These are the mad political rantings of one Matthew McNeil, Liberal/Democratic radio host in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. The postings are mine, the thoughts are mine. Mostly about politics, but I will occasionally get into raising kids, cooking, gardening, the arts and my favorite sports. Bon Appetite!
This week, I give you four videos which are not related in any way!
First up is The My Pillow Guy remix from the The Remix Bros. A warning, there are like two bad words in the remix, so you've been warned! It's actually really well done, and it's got a kicking beat.
Next up was the best bit from the Emmy Awards last Sunday, the support group for the people who haven't won an Emmy.
Third tonight is a Colbert bit. With them all being at the Emmy's on Sunday, they did a pre-recorded show for Monday night, which was a best of compilation from the months they did quarantine shows. The celebrities answering the 'Colbert Questionert' got some great answers.
And finally something more serious to end out the Link. White America knows so little about the past and the present of the Native American tribes. By educating ourselves, we can understand their plight better and use that knowledge to make amends, striving to make life better for everyone. This 5 minute Ted Talk video (from a Finnish Preofessor???) gives you a pretty good history of the Lakota, featuring their rise and tragic fall. Please, educate yourselves.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Stay Healthy and Stay Safe. Please get vaccinated!!!
This week, I'm going to just do something I love, and hope you give it a watch.
Geddy Lee is the Singer/Bass player/Keyboardist for Rush, the Canadian Power trio and my favorite band of all time. It's been hard since Neil Peart, the bands virtuoso drummer, passed away. Rush was always a dear friend, a band I looked forward to hearing new music from/seeing on tour for decades. Staying loyal to each other, the band ended when Neil passed away.
Geddy Lee sat down with Dan Rather in October of 2017 (prior to Neil's passing) and talked about the band and the music, the fans and celebrity. They also talk about one of my other passions, baseball. This interview makes me love the band even more, and yearn for just one more concert.
Also tonight here is the upcoming trailer for the Hawkeye TV show and it looks fantastic!
Twenty years ago, I was in what is now my home's dining area. We had set up our computer in that room, an extra room we were trying to figure out what to do with at that point. We had purchased our house a few months earlier, and were expecting our first child, my son, in about a month and a half. I remember feeling like we had so much space in our place back then.
I was working as a fill in radio host, primarily on Metro Traffic and KFAN, but occasionally helping out at various other stations. I was surfing the internet for my morning news and heard the radio talking about "some idiot flew his plane into one of the World Trade Towers." The narrative was much more joking and mocking. "How could some idiot hit the only buildings standing that tall in New York City?" Then the cocky host gasped in horror as they said "Oh my God, another plane just seemed to intentionally fly into the other tower."
That's the moment the world changed.
I scrambled to the TV and watched in horror. I called my wife and had to fill her in (this was before cell phone news alerts kept us all awake at night). I called my dad and found out my mother was on a business trip in the Carolinas. She was safe, but grounded.
That moment, and the months that followed, was the last time I remember America being united, a welcomed patriotic embrace. The country had been extremely divided in the months leading up to the attack. Gore v. Bush, Enron, and W. Bush's ham handed Administration had gotten us to a point where a huge split in this country was starting to happen. Then 9/11. We were all sad, grieving, angry. We all mourned our loses and (for the most part) were unified in a strong response to the people involved. We went after Bin Laden, Al qaeda and the Taliban. We vowed to do whatever it would take to never let something like this happen again. We all embraced being Americans.
Then came the racist attacks on ALL Muslims and foreigners. Then questions about why Bush let the Saudis off the hook. Then the made up war on Iraq, leaving Bin Laden and the Taliban alive while the US military was sent on a red herring, an attempt by Cheney to wreck OPEC by flooding the markets with Iraqi oil. Then came 'Bin Laden determined to strike in the US.' Then came ludacris Congressional testimony from Bush aides who had determined sounding like morons was the only option they had in their defense.
