The Friday Link for 11/15/24

This week, I'm going to start off with a nice distraction.  Marvel Movies might be coming back to form!

In a previous Friday Link, I posted how excited I was about The Thunderbolts movie, but we can't overlook the next major Marvel Movie coming out, Captain America: Brave New World.

The Captain America franchise works best when they treat it like a spy film.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier is not only one of the best Marvel films, but it's also a tight spy adventure (which also has the best fight scenes in all of Marvel movies [Cap v. Bucky]).

Since they retired Chris Evan's Cap, Anthony Mackie has taken over the role.  This happened in the comic book, and I'm glad they are also following that line with Brave New World. 

Plus they further explore the great Isaiah Bradley storyline from the comics and TV series Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it looks like they are trying to clean up a major open-ended problem with The Eternals, and Red Hulk makes his first appearance.  I'm looking forward to this on Valentine's Day. 

Back to the Thunderbolts.  At D23, which is kind of a Brazilian Comic Con, they released an extended scene and new footage. Even more geeked now! 

Finally tonight is what is considered a top ten all-time NFL playoff upset, 1987's Minnesota Vikings upsetting the San Francisco 49ers in a divisional playoff game.  

Not sure why this showed up in my YouTube Algorithm but this was a pretty big upset.  They stymied Joe Montana, and a young off-the-bench Steve Young, and dramatically limited Jerry Rice. Anthony Carter had a career game and the Vikings made history.

I think one of the reasons we don't talk about this game more is the reality of the NFL at that time.  It was not a good product.  There were two good NFC teams, and the eventual winner usually destroyed the AFC.  The modern version of the game is a lot more entertaining, but watching these highlights reminds me of how HUGE that win was.  This city was abuzz after that win.

With it being the NFL, you have to watch that one on YouTube!

Have a good weekend everyone! 

Make sure to stay up to date on your vaccines, before you know who creates chaos! 

The Pile of Ideas

There's been a lot of discussion this last week about what's wrong with the Democrats, why did they lose 10 million voters in 2024 from their totals in 2020?

There's a lot of finger-pointing going on. "They've alienated the working class voter!" "They should have been more pro-Palestinian!" "They needed to turn on Biden!"

All these bellowings are an attempt by bitter fools to make themselves look smart; "If they'd only done WHAT I SAID THEY SHOULD DO...!"  The truth about what happened is a misunderstanding of what has been the failing of the Democratic Party for 16 years.  The Democrats are not really a 'party' anymore, more of a wide-ranging, non-cohesive pile of ideas. 

The first thing I want to approach is the reality of the 2024 election.  Did any group of people leave the Democrats and end up supporting Trump?  Maybe a few but not really.  The same 74 million people who voted for Trump in 2020, voted for Trump in 2024. His numbers are pretty consistent.  Maybe there were a few Democrats who defected, and surely a few Republicans defected to the Democrats, but nothing substantial would allow someone to point to that group and say "They're the reason the Democrats lost."  

The reality is Democrats just didn't show up with everything on the line, like in 2016, in 2010, in 2004, in 2000, and so on and so on.  So why did 10 million fewer Democrats vote in 2024 than in 2020?

There were two things that happened Sunday that answered this question for me.  The first was a series of stories from conservative America where reality is settling in.  There are a lot of Republicans who are now, AFTER the election, publically asking, "I love Trump and all, but he's not really getting rid of that government program, IS HE?  My family needs that program?" There are many Republicans who are starting to freak out as they come to grips with the consequences of their actions. Their blind obedience to Republicans never made them once question if they should vote for a person who has vowed to hurt them with the repealing of a government program their family needs. 

The other thing that happened was an attempt to shame Democrats from the social media account Democratic Wins, which posted a video from Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, one of the handful of Democrats who won in a red district.  Their argument is her common sense approach to a specific issue related to the voters.  The issue? Daycares can't peel and serve fresh fruit to kids because the act of peeling falls under the category of food prep and requires a kitchen setup, something most daycares do not have.  I agree with the idea that a bag of chips and cookies is a far worse snack option than a banana, but this is not the issue that the Democrats should champion nationwide, nor does their argument look at her election specifically, where the Republican candidate was pretty bad.  Her issue worked for her, but a lot of Democrats had common sense issues like that, and they didn't win. 

Republicans vote for their party über alles.  They could care less about Trump's behavior or the radical and painful policy decisions they are endorsing.  For 30+ years, the Right has effectively brainwashed their followers to never care about the candidate or the issues, only the 'R.' This is why I've said most Republicans would vote for a turnip if there was an 'R' next to it on the ballot. For the record, I am NOT endorsing this, as the end result of such loyalty can look more akin to a cult than a political party (sound familiar?).  But this is why the Hilter-loving, Epstein BFF won; no one cared until AFTER the election.

The Democrats have a FAR bigger problem.  They are no longer a functioning party, but rather a pile of ideas. Tell me three things every Democrat in the Party agrees on.  Tell me what the Democratic Party's established policy on Gaza was?  The wild attempt to blame this loss on....something is a great example of how the much larger problem is being ignored.

Democrats and Republicans like the two-party system.  Between the two parties, they have pretty much all of the political power in the country. But there has been a problem.  The Republicans have continued to shrink ideals from a wide-ranging party, which included moderates and fiscal conservatives, to only a group that signs off on the MAGA power threshold.  As they have basically told the Republican party members it's our way or the highway, many moderate and fiscally conservative Republicans have left.

Enter the Democrats who started to adopt the 'wide umbrella' position.  Their mentality is if they were not Republican, then the Democrats would make room in their party for them.  The Democrats rolled out the welcome mat to the disenfranchised Republicans and told them as long as they didn't bad mouth the party, they didn't really need to endorse and support the party platform.  They could bring their ideas into the Democratic fold and present them as policy.  

