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Selena Gomez Meltdown Over Colossal Border News

In a video that has since been taken down, Selena Gomez was clearly heartbroken as the deportation of illegal immigrants is in full swing. ICE has been working hard to track down and arrest criminals who have come into this country illegally and they’ve been put on planes to be sent back to their country.

The first truth to be said, America welcomes about a million immigrants every year. They go through a vetting process and then they are invited into the country to live the life they’ve fought so hard to obtain. America is not against immigration.

But the second truth is that during the Biden administration, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported nearly 10 million illegal immigrant encounters. What Joe Biden put into place was a system that allowed many of them to stay here, which resulted in a huge rush of individuals pouring in at the border and surrendering to Border Patrol in hopes that they would simply be let free in the U.S. with no vetting. Of those, the report goes on to say, some of them were on the terrorist watchlist.

Both of those facts should be in consideration when talking about what’s going on at the border and the mass deportation illegal immigrants face. They were given a promise by one administration that another administration is now reversing. That’s the awful game of politics and it cares about no one.

There is a harsh reality to the political volley Americans go through, and that’s “to the victor goes the spoils.” Biden Administration officials were out the day Trump was sworn in and he put his own people in place. That happens every time we change presidents and it’s been going on forever. Those people were made aware in November that they would be losing their jobs and it didn’t take an inner-office memo to make that point clear.

The difference between Biden and Trump should also have been abundantly clear. This day was coming and reality was going to slap everyone in the face. Preparations should have been made. It wouldn’t have made this day any less heartbreaking but it wouldn’t have come as such a shock and that makes it a little less painful.

The Selena Gomez Backlashvia Instagram/Selena Gomez

What Selena Gomez is going through is normal. Anyone with a heart would feel for the poor, desperate individuals running from violence and poverty. Their countries are war-torn and the resources they need just aren’t there. If you took a moment to put yourself in their shoes, what would you do? Would you try to go somewhere else where there are basic resources like food and shelter? Would you break the law because doing that is better than staying in the horrid conditions where everyone around you is dying?

Of course, Selena Gomez faced backlash for her video because she is highly visual with millions of followers that she can influence. Obviously, the criticism includes Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly because they’re Republican and they have to say something when someone on the left gets some attention. But the backlash also includes Sylvester Stallone who didn’t take a stance against her empathy, only against her reason.

He’s reported to have replied on a fan’s reposting of Selena’s video, “I don’t understand some of these celebrities. They have enough money to do something, things they supposedly care about, but they don’t.”

Of course, I can’t find that now because the original was taken down. And I believe that means that all the reposts of it were taken down along with it.

If Sly Stallone really did post that, I want to know what money would do. It can’t stop ICE from mass deportations. What could she do, hire lawyers? Try to slip the agents some bribe money? There’s nothing money can do in this situation but possibly make their life more comfortable in the country where they’re going.

Border Czar Tom Homan Reacts

Border czar Tom Homan was on FOX News with Sandra Smith when she asked about all the outcry, not just Selena Gomez, and it’s clear to see that this is one hardheaded man who takes his job ultra seriously, “We’ve arrested public safety threats and National security threats, bottom line. And look, President Trump won this election on this one issue, securing our border and saving lives…”

He asserted that he’s not arresting families and ripping them apart but he’s going after the criminals, the drug dealers and the sex traffickers. But he skips a few words when he’s talking fast and some of his other words, I’m not quite sure what they even are, “What happened to our Southern border last four biggest national security threat this country seen because two main known gallowees. We got 600% increase in sex trafficking. We got record number of terrorists crossing the border on terrorist watchlist. We have quarter of a million Americans dying fentanyl come across the open border…We gonna do this job. And we’re going to enforce the laws of this country. If they don’t like it, then go to Congress and change the law. We gonna do this operation and not apology.”

At least, I think that’s what he said. I have no idea what “gallowees” are. You are free to watch the video and hear it for yourself. But first, I went back a few years and compiled the words of presidents before Trump. Look at what Clinton and Obama had to say about border security, and then compare that to what Tom Homan is saying now.

