Troy

It seems my Blog was bombarded by attempts to log into my admin account. The this barrage of attempts caused to to exceed the allocation of resources allocated to me by my web host. Which essentially brought down anything that uses a database, my Blog, large sections of my website site and this discussion forum. It took me 12 hours to resolve all of these issues--the long outage by website has suffered in 18 years. It really never ends. A bunch of IP address were blocked and I installed a plugin on my wordpress blog called Wordfence. Basically it will block any IP address that attempts multiple failed login's. This should prevent this problem from reoccurring. If you use the Wordpress CMS I encourage you to install Wordfence too. These are a few of the login attempts stopped today and it is not yet noon. Notice that my domain name and and "Admin" are popular login name. I would advise you to change your login name if you are using these. A user with IP address 149.156.172.1 has been locked out from the signing in or using the password recovery form for the following reason: Exceeded the maximum number of login failures which is: 20. The last username they tried to sign in with was: 'aalbc.com' User IP: 149.156.172.1 User hostname: zeus.wzks.uj.edu.pl User location: Krakow, Poland A user with IP address 186.202.141.67 has been locked out from the signing in or using the password recovery form for the following reason: Exceeded the maximum number of login failures which is: 20. The last username they tried to sign in with was: 'aalbc.com' User IP: 186.202.141.67 User hostname: cprohostinglin0839.publiccloud.com.br User location: Brazil A user with IP address 188.165.217.39 has been locked out from the signing in or using the password recovery form for the following reason: Exceeded the maximum number of login failures which is: 20. The last username they tried to sign in with was: 'admin' User IP: 188.165.217.39 User hostname: ns372224.ip-188-165-217.eu User location: France

Over the years I've received all kinds of racist hate mail and spam. I've accepted this as part of the territory of advocating for Black people. Generally I just ignore, but over the past few months I've been the target of a particular inspired group of spammers. This photo was posted on my site. Again I know better than to "feed the trolls," but these guys put some much effort into mocking me I did not want this to got to waste. I have say this make me laugh when I first saw it--it was posted on one my pages. I know I should be outraged but I guess over the years I've become desensitized to this stuff. The original image was from sheet music published in 1883. Music that I'm sure is being performed somewhere today...

54th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Ida B. Wells, newspaper editor and in the Civil Rights Movement passed March 25, 1931

53rd Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Writer, Educator, Filmmaker, Activist, Poet, Kalamu ya Salaam Born March 24, 1947 Kalamu was one the the first supporters of AALBC.com and he taught me a lot.

That is interesting. I do know that not all women, who are sexually molested, become lesbian and not all lesbian women were sexually molested. So it is difficult to draw any conclusion from the statement; "...they were shocked to find that every single Lesbian they spoke with reported being raped as a child." That is an alarmingly high percentage of sexually molested people. I would be interested in how many people were sampled and where did they pull that sample from. It is hard to get 100% from any sample of random people, so that result is questionable on it's face.

52nd Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Walter Anthony Rodney was born in Georgetown, Guyana on March 23, 1942, Rodney's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" should be required reading for all Americans.

The likelihood of a Trump presidency seems to be increasing every day. I doubt there will be a civil war, by the time it happens people will probably be happy with the decision--especially if there is another terrorist attract on American soil.

Pioneer's Square that is always a possibility :-) Of the named discussion forums Cynique is the only one who still actively participates. I named the forum for Cynique to honor her contributions. It was not something that she asked me to do. This will be the name of the forum as long as I'm running this site. The Poetree was named for Sister Sheree Sarana, because she volunteered to moderate the forum. Unfortunately she did not hang around very long. I'm open to renaming it for another moderator, but I haven't mentioned this to anyone. When I'm finished the upgrade I'll invest more in actively promoting all the forums. The Literature forum is named for a prolific poster whose pseudonym was "Thumper." He was such a big participant that he essentially became the brand of the forum, so I named it for him. But Thumper left abruptly. I just checked when he made has last post; it was made in January of 2011 when he wrote "I'm back." I doubt I'll rename this forum, but if someone actually volunteered to actively run it I would do it, albeit with a heavy heart.

Sara, to your point, Cynique did have epic battles with one known as Kola Boof. Indeed your interaction with Cynique would sound like conversation during afternoon tea with the pastors' wives club by comparison. But Cynique did not run her off, she (and others for that matter) ran off on their own. Cynique I changed my mind on this issue for another reason too. As long as folks are not trying to really abuse this forum (a constant threat), I'm inclined to let folks to what they want. Me trying to moderate what is happening in an effort to control or moderate it is not optimal. Some of the best things that have happened here were things I could never have planned or imagined. My attempts to meddle only make the best things less likely to happen. I have no idea how this forum will evolve over time, in this social media era. Maybe it will spring back and become much more active, maybe it will die completely. Time will tell.

@Sara, @Cynique She has never engaged with @Mel Hopkins in this manner. I could of course name many others, but you only asked for one.

51st Day of #BlackHistoryMonth Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart) Passed March 21, 2013 Actually my website originally showed that Achebe passed on March 22nd, but I noticed other sources that showed he actually passed on the 21, so the daily post of does not match the date today.

Just in case someone is wondering, where the heck is this site's moderator? I taking a hand-off approach here. When I previously deleted an exchange between you two my sense was that it was completely unconstructive and there was serious malintent. This exchange, while no more productive, and despite the very cutting barbs, seems to be between to people who actually enjoy going at each other and are dare I say it... having fun. I also have to admit one line had me laughing out loud, but I will not admit who wrote it I also don't think Alice Walker would approve, but she is not hear to express her views.

