* * While this is not a movie site, I would be decried as awful I did not first warn that this story will contain spoilers for the movie JOKER .. if you still TO THIS DAY have not seen it and don’t to know the ending, then for God’s sake watch the movie * *
2020 has given us one crisis that quickly has led to another..
What began with war and rumors of war turned sick and deadly with a pandemic that ground society to a halt.. followed by angry protests of jobless Americans desperate to have their old world back.. Followed by the the dramatic video this week of a police officer in Minnesota appearing to kneel on the neck of a suspect for so long, it could have led to his death.
The death of George Floyd, an African-American man, occurred in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, when Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.. Floyd reportedly later died in the hospital..
The video is graphic and brutal.. The manner of the police actions did not seem congruent with Floyd’s actions: It did not appear he was resisting anything.
Floyd struggles for air and tells Chauvin repeatedly he cannot breathe. By the time that the officer finally removes his knee from Floyd, the suspect appears lifeless as he is hoisted onto a medical gurney.
Why did this all happen? It began with an employee at the Cup Foods convenience store called police to say that a customer later identified as Floyd had tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes…
A $20 bill…
A death..
And now, those fateful series of actions on May 25 have boiled over into what has become an American crisis.. City after city, each night since, has lit up in flames and riots.. Protests that begin peacefully somehow end with violence. Somehow huge piles of bricks that seemingly were ready to be thrown, and Twitter videos of provocateurs revving up crowds have been retweeted around the globe…
Rampages of shopping centers or arson on generations’ old stores have created a nation painting by violence and rage for the entire world to watch..
Minneapolis
Seattle..
Los Angeles
New York City..
Denver
Seattle..
Atlanta..
Harrisburg
Washington D.C…
And counting.
A few nights ago, a police station in Minneapolis was burned down. Last night, protesters were at the White House seemingly trying to get through the gates. Riot police prevented dreadful history from being made..
People are waking up! This young man says these bricks were conveniently stacked on the sidewalk for them to use! What’s going on here?! #SetUp #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/pfdUoDIVsU
— Angela Stanton King 🇺🇸 (@theangiestanton) May 30, 2020
During initial nights of protests, CNN reports were arrested live on the air..
And while CNN was putting this headline on their website yesterday:
….protesters began to hit their CNN center in Atlanta as protests grew violent:
It would seem that slowly but surely America was traveling down the path into chaos and crisis.
On Friday night, Georgia Gov. Kemp declares state of emergency in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, because of protests in the city; activates up to 500 members of the Georgia National Guard.
By Saturday the President himself was telling MAGA to assemble at the White House!
The AP reports that cities are beginning to ask for National Guard help..
Comments from President Donald Trump stoked the anger, when he fired off a series of tweets criticizing Minnesota’s response, ridiculing people who protested outside the White House and warning that if protesters breached the fence, “they would … have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.”
Leaders in many affected cities have voiced outrage over Floyd’s killing and offered sympathy for those who were protesting — but as unrest intensified, many spoke of the desperate need to protect their cities and said they would call in reinforcements, despite concerns that could lead to more heavy handed tactics.
Minnesota has steadily increased the number of National Guardsmen it says it needs to contain the unrest, and has now called up 1,700. He is also considering a potential offer of military police, which the Pentagon put on alert.
Georgia’s governor declared a state of emergency early Saturday to activate the state National Guard as violence flared in Atlanta. Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler also declared an emergency and ordered a nighttime curfew for the city. The mayor of Cincinnati announced a curfew Saturday and Sunday following damage to about 50 businesses during protests there.
SEND IN THE CLOWNS
In 2019, the film JOKER was released and broke records at box offices.. at that time, the media hyped the ‘incel’ threat and told people to stay away from movie theaters during the first opening days of the movie. No mass shooting occur and no violence based on the film seemed prevalent, but it certainly seemed to set the stage for the most reckless months in American history since at least the 1960s, or perhaps even the 1800s..
Much of the criticism of the film has centered on the question of what effect it will have on such people. David Ehrlich of Indiewire called it “a toxic rallying cry for self-pitying incels,” invoking the term for involuntarily celibate young men that jumped from the saddest corners of the internet to popular parlance in 2014, when a self-described incel killed six people in Santa Barbara, Calif. David Edelstein echoed the idea that “Joker” is “an anthem for incels” in his Vulture review, warning that the film is “scary on a lot of different levels.” At Slate, Sam Adams wrote that “no matter how emphatic Phoenix’s performance, it feels like a risk to feel too much for him, not knowing who might be sitting next to you in the theater using his resentments to justify their own.” Adams could handle this movie’s nuanced portrayal of self-loathing turned outward, but what about its effect on sexless losers?
