Troy

This is the mist extensive coverage I've read. I also suspect it is the most thoughtful and measured assessment -- save the oarting dig about "best supporting actor." 😀 If a white woman did a "Jessie Smollett" best belive they would have arounded up some random negros and procecuted them. Am I lying?

There virtually no Black "upper class" people so few in fact it is not even wierh talking about Man Pioneer you could nit be more wrong. Educated people are the ones most likely to have the information to not just know the about corruption but to also understand the way and how. Liberal arts folk who study histort can out things in a historical contect. The uneducated masses are just angry, and because they are uninformed they fall fir hucksters like our current POTUS. Are you aware of any of the college protests that have taken place? In the last 60 years? On college campuses across the country? MLK had a Phd, do you devalue his education? Do you think he would have been as effective with just a high school diploma. Even closer to home, you appreciate what i do here. It would not have happened without my education, and there is no apprenticeship in the world that could have preoared me for it.

Sure that is another possibility which also can't be proven. Maybe it is not that "the watchers" arent allowed to intervene, perhaps they can't. I've been in bad situations where the resolution, implausibly, worked out in my favor. So much so I felt like it could not be sheer coincidence. I thought of the influencer as a guardian angel, which sounds a bit like your watcher.

@Pioneer1 yeah I can see that my first post was "attacked" by a few people. I thought it was funny. Often when people react in a rude are harsh way it is more about them than you. Besides, "sticks and stones..." brother. The perceived hostility is lightweight compared to growing up on the 'hood 🙂

...and there are plumbers, electricans, and web based booksellers who need to supplement their incomes too -- especially those who live in the nation's largest cities. @Pioneer1 education is not simply about learning the skills for a profession or trade. It is about becoming a well arounded individual with a base of knowledge and experiences to help navigate an increasingly challeging world. Liberal arts which you and so many short sighted people eschew and disparage is why our nation is full of zenophobic, culturally illiterate, social media manipulated, Trump voting, dullards. Even the compulsive drive toward STEM is why people are less likely to sit down for an hour or two and read a book to expand their minds and get a perspective different than the one in their head. Oh by the way MOST students never learn calculus -- even in college and you don't need it to be and an accountant.

@Chevdove that was both an interesting and sad story. @Pioneer1's explanation is one of several alternatives to the one you chose and because there are alternative explainations it is not "proof" of any of them including the existence of God. When I hear stories like this that are attributed to God I wonder wouldn't it have easier for your family if God simply prevented your husband from being sacked on the first place? Typically the response is God works in mysterious ways, or the experience taught a lesson, or any other story to justify the belief. @Cynique yeah i wonder what happened to ole Chris.

It was still good. Maybe it was my PC?

You did not ask me, but I gather Smollet really did make up the story. If this is true, he should not have gotten off. But it is not unusual for celebrities to be treated with kid gloves.

You can't. That is why, despite what you've asserted in your example, it is not proof. It the information can't be shared it is not proof. What makes this any different than saying you don't believe in God? Are you hedging, afraid you'd end up in hell?

CUNY is actually relatively affordable today. It used to be free, but today people can easily attend by working their way through. People like Colin Powell was educated at CUNY for free. Again the school could be made better with more funding and the money does not have to come from raising tuition. @Pioneer1 Baruch is best known for the accountancy program. It is profession in the same class of jobs that you approve of like Doctor, Lawyer, and Engineer. The students here learn a variety of skills that are required for a functioning society. I teach a web design course I trust you can appreciate the practical application of this and related skill. I think what you have against formal education are the students who send a ton of money and take out large loans for a degree with minimal practical utility. Don't paint all formal education and schools with the same brush. Man forget those days -- unless there is a disaster they are never coming back. Technology has eliminated the need for so many people to labor on farms and factories. Besides you seem to be glorifying the back breaking life shortening labor required. I'd take on a student loan to avoid that drudgery any day of the week. Hundreds of Thousands?! Stop making stuff up. Anecdotally, I've attended three universities for a total of 8 years. I've sent kids to two different universities for 8 years and have worked in one for 5. I have never met a single professor in all of these years who could not live on their own and while supplementing their income working a minimum wage job. Did you just make these stats up? That is a question @Pioneer1 I'd really like to know where you got this from.

@Delano you don't use the Sun?

Wait, @E.equals.dtb you're in Tampa Bay? If you are we can connect in person. Reach out troy@aalbc.com

(I edited my last message for clarity) I actually thought about doing flea market or other events to sell some of the books I have and to promote the business. But I need to find one visited by my tribe. I used to do the Harlem Book Fair and did really well there selling an even buying books, but that was 20 years ago and times have changed.

