.

I sent you a private message

@ProfD yes, this is what happens when a populace in power never wanted what happened in their near past, and don't see any betterment to themselves with what did happen

@ProfD ben crump, well done what I mean is the day to day challenges:)

@ProfD Yes Scrumpft admires them but he is not them. None of those men ever went bankrupt and some of them climbed up the financial ladder from fiscally poor beaches. I argue what schrumpt talks about delivering is a form of 1800 usa isolationism while the usa is still the global policeman. I sense in that environment a regionalism which gives space to russia/china/eu/ brasil to grow in their regions while still maintain the global bureaucracy the usa is at the center of

What about mexico? The truth is, Canada would never want to be part of the usa, if it has any decent leadership. Canada is a small populace country , meaning per its size and natural resources canada has a small populace. that allows for the universal health care, the social services, i have been to canada many times, in canada fiscally poor people have true services, that cost money. Joining the usa destroys canada's advantages financially, whether internal or external.

@ProfD even enough we will see what happens

The representative of the family of the white woman burned alive is a black female pastor @ProfD the DOSers will face the next challenges @Pioneer1 If I was an elected official in a legislature and a law was being made to end asylums in the usa with what i know of them I will probably vote yes, while you would definitely vote no. And I comprehend why you would vote no.

Congrats @Troy I have to look at later, but will share now TRANSCRIPT Visit booktv.org for a full schedule of author events. 00:00:08 On about books, we delve into the latest news about the publishing industry with interesting insider interviews with publishing industry experts. We'll also give you updates on current nonfiction authors and books, the latest book reviews, and we'll talk about the current nonfiction books featured on C-SPAN's Book TV. And now on Book TV we want to introduce you to Troy Johnson. He's the founder and president of the African American Literature Book Club. Mr. Johnson, what exactly is that? Show More 00:00:43 Well, the African American Book Club is, uh, one of the oldest and perhaps the largest website dedicated to books written by or about people of African descent. Uh, we provide a platform for people to share ideas and discuss books. We, uh, publish book reviews. We share profiles of, you know, thousands of authors and tens of thousands of books. It's just a tremendous resource to share information about what's happening with black books and indeed the black book ecosystem. So I share information about bookstores. Brick and mortar bookstores, book festivals and fairs, it's just a, you know, one librarian recently called it a librarian's paradise. So that's that's the African American Literature Book Club. Show More 00:01:28 So the year is 1997, what inspired you to do this? 00:01:33 You know, that's an interesting story and It wasn't a love of books. It was really at the time I was running a small business, creating websites, if you can believe it or not, in the mid 90s for small businesses, for others for small businesses. It started, you know, I was selling personal computers on the side and built a website to support that business and decided building websites for other businesses would be an easier, easier thing to do. And I picked books, you know, at the time Barnes and Noble had an affiliate program and it just seemed like something that was easy to do, and I did it and as soon as I did it, I discovered, you know, as soon as I built this website focused on black books, I just discovered the world of books literally just opened up and, you know, meeting people and authors and it just was a tremendous. You know, it just, I just really enjoyed it and I wanted to share that with the world. I just really wanted to share my enthusiasm with everyone else out there because, you know, I, you know, I grew up in Harlem and You know, there was just so much I didn't know about black culture and you know I just was really motivated to share that. Show More 00:02:48 So you talked about the ecosystem of the black book. What, what exactly do you mean by that? 00:02:54 Yeah, when I talk about that, I'm talking about all of the professionals. Involved with getting a black book to the reader's hands, so from the author to the reader and everyone in between, and what I've discovered over the years is that there are A lot of roadblocks, a lot of barriers, some systemic, some. You know, there's different motivations, but after, after, you know, a few years doing this, I realized that it wasn't a lack of desire for the products which you, you know, when I started the website was often bandied about by mainstream publishers, you know, black people don't read, and you know I knew that wasn't true and I knew that if there were more books available they would certainly they would certainly read them. And so then I started to look at, well, why aren't there more books out there. So you know, then I started to look at the number of bookstores that were out there and you know. Do you have access to books? How do you learn about books? Now again, the web was just emerging, so the web wasn't a good place to learn about books, and you know, you had to go to your local brick and mortar store, and you know, even in 2024, you know, there aren't a lot of brick and mortar stores out there. And if you don't learn about them in the stores, you learn about them in schools. And if, you know, I grew up again in New York