Winter 2024 Part 3

 

Popular Culture Part 23

 

For over 10 years now, I certainly have written about popular culture in an in-depth fashion. 2024 is here now with a lot of anniversaries coming up with historical significance. In our time, the symbolism and the other messages found in popular culture haven't declined. They have increased since over 100 years ago. Many artists may not know what the hidden symbols and messages mean, but many producers, directors, and other people in the industry know exactly the multifaceted meanings of symbols utilized in popular culture indeed. Now, we witness a new generation of younger people knowing the truth from the mysterious They Cloned Tyrone film to the many messages found in movies, music videos, and television shows. The mainstream corporate media is known for lying constantly. Let's keep it real now. We all know that. Many decades ago, the corporate media claimed that the Vietnam War would be a quick American victory during the 1960's. We know that not only to be a lie as tons of Americans and Vietnamese people lost their lives (including many Vietnam War veterans suffering emotional trauma to this day along with poisons harming the Vietnamese landscape. That is why Walter Cronkite in 1968 had to concede a stalemate, not an American victory in the Vietnam War). We know that the Vietnam War is one event out of many that the corporate media has lied about like some in that space saying that Iraq had massive quantities of weapons of mass destruction, and some are bold to say that no conspiracies existed in human history. We know that Operation Mockingbird is real which is about the CIA using agents in trying to infiltrate major media outlets (the mainstream media is influenced from the CFR, the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, etc.). Like always, we should embrace subsequent balance. It is false to assume that everything in the Universe is a conspiracy, and it is also false that no conspiracies (like the plan to steal the 2020 election by Trump and his allies, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and Operation Geiwitz) existed in the Universe. 

Investigating the mysteries of life is truly an important way to understand ourselves. Once upon a time, we didn't know a lot of facts about the unique characteristics of DNA. Now, we realize (via mainstream scientific studies) that DNA can record and transmit information, that human beings have electricity, and that atoms of the Universe are filled with massive vibrating forms of energy (as proven by quantum physics). While our knowledge about the world has increased in the past 30 years, we should be humble. We still don't know about every aspect of the cosmos, and we cherish the wonder of natural laws plus other aspects of the Universe. Therefore, we must give people the opportunity to know about the real world with empathy and a selfless attitude. One important lesson in life is to reject evil. Far too often, some people do feel to embrace evil because in their mind, it "feels good." Yet, it's long-term result of folks doing evil is total destruction of the mind, body, and ultimately soul. When Jesus Christ was praying, Satan tempted him. Jesus Christ rejected Satan's temptation by saying that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of the living God. Yeshua is right, because food alone will never save us. We are not saved by our works but by grace through faith. We still ought to do good works regardless, but we aren't redeemed by our works alone. It is no secret that many corporations, industry heads, some musicians, many actors, and many actresses promote dangerous drug usage, adultery, hedonism (as portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's final 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut describing masked rituals and parties of super-wealthy going on for decades and centuries), betrayal of friendships, hatred for the sake of hatred, envy, jealousy, disrespect of family, hatred of God (including the believers in God), and hatred of morality in television shows, music videos, movies, and other realms of society. Occult Utopian people aren't new. Dr. John Dee in the UK used the occult in trying to expand the imperialist British Empire. He used the occult in claiming that "angels" gave him a language to know things. That tells me that we should reject evil, resist temptations, and follow the ways of righteousness. 

The elites in the world are clear about their agenda. Their agendas are to have monopolies, use policies to control people in a strict fashion, and suppress any independent thinking that promotes legitimate human liberation. We should know about MK Ultra and modern-day microwave weapons that can harm the human mind. As for America, some people mistake legitimate critique of America with hatred of America. We don't hate America as we want America to be better, but we criticize the evils found in America and throughout all countries of the world. That is the difference. Some want to sugarcoat black American history or history in general (like MAGA extremists, those from Prager U, etc.) to promote a reactionary agenda which I oppose 100 percent. For example, just because we expose slavery, the Maafa, racism, police brutality, and the Confederacy as evil doesn't mean we hate all people. We oppose injustice, and we hate oppression. Many political, corporate, and occult elitists do desire one world government or a globalized world as the late David Rockefeller admitted in his own memoirs:

"...Some believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

-David Rockefeller, “Memoirs of David Rockefeller”

Our souls, minds, and bodies should never belong to evil entities, and human beings have to act like it. When a racist like Donald Trump gave a recent speech saying that people from Africa, Asia, and South America are "poisoning the blood of our country," (Trump also called people who disagree with his abhorrent views "vermin"), then we should know what time it is. We have a fascist movement in the world that must end. Yet, we will not be dismayed. We will think clearly about the world, have our own independent thoughts, reject the agenda of the global elites, exercise, and help our families and our communities. This is not a politically correct zone, but this is a compassionate zone too. We are clear to defend democracy, and on November 2024, I will vote against Trump plus vote for democratic freedom that our ancestors shed blood for. It feels like old times typing the truth about many issues, but I am thankful to God for being here. Living life is always a blessing. Being humble along with being ready to defend your core convictions and humanity makes life better for any human being indeed. 

Numquam desistamus et sequamur rectum iter iustitiae, veritatis et iustitiae.

Oppenheimer

The film Oppenheimer was released in 2023 being a description of one of the most important times in world history. For the first time in human history, human beings created a device that could destroy all human begins, all organisms, and the planet Earth in general. Human beings came a long way from living in villages to being in highly complex metropolitan places in just thousands of years. The question is how we morally deal with massive power and technology in a just fashion. Oppenheimer the film tries to investigate any answer to that poignant question. The movie was directed and written by Christopher Nolan, who is one of the most influential directors of the 21st century.  Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film chronicles the career of Oppenheimer, with the story predominantly focusing on his studies, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing. The film also stars Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife "Kitty", Matt Damon as head of the Manhattan Project Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as U.S. Atomic Energy Commission member Lewis Strauss, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer's communist lover Jean Tatlock. 

The ensemble supporting cast includes Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh. The film was announced in September 2021 after Universal Pictures won a bidding war for Nolan's screenplay, following Nolan's conflict with longtime distributor Warner Bros. Murphy was the first cast member to sign on the following month, with the rest of the cast joining between November 2021 and April 2022. Pre-production was under way by January 2022, and filming took place from February to May. Oppenheimer was filmed in a combination of IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large-format film, including, for the first time, scenes in IMAX black-and-white film photography. Like his previous works, Nolan made extensive use of practical effects, with minimal computer-generated imagery used to perfect the former. Editing was handled by Jennifer Lame, and the score was composed by Ludwig Göransson. The film is Nolan's fourth to receive an R-rating in the United States, preceded by Following (1998), Memento (2000) and Insomnia (2002).

The film of Oppenheimer premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11, 2023. It was theatrically released in the United States and the United Kingdom on July 21 by Universal. Its simultaneous release with Warner Bros.'s Barbie led to the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. The film received critical acclaim and grossed under $947 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2023, the highest-grossing World War II-related film, the highest-grossing biographical film, and the second-highest-grossing R-rated film. The film started in 1926. This was when a 22-year-old doctoral student, J. Robert Oppenheimer deals with anxiety and homesickness while studying under experimental physicist Patrick Blackett at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Upset with the demanding Blackett, Oppenheimer leaves him a poisoned apple but later retrieves it. Visiting scientist Niels Bohr recommends that Oppenheimer instead study theoretical physics at Göttingen.

He completes his PhD there and meets fellow scientist Isidor Isaac Rabi. They later meet theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg in Switzerland. Wanting to expand quantum physics research in the United States, Oppenheimer begins teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology. He marries Katherine "Kitty" Puening, a biologist and ex-communist, and has an intermittent affair with Jean Tatlock, a troubled Communist Party USA member who later commits suicide. 

In December 1938, nuclear fission is discovered, which Oppenheimer realizes could be weaponized. In 1942, during World War II, U.S. Army General Leslie Groves recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer, who is Jewish, is particularly driven by the Nazis' potentially completing their nuclear weapons program, headed by Heisenberg. He assembles a scientific team including Rabi and Edward Teller in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and also collaborates with scientists Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and David L. Hill at the University of Chicago. Teller's calculations reveal an atomic detonation could possibly trigger a catastrophic chain reaction that ignites the atmosphere. After consulting with Albert Einstein, Oppenheimer concludes the chances are acceptably low. Teller's proposal to construct a hydrogen bomb is swiftly rejected. He attempts to leave the project, though Oppenheimer convinces him to stay.

Following Adolf Hitler's death in 1945, some Project scientists question the bomb's relevance, while Oppenheimer believes it will end the ongoing war in the Pacific and save Allied lives. The Trinity test is successful, and President Harry S. Truman orders Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be bombed, forcing Japan's surrender. Though publicly praised, Oppenheimer is haunted by the mass destruction and fatalities, and urges restricting further nuclear weapons development, which Truman curtly dismisses. Truman's callous attitude to the deaths of innocent men, women, and children in Japan as a product of the usage of atomic weapons is typical of Truman's reactionary foreign policy views. As an advisor to the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Oppenheimer's stance generates controversy, while Teller's hydrogen bomb receives renewed interest amidst the burgeoning Cold War. AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss resents Oppenheimer for having publicly humiliated him by dismissing his concerns about exporting radioisotopes, and for recommending negotiations with the Soviet Union after they successfully detonated their own bomb. He also believes that Oppenheimer denigrated him during a conversation Oppenheimer had with Einstein in 1947.

In 1954, wanting to eliminate Oppenheimer's political influence, Strauss secretly orchestrates a private hearing before a Personnel Security Board concerning Oppenheimer's Q clearance. However, it becomes clear that the hearing has a predetermined outcome. Oppenheimer's past communist ties are exploited, and Groves' and other associates' testimony is twisted against him. Teller testifies that he lacks confidence in Oppenheimer and recommends revocation. The board revokes Oppenheimer's clearance, damaging his public image and limiting his influence on nuclear policy. In 1959, during Strauss' Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce, Hill testifies about Strauss' personal motives in engineering Oppenheimer's downfall, resulting in the Senate voting against his nomination.

In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson presents Oppenheimer with the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation. A flashback reveals that Oppenheimer and Einstein's 1947 conversation never mentioned Strauss. Oppenheimer instead expressed his somber belief that he had started a chain reaction that might destroy the world.

The film wanted to show Oppenheimer's perspective. Nolan said that Oppenheimer never publicly apologized for his role in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but he wanted Oppenheimer to be shown in the film to have guilt for his actions. Nolan wanted to not use computer generated graphics, so the filming involved the use of real explosives to recreate the Trinity nuclear test. The production team was able to obtain government permission to film at White Sands Missile Range, but only at highly inconvenient hours, and therefore chose to film the scene elsewhere in the New Mexico desert. The production filmed the Trinity test scenes in Belen, New Mexico, with Murphy climbing a 100-foot steel tower, a replica of the original site used in the Manhattan Project, in rough weather. A special set was built in which gasoline, propane, aluminum powder, and magnesium were used to create the explosive effect. Ludwig Göransson composed the score for the film, after doing so for Nolan's previous film, Tenet. Göransson's score was featured in a trailer for the film on May 8, 2023. It was also featured in the Universal Pictures exclusive five-minute Opening Look on July 13. Nolan had advised him to use the violin for Oppenheimer's central theme in the film, with Göransson remarking that he had felt that it could go from "the most romantic, beautiful tone in a split second to neurotic and heart wrenching, horror sounds." Most of he film was accurate but other parts weren't. Oppenheimer took his concerns about an unstoppable chain reaction to Arthur Compton, not Einstein. 

Oppenheimer was a film drama which proved to be one of Nolan's greatest works. The film was shot with IMAX cameras for a more thorough experience. The film is disturbing as the question of nuclear weapons is a matter of life and death for humanity. We are the only species on Earth with the capability to destroy all organisms on Earth. That is a sobering thought. The film leaves many people shaken. The war in Ukraine harken back to nuclear war threats. To the viewer, the Oppenheimer is not pro-war. The film discusses about science and the atomic blasts to come. During this time, there was the 1954 anti-communist witch hunt done by the AEC which violated human civil liberties. Oppenheimer has many left wing views that was hated by the far right. For example, he supported the Spanish Republicans in the 1930's against the fascists and he had ties to the American Communist Party. There are debates on whether Oppenheimer was a member or not. His brother, sister in law, wife and lover were members. Niels Bohr refuses to create an atomic weapon. The H-bomb was supported by Edward Teller which is more powerful than the atomic bomb. Nolan's film disagrees with the McCarthyite witch hunts of scientists accused of disloyalty and spying for the Soviet Union (this witch hunt harmed actors writers, actresses, and Hollywood directors in clear violation of the First Amendment and the freedom of conscience). Despite the efforts of J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI and Strauss of the AEC, Oppenheimer was never accused of spying for the Soviet Union. At the time (during World War II), along with millions of others in the US, he viewed the Soviet Union as ally. The American Stalinists promoted the war and the US-Soviet alliance in the interests of Kremlin policy. The film wants to portray mostly Oppenheimer's perspective, but history is readily complex. 