At the same time, Democrats, concerned about losing their base to further left-leaning parties, started to welcome those voters and politicians under the same wide umbrella.  The idea was that we were one big happy family, but what really happened was the unraveling of the Democratic platform.

It's politically impossible to have a single political party that appeals to both a 'far further left than most Democrats are comfortable with' Bernie Sanders and an outright Republican in Joe Manchin.  Your umbrella is TOO WIDE, and because so, you have forsaken a cohesive Democratic Party platform, replacing it with 3000 people screaming ideas that may or may not appeal to even 50% of the Democratic Party. With no consistent message about what exactly the Democrats stand for, voters tune them out when their million-ideas platform fails to connect.

Why did so many people turn out in 2020?  Because that year, the pile ideas at least had some consistency.  Trump was screwing up the COVID response horrifically.  The fear of illness and death allowed the Democrats to capture the majority of voters, even ones who generally did not turn up at election time. The pandemic presented a clear choice, and 2020 became hard for the Democrats to screw up. 

Let's look further at 2024.  I'm for the fair treatment of the Palestinians, but the lack of a cohesive Democratic plan muddied the message overall.  I have no doubt the Democrats had an official stance, but their "everyone's ideas are valid" approach welcomed extremists on the left who insisted Isreal withdraw from Gaza, apologizing to every Palestinian as they left, Israeli reparations to all Palestinians, immediate Palestinian statehood and the USA ending diplomatic relations with Israel. I'm pro-Palestine, but I am nowhere near close to that policy.  From the other side OF THE SAME PARTY, the approach was Israel could do no wrong and should never be questioned. In the end, a few far-left "Democrats" might not have voted out of idealism, but the FAR BIGGER problem was the Democratic Party policy on this issue looked confused, disjointed, and contradictory.  You are not giving people a reason to vote for you when you're a hot mess. 

This is another reason the pile of ideas approach fails.  Because there is no consistent standard, extremes from both sides can enter into the party and push an agenda that is way out of line with mainstream Democratic policy.  It's hard to start a third party.  It takes a lot of work and decades to succeed, but fringe issues don't need to do that work as long as the Democrats put out the welcome mat.  

The Republican-lite side of the party can bite Democrats in another way. In Minnesota, we did better than most of the country, but the party lost footing in the Minnesota State House. Why?  I think a lot of it had to do with the main race the Minnesota Democrats (the DFL) were focused on, the MN02 Congressional seat, where Angie Craig easily won.  The state party poured a ton of money into her race, as her message basically boiled down to [paraphrasing], "I proudly disagree with Biden and am proud to work against the Democratic Party."  What political party thought this approach in a bellwether race wouldn't hurt other Democrats' campaigns?  The pile of the idea says that as long as someone has a "D" next to their name, they can do anything, regardless of ripple effects.  An anti-Democrat Democratic campaign caused more damage for lower ballot statewide races.  You sacrificed 100 races for one.  That's stupid.

So how do we fix this?  The solution is actually simple, but intimidating enough that most Democratic leaders will refuse.

1. If you want to be a Democrat, you have to be a proud Democrat.  No more campaigning against your own party.  
2.  The Democrat Pary needs to (re) establish a list of 10 to 15 MUST COMMIT TO policy standards, stuff like women's rights, healthcare for all, raising the minimum wage, and TAXING BILLIONAIRES AT A HIGHER RATE THAN THE MIDDLE CLASS(!!!). This list should be easy to compile, and by demanding anyone who wants to run as a Democrat commit to those issues, you'll likely trim the extremes away.
3.  Appreciate some ideas, but if the ideas are extreme or contradict the core principles of the Party, then the Party should be the loudest and most vocal corrections/condemnations. The days of a free-for-all are over.  Your own party should not undermine your own message.
4.  Do a much better job at presenting the party platform to the media.  The Democrats are HORRIFIC at messaging. 

The pile of ideas is the problem, but my guess is the Democratic party will not solve it.  They are a political party whose approach is "Why say something in three words that we can instead say with a 900-page thesis, with a full bibliography, that's been run through 29 different focus groups?"  

We shouldn't have to get to the point of a global pandemic for your political party platform and messaging to make sense for the average voter.

The Friday Link for 11/8/24

Hi everyone.

Blah...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

It's not been the best week. 

I am so disappointed Trump won again.  This country is about to go through some things. There are a lot of things I talked about on the radio show this week, so feel free to go listen to any of the shows (https://soundcloud.com/user-587903571).

Here is a clip about one of the things I feel the Democrats are doing wrong.  Thanks to Cliff Schecter for putting it up on his channel Cliff's Edge. 

I have four more videos for you this week, starting with a very funny political ad parody with SNL and John Mulaney.

Also tonight my YouTube algorithm pulled up two deleted scenes from Marvel movies I had not seen.  These are actually REALLY good, and I would make an argument they were better than the scenes they were replaced with.  One is from Avenger's Endgame and one is from Thor: Ragnarok.

And finally tonight, I love Men At Work, the Australian band from the early 80's, which had a slew of hits.  Someone sent me an HD version of Down Under, and it looked great. I remember watching this at friend's houses when MTV was new.  This is 80's art! 

Take some time for yourself this weekend. Prepare yourself for what is coming and the fight ahead! 

Be safe.

This is the End of Twitter

Okay, I know I have said this before, but this is it.  This is my last direct post on Twitter.