City and you know, books by black writers teaching us about black history and you know, literary movements like the Black Arts Movement and the Harlem Renaissance that didn't exist, that wasn't happening in the schools, so we needed more black bookstores. So I decided to support those. And then when you look at publishing and you know the idea that you know black people don't read. How did they, you know, come to that conclusion, and then you look at the people who work within publishing and how, you know, how difficult it is for black people to get into publishing or people who are willing to address that a black audience with black books. There weren't a lot of people doing that and the ones that were were struggling, so. The, the, the publishing industry needed to change in terms of who was working in there and how they were working and then later on you learned that, you know, distributors who put books into stores, you know, they sell books that the, you know, you know, it's it's often is who you know and what you like, so you sell what you like, you sell what you know, you sell to who you know, and you know it all along the chain there's just so many roadblocks and So what I wanted to do was address those and sometimes the easiest way to do that is to just, you know, do it yourself. And so I started supporting indie publishers or author publishers and um you know it, you know, and build those so there are companies, you know, black book printers that I support like BCP digital printing. There are black. Independent publishers, some small, some large that I support, and, you know, so even in my own publishing endeavors I attempt to use black professionals as, you know, as As reasonably possible, so the editor, the book designer, the person who sets the type, and you know, all those people, you know, I work to help within the black book ecosystem to build that up so that we can get more books into the hands of people who are most likely to enjoy them. Show More 00:06:31 When I went on the website Aalbc.com. I found over 100, 150 black owned or black focused bookstores on there. 00:06:47 Yeah, that, you know, which. I don't know if that sounds like a lot to you, but it really isn't, and you know many people who live in Who many people out there don't live within a reasonable distance of a bookstore that's going to support the, you know, that's gonna carry the books that I'm talking about. So here in Tampa, a black English, uh, bookstore opened up recently and until they opened their, you know, the ones that were previously opened had closed and where I come from, I was born and raised in Harlem and then, you know, the village of Harlem there isn't a single black owned bookstore. You have to go up to is that Morningside Heights with Sisters Uptown to find the kind of books that we're talking about, you know, books that are published by African World Press or books that are published by Third World Press, books that are published not only by major publishers, the Big Five, but also some of our important smaller imprints and and As successful self-published authors. So, you know, bookstores like that are really important and we need more. So again, you know, I think that I want to say the list is 165 now, you're right. So you're over 150, 165, it's not a lot. We, we can use more. But we're also, Show More 00:08:08 no, no, go ahead and finish. 00:08:10 No, I was going to say we're also in an environment where, you know, reading is being challenged from a wide variety of alternative things to do, and those alternative things don't necessarily serve us, serve us not, you know, as a community, as a country, and you know I'm talking about, you know, in a lot of respects social media and the Revenue driven algorithmic feed that keeps us engaged, not necessarily informed, uh, but engaged and you know, reading is combating that and you know we don't have an algorithm. I don't have an algorithm to uh to drive people psychometrically to do specific things. um, I can only you know, rely on my uh My influence and so you know, we're up a great, you know, we're up, up against a great deal when you're trying to deal with the artificial intelligence driven algorithm, uh, trying to convince people how to use their time. Show More 00:09:09 Troy Johnson, you talked about revenue-driven algorithms or, you know, markets and dealing with the big five Hachette, Harper's, Simon and Schuster, etc. How have you gotten their attention? To publish more black authors, etc. 00:09:29 Well, it's just not me. It's it's a whole community of people. There are a wide variety of groups that are working to help publishers address a need in the marketplace, and from time to time they do. There was, you know, when I first started, there was a surge in interest in urban literature. So some of these authors that I've talked about supporting in the past, these were indie authors writing, you know, gritty stories about the urban environment, and they were selling a boatload of books on their own and You know, mainstream publishing listened, and they perked up, then they started publishing all these guys in masse. You know, they weren't quite as successful at marketing these books as the indie authors were, but they did recognize that there was a need and there were other trends. I recall perhaps the first, you know, before I started there was a time where 3 black women authors made the New York Times at the time and you know that whole commercial literature genre Terry Mcmillan and A bunch, a host of other authors became super popular and publishing, you know, produced books and that. In those in those veins to meet that need. So generally what happens is there's a need