Oppenheimer himself was a person with contradictions, so he wasn't exactly a complete hero. He was right to oppose the fascists in during the 1930s. Yet, he later cheered on the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was an active member of the war machine after World War 2. By the early 1950s, while Oppenheimer, according to American Prometheus, “did not advocate the use of atomic weapons in Korea,” he did argue “that there was an ‘obvious need’ for small, tactical nuclear weapons that could be used on a battlefield. … Oppenheimer’s preference for tactical nuclear weapons as an antidote to genocidal warfare had unintended consequences. By ‘bringing the battle back to the battlefield,’ he was also making it more likely that nuclear weapons would actually be used.” World War II allied forces were right to stand up against the Axis Powers. There would be a struggle among power blocs for the control of the world. American capitalism used it industrial strength and reserves to fight Axis forces along with the existence of Roosevelt's reforms that helped millions of Americans. War crimes existed among both sides of the conflict. The Nazis did the Holocaust and many Japanese forces raped and murdered Chinese and Filipino human beings. Many Allied forces did the firebombings of Dresden, Germany, and Tokyo which led to thousands of people murdered. The vile atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki murdered thousands of people. So, Oppenheimer had blood on his hands for being involved in the war crimes in Japan. The Allied forces defeating the Axis Powers was a good thing. We salute the sacrifice of Allied forces who liberated millions of Jewish people, Asian people, and other human beings from fascist oppression and the Holocaust. Oppenheimer in the film admitted to the known socialist Albert Einstein that we might start a chain reaction that might destroy the whole world. Nolan's film of Oppenheimer is a warning that the horrors of nuclear weapons pose a serious threat to humanity in general and exposing laissez faire, corrosive capitalism's legacy of destruction must be made clear. 

They Cloned Tyrone

They Cloned Tyrone in 2023 is one of the most unexpected, interesting movies of our time. It showed many symbolism and messages that harken back to the past and the present with important lessons that must be evaluated. The film is a science fiction and comedy mystery film directed by Juel Taylor. This was his feature film directorial debut. The screenplay was written by him and Tony Rettenmaier. The film starred John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Jamie Fox (who served as a producer in the film), David Alan Grier, and Kiefer Sutherland. The movie is about a trio of friends who finds out about a government cloning conspiracy against the black community, but the movie gets stranger as time goes on. They Cloned Tyrone premiered at the American Black Film Festival on June 14, 2013, and had a limited theatrical release on July 14, 2023. By July 21, 2023, it was streamed by Netflix. John Boyega played Fontaine, Old Fontaine, Chester, and Tyrone. Teyonah Parris plays Yo-Yo, Jamie Foxx played Slick Charles, Kiefer Sutherland played Nixon, David Alan Grier played The Preacher, J. Alphonse Nicholson played Isaac, Tamberla Perry played Biddy, and Eric Robinson Jr. played Big Moss. 

The movie starts with Fontaine. He is a drug dealer in a suburban neighborhood called the Glen with odds against him. He keeps a schedule daily in his life. His mother stays in her room all day and rarely speaks to Fontaine, and he still mourns the death of his younger brother. Slick Charles, one of Fontaine's customers, initiates a fight with one of his many sex workers, Yo-Yo. Fontaine goes to confront Slick Charles who owes Fontaine money and encounters Yo-Yo on the way. Fontaine is able to get some of the money from Slick but is then fatally shot by an opposing drug dealer named Isaac as he leaves. The next morning, Slick is shocked when Fontaine shows up for the money once again, somehow alive and without any recollections of the previous night's events. The two find Yo-Yo to confirm Slick's claims of his death, which confuses Fontaine. He remembers a man, bleeding from a gunshot, was kidnapped by a black SUV, which is now parked outside of a trap house. Fontaine goes inside the house to investigate with Slick and Yo-Yo. 

They discover an elevator leading to an underground lab. Inside, a white scientist with an afro tells them that the operation has gone widespread. Slick snorts a mysterious white substance he thinks is cocaine but ends up laughing and accidentally killing the scientist after Yo-Yo causes a small explosion. Before they leave, the trio discovers a corpse lying on a table, identical to Fontaine.

The next morning, Fontaine breaks into the house again, only to find that the entrance to the lab has disappeared. At a fried chicken restaurant, the diners are giddy with laughter, which makes Slick realize that the fried chicken contains the same substance that he consumed previously. Yo-Yo seduces the restaurant manager, who looks similar to the scientist Slick killed. She discovers that the entirety of the Glen is being surveilled and recorded. They discovered that the substance is also being used in grape drinks and hair products. Through some hidden messages from an alcoholic Fontaine encounter daily, they discover a Black church where the group becomes unsettled by lyrics that the churchgoers sing, as a result of the grape drink's influence. After the service, the group discovers an elevator on the altar.

There is a lot of symbolism in They Cloned Tyrone. It is no secret that many corporations promote stores with unhealthy foods in poorer black neighborhoods. These foods can be sodas, chips, other processed foods and other foods with dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer. Also, with advances of artificial intelligence, many Utopians desire humans merging with machines. 

During the story, the trio found that the lab facility spans the entire Glen area and witnessed Black people being subject to disturbing behavioral experiments (which is similar to the CIA's MK Ultra's experiments in real life). They find that the lab has clones of many but not all Glen residents, including Fontaine and Slick Charles. They watch the predominantly white scientists control the clones through songs and visual stimulation. They exit through a strip club after Fontaine sets off an alarm. The DJ brainwashes the clubgoers with a song and then forces them to chase the trio. A white man named Nixon and a Fontaine clone named Chester show up to halt the clubgoers. The film has the name Nixon which is interesting. Richard Nixon in real life was the President who made it his duty to try to end progressive black social movements like the Black Panthers. Nixon also promoted black capitalism to increase corporate power without black revolutionary liberation. 

In the movie, Nixon reveals that scientists conduct experiments on impoverished, predominantly Black populations, including the Glen, to allow the operation to go unnoticed and supposedly achieve peace in America. Nixon uses a trigger word, causing the entire crowd to follow his commands with the exception of Yo-Yo. Nixon tells Fontaine to put a pistol in his mouth, which he does. Yo-Yo pleads for her life, and Nixon uses another trigger word to release them from their hypnotic state. The entire crowd was conscious the entire time, unable to control their actions. Despite the fact that Yo-Yo was a witness who was unaffected, Nixon still threatened to use it on the crowd again if they didn't stop their investigation. These trigger words in real life relate to mind control experiments by the CIA and other agencies for decades and centuries via LSD experiments, other chemical tests, etc. 

Fontaine falls deeper into a state of despair after discovering that his mother, whom he had never actually seen, was just a voice on a tape recorder. Yo-Yo decides to take matters into her own hands but has her identity exposed and is kidnapped by Nixon. Fontaine comes up with a plan with Slick and Isaac to rescue Yo-Yo, faking his death to sneak into the lab undetected. Fontaine lets Slick and Isaac in to storm the lab with numerous residents of the Glen. They free the Black people being experimented on, including the clones, while Yo-Yo frees herself and finds Slick. Fontaine is overpowered by Chester and taken to an older version of Fontaine, revealed to be the original Fontaine. He explains that he is helping scientists to create "peace" by whitewashing Black people into White people, through mind control and generational breeding.

This revelation in the film is very important. Trying to make black people into white people is not new. Back decades ago (in real life over 100 years ago), white racists in Brazil had the agenda of blaquemento or trying to exterminate the black Afro-Brazilian population in Brazil by allowing black people to intermarry with white people en masse to cause black extinction. That agenda failed. Is this promoted in our time? We know the answer to that question. The answer is yes. With the population control agenda (with the NSSM 200 document advocating a massive depopulation agenda for black people and other people of color), propaganda about whitening creams, and the mass media bashing true Black Love, that agenda is real. The National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200), also known as the "Kissinger Report", was a national security directive completed on December 10, 1974 by the United States National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger following initial orders from President of the United States Richard Nixon. The plan is overt in its evil intentions:

"..."We must take care that our activities should not give the appearance to the LDCs of an industrialized country policy directed against the LDCs. Caution must be taken that in any approaches in this field we support in the LDCs are ones we can support within this country. "Third World" leaders should be in the forefront and obtain the credit for successful programs. In this context it is important to demonstrate to LDC leaders that such family planning programs have worked and can work within a reasonable period of time." [Chapter I, "World Demographic Trends"]

According to the Subcommittee of Inquiry of Voluntary Surgical Contraception of the Congress of the Republic of Peru in June 2002, NSSM200 was "the global strategy defined for the last quarter of the last century by the United States government in order to obtain a decrease in the birth rate" and was responsible for the involvement of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in forced sterilizations in Peru. Many people are brainwashed to believe that whiteness is the sole standard of beauty when beauty is diverse never monolithic. Black is always Beautiful along with the black African phenotype being beautiful too. The good news is that most black people reject the nefarious anti-black agenda, and black populations globally have grown. 

The racially-motivated murder of Fontaine's little brother by a police officer prompted him to start making the clones. After the elder Fontaine claims that the country would be better with assimilation than annihilation, Fontaine uses Nixon's trigger word on Chester and has him shoot the original. Meanwhile, Yo-Yo stalls Nixon from killing her before Slick shoots him in the head. The facility entrance to the church opens up, spilling naked clones out to the public and exposing the country's secret operation. After Yo-Yo announces her retirement from her job, the trio decides to head to Memphis, to further expose and stop the operation.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a man named Tyrone is identical to Fontaine and living the same lifestyle as Fontaine. While with his friends, he watches as one of Fontaine's clones appears on TV, all realizing that Fontaine is a clone of Tyrone. The movie is interesting, bizarre, has twists plus turns, and has some real-life concepts in it. The film also plays homage to the Blaxplotiation films of the 1970's. The movie uses much social satire to get people thinking and entertained at the same time. Many of the themes in They Cloned Tyrone are beyond conspiracy theories. They are conspiracy facts. For example, when the old man tells Fountaine that it's in the water, that means that the water supply is tainted with chemicals that can affect the mind. In real life, lead poisoning in the water of places of Flint has damaged the lives of many people, and we know how toxic waste dumps have been created near poor communities causing cancer to innocent, unsuspecting people. In real life, dangerous drugs can cause people to be docile, bound to the Matrix of control, and cause health issues ruining human bodies. What is also bizarre is how Damson Idris admitted that he prayed to Satan to make his role on Snowfall better. He had nightmares for a month. Idris called his mother to try to help and said that spirits are real and not to be messed with. I think that we should reject Satan and all of his devices. Following God is holy. In the movie, there is a church promoting control and obedience to the establishment. This comes as the organist plays a church version from Juvenile showing the moral corruption of that church. In the movie, the pastor is a clone being programmed by the elite. In real life, many churches (not all churches) have compromised with antics, establishment propaganda, the Prosperity Gospel lies, some have ties to the establishment (via Freemasonry, etc.), and compromise. Other churches have saved souls and represent an excellent example of a powerful witness. 

The movie has shown that there are evil people in some organizations desiring assimilation in trying to eliminate cultural diversity in the human family. There is a difference between respecting human cultural diversity in treating our neighbors as ourselves (which is good) and the agenda of cultural extinction (which is evil and wrong). The truth is that diverse cultures are beautiful, and we can show respect to any culture without extinction. The movie was released after Jamie Foxx was recovering after a mysterious illness and even more mysterious hospitalization. Recently, Jamie Foxx has recovered heavily and is speaking a great deal. The movie overtly mentions the plan of the establishment of seeking to control everybody, merge all cultures into one hive mind, and form a new world order system (as advocated by David Rockefeller and so many people that we can quote from their own writings). Hiding the truth in plain sight is what many in popular culture do all of the time indeed. Since Netflix promotes the film, we have to be aware that even fiction can show elements of the true agenda of the one percent. Therefore, we should keep our independent thinking, reject propaganda from multinational corporations, and advocate for freedom for all people. 