The emphasis has been on criminals. What Homan is saying is that’s still the focus today. He’s going after criminals. He’s going after the drug dealers, the murderers, and the sex traffickers. I can’t say that other illegal immigrants aren’t getting caught up in all of it when ICE is making such sweeping moves. I also can’t say that it won’t come around to them after all the criminals have been sorted out and sent back to their country.

But the focus is on the criminals. Clinton said it and Obama said it. It’s an issue that has existed for many years and Trump is dealing with it now.

What Biden did was unimaginable. He basically set the illegal immigrants up for failure. Maybe he thought the Democrats were going to stay in power and that the mass importation would resume from administration to administration. But he should have known better, having spent all those years in government.

The political cycle goes around in circles. The Democrats are in charge one minute but that can all change in the blink of an eye and America has just seen how fast. During the Biden administration, the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. But that only lasted a few years because under the Trump administration, the House and the Senate are now controlled by Republicans. It has been a complete reversal.

Anyone who thought the Democrats were going to win has now faced the reality that the balance of power has flipped. What Biden was doing was providing false hope and now, illegal immigrants have to wake up to a new reality. That’s the worst thing anyone can do, give others false hope only to be let down. Only this letdown is a shocking revelation to everyone here illegally, that they are being targeted and they will be shipped back home no matter what life they’ve built for themselves in America.

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NFL Request: Make Fair Calls in Conference Championships

To the NFL:

With the NFL Conference Championships coming up, there will be tough competition when the Commanders face off with the Eagles and the Bills meet the Chiefs. But the refs have been problematic in the past, a dilemma that has become increasingly worse this year.

The reason for this formal request now is when the Bills travel to Kansas City to go face-to-face with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, something special will happen that day. They’ll have Ty Johnson with them and for some of us, that will be a monumental moment. From the small town of Cumberland, Maryland, he joins the ranks of NFL alumni John Alderton, Bob Rowley, Jim Mertens, Mark Manges, and Steve Trimble.

But Ty Johnson’s trip to Kansas City will be a little different. It will mark the furthest any NFL player from Cumberland has ever made it in the league. Steve Trimble played against Seattle in the 1983 Wild Card playoffs when he played for Denver. But Ty is going to the Championships, the only game left standing between him and the Super Bowl.

No one is asking for special favors. In fact, that’s exactly what this request is about. Don’t do anyone any special favors. Just call the game fair and give Ty Johnson and the Bills the chance they deserve to march into the Super Bowl.

No Facemask Call

Note: In fact, the facemask against Ty Johnson earlier in the season that didn’t get a call is exactly the kind of favoritism shown to the Chiefs that we don’t want.

It has become increasingly clear that a player can’t even look at Mahomes crooked but the Chiefs can get away with murder. There is too much evidence to support this claim. Let’s go to the tape, shall we?

NFL Tape

Cities in California, Texas, and New York see their young athletes get into the NFL all the time. But Cumberland, Maryland doesn’t get to enjoy this kind of thing often. We want to watch the game on Sunday without even an inkling of favoritism shown toward the Chiefs.

Tell your refs to leave their Chiefs gear at home and show up on Sunday ready to call the game the way it should be called. Tell Las Vegas to stay out of this one. We know you want the Chiefs to win so that Taylor Swift will go to the Super Bowl and that will greatly increase viewership, but Ty Johnson and the Bills deserve a fair chance.

Remember when the game used to be that simple, back when the best team won? Let’s bring that back this year!

Sincerely,
Michael Allen
NFL Fan Since 1970

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Went Full On Food Chef On This Grilled Cheese

Making the perfect grilled cheese is illusive to the beginning food chef with absolutely no culinary training. But it was on one very special day that I, the worst food chef of food chefs, mastered the ability to create the most beautiful golden brown burn on not just one, but both sides.

It began with the choice of bread, which surprisingly was the most cost-effective brand at Aldi. In the store that makes you use a quarter to jailbreak a cart, I battled through the professional shoppers with their lists and coupons, pre-bought bags and maps of the store’s layout. It was not my first rodeo, but it might as well have been because I did not take shopping that seriously, putting me way behind the curveball.

