Troy

First act, a set of educators, i think college are helping a colleague leave but they all have an affinity to this colleague, a curiosity about his nature. I concur with Bixby, real human beings are not alarmist and in this select case, all of these are seasoned educators used to slowly thinking about something, so they wouldn't call the cops or paddy wagon immediately. 

Why did I not guess the black leather jacket would call someone from outside first. I thought it would be billingly's character the physics or chemistry professor.

Second act, a female teacher loves him, reminds me of that twilight zone , Long Live Walter JAmeson, by the dead early Charles Beaumont, but extended.

I love Crude demonstration , hilarious, I am not superman. Loving Tony Todd's acting. 

27:34 first seeing the ocean

28:42 he studied with the buddha, and i loved the earlier birth of the vampire myth

29:06 the first betrayal of character, leather jacket should had considered he think of being outed. Considering he called someone he is either biding time or betraying himself.

29:38 ahh well done, he was expecting, 

30:31 i wish i had been here from the beginning, I concur:) 

32:16 he survived the bubonic plague, typhoid , smallpox

32:53 good point, being immortal in a cage isn't desired

33:33 black leather is wrong, common sense isn't insulted by an immortal being, common sense accepts tthe unique is plausible even if it can't not be explained.

35:19 true Tony todd, but time is also the most precious thing in existence.

35:52 exactly, the second is a human construct. an algorithmic truth, not assessed from nature.

36:27 funny moment. slow movie but for those who like to overthink and like dialog fun

37:21 is he lucky? that is the point of the story

39:41 exactly, he is outside most of humanity yet still human, a minority of one

41:46 I love that he didn't go into his past wives or children by the invasive psychiatrist

42:50 good point, the one great chaotic moment is the "immortal man" chose to even do this. I comprehend the writer's point. It is a random idea in one of many lives. But I must admit, my long lived characters wouldn't do this, unless they wish to be caught or have their cycle of lives undone.

43:07 he didn't think of these people's feelings before he told them ahhh, i disagree bixby.

43:37 the psychiatrist, white haired is trying to pull off a guilt trip, i bet he was diagnosed to die soon

44:50 ahh i knew it was a tragedy, the psychiatrist wife died yesterday
I love it, permit me to be infantile by myself. 

46:58 my first wedding funny charades

47:54 this movie clearly couldn't make it in theaters.

48:48 love his answer to 1292 ad

50:04 funny, about the primitive tribe in new guinea:)

51:03 the older woman is a hard core christian

51:47 no way skipping the biblical figure, and now he wants to call it a night, this is what you get when you ask those who study knowledge about a person who has lived longer than common

53:10 he is jesus hahaha! 

53:24 sit down edith, i know 

54:16 yes, sit down edith, lovely honesity from the biologist about his kin

54:41 tony todd, modern, that's good:)

55:29 ahh he is espousing the old belief that jesus learned buddhist ways. it makes sense historically in one way. Buddhism is older than the roman empire, and from the travelers, who were common at that time, labeled magi, who traveled freely in the roman empire because of the might of the roman empire... ok.

56:41 exactly, Tony Todd, christianity was born from the multiracial roman empire. 

58:26 good point, buddha /jesus/the christian god, may not be happy 

59:04 you can tell this was written on bixby's deathbed, a great mortuary story. I wonder what I will write in my last moments.

59:35 hhahaha, the psychiatrist came back:) haha soul saved:) 

1:00:00 nice bridge, we don't need to reintroduce the old topics for the psychiatrist, his shame on leaving.

1:00:53 great joke, nothing unusual in the path of the psychiatrist until the day he met a caveman who thought himself jesus

1:01:46 piety is the mistake they bring to the lessons haha, he is on a roll, Bixby is enjoying himself in his last days

1:03:10 thank you biologist, people make to light the influence of drugs, no, if he is taking a drug it isn't making him go up or down be violent or peaceful, it isn't changing him at all

1:04:20 thank you tony todd, i don't blame you, stay calm and relax.

1:04:55 exactly, psychiatrist, or the modern mythologies of MLKjr or Adolf Hitler

1:07:42 Its funny , in a group called african american literary book club, do you know how many black members suggest the usa will be forever? why is that? why is it, black people who knows kemet has all other human communities by thousands of years will be bested by the usa? what are blacks in the usa afraid of?.... 

1:08:20 how do you know?  I don't smell it. 
exactly, you know when it will rain , all humans do. 

1:09:20 etymology, this does happen. words matter.

1:10:25 good acting, they are all trapped by this story of their colleague

1:11:00 if edith says you aren't jesus one more time

1:11:56 edith have broken down , the psychiatrist had to shed light

1:12:49 the psychiatrist is wrong, he doesn't demand the truth, he demands the lie to keep peace

1:13:44 he is bluffing, well done, he is giving them safety

1:14:22 easy tonny todd:) he want to kill him

1:15:44 it ends safe, well done bixby, he lets the thinkers get off easy

1:16:25 exactly , the woman who lives him is right. 

1:17:59 edith knows. she will leave it

1:18:14 Tony Todd, a latitude in what we call reality... anything is possible
I am going to watch star trek. and yes, good move tony todd
Drop me a line whenever

1:19:34 the psychiatrist found out
easy psychiatrist , the break down. ahh well done, Bixby, ahh the psychiatrist was a man he knew. 

1;21:45 exactly, he never saw his own child again.

1:22:34 yes, let her decide

hahaha, great hook, who knows, let the viewer decide.

IN CONCLUSION
Ok, this movie was fun, but not for the general audience. Alittle careless of him, but that is part of John's humanity, humans even long living one's will make mistakes. 
I know this is an aside, but i love the credits , they are large enough to see and slow enough to follow, many movies have very uncaring or cheap credits.

I say, this is a well constructed example of someone long lived revealing themselves in a paraspontaneous way.

Just thoughtfulness.

I didn't time index from the begining cause I was watching it side relatives , we do those things in our home, but I am glad my relatives went to watch other things as I could write more specifically and i forgot some points early on:) 

The director Ryan Coogler on the set of “Wakanda Forever.” Does he want to direct more “Black Panther” movies? “I’ll do it as long as folks will have me.”Credit...Annette Brown/Marvel

The ‘Black Panther’ Sequel That Never Was

Writer-director Ryan Coogler and co-screenwriter Joe Robert Cole reveal the original plot for “Wakanda Forever” and discuss working in the Marvel universe.

By Reggie Ugwu

The “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” screenwriters Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole are just coming up for air. A month after release, the much anticipated follow-up to the original “Black Panther” (2018) is well situated, still screening at more than 3,000 theaters heading into the holiday weekend. The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics and holds the year’s second-highest performance at the box office, after “Top Gun: Maverick.” To date, it has grossed more than $420 million domestically and nearly $800 million overall.

Things could have gone much differently.

“This film was difficult in ways that only the people who made it would know,” Coogler said in a recent interview. “There are things we put in there that felt revolutionary, that challenged the definition of having ‘a good time’ in a movie like this.”

The death of Chadwick Boseman, who played the title role in the original film — a noble but untested leader of the fictional African promised land Wakanda — forced a radical reimagining of the franchise. Coogler and Cole had recently sent Boseman a completed first draft of the script when the actor succumbed to a secret bout with colon cancer.

Their eventual rewrite opened with the death of Boseman’s character, T’Challa, turning the $250 million superhero film that followed into what can be fairly described as an extended meditation on grief and recovery.

In a recent joint conversation over video, the screenwriters discussed their original vision for a “Black Panther” sequel, how they addressed the loss of Boseman, and balancing the demands of their story with those of the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe.

These are edited — and spoiler-filled — excerpts from the conversation.

What was it like collaborating this time?

RYAN COOGLER Last time we went back and forth. Joe had already started when I came on. I think I tried to go for a draft, but I was taking too long and so he jumped in. Then we would get notes from the studio, and we would just kind of divide and conquer. On the second one, we were doing it over the pandemic, so we couldn’t meet up. But Final Draft [the screenwriting software] came out with this update where we could both work in the script at the same time. It was an amazing feature. Very productive, very fun.