Nyeusi ni nzuri, na sote tunaamini katika heshima na haki.

Spinning Gold movie

Spinning Gold is a 2023 American biographical drama film. It was written by Timothy Soctt Bogart. It is based on the life of his farther, Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart. The film shows the life of record producer and Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart. Bogart worked with many iconic artists like Donna Summer, Kiss, Village People, Cameo, the Pips (without Gladys Knight), Cher, and Parliament. All of these artists were very popular in the 1970's and beyond. The film starred Jeremy Jordan (who played Neil Bogart), Wiz Khalifa (played George Clinton), Jason Isaacs (who played Al Bogatz), Jason Derulo (who played Ron Isley), Jay Pharoah (who played Cecil Holmes), Michelle Monaghan (who played Elizabeth Weiss-Bogart), Dan Fogler (who played Buck Reingold), and Sebastian Maniscalco (who was played by Giorgio Moroder. Moroder helped to invest in disco music). Ledisi played Gladys Knight, Tayla Parx played Donna Summer, Sam Harris played Paul Stanley, Pinks Sweats played Bill Withers, Chris Reed played Frankie Crocker, and James Wolk played Larry Harris. 

The project was originally announced in September 2011, with Timothy Scott Bogart writing and directing the feature about his late father.  Filming started on June 17, 2021, in New Jersey. The film was released in theaters on March 31, 2023. There is a controversy with the film. Berry Gordy filed a $10 million lawsuit against the filmmaker. Gordy accused the film of portraying him as a negative thug character (who acted on a murder for hire plot). Gordy said that the film defamed him as trying to put out a hit on Neil Bogart. 

The film is about the Bogart family and the dream to cause a musical empire. The family formed Casablanca Record. The film shows Bogart being active in the development of songs made by Glady Knights and the Pips (in their song Midnight Train to Georgia), Donna Summer (in her song of Love-to-Love You Baby), etc. Drugs and music are shown in the movie as drug culture was prominent in mainstream music culture back then and today. Neil Bogart passed away in 1982. He was just 39 years old when he passed away. He was born in Brooklyn, New York City to a Jewish family being raised up in the Glenwood Houses, a housing project in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. Shortly before his death, he founded Boardwalk Records and jumped on the new wave music movement, as disco was in decline. Joan Jett, Phil Seymour, and Harry Chapin were among his last signings. The movie should be used as part of the history of the time period. Music evolved from the doo-wop of the 1950's and early 1960's to the hard rock, new wave, disco, and contemporary R& B of the 1970's and beyond. Going Platinum, a book about Bogart, was published in 2014. It was written by his nephew Brett Ermilio and Josh Levine and published by Globe Pequot Press. Many of the artists who worked with Bogart have paid tribute to him including Donna Summer and others.

The 30th Year Anniversary of the Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption was a 1994 American prison drama film that has been one of the most inspirational films of all time. It showed the power of the human spirit in spite of corruption, abuse, and unfairness in the prison system. In real life, the prison industrial complex benefits from capitalist exploitation and other complications. This story is a fictional story that outlined what goes on in prison even in our time in the 2020's. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. It was based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film mentioned the story of the banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman) and becomes instrumental in a money laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, and James Whitmore appear in supporting roles.

Darabont purchased the film rights to King's story in 1987, but development did not begin until five years later, when he wrote the script over an eight-week period. Two weeks after submitting his script to Castle Rock Entertainment, Darabont secured a $25 million budget to produce The Shawshank Redemption, which started pre-production in January 1993. While the film is set in Maine, principal photography took place from June to August 1993 almost entirely in Mansfield, Ohio, with the Ohio State Reformatory serving as the eponymous penitentiary. The film score was provided by Thomas Newsom. While The Shawshank Redemption received critical acclaim upon its release—particularly for its story, the performances of Robbins and Freeman, Newman's score, Darabont's direction and screenplay and Roger Deakins' cinematography. When the film first came out in Sepetember of 1994, it was not very popular in the box office became of compettion of films like Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump (along with lack of women characters, unpopularity of prison films at that time, etc.). It went on to receive multiple award nominations, including seven Academy Award nominations, and a theatrical re-release that, combined with international takings, increased the film's box-office gross to $73.3 million.  Decades after its release, the film is still broadcast regularly, and is popular in several countries, with audience members and celebrities citing it as a source of inspiration or naming it a favorite in various surveys, leading to its recognition as one of the most "beloved" films ever made. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film started in early 1949 at Portland, Maine, the banker Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank State Prison to serve two consecutive life sentences for murdering his wife and her lover. He is befriended by Ellis "Red" Redding, a contraband smuggler serving a life sentence, who procures a rock hammer and a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy. Assigned to work in the prison laundry, Andy is frequently sexually assaulted by prison gang "the Sisters" and their leader, Bogs Diamond.

 

In 1949, Andy overhears the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley, complaining about being taxed on an inheritance and offers to help him shelter the money legally. After an assault by the Sisters nearly kills Andy, Hadley beats and crippled Bogs, who is subsequently transferred to another prison; Andy is not attacked again. Warden Samuel Norton meets Andy and reassigns him to the prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen, a front to use Andy's financial expertise to manage financial matters for other prison staff, guards from other prisons, and the warden himself. Andy begins writing weekly letters to the state legislature requesting funds to improve the prison's decrepit library. Brooks is paroled in 1954 after serving 50 years, but he cannot adjust to the outside world and eventually hangs himself. The legislature sends a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro; Andy plays an excerpt over the public address system and is punished with solitary confinement. After his release from solitary, Andy explains to a dismissive Red that hope is what gets him through his sentence. In 1963, Norton begins exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor costs and receiving bribes. Andy launders the money using the alias "Randall Stephens."

“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.” ― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

In 1965, Andy and Red befriend Tommy Williams, a young prisoner incarcerated for burglary. A year later, Andy helped him pass his General Educational Development (GED) exam. Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that his cellmate at another prison had claimed responsibility for the murders of which Andy was convicted. Andy brings the information to Norton who refuses to listen and, when Andy mentions the money laundering, sends Andy to solitary confinement and has Hadley fatally shoot Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt. Andy refuses to continue the money laundering, but Norton threatens to destroy the library, remove Andy's protection from the guards, and move him to worse conditions. Andy is released from solitary confinement after two months, and he tells a skeptical Red that he dreams of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican town on the Pacific coast. Andy also tells him of a specific hayfield near Buxton, asking Red to promise, once he is released, to retrieve a package that Andy buried there. Red worries about Andy's mental well-being, especially when he learns Andy asked a fellow inmate for some rope. Red is skeptical of Andy's dreams and aspirations to leave the prison. 

At the next day's roll call, the guards find Andy's cell empty. An irate Norton throws a rock at a poster of Raquel Welch hanging on the cell wall, revealing a tunnel that Andy had dug with his rock hammer over nearly two decades. The previous night, Andy used the rope to escape through the tunnel and prison sewage pipe, taking Norton's suit, shoes, and ledger, containing evidence of the money laundering. While guards search for him, Andy poses as Randall Stephens, withdraws over $370,000 of the laundered money from several banks, and mails the ledger and other evidence of the corruption and murders at Shawshank to a local newspaper. State police arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide to avoid arrest.

The following year, Red is paroled after serving 40 years but struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears that he never will. Remembering his promise to Andy, he visited Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to come to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole by traveling to Fort Hancock, Texas, and crossing the border into Mexico, admitting that he finally feels hope. He finds Andy sanding an old boat on a Zihuatanejo beach, and the two reunited friends happily embrace. The film showed Andy's character as having a wise mystic about him. He has an aura that doesn't allow him to be destroyed in the prison system emotionally. The warden Norton is shown as a hypocrite by using religious themes in the film (about talking about the Bible, speaking about God, etc.), but he acts the opposite of Jesus by promoting cruelty, allowing murder, harshly allows unjust assaults against prisoners, and being involved in financial corruption. Zihuatanejo has been interpreted as an analog for heaven or paradise. In the film, Andy describes it as a place with no memory, offering absolution from his sins by forgetting about them or allowing them to be washed away by the Pacific Ocean, whose name means "peaceful." The possibility of escaping to Zihuatanejo is only raised after Andy admits that he feels responsible for his wife's death. Similarly, Red's freedom is only earned once he accepts, he cannot save himself or atone for his sins. Freeman has described Red's story as one of salvation as he is not innocent of his crimes, unlike Andy who finds redemption. Film critic Roger Ebert argued that The Shawshank Redemption is an allegory for maintaining one's feeling of self-worth when placed in a hopeless position. Andy's integrity is an important theme in the story line, especially in prison, where integrity is lacking. Such prison themes were later found in The Green Mile in 1999 being directed by Darabont. He also directed the film The Mist in 2007.

The film has been nominated for, or appeared on, the American Film Institute's lists celebrating the top 100 film or film-related topics. In 1998, it was nominated for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list, and was number 72 on the 2007 revised list, outranking Forrest Gump (76) and Pulp Fiction (94). It was also number 23 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers (2006) list charting inspiring films. The characters of Andy and Warden Norton received nominations for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains list; AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list for "Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'"; AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list for "Sull'aria ... che soave zeffiretto" (from The Marriage of Figaro); and AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores for Newman's work. It was one of the greatest films of the 1990's. The significant and enduring public appreciation for the film has often been difficult for critics to define. In an interview, Freeman said, "About everywhere you go, people say, 'The Shawshank Redemption—greatest movie I ever saw'" and that such praise "Just comes out of them." Robbins said, "I swear to God, all over the world—all over the world—wherever I go, there are people who say, 'That movie changed my life'." In a separate interview, Stephen King said, "If that isn't the best [adaptation of my works], it's one of the two or three best, and certainly, in moviegoers' minds, it's probably the best because it generally rates at the top of these surveys they have of movies. ... I never expected anything to happen with it." The Shawshank Redemption remains a film that promotes togetherness, resiliency, friendship, and exposing corruption in the prison industrial complex too.

The Matrix: 25 Years Later

This year of 2024 has been the 25th year anniversary of the audacious, historic movie of The Matrix. The Matrix (like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Blade Runner) changed science fiction movies forevermore. The Matrix came out in March of 1999 when I was a sophomore in high school, and I remember the time when the movie was released to the public vividly. The Matrix focused on many complex religious, philosophical, social, and technological themes. Its impact has been shown in future movies since 1999. The Matrix series didn't end in 2003 with Matrix Revolutions. In 2021, the film of Matrix Resurrections was released. The Matrix back 25 years ago focused on questioning reality and the necessity to be free from systems of control. Back then, Generation X people especially questioned authority and governmental policies (this was commonly shown in TV shows, talk show debates, Internet, etc. back in the 1990's), and The Matrix is the personification of that skepticism of controlling systems. I always mentioned that Generation X has a libertarian streak in their consciousness, even when many Generation X human beings are progressive. Older Millennials like me include many younger Generation X people as our peers. The Matrix was written and directed by the Wachowskis. The film starred many talented actors and actresses including Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, etc. A summary of the plot of The Matrix is about a movie showing a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly tapped inside the Matrix. The Matrix is a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. The computer programmer Thomas Anderson (who has a hacker name of Neo) undercovers the truth, so he joins a group of like-minded human beings to rebel against the machines. Neo allies with other people who have been freed from the Matrix. The film is part of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. The Wachowskis were inspired by anime and martial arts films. The Matrix movie focused on utilizing fight choreographers and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema influenced the Matrix film series and some other Hollywood action films, Plato's Cave, and 90's Telnet hacker communities. The film popularized terms such as red pill, and introduced a visual effect known as "bullet time", in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow-motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed, allowing the sped-up movements of certain characters to be perceived normally.

The Matrix opened in theaters in the United States on March 31, 1999, to widespread acclaim from critics, who praised its innovative visual effects, action sequences, cinematography, and entertainment value. The film was a massive success at the box office, grossing over $460 million on a $63 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of 1999 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of that year. At the 72nd Academy Awards, the film won all four categories it was nominated for: Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. The film was also the recipient of numerous other accolades, including Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects at the 53rd British Academy Film Awards, and the Wachowskis were awarded Best Director and Best Science Fiction Film at the 26th Saturn Awards. The film is considered to be among the greatest science fiction films of all time, and in 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. The Matrix led to 3 sequels who were The Matrix Reloaded (in 2003), The Matrix Revolutions (in 2003), and The Matrix Resurrections (in 2021). 