The cheese I chose was cheddar. Say that sentence five times fast. It’s fun. Say it! I might make a song about it one day and ask Taylor Swift to put some music to it as an ode to my grilled cheese sandwich that will forever go down in history as a culinary masterpiece.

Cheese and bread were checked off of my list. I had weathered the hardest part of this mission, the trip to Aldi where people from all walks of life come together to make each other miserable with their cart crashes and bottlenecking in the narrow aisles.

The main trick to making the perfect grilled cheese is putting the butter on the bread. Some amateurs might put butter on the pan or even spray the pan with some non-stick special sauce. But I choose butter on the bread because it not only adds to the taste of the sandwich but it allows me just the right amount of lubricant to keep the bread from sticking to the pan.

Place one buttered slice of bread, butter down on the pan. Add a slice of cheese. Then, add one buttered slice of bread, butter up on the stack. Listen for the sizzle. It should only take about a minute if you have your heat a little over halfway up, a little less than halfway down. The best way to know this is to put the knob right in the middle on the five, then add just a bit more heat. Just a bit more though. Not a whole bit. Just a little bit.

When you hear the sizzle, first move the sandwich around on the pan to make sure it’s not sticking. Then, scoop it up with the spatula and flip it over. Do not do the new age way where some genius scooped up the sandwich, flipped the pan over it, flipped the sandwich and the pan back around, and then placed it back on the burner. That’s too many steps and all those steps aren’t necessary. Besides, some old-school ways are worth keeping. You can’t reinvent everything.

Wait once more until you hear the sizzle on the new side and flip again. Flipping is now up to your discretion at this point but do it often as you watch the sandwich turn from buttery yellow to golden brown. Don’t be stingy with the flips. Flip as many times as you want. Try a few flops. There is no limit to how many flips or flops you’re allowed. That’s all up to you. But if I were you, I would keep a record of the flips as well as the flops and store the file behind your clock on your nightstand where only your closest friends and family know where it is.

I suggest serving it with milk. But coffee makes another great drink. Tomato soup is also a nice accompaniment to a great grilled cheese. But don’t get me started on how to make that. We’ll have to save those steps for another day.

I mean, we’re talking about getting the right tomatoes and there’s a completely different store for that. A store that doesn’t make you use a quarter to jailbreak the carts. They even give you bags like they’re all special and everything. They live large in that store. You have to be ready for a completely different shopping experience when you go there.

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The Lame Trickery In ‘Senior Year’ Starring Rebel Wilson

Senior Year itself plays like an 80s “going back to high school” template only it finds a way to make it fresh. Rebel Wilson stars as a 37-year-old lady who wakes up from a coma to the reality that she wasn’t voted prom queen and didn’t get the life she wanted.

She missed 20 years of her life and to be honest, she has bigger fish to fry but the only thing she has on her mind is going back to high school and doing all the things she missed the first time. When you take into account that 20 years ago feels like yesterday to her and she still has the mind of a 17-year-old, we can move past the fact that she isn’t trying to put her life back together but instead, chooses to prioritize becoming prom queen. It’s a comedy after all and her friend Martha conveniently happens to be the principal now, so that makes it easy for her to slip right back into where she left off after her tragic cheerleading accident. That’s when she comes face to face with a new reality.

A lot has changed in 20 years. There is no competition for prom queen. The cheerleaders aren’t popular anymore. But the person who is popular is a social media influencer who is into building her, “Most authentic, socially conscious, body positive, environmentally aware, and economically compassionate brand that’s a home for inclusion-focused fashion, food, and fun-filled lifestyles.”

via Netflix

You know, the same thing every other teenager is into. The new school has a very lame vibe as if all the fun has been sucked out of everything. But is that the message? Or is the message that school in my day was lame?

Senior Year feels like a satire targeting 80s high school movies. Only this one begins in 1999 and wakes up in 2019. Rebel Wilson is the oldest high school student in the world and when she gets a shoutout from her nemesis on social media, her followers begin to grow. In 1999, she wanted friends. But now, it’s all about the follows. The comments are hilarious as one follower replies “I love the elderly” as the rest are your typical “I see you gurl” and “Namaste.”

vis Netflix

The movie plays out on a predictable trajectory with tension and rivalry between the same old crew. It just happens that her old nemesis is the mother of her new nemesis. She married her old boyfriend and moved into her dream house as if it was all planned. This is the world that Rebel’s character wakes up in two decades later.