met in the marketplace driven by indie authors and the mainstream publisher comes around and takes advantage of that. But in terms of AI, you know, they're dealing with the same thing I'm dealing with, you know, in terms of competing against these algorithms in order to, you know, for attention for a user's attention. So you know, competition for a reader's intention has never been more intense and you know I don't think humans are capable of competing effectively against it, so we're either going to have to come up with our own AI tools or Well, you know, I don't know what the future will bring, but I, you know, AI is certainly the Most, um, you know, it's, it poses an existential threat to websites, period. It just It it is the most disruptive thing that has hit. The public, certainly since the World Wide Web. I mean, it's, it's, it's just I and I use AI every day uh to run my website and uh as a tool to help build it and You know, I just can't imagine, you know, they talk about how much it's going to improve over the next few years, and, you know, I've just seen it improve in the last year and it's been remarkable. So you know how we compete against that, you know, I always say we have to do that with our humanity. We have to compete against the algorithm with, you know. Flesh and blood, you know, we, um, you know, that's why black-owned bookstores, bookstores in general are so important, you know, they, because you're dealing with humans and you're You're engaging with humans and that's, I think fundamentally is fundamentally important to our our thriving as people, you know, we have to engage with other humans as opposed to scrolling through a screen or, you know, doing that type of thing. Show More 00:12:50 Troy Johnson has a bachelor's and a master's in engineering and an MBA from New York University. Is this a full-time profession for you now, Mr. Johnson, the African American literature Book Club? 00:13:04 Yes, it is my livelihood, you know, it took, when I started, I had no idea that that would even be possible, but yeah, it's a full-time vocation for me. I mean, other people, my other peers are all retired and you know I'm doing this, you know, really as a labor of love. you know, I'm not making enough money to support a family, but I'm making enough to support myself and have a decent lifestyle, so I think that You know, it, it, there's a lot, there's the potential certainly in the early years to, to be more financially successful was there, um. And today, um, you know, it's, it's, it's always been a fight. It's always been a struggle to remain financially viable. Again, when I started it was just a sideline, and I started in '97, sit down to code the site and In 2008 is when I started doing it full time. And part of the reason I was able to do that, I moved from New York City to Tampa, Florida, and you know, to reduce my overhead, but now Tampa, Florida it's becoming so expensive that my overhead has increased dramatically in the last few years. Well, Show More 00:14:17 when you look at Alice Walker's, Maya Angelou's, Toni Morrison's, James Baldwin, Henry Louis Gates, I mean, Those are considered great American writers who are writing about the black experience. Who are some of those writers that we should know about that perhaps we don't? 00:14:36 Oh, that perhaps we don't. Now that that's a great one. So personally, the authors that I think about, um, many of them writing about history. So you have writers like Anthony Browder, who's producing, uh, books and hosting tours and taking people to Africa to learn about ancient Africa or Kemet, um, they're, you know, he's known within circles but should be much more widely known. Of their writers, you know, that Really piqued my interest when I first discovered them, like a nai Akbar, um. We have, you know, Dr. John Henry Clark, Dr. Benjakanen, um, they're, um, they're just a number of people like that, um, who are writing, you know, Again, you know, going to school, my history was really limited to You know, Africans were dragged over here and enslaved for a few 100 years and then fought for civil rights, and Martin Luther King ran that and you know, that was basically it. But you know, the, you know, the idea that you know even Western civilization was founded on things that were, you know, learned from Africa is, you know, you know. Just astonishing that that so much of that history, you know, wasn't taught in schools and even within American history there's a lot that was left out and you know I previously mentioned uh the black arts movement and the Harlem Renaissance and the principles from those movements, um, you know. All those people are, you know, important to read today, you know, we, you know, recently lost Nikki Giovanni, but, you know, people from the Black Arts Movement also included Kalamu Yasalam, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, you know, just a wealth of people whose writing still resonates today because a lot of ways we're still struggling for the same things that they struggled for. And you know some of the writers from the Harlem Renaissance. You know, just, you know, producing remarkable work and in a time where it was extremely difficult for black people to be educated, even, you know, these people lived in a time when It was illegal for black people to be educated and so, you know, so the output during the Harlem Renaissance was just remarkable and You know, we could talk all day about different different groups of people writing during different periods that are that are really important, but I encourage people to come to the website and, you know, just search and discover. Show More 00:17:32 Do you feature at the website? Do you feature some of these authors that we've discussed that are lesser known? 