The Friday Link for 3/25/22

God Bless Randy Rainbow!

Your first clip tonight is another of his fantastic song parodies and he's got Marjory Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert in his sights.

***Warning*** There is some naughty language but 'Gurl You're a Karen' is freaking hilarious! 

Also tonight, two clips from recent movies.  The first is a deleted clip from the new movie 'The Batman.'  Although the main villain in this movie is The Riddler, Batman apparently goes to get advice from The Joker. Played by Barry Keoghan, who also was in 'The Eternals' and 'Dunkirk,' I'm somewhat fascinated by this clip.  I do want to see more of him in this role. 

Also tonight, I really did enjoy the latest entry in 'The Matrix' franchise, 'The Matrix Resurrections.' It's worth watching and if nothing else a dynamite popcorn movie. Here's one of the fight scenes:

Have a good weekend.  Get vaccinated and wear a mask.  The Pandemic is still going on. 

Failing to Deliver

In 2014, leading up to the midterm elections, there was only one story covered in the news, Ebola.  It was EVERYWHERE!  The 24 hour news networks were wall to wall with the total of 11 total cases linked to the USA.  That's right, eleven.  Two of those 11 people died (tragically), but it clearly wasn't the national crisis being presented in the news.

Then, on Election Day 2014, something incredible happened.  The story disappeared!  I'm not saying the story went completely away, but it was mostly gone overnight. Two local news stations in Minneapolis/St. Paul didn't even mention it on Election Day, or ever again to my knowledge, and most papers (AT BEST) relegated