I've been talking about officially leaving Twitter since Elon took over because it was clear he was here with an agenda. We all now see what that agenda is; to promote Trump through lies, misinformation, and aggressive posters while at the same time limiting anything the site deems too damaging to Trump.  It's the second part of that which is the most egregious offense. As Musk insisted he was all about freedom of speech, he's actually the opposite.  He wants the speech he likes trumpeted, and he has limited access to/blocked information he doesn't want you to see.

Plus the majority of accounts here are bot accounts or 'alpha bros' whose default mode is massive douche. Twitter is MISERABLE to be on.  I've dreaded every time I've come here.

Bluntly, Twitter has been a depressing pit of despair, which has darkened my days for the last 6 months.

And Elon's latest strategy, to allow blocked people to be able to see your posts but not interact with you, is an absolute travesty.  I do not want the trolls I have deemed to not be worthy of my time to see what I'm up to, but that's nothing compared to women who have active stalkers in their lives being told they have to take their account private or risk their stalkers having access to their lives.  What kind of sicko thinks that's a good policy?

So why did I stay so long?  I was encouraged to do so by a handful of people who felt staying until the election was important.  I felt there was some legitimacy to their argument, so I hunkered down and stayed here far longer than I wanted.  Now that the election is over, I'm gone.

I won't shut down the account. There are still people I want to follow who are pretty much only here.  I've pleaded with them to go to another social media site, but they are determined to be here.  More power to them.  I will occasionally check in on them. 

I also might repost someone else's post, or comment on one of the aforementioned friend's posts, but that's it.  The daily show recaps/news posts are not going to happen here anymore. If you comment to me, and you are not someone I care about, I will block you and be done.

My main social media stop will be Threads.  That has the best interactions so far. That's @matthewmcneil1, and is also my Instagram page (although I do not post that much there).

Facebook is BY FAR my most popular page with over 9,000 followers: 'Progressive Citizen X Matthew McNeil Show.'

BlueSky is pretty good: @mattmcneilshow.bsky.social

And also Mastodon too: @MattMcNeilShow@mstdn.party 

And that's that.

I do hope you follow me elsewhere, and I really do suggest getting the hell away from Twitter.  It's rare to ever feel good after spending time in that God-forsaken hell hole.  PEACE!

The Fourth Estate is Not Our Friend

Democrats, it's time to accept a hard truth:  The National News Media, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is actively working against us.

This morning, I had to blow off some steam, still full of energy, even though I didn't sleep a wink last night.  While at the gym, I saw a friend, and we talked bout the election.  Paraphrasing her comments, she said, "I think the parties are at the extremes.  Most of us are in the middle, but the parties are on the far extremes.  Take immigration.  One side is about building a wall, and the other side is about letting everyone in."

I stopped her.  "Who said the Democrats were about letting everyone in?  They actually worked with one of the most conservative Senators to write a bipartisan border bill endorsed by many conservatives.  THAT'S THE MIDDLE! Working together with the other side is technically the middle ground. Trump was the one who ordered it killed so he could campaign against it."  

I then pressed her further. "Do you think the economy is good or bad right now?"

She responded by saying "It costs me more for food so..."

"But it always costs more for food.  That's inflation.  Do you know the country's economy today is one of the strongest we've ever had?"

She seemed to have no idea.

These are two separate issues, which were primary talking points this election cycle, and yet a woman who I don't believe is an avid right winger didn't seem to have any idea of the truth.  As a matter of fact, she seemed a bit stunned when I informed her of the truth.

She's not alone.  The national news media has been stunningly inept this year, constantly pandering the the Republican base while holding the Democrats to an impossible standard.  I'm not talking about Fox News, OAN, RT, or Newsmaxx.  We know those entities exist only to push Republicans' talking points.  I'm talking about CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, Huffington Post, AP News, and others, news media who advertise themselves as beacons of truth when all they really are is echo chambers for Republicans talking points and platforms for biased reporting.

The consummate example of this was Joe Biden.  In the aftermath of his debate performance, the national news media ran with Trump campaign talking points and fluffed up editorials, demanding (as they described it) the 'clearly incompetent candidate' step down. Yet the last three weeks of the Presidential campaign featured a clearly mentally compromised Trump who stumbled and slurred his way through incohesive sentence after incohesive sentence.  I still have yet to see ANY of the national news media talk about whether Trump was fit for office.  On the contrary, they always seemed to take the attitude of "Oh Donald, you scamp!"

Is this overt bias intentional or not?  I think a little bit of both.  Most national news media is owned by far-right owners who want to push a Republican narrative, and their daily content is deeply intertwined with the sales team and their desire to not upset Republican advertisers, advertisers who use their buying power to control the narrative.  The days of editors standing up to the sales team for the integrity of the "news" are long gone. At first, it was giving a little more favorable coverage of a Republican-leaning story, insisting "we're just covering the news" (think the Hillary fake email scandal of 2016).  Today it's almost as if the Republicans themselves are writing the stories and handing the copy to the media to print. IF there is any clarity or counterpoint at all, it's usually buried ten to twenty paragraphs deep, well away from the pro-Republican/anti-Democratic headline.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have covered Biden's bad debate performance, but they did so with such eagerness, determination, and gusto.  The bigger crime is that as they covered Biden, screaming, "It's newsworthy," THEY made the decision that Trump's antics and disqualifying behavior weren't newsworthy.

This is the point where national news media will feign outrage! "How DARE you, sir!  We have indeed addressed Trump's antics!" If you put out 20 news articles and in the 20th, at paragraph 12, you finally shine a slight bit of light on Trump, THAT'S NOT EQUAL! That's only you creating, at the bare minimum, a pathetic false equivalency to justify your other 20 articles running with the Right's talking points.

This is all by design. Republicans are masters at controlling the national narrative and have created a machine that actively puts the collective national news media on the Republican side of the media scale, pushing down with brazen intensity, making it virtually impossible for the average reader/listener/viewer to get an unbiased perspective.  