To be clear this has nothing to do with race; indeed, few of my students are Black (that is another problem). When I write "we" I meant municipalities and governments. The minimum payment for adjuncts is something like $72 per hour and we are only paid for teaching time. If you teach two classes you get paid an extra hour for prep -- which is really a joke, because as any teacher knows prep time often exceeds classroom time. Office hours are also required and the time is not compensated either. I teach a technology course and am pretty efficient so my prep time is not as high as say a course where written work is required. Obviously the relationship works for me -- otherwise I would not be doing it. I learn each and every semester I teach and my students give me an insight into a demo I no longer have a access to regularly. I'm just agreeing with the video that in that the school needs more funding. From my position as an adjunct this is abundantly clear.

I’m a member of the City University of New York's (CUNY) adjunct faculty and I make poverty wages 😞 I was surprised to discover when I started teaching that most of the classes my students take are taught by "adjuncts" (part time professors who teach a class or two and are typically only on campus during those times). When I was in undergraduate school all of my professors were full-time professors with PhDs in the disciplines they taught. This is not to say that an adjunct can't teach well -- I'm sure most do especially those with real-world experience or who are retried full-time faculty, but campus life does suffer for the students, because adjuncts have no monetary incentive to spend time on campus engaging with students and building a deeper relationship with the school. Despite this Baruch college (part of CUNY) where I teach is ranked well nationally. The problem is that it would not take much money to much better school. Why does this matter to anyone outside of CUNY? Well this is the problem with the nation's schools as a whole -- from primary to college -- a lack of funding. The minority of wealthy people here have access the best schools on Earth, most of us don't and the nation is much worse off as a result. We have the money; we just spend it on dumb shit.

Rational please.

@Delano i dunno. @Cynique Johnny Taylor 🙂 the audio is not matched to the video.

Yeah, like I said, this does not say very much. So what do you really believe? Do you believe there is an omnipotent being or spirit answering our prayers and orchestrating our every move based upon the depth of homage we pay? You misunderstood the their use of the word "God" Del. Which God, for example, was Einstein referring to? Was Einstein referring to the God the Jews workshop? You know a lot about Astrology, but not much about Christianity. What do these guys have to do with the God worshiped by the all the evangelicals in the United States? What God do you believe in @Delano or are you a fence sitting agnostic too?

The point of the link is that, "Atheism Is Inconsistent with the Scientific Method, Prizewinning Physicist Says." Which is a statement of the obvious. "Aren't certain" is indistinguishable, in a practical sense, from "don't know" or "don't care." For whatever reason, agnostics are non committal and serve no purpose in a conversation about atheism or religion. Anybody, especially one who is uninformed can say, "I don't know." Atheists are certain -- despite no evidence to substantiate their certainty. Religious people are the same way. Both religion and atheism are inconsistent with the scientific method. It is cut and dried. Try this one on for size; The Scientific Method is Inconsistent with Spirituality.

@Milton that is a great deal and definitely worth it! There was a time, not too long ago, when an indie author found it very difficult to get distribution for their titles. I get most of the books I sell directly from Ingram. A long term goal I have to to either sell books directly or through indie authors directly and drop the Amazon affiliate program altogether. The challenge to achieve this goal is today many indie authors sell their books exclusively through Amazon, and the general public prefer to make their book purchases through Amazon. But I suspect this will change, over time, as everyone becomes more sophisticated about book sales and companies like Ingram step in and provide services to indie authors that are competitive with Amazon.

...don't believe anything, so aren't part of the conversation.

How is it not @Delano?

It was a cool story @Cynique but you can rest assured that your grandson would not have won had he brought the ticket you wanted him to buy. However I would have absolutely brought that ticket if were in his shoes 🙂

@Cynique after reading about your experience missing the movie Us. You don't know how lucky you were. I saw that movie this afternoon and is was the sorriest film I can recall seeing on the little or big screen. We went to see it last night, and the 9 p.m. show was sold out -- in suburban Tampa no less! We went this afternoon instead. It was simply boring. I almost walked out. The only thing that stopped me was the belief that the film could not possibly be so bad to the end. surely something was going to happen. The reveal was obvious, totally underwhelming, and poorly executed. Lupito's fine acting could not make up for an ridiculously implausible story. The movie was so bad it is not even worth describing other than to say it wouldn't even be worth watching for free. I did not read a review before seeing this film. I'd only seen the trailer once. I went solely on the strength of Jordan Peel's last film, Get Out, which I enjoyed. I just read RT's reviews 97% of the reviewers liked it while 69% of public give it 3.5 stars or better. I gave it one star mainly because it was a professionally made film.

Of course someone who is not religious would say the religion does not provide all the answers. Religious people strongly believe that religion provides all the answers. 😉 Religious people and Atheists both speak in absolutes they claim to know something to be true. Agnostics on the other hand don't have the balls to commit to a position Either you believe in the existence of a supreme being or you don't. It seems pretty cut and dried to me. Atheism has as much to do with science as religion. Both are a matter of faith because you can't "prove" either one to be correct.