The film has many twists and turns. The movie starts at an abandoned hotel. A police squad comes to go near Trinity (played by Carrie-Ann Moss). In the scene when the police try to arrest Trinity, but Trinity uses her superhuman abilities and martial arts to escape from the officers. She flees. The police and a group of Agents in suits fail to capture her. The Agents used superhuman feats along with Trinity. Trinity goes to a public telephone booth to escape. A ringing telephone exists at the booth. Trinity disappears when she answers the phone (Morpheus's voice was on the phone). Later, the computer programmer Thomas Anderson, known by his hacking alias "Neo", is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase "the Matrix." Trinity contacts him and tells him that a man named Morpheus has the answers Neo seeks. A team of Agents and police, led by Agent Smith, arrives at Neo's workplace in search of him. Though Morpheus attempts to guide Neo to safety, Neo surrenders rather than risk a dangerous escape. The Agents offer to erase Neo's criminal record in exchange for his help with locating Morpheus, who they claim is a terrorist. When Neo refuses to cooperate, they fuse his mouth shut, pin him down, and implant a robotic "bug" in his abdomen. Neo wakes up from what he believes to be a nightmare. Soon after, Neo is taken by Trinity to meet Morpheus, and she removes the bug from Neo.

Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne) gives Neo a choice between two pills. The red pill will show the truth about the Matrix. The blue pill will make Neo forget about everything and return to his former life. I rather experience the truth than live in a lying faux reality.  Neo takes the red pill, and his reality begins to distort, awakening in a liquid-filled pod among countless other pods, containing other humans. He is then brought aboard Morpheus's flying ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. As Neo recuperates from a lifetime of physical inactivity in the pod, Morpheus explains the situation: In the early 21st century, a war broke out between humanity and intelligent machines. After humans blocked the machines' access to solar energy, the machines responded by enslaving humankind and harvesting their bioelectric power while keeping their minds pacified in the Matrix, a shared simulated reality modeled on the world as it was in 1999. In the years following, the remaining free humans took refuge in the underground city of Zion. Morpheus and his crew are a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix to "unplug" enslaved humans and recruit them; their understanding of the Matrix's simulated nature allows them to bend its physical laws. Morpheus warns Neo that death within the Matrix kills the physical body too (as the body will die when the mind dies) and explains that the Agents are sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system, while machines called Sentinels try to eliminate rebels in the real world. Neo's prowess during virtual training cements Morpheus's belief that Neo is "the One", a human prophesied to free humankind. The group enters the Matrix to visit the Oracle, a prophet-like program who predicted that the One would emerge. She implies to Neo that he is not the One and warns that he will have to choose between Morpheus's life and his own. Before they can leave the Matrix, Agents and police ambush the group, tipped off by Cypher, a disgruntled crew member who has betrayed Morpheus in exchange for a deal to be plugged back into the Matrix to live a comfortable life.

To buy time for the others, Morpheus fights Smith and is captured. Cypher exits the Matrix and murders the other crew members as they lie unconscious. Before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills him before pulling Neo and Trinity from the Matrix. The Agents interrogate Morpheus to learn his access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, which would allow them to destroy it. Neo resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus, as the Oracle prophesied; Trinity insists she accompany him. While rescuing Morpheus, Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats comparable to those of the Agents.

After Morpheus and Trinity safely exit the Matrix, Smith ambushes and appears to kill Neo. While a group of Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity confesses her love for Neo and says the Oracle told her she would fall in love with the One. Neo is revived by Trinity, with newfound abilities to perceive and control the Matrix; he easily defeats Smith, prompting the other Agents to flee and he leaves the Matrix just as the ship's electromagnetic pulse disables the Sentinels. Back in the Matrix, Neo makes a telephone call, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible." He hangs up and flies away. Many don't know that Rosie Perez, Janet Jackson, Salma Hayek, and Jada Pinkett Smith (who would play Niobe in the sequels) were either approached or tried out for the role of Trinity. In The Matrix, Joe Pantoliano played Cypher, Marcus Chong played Tank, Matt Doran played Mouse, Anthony Ray Parker played Dozer, Julian Arahanga played Apoc, Belinda McLory played Switch, Rowan Witt played The Spoon Boy, Ada Nicodemou played DuJour, and the late Gloria Foster played the Oracle. Gloria Foster was a great actress who lived form November 15, 1953, to September 29, 2001. RIP Sister Gloria Foster. As early as 1996, the Wachowskis planned The Matrix film. Most of the principal cast and crew were required to read French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard's Simulcara and Simulation. 

The directors had long been admirers of Hong Kong action cinema, so they decided to hire the Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director Yuen Woo-ping to work on fight scenes. To prepare for the wire fu, the actors had to train hard for several months. The Wachowskis first scheduled four months for training, beginning in October 1997. Yuen was optimistic but then began to worry when he realized how unfit the actors were. Yuen let their body style develop and then worked with each actor's strength. He built on Reeves's diligence, Fishburne's resilience, Weaving's precision, and Moss's feminine grace. Yuen designed Moss's moves to suit her deftness and lightness. Prior to the pre-production, Reeves underwent a two-level fusion of his cervical (neck) spine due to spinal cord compression from a herniated disc ("I was falling over in the shower in the morning"). He was still recovering by the time of pre-production, but he insisted on training, so Yuen let him practice punches and lighter moves. Reeves trained hard and even requested training on days off. However, the surgery still made him unable to kick for two out of four months of training. As a result, Reeves did not kick much in the film. Weaving had to undergo hip surgery after he sustained an injury during the training process. The filming took place at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. The filming lasted from March 1998 to August 1998 in 118 days. Fishburne later said that while being in Sydney to shoot the film, he experienced a racist vibe and that it felt like America in the 1950s. Many wires and sound effects plus music (like Rage Against the Machine and other artists) were used in the film. The film score was composed by Don Davis. The popularity of the bullet time effect was used in a slow-motion existence. When it was released, people called it one of the best science fiction films of all time with groundbreaking special effects and massive action. M. Night Shyamalan expressed admiration for the Wachowskis, stating, "Whatever you think of The Matrix, every shot is there because of the passion they have! You can see they argued it out!" The Matrix made an ambiguous skeptical person (Neo) a reluctant hero. 

The Matrix has tons of philosophical, spiritual, and cultural references including symbolism. The Matrix film has been influenced by literature like the 1984 novel Neuromancer by William Gibson. For example, the film's use of the term "Matrix" is adopted from Gibson's novel, though L. P. Davies had already used the term "Matrix" fifteen years earlier for a similar concept in his 1969 novel The White Room ("It had been tried in the States some years earlier, but their 'matrix' as they called it hadn't been strong enough to hold the fictional character in place."). Gibson said that The Matrix has Gnostic themes, and it related closer to the work of Philip K. Dick (like in Dick's Exegesis). Philip K. Dick's 1977 conference, in which he stated: "We are living in a computer-programmed reality, and the only clue we have to it is when some variable is changed, and some alteration in our reality occurs. People have been questioning reality for centuries and thousands of years. There are many Christian references too like the character Trinity. The character Morpheus paraphrases the Chinese Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi when he asks Neo, "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference from the real world and the dream world?" Some scholars focus on The Matrix being influenced by Gnostic and Buddhist teachings. Gnosticism teaches that the spiritual world is the world created by the one true God (he created aeon in the pleroma. One woman aeon is named Sophia), and the physical material world was created by an arrogant deity named the Demiurge (or Yaldaboath. He created the angels or archons, the world, and humans. The Demiurge to Gnostics refer to the God of the Old Testament) who seek to prevent true knowledge from humanity. The concept of gnosis is that the Gnostics believe that an individual can be saved by spiritual revolution and following light (in an inverted hermeneutic teaching that the Serpent is good and Yahveh or the Deimergue is bad. This blasphemous teaching is promoted in Gnosticism and by many in the New Age movement. Gnostics believe in the existence of Jesus Christ, but Gnostics view him as growing into divinity instead of being totally divine originally. Gnosticism is also in error to assume that everything physical is evil. Obviously, trees involved in photosynthesis aren't evil. The human body with many functions helping the immune system, learning new information, and doing constructive, righteous activities, is not evil. Evil is done irrespective of a plane of existence. The Matrix film questions the real world and views the real world as a prison controlled by evil machines. Like in Gnosticism, The Matrix film shows humans creating artificial intelligence out of pride. In the Matrix, Morpheus shows the As Above, so Below hand sign representing the Buddhist concept of samsara, which teaches that the world humans live in is constructed from the sensory projections devised from their own desires. 

At the beginning of The Matrix, strange green computer codes are running down the screen in the foreground. Back in 1999, many people didn't know about the digital codes found in the Universe in the form of electromagnetic waves, fractals, etc. Now, we do. Room 101 is found in The Matrix film. That Room number is found in the book 1984 by George Orwell. Orwell wanted Room 101 to show fear and nightmares. Neo in The Matrix opens the Room 101 to eliminate his fear and go to enlightenment. In the scene when Neo opens the Room 101 door, he shows one eye. The number 101 is binary meaning 5. When Neo wakes up, Trinity gives him a message to follow the white rabbit (in reference to the story Alice in Wonderland. This means that Neo is told to look into the glass to prepare to go into another dimension. Morpheus and Trinity want Neo to go through the rabbit hole in trying to wake him up to what is real). In the scene, where Neo's mouth is wired shut, it shows how the corporate elite heavily don't want people to stand up for their inborn natural human rights but be silent in fear. Even the name Morpheus is symbolic. In Greek mythology, Morpheus represents the god of Dreams. So, Morpheus is revealing how the Matrix is a dream of illusion. As for Trinity, Morpheus, and Neo, they act as a trinity of a team. The Matrix has the impression that most people on Earth today are asleep to how things are from geopolitical matters, deceptions in mainstream society, distractions, and poisons found in our environment. The Matrix talks about Artificial intelligence. Ironically, 25 years later, Artifical intelligence is much more powerful now in 2024 than back then. A.I. now can make images, make music, fake sounds, and write long essays. The quantum computers have been here since the 1970's at least. We know that the government has secret technology decades ahead of the 2020s technology. This is why transhumanists today want to transfer consciousness to AI machines in a bizarre way. In the film, there is the Lady in the Red dress in The Matrix sent to distract. In real life, the global power's structure uses sex, fast food, various events, etc. to distract people. There is nothing wrong with sex done in the right way to be clear (human sexuality is natural), but life is more than about sex. The Matrix promotes the ideal of Know Thyself. That means you must know your own identity as a human being in order to be free indeed. The Matrix in the film is made up of computer codes. In real life, our reality is made up of energy codes filled with waves and atomic energy (proven by theoretical physicist Dr. James Gates Jr.). Our minds process this three-dimensional reality using electric signals too.  So, The Matrix film was promoted by Hollywood to show much of the truth in plain site (mixed with heretical Gnostic, occult, and New Age views too). Evil is indeed found in the world, and evil people want humanity to be imprisoned mentally and spiritually. Yet not everything physical in the Universe is evil. There is greatness in DNA, trees, the human body, and other physical aspects of the world. It is just that we have a responsibility to reject the agenda of evil people (found not only in MAGA extremists, but corporate polluters, those who censor books, and other extremists) and build a better society. People have to know how the world works to eliminate unnecessary fear and insecurities. We believe in goodness and righteousness plainly speaking. 