There are some good news outlets still out there.  NPR does an okay job, as does the bellwether, the BBC and most states/cities have one or two independent journalism options (think Heartland Signal, Sahan Journal, or Minnesota Reformer in the upper midwest), but the pickings are slim.

Part of this situation is the Democrats' own fault.  Multiple times, a progressive/left-leaning media network has tried to gain traction. On the radio airwaves, the Air America Radio Network launched in the mid-2000s, and Current TV tried to launch in the 2010s.  Instead of nurturing and funding these fledgling networks like the Republicans do, the Democratic Party belligerently went out of its way to not support them, then acted stunned when both of those ventures crumbled.  

The Democrats are outmatched by the Right AND themselves.

What can we do about this?  My suggestion is to reject the national news media.  Find the one or two outlets that seem to still have a level of journalistic integrity and delete the rest of them from your life. If enough people turn away from them, then maybe (although unlikely) they might change their ways. 

Also, support the media outlets that are trying to give you a more fair perspective.

A major reason Donald Trump is back in the White House is the intentional/unintentional coordination with the national news media.  I don't believe they can be trusted anymore. 

What We All Just Lost

Congratulations Republicans! Donald Trump has won another term in the White House. 

No matter if you voted for him because you're a racist, a selfish billionaire, or just a petty small person who will gladly drown on the Titanic as long as you can be 10 feet higher up on the deck so you can watch your perceived enemies drown before you do, you succeeded! You voted for a guy who said he liked Hitler AND was best pals with Jeffery Epstein, even riding on Epsteins child sex plane to the child sex island.  Now, let's see what you're in store for!

Here are all the things you've lost:

Social Security

Medicaid

Medicare (I know you Rightos think that Trump will only cancel those social safety net programs for the Democrats, but that's not how all this works.  You will lose your benefits too, but Trump will convince you you're better off without them, even though you most definitely are not.)

Abortion rights in America

Contraception in America

In-Vitro Fertilization

Women's Rights overall

The ability to have sex, however, and with whomever you love, in the privacy of your own house. 

The Post Office

Vaccinations

Fluoride in tap water

Workers rights

Fair wages

The CDC

The Department of Education

Ukraine

Gaza

Consequences for Trump's crimes

Consequences for Jan. 6th Insurrectionists

Any Corporate regulations

Natural disaster relief (even in red states, the budget for FEMA will be gutted, so...good luck!)

Food Assistance 

Housing assistance 

Heating Assistance 

The Affordable Care Act 

Pretty much every social safety net program

Your right to not be stopped and detained by the police

A positive economy (Trump's plan to mass deport most of the low-income wage workers in this country at the cost of trillions of dollars, plus his highly misguided tariff gambit, will crater the economy and create a massive deficit).

Consequences for racism

Consequences for religious intolerance

The ability to go into a public school and NOT have biblical teachings thrust into your kid's face.

Pristine wilderness that might have oil or minerals underneath it

Clean water

Drinkable tap water

State's rights (guarantee Trump and that Supreme Court will suddenly insist the rights of the states do not supersede the will of the Federal government.)

Freedom of Religion

Freedom of Speech 

Any efforts to fight climate change

LGBTQIA+ Rights

Affordable prescription medication

Cheap groceries

The Middle Class 

Unions (outside of the police and sports ones)

Any potential accountability for the President (I bet he'll get the Supreme Court to find some way to throw out all the civil lawsuits against him)

Democracy

Fair elections

Plus much much MORE!!!

Prepare for a conservative Supreme Court for the next FIFTY YEARS! That's right! That Supreme Court will be having 6-3 rulings until at least 2070, ruling on the side of money over the people EVERY TIME!

And Trump will likely resign from office so his replacement can pardon him for all acts while in the White House, which means (say it all together!) President Vance! 

On top of that, the Republicans and the national news media will do everything in their power to convince you ALL OF THESE THINGS were actually done to you by the Democrats, and you'll gleefully believe them!

This is what you get for embracing misogyny, turning away from a HIGHLY qualified candidate for President, and electing a man who didn't have a cohesive sentence for the last three weeks, even pretending to give oral sex to a microphone. 

You win.  You own all of this! 

Garbage

Earlier this year, we heard of a sad situation for Minnesota State Senate Democrat Nicole Mitchell.  Amid a struggle with her mother-in-law in the wake of her father's passing, there was a situation where she was accused of breaking and entering into her parent's home to retrieve some things she said her father had promised her, but her mother-in-law was refusing to give her.

I felt she should resign (which she hasn't) not because of the salacious nature of the story the Minnesota Republicans were gleefully running with, but rather because she was dealing with something that has become a fairly common issue in modern families today, a lack of a clear will laying out who gets what in the event of a beloved family member dying.  For the record, EVERYONE should have this discussion before bad feelings tear families apart.  

Republicans at the time tried to spread this scandal across the entire Minnesota DFL, indicating this was just another example of how the party was flawed.  By attaching Mitchell's behavior to every other Democrat, they felt they might have a path to victory in November.  It didn't matter that many DFL'ers in leadership positions were also calling for Mitchell to resign. The narrative from the Republicans was, "They're all the same!!!"  They are by no means all the same, but (to be fair and honest) there was one other highly unqualified (and fairly disturbed) MN house candidate from the DFL, but the party cut ties with him earlier this year. 

What's remarkable is the two lies the Republicans keep screaming:

1) We are the party of 'high moral fiber.' 

2) We would NEVER tolerate such behavior from a Republican running for office!