It seems to me that the movie is saying school in my day was lit. School these days have been stripped of all the character that made us who we are. Of course, some people didn’t like school. They had a tough time dealing with all the social challenges and politics that every community inherently develops. But that part stays the same. Because even though there has been a genuine effort to remove that from the high school environment, it’s not possible. It still exists. It just rebrands itself. It finds its way of squirming into the culture, only in a different costume.

Even though Rebel Wilson is 37, she has some growing pains to go through. Her friends from high school are still in high school, only one is the principal and the other is a librarian. They try to help her deal but of course, she has her head in her high school friends. She is on a mission to capture everything she missed out on and it leads to bad decisions.

Of course, that means there’s going to be a lecture. The movie goes into a soft musical touch as her friends give her the 411. That’s followed by a different lecture from her dad. All of this makes her do a complete turnaround in about two minutes of film. Now, she’s a totally different person with new priorities. Even her nemesis is now her best friend because things always work out in the end.

All that doesn’t matter. I love watching Rebel Wilson and she can do magic with a script that follows the routine and doesn’t dare deviate. I mean, everyone has to join the dance in the end. Smiles and laughs for everyone. The boy gets the girl and all that jazz. This is that movie.

I’ll probably watch it again when I need my Rebel Wilson fix. Seriously! I’ll get some wings and Dr. Pepper so I can sit down and feel like a teenager myself while I watch the war of two worlds.

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A 2025 Vision Board Will Help You Thrive Brilliantly

The Old School Way was throwing up a Hail Mary called the New Year’s Resolution that died by the second week in January because of the lack of motivation. That would never have happened with commitment and planning which is exactly what your 2025 Vision Board is going to give you.

We all have different walks in life so it’s hard to be specific about what a 2025 Vision Board should look like. But I’ll give you some recommendations based on how I do things. You can take them with you or you can get some ideas and come up with your own way. That’s the way it’s supposed to work in the first place. No two vision boards are alike because we all see and think differently.

A vision board can be something you literally hang on a wall so that you have something to look at every day or it can be a document on your laptop that you work with digitally. My laptop is where I work and having a vision board on it is more practical for me. But a board that you hang on the wall is more physical and if it’s in a convenient place, then it’s there every day when you pass it by on your way to get a cup of coffee or whatever you do to get your day going.

Most of my notes are on a notepad, the software that comes with the computer. It’s very convenient for me to have a “ToDo” file and write notes to myself. But a task that I add to that actually works great at embedding the memory into my brain. A quick note with a date acts as a reminder that I have a deadline, even if it’s a self-imposed deadline. Then, that note gets pasted to my vision board. It takes extra steps which means I have a better chance of remembering it.

Creating images helps me imagine goals that I’ve set for myself. Sometimes, I look up images of people, places, or things and just use those. Sometimes, I create the images myself and post them on my vision board.

The one thing about vision boards for me is that they have to be very organized. I can’t have scattered notes and images all over the place or that becomes as scattered as my brain. So, I divide the board up in four slices, one for each quarter. The top of the first slice is what I want to achieve in January and at the bottom of the slice is what I want to have done by the end of April. Each slice works the same way. The top is the beginning of the quarter and the bottom is the end of it.

It’s not hard to create a 2025 Vision Board in a day or two if you have ideas of what you want to achieve this year so far. And think of it as a living breathing board that you’ll add to throughout the year. What begins as a goal becomes steps along the way and that’s what helps you achieve those goals you’ve set for yourself. It’s a much better method than the New Year’s Resolution ever was because you’ll be able to see your work in progress.

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The Wild And Fun Ride Of Being An Independent Book Writer

Everything about being a book writer screams, “Don’t do it!” From actually telling a story worth reading to getting readers to pick it up, the journey has challenges every step of the way when you’re independent.

Imagine standing in the middle of New York City jumping up and down while waving your hands. You’d think someone would notice you if not everyone around you. Now imagine everyone on the same sidewalk jumping up and down while waving their hands at the same time. How do you get readers to pick your book out of all the other books?