JOE ROBERT COLE It allowed us to bridge that feeling of being in a room and just spitballing ideas.

COOGLER Then we took that hit, bro, when Chad passed. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I didn’t know how we were going to pull ourselves up and figure it out. Thank God for Joe and the collaborative process, man. It would’ve been impossible for me to write this thing on my own.

In the initial draft of the script, before Chadwick’s death, how were you looking at the story? What were the challenges?

COOGLER It was, “What are we going to do about the Blip?” [In Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” T’Challa is one of billions of people who suddenly vanish, only to be brought back by the Avengers five years later.] That was the challenge. It was absolutely nothing like what we made. It was going to be a father-son story from the perspective of a father, because the first movie had been a father-son story from the perspective of the sons.

In the script, T’Challa was a dad who’d had this forced five-year absence from his son’s life. The first scene was an animated sequence. You hear Nakia [T’Challa’s love interest, played by Lupita Nyong’o] talking to Toussaint [the couple’s child, introduced in “Wakanda Forever” in a post-credits sequence]. She says, “Tell me what you know about your father.” You realize that he doesn’t know his dad was the Black Panther. He’s never met him, and Nakia is remarried to a Haitian dude. Then, we cut to reality and it’s the night that everybody comes back from the Blip. You see T’Challa meet the kid for the first time.

Then it cuts ahead three years and he’s essentially co-parenting. We had some crazy scenes in there for Chad, man. Our code name for the movie was “Summer Break,” and the movie was about a summer that the kid spends with his dad. For his eighth birthday, they do a ritual where they go out into the bush and have to live off the land. But something happens and T’Challa has to go save the world with his son on his hip. That was the movie.

Was Namor, the leader of the undersea nation Talokan in “Wakanda Forever,” still the villain?

COOGLER Yeah. But it was a combination. Val [the C.I.A. director, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus] was much more active. It was basically a three-way conflict between Wakanda, the U.S. and Talokan. But it was all mostly from the child’s perspective.

In the new version, the opening scene is T’Challa’s death. Why did you decide to start there?

COLE Just practically, everyone was going to be waiting to see how we dealt with it, so doing it right up front made sense. In terms of the characters, we needed to introduce a different version of Shuri [T’Challa’s sister, played by Letitia Wright]. We’re showing the moment that she becomes a different person than the person we met. She’s the smartest person in the world, but she can’t save her brother. What does that do to you?

COOGLER We wanted to have an emotionally intelligent conversation. It’s about the transformative quality of grief and trauma. There’s this expectation with emotional trauma that you just need time. “Oh, give them a couple weeks off; they’ll come back to work and get back to it.” But that person is completely different in some ways. You just don’t see it because the change isn’t visible.

T’Challa’s death is attributed to an illness, but it seems sudden and inexplicable, which profoundly unsettles Shuri. Why did you make that choice?

COOGLER We wanted to keep it simple. At the end of the day, what mattered is that she had a self-expectation of being able to be solve it and she failed. And we didn’t want her to have anywhere to displace her anger. If somebody else would’ve taken T’Challa out, Shuri would’ve looked for that person. We wanted it to be a situation where the only place to go was internal.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character has appeared in other Marvel properties and is being set up as a major antagonist in the studio’s future projects, including the “Thunderbolts” movie due in 2024. Is it challenging to incorporate characters or story lines from the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe?

COLE Ryan will have a different perspective as the director, but I’ve never had a conversation where I was asked to incorporate something that didn’t feel organic. The dynamic of the U.S. being an instigator and Western powers being an instigator, that always existed. It wasn’t, “Oh, we need to find a reason to make this character exist.” It was, “Oh, this is already in here and there’s this wonderful actress available.” It always starts from the story and the ideas.

COOGLER Yeah, nobody was shoehorned in or asked to be put into the movie or anything like that. Actually, in this version, [Louis-Dreyfus’s role] was pared back in order to make space for dealing with T’Challa’s death. And we had Val in there before she even appeared in any of the other movies, before “Black Widow” and [the series] “Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” People assume that we were told to put her in, but she was there from the beginning.

Ryan, what’s your appetite to tell more stories in the world of Wakanda?

COOGLER I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to work on these movies, bro. When I got asked to do the first one, it was like a moving train. I thank God every day that I was able to jump on it and meet these people, these actors, and to meet Chadwick during some of the last years of his life. I’ll do it as long as folks will have me. But I think it’s bigger than just me or Joe. Between the first and second movie, we made $2 billion at the box office, which is what matters the most to corporations. So I hope that it continues, man. I hope people are still making movies about Wakanda long after we’re gone.

Reggie Ugwu is a pop culture reporter covering a range of subjects, including film, television, music and internet culture. Before joining The Times in 2017, he was a reporter for BuzzFeed News and Billboard magazine. @uugwuu

URL : https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/arts/ryan-coogler-black-panther-wakanda-forever.html

Jacobs-Jenkins, far left, on the “Kindred” set during filming. “In honoring Octavia’s book, I’m trying to find new things to talk about,” he said.Credit...Tina Rowden/FX

‘Kindred’ Creator Wants Viewers to ‘Question Their Assumptions’

In his TV adaptation of the Octavia Butler novel, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins changed parts of the story but kept the author’s focus on “making the familial political.”

By Salamishah Tillet

Dec. 26, 2022

“If a ‘Kindred’ movie is ever made, I wouldn’t be involved,” Octavia Butler wrote in a letter in 2000. “It won’t be my movie, and I suspect it won’t look much like my book.”

It was yet another Butler prediction that was mostly on target, though she was wrong about the format. Adapted by the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for FX on Hulu, “Kindred” is neither a film nor a completely faithful interpretation of the novel. But it comes at a time when there is more interest in Butler’s body of work than ever before, and in how her prolific writing, mainly science fiction novels, continues to resonate with our world more than 15 years after her death.

“Kindred” is Butler’s most well-known and often-taught novel. Published in 1979, it tells the story of Dana Franklin, a 26-year-old African American writer who repeatedly and unexpectedly travels from 1976 to a mid-19th-century plantation in Maryland. Each time Dana arrives in the past, she finds herself saving the life of Rufus Weylin, her white slaveholding ancestor; she returns to the present only when her own life is at risk.

In a 1988 interview with the literary critic Larry McCaffery, Butler said that “Kindred,” with its blend of genres, periods and antebellum histories, was informed by ideological debates she had during college in the 1960s, about the extent to which slaves should have rebelled against their masters.

Knowing this, Jacobs-Jenkins sought to capture those tensions while updating the story to convey the complexity of our post-Obama racial reality. A lifelong Butler fan, he wanted to turn “Kindred” into a television series as far back as 2010, when he debuted his first full-length play, “Neighbors,” at the Public Theater.

The drama was well regarded, but it was Jacobs-Jenkins’s 2014 Obie-award-winning play, “An Octoroon,” that established him as one of America’s most exciting young playwrights. A satirical adaptation of Dion Boucicault’s “The Octoroon,” a 19th-century melodrama about the tragic love story between a European-educated white plantation owner and the play’s titular character, an enslaved woman, the play inspired critical raves and hot ticket sales. In his review for The New York Times, Ben Brantley wrote that its success “seemed to confirm the reputation of its author as one of this country’s most original and illuminating writers about race.”

Even then, Jacobs-Jenkins remained committed to “Kindred.” In 2015, he persuaded Courtney Lee-Mitchell, the rights holder of the novel, that it should be a television series and not a movie as previously imagined by other potential producers and even by Butler herself. The decision to stretch the story over multiple seasons has drawn some criticism. (All eight episodes of Season 1 are available on Hulu, but the series has not yet been renewed.)

Nevertheless, Jacobs-Jenkins hopes that his expansion of the novel’s universe encourages more people to discover Butler’s writing for themselves.

“After watching this, I want people to question their assumptions about what they think they know about history, about themselves,” he said. “I want them to read Octavia’s work.”

In a video interview earlier this month, Jacobs-Jenkins talked about his introduction to Butler’s writing, the motivations behind some of his changes to her story and why he thinks television and theaters need even more stories about slavery. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.