These two OUTRIGHT LIES are laughable.  The MNGOP NEVER demands a resignation whenever one of their own says or does anything out of line, even when they are FAR WORSE than any Democrat I can remember.

Below is a list of SIXTEEN Republicans who, over the last year, have said and done things that should have gotten a political party with 'high moral fiber' to at least condemn them, if not ask for a resignation (Dotseth???...ANYONE???).

• Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, 12/19/23 - Even though we all saw the new state flag selection process, this idiot tweeted out that an earlier version of the new MN State flag was a salute to Somalia.  It wasn't, but this launched endless morons insisting the new state flag was actually a Somali flag.  Let's not skip past the implied racist element of this argument.

• Congressman Pete Stauber, All year long - Stubby has consistently stated that the infrastructure bill known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bill that brought much-needed spending to his district, a bill he described as "socialism" and will "devastate our economy" as he PROUDLY voted against it, has CONSTANTLY LIED the entire year that somehow he was responsible for the local spending he had NOTHING TO DO WITH! He voted against the bill but has lied constantly.  CONSTANTLY!!!

• Royce White, All year long - In a stunningly bad decision. the Republican Party endorsed Royce to be their official Senate candidate to take on Amy Klobuchar.  Not only does he have an insane amount of incredibly offensive, misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Semetic social media posts, not only did someone from his previous campaign spend campaign funds in a strip club, but he seems to be FAR MORE focused on being an internet troll, having personally insulted me and others multiple times over the last few months.  A reminder that this is the current US Senate candidate for the Republicans, and all it seems he does is troll on Twitter.

• Sen. Robert Farnsworth, 4/2/24 - attempted to amend the omnibus education bill with an amendment that would allow kids to be able to graduate without Algebra II. HE'S A TEACHER! His justification seems to come down to "I never have used it so no one should have to learn it!"

• Various Republicans, 4/5/24 - A group of Minnesota Republicans went full conspiracy theory and introduced an anti-chemtrails bill.  The bill called for county sheriffs (?!?) to investigate citizen complaints about chemtrails.  There's so much stupid here, and you can guess some of the fools involved in this, but it was surprising that one of the moron sponsors was Senate assistant minority leader Justin Eichorn.

• Drew Roach, 4/11/24 - The MN House candidate, in 2022, was part of a group that was trying to stop a primary election in the city of Rosemount.  He was trying to serve a citizen petition to a city council member. Roach and another woman showed up three times to her house.  The third time, he got into an altercation with the council member's son, which led to Roach being charged with disorderly conduct.  Roach apparently was pounding on the door, and the altercation began when Roach said, "I know where you live, mother...er!" 

• Jimmy Gordon, 7/23/24 - The Republican candidate for MN House, who knocked off the incumbent in the primary, has a long history of tax delinquency, including a nearly $39,000 tax lien on him from the IRS, which was only resolved earlier this year.  The state of Minnesota has filed 3 tax liens on him, all of which have been resolved.  And he wants to make budget decisions for you! 

• Erica Schwartz, 9/10/24 - At a Republican fundraiser in Mankato, the MN House candidate said Democrats were leading the US into another Holocaust. Showing she doesn't really know what the Holocaust was, her justification for making this claim was Democrats promoting transgender rights, and too many Pride flags. 

• Kathleen Fowke, 9/18/24 - The sole Republican running for an MN Senate seat has extensive ties to big energy, but it's her home ownership that also raised some eyebrows. Not only does she own TWO multi-million dollar homes and two other Minneapolis homes, but the super-wealthy candidate used a homestead property tax exemption for a Plymouth townhome she doesn't live in. It's (fudgy) legal, as a relative lives there, but it does raise some eyebrows as far as a multi-millionaire claiming a tax break on a home she doesn't live in while her actual home is valued at 4.9 million.

• Caleb Steffenhagen, 9/13/24 - A story exposes the mngop MN House candidate as having worked with a group that counseled members against same-sex attraction.  When confronted about it he justified his stance by insisting that the Bible tells him to think this way, but he promised he wouldn't influence his votes.  Sure...

• Rep. Jeff Dotseth, 9/17/24 - It is revealed that the Representative, in 2008, was arrested and was prohibited from having contact with his ex-wife.  In sworn affidavits against him, he allegedly mentally and physically abused his ex-wife and his stepson and allegedly kicked and punched their pet dog.  He also allegedly said he would own slaves if it was legal today.  The alleged abuse of his ex-wife included slapping, kicking and choking.  His stepson is still today scared of the man after the alleged abuse he endured.  HE WASN'T FOUND NOT GUILTY! He plead to a lesser charge, meaning those sworn affidavits are still out there.

• Rep. Paul Novotny, 9/17/24 - The Representative was a police sergeant who responded to the 2008 domestic assault call on Dotseth.  HE KNEW! And yet he never said anything, even when he became a Representative. 

• Bidal Duran, 9/24/24 - The candidate for MN House, when he was a law enforcement official, had a state judge chew him out for "intentionally or recklessly mischaracterizing the truth," on two affidavits regarding a felony drug case. The case fell apart due to Duran's reckless behavior and there was an investigation into misconduct.

• Aaron Repinski, 10/8/24 - The GOP candidate for an MN House seat was at a fundraiser when he freely shared there should be strict limits on abortion, "maybe it's 5 to 6 weeks," before most women even know they are pregnant. When confronted about it, his campaign manager said he was unaware of being recorded.

• Nathan Hansen, 10/10/24 - The Republican-endorsed candidate for a district judge position tried to delete a lot of his former social media posts, but enough of them remain to get a pretty stark picture of Hansen.  THE MAN WHO WANTS TO BE A JUDGE promoted Pizzagate (the lunatic fringe conspiracy about a child sex hoax in a pizza parlor), said property taxes are illegal, and said satanic people run the government.

