Should anyone look back to this events of this year to date, what word would they use to best describe the overview? To most people, the words “chaotic, confusing,” or “fragmenting”? ” What about words like “transition, revolution” or “rogue”? At midnight on Wednesday, January 1, 2020, no one could have predicted any of this would have happened, but here we are now. Since that moment, we have been through so much, including lock-downs, massive loss of jobs, dependence on the states (and federal government), all in the name of a pandemic. COVID-19 is the excuse that keeps getting beat over our heads repeatedly, but all we really have to do is survive. What we do with this moment is going to determine tomorrow’s outcome.

    Because of that one word, “COVID-19” (a Coronavirus), we have altered our daily life activities, from how we do our jobs to how we see our doctors. Back in April, I could not believe the ridiculousness of taking my mother to see her doctor at his office and he made my mother stay in the car with me in the parking lot, had his medical student nurse hold an iPad in front of my mom just so he could video chat with her about her cancer. How crass is that? My mom’s doctor didn’t want to be close to her because of social distancing, but it’s okay to send out his male nurse to take her vitals from in my car. Real winning strategy going on there. It’s that silly mentality that we’ve already been seeing going on in America right now on a much larger scale. It’s those with a little bit of power who think they’re “high and mighty” that is looking down on the less fortunate, you and I.

    Since the death of George Floyd back at the end of May (around Memorial Day), we’ve seen or experienced protests that result in violence riots, angry mobs who destroy statues and landmarks, along with the cancelling of pop culture. As new evidence in video form shows more about the George Floyd arrest “leaked” and published by the Daily Mail (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSwqp5fdIw), it’s only going to add more to an already tense situation. We’ve seen TV shows come under fire, businesses change their logos and names, and musical groups who’ve changed their name to avoid any further racial confrontations (formally known as The Dixie Chicks https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/the-chicks-drop-dixie-almost-changed-name) in the future. However, one group is still seeing themselves wrapped up in a huge cluster over their knee-jerk name change, I’m talking about the group formerly known as Lady Antebellum (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lady-antebellum-country-band-lady-a-sues-blues-singer-anita-white/). The group formerly known as Lady Antebellum is fighting a legal battle with the original name holder, “Lady A” Anita White, a blues singer who has held that name for over 20 years, but supposedly didn’t fight the legal trademark when the group applied for it back in 2010. It doesn’t help that many stations across the country dropped their music altogether either over this ordeal. For the group formally known as Lady Antebellum, this is their “Dixie Chicks moment” (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-dixie-chicks-backlash-begins).

    Something funny happened this past Monday, Trader Joe’s, which said last month it was moving to change the names of some of its products after an online petition denounced them as racist, now says it will stick with labels like Trader Jose’s and Trader Ming’s for Mexican and Asian food (https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/news/trader-joes-says-no-to-changing-ethnic-sounding-label-names/ar-BB17qGHr). “We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist,” the popular grocery chain said in a statement posted on its website. It added, “We do not make decisions based on petitions.” It also added that in its recent statement it still believes the names, many created decades ago, represent light hearted efforts at inclusion, adding that its customers say they still like them. It’s good to see a business stick up for itself, especially in the face of “Cancel Culture” ( https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/cancel-culture). Make no mistake about it, the Cancel Culture is out to get you attention by removing anything it doesn’t agree with that goes against its ideology. “Cancel culture” refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. 

     The “Cancel culture” is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming. People involved are becoming more enslaved to this ideology and will thrash out against anyone, anytime, anywhere. It don’t matter if you are at an office department store (https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/hackensack/2020/07/31/woman-assaulted-hackensack-nj-staples-over-mask-dispute-police-say/5553572002/), taking a walk downtown (https://www.tmz.com/2020/08/01/california-couple-throws-coffee-at-man-for-not-wearing-a-mask/), or a simple jog in the park (https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/north-bay-man-reportedly-assaulted-after-telling-jogger-to-wear-a-mask/2336418/), they will give you dirty looks if you are lucky, but some will come up to you, angry because you aren’t wearing a mask in their presence, and some may even assault you in the name of COVID-19. This “pandemic” situation is so distorted that it causes older generation to attack the younger generation inside of a Walmart store (https://www.facebook.com/michelle.woodward.58/videos/10223900586086632/). The way that these people act, it’s almost as if they lived in Totalitarianism, a form of government that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state (https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism). Cancel Culture -ites or if you call them for how they act, “Cancel Cultists”, call for swift and severe retribution in response to perceived transgressions of speech and thought.