00:17:38 Yeah, so we, I published a newsletter periodically. It's typically between 5 and 8 times a month. And the newsletter will include, um, you know, people who aren't um Well sung, you know, the books that I reviewed, for example, aren't being reviewed widely, and they aren't being reviewed on platforms that are seen, you know, broadly. And, you know, one of the things that I would really like to do is when I publish reviews that, you know, particularly of books that are lesser known, you know, we recently published the books that we recently published on our homepage. And you know we just published a book written there's a bio of The saxophone colossus, a bio of Sonny Rollins, and interestingly Sonny is the uh Last surviving member of that really famous uh photograph, a great day that came to be known as the Great Day of Harlem featuring, I don't know, about 50 jazz musicians and so he's actually the last musician alive in that photo and we published and what I think is an important biography of of him. And you know the book didn't get a lot of attention, you know, if it doesn't make the New York Times list, it almost doesn't exist as a book, but it's an important book, you know, it chronicles and an iconic figure in jazz, and I think it should be more widely read, so we You know, we published reviews like that. You'll find those on the website, and I Show More 00:19:17 found also that you're publishing that you list new upcoming books. Two, I wanted to ask you about. One was about Gordon Parks, the photographer and documentarian, and Toni Morrison as an editor at Random House. 00:19:34 Yeah, a lot of people don't know. So first, that page that you're looking at is perhaps the most popular page on the website. So the goal is to, you know, you know, provide information about upcoming books, which is, you know, pretty labor intensive and, you know, because I get a lot of that information from am*zon actually. So I'll hear someone who's got a new book coming out and then I'll go to am*zon and search for the book's metadata and then go to the publisher's house, the publisher's website. And pull that, but yeah, a lot of people didn't know Toni Morrison was an editor for many years. In fact, she edited. She was responsible for exposing us to other great authors, and in fact one of them has a new book or a republication. Nettie Jones has a book coming out, Fish Tales, and Morrison spoke highly of Net Nettie's work, but she also edited uh some some uh really important uh black writers. And you know, Toni Morrison's impact on publishing is is profound and deep, and she's really just an iconic figure and indeed I got to see her win an award or be honored for her lifetime work at the National Book Awards. This was, you know, several years ago, and indeed Maya Angelou presented the award, so it was a It was really A special moment. Show More 00:21:09 Yes, and I think like me, a lot of people knew that Gordon Parks was a photographer and a documentary maker but didn't know a lot about him. 00:21:19 Yeah, so I don't know a lot about that book actually. I, when I heard he had a new book out and I sorted out the information, but I don't recall at the top of my head what that book covers. But again, if there's a description, you can read about the description, and I maintain that. So when the publisher publishes more detailed information about the books, I update the website accordingly. Show More 00:21:44 Troy Johnson, can people buy books at abc.com? 00:21:49 Absolutely, people can buy books and um you know, we sell all the books that are on the site are available for sale if they are out of print, you know, we have a lot of books on the website that are no longer in print, but they are maintained on the site. just to show the author's body of work. I'll shunt people off to am*zon, um, or some or directly to the author. So I sell books in a wide variety of ways, you know, there actually was a time where I was boycotting am*zon, but, um, I've pulled them back into the fold and I uh Use them for ebooks when I sell ebooks on the site, but most of the books that I sell are fulfilled directly, so some of the books are are dropped shipped by the distributor, meaning that the distributorships them on my behalf or I You know, I'll put them in an envelope and take them over to the post office myself, so you know, the You know, I always acknowledge the fact that we all know people can go anywhere to buy a book, and so when they do buy a book on the website, I, I truly appreciate it. Um, you know, the, the other thing is, you know, it's I supplement bookstores, you know, in other words, there are, again, there are some, there are people who don't live near a store that's going to highlight these books, um, so it's important for websites to exist and, and, you know, provide additional information. And you know one of the challenges is that it's much more difficult today to run a website or to attract attention. So you know I have an advantage that I've been online for so long, but if I was to start today, I doubt I'd have a chance as an indie website, you know, attracting attention and ranking in Google search and You know, it's just, it was just, it's just so much tougher. But yes, I do sell books and I appreciate all the business that I did. Show More 00:23:50 Troy Johnson is the founder and president of the African American Literature Book Club AABC.com. Mr. Johnson, thanks for spending a few minutes with us on Book TV. 00:24:02 Well thank you, Peter. I really appreciate your time and Book TV and C-SPAN. President-elect Donald Trump nominated South Dakota Governor.