• Nathan Wesenberg, 10/28/24 - The astonishingly incompetent Senator likely is looking at a libel lawsuit against himself and the Minnesota Republican Party after he posted on his official Senate Facebook page a post that accused a teacher in his district of wanting to teach boys to give other boys oral sex.  This is completely made up, and it seems like the intent of the post was to get someone to violently attack the teacher.  When news media started to cover the post, Wesenberg meekly deleted it, but the lawsuit potential is still there.  

There are AT LEAST five other candidates I could've included here and at least 4 more GOP candidates who have been caught sharing their true feelings on outlawing abortion in the state.

The MNGOP is garbage. Not only are they chock full of unqualified and incompetent people who shouldn't be in charge of a SPOON, let alone an elected official, but the rest of the party, the so-called 'good Republicans,' can't even bring themselves to condemn the indefensible behavior of their candidates (DOTESTH??? ANYONE???).

Shame on them.  They are indeed a FAR WORSE option than the Democrats.

As you go vote on November 5th, remember that not only is Trump unworthy of your vote, but THERE ISN'T A SINGLE REPUBLICAN IN THE STATE WITH ANY MORAL FIBER.

Vote straight Democratic Ticket and take the garbage out!

The Friday Link for 11/1/24

With Election Week upon us, let's focus on politics.

First up is Epic Rap Battles of History with their traditional candidate versus candidate video.

Warning, some adult language! 

Next up is Jordan Klepper doing what Jordan Klepper does best, going to Trump rallies and exposing the insanity of the people there.  This time, he goes to a few of them with other people and the results are equally as amazing.

He went to the Reno rally with Thomas Lennon, who's best known for playing Lt. Jim Dangle from Reno 911!  How in the world they did not absolutely break up the entire time, I do not know.

And watch until the end because the retrospective thoughts are pretty spot on!

 

Also, from The Daily Show, John Leguizamo shows Trump's comments about Latino/Hispanic people to Latino/Hispanic Trump voters and it gets interesting.  The end of this video is also nuts.

Remember to vote.  Even if you disagree with me, voting is such an amazing unique right.  Your state's Secretary of State Page will have all the details you need to vote.

And everyone call everyone you know and encourage them to vote.  See if they need a ride to the polls! 

Have a nice weekend. 

The Friday Link for 10/25/24

It's the Spooky Season! 

This week I'm featuring some great Halloween scares for you, plus Lewis Black!

First up is Salem's Lot, the vampire story from Stephen King.  This movie is the original 1979 TV mini-series.  It blows my mind that this movie was a TV mini-series because it has some of the best jump scares ever in any horror film.  I just rewatched it last week, and I jumped like I did when I was 10. 

There is a new version of the story out on HBO, and although the story is not bad, they really went out on their own with the final 30 minutes.  I don't recommend it.  Instead, find and watch the original.

In this video, we see the scariest vampire since Nosferatu, the Master, aka Kurt Barlow. Here he is, coming to get Mark, a very recognizable Lance Kerwin, and how about freaking James Mason showing up!  

Another great horror film, and possibly the greatest horror film of all time, is The Thing. There is an entire culture geared around still trying to figure out the order of who the alien gets, and when they get got!

There are two main questions: 1) who was the first infected, and 2) who was infected in the end? I REALLY recommend watching the movie, but here is WhatCulutre's breakdown of who and when they got infected.

One more.  Here is the trailer for Session 9, a very low budget horror film with David Caruso. This movie scared the daylights out of me.  The scares come from a very minimal set and a relatively small cast. In the end, you'll be asking yourself "how did I miss all of that?"

Finally tonight, Lewis Black from The Daily Show takes on the scariest thing in America today, undecided voters.  Seriously...HOW? Trump loves Hitler?  How is that not a deal breaker for you? 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Stay safe! Get vaccinated for COVID and for the flu! 

The Friday Link for 10/18/24

Howdy all! I hope you have a great weekend.  I need to be short and sweet this Friday but I've got a fun one for you.

A few weeks ago I featured a clip from the TV show Game Changer, a comedian-fueled game show.  That's put out by the channel Dropout, which seems to be an evolved version of the insanely hilarious College Humor comedy troop.  College Humor was one of the first Internet comedy groups that really got the internet format. The two recurring College Humor bits/series that you'd probably know are Adam Ruins Everything and If Google Was A Guy.  Both are still pretty hilarious today.

College Humor, after an ownership change in the early 2020s, was rebranded as Dropout, and it is consistently putting out some of the best internet comedy.

Go watch Game Changer, but I am going to give you a few videos from another one of thir great shows, Breaking News.  The concept is simple. Four comedians pretend to be news anchors, but they do not know what they are about to read.  If they start laughing they lose a point.  The comedian with the lowest point total has to finish off the show in style. 

Enjoy a few episodes of the show.  Warning: There is some adult content. 

The last three segments feature someone I'm now addicted to, Amy Vorpahl, who just can not stop laughing, but it's the best kind of laughing.  Watching her lose it makes me smile!

LOVE her! 

I am off to celebrate my birthday! Please make sure you get up to date on your flu and COVID shots! 

And please make sure you are registered to vote, AND VOTE!!!

The Friday Link for 10/11/24

This week, a real mish-mash of videos.

First up is the return of Nate Bargatze to Saturday Night Live and with that, we get another visit with George Washington! 

Next up is a political post.  As a matter of fact, you can skip the next two if you don't want politics.

This is the introduction to the Colbert Show with Kamala Harris as his guest.  He did this in the style of the 60 Minutes intro from last Sunday.  It's very political, but I do like the payoff at the end. 