    Alright, kids, it’s history lesson time. Pay attention because there WILL be a POP Quiz: The definition of the phrase “Show Trial” is a trial in which the verdict is rigged and a public confession is often extracted (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/show%20trial). A good example of this is back when Joseph Stalin was ruling the former Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953 (https://www.biography.com/dictator/joseph-stalin) , he hosted what are called “show trials” and overseeing a vast network of gulags (labor camps for political prisoners), Russian citizens were encouraged to denounce their fellow workers, party colleagues and family members who had committed some anti-revolutionary offense (http://www.riversdalecc.com/stalins-show-trials/). The result was often referred to as the “Great Purge”, that inluded three widely publicized show trials and a series of closed, unpublicized trials held in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, in which many prominent Old Bolsheviks were found guilty of treason and executed or imprisoned (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Old-Bolshevik). All the evidence presented in court was derived from preliminary examinations of the defendants and from their confessions. It was subsequently established that the accused were innocent, that the cases were fabricated by the secret police, and that the confessions were made under pressure of intensive torture and intimidation. Does the phrase “see something, say something” come to mind?

    Now, back to topic… I’m sure by now you are either laughing at me or or calling me names. Either way, it’s a reaction. It’s the reflection of what you are thinking. And if you are thinking, that is proof you are learning something new. You might think we are a long way from the horrible actions of the Soviet Union of the 1930’s, but the Cancel Culture is acting in a way that is very similar to what the show trials were doing, very publicly and on-demand. I believe that if we continue our current trajectory, it will weaken the abilities of open debate and tolerate the differences in favor of conforming to their radical ideological. Without question, there is a difference, a real fine line, between someone who expressed a view that no longer is in acceptance due to change in times and another person who will publicly say or post a deliberate hurtful message on social media. Unfortunately, the totalitarian cancel culture doesn’t know the difference, either at understanding the lingo of the day or has no tolerance to sarcastic attempts at humor. Although the mainstream media does show more of the culture-canceling coming from extreme left-wing progressives, there are extreme right-wing conservatives who engage in this behavior, too (https://www.dictionary.com/e/leftright/).

     Meanwhile, everyone in the mainstream media is allowing society’s most easily offended members / groups to dictate what is right and wrong when there are not facts or any scientific reason. Literally, the violent actions of these groups are disrespectful and downright stupid simply because they choose to throw childlike tantrums because they aren’t getting their way. There’s nothing wrong with calling Bravo Sierra on a person’s opinion, but to incite mobs to destroy their livelihoods is just plain wrong. One of the most popular groups in the mainstream news lately, especially since the death of George Floyd, is Black Life Matters (https://blacklivesmatter.com). Many people have been moved by the recent protests against police brutality. Some people joined in the demonstrations and even donated to their cause. Among the recipients from many people’s charity is the Black Lives Matter Foundation, which has raised well over several million dollars in the form of small gifts from individuals along with some pretty hefty donations by big corporations, including Apple, Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/black-lives-matter-foundation-unrelated-blm-donations). Here’s the mind-blowing truth of the matter: Black Lives Matter Foundation is NOT connected in any way with the Black Lives Matter movement.

     The Black Lives Matter Foundation is a Santa Clarita, California–based charitable organization that has only one paid employee and lists a UPS store as its address. It has a very different goal, according to its founder: “bringing the community and police closer together.” The foundations founder is an African American man named Robert Ray Barnes. He is a 67-year-old music producer who lives in Santa Clarita (https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/06/15/black-lives-matter-foundation-robert-ray-barnes/). In a TV news interview, he said “I have never heard one word from anybody from Black Lives Matter”. He launched the Foundation in response to the death of his wife’s ex-husband allegedly at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department (https://homicide.latimes.com/post/earl-rhodes/). He also said the money he raises gets distributed to other charities but that the Foundation itself has not created any programs in its name. Although he did not disclose how much money the Foundation has received but he said he would return any money that wasn’t intended for his Foundation.