Facebook: 20 Years Later 

2024 is the 20th year anniversary of Facebook. That is an incredible time. Facebook is filled with massive contributions and critiques at the same time. It is a company based in Menlo Park, California with control of Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp along with other products and services. When Facebook came out, it was used heavily by younger Generation X, older Millennials, Boomers, etc. Today, the younger Zoomers love to use Twitch and the service of TikTok. Facebook is one of the Big Five American information technology companies alongside Google's parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. Back in the early 2000's, there were no universal online facebooks at Harvard with only paper sheets distributed and private online directories. Mark Zuckerberg wanted that to change. By January 2004, he wrote code for a new website called TheFacebook. He worked with Harvard student Eduardo Saverin and they invested $1,000 in the site. By February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched it under the named The Facebook. Zuckerberg wanted to connect people across the Harvard University. Just six days after the launch of the website, three Harvard University seniors (Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevos, and Divya Narenda) accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com, but instead using their idea to build a competing product. The three complained to the Crimson, and the newspaper began an investigation. Zuckerberg knew about the investigation, so he used TheFacebook.com to find members in the site who identified themselves as members of the Crimson. He examined a history of failed logins to see if any of the Crimson members had ever entered an incorrect password into TheFacebook.com. In the cases in which they had failed to log in, Zuckerberg tried to use them to access the Crimson members' Harvard email accounts, and he was successful in accessing two of them. In the end, three Crimson members filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg which was later settled. 

Membership was initially restricted to students at Harvard University. Within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service. Zuckerberg was joined in the promotion of the site by Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale. This expansion continued when it opened to all Ivy League and Boston-area schools. It gradually reached most universities in the United States and Canada. Facebook was incorporated in the summer of 2004, and the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's president. In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California. On October 1, 2005, Facebook expanded to twenty-one universities in the United Kingdom and others around the world. Facebook launched a high school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step. Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft. On December 11, 2005, universities in Australia and New Zealand were added to the Facebook network, bringing its size to 2,000+ colleges and 25,000+ high schools throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. Late in 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages, allowing companies to attract potential customers and tell about themselves. These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned. In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

In 2010, Facebook began to invite users to become beta testers after passing a question-and-answer-based selection process, and a set of Facebook Engineering Puzzles where users would solve computational problems which gave them an opportunity to be hired by Facebook. As of February 2011, Facebook had become the largest online photo host, being cited by Facebook application and online photo aggregator Pixable as expecting to have 100 billion photos by summer 2011. As of October 2011, over 350 million users accessed Facebook through their mobile phones, accounting for 33% of all Facebook traffic. The Social Network, a film in 2010 about the beginnings of Facebook directed by David Fincher & stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark is released. The film is met with widespread critical acclaim as well as commercial success; however, Mark Zuckerberg says that the film is a largely inaccurate account of what happened. Facebook launched a redesign that emphasizes the most important parts of someone's life, including one's biographic information, photos, education, work experience, and important relationships. It replaces the tabs at the top of each profile page with links on the left side of the page (in December of 2010). Facebook grows in acquisitions along with controversies. January 25, 2018, Facebook admits to the United States Senate that its software, in some cases, recommended content produced by Russian propaganda operatives around the time of the 2016 presidential election; stating however that it has found insignificant overlap between Russian-produced content and pages created by the Trump's election campaign. Facebook bans all ads promoting cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and initial coin offerings. It reports losing daily users for the first time ever in America and Canada by January 31, 2018. Yet, globally, the number of people using Facebook daily rose 14% compared to the previous year but falling by 700,000 people in the US and Canada for the first time. 

A whistleblower revealed that British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested 50 million Facebook profiles and used personal information taken without authorization in early 2014 to build a system that could profile individual voters in the United States, to target them with personalized political advertisements. On March 26, 2018, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it was investigating Facebook's privacy practices following the revelations. The scandal would affect deeply the image of Facebook, with a loss of nearly US$50 billion in market capitalization since the data scandal. Mark Zuckerberg goes to a Senate hearing on data privacy from April 10-11, 2018, to defend his company. He apologizes for mistakes and promises privacy reforms on Facebook. Facing tougher questions on the second day regarding Facebook policies about user privacy, data collection, political bias, and the social network's business model, Zuckerberg rejected suggestions from Congress members that Facebook users did not have enough control over their data. However, he would explain plans to tighten data policies, protect users from further leaks, and become more transparent about who's advertising on his site. By November 7, 2023, a former Meta employee, Arturo Bejar, testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, alleging that Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, had ignored warnings about the harmful effects of Instagram on teens for years. At the end of the day, there should be a balance to promote body positivity for teenagers and all people (in promoting healthy mental health and rejecting bullying) while rejecting draconian censorship on the Internet (that some Republicans and even some Democrats erroneously advocate). 

Beyonce's Renaissance Tour

One of the most historical music tours of all time has been the Beyonce Renaissance World Tour. This is the ninth tour from the singer Beyonce. Now, we know that this tour is her highest-grossing tour to date. It was announced on February 1, 2023, to support her seventh studio album Renaissance (which came out in 2022). The tour concert existed and started on May 10, 2023, in Stockholm, Sweden, and concluded on October 1, 2023, in Kansas City, Missouri. It was her first solo tour since The Formation World Tour in 2016. The concert lasted between two and a half and three hours and was split into six or seven acts, with Beyoncé performing the tracks of Renaissance in order, interspersed with songs from across her discography. The stage consisted of a giant screen with a large "portal" in its center, and featured sculptures, robotic arms, and ultraviolet technology.

The tour broke ticket sales records worldwide, becoming the eighth highest-grossing concert tour of all time, the second highest-grossing tour ever by a woman artist, and the highest-grossing tour by a black artist, and achieved the two highest monthly tour grosses in history. The show received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the production value and Beyoncé's vocal performance. The tour boosted both local and national economies and was a sociocultural phenomenon. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, which chronicles the creation and execution of the tour and its associated album, will be released in cinemas on December 1, 2023. The tour marked the debut live performances of all sixteen tracks on the Renaissance album, as well Savage (Remix), Black Parade, My Power, and Lift Off. The tour was talked about on October 23, 2022, when Beyonce auctioned a ticket for an unspecified show.  It was sold for $50,000 in a charity auction at the Wearable Art Gala to support the WACO Theatre. It included two tickets to the concert, first-class airfare, a three-night hotel stay, and a personal backstage tour led by Beyoncé's mother. On February 1, 2023, Beyoncé announced the tour via her Instagram account. In April 2023, Beyoncé rented Europe's largest indoor arena, Paris La Défense Arena, in Nanterre, to rehearse for the tour. Khirye Tyler and Dammo Farmer are credited as the tour's music directors, with Damien Smith as head of the music production and Tiffany Moníque Ryan as Vocal Director. Producer Amorphous assisted with the tour's musical arrangements. Composer Emily Bear is the featured pianist for the tour.

Alongside the announcement of the tour, it was also announced that a public on-sale for the North American leg would initially not happen, with all initial ticket sales for the leg using Ticketmaster's Verified Fan system. In addition, all the cities in the North American leg of the tour would be split into three different registration groups that would all have different registration periods and on-sale times. Jay Peters of The Verge noted that this spreading out of demand appeared to be an attempt by Ticketmaster to prevent an incident identical to the 2022 Ticketmaster fiasco of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour that had occurred less than three months earlier, in which the website crashed during the Verified Fan presale. Peters questioned how effective the strategy would be since people could sign up for each of the registration groups instead of just one. In light of the mismanagement of Swift's concert ticket sales, and the U.S. Senate hearing it sparked, the Senate Judiciary Committee tweeted from their official Twitter account, "We're watching, @Ticketmaster," in reference to the Renaissance World Tour.

In light of this, Ticketmaster has implemented new policies to try and combat difficulty for concertgoers and to "create a less crowded ticket shopping experience for fans". Registration does not guarantee a ticket. Instead, a "lottery-style process" affects who is placed on the waitlist and who is given a unique access code after registering as a Verified Fan. Tickets bought in European markets also cannot be resold on Ticketmaster for more than their original price.

There have been staging and lighting designs too. The design process took about 18 months. It has a stage with a circle-shaped cavity in the middle of a giant, flat screen. The B stage is subdivided into a circumference structure surrounding the so-called VIP section "Club Renaissance", with an extension of the ramp acting as the radius of the layout. It also features monumental sculptures and metallic tanks, mannequin horses, robotic arms, pyrotechnics, and ultraviolet technology. Es Devlin Studio and Stufish Entertainment Architects were in charge of the stage design along with Beyoncé and her creative team, Parkwood. There were diverse costume designs that Beyonce wore in the tour. Siona Turini styles the wardrobe. 

The wardrobe features a silver beaded Alexander McQueen catsuit, a white bell-sleeved Anrealage gown that transformed into a multicolored masterpiece underneath a UV light, a custom silver Courrèges bodysuit with a striking circular cutout, a pearl-embellished Balmain bodysuit, hat, and sunglasses, a metallic feathered frock courtesy of Coperni, a colorful mesh minidress by David Koma, a bejeweled Loewe bodysuit, and a bee costume by Thierry Mugler. Additional accessories and jewelry were custom-made by Tiffany & Co. Among the collection of designer pieces, MYKITA sunglasses are also part of the variety of ensembles showcased in the show. Beyonce wanted to honor local designers at each stop of her tour. For example, she wanted to honor Jacquemus in Marseille, Robert Wun and Stella McCartney in London, Iris van Herpen in Amsterdam, and a Fendi design inspired by the artist Antonio Lopez in Barcelona. For the June 18 show in Amsterdam, Beyoncé celebrated the Juneteenth holiday by wearing exclusively Black designers, including Feben, Maximilian Davis for Ferragamo, Olivier Rousteing for Balmain, Ib Kamara for Off-White, LaQuan Smith, and her own Ivy Park collection.

Women's Wear Daily reports that the Renaissance World Tour generated $187 million in "media impact value" for the various brands that Beyoncé has worn at the various stops along the tour, including $7.7 million for Alexander McQueen, $7.2 million for Tiffany & Co., $5.6 million for Balmain, and $3.7 million for Valentino. In the show, it lasts from 2.5 to 3 hours. Most of the songs from the Renaissance tour are played. The SMPTE color bars are shown representing the Progress Pride Flag. While the tour was not advertised with an official opening act, guest DJs have occasionally performed sets before the start of the show in various cities, including surprise guest appearances by Arca in Barcelona and MikeQ in East Rutherford. The robotic machine in the performance is akin of Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi Metropolis. This robot-themed segment of the show is interspersed with spoken word interludes from legendary commentator Kevin JZ Prodigy in an homage to ball culture. As the voice asks if the audience is 'ready to serve' and 'ready to slay', Beyoncé performs the first track from Renaissance, "I'm That Girl". Beyoncé then performs "Cozy" with two mechanical arms holding silver frames interacting with her as she dances. She then performs "Alien Superstar", with elements of "Sweet Dreams", followed by "Lift Off." The French dance duo Les Twins perform a dance break to "7/11. The parts of the tour performance are Renaissance, Motherboard, Opulence, Anointed, Memories Run Through My Wires, Mind Control, and Encore. Beyonce sits on a shiny life-size horse mannequin with a sparkly silver dress to perform Summer Renaissance as the Encore. The horse is lifted above the crowd and flies Beyoncé in a circle as a victory lap, while silver confetti is released into the stadium. She then thanks the crowd and exits the stage as the screen is left with a photo of her mother Tina and her uncle Johnny, a major inspiration behind the Black, LGBTQ+ sounds of the Renaissance album. The Renaissance tour has broken records that could gross up to $2.4 billion. According to Ticketmaster, the ticket demand exceeded the number of available tickets by more than 800% in Toronto, Chicago, East Rutherford, Summerfield, Atlanta, Inglewood, and Houston, to all which additional shows were added consequently. In the Mercedes Benz Stadium (in Atlanta, Georgia), the tour was the highest-grossing box score report in the stadium's history. The tour boosted the economies of many places of the world allowing an additional $10 million in revenue for local businesses. Hotels were booked in Stockholm and London. Amtrak launched a new program to help concertgoers travel to the tour's US stops. 

At the September 4, 2023, show in Los Angeles, Diana Ross joined the Pure Honey singers onstage for their performance of "Love Hangover" and led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to Beyoncé. Kendrick Lamar also joined Beyoncé onstage to perform his verse on the "America Has a Problem" remix. At the September 23 and 24, 2023, shows in Houston, Megan Thee Stallion joined Beyoncé onstage to perform "Savage Remix." As with previous tours, Beyoncé is supporting communities in the cities she performs in. Throughout the tour, Beyoncé's BeyGOOD Foundation provides 1,000 small business owners from marginalized communities with grant opportunities, celebration luncheons, and resources to support entrepreneurship. Beyoncé is also donating scholarships worth $1 million to students in colleges and universities in cities along the tour.