A new book writer will think that writing the last page is where the job ends. Funny notion! No, my friend. That’s where the tough part of the job begins. If you were born to be a writer, telling the story was the fun part. Now, it’s time to get out there on the sidewalk and jump up and down. Don’t forget to wave your hands while you scream as loud as you can.

There are some rewards to the next step actually. If you make it fun for yourself, you can have a good time getting ignored by all the readers who are looking in the direction of Stephen King and Margaret Atwood. In fact, YouTube is the perfect example because that’s a place where you can get creative.

If anyone who is anyone out there teaching new writers how to market their books online, they’ve mentioned the Book Trailer. That is important. For me, there was a learning curve and by that I mean, I had to learn about making a book trailer in the first place. There is no video for A River in the Ocean. I looked. It was that long ago that I had to remind myself that I didn’t know anything about doing that back then.

So, I created my first trailer when I wrote The Deeper Dark. I watched a tutorial and off I went on my own…

[image error]

Here’s a test: Was it interesting? Do you get the gist of the book? Does it make you want to buy it?

Here are the answers: Obviously not!

It didn’t go spiraling through the Inter-verse. It was only viewed 13 times. But don’t let that bother you if that happens to you. That’s just an opportunity to do better next time and with the Internet, there is always another chance. So, I tried again…

A little more exciting and faster paced, it might be too fast-paced. Keeping up with the words can be difficult and the sexy lady blowing fire…it’s a nice visual. But it really doesn’t have anything to do with the book.

It reminds me of the old perfume or clothing brand commercials that had models posing and saying words, but nothing really connected. But hey, my new video doubled in viewership. I was on a role. In other words, I still didn’t know what I was doing.

With Joker Joker Deuce, I’m trying to take those notes and do so much better. It’s like I think I’ve actually learned something. But I’ve created several shorts and a few longer videos. I may have gone overboard with the mission. This is the one I think nails what the book is about in the most interesting way, especially the music accompaniment that sets the tone…

I think I’m going to write a few more articles about the journey of an independent book writer. The next installment might be about the consequences of pulling your hair out or finding a good mental health facility near you.

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The Story Behind the Undeniable True Book of Horror

A few smartphone apps and knowledge of his way around the internet is all it takes for a college dropout to become the most talked about subject in town. Joker Joker Deuce is a true book of horror because it has all the elements of a psychological thriller but they come straight out of our real lives.

Years ago, I was given a few prompts from a director who knew what he wanted and just needed someone to write it. He wanted technology to be the tools a serial killer uses to fulfill his murderous needs. That was it! That’s all I had to go on to write the screenplay.

Ironically, I had just received a few emails that came perfectly together like a puzzle. The first set was from a dating site trying to tell me that there were girls interested in me. It made me laugh. In my twenties, maybe. But I was a little older than that at the time and the ladies weren’t knocking down my door to get my attention.

The next email though, that’s the one that clicked with me. It was about the latest apps coming to smartphones everywhere. One app, in particular, caught my eye because it was about a party app where a user could find out what’s happening in any city they visit. If you have a mind like mine, those emails spelled the premise of the story. A stalker-level app combined with frivolous emails from members of a dating website who have no idea their profiles are being used to drive user interest? That spells book of horror.

I wrote the story of a serial killer who uses apps to find anyone he wants at any time. It was based on the party app and it used technology I was familiar with. Have you ever gone to a store and later, Facebook is advertising products from that store to you? Have you ever met someone and later, Facebook is suggesting you know that person? Put all this together and you have some real internet stalking material.

If you add the emails from the dating site, you get the formula for a horror story that was optioned in 2019. The director made a trip to Australia and secured the funds for the movie. It was well on its way and I was on top of the world, a world that was quickly kicked out from underneath of me when 2020 came along with its murder hornets, then flooding, and then the coronavirus.

When the world was shut down, my project came to an abrupt end. They promised that it would start back up after the lockdown. But I’m thinking they had seen enough horror by then, they went a different way with their investment dollars.