When did you first come in contact with “Kindred”?

My relationship with Butler preceded my engagement with “Kindred.” I was one of those kids reading Stephen King on the playground for no good reason, and Ray Bradbury’s novels were important transitional objects for me too. I was like 12 or 13 when I had a babysitter who went to Howard, who was a Black nerd, too. She told me, “You should read Octavia Butler.” So I started with her Patternist series. And when I got to college, I read her on an African American studies syllabus and remember thinking, Oh, this person I read for fun is important academically. That is also when I learned of “Kindred,” which was oddly one of my later introductions to her work.

Before, when I was reading her, it felt very much still like a secret; it felt good to be a part of that weird underground. And now, she’s been mainstreamed in this gigantic way.

How did this adaptation come about?

Slavery is the material of my creative life. I remember becoming obsessed with the visual work of Kara Walker, Glenn Ligon and Kerry James Marshall and wondered why they were so ahead of theater. So back then, I said, I’m going to deep-dive these people, and I’m going to write a play based on my deep dive. I just inhaled whatever their discourse was and tried to translate it into a theater space. And the truth is, my creative life is also ultimately guided by fandom on some level, and I remember rereading “Kindred” in 2010 and thinking, This is a TV show. It was a eureka moment.

I immediately started figuring out how to get the rights. It had been under option since 1979 because people kept trying to make a movie out of it. And I was like, It’s not a movie. Because the whole book is about the experience of time’s passage and watching people transform, witnessing their development, growth, decay and shift of their allegiances. It took six years for me to get the rights, and then my task became trying to translate it and ultimately peel back the layers for people.

Speaking of time passages, her novel was set in 1976 to coincide with the bicentennial year of the Declaration of Independence. Why did you set the series in 2016?

Along the way, I became very friendly with Merrilee Heifetz, Butler’s literary executor and her lifelong agent. One of the things she said to me was, “Octavia would’ve wanted you to make this for now.” So I took that to heart. I think 2016 was that last gasp of naïveté about how we had processed the legacies of this racial regime that the country’s founded on. Do you remember the day after Obama was elected, suddenly, there was a discussion of a phrase called post-race? I remember asking, “What is that?” I also think because people did not see the results of the 2016 [presidential] election coming, we suddenly felt like we were backsliding as a country. “Kindred” was the ultimate metaphor for that, too.

Another surprising change was your inclusion of her mother as a major character. What inspired that story line?

Merrilee also told me that Octavia referred to this book as one she never quite cracked. That interested me because this is her most widely read and known book, and that also sent me to her archives, which had just been cataloged at the Huntington Library.

I read every draft of “Kindred,” and there are ones in which she experimented with this mother figure. In her canon, she’s obsessed with mothers. I don’t want to be psychoanalyzing another artist, but her relationship with her mother was very complicated. Merrilee told me once that she would say, “Octavia, I want you to write a memoir.” And she would say, “I’ve already written a memoir; it’s called ‘Kindred.’”

Unlike many other contemporary representations of enslaved people in television and film, Dana is not by herself. She has a community in each of her periods to help her. Why was this important to portray?

I think Octavia was obsessed with family. I mean, it’s called “Kindred,” and it is about making the familial political. My approach was to always think of what she was doing and try to echo or expand on that universe — I took all my cues from her, except for setting it in 2016. At the same time, she was always trying to understand why tribalism exists, why genes are so varied as a concept, how they’re weaponized to oppress people and what oppression ultimately is rooted in.

Dana has to make some hard choices for herself and often risks the lives of other enslaved African Americans to ensure that she continues to exist in the present. How did you approach bringing her moral ambiguity to the screen?

That’s an essential part of the book, and I think that’s what makes Dana interesting. Most folks are not participating in active insurrection but are fighting in small ways to maintain their agency. This is driven home in Dana, who says to herself: “Wait a minute, to ensure my existence, I have become someone who might destroy or erase the existences of countless people. I want to be perceived as good, and I want to think that my goodness will rub off on Rufus too.” But playing both sides isn’t how justice happens. You wind up being morally compromised in all your actions if you are still thinking about yourself. That’s the interesting challenge she has to negotiate.

Why did you think a multi-season arc was best for this story versus adapting it as a single-season limited series?

I just didn’t think you could do this book in eight hours. It’s about being with people over time and really feeling these tectonic shifts in their personhood. I thought the idea of squeezing in six different actors for Rufus would have felt like a party trick. I’m sure that someone out there could have made that thing, but I just really wanted to give us the fullest canvas I could to tell the story.

Do you ever worry that audiences will grow weary of stories on slavery?

There is this interesting quota that we all want to put on stories about slavery, and I think that question is often asked only of Black creatives. There are a thousand shows on the air about rich white families doing evil sympathetically, and no one puts a quota on that. I think it’s interesting that there’s this desire to police any storytelling about a creative’s history. I mean, this is my history and my family history.

I also think people are worried, afraid of, or sick of the tropes and stereotypes that come with this work and are waiting for the familiar scene in which some female enslaved person is raped or someone is tied to a pole or a tree and whipped. But in honoring Octavia’s book, I’m trying to find new things to talk about. We should never stop telling these stories, especially when people try to erase them from history books.

Salamishah Tillet is a contributing critic at large for The Times and a professor at Rutgers University. She won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2022, for columns examining race and Black perspectives as the arts and entertainment world responded to the Black Lives Matter moment with new works. @salamishah

URL : https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/26/arts/television/kindred-branden-jacobs-jenkins-octavia-butler.html

Here is the application

https://www.carverbank.com/assets/files/sH4xAGTG

To Apply use the following link

https://www.carverbank.com/Competition

The following is the application in images

As a writer in a fiscal capitalistic environment, I am, like all other writers, two thing. I am a literary artist plus a commercial artist. 

As a literary artist, I am complete. I create literature that I love, that comes from my soul. I make public or keep private what I choose from my creations. 

As a commercial artist, I am learning. The selling or buying of art involves factors outside creativity or art. Some of said factors are heritage or culture or financial quality. 

In the modern, meaning current, United States of America a culture made in response to historic heritages in said community has become potent in the media industry. In common history of the USA, the historic heritage, media was over ninety nine percent populated by humans who are male-person born with a penis+heterosexual-fornicate with someone who is born with the opposite sexual organ no hermaphrodites+christian-various denominations+white-phenotypical range+european ancestry. Humans who are not in the stated racial group , composed of additives, were less than one percent present in media across all activities. OVer time for various reasons, the cold war desire of the white power of the USA to be accepted by the larger human populace outside the usa over the ussr being the largest one, media in the USA changed at the impetus from its white owners. But , as ever larger money in the USA started being earned by more than just white christian male heterosexuals of european descent, the desire to impose a new media paradigm grew and grew. Said paradigm was and is aided by the growing financial clout of countries outside the USA that are mostly populated by non european or non white or non christian or maybe even mostly female humans. 

But what is the culture? 

The culture brewed state two position. Panracial integration is mandatory. Those in the stated group <white/male/christian/hetero/european ancestry> are blockaded from depicting those who are not while those who are not can depict those who are <white/male/christian/hetero/european ancestry>. 

Why did I make this post?

Not for anything I said prior. Everything I said prior was or is common knowledge or should or shall be common knowledge.

I made this post to state a dysfunction in said culture.

It mirrors the same dysfunction in Brown vs Board of Education. 

Can human beings of different races, any racial category, coexist peacefully or functionally? the answer is a simple, historically proven, yes. Multiracial bodies, any racial category, are common throughout humanity.

But, history proves something else. Humans beings can also thrive segregated from each other. Peaceful/functional/positive monoracial bodies, any racial category, are common throughout humanity. 

The question in media is? If Valinor doesn't have any Black people , are Black people harmed/injured/insulted? The answer is a simple no. 

The tales of Anansi don't include any whites or europeans. Grimms fairy tales don't include any blacks or africans. Neither story collection is lessened by their reality. Neither story requires unrepresented races to be forced through new characters or stories. 

