The time has come. The Trump admin will ban the Chinese owned TikTok and WeChat on the app stores on Sunday. China banned Google, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp. We are venturing into a new frontier. Countries are creating apps, targeting users, and weaponizing them for political purposes.

Earlier in the week it was reported that American company Oracle was going to buy TikTok.
India banned TikTok while Australia have been critics of the app. China is collecting data from American users that is streamlined to the Chinese government.

WeChat is the most popular in China. It’s used as a chat app, a payment platform, and a news source. It’s used to monitor the citizens and is a conduit for Chinese propaganda and surveillance.
Now lets be clear. It’s not an outright ban. TikTok will still function but users won’t have access to updates and upgrades.
Will TikTok ultimately go away? Most definitely not. A deal will be made eventually, it’s just taking slower then expected.

Kanye has the moves, he has the motion and he only needs himself to cause a commotion. Kanye’s been busy, very busy blowing up Twitter that he got banned. Why? Who knows. He posted several artist agreements he had with Universal Music and urged every lawyer in the world to look at the agreements. Maybe Twitter thought it was an invasion of private policy. Regardless, instead of locking people out of an account, they need a new rule that allows users to rectify the situation without being banned. Kanye has a bigger voice than the ordinary a folk, and people came to his defense with a hashtag #freeYe.
He also posted a video of someone urinating on a Grammy Award and called the music industry and sports a modern day slave plantation.
This is obviously a ploy to get out his agreement with Universal. Kanye says he can afford to buy his masters and that his children will own them, not somebody’s else’s children.
Despite the cancel culture, Kanye insists he won’t be muted or cancelled and I still don’t know why Twitter locked himself out of his account. That needs to stop and I’m convinced we are heading toward the day when the average citizen or notable artist doesn’t have to live in fear with being deplatformed.

Do you remember where you were on September 11th? I do. I think most of us do. Today we remember the victims. But we also remember that America isn’t immune to atrocities that are carried out by mankind. Where is America now? More divided than ever. September 11 pulled the nation together, for a while at least, while the pandemic has ripped apart the nation. Just the date 9/11 has a ring. It’s like a date that has a divine significance that’s etched in time.

Henry Hudson discovered NYC via the Half Moon Ship on September 11, 1609.

Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his speech on September 11, 1941 that would plant America as a global economic and military superpower.

The US Military Defense The Pentagon started construction on September 11, 1941.
The Towers (which mean greatness) and the Pentagon were attacked on September 11th, 2001.
The replica of Henry Hudson’s Ship called the Half Moon took its first voyage with tourists on September 11, 2001. The ship that discovered NYC on 9/11 sailed past the crumbling towers nearly 400 years later on the same day.
‘So 9/11 was the day NYC was planted. So it became the day of uprooting. And on the day that began its building.. . . came the day of the breaking down.’

Have you been following the twitter war between Cardi B and Candace Owens? It’s viscous. If you haven’t see the Twitter battle, then you’re hiding in a basement. Cardi B has a #1 song with WAP and Candace is closing in on a #1 book titled Blackout. Both have been on the attack since Saturday night with Cardi B dedicating several instagram posts to Candace. Both are on the opposite side of the political sphere while Cardi is on the left side while Candace is on the right. Both are accusing each other of pandering and clout chasing. While many artists are becoming more politically engaged, they’re venturing into a world that is unfamiliar territory. Candace said to Cardi, “You’re coming into my world”. Although art and politics were always relational, artists must be aware that it’s a rocky road. While artists are working harder than ever to build and keep an attentive fanbase, and as far as art and activism favorably benefiting an artist, well, this year will be a true test.

Ariana Grande was the highest paid female musician in 2020 according to Forbes which isn’t bad for a girl that started her career in musical theatre. Ariana was eager to start a career in music and began posting covers on YouTube. She had powerful voice that caught the attention of execs, the word got out and Republic signed the singer in the early stages of her career in 2010. The 27 year old singer went to release 5 albums and has become one of the hottest pop stars. Grande also has stayed out of any major controversy. Success and hard work runs in the Grande family. Her mother, Joan Grande is the CEO of Hose-McCann Communications. Forbes has Ariana raking in 72 million.