In the meantime, I wrote The Deeper Dark, an entirely different kind of psychological thriller about a hero who comes home from the war to find out his whole world has moved on without him. Now, he has a new war to fight as a corrupt network is threatening the only person he has left.

When I decided to convert Joker Joker Deuce into a book, something interesting happened. That book of horror grabbed me in a new way. The only reason I can understand is when I wrote the screenplay, it didn’t have all the great detail at first. That was coached out of me by the director who asked for several different rewrites based on feedback from his colleagues and the investors.

The current form of the story was pieced together little by little with each new rewrite. The full story never got a chance to get a hold of me. That was until I wrote the book. It was a deep mind-bending roller coaster that took my emotions to the edge.

Jeph lives alone and works at a sub shop in a small college town. In the house he inherited from his mother after she was viciously murdered, he has a basement where he has a sophisticated computer system. As he regularly browses a forum dedicated to murder victims, he has accounts on Lookbook and Wink, the popular social media and dating site in this fictitious town that could easily be anywhere in America.

Tracy is attending Bridgeport University on scholarship to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend. She is serious about school and even her party-crazy roommate can’t talk her into putting the books down, not even for a night. But there is something brewing, a budding relationship with a college professor that they have to keep on the down low for more than one reason. It’s no big deal to him that he’s married but she doesn’t know.

Jeph is practically invisible as he meanders through life delivering subs by day and returning to his dark dungeon by night to plug himself back into his isolated internet socialism, an unerring oxymoron. That is all there is to his existence except for a few college students he’s murdered, headlines that have the entire town talking.

Then, he bumps into Tracy. She sees him and she talks to him, something that has never happened before. He’s feeling things he’s never felt. He’s having thoughts he’s never had. He’s imagining an entire life he never dreamed could come true.

She has become his obsession…

A True Book of Horror

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When Space X Starts Sending Optimus Robots To Mars

Tesla Cybertrucks were never meant for the Earth. This was just their playground until Space X started sending Optimus Robots to Mars along with the vehicles that would get them around town.

The child named Elon Musk spent hours in front of a television watching movies like Flight to Mars, a 1951 film about space explorers landing on Mars who find a civilization already there. Another film that got little boy Elon excited was The Wizard of Mars, a 1965 film about astronauts stranded on the Red Planet until they travel the yellow road that leads to Martian city where they learn that the founders sought refuge there a long time ago and to give themselves time to ponder, they took themselves out of the time dimension.

via Monogram Pictures

As Elon sat in front of the babysitter tube and watched film after film of humans going to Mars, living in cities, driving Cybertrucks, and getting assistance from Optimus Robots, he wondered if it all could be true. So, he started off on a life mission that has been carefully orchestrated with each step he has taken.

Named after the greatest inventor of all time, Tesla cars were just the beginning, a testing ground to see if the technology was possible and the engineers were prepared to come up with the ultimate machine that could be powered by the sun and drive itself. As an added feature, it had to be able to withstand gunfire and look cool doing it. Of course, Earthlings commonly scratched their heads when they saw Cybertrucks driving down the road. But that was all about to stop after Elon made his next move.

Optimus Robot had to be born if there was going to be any kind of progress on Mars. It’s faster to cyberprint an assistant than it is to give birth to a toddler, and then wait until it’s old enough to start working in the family business. So, Tesla again had to outdo itself.

In walks Kim Kardashian who fell in love with Optimus at first sight. First, she flirted and he flirted back. But he wanted to go on a run as he made perfectly clear to her during their first conversation. They made hearts and even played Rock Paper Scissors, where she beat him the first time. Who wouldn’t want one?

It was when Optimus Robot came to pick her up in his Cybertruck that she got really excited. That sealed the deal. Now, Space X was a go because the most popular Earthling was endorsing the Mars assistant. How could it possibly fail?

While X had been testing the Earthlings’ abilities to self-govern, Space X was taking a handful of volunteers to Mars at a time. Optimus Robots were being printed out as fast as they could to handle all the work of building a dome city where Earthlings would live. After burrowing tunnels from New York to California and Florida to London, Elon Musk was ready to take his robot groundhogs into space and create a transportation infrastructure that would teleport passengers thousands of miles instantly.