The answer isn't how to push black students into a white students only school to get the resources of the white school to be accessed by black students. The answer is to increase the resources of the black students only school to be at least equal to the white students only school. 

Was media in the USA an industry that blockaded those who were not male+white+european ancestry+christian+heterosexual? yes. 

But, is the wisest response to that past a modernity where said media is forced by external powers to share its resources OR where media that is not owned by male/+white+european ancestry+christian+heterosexual people have greater resources? 

As I said in years past, why do Black people not have their own film awards? or moreover, why do Black people not emphasize their own film awards? Miss Juneteenth has began decades ago, but Black women in miss america is still a symbol. Is the goal to have white side black women or is the goal that black women have their own pageants just like white women? 

A thought experiment, if every Black college student in the USA never went to any college but a historical black college or university <HBCU>, what will today's collegiate landscape look like? will it be bad in your mind?  I argue that Harvard+ Yale +MIT+ Stanford will not be lessened or destroyed or evil if they didn't have black students. In parallel I argue that HBCU's lost their momentum or positive possibility having to compete with the resources of more fiscally potent schools. 

Is segregation evil? Is integration good? I argue, the USA or the british colonies preceding it has always been integrated while never segregated. From the first whites of Europe appearing before Native Americans who sadly didn't know what horrors these immigrants will bring to them through white slavemasters houses built on black families bodies or reservations the native americans left alive are forced to live in to NYC today in all of its christian babel likeness, integration has always been in the USA. Segregation has never been now at any time in the USA. 

The key is how are the people integrating. Usually it is one master while the others slave or one alive with the others dead. In modernity, one is in power, while the others are not as powerful. 

But, the image of power is always most dangerous, when it is a lie. The NAzi's saying they hate everyone else wasn't a lie. It was negative but not a lie. And the USA media lives with lies. We are all equal, we are all a family, a set of loving ones, in the USA... but then we are not. Your white cousin can't portray you, but you can portray them ala Hamilton stage play by mirande side Angelina Jolie playing Mariane van Neyenhoff. Black people of fiscal wealth say they want black unity against white oppression in the usa but  most of them finance relatives or friends to go to non Historical black colleges or universities. Lies are dangerous. And media promoting lies leads to greater problems. 

In the art world, this means we artists have financial limitations on our craft based on the messages in our work. We artists always have, and always will I think. But, in the USA it is more narrow than in the past, even with a globally connected media. 

Discussions of the Blackwood LINK

Post SCript: I will love to write a story about Harad in the lord of the rings universe or Sothoryos in the Song of Ice and Fire universe. The writers to either of the mentioned worlds did include black people, asian people, all people in truth, but they only focused on writing about one part. They didn't have to create a USA in their story. 

NOPE trailer, my thoughts, article

MY THOUGHTS
ok... What did i see... the main characters, kaaluya and keke palmer live in some western usa area, black cowboy heritage ok.. this is a financially base area. From a simple glance this is the intercontinental railroad movie, black horse riders, an asian with a cowboy hat on  so that is the human side... what is unnatural three things: a cloud that is very thick, and is being influenced. Dust clouds exists but they don't come absent a slow growth of dust. So a thick cloud on a sunny day at ground level at speed absent dust around is unnatural. Next is a body lifting from the ground straight into space. This reminds me of a film with julianne moore about a woman who is trying to remember her child and creatures foreign to earth actually control humanity and use it for experiments. In the film's case to see if the love of a child occurs before or after a child exits the womb. In the film whenever anyone became a threat the aliens lifted them into the sky like they are on a string. functionally a specific while potent  gravitional field is being generated. In my mind maybe a neutron array. but the kind of device to house such a system, right now escapes me. Last is the two fingered fist of a creature under a blanket/cloth/cover bumping fist to a human being. ... A sense of surveillance and a robotic system is present. ... so putting all these things I saw together... I think what we have here is humanity is under the control of creatures, whose descendency is unknown, maybe they are ancient pre humanity , like the guyver , or they are truly extraterrestrial. These creatures are looking for another creature, maybe it is related to them , maybe it is not , but it is also not human. And I think it travels by a cloud... in my mind I think of cowboys and aliens a little as well.  A story where the influence of the alien is one and done, no Nope 2 and Nope the return or Nope Nope. 

ARTICLE
'Nope': Jordan Peele explains meaning behind his mysterious new movie's title

LAS VEGAS – Jordan Peele is doling out a few more details about his cryptic new thriller. 

The comedian-turned-filmmaker behind "Get Out" and "Us" returns to multiplexes this summer with "Nope" (in theaters July 22), a sci-fi/horror flick starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun.

After premiering a terrifying teaser during this year's Super Bowl, Peele gave convention-goers at CinemaCon a clearer look at what's in store with the debut of the movie's first full-length trailer Wednesday.

Given that it won't be released to the public for "several more weeks," Peele asked the room full of theater owners and journalists to keep the trailer's secrets to themselves. But it's safe to say the new footage earned raves on social media, with people calling it "super cool," "ominous and creepy," and that Kaluuya and Palmer – playing scheming siblings who train horses – are "absolute stars." 

Introducing the trailer, Peele said he wants to "retain some mystery" around "Nope," whose plot fans have feverishly tried to decipher online.

"Some (theories) get kind of close," while others "are nonsense," Peele said. But he would allow that it's "definitely a ride," describing it as a movie for "the person who thinks they don't like horror movies." 

As for the film's monosyllabic title, Peele explained that it was inspired by the reactions he hopes "Nope" elicits. 

"I love titles that reflect what the audience is thinking and feeling in the theater," he said. "Especially Black audiences: We love horror, but there's a skepticism, like, 'You're not gonna scare me, right?' I'm personally going to thrive on the times I hear 'Nope!' in our theater (when the film is released)." 

Peele, who won the best original screenplay Oscar for "Get Out" in 2018, said he sees it as his "privilege and responsibility to try and make new films and tell original stories.

"Until someone tells me I can't, my plan is to bring these new ideas and new dreams and new nightmares to the big screen." 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/04/27/nope-jordan-peele-trailer-cinemacon/9561322002/

THIS MILLENNIAL BOUGHT EBONY AND JET FOR $14M WITH PLANS TO BRING THE MAGAZINES INTO THE DIGITAL ERA
by Dawn OnleyAugust 11, 2021 
Founded in 1945 by John Johnson, Ebony struggled under declining advertisements, financial troubles, and controversy a few years ago. It was quite a shift from the magazine’s heyday, when Ebony and sister magazine, Jet, were the go-to publications for people interested in reading about Black culture, notable Black leaders, and issues impacting Black people.

The company eventually filed for bankruptcy, and by 2019, both Ebony and Jet had stopped printing. This was an opportunity for Bridgeman and her father, former NBA player and entrepreneur Ulysses Junior Bridgeman, to discuss the magazine with the family to gauge interest in purchasing.

Bridgeman told Business Insider she jumped at the opportunity. The family purchased the legendary pubs for $14 million — and Bridgeman began talking with Michelle Ghee, a former executive at CNN and BET, about serving as CEO. Together, they relaunched Ebony on March 1 and are planning a relaunch of Jet later this year.

Ebony’s new mission is to be bold, brilliant, and beloved. Both magazines are now fully digital with no plans on reprinting physical copies.

According to Business Insider, Ebony has at least a dozen people on staff. Bridgeman’s role has been all-encompassing — from calls with advertisers to meetings with potential partners and magazine contributors.

“You have to understand every aspect within the business,” Bridgeman told BI. “You show up in a way that people feel they can approach you. They feel that they can work with you, not only just for you.”
Bridgeman’s strategy has seen her touting the power of the Black dollar to potential advertisers. “You are going to want to tap into that power,” she tells them, according to Business Insider. 
https://www.blackenterprise.com/this-millennial-owner-bought-ebony-and-jet-for-14m-with-plans-to-bring-the-magazines-into-the-digital-era/

The HArder They Fall
 

MEdia That Moves We

Black Daddies

some of my thoughts

My Media that moves we commentary

the film was influenced by all the genre's of western films in the usa, from the john wayne era to the spaghetti western  to the black films like posse or buck and the preacher

That is the brilliance of the film, it in the end is an entertainment , not a documentary or historical film. 