What a nice review. If I read your take I would have made an effort to see the flick. Now maybe I will--thanks for sharing!

I just started The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James. This book was written in 1938. The 2nd edition was published in 1962 with updates that James described as "...never more than to the extent of a few lines." The copy I'm reading was published in 1989. The first chapter "The Property" is just hard to read. I mean I've read account of the middle passage and the torture slave put Black folks through, but James account is graphic account is hard to read. I have never been able to wrap my brain around how people can be so cruel to each other. The fact that so many people could be so cruel i unfathomable to me. I decided to pick this book up because I recently read about another book (I can;t recall the name now), that described Nat Turners rebellion so my interested was piqued in this book as the L'Ouverture's rebellion was the only successful slave revolt in history.

"Nothing stays the same." Well on that universal truth we are in complete agreement. And as far as knowing what will happen, I'll be the first to say I have no clue, and determining what to do about this nebulous future....well I'm just as clueless. But I do know what the current state is, and there is room for improvement. I also know doing the same thing will typically result in the same results. Don't get me started on our dependence upon technology. Once the suits took over the whole thing became perverted-- but that is fodder for another conversation. Who knows maybe Hillary will usher in a new age of enlightened government. Maybe what we need is feminine energy leading this country. Maybe the change I'm looking for is right there all along...

50th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: March 21, 1981, in Mobile, Alabama, 19-year-old Michael Donald was Lynched Ravi Howard wrote an award winning book about this horrific event.

Cynique I drew the conclusion simply because I think a Clinton presidency represents more of the same, a continuation of what we have, the status quo. Do you think Hillary Clinton represents something different? As far as the economic differences of your generation and subsequent ones there are plenty of data. There is no speculation here, as the record speaks for itself: http://www.crainswealth.com/article/20150610/WEALTH/150619999/gen-x-worse-off-than-millennials The Atlantic did a piece on unemployment rate of millennials and despite higher rates of education (and much more debt from students loans) unemplyment is worse than with was for Gen-X or Baby Boomers: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/02/indisputable-evidence-that-millennials-have-it-worse-than-any-generation-in-50-years/283752/ Of course there are poor Baby Boomers, the problem is that there will be more poor Gen Xer's. This poor Millennials will probably have to work until 80 before they can collect social security and retire, assuming they live that long. Again, steady as we go is not working for American's in general, and Black people in particular. But while I thought Obama represented change (at least that is what he said), I think it is more likely that Bernie represents a more likely potential for change than Hillary. But as you said we are not on the same wavelength on this issue

It interesting Cynique how you interpreted my last statement on blaming Hillary. You believe Hillary will make a difference, I obviously do not. You clearly have faith in the current political system's ability to work for the people. I do not. Baby Boomers were the last generation to witness and benefit from constant economic growth for the bulk of their adult years. My generation and everyone after me has seen steady losses. I'm also sure you are also aware that this generation of kids will be economically worse off than the previous generation. But I understand why you might be nice and comfortable and happy with the status quo; you lucked out by virtue of your birth date. Our children may not be so lucky...

49th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: We lost world renown poet Ai on this day in 2010

48th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Historian and Egyptologist Dr. Yosef Alfredo Antonio ben-Jochannan (“Dr. Ben”) Passed March 19, 2015

This discussion forum went down shortly after 8 a.m. Eastern, and was restored around 8 p.m. It seems my Blog was bombarded by attempts to log into my admin account. The this barrage of attempts caused to to exceed the allocation of resources allocated to me by my web host. Which essentially brought down anything that uses a database, my Blog, large sections of the site and of course this discussion forum. It really never ends. A bunch of IP address were blocked and I installed a plugin on my wordpress blog called wordfence. Basically it will block any IP address that attempts multiple failed login's. This should prevent this problem from reoccurring. If you use the Wordpress CMS I encourage you to install Wordfence too. Sorry for the inconvenience.

47th Day of ‪#‎BlackHistoryMonth‬: Dr. Frances Cress Welsing Author of The Isis Papers Born on this day in 1935

OK. Which president did not start, continue, or escalate a war? One would think waging war is part of the job of being President of the U.S.

The country will wake up and realize that those with money can not be allowed to control the political process. The current system is simply not working --even our archaic process for casting a vote needs to change. We are still caucusing like we did as a colony -- it makes no freaking sense, the debates are useless, the reporting is biased, and people are fed up. Many American's if not most are pulling for a Bernie and a Donald because they want something completely different than what we have. If you have not noticed I'm in this camp. When does the steady improvement begin Cynique? Life expectancy is down and the planet is in serious jeopardy of being able incapable of supporting human life. At least we still have the NCAA basketball tournament to keep us distracted.

I try not to let me personal preference for the Trump cloud my opinion of what is possible. There are several plausible scenarios which would place him in the white house. This may be my naivete, but for some reason I'm not too concerned about a Trump presidency. For one, the middle class has been screwed over for much of my adult life. Secondly, maybe Trump's presidency will wake folks the hell up. If the later is true, then it would be worth it. Of course it is also within the realm of possibility that a Trump presidency might be beneficial. It is funny that so many people believe this, but the punditocracy don't even entertain the idea. But the punditocracy are the same people who put a Black on everything negative and a white one on everything positive, so what do they know.... Time will tell.