No one knew if he planned to become the king or dictator of his own planet, but governments on Earth weren’t about to let them happen. He could lead the way in technology but as the SEC was trying to figure out how to regulate crypto, the U.N. was appointing Mars representatives, a council made up of only the most capable leadership on Earth, the politicians.

Earthlings who never intended to make the trip to Mars were calling for Elon to take as many politicians with him as he wanted. Of course, Elon Musk wanted a self-governing civilization. But there wasn’t a council on Earth that thought it was possible or would even trust it if it was. Of course, taking all the politicians to Mars would bring peace on Earth. They just weren’t about to let that happen either.

And it was in my lifetime that I went from watching rockets go off every once in a while to witnessing the beginning of an actual Mars mission. I could see it all coming together from the Tesla Cybertrucks to the Optimus Robots being shipped off to Mars by Space X and the dome cities being built that would serve as a home for humans. All of this was signed off by one man and one man alone who simply had the power to dream after television made it seem all too real.

To be continued…

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Charlbi Dean, The True Sadness Of Triangle Of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness promises a dark comedy with Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, and Charlbi Dean. It takes a meaningful social issue twist but the true sadness takes place just before the movie was released.

The dark comedy doesn’t really hit hard until “Part 2.” Until then, we have a running dialog between Carl and Yaya that establishes the founding layer of the social commentary. Wrapped up in a conversation about money and who should pay, the general meaning of the movie is hinted at when they talk about gender roles and how Carl would like them to be equal partners in their relationship.

In “Part 2,” our couple is on a yacht. We find out that the trip is a gift because Yaya is a model and an influencer who makes good money and often gets perks through her social media platform. Carl is a model but he starts to come across as a little insecure when Yaya says hello to the “help” on the yacht. This is actually the gut of the story.

There is an underlying theme about power and class structure in society. The wealthy pay their way through life expecting everyone to wait on them hand and foot while the crew work their way through life often going unnoticed. With power comes abuse while it’s the abused who are the ones keeping the world turning.

The dark humor begins at the Captain’s Dinner when Woody Harrelson finally shows his face to the passengers. He’s the ship’s captain but he’s been drunk in his cabin the whole time. The dinner starts off in bad shape as the boat starts rocking. It’s passing through a storm and at first, passengers have to lean when they walk and keep their drinks from sliding across the table. But it’s not that bad yet.

It gets worse as the evening progresses and one by one, passengers begin to experience seasickness. In a great display of wealthy excessiveness, the food keeps coming, the drinks keep getting poured, and the passengers keep getting sicker. They’re even told to continue eating to combat the sickness. That is until they’ve had enough.

As passengers rush back to their cabins in a mad dash, the captain and a passenger named Dimitry share competing quotes of communism versus capitalism and then turn to a drinking game with cards. The rest of the ship is in total chaos with passengers vomiting all over the place and hugging their toilets in their cabins while the captain and his new friend are effectively going through bottles. One particular scene is so wild when it cuts to a lady trying desperately to get a hold of the toilet in her bathroom but the rocking of the ship keeps tossing her around.

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In this dark comedy, the chaos has merely scratched the surface. The captain and Dimitry have now moved to the captain’s cabin. When Dimitry gets on the captain’s speaker, he jokingly makes the announcement that the ship is going down. Passengers start grabbing lifevests and running for their lives. The madness escalates to an absolutely wild sequence of events that will have you rolling if you do in fact appreciate dark comedy. If you don’t, then it will probably make you sad.

That’s as far as my spoilers are going to go because the real sadness of Triangle of Sadness doesn’t take place until mere months before the movie’s release. Charlbi Dean plays the role of the model and influencer in a relationship with Carl. She has her phone in her face most of the time and she only cares about having fun. Her goal in life is to be someone’s trophy wife and that’s as far as her aspirations go.

By the time Triangle of Sadness released in Greece on September 18, 2022, it was minus one cast member. Charlbi was able to be at the world premiere on May 21 of that year in Cannes but sadly, she passed away on August 29. As I was watching the movie, I found her character particularly interesting and decided to do some research.