Nike, you precancelled , canceled westerns:)

YEah, Multiple review shows of this film have I Think missed one key point. if you want to make a film a certain way, own a film studio. At some point you have to reject the level of complaint to how the story is told. Own a studio and you can do what you want ?

and let's be honest, revenge is a constant theme of westerns of all sorts, denzel's magnificent seven differed from kurosawa's seven samurai or  brenner/mcqueen magnificent seven, where the gunfighters are trying to redeem themselves in a quiet little place. 

yes, they trained with their doubles so they could have a more john wickian fight choreography

I give my entertainment ranking a 10, I was entertained , love the womens fight:) in terms of black westerns , it is a high percentage, 7 or 8. I think posse or buck and the preacher are better as films. In terms of westerns in general , from the black and white silent black westerns and et cetera to now, 7 . In terms of historical quality in western films... a five. 
  

My Black Daddies commentary

Was jill scott offered the role? did jill scott reject it?

blacker than buck and the preacher... I don't know, it is clearly up there

the usa has a long history of film superstar collabs in westerns, this films joins that very long list

white zombia was a financial play, legosi reportedly was paid a lot for that film, and it was clearly designed to play on the fandom of "monster movies" the cultural aspects of white zombie is clearly negative but the reason it was made was purely financial

do you guys think disney has written the entire phase 4 already, or at least all the parts?

Do you think a cartoon of a fiscally impoverished family from a dying black town, can be made by a high profile company like disney?

What about danny glover get production money to direct his toussaint louverture movie if he does this?

if lethal weapon 5 makes money does another Beverly hills cop happen?

What about the detective jumps from a spacex ship to virgin galactic ship to solve a cryptocurrency theft

This was for entertainment, in the spirit of westerns movies in the usa. never real history, always an entertainment
 

MY REPLY

You miss two issues concerning milestone : First is of Dwayne McDuffie and that any literary form, needs a great storyteller, and milestone misses McDuffie.  I submitted to the Milestone initiative, that didn't even involve one of the milestone creators , who had to submit to it himself. so, do black comic books have the best storytellers. Your focus is on what people call "Woke", what I call stories involving elements of modern sociopolitical frictions.  The problem isn't the themes but it is the stories. The storytelling is simply not good enough. I oppose milestone's choice about changing the origin story, but I think other writers could had written a better story. Second, Literature is not meant to be escapists.  Literature can serve any of infinite functions to a reader but did milestone's administrators comprehend the financial market for comic books? The problem with milestone today  is they seem to be written absent a comprehension of the comic book market today. How do you sell the new milestone series better? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhUMiLlSYgc

Title: harriet tubman demon slayer cover

Artist: Derek Laufman

LINK

July Dates

4th - Mercury greatest elongation 22 degrees 

5th-  Aphelion Story Story Moon at Apogee - the earth will be farthest from the sun while the earth will be farthest from the moon

6th Louis Armstrong spirit flew 1971 

9th Moon highest over equator while a new moon

10th his masters voice trademarkers 1900

15th Rembrandt born 1606

16th Giuseppe Piazzi born 1746

20th British colombia joined canada 1871 

21st Robert Burns died 1796

22nd Saint Mary Magdalene Story 

25th national cowboy day Story 

28th Beatrix Potter born 1866

30th Apollo 15 landed on moon

31st Viking 1 took face on mars photo 1976

If you are interested you can Vote for #37
https://www.deviantart.com/sylessae/journal/Sylessae-DTIYS-Community-Voting-884590493

JEsse Eisinger is a eporter for propublica, for the public, here is his ProPublica page, the transcript to the episode is below for those that want to read and not hear. To hear you can click the image above or the link append to the transcript

TRANSCRIPT

 NOW THEY ARE SOME OF THE WEALTHIEST AND MOST POWERFUL MEN IN THE WORLD.

JEFF BEZOS, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, WARREN BUFFETT, ELON MUSK JUST TO NAME A FEW.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PROPUBLICA REPORTER JESSE EISINGER HAS DELVED INTO THEIR TAX RETURNS.

THESE BUSINESS MOGULS ONLY PAY A FRACTION OF THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IF NOT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF THEIR FORTUNE.

HERE WE ARE SPEAKING WITH THEM HOW THEY MANAGED TO LEGALLY WORK THE SYSTEM.

THANKS.

JESSE EISINGER FROM POE PUBLICA JOINS US.

THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS GAUR AN 250ED.

DEATH AND TAXES.

HOW DID YOU FIND THIS?

WE HAVE OBTAINED -- PROPUBLICA HAS OBTAINED OVER 15 YEARS OF INFORMATION, TAX INFORMATION, TAX RETURNS AND INFORMATION FROM SCHEDULES THAT GO INTO THE RETURNS FROM THINGS LIKE STOCK TRADING, GAMBLING THOUSANDS OF THE WEALTHIEST INDIVIDUALS.

THIS IS REALLY JUST THE 1% OF THE 1%. WE'RE NOT COMMENTING ON HOW WE OBTAIN THE MATERIAL.

WE'RE TRYING TO PROTECT THE SOURCE OR SOURCES.

WE ARE EXPLAINING THAT WE VERIFIED IT EXTENSIVELY AND ARE BEING VERY CAREFUL STEWARDS OF THE INFORMATION.

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS, THIS IS A FIRST OF YOUR SERIES OF REPORTS, BUT YOU SEE A GLARING PATTERN HERE.

MOST OF US ANECDOTALLY THINK, WELL, THE RICH PROBABLY HAVE BETTER ACCOUNTANTS, ET CETERA, BUT WHAT YOU'RE SHOWING IS A STRUCTURAL FLAW IN THE SYSTEM.

YEAH.

EXACTLY.

THIS ISN'T ABOUT EVADING TAXES EXOTICALLY AND ILLICITLY, THIS IS ABOUT ROUTINE AND PERFECTLY LEGAL TAX AVOIDANCE STRATEGY.

YOU DON'T NEED A FANCY ACCOUNTANT FOR THIS.

WHAT WE SHOW IS THE SYSTEM AND THE SYSTEM'S ESSENTIAL UNFAIRNESS, WHICH IS THAT AVERAGE AMERICANS ARE STUCK IN THE TAX SYSTEM.

WE HAVE NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER.

WE WORKED TO LIVE, WE HAVE TO WORK.

WE GET SALARIES AND TAXES GET EXTRACTED FROM OUR PAYCHECK.

THE WEALTHY, THE ULTRA WEALTHY ESPECIALLY ARE COMPLETELY OUTSIDE OF THE SYSTEM ENTIRELY.

THEY DON'T HAVE TO TAKE INCOME.

WHEN THEY DO TAKE INCOME, IT'S IN THE TIME AND PLACE OF THEIR CHOOSING AND, THEREFORE, THEY CAN REALLY LOWER THEIR TAX BURDEN OR NOT HAVE A TAX BURDEN AND WHAT WE SHOW IS THAT SOME OF THESE GUYS, JEFF BEZOS, ELON MUSK, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, CARL ICAHN, THEY ACTUALLY PAY ZERO IN FEDERAL TAXES IN RECENT YEARS.

SO JEFF BEZOS, LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT HIM FOR A MOMENT.

YOU HAVE A CARD ON YOUR WEBSITE.

IT SAYS BETWEEN 2014 AND 2018 HIS WEALTH GREW $99 BILLION BUT HIS TOTAL REPORTED INCOME, WHICH IS DIFFERENT THAN YOUR WEALTH GROWING, IS $4.22 BILLION, THAT'S ABOUT 4% OF HIS WEALTH.

AND ON THAT HE PAID $973 MILLION IN TAXES.

NOW, PEOPLE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT THAT NUMBER AND SAY $973 MILLION IN TAXES.

THAT'S A LOT OF TAX.

RIGHT.

WHAT'S THE POINT YOU'RE MAKING?