@ProfD Did you call the previous president of china,I think deng xiaopeng, a dictator? If Xi loses the next election in 2028 will you call the following president of china a dictator? I haven't heard of president xi killing anyone personally or imprisoning opposition. And I think Xi is doing great for china. china is a leader in many industries, can defend itself. overall in Xi's tenure china has done well. Now putin, i concur that he has used his position to manipulate the russian government, attacked opponents. And I don't think Putin has taken care of russia in the second half of his tenure. His problem is he wants russia to stand with usa+ china but russia lost the cold war and as we black DOSers know better than most, losing wars while being alive comes at a cost that can't be undone so easily. Putin needs to redefine russia, end the cycle it was on since peter the great. I never read that from you before. well, it hasn't been easy, but i think mao's desire to get the people of china to be one has not got them all: the ugyars, the taiwanese, the people of hong kong are not exactly embraced by the others but china is doing better than russia or the usa I argue on that on that regard. The Cossacks/checyens/ukranians are part of russia but are not embraced by the descendents of the rus.

@Pioneer1 No, all solstice's occur when the path of the sun is highest or lowest from the equator. The fist graphic, gives an idea [don't pay mind to the day, they don't occur on the same day every year, the date of each has to be calculated. But, the general idea is there. the earth has an elliptical orbit which means it is like a line around an egg, it is bigger on one side. the perihelion [ periapsis in the image] is when the earth is closest. the aphelion [ apoapsis in the image] is when the earth is farthest from the sun. these two events some folk [me and others] consider the beginning of a year and the true midyear, respectively. The second image shows top left march equinox top right june solstice bottom left september equinox bottom right december solstice the third image is the side view approximation of the june solstice. Notice the equator. Now the fourth image is the side view approximation of the december solstice, notice the equator. Do you see the difference? The solstices or the equinoxes are based on the tilt of the earth's axis. During the equinoxes the equator of the earth and the middle sun ray in the graphic are in line. I better way to explain it during the equinoxes, the northern and southern hemisphere face the sun equally. This is why it is an equal night. the day and night are equal length. During the december solstice the southern hemisphere faces the sun more, this is why the december solstice has the longest day in the southern hemisphere while the longest night in the northern hemisphere. In parallel, the june solstice is when the northern hemisphere faces the sun the most. that is why the june solstice has the longest day in the northern hemisphere while the longest night in the southern. And the earth changes cyclically so THE TOP Southern hemisphere faces the sun the most , december solstice, longest day in the southern hemisphere, longest night in the northern hemisphere earth axis tilts every day less and less of the southern hemispsere faces the sun Both hemisphere faces the sun qually, march equinox, day and night the same length in both hemispheres earth axis tilts every day less and less of the southern hemisphere faces the sun Northern hemisphere faces the sun the most, June solstice, longest day in the northern hemisphere, longest night in the southern hemisphere earth axis tilts every day more and more of the southern hemisphere faces the sun Both hemispheres faces he sun equally , september equinox. equal day in both hemipsheres Earth axis tilts every day more and more of the southern hemipshere facing the sun GO TO THE TOP The perihelion or aphelion aren't about the earth's tilt along the path around the sun. The perihelion or aphelion are about the earth's distance to the sun. During the perihelion the earth is closest and from the moment immediately after the perihelion the earth is getting farther and farther away from the sun till the aphelion when the earth gets the farthest from the sun in its orbit. And immediately after the aphelion, the earth is getting closer and closer to the sun till the following, perihelion. The moon has an elliptical orbit around the earth, like the earth has around the sun. The moon doesn't have an equinox or solstice because it never tils its axis, one side of the moon always faces the earth I hope i helped