I was gutted when I learned that she had passed away due to exposure to Capnocytophaga, a bacteria commonly found in the mouths of dogs and cats. The actual cause of death was determined to be bacterial sepsis, which means her body overreacted to an infection. By the end of the movie, she had become the most endearing character and I was savoring every scene of hers.

It was the last film she would ever do and she had no way of knowing. She died at the age of 32 with her whole life ahead of her. All of a sudden, the title Triangle of Sadness hit completely different.

The post Charlbi Dean, The True Sadness Of Triangle Of Sadness appeared first on Michael Allen.

Charlbi Dean, The True Sadness Of Triangle of Sadness

Triangle of Sadness promises a dark comedy with Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, and Charlbi Dean. It takes a meaningful social issue twist but the true sadness takes place just before the movie was released.

The dark comedy doesn’t really hit hard until “Part 2.” Until then, we have a running dialog between Carl and Yaya that establishes the founding layer of the social commentary. Wrapped up in a conversation about money and who should pay, the general meaning of the movie is hinted at when they talk about gender roles and how Carl would like them to be equal partners in their relationship.

In “Part 2,” our couple is on a yacht. We find out that the trip is a gift because Yaya is a model and an influencer who makes good money and often gets perks through her social media platform. Carl is a model but he starts to come across as a little insecure when Yaya says hello to the “help” on the yacht. This is actually the gut of the story.

There is an underlying theme about power and class structure in society. The wealthy pay their way through life expecting everyone to wait on them hand and foot while the crew work their way through life often going unnoticed. With power comes abuse while it’s the abused who are the ones keeping the world turning.

The dark humor begins at the Captain’s Dinner when Woody Harrelson finally shows his face to the passengers. He’s the ship’s captain but he’s been drunk in his cabin the whole time. The dinner starts off in bad shape as the boat starts rocking. It’s passing through a storm and at first, passengers have to lean when they walk and keep their drinks from sliding across the table. But it’s not that bad yet.

It gets worse as the evening progresses and one by one, passengers begin to experience seasickness. In a great display of wealthy excessiveness, the food keeps coming, the drinks keep getting poured, and the passengers keep getting sicker. They’re even told to continue eating to combat the sickness. That is until they’ve had enough.

As passengers rush back to their cabins in a mad dash, the captain and a passenger named Dimitry share competing quotes of communism versus capitalism and then turn to a drinking game with cards. The rest of the ship is in total chaos with passengers vomiting all over the place and hugging their toilets in their cabins while the captain and his new friend are effectively going through bottles. One particular scene is so wild when it cuts to a lady trying desperately to get a hold of the toilet in her bathroom but the rocking of the ship keeps tossing her around.

[image error]

In this dark comedy, the chaos has merely scratched the surface. The captain and Dimitry have now moved to the captain’s cabin. When Dimitry gets on the captain’s speaker, he jokingly makes the announcement that the ship is going down. Passengers start grabbing lifevests and running for their lives. The madness escalates to an absolutely wild sequence of events that will have you rolling if you do in fact appreciate dark comedy. If you don’t, then it will probably make you sad.

That’s as far as my spoilers are going to go because the real sadness of Triangle of Sadness doesn’t take place until mere months before the movie’s release. Charlbi Dean plays the role of the model and influencer in a relationship with Carl. She has her phone in her face most of the time and she only cares about having fun. Her goal in life is to be someone’s trophy wife and that’s as far as her aspirations go.

By the time Triangle of Sadness released in Greece on September 18, 2022, it was minus one cast member. Charlbi was able to be at the world premiere on May 21 of that year in Cannes but sadly, she passed away on August 29. As I was watching the movie, I found her character particularly interesting and decided to do some research.

I was gutted when I learned that she had passed away due to exposure to Capnocytophaga, a bacteria commonly found in the mouths of dogs and cats. The actual cause of death was determined to be bacterial sepsis, which means her body overreacted to an infection. By the end of the movie, she had become the most endearing character and I was savoring every scene of hers.

It was the last film she would ever do and she had no way of knowing. She died at the age of 32 with her whole life ahead of her. All of a sudden, the title Triangle of Sadness hit completely different.

The post Charlbi Dean, The True Sadness Of Triangle of Sadness appeared first on Michael Allen.