RIGHT.

IT DOES -- IT'S AN ENORMOUS NUMBER.

WE CAN'T EVEN CONTEMPLATE THAT NUMBER MUCH LESS THE $100 BILLION THAT HIS WEALTH GREW, BUT THE ESSENTIAL NUMBER HERE IS THAT IT IS A FRACTION, A TINY FRACTION OF HIS WEALTH GROWTH AND WHAT WE'RE ARGUING IN THE PIECE ESSENTIALLY IS THAT WEALTH GROWTH IS THE TRUE MEASURE OF HIS INCOME.

THE EQUIVALENT OF AVERAGE PEOPLE'S INCOME.

AND SO WHEN YOU COMPARE THAT FIGURE, THAT FIGURE OF ALMOST $1 BILLION TO $100 BILLION, IT'S ABOUT 1%. IT'S SLIGHTLY LESS THAN 1%. THE AVERAGE PERSON INCOME WHEN IT'S TAKEN OUT FOR TAXES, IT'S ABOUT 14%. SO THE AVERAGE PERSON MAKING 60 OR $70,000 A YEAR IS PAYING $14 IN TAXES EACH YEAR AND JEFF BEZOS ON THE RELEVANT FIGURE IS PAYING LESS THAN $1.

WHY DO WE THINK THIS IS THE RELEVANT FIGURE?

WELL, EVERYTHING EMANATES FROM WEALTH GROWTH FOR THE ULTRA WEALTHY.

THEY -- ALL OF THEIR POWER, ALL OF THEIR INFLUENCE, ALL OF THE WAY THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE LAVISH LIFESTYLES, JEFF BEZOS IS BUILDING A YACHT FOR HIS YACHT.

A YACHT THAT WILL TAKE HIS HELICOPTERS, WORTH ABOUT HALF A BILLION.

HE BOUGHT THE WASHINGTON POST FOR HALF THAT, $200 MILLION.

IT AFFORDS HIM POLITICAL INFLUENCE.

ALL OF THAT COMES FROM HIS WEALTH.

WHAT'S INCREDIBLE TO US, WHAT'S ASTOUNDING TO US IS THAT ALL OF THIS WEALTH GROWTH IS REALLY OUTSIDE OF THE TAX SYSTEM, ALMOST ENTIRELY BEINGS AND JUST NOT TAXED BECAUSE OF WHAT WE CHOOSE TO TAX IN THIS COUNTRY AND WHAT WE CHOOSE NOT TO TAX.

IN THOSE YEARS YOU HAD JEFF BEZOS FILINGS AND HE TOOK A TAX CREDIT.

IN 2011 HE REPORTED A VERY MODEST AMOUNT OF INCOME AND WAS ABLE TO WIPE THAT OUT WITH DEDUCTIONS AND BECAUSE OF THAT, HE HAD SO LITTLE INCOME HE WAS ABLE TO CLAIM THE CHILD TAX CREDIT FOR THEN 2 CHILDREN, $4,000.

SO HE ACTUALLY HAD NEGATIVE INCOME.

HE HAD CREDIT FROM THE U.S.

GOVERNMENT.

HE WAS THEN IN 2011 CLEARLY ONE OF THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD BUT EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS.

WHERE DO THE ULTRA WEALTHY GET THEIR MONEY TO SPEND, RIGHT?

I MEAN, YOU AND I HAVE CHECKING ACCOUNTS, SAVINGS ACCOUNTS, MAYBE A RETIREMENT ACCOUNT IF WE'RE LUCKY.

WE HAVE AN INCOME THAT COMES EVERY COUPLE OF WEEKS AND WE SAY, OKAY, THIS IS MY BUDGET.

IF YOU'RE SUPER WEALTHY AND YOU AREN'T GETTING AN INCOME, A LOT OF TECH BILLIONAIRES WILL ACTUALLY JUST WORK FOR A DOLLAR A YEAR, WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THAT MONEY?

YEAH, THAT'S A VERY GOOD POINT.

THEY DON'T TAKE SALARIES.

OSTENTATIOUS DISPLAYS OF SALARIES LIKE MARK ZUCKERBERG, SERGEI BRANDON.

WHERE DO THEY GET THE MONEY?

THE ANSWER IS, NOT FOR EVERYBODY, BUT OFTEN THEY'RE BORROWING.

THEY'RE BORROWING AGAINST THEIR STOCKS.

THEY PUT UP THEIR STOCK COLLATERAL AND THEY'RE BORROWING.

SOMEBODY LIKE ELON MUSK DISCLOSES IN A SECURITY FILING THAT HE'S PLEDGED TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF STOCK AND BORROWED AGAINST IT AGAIN FOR TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

AND THIS IS HOW THEY FUND THEIR LIFESTYLES.

THERE'S NO -- WE DON'T HAVE ANY EVIDENCE BEZOS IS BORROWING.

HE MAY BE, HE MAY NOT BE.

NOT EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME HYMN BOOK.

WHEN THEY BORROW THEY'RE NOT TAKING INCOME, THEY'RE NOT SELLING THEIR STOCKS, THEY'RE NOT PAYING CAPITAL GAINS ON THAT STOCK THAT THEY'RE NOT SELLING.

THEY'RE KEEPING CONTROL OF THEIR COMPANIES AND WHEN YOU BORROW, YOU DON'T PAY ANY INCOME TAX ON THE BORROWING.

SO IT'S A WIN WIN WIN IN ALL OF THE WAYS THAT YOU CAN IMAGINE.

SO IF I AM A BILLIONAIRE, I DECIDE TO GO TO A BANK AND SAY, YOU KNOW I'M GOOD FOR IT.

I'VE GOT MULTIPLE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN STOCK, WHY DON'T YOU JUST, WHAT, LOAN ME A COUPLE OF HUNDRED MILLION AT 2 OR 3% BECAUSE THAT'S CHEAPER FOR ME TO PAY YOU BACK THAN IT IS TO PAY UNCLE SAM IF I ACTUALLY CASH THAT OUT AND LOOK LIKE I MADE 200 MILLION?

YOU ARE THINKING SMALL, COUPLE HUNDRED MILLION.

CARL ICAHN HAS ESSENTIALLY SOMETHING LIKE A MORTGAGE FOR A BILLION TWO THAT WAS IN HIS TAX FILINGS, AND AS I SAY, ELON MUSK HAS TENS OF BILLIONS AND LARRY ELLISON OF ORACLE DISCLOSED IN SECURITY FILINGS YEARS AGO THAT HE HAD A $10 BILLION CREDIT LINE.

START THINKING A LITTLE BIGGER BUT, YES, BANKS ARE HAPPY TO OFFER THESE GUYS, THEY ARE GOOD FOR IT, AND THEY CHARGE RELATIVELY LOW INTEREST RATES AND YOU JUST ROLL OVER THAT DEBT ALL THE WAY -- SOMETIMES ALL THE WAY UNTIL YOU DIE.

WE'LL GET TO THAT IN A SECOND, BUT THE WHOLE STRATEGY IS ENCAPSULATED BY THE PHRASE BUY, BORROW, DIE.

THAT'S ED McCAFFREY PHRASE, HE'S A PROFESSOR FROM USC.

YOU BUY YOUR ASSETS, BUILD YOUR ASSETS.

OBVIOUSLY BEZOS AND MUSK BUILT THEIR COMPANIES.

YOU INHERIT, THE WALTON AND MARS FAMILIES HAVE INHERITED GREAT FORTUNES.

THEN YOU BORROW AGAINST IT.

THEN YOU CAN EVADE OR ESCAPE OR AVOID -- NOT REALLY EVADE BECAUSE IT'S ALL LEGAL.

YOU CAN AVOID TAXATION AT DEATH.

YOU CAN ESCAPE THE TAX MANEUVERS.

THEN ESSENTIALLY YOUR GREAT FORTUNE HAS BEEN ALMOST UNTAXED THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFE AND INTO DEATH.

HERE'S THE THING.