@ProfD we are synching, what is wrong with the world:) it is 2025:)

@ProfD yes but i have a lesser view of those organizations potency than you. The BRIC- brazil russia india china wouldn't exist if the usa backed organizations were as potent as you suggest, or I think you suggest. china hasn't had a dictator since chiang ki shek, the presidents of china are elected. It isn't a usa system or a western european system, but china's leaders are elected. The one key similarity to the western european system is china doesn't have term limits either. So when the next chinese congress convenes in 2028 , we will see if Xi Jinping can win it again. He will have work to do. the chinese communist party may look like one whole party but i argue it is like the donkeys/elephants/third parties/joint chiefs of staff all wrapped up into one, the chinese constitution doesn't allow for multiple parties but it does allow for factions in one party, and that is how it works. These factions don't have official names cause they are fluid, they can easily change over time based on the inner activities of the members. In the same way the factions in the donkeys or elephants change over time: the squad,or the tea party . China doesn't have a dictator, that is a media lie from the usa/western europe. And I will defend the chinese system again going back multiracial large populace countries. The reason why mao liked one party is he comprehended that china historically is very multiracially internally. many people outside china may think of china as one peoples but they are not historically. so one party serves to unite in government administration a country of over a billion people. And the chinese communist party isn't a dictator it is the reason why china is the second most powerful government in humanity, why it no longer is an english opium den, why it is better than its geographic peers: russia/india/japan/korea/taiwan who represent collectively various different ways. Which i can go into, but I will not:) Remember the chinese government feeds all of its people, a hell of a lot larger populace than the usa. I don't see why any chinese would be looking to overthrow the chinese communist party, they have put and maintain china on a positive arch. See this is the thing. In the soviet era, the soviet government by its own law, was obliged to take care of all people equally so what few may know is that for all the struggles, the soviet union tried to support all the citizens as equals. The real reason why the soviets failed was because of their very expensive arms race with the usa. The soviets were better scientist than the usa but an arms race against a fiscal capitalistic country is foolish. But the soviets exhausted themselves and it was from that moment to putin that you see the truth Profd. Between the fall of the soviets to putin what happened? The USA as the victor of the cold war, pushed all the fiscal capitalistic russians, the oligarchs, in my mind the descendents of whites or czarists into russia and it worked out for the usa. Russia in that time gave up a lot of technology, the natural resources of russia were being milked by usa/western europe. but in russia the people were wondering where the social services were. No one told them that texas in the usa/missisippi in the usa don't have social services like new york or california. So the oligarchs came in, lived in golden palaces and showed the russian people first hand what fiscal capitalism absent enslavement is at its most crude/raw/negative. Just a lot of greed. so Putin comes in and basically creates the modern russian government. the oligarchs could had did far better but as usual with these statinphiles in countries outside the usa, they live in london/new york city and talk about they want better for the country of their bloodline but when they get a chance, ala iraq/afghanistan/libya/and it will be the same with syria, they show themselves to be pure fiscal capitalists in the usa way with no plans or desires to make the country they were not raised in anything but a cash grab for themselves. MY point being the strong man brought organization to russia, the oligarchs brought chaos. And the oligarchs weren't one person, they were a group, distributing wealth amongst themselves. So convincing the russian people of distribution wealth change will take more than words, it will take actions. I don't know if you comprehend my point. I comprehend for you, distribution of wealth change is or can be at best the equalizer or at least the universal standard of living improvement needed in humanity or in humanities parts for betterment. And I see logic in your thinking. But, the one element your position needs is someone to lead by example. The chinese communist party does it. Most people in china want no war, and the chinese communist party isn't starting one, the issue in the south china sea isn't about war but china's growth, the reality is, china has grown too big to be the usa's bitch militaristically and the usa government has been unwilling to let russia have parts of eastern europe or china have parts of south east asia... I don't know what schrumpt will do, he seems to be willing to let them have those parts which is something we will see soon enough if true or not... The western european countries have all these riots because FDR made western europe have a high level of social security, and the recent governments have mismanaged funds which threatens the social safety net, the distribution of wealth in western european countries... The people of nippon/japan have a high level of internal peace cause they have a system of distribution of wealth + no sharing of wealth to the outside, ala immigrant entry which maintains a quality, but they don't have a military either. Their biggest problem is the man's man culture in japan has to end, the japanese woman is leading in many sectors of their community but the men blockade higher positions and that is the battle... but russia's problem is distribution of wealth has tended to be violent/bloody/ and not functional. So Russians need someone russians in or out of russia to lead by example, but none do so .... that exposes the truth of russian people. As I say about the black elephants in the usa, the black republican party members, from the 1960s onward, they always complain that black people don't spend money right, while boasting about their businesses. But they never show an example of this quality. To restate, a bunch of black business owners complain about fiscal impropriety in the black populace in the usa but never have an example within their own tribe of collective better business. The russians need the same, they need someone russian to lead by example, don't talk the talk, walk the walk.