Next up is a great speech from Tim Walz in Michigan. His line about Trump's Chinese Bibles is amazing.  He is really good at this.  Especially watch from 5:35 to 8:40.

Finally tonight, what ever happened to Epic Rap Battles of History?  Sure they've had one or two okay videos in the last year, but they used to be so freaking good and consistent.

Here are two of the better entries from them:  Artists vs. Turtles and Harry Potter vs. Luke Skywalker. Both of these are...epic! 

Eclectic! 

Have a good weekend everyone.  Make sure to get your flu shot and your COVID booster! 

The Friday Link for 10/4/24

Howdy all! 

This week, I have a bone to pick with the Minneapolis-St. Paul haters.  

There has always been this metro/rural divide in America, mainly since about 100 years ago when people started to leave the farm and head into the big city.  Out of resentment, rural America started painting the metro areas of this country with a more and more negative brush.  

Now I know immediately I'll hear, "Metro areas badmouth the country way of life too!"  Yes, they do, but as someone who has lived extensively in both rural and metro America, many rural people CONSTANTLY bad-mouth cities, although the ratio in the other direction is dramatically less, something smaller communities falsely inflate to justify their non-stop bad-mouthing.

Republicans over the last 20 years have gleefully fanned the flames of this rural disdain of the cities with all the tropes.  "It's expensive!" "It's crowded!" ""So much crime!" "There is a 'bad element' there!" "It's confusing to get around!"  You get the idea.

In the age of Trump, this criticism got kicked up a notch. "THEY'RE ALL BURNTOUT HELLSCAPES, GHOST TOWNS, WHERE YOU'RE GUARANTEED TO GET MURDERED AND CRIME IS OUT OF CONTROL!"

I live in the Twin Cities metro area and I love it. There are great elements of living in rural America, but the quality of life my family has here is exceptional! As much as some insist it's overridden by criminals, I go out into the city all the time. I've rarely seen any crime myself and I feel safe in my city.

It doesn't mean it doesn't have problems.  Of course it does! Every town, big and small, does, but I've had it with people whose only goal is to hate for hate's sake, usually with an ignorance that is hard to comprehend. 

A few weeks back I posted the Chef Reactions videos where he LOVED the Minnesota State Fair and the Twin Cities. I also posted another positive video of a French woman visiting Minnesota.  This week it's The Endless Adventure and their visit to Minneapolis, which they seemed to really enjoy! 

Also this week ZeFrank has another hilarious MORE ADULT True Facts, exploring the mysterious world of the jellyfish! 

To everyone out there:  You have one life to live.  If you are unhappy where you are, move.  Go find your happy place. You will be happier and that's all that matters. It really is.

Please get vaccinated and stay safe.

Have a great weekend! 

The Friday Link for 9/27/24

Hi all!

This week we get a little science-y but first, we look at a Marvel movie coming out that I'm super psyched about.

Thunderbolts is the Marvel version of The Suicide Squad, with heroes and villains looking for redemption and getting a chance at it on a team that is...less than safe.  I think the bringing together of the rag-tag throw-away characters from the last few years of Marvel movies is exciting, but it's one individual character I'm most excited about, Bob Reynolds, The Sentry.

Sentry is a relatively new character in Marvel history, coming around at the turn of the century, but he ended up being part of an INSANELY good run of Avengers stories.  New Avengers, Civil War, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, and the Dark Avengers. Pick up an Avengers comic from around 1999 to 2012, and you won't go wrong.

Sentry is Marvel's version of Superman, but he is horribly flawed.  I have no idea how they'll introduce him in this movie, but Thunderbolts is a MUST-SEE movie for me, the first must-see Marvel movie in a few years. Here is the trailer. 

The link is being picky, so click on this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-94Snw-H4o

Onto the science!

A fun video for me was this one about the largest visible crater on the planet, FAR bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

When I went to the Grand Canyon, I found out the bottom of the canyon was about 1.9 Billion years ago.  A Geologist said that goes back to the time right after a massive asteroid impact, which almost wiped out all simple life before it started to flourish.  I had forgotten about that little nugget until I caught this video about that specific asteroid hit from The SciShow YouTube channel.

Also From The SciShow, here is a video about The Doorway to the Underground in Siberia and how, due to climate change, for better or worse, we can't stop its growth.

I got my latest COVID shot and my flu shot for 2024 this week.  PLEASE get yours as soon as possible.  I don't want any of you to get sick.

Have a great weekend! 

The Friday Link for 9/20/24

Hey all!

I just literally saw this and decided to make it the top video tonight.

What if Trump was Sauron, courtesy of the game show Game Changer!

Also some laughs from two people who probably get NFL football better than anyone else.  These individuals make videos where they are the personification of every NFL team or their fans. 

First is Annie Agar who is wickedly funny and gets the team's facial reactions perfect!

Next is Tom Grossi who manages to capture the joy and agony of the fans. 

Finally tonight is the hilarious Sarah Cooper with her take on Trump/Harris debate! 

I hope you have a great weekend everyone! 

Get your vaccinations and flu shots! Stay safe! 

The Friday Link for 9/13/24

Happy Friday all! 

It would be cliche to post some Friday the 13th spooky videos (and it is something I've done before), but instead, I have part 2 of Chef Reactions' visit to Minneapolis St. Paul.

Two weeks ago I focused on his visit to the Minnesota State Fair.  A quick update on that.  Much like a lazy cooking video Chef Reactions would destroy, since the Fair I have viewed at least four other 'State Fair Food' videos, and they all were LAME! If you're going to come to the MN State Fair at least do some research about what food items are new and popular. And food review guys, if you don't want to wait in line for the best food options, what you shouldn't do is just grab the easiest food you can and act like it's mainstay MN Fair food items.  One video pissed me off as they only sampled marginal food items at booths with no line, foods no one ever talks about when they talk about the State Fair.  Those booths have no line for a reason.  You're not winning if all you do is punt. 