But there was something subtle that happened late in W.'s 2nd term which ended all hope of unifying us again. I started noticing Conservatives, when talking about 9/11, only focused on the United 93 flight which crashed in Pennsylvania, and the attack on the Pentagon. When I would gently remind those people "AND The World Trade Centers," they would say of course, but the next time we talked the focus would be back to the military attack and the crashed plane in rural Pennsylvania.
Then the same people started to throw around the idea that 9/11 was really an attack on "Real America." When I would ask them what "Real America" was, the response was "it's the parts of this country where wholesome family values, love of God, and a clean and honest quality of life exist, not the corrupted, dirty and ungrateful areas of this country that try take advantage of 'Real Americans'." Hello dog whistle!
As the 2008 election approached, the thin veil was removed and the argument morphed into a blunt "Real America" verses those Liberal anti-American parts of the country. I'd point out the vast majority of the victims of 9/11 came from those supposed 'Liberal anti-American parts of the country,' but they'd ignore me, insisting 9/11 was really a direct attack on Republicans and their values, an attack which Liberals cheered.
This was the beginning.
Look what that has evolved into today. You have on one side people begging everyone to get vaccinated, wear masks, and be as safe as possible as we deal with a major pandemic. On the other side, the argument is "You're LYING! There is nothing to worry about. Let me take my horse de-wormer that can kill me! We're for Personal responsibility." After one of their loved ones gets infected with COVID, the argument is "I'm a victim. Biden did this to me!!!"
The main change in this country over the last twenty years is how one political party (the Republicans) decided to blame the worst things that have happened to us as a country on their political opponents (to get what they wanted). Even when they couldn't find enough real things to blame Democrats for, they just started making stuff up (pizza parlor sacrifice pits, magnetized vaccines, stolen elections).
The reason we are no longer unified as a country is because one side has blamed the other for everything bad this country has experienced not because it's true, but because it was a political opportunity; they created a villain their followers eagerly embraced, enabling the politicians to push through an insanely Conservative political agenda.
If another 9/11 happened today, there would be no unification, even for a day. The Republicans would be screaming about how "It's all the Democrats" fault(!)" as they send out fundraising emails. It will take a generation to reunify this country again.
Let me attempt to remind everyone what brought us together 20 years ago. The Friday Link is (a less than quality copy of) '9/11,' the documentary made by the two French brothers who happened to be on the scene of the attack when it happened.
We were all Americans after 9/11. At least for a few months. We should try to remember that.
I have no agenda outside of I do not want to see you or your loved ones suffer.
Get vaccinated, wear a mask and be safe.
Have a good weekend everyone. God bless the United States.
A few years back on the Friday Link I featured the original Ted Lasso promos created when NBC started covering Premiere League Soccer. They featured a perfectly cast Jason Sudeikis who absolutely nailed the clueless American football coach getting hired to coach an English Soccer club. If you can find it, enjoy! You can also find those original promos on You Tube.
Apple TV came up with the brilliant idea of making a series out of the bit, and it's worked great. The cast is perfect and Sudeikis is all charm. They should clean up at the Emmy awards, but let me give you a little taste of why this show works so well. This clip has got a little rough language but this is a spectacular synopsis of why Ted Lasso is a great show. This is a darn near perfect scene.
Also tonight I want to feature two bits of Native American History. Once again, you can not learn from past mistakes if you don't understand the history of a subject.
When I was a kid in Rhode Island, we learned extensively about the King Philip's War, but when you get away from the New England area, King Philips War is hardly mentioned. This was the first large uprising the Native Americans staged agains the encroaching (at this point) British. For some Native Americans, it was becoming clear the settlers were never going to stop, and so they put forward what ended up being a fairly vicious, and at times, wildly successful war to push the colonists back into the ocean.
In the end, it didn't go their way, and the repercussions of King Philip's War set the stage for the horrific treatment of Native Americans for the next 300+ years.
And finally tonight, Native American ingenuity and engineering helped create what was at one point the largest city on the North American continent, and a city which might have been larger than London. And you probably didn't know it was right outside of St. Louis.
Let me introduce you to the great ancient Native American city of Cahokia.