@ProfD they do have a history of enslavement to the first peoples, but your correct, having a less multiracial populace always helps a country be more stable

@ProfD except the weapons yeah, the cold war proxy war between powers still exists but it isn't a flex for show. Every redefining war in humanity had people who said all the powerful are part of some one world government -esque arrangement until the war hit and then the reality of the wealthy is clear to see. And the reason is simple, sooner or later, someone in the rich zone wants more than the arrangement and once you do , only one way exist to get it. Ahh the people of russia are in denial, like the people in india, like the people in the usa , as in brasil. One of the most unfortunate influences of the usa on humanity is populaces inability to be honest to themselves. all the peoples in the usa lie to themselves and the usa likes other populaces to do the same. The people of russia are imperialist, who have spent over a century trying to be western european voters in appearance and that lie is what stops them. The russians have watched western europe for a long time, elected government: france/england/usa/brasil none of these governments show a good example of elected government. each of them have historically disenfrachised populaces that the many peoples of russia realize will be them. Risen up against putin for what? for the usa model ? You would tell them redistribute wealth but which group in russia will gain the most in the redistribution? You wouldn't offer an answer and so, stay the course.

@ProfD he isn't alone to, i wish i knew the numbers or some newspaper did investigative reporting concerning elected officials who are leaving earlier than average. I recall the first schrumf presidency and many left who had decades ahead of them into the private sector. But I want to say, trudeau and alot of these other people were are not and will not be worried about the populaces they are in a position to govern. Malcolm and advocates of that quality are very very rare and usually stay far away from government.

@Pioneer1 Don't tease a lover of history with such questions:) I will be up all night thinking on it:) When you look at what reagan did with welfare which was basically allow different states to treat it differently, such that in the mostly white states, a wisconsin, an idaho, an arkansas, white people whose work ethic is far worse than any black person in california/new york/georgia treat welfare like a right and it comes like a right to them while in new york/california/georgia, whites+financially positive blacks knock down black people on welfare as inadequate or lazy and try to deny them welfare. And every law from welfare to work under clinton to the affordable care act under obama to the abortion situation with schrumpft/biden is a state by state issue, that too many people treat as one. Yeah I can definitely see seeds in the 1980s, which even coincides to the fiat currency started in the 1970s and OPEC changing the oil/energy situation @ProfD shame on me, the euro alone is fiat. You are correct that barring military reality, the governments can use the fiat currency model and define a global financial balance. But, is china going to do this with the usa? is russia going to do this with the european union? is India going to do this with fellow nuclear power and public rival pakistan? I can go on and on. I will even piggy back on the dialog between me and pioneer and add, in the usa itself, the financial binds of the states are loosening. Yes, the usa federal military is absolute in the usa, but the kind of inter governmental cooperation needed for that I see becoming less and less possible. Look at New York state side NEw JErsey with the congestion pricing. I am not saying you are wrong Profd. I am saying the governments in humanity and even their subdivisions [scotland in the uk, hong kong in china] are showing a greater and greater dislike for the bureaucratic harmony that aligning the fiat currencies as you suggest will require to be effective . The wealthy in each government in humanity like the fiat to support themselves but to readjust for the 99% in each government will require changes the one percent in each government seem less and less interested in. And fiscal poor folk don't have the will, desire, gusto or the arms to force anything on their end.

@ProfD making financial demands requires unity first. The citizens of the usa you are speaking of today are a financially varied , phenotypically varied , .. philosophically varied populace that based on the 2024 election clearly views the law, finances, or the role of the usa dissimilarly in itself, in unbridgeable ways. The question is how do dissimilar people unite to make a peaceful demand? I do know some argue, financial desperation will make it work but I am not certain or convinced to that argument. What say you?

@ProfD The usa is the only government in modernity with a fiat currrency and it only works by a militaristic power. How can that be applied to all?