Just like he did at the Minnesota State Fair, Chef Reactions is a really good example of how you land in a new community and dive right into the local scene. Nice get on the Saints first pitch! Kramarczuk's getting a 100 out of 10 was AWESOME! Couldn't agree more. Saint Dinette (while it's still around) is a VERY underrated gem. And Matt's Juicy Lucy got a 10 out of 10.

Chef Reactions, thank you for coming here, PLEASE come back, and when you do, I have a few more suggestions for you. 

Also tonight is Stephen Colbert's recap of the Trump/Harris debate.  I was watching this at first with a group of station listeners at Crooner's and then at home with my wife and kids.  Watching Harris absolutely dismantle Trump was a thing of beauty.  

When the conservative pundits are furious that some idiot put the fake 'Haitians eating cats' story in front of Trump, something he would undoubtedly throw out there when he was getting shellacked by Harris, it tells you how badly the night went for him.

Truthfully I could EASILY post Kimmel and Stewart too, but I thought Colbert's was the funniest. 

That's it this week! Have a wonderful weekend.

Please make sure to stay up to date on your vaccines and flu shots! 

The Friday Link for 9/6/24

Hi all! 

This week I start with something completely political, and if you are a Trump fan, you might want to skip the video.

First this caveat, the New York Times is garbage.  We canceled our weekly subscription a few months back after it was clear they had a much harsher and more critical filter when they looked at President Joe Biden, versus Trump.  Most of the major news media has always treated Trump with kid gloves, and this election cycle they seem determined to put their fingers on the scale to help him out.  A much better synopsis of this flawed national news media can be read in the Guardian with a SPOT ON piece from Rebecca Solnit (The mainstream press is failing America – and people are understandably upset).

That being said, this piece from the New York Times is not so much flawed news coverage, but rather a piece about Allan Lichtman, a historian from American University who has a pretty successful formula for picking the winner of Presidential elections. He looks at the upcoming election and filters the candidates through his formula, and BINGO! He predicts...Harris! 

As positive as I think that outcome is, I will repeat what will be my mantra for the rest of the election cycle:  DONATE, VOLUNTEER, AND VOTE!!!

Okay, onto something else. 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' was a pretty funny show at times, and here are nearly 40 minutes of some pretty good laughs from the show.

The final thing tonight is a clip from Terminator which takes me back. This is from the 4K UHD HDR cut and frankly, this movie looks like it was released yesterday.  It's amazing how clean they can make images from (gulps loudly) 40 years ago look so clean.

It's the scene from the Tech Noir Club, but this scene is wonderfully shot.  It's also somewhat violent, so you've been warned! 

Have a great weekend everyone.  Please be careful in large crowds as COVID is back.  Please make sure you stay up to date on your vaccinations. 

The Minnesota State Fair Fine Art, 2024

It's time for some fun Minnesota State Fair posts!

The Fine Art competition was amazing as always.  I will post my top five from five to one, and the the other pieces I liked.

#5 

#4

#3

#2

#1

And here are the rest I liked.  Enjoy!

The Friday Link for 8/30/24

Hi all!  I hope you have a nice Labor Day Weekend.

There is one more weekend of the Minnesota State Fair.  Earlier this week the sensational YouTube/TikTok/Twitter account Chef Reactions came to the Minnesota State Fair to see what it was all about. 

This is different than most of Chef Reaction's videos.  I've featured his MST3K-esque running commentary over online cooking videos and they're freaking hilarious.  Due to his popularity, he started making other types of videos, like going somewhere and tasting local cuisine. 

He asked his fans which State Fair should he go to, and the overwhelming response was the Minnesota State Fair, so he came and he ate. He ate a ton, and pretty much he gave most things he ate an 8, 9, or a 10 (out of 10). Nice job Minnesota State Fair!

He does swear, but look past that and see a guy who came to Minnesota for the first time and ended up having a good time. Enjoy! 

If he comes back, I'd recommend the Union Kitchen and a Pronto Pup. I promise I'll post his Minneapolis-St. Paul restaurant review when it comes out. 

Also this weekend the channel Sprockets In Time takes a look at the disaster movies from the 1970s.  I remember growing up with these movies and how popular they were.  I also remember not only the TV ads for these movies but the full-page newspaper ads.  They left an impression as a kid.

This recap starts with the Posideon Adventure and ends with the end of the Disaster genre with When Time Ran Out.  Then again 2012 was like the granddaddy of the disaster films. 

Finally this week was a political rant I did which was featured on CliffsEdge, my friend Cliff Schecter's YouTube page.  It's how the movie Armageddon influenced who MAGA is today.  It has over 70,000 views.  I am stunned and humbled.  

Please watch and share if you like it.

Have a great and safe weekend.

Please make sure you get all your vaccinations.  I am getting mine in a few weeks at the VA! 

The Friday Link for 8/23/24

It's DNC week and I've been loving it.  

I love the tone of this convention, taking the threat to our democracy seriously!  When Michelle Obama spoke the other night, she no longer was "when they go low, we go high."  She seemed to be drawing from a different cultural standard this time.

I'll turn it over to the Representative from New Mexico..."Say my name!"

And here was the fun Minnesota delegation in action! 

Also this week, on James Whale Bake Sale, Bill Hader has a long discussion about the movie "No Country for Old Men.'  It's a good breakdown of the movie with Hader's usual wit. 

This is in two parts.

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Make sure to stay up to date on your vaccinations.

I want you safe.