Tour tickets will be distributed to local community initiatives in cities across the US. Free tickets to current and previous members of Women of Tomorrow, a group that works with at-risk young women, were also distributed. On October 1, 2023, the concert film Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé was announced. It is reported to have an "ambitious scope" that will incorporate highlights from the full run of the tour, Renaissance's visual companion, and documentary footage of the development of both the album and the tour. The film was scheduled for release to theaters worldwide on December 1. 

Barbie

The 2023 movie of Barbie is one of the most popular films of our generation. The movie was directed by Greta Gerwig from a screenplay she wrote with Noah Baumbach. The film is a satire about the Barbie fashion dolls by Mattel, and it also shows overt political messages that many people didn't know at first. Many people initially thought that the film was just a politically correct, filled with humor, and just discussed the Mattel fashion doll of Barbie. Yet, the movie of Barbie wasn't P.C. It was a film a live-action format with many actresses and actors in it that presented a clear social message. That message is what many conservatives and traditionalists abhor. Barbie is a film that promoted a feminist, egalitarian, and progressive message of promoting individuality while abhorring excessive conformity to stereotypical standards of how some want society to be (among women and men). A live-action Barbie film was announced in September 2009 by Universal Pictures with Laurence Mark producing. Development began in April 2014, when Sony Pictures acquired the film rights. Following multiple writer and director changes and the casting of Amy Schumer and later Anne Hathaway as Barbie, the rights were transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures in October 2018. Robbie was cast in 2019, after Gal Gadot turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts, and Gerwig was announced as director and co-writer with Baumbach in 2020. The rest of the cast was announced in early 2022, with principal photography occurring primarily at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in England, and at the Venice Beach Skatepark in Los Angeles from March to July of that year.

Barbie premiered at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on July 9, 2023, and was released in the United States on July 21. Its simultaneous release with Universal's Oppenheimer led to the "Barbenheimer" cultural phenomenon, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature. The film received critical acclaim and has grossed $1.44 billion, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2023 as well as the highest-grossing film by a solo female director, the highest-grossing film ever released by Warner Bros., and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. The film starred Margot Robbie playing Barbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, and other human beings. It was produced by David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerely, and Robbie Brenner. The film starts with Barbie who acts stereotypical in the land of Barbieland. Barbieland is a matriarchal society having different types of Barbies, Kens, and a group of discontinued models, who are treated like outcasts due to their unconventional traits. While the Kens spend their days playing at the beach, considering it their profession, the Barbies hold prestigious jobs such as doctor, lawyer, and politician. Beach Ken ("Ken") is only happy when he is with Barbie, and seeks a closer relationship, but she rebuffs him in favor of other activities and female friendships.

One evening at a dance party, Barbie is suddenly stricken with worries about mortality. Overnight, she develops bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet, disrupting her usual routines the next day. She seeks out Weird Barbie, an outcast due to her disfigurement, who tells her she must find the child playing with her in the real world to cure her afflictions. Ken stows away in her convertible to join her, to which Barbie reluctantly agrees.

Arriving at Venice Beach, Barbie punches a man for groping her, leading to her and Ken's brief arrest. Alarmed by their presence, Mattel's CEO orders their recapture. Barbie tracks down her owner, a tween girl named Sasha, who criticizes her for encouraging unrealistic beauty standards. Distraught, Barbie discovers that Gloria, a Mattel employee, and Sasha's mother, inadvertently catalyzed her existential crisis after Gloria began playing with Sasha's old Barbie toys in a similar state. Mattel attempts to put Barbie in a toy box for remanufacturing, but she escapes with Gloria and Sasha's help, and they travel to Barbieland with Mattel executives in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Ken learns about patriarchy and feels respected for the first time. Returning to Barbieland, he persuades the other Kens to take over, and the Barbies are indoctrinated into submissive roles, such as agreeable girlfriends, housewives, and maids. Barbie arrives and fails to convince everyone to return to the way things were. She becomes depressed, but Gloria gives her a speech about society's conflicting expectations of women, restoring Barbie's self-confidence.

With the assistance of Sasha, Weird Barbie, Allan, and the discontinued dolls, Gloria's speech deprograms the Barbies from their indoctrination. They then manipulate the Kens into fighting amongst themselves, distracting them from enshrining male superiority into Barbieland's constitution, and the Barbies regain power. Having now experienced systemic oppression for themselves, the Barbies resolve to rectify the faults of their previous society, emphasizing better treatment of the Kens and all outcasts. Barbie and Ken apologize to each other, acknowledging their mistakes. Ken bemoans his lack of purpose without Barbie, so she encourages him to find an autonomous identity. Barbie, who remains unsure of her own identity, meets with the spirit of Ruth Handler, Mattel co-founder and creator of the Barbie doll, who explains that Barbie's story has no set ending and her ever-evolving history surpasses her roots.

Al fin y al cabo, hombres y mujeres deberían unirse para poner fin a todas las injusticias del Universo.

Barbie decides to become human and return to the real world and is bidden goodbye by the Barbies, Kens, and Mattel executives. Sometime later, Gloria, her husband, and Sasha take Barbie, now going by the name "Barbara Handler", to her first gynecologist's appointment. The movie Barbie is overt in its messages. It isn't just a children's movie, but children with their parents have watched it. Its message basically is to promote the idea that human beings, irrespective of their background, have the right to express their autonomous identities without bigotry and without oppression. Many conservatives and traditionalists oppose the film because they believe in rigid roles for the sexes that must be adhered to without restraint (in terms of relationships, marriage, etc.). Many critics of the film view the movie as a man-hating screed like Jack Butler of the National Review. The truth is more nuanced. The film criticizes patriarchy. The movie allows Ken to awaken from his bad notions of life to be a better human being as the movie goes on. Also, the film allows the men and women to unite and find peace at the end of the film (so, Barbie is not a man-hating film as the film critiqued Barbieland too). The truth is that men and women aren't identical. We have genetic, emotional, physical, and hormonal differences that must be acknowledged and respected. Yet, men and women are equal. Equality means each human has equal worth and value deemed worthy of justice, humanity, and liberty without exception. So, the movie isn't as bad as people say it is. It just shows a distinctly progressive feminist perspective on the sexes. Issa Rae plays President Barbie, Kate McKinnon plays Weird Barbie, Alexandra Shipp plays Writer Barber, America Ferrea lays Gloria, Ncuti Gatwa plays Artist Ken, and other actors and actresses had diverse roles in the movie. 

The film's soundtrack, Barbie: The Album, was released on July 21, 2023. The album features songs by artists Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kali, Karol G, Khalid, Sam Smith, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Billie Eilish, Pink Pantheress, Tame Impala, the Kid Laroi, and cast members Ryan Gosling and Dua Lipa. "Dance the Night" by Dua Lipa was released as the album's lead single on May 26, 2023. It was followed by "Watati" by Karol G on June 2, 2023. "Angel" by Pink Pantheress was released on June 9, 2023, as the first promotional single. "Barbie World" by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice was released as the album's third single on June 23, 2023. The album's second promotional single, "Speed Drive" by Charli XCX was released on June 30, 2023. On July 6, 2023, the album's third and final promotional single, "Barbie Dreams" by Fifty Fifty and Kaliii was released. On July 10, 2023, Warner Bros. released a preview clip of Ryan Gosling singing "I'm Just Ken." The album's fourth single, "What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish, was released on July 13, 2023. This Barbie film addresses the criticism of the Barbie brand lacking diversity and different types of women for decades. It uses humor and the recognition that beauty is diverse not monolithic. So, the movie Barbie will be debated for years and decades to come. One thing is true. If we want to be in the Promised Land for real filled with justice and equality, we have to end the current status quo systems of oppression and make sure that women, men, and all human beings have true justice and liberty indeed without exception. 

The John Wick series

There is rarely an action, marital arts film in the 21st century that has seen this level of popularity and debate as the John Wick film series. The movie series is a modern-day American neo-noir action thriller media franchise created by Derek Kolstad. The story revolves around John Wick, who is a former hitman. He knows martial arts, sharpshooting skills, and wears bulletproof suits. In his life, his wife died of cancer, and he mourns continually Many events caused John Wick to go back to be a hitman. In the first John Wick, John Wick tries to escape the life of a professional hitman. In the movie, the hitman society acts like a secret society with codes, coins used as entrance-level devices, and the existence of the High Table that regulates assassins worldwide. John Wick in the first John Wick of 2014 encounters members of a Russian gang. John Wick tries to ignore then when one member offers to buy his car, but they brutally beat John Wick in his own house and murder his dog. Therefore, John Wick seeks revenge and murders on prominent Russian Mafia's member's son and that son's father in the first movie of the series. In that movie, MMA, kung fu, BJJ, and other forms of martial arts are used. It combines old-school movies and new-school techniques. Easily, the John Wick series is one of the top five greatest action film series of the 21st century along with Ip Man, etc. In the film, the rule exists of no violence on Continental Hotel grounds (yet, that rule is violated). 

During the John Wick: Chapter 2 series of 2017, John Wick continues to seek revenge against the Mafia figures. Yet, he finds a truce with the brother of the man he killed in John Wick 1. John Wick returns to his house with his new pet dog. One man from Italy comes to Wick's home and tries to offer him a deal. The deal is that Santino D'Antonio (played by Riccardo Scamarcio) wants John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) to go out to kill his own sister (played by Gianna D'Antonio). John Wick refuses at first, and then he goes to Italy to follow the plan (after Wick's blows up by Santino). The sister Gianna committed suicide by cutting herself to death and John Wick shot her in the head. Gianna's chief bodyguard (played by Common) is angry at Gianna's death. So, Cassian (played by Common) fights John Wick. They go to the Continental where they stop. Then, they continue to fight in the subway with a knife stuck at Cassian aorta (if Cassian gets the knife out, he dies). John Wick fights the forces of Santino D'Antonio throughout the city. Wick defeats Santino's security enforcer Ares (played by Ruby Rose). Later, John Wick and D'Antonio discuss the terms of their battle in the Continental. Then, John Wick kills D'Antonio in the Continental Hotel which shocks Wick's friend Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane), who owns and manages the New York City Continental Hotel. This is where things change forever. John Wick is now excommunicato, because he murdered a person on Continental grounds. By the end of John Wick 2, John Wick is given 30 minutes to escape. John Wick runs with his dog across New York City. 

John Wick 3: Parabellum starts with John Wick running into the New York City library to find his pendant. He had little time, so he sent his dog to the Continental Hotel. John Wicks fights a tall man in the library before time is up. He is healed by the doctor (played by Randall Duk Kim). Time is up, so John Wick runs around New York City to survive assassins. John Wick goes into a building to meet with his allies in the Ruska Roma crime syndicate. He gives them a rosary and they give him safe passage to Casablanca. John Wick goes into North Africa. The Adjudicator of the High Table criticized Winston for his refusal to stop John Wick when he killed D'Antonio. She or the Adjudicator also punishes the Bowery King with 7 cuts. The Adjudicator and her assassins unite in trying to kill John Wick. In Cascablanca, John Wick met her former friend Sofia Al-Azwar (played by Halle Berry). John Wick wants to see the Elder who is the only person above the High Table. Sofia sends John to the Elder. John states that he wants to live to keep the memory of the love he once had with his late wife. The Elder agrees to forgive John if John kills Winston and remains subservient to the High Table for the remainder of his life. To show his fealty, John severs his ring finger and gives his wedding ring to The Elder.

John goes back to New York City and is attacked by Zero and his students before going into the Continental for protection. Winston and John Wick unite to fight Zero and the High Table forces in the Continental. After killing all the enforcers, John is ambushed by Zero and his students; John proceeds to kill all but two. Zero battles John but is eventually defeated and left to die. On the roof of the Continental, The Adjudicator agrees to a parley with Winston, who offers allegiance to the High Table. John arrives; Winston shoots him, and John falls to the street below. Winston reassumes his position, and the severely injured John is secretly delivered to the Bowery King in an underground bunker; the two agree to join forces against the High Table.

John Wick Chapter 4 is probably the longest and most emotional film of the John Wick film series. It shows tons of action and advanced special effects. It starts in the area of North Africa when John Wick kills the Elder. Later, he united with King Bowery. The Continental leader Winston is summoned to met the Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont, a High Table member. He goes with his concierge, Charon. Marquis is angry at how John Wick is alive after killing a high-level member of the Continental. Winston pleads his case, but the Marquis destroys the Continental New York building and Charon in cold blood. Winston is angry and wants revenge. John Wick goes into the Osaka Continental for refuge. Marquis hires Caine (played by Donnie Yen), a blind High Table assassin to kill his old friend John Wick. Caine is threatened to do it or his daughter is murdered. In Osaka, Wick's friend Shimauzu Koji fights Chidi (or Marquis's 2nd in command) along with Table assassins and Caine. Caine defeats Koji, and his daughter is angry at John Wick. 