The movie provoked emotions in viewers .. people felt that Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips gave us the cinematic thrill of our lives. Others saw less innocuous and deeper themes in the film.
During one scene, Arthur Fleck decides to try comedy. He goes onto a talk show similar to the Tonight Show and murders Murray Franklin live on TV with a gun.
After this moment, a huge number of people who found solace in the Fleck JOKER in the film began to riot against Bruce Wayne’s father’s (BATMAN) .. the rioters take over the city while wearing clown masks..
Arthur Fleck, or the JOKER, is arrested after the live on-air murder.. While traveling in the police car, he feels true glee has he watches people riot in the streets with clown masks in his honor.. His car eventually is crashed into .. He stammers out of it injured.. Stands on top of the police car with the city burning in the background, and places a fake smile on his face.
His goal has been achieved.
Clown world..
Masks on rioters…
Fleck honored with the violence.
The madness of this film’s final scene.. looks .. a lot like today’s news. Chaos. In a clown world.
And today in our clown world… the clown masks have been replaced by medical masks.. But the theme of economic turmoil and rage .. It’s the same.
NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A CLOWN WHEN HE’S TALKING TO YOU
Clyde Lewis was right. Last year, with the movie IT 2 and JOKER coming out, he labeled 2019 as the year of the clown… He did a few shows about that topic, including this one:
At the same time JOKER was being released, Event 201 was taking place. It was a high level drill that incorporated the threat of a global pandemic.
Event 201 was a 3.5-hour pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic. 15 global business, government, and public health leaders were players in the simulation exercise that highlighted unresolved real-world policy and economic issues that could be solved with sufficient political will, financial investment, and attention now and in the future.
The exercise consisted of pre-recorded news broadcasts, live “staff” briefings, and moderated discussions on specific topics. These issues were carefully designed in a compelling narrative that educated the participants and the audience.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly propose these recommendations.
Also at this time same, the 2019 Military World Games, officially known as the 7th CISM Military World Games and commonly known as Wuhan 2019, was held from October 18–27, 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China.
The rest… we know.. is history.
HELTER SKELTER: SOME PEOPLE JUST WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN
The world is an angry place..
That is what President Trump said shortly after he began his presidency January 2017.
A video from the DAILY SHOW jokingly painted Trump’s in clown makeup..
This YouTube user removed the laugh track and included music instead to make the scene more harrowing..
Controversial Youtuber PAUL JOSEPH WATSON commenting on news with this video of the JOKER scenes interlaced with real scenes of 2020 riots..
NEVER TRUST A CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT
Like any powerful archetype that begs to escape from the movie screen into reality, “The Joker” – or death clown – literally leapt from the movie screen into reality as an unstable 24-year-old killer named James Holmes opened fire in a crowded movie theater that was attending the midnight screening of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, “the final movie in a Batman trilogy, following “The Dark Knight” in which The Joker was the principal villain,” as ABC News reported at the time.
What was it that Lon Chaney said about “clowns at midnight?”
The particular comic book that inspired Ledger’s portrayal the most was a one-shot Batman comic called, “The Killing Joke” written by comic writer and magic practitioner Alan Moore, who has written comics such as ‘The Watchmen’ and ‘V for Vendetta’ – which are full of Illuminati and satanic symbolism. ‘V for Vendetta’, in particular, not only quotes Satanist Aleister Crowley in several portions but mentions him by name.
Agent Codename V wears a ghoulish clown mask that is supposed to represent Guy Fawkes. His character has also leapt from the big screen and comic books and is now the official face of the computer group Anonymous. His clownish mask is also worn by activists and protestors worldwide.
Both times, characters associated with magicians have manifest in our reality either for good or evil. The image of the death clown is the most effective image because it plays on base core shadow archetypes.
Is the image of a clown mask in Joker by Joaquin Phoenix going to be the equivalent of the Guy Fawkes clown death mask in V-for Vendetta? Time will tell.
Is the image of a clown mask in Joker by Phoenix going to be the equivalent of the Guy Fawkes clown death mask in V-for Vendetta?
Time will tell.
TIME INDEED DID INDEED TELL.