    Although the social movement entered the national scene courtesy of the mainstream news during the Ferguson, Missouri demonstrations in August 2014 caused by the death of Michael Brown (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/darren-wilson-ferguson-police-officer-who-fatally-shot-michael-brown-identified/), Robert Ray Barnes claimed Black Lives Matter had actually “stolen” his name and idea, and cast the global movement as an opaque organization that hasn’t been transparent about how it uses donations. Robert Ray Barnes registered his foundation in May 2015. Further obscuring the situation is the movement’s official name, “Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc” , which wasn’t registered in the state of Delaware until 2017, while Barnes owns and operates the Black Lives Matter Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in California. Because the official movement is not a nonprofit, it raises money through a charity partner called Thousand Currents (https://thousandcurrents.org/black-lives-matter/). Robert Ray Barnes’ organization has benefited from the brand confusion as people have conflated the two and donated money to his charity via GoFundMe, PayPal, or employee donation matching platforms.

   Each of the financial gateways say it’s “a unique situation” because the Black Lives Matter name hadn’t been trademarked ( https://smithhopen.com/2020/06/09/black-lives-matter-slogan-belongs-to-the-people/). There have been attempts to trademark the phrase “Black Lives Matter,” but no one owns it, which means it can end up in the hands of people who aren’t affiliated with the official group, a decentralized global movement with 22 chapters across the country. One of the biggest positive side effects of this confusion is that it shows which companies and people are donating to the Black Lives Matter movement. The donors use services like ActBlue Charities (https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019), Benevita (https://www.benevity.com/), BlackLives.help (https://blacklives.help/), GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=homepage_norma/search&term=black%20lives%20matter), among other services.

    With all these different ways to receive donations, one can’t help but wonder who is getting all this money? Where is it being distributed to? Who’s really benefiting from all this? I can’t prove it, but with everything I’ve researched, I have come to the conclusion there is a bunch of money raining down in baskets over Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors house. Why anyone would want to donate to this organization right now is a head-scratcher to me after Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in a newly surfaced video from 2015 that she and her fellow organizers are “trained Marxists” – making clear their movement’s ideological foundation (https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/blm-co-founder-describes-herself-as-trained-marxist/). She was the protégé of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology (https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Marxism-Leninism) that shaped her worldview. “We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk,” she added in the interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCghDx5qN4s&feature=youtu.be).

     It’s being reported that at least seven “Fortune 500” companies donated funds to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation despite its Marxist roots and anti-capitalistic views. The 100 largest U.S. companies have so far committed $1.63 billion to organizations “fighting racism and inequality.” Analysis of social media posts, blogs, and public statements collected, however, shows that 23andMe, Airbnb, Alphabet (owner of Google), Amazon, Coca-Cola, DoorDash, Facebook, Fitbit, Gatorade, Glossier, Intel, Nabisco, Nike, Tinder, Uber, Walmart, Warner Brothers Records, and YouTube have all specifically pledged money to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation following the death of George Floyd (https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/07/07/these-18-corporations-gave-money-to-black-lives-matter-group/). So if you wanted to boycott any company who supported the organization, it would be hard since these companies have their fingers in so many other pies across the board (https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/want-know-where-all-those-corporate-donations-blm-are-going-n1225371).

     I know there is a bunch of topics covered in this and it’s hard to stay focused on just one particular topic when all this douche-bachery is going on. There’s different factions being showcased right now, ranging from all the COVID-19 Totalitarian Mask-holes to Racist Wishlist to the Marxist Black Live Matters Movement. I find it odd that the New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association and four individuals, including its chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, seeking to dissolve the gun rights advocacy group and accusing top executives of “years of illegal self-dealings” that funded a “lavish lifestyle” (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james-files-lawsuit-dissolve-nra-n1236009?fbclid=IwAR1KeO2zEEhs_vxeaEvj5a4gzriFqWjIhiwgjg-F9pE-sPxEz0ntduCC1HI). Well, my question is this: when are we going to see any kind of lawsuit against the Clinton Foundation? However, me being the smart ass in me has to point out a similarity between Black Lives Matter and the group formally known as Lady Antebellum: they both hijack names without checking or caring about hurting another person with the name. Okay, I know it’s the “hot place” for me. I know…. If it makes you feel better, you can always watch the Devil Prank Call (https://youtu.be/Y_MfP6L3Js0) on YouTube. I loved it since I first watched it on Ebaums World over twelve years ago. It’s a fitting way to describe how 2020 is going so far.