John Wick goes into hiding in New York to speak with Winston and the Bowery King. John Wick and Marquis agree for a final duel. If John wins, he is free. If John loses, he submits to the High Table and dies. John Wick goes to Berlin to get help from the Ruska Roma crime syndicate. They refuse to help him unless he kills High Table member Killa Harkan. John Wick kills Killa in a strong battle after a poker game. Nobody also tracks John Wick to get his bounty on John Wick. Winston relays John's challenge to the Marquis, acting as John's 'second', and requests that, should John win, the New York Continental be rebuilt, fully funded by the High Table. In Paris, John and the Marquis decide on the duel's parameters — dueling pistols at sunrise the following day at Sacré-Cœur — in a meeting moderated by the Harbinger, the Table's emissary. The Marquis nominates a reluctant Caine to take his place, while the Harbinger warns that John and Winston will be executed should either fail to appear on time. The Bowery King arrives in Paris to give John a pistol and a new ballistic suit.

The Marquis intends to prevent John from arriving at the duel in time by placing a $26 million bounty on him. John fights off hordes of assassins on his way to Sacré-Cœur, including Mr. Nobody, who negotiates a bounty increase to $40 million. During their confrontation, John prevents Chidi from killing Mr. Nobody's dog, causing Mr. Nobody to abandon his pursuit of John. After Caine and Mr. Nobody assist John in fighting off several assassins — including Chidi, whom Mr. Nobody kills — on the Rue Foyatier, they reach the summit just in time for the duel. John and Caine wound each other through two rounds of dueling, and the third round comes to a halt when Caine severely wounds John. Demanding the right to administer the coup de grâce, the Marquis eagerly swaps places with Caine. Winston chides the Marquis for his arrogance, revealing that John has not yet fired his third bullet; John shoots the Marquis dead.

The Harbinger grants Caine and John their freedom from the High Table, and Winston is reinstated. John reflects upon his life and marriage before succumbing to his injuries. Sometime later, back in New York, Winston and the Bowery King bid farewell to John at his grave, located next to that of his late wife Helen. In a post-credits scene, Caine returns to Paris to reunite with his daughter but is approached by a vengeful, knife-wielding Akira. 

This is not the end of the John Wick series. There are John Wick video games. There is the show called The Continental: From the World of John Wick in 2023 (on the Peacock network). There is speculation that John Wick could be alive or not. There is a new film called Ballerina coming out in 2024. Ballerina is an upcoming American action thriller film directed by Len Wiseman and written by Shay Hatten. It is the first spin-off of the John Wick franchise and is set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) and John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023). It stars Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves. In the film, ballerina-assassin Rooney (Armas) hunts those who killed her family.

Lionsgate acquired Hatten's spec script for the film in 2017, leading to him contributing to the final screenplay for Parabellum and then serving as the lead writer for Chapter 4. In October 2019, Wiseman was hired as director, with franchise director Chad Stahelski confirmed as a producer by May 2020. Ballerina was officially announced in April 2022, with de Armas confirmed to be replacing Unity Phelan, who portrayed the character in Parabellum, in the lead role; by that November, the rest of the main cast was rounded out. Principal photography began soon after, taking place in Prague.

The film is scheduled to be released on June 7, 2024. This work is dedicated to the late Lance Reddick as Reddick's role as Charon is also found in the Ballerina film. In real life, are there crime families with professional assassins? Yes. In real life, is there is a High Table-like setting that deals with international affairs and other matters in a mysterious fashion. Yes, there is the Bohemian Grove, the Bilderberg Group, and other organizations with infrastructure that deal with international matters. So, the John Wick series mixes truth with fiction which describes an underworld that presents the truth in plain sight. Even the word excommando comes from the word excommunication (found in spiritual circles) meaning to be banned from being part of a religious organization.

The 2024 Emmy Awards

The 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards was a very historic occurrence. It took place from January 6-7, 2024, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented the awards. We live in a time of an increased emphasis of diverse representation of television shows socially, culturally, ethnically, dialogue wise, and other facets of the human experience. These awards wanted to honor many of the best in artistic and technical achievement in American primetime television programming from June 1, 2022, until May 31, 2023. The awards were delay because of the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. The show of The Last of Us won 8 awards. Anthony Anderson, the Black-ish star and a professional actor of many shows plus movies, hosted the ceremony for the first time. The show of "Succession" had 27 nominations for its fourth and final season. The show won six Emmys on Monday night. It had the award for outstanding drama series for their time. The actors and actress of Matthew Macfayden, Sarah Snook, and Kieran Culkin earned their Emmys for their performances on Succession. The show called The Bear was honored with six Emmy, including Best Comedy series. The Bear is an FX show that details the life of a restaurant in the city of Chicago. The Netflix show of "Beef" earned five Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology series. Ayo Edibiri won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series found in the show of The Bear. Quinta Brunson won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series found in Abbott Elementary. Abbott Elementary is very popular, because it realistic shows what goes on in elementary school across the United States of America. Jennifer Coolige won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama series for the show of The White Lotus. 

Matthew Macfayden won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Succession. Ebon Moss-Bachrach won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the show of The Bear. Jeremy Allen White won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy series for the show of The Bear. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver won Outstanding Scripted Variety Series (A Black Lady Sketch Show was nominated for the award too). Niecy Nash-Betts won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the series of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Niecy Nash-Betts gave a passionate speech to celebrate the women contributors to acting in general. The director Christopher Storer won Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for The Bear, and he won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the same show too. Other shows having victories are Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series), RuPaul's Drag Race (for Oustanding Reality Competition Program), The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (for Outstanding Vareity Talk Series), Lee Sung Jin (for Outstanding Direcing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for the show Beef), Paul Walter Hauser of Black Bird (for Oustanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie), and Jesse Armstrong (for the show Succession involving Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series). 

Eyes Wide Shut: 25 Years Later

Since 1999 and after 25 years, Eyes Wide Shut has been debated for years and decades. It has been Stanley Kubrick's last directed film. It was meticulously designed, so it was created with real, specific intentions. Some people view the film as random and quaint, but it precisely has so many symbols and meanings to it. Stanley Kubrick wanted his audience to decipher his films to develop multiple interpretations of the movies' inherited messages. The film is an erotic mystery psychological drama film. Kubrick also produced and co-written the film too. It is based on the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from early twentieth-century Vienna to 1990s New York City. The plot centers on a physician (Tom Cruise) who is shocked when his wife (Nicole Kidman) reveals that she had contemplated having an affair 12 months earlier. He then embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a masked orgy of an unnamed secret society. 

Kubrick obtained the filming rights for Dream Story in the 1960s, considering it a perfect text for a film adaptation about sexual relations. He revived the project in the 1990s when he hired writer Frederic Raphael to help him with the adaptation. The film, which was mostly shot in England, apart from some exterior establishing shots, includes a detailed recreation of exterior Greenwich Village street scenes made at Pinewood Studios. The film's production, at 400 days, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot. Kubrick died of a heart attack six days after showing the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut to Warner Bros., making it the final film he directed. He reportedly considered it his "greatest contribution to the art of cinema". To ensure a theatrical R rating in the United States, Warner Bros. digitally altered several sexually explicit scenes during post-production. This version was premiered on July 13, 1999, before being released on July 16, to generally positive reviews from critics. Box office receipts for the film worldwide were about $162 million, making it Kubrick's highest-grossing film. The uncut version has since been released in DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. Eyes Wide Shut has been included in several lists of the greatest films of the 1990s. 

The film acts like a dream sequence in many cases. Dr. William "Bill" Harford and his wife Alice live in New York City with their daughter Helena. At a Christmas party hosted by patient Victor Ziegler, Bill reunites with old medical school classmate Nick Nightingale, who now plays piano professionally. An older Hungarian guest attempts to seduce Alice, while two young models try to seduce Bill. Host Victor interrupts with news of an overdose by Mandy, a young woman Victor was having sex with. Bill aids in Mandy's recovery. During the next night, Alice and Bill smoke marijuana. They discuss their unfulfilled temptations. Bill is not jealous of other men's attraction to Alice, believing women to be naturally faithful (which is sexist nonsense from Bill). Alice admits to fantasizing about a naval officer she met on vacation and considered leaving Bill and Helena. Bill is disturbed before being called to a patient's house. The patient's daughter, Marion, tries to seduce Bill, but he resists.

After leaving Marion's, Bill meets a prostitute named Domino. When Alice calls, he pays Domino for a non-sexual encounter and meets Nick at a jazz club. Nick describes a masked orgy in a mansion outside New York City at which he will play the piano blindfolded and gives Bill the password to enter the party. Bill goes to a costume store owned by a patient of his to buy an outfit to fit in at the masked orgy. Finding the costume store now owned by a man named Milich, he offers money to rent a costume from the shop, where he and Milich find Milich's young daughter with two men. Bill goes to the mansion and gives the password, discovering a sexual ritual in progress. A masked woman warns him he is in danger. He is brought before the master of ceremonies who demands to know a second password for the house, revealing that the password Bill has is only to enter the grounds. Bill removes his mask at the demand of the master of ceremonies, but the woman who warned him intervenes. She insists on redeeming him, at a personal cost. Bill is let off with a warning to keep quiet. Bill goes home. He feels guilty and confused. He finds Alice laughing in her sleep. He wakes her up. She tearfully tells him about a dream where she was having sex with the naval officer and many other men and laughing at the idea of Bill watching. The next day, Bill goes to Nick's hotel, but the desk clerk tells him that Nick left with two dangerous-looking men. Bill returns the costume but realizes he has misplaced the mask and learns that Milich has sold his teenage daughter into sex slavery. Milich implies that Bill can pay to have sex with his daughter if he likes. In the afternoon, consumed by thoughts of his wife's infidelity, Bill leaves work early and returns to the site of the orgy. At the front gate, he is handed an envelope with a warning to stay away. That evening, Bill tries to call Marion, but hangs up when her fiancé answers. He decides to go to Domino's apartment to consummate their affair, but is met by her roommate, Sally. Although there is sexual tension between them, Sally informs Bill that Domino has just received news that she is HIV-positive. Bill leaves.

After leaving the apartment, Bill is followed by a mysterious figure. He discovers that an ex-beauty queen has died from an overdose and identifies her as Mandy at the morgue. Later, Ziegler summons him and admits to being a guest at the orgy. Ziegler reveals that there was no second password at all, and failing to know this is what outed Bill as an outsider. Ziegler assures Bill that the secret society only aims to intimidate him into silence but implies that they are capable of taking action if necessary. Bill is concerned about Nick's disappearance and Mandy's death, whom he correctly identifies as the masked orgy participant who sacrificed herself for him. Ziegler claims Nick is safe and that Mandy died from an accidental overdose due to drug addiction. Bill returns home to find the rented mask on his pillow and confides in his wife, Alice, about the past two days. The next day they go Christmas shopping with their daughter and Bill apologizes to Alice. She suggests they do something "as soon as possible," to which Bill asks what she means and Alice simply responds with one word. That word is the f word. Tom Cruise plays Dr. Bill Hartford, Nicole Kidman plays Alice Hartford, Sydney Pollack plays Victor Ziegler, etc. The movie is influenced by Arthur Schnitzler's 1926 novella Dream Story is set around Vienna after the turn of the century. The main characters are a couple named Fridolin and Albertina. The couple's home is a typical suburban middle-class home. Like the protagonist of the novel, Schnitzler was Jewish, lived in Vienna, and was a doctor, although he left medicine to write. Kubrick gets rid of references of the Jewishness of characters in the novels that he adapted. Filming for the movie ended in June 1998. The film was set in many places like Mentmore Towers in England. Classical music was shown heavily in the film including its soundtrack. Pook was hired after choreographer Yolande Snaith rehearsed the masked ball orgy scene using Pook's composition "Backwards Priests" – which features a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy recorded in a church in Baia Mare, played backward – as a reference track. Another track in the orgy, "Migrations", features a Tamil song sung by Manickam Yogeswaran, a Carnatic singer. The original cut featured a scriptural recitation from the Bhagavad Gita, which Pook took from a previous Yogeswaran recording. South African Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu group, protested against the scripture being used, Warner Bros. issued a public apology and hired the singer to record a similar track to replace the chant. Eyes Wide Shut has many themes about marriage, sexuality, secret meetings, secret societies, and other subjects. Historians, travel guide authors, novelists, and merchants of Venetian masks have noted that these have a long history of being worn during promiscuous activities. Authors Tim Kreider and Thomas Nelson have linked the film's usage of these to Venice's reputation as a center of both eroticism and mercantilism. Many sources show that Stanley Kubrick loved the film.