SOME OF THE PEOPLE THAT YOU PROFILED, YOU MADE BASEBALL CARDS OUT OF WARREN BUFFETT, MICHAEL BLOOMBERG.

THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO MICHAEL BLOOMBERG ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL CAMPAIGNED FOR CHANGES IN TAXES.

WARREN BUFFETT FAMOUSLY HAS COME OUT AND SAID THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE THAT I PAY LESS TAX AS A PERCENT THAN MY SECRETARY DOES, RIGHT?

SO WHAT DID YOU FIND ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE DOING LEGALLY?

YEAH.

WELL, THAT'S A VERY INTERESTING QUESTION, BUFFETT, BECAUSE WHAT WE FOUND IS THAT NO ONE HAS AVOIDED MORE TAX FOR AS LONG AS WARREN BUFFETT.

AND HE'S REGARDED AS KIND OF GRAND FAIRLY FIGURE.

HE'S BELOVED AND OF COURSE HE HAS COME OUT, TO HIS CREDIT, AND SAID THAT THE WEALTHY DON'T PAY ENOUGH IN TAXES, BUT WHEN HE'S TALKING ABOUT THAT, HE'S TALKING ABOUT IT IN THIS EXTRAORDINARILY NARROW WAY WHERE HE SAYS, TAXES ON INCOME ARE TOO LOW FOR THE WEALTHY AND CAPITAL GAINS TAXES ARE TOO LOW.

HE SAID I HAVE CAPITAL GAINS SOMETIMES AND I PAY A VERY LOW RATE COMPARED TO MY SECRETARY.

HE'S RIGHT, HE PAYS A RELATIVELY LOW RATE.

BUT WHAT'S REALLY EXTRAORDINARY ABOUT WARREN BUFFETT, HE TAKES SO LITTLE INCOME.

HE TAKES TINY FRACTIONS OF HIS ENORMOUS WEALTH.

NOW HE'S WORTH OVER $100 BILLION.

HE TAKES TINY, TINY FRACTIONS OF THAT IN INCOME AND PAYS A VERY SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THAT.

WHEN WE MEASURED HOW MUCH HE PAID IN TAXES COMPARED TO HIS WEALTH GROWTH, HE ACTUALLY PAID 10 CENTS FOR EVERY $100 THAT HIS WEALTH GROSSED.

10 CENTS FOR EVERY $100 THE WEALTH GROSSED.

THE WEALTHY, THE TOP 25 PAID 3.40 DWZ FOR EVERY $100 THEIR WEALTH GREW.

THE RICHEST 25 PEOPLE IN AMERICA.

MEANWHILE, AS I SAY, THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT INCOME TAX, WHICH IS REALLY THE WAY THEY ARE TAXED, IT'S $14 FOR EVERY $100 THEY BRING.

IN YOUR ANALYSIS, THE 25 RICHEST AMERICANS SHOWED BY THE END OF 2018, THOSE 25 WERE WORTH $1.1 TRILLION, IT WOULD TAKE 14.3 MILLION ORDINARY AMERICAN WAGE EARNERS PUT TOGETHER TO EQUAL THAT SAME AMOUNT OF WEALTH.

THE PERSONAL FEDERAL TAX BILL FOR THE TOP 25 IN 2018, JUST THOSE 25 PEOPLE, WAS $1.9 BILLION.

THE BILL FOR THOSE WAGE EARNERS, THE 14 MILLION WAGE EARNERS PUT TOGETHER WAS $143 BILLION.

THOSE AVERAGE WAGE EARNERS ARE NOT ONLY PAYING A DISPROPORTIONATE SHARE OF THEIR OWN TAXES, THEY'RE PAYING MORE IN RAW NUMBERS AS WELL TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

ABSOLUTELY.

AND THAT ASTONISHING FIGURE WAS DONE BY MY COLLEAGUE WHO HAS WORKED WITH ME ON THE STORY, AND WE REALLY WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THIS BASIC IMBALANCE, THIS STUNNING IMBALANCE WHERE THE ULTRA WEALTHY CAN DEVELOP ENORMOUS SUMS FROM WHICH, AS I SAID, ALL OF THEIR POWER AND INFLUENCE EMANATES AND ALL THEIR MEANS EMANATES.

THOSE 14 PLUS MILLION PEOPLE ARE INSIDE THE TAX SYSTEM.

THEY'RE PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE.

WE HAVE STRUGGLED TO ADEQUATELY FUND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

PERIODICALLY THEY ARE CONVULSED IN FEAR MEDICARE WILL GO BROKE.

ROADS AND BRIDGES ARE CRUMBLING.

WE NEED TO PROVIDE NATIONAL DEFENSE.

IF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS CONSTRAINED BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WITH THE MOST WEALTH ARE NOT PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE, THEN WE WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THAT SYSTEM AND REALLY SHINE A LIGHT ON IT.

THERE ARE A LOT OF WEALTHY PEOPLE, WARREN BUFFETT INCLUDED, WHO SAY I DON'T WANT TO GIVE IT TO UNCLE SAM.

I'M GOING TO GIVE 99.5% OF MY WEALTH AWAY, PHILANTHROPIC GIVING.

I THINK I'M A BETTER STEWARD OF MY HARD EARNED MONEY THAN THE GOVERNMENT IS.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT IDEA?

HE SAID EXACTLY THAT.

I DON'T WANT TO HAVE MY MONEY BEING PAID -- HAVE THE DEBT PAID DOWN TO CHINA WHEN I CAN ALLOCATE IT TO SOMETHING THAT WILL DO MORE FOR SOCIETY.

ONE ANSWER IS, BOY, I WOULD LIKE TO ALLOCATE MY TAX DOLLARS THE WAY I WANT TOO.

I BET MOST PEOPLE HAVE PRETTY STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT HOW THE DUFUSSES IN WASHINGTON ARE SPENDING MY MONEY AND I COULD DO IT BETTER THAN WE DO.

THAT'S WHY WE HAVE ELECTIONS, WHY WE HAVE A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.

WE HAVE A SHARED DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY TO ELECT LEADERS TO ALLOCATE OUR TAX DOLLARS THE WAY THE MAJORITY THEORETICALLY WANTS.

THE OTHER THING IS PHILANTHROPY DOESN'T SOLVE THINGS.

PHILANTHROPY FOR THE ULTRA WEALTHY ARE WAYS THAT THEY CAN PUT FORWARD THEIR OWN POLICY CHOICES, TRY TO DOMINATE THE CONVERSATION, HAVE DISPROPORTIONATE INFLUENCE.

SOMETIMES THEY FUND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.

SOMETIMES THEY RIDE THEIR HOBBIES AND OBSESSIONS.

IT'S NOT REALLY THE WAY WE WANT TO RUN SOCIETY.

IT'S A DISTORTION OF SOCIETY TO HAVE BILLIONAIRES AND ALSO BE SUBSIDIZED BY TAXPAYERS.

ONE OF THE PUSH BACKS IS GOING TO BE CORPORATE TAXES, RIGHT?

WARREN BUFFETT SAYS BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY PAYS A TON OF CORPORATE TAXES.

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM HERE?

IF I HAVE MY MONEY IN THAT, MY CORPORATION IS ACTUALLY PAYING THOSE TAXES, I'M NOT TRYING TO STEAL FROM THE GOVERNMENT.

YEAH, THAT'S A VALID POINT AND THERE'S A LOT OF DEBATE AMONG ECONOMISTS ABOUT THIS.

WHAT I WOULD SAY ARE TWO THINGS.

ONE IS WE'RE IN A GOLDEN AGE OF CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE SO COMPANIES LIKE am*zon, APPLE, FACEBOOK HAVE GONE TO GREAT LENGTHS TO MOVE OPERATIONS OVERSEAS AND AVOID AMERICAN TAX.

SOMETIMES THEY ALSO PAY ZERO IN TAX.

SO, YOU KNOW, am*zon IS A TAX AVOIDER BOTH AT THE CORPORATE LEVEL AND AT THE OWNERSHIP LEVEL.

THE SECOND THING IS THAT CORPORATE TAXES DON'T SOLELY FALL ON THE OWNERS OF THE CORPORATIONS.