There are a lot of themes and symbolism in Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick is the type of person who loves to show attention to detail. The movie deals with a relationship between a man and a woman in an evolving world filled with secrecy, amorality, and other evils like sex trafficking. It is no secret that much of the modern world has distractions and much of society is decadent. The sexual orgies are very akin to the parties of the global elite in real life (like the 1970's Rothschild mask party in the UK), the Bohemian Grove (filled with prostitutes as admitted by many sources), the Epstein sex ring, and other real-life events. Another theme about Eyes Wide Shut is that it shows an occult secret society that threatens and even eliminates people who cross it. The film has the surface-level initial image of the perfect couple, but between the surface, there are insecurities, arguments, and accusations of infidelity among both sides. Dr. Bill is a rich doctor and Alice was once in art but now is supported by her husband financially. Alice is bored as a stay-at-home mother. Alice and Bill show masks in public to hide their imperfections at social events. Victor Ziegler acts as a member of the super-rich elite. At Ziegler's party, there is an 8-point star in the house at the Christmas Party. Christmas relates to many themes from paganism, and the 8-pointed star is similar to the star of Ishtar (which is the Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sexuality). The Ishtar cult is involved in prostitution and ritual acts as found in Eyes Wide Shut. During the party, both Bill and Alice experience temptation. Alice meets a man named Sandor Szavost who asks her about Ovid’s Art of Love (which promotes cheating in relationships). Rainbows are everywhere in the film. 2 models ask Bill to take them to "where the rainbow ends." There are multicolored Christmas lights on trees. The Somerton palace is where the secret society ritual takes place. These models act brainwashed and controlled like the stories of Monarch mind control victims including Beta Programming victims too. Ziegler wants Bill to keep his actions a secret when a woman (not his wife) wakes up from being unconscious. 

Bill meets his friend Nick Nightingdale. The password to enter the ritual is “Fidelio”, which means “faithfulness”, a main theme of the movie. More importantly, as Nightingale points out, “Fidelio” is the name of an opera written by Beethoven about a wife who sacrifices herself to free her husband from death as a political prisoner. This password actually foreshadows what will happen during that ritual. The Mentmore Towers in UK (where the film was recorded) was built in the 19th century as a country house for a member of the most prominent and powerful elite family in the world: The Rothschilds. In 1972, there was a masked party in the UK given by Marie-Helene de Rothschild in real life. The Venetian masks are used in elite circles for centuries now beyond Venice. The situatla had Nick Nightingale being blindfolder playing the song Backwards Priests. Such rituals are done in paganism and other rituals. The High Priest in the ritual sits on a throne with a double-headed- eagle on top is found in 33rd Degree Freemasonry and other groups representing equilibrium). The identity of the High Priest is not found. Amanda died. The film makes it known that many in the fashion and entertainment industry exploit fashion models constantly. When Bill is uncovered by the High Priest, he gets told that he and his family will pay for any transgression. The next day, he realizes that he is being followed by strange people and becomes paranoid. Ziegler tells Bill that the people in the ritual are high-level, powerful people. Kubrick is overtly mentioning that the richest, most powerful people on Earth do these rituals (akin to the rituals that the Hell Fire Club, the O.T.O. did) in real life. So, Stanley Kubrick's Eye Wide Shut film is about a journey that deals with an uncertain couple (seeking the total union of masculine and feminine principles into one). Kubrick's film shows the underworld of secret forces doing rituals and committing depravity. The film has a pessimistic vibe in its cosmology as no one in the film is held accountable to the murder of Amanda or the secret rituals taking place.  Much of society has its eyes wide shut to what goes on in the real world (which seeks to pervert true love and true sexuality). As for us, we have to maintain core principles of love, honor, respect, and dignity, so we can exist filled with goodness and righteousness. 

"Corporate power lies behind nearly every major problem we face. In large part because even the

Fourth Estate, our media establishment, is majority owned by a handful of mega-corporations." 

-Marjorie Kelly, Author

The Hollywood Strikes

The 2023 Hollywood labor disputes from May 2, 2023, to November 9, 2023, is one of the most important popular culture events of our generation. The common myth is that most people in the entertainment and movie industry are balling with tons of money. The reality is that only a small percentage of those in Hollywood plus mainstream entertainment spaces are millionaires and billionaires. Most workers in Hollywood are just like most people earning income from paycheck to paycheck. With high inflation and many goods plus services being expensive, many people find it difficult to pay rent or live their lives economically. Taraji P. Henson (who is from the city of Washington, D.C.) crying about not being paid her worth represents the pain of many in the industry who struggle to earn their rightful wages. Prior to the strikes, many actors, actresses, and other workers in the entertainment industry were about to lose their homes and other resources. It's that real in the world. 

During this year, many strikes took place by both the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA. It was the second time two Hollywood labor unions were striking simultaneously — the first having occurred in 1960 – and as such, the American news media named this phenomenon the "Hollywood double strike" and surpassed the 1960 dual strike as well. Fran Drescher deserves a lot of credit for being a leading voice in support of SAG-AFTRA movement to reach just compensation. The dual strikes are historic being a fight against the excessive of artificial intelligence and desiring real economic rights. Both labor disputes have caused the largest interruption to the American film and television industries since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

The strikers didn't agree with a lack of compensation from stream services, the artificial intelligence movement threatening jobs from screenwriters to actors, etc. They wanted pay raises for screenwriters, actors, and people association with the TV plus film industries. They wanted safeguarding of jobs against the many advancements of AI technology. On September 24, 2023, WGA suspended picketing upon reaching a tentative agreement.

Nous n'adorons pas l'argent. Nous croyons à la promotion de la dignité humaine. C'est notre principe et nous continuerons à défendre les droits humains des peuples.

 

Conclusion

During this time in popular culture, the era of revelation is here. Many people have accused some of the most famous people around of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and other evil actions. The lesson here is that people need to realize that the Golden Rule is a golden philosophy to live by. No one should touch anyone without proper consent. That consent and autonomy must be respected in any relationship. Many victims wait years and decades to speak their truth because they fear retribution, ridicule, and other forms of mistreatment that may exist as retaliation for their courageous voices being shown. So, victim blaming and victim shaming must cease. Cassie's settlement with Diddy (or Brother Love) opened up more human beings to tell their stories. This came after November 16, 2023, which is the date when Cassie filed a lawsuit against Diddy for rape, physical abuse, drugging, and sex trafficking (the document showing the lawsuit outlines in graphic detail about the allegations from Diddy beating Cassie so bad that she needed an MRI, control over her personal life, and authoritarian control over her person without consent. Roger Bonds confirmed that the abuse took place and Bonds was Diddy's former bodyguard). Cassie accused Diddy of forcing her to be a sex slave for him which is similar to what many evil people (acting as handlers) do to victims. Cassie accused Diddy of raping her in September 2018 when she tried to end things forever. 

For the longest time, many people had the misconception back in the 1990s that Diddy was some innocent victim. By the 21st century, we know differently. Diddy made grown men and grown women walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn to buy some cheesecake as part of his reality TV show on MTV called Making the Band. He almost beat a man with a kettlebell over the style of coaching made by a coach towards his stepson, he was cursing and screaming at the dance teaching icon Laurieann Gibson (on the show Making the Band), he beat Steve Stoute with a bottle (in April of 1999 with Diddy's bodyguards too), and there are allegations of Diddy beating women (Diddy denies those allegations). What is bizarre is that Diddy settled immediately avoiding prison time. People speculate if he is protected by the higher-ups in the music industry. Gene Deal was Diddy's bodyguard who said that Diddy participates in many evil, perverted actions behind the scenes. Diddy proves to be a disgusting human being without morals. Tons of Diddy's former friends, bodyguards, former artists, and former associates have said that Diddy is prone to heavy drug use, debauchery, violence, and hypocrisy. Therefore, the industry in general is cutthroat, filled with Eye Wide Shut type of parties, and filled with a clique-type atmosphere that has harmed human beings psychologically for years and decades. Epstein's actions are the tip of the iceberg. Abuse and mistreatment will cause pain among victims for a lifetime. That is why everybody has to focus on treating people right. This action of showing dignity to people is not just about goodwill. It's about being a totally progressive human being with standards, with honor, and with integrity. We have to be knowledgeable of culture vultures like Michael Rappaport who disrespected Spike Lee, Janet Jackson, Kenya Moore, and black women journalists. Rappaport once opposed the kneeling protest. 

One of the many views that numerous occultists support is that many of them desire to suppress the meaning of the truth except to high-level initiates. This is admitted by the late American 33rd degree Freemason Albert Pike (who supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War). We realize that Albert Pike was a stone-cold racist. Pike attended the national convention of the bigoted Know Nothing Party in 1856 but walked out when it failed to adopt a pro-slavery platform. In the lead-up to the Civil War, Pike signed a pamphlet that proposed expelling all free African Americans from Arkansas. It said that "...evil is the existence among us of a class of free colored persons..." In 1861, Pike penned the lyrics to "Dixie to Arms!" in support of the Confederate Army. In the aftermath of the Civil War, as former Confederates found themselves barred from the ballot box, Pike remained deeply opposed to black suffrage (or allowing black people the right to vote), insisting that "the white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall..." Albert Pike was overt in his bigotry. Albert Pike wrote the following words:

“It is in its antique symbols and their occult meaning that the true secrets of Freemasonry consist. But these have no value if we see nothing in the symbols of the blue lodge beyond the imbecile pretenses of interpretations of them contained in our monitors.  People have overlooked the truth that the symbols of antiquity were not used to reveal but to conceal.  Each symbol is an enigma to be solved, and not a lesson to be read. How can the intelligent Mason fail to see that the blue degrees are but preparatory, to enlist and band together the rank and file Masonic army for purposes undisclosed to them, that they are the lesser mysteries in which the symbols are used to conceal the truth?”

– Albert Pike, Legenda and Readings of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

"Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism, and Alchemy, conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it calls light, and draw them away from it … So Masonry jealously conceals its secrets and intentionally leads conceited interpreters astray." (Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike).

Conversely, we believe that the whole truth ought to be available to all people, regardless of color or background. When you think deeper to see the power behind the mask, it is not the common American in the street, it is not the Arabic person in the street, it is not the black person just being glad to be alive on this Earth, it is not the working-class people of Appalachia, and it is not the Jewish person in a working-class neighborhood seeking just to live on this Earth. When you study for real, you realize that the same one percent (in the Merovingian families and other super-wealthy families with links to European Royals, the Pilgrim Society, etc.) do promote the same goal of monopolizing and controlling the world's resources (this same one percent funded Cecil Rhodes's imperialism, Leopold I of Belgium's genocide against innocent black Congolese human beings, the rise of Hitler [as American and UK multinational corporations once supported plus funded the Nazis via IBM, etc. as documented by the authors Anthony Sutton and Edwin Black], and the same political polarization that we witness in 2024). The same corporate power base via foundations, fundraisers, and other corporate interests fund both the establishment Left (not real progressives) and the establishment Right (not sincere conservatives who reject MAGA extremism). It has been almost 20 years involving me researching the secrets of the entertainment industry. What I have learned is that there is a distinction between people gifted in entertainment (from music to dancing including acting) who seek the truth and are humble and those who consciously commit evil because they love it so. We are clear to oppose both hatred of Muslims (i.e. Islamophobia) and anti-Semitism. In October of 2023 alone, several Jewish people living in Berlin, Germany reported that their homes were marked with a Star of David in the form of racist graffiti. This has no place anywhere on Earth. We are clear to support black liberation as all black people are entitled to justice. Therefore, understanding complex stories and the complex nature of human existence is certainly paramount in developing the bigger picture of how everything works.

By Timothy