PROBABLY, THIS IS A MATTER OF DEBATE, BUT CONSUMERS PAY CORPORATE TAXES.

WORKERS PAY CORPORATE TAXES.

AT LEAST SOME ECONOMISTS THINK SO.

SO THIS IS SORT OF DISBURSED.

THAT'S NOT A DIRECT TAX ON THE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY.

NOT A DIRECT TAX ON BEZOS OR MUSK.

SO ONE WAY TO SOLVE THIS WOULD BE TO HAVE MORE DIRECT TAXES ON THE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY.

JESSE EISINGER, PROPUBLICA, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Article
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/top-25-u-s-billionaires-pay-almost-no-income-taxes/
 

Huzzah!  So happy to announce this! ### “The Path of Pen and Sword” A workshop in creative writing and martial arts with   Steven Barnes WORKSHOP ON SATURDAY, JUNE 5TH, 12-3PM (Pacific Time) IN PERSON OR ON ZOOM The “Twofold Path of Pen and Sword” is also known as   Bun Bu Ryo Do —   “The samurai were successful for so long because they studied both cultural and martial arts. They mastered both the pen and the sword, making them formidable intellectual and military opponents.” The Chinese concept of the “Master of the Five Excellences” is looking at the same phenomenon, as is the yogic concept of the “Householder Yogi” who lives in the world of spirit while functioning superbly in the world of flesh. The truth is that there is much in common between the disciplines of creative writing and martial arts: both ask questions about personal identity and the nature of reality. Both demand energy, access to the unconscious mind (Stephen King’s “Boys in the basement” or Bruce Lee’s “It” as in the quote “I do not strike. IT strikes”), and in studying the one we can deepen our understanding of the other. This workshop, an expansion of the original Lifewriting specifically for writers and martial artists, will use two major tools: Joseph Campbell’s structure of the Hero’s Journey, and the yogic “chakra” map of human energy, as a launching point for a discussion and workshop delving into the nexus of breath, flow, focus, fear, commitment, and dynamic living. Come play with us!  No previous experience in either writing or martial arts necessary, but all levels welcome. Bring notebooks, loose clothes, and a flexible mind! STEVEN BARNES has published over three million words of fiction, including over thirty novels, episodes of ANDROMEDA, STARGATE SG-1, TWILIGHT ZONE, and THE OUTER LIMITS, including the Emmy-winning episode “A Stitch in Time.”  The creator of the Lifewriting system of writing and personal development, he has taught at UCLA and Seattle University, and lectured at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC In the martial arts, he was the Kung-Fu columnist for Black Belt Magazine, holds three black belts, has studied and taught Wu style Tai Chi for forty years, was voted into the Black Karate Federation (BKF) Hall of Fame,  was a senior Kali student under Danny Inosanto, and studied Pentjak Silat Serak under Stevan Plinck for almost ten years. When: Saturday, June 5th, 12 noon-3pm, Pacific Time   On ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2461580494 / ID #:  246 158 0494                                                                     Or In Person: Taoist Institute, 10630 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601                   FEE:  DONATION BASED, with all proceeds going to the Taoist Institute               RSVP: Email: taocore@taoistinstitute.com / Phone: (818) 760-4219

How are you readers? On Earth day what do you think on the idea on all life on earth being children of Earth? 

Here are some dates you may have missed and can reflect on and some dates you can consider

April 4th - Linus YAle jr was born in 1821, he invented the cylinder lock, and you actually have used that lock a lot
April 6th - 1896 the first modern Olympic games occurred in Athens, Greece
April 8th- the birthday of Baseball Pitcher , JAmes Catifsh Hunter, 1946, he was the first pitcher since 1915 to win 200 games by 31 years of age. He told his wife when he became a free agent by court order: "We don't belong to anybody", two weeks later he became the highest paid pitcher or baseball player. 
April 9th - in 1981 the Nature magazine published the longest scientific name ever, a circa 207,000 letters long name of DeOxyriboNucleic Acid, or what some know as DNA
April 16th- Konwatsi'tsiaienni died in 1796, she was a Mohawk leader who sided against the Colonies in the war of independence but gained land from the british in what is not Canada
April 19th - Roger Sherman was born in 1721, the only person to sign the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution
April 20th- Christopher Robin Milne , friend of Winnie the Pooh, died in 1996
April 21st- Rome was founded by Romulus, friends of countrymen, lend me your ears
April 23rd- William Shakespeare was born 1514... William Shakespeare died 1616... All's well that end well
APril 24th- Rovert B Thomas the founder of the Farmers Almanac was born 1768
April 26th - the first weather report was broadcast in the usa  in 1921
April 28th - The first space tourist , carried on a SOyuz TM32 to the International Space Station occured in 2001, his name was Dennis Tito

Photo Story 
https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-good-news-blog-stories-through-a-year/?tab=comments#comment-894
Photo Story
https://aalbc.com/tc/blogs/entry/261-good-news-blog-stories-through-a-year/?tab=comments#comment-895
 

Have a Wonderful and Prosperous New Year!!!

Hi everyone, just want to wish everyone a safe weekend coming up and a sound piece of mind in these trouble times of ours. Have a safe weekend while not letting the sour times get in your mind, by destroying you mood,  instead throw on some funky toons to get you in the up and coming weekend groove....

Jaws R.

HOLD ONTO LOVE. 

Shit happens — no need to immortalize it.
If you survive it, internalize what's left.

LOVE.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Hi Troy,

I'm going to take the plunge and purchase an author profile. But I have a question: is it better to submit my own site or the link (s) where my books can be purchased at Barnes & Noble? Which do you think authors would prefer? Thanks!

"ARES" stars 26-year-old Dutch actress Jade Olieberg who plays a multi-ethnic character that advances the original series plot in ways that are not obvious in the beginning.  My initial reaction was the .5 % wealthiest of society will not be happy.  But then this portrayal of secret societies targets any of us who "belong" to one.  Cutting to the chase without spoilers;  this series asks "What do you want" and what are you prepared to do to get it.  I'm still thinking  about this show today. It revealed a lot to me about myself ...and has me giving the side eye to friends, family and folks I see on the street.  I couldn't binge watch the series - it was a little too intense for me.  What did you think about ARES?

Greetings,

Very happy for my first novel "LEAD STORY" to receive the prestigious KIRKUS REVIEW AWARD.  (See attachment below.)

Looking forward  to equal success  for "LEAD STORY 2 - THE BEAST CONSPIRACY" coming out in 2018.  Stay tuned.  Peace ....

Hey did you know that I'm A Proud Alumni of 

Medgar Evers College

Class of 1996

Hey did you know that I'm A Proud Alumni of 

Medgar Evers College

Class of 1996

If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for?  Of course, one of the wishes would be to get more wishes. In absence of wishes, then 10-year-old Marley Dias made a goal.  She decided to get more books with Black girls as the protagonists into elementary schools. To make this happen she launched  #1000blackgirlsbooks campaign. Once she accomplished goal, she then authored a book, "Marley Dias Gets it Done and so can you"  to create more activists.   "Marley Dias Gets it Done and So Can You" is available from Scholastic Books

If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for?  Of course, one of the wishes would be to get more wishes. In absence of wishes, then 10-year-old Marley Dias made a goal.  She decided to get more books with Black girls as the protagonists into elementary schools. To make this happen she launched  #1000blackgirlsbooks campaign. Once she accomplished goal, she then authored a book, "Marley Dias Gets it Done and so can you"  to create more activists.   "Marley Dias Gets it Done and So Can You" is available from Scholastic Books

If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for?  Of course, one of the wishes would be to get more wishes. In absence of wishes, then 10-year-old Marley Dias made a goal.  She decided to get more books with Black girls as the protagonists into elementary schools. To make this happen she launched  #1000blackgirlsbooks campaign. Once she accomplished goal, she then authored a book, "Marley Dias Gets it Done and so can you"  to create more activists.   "Marley Dias Gets it Done and So Can You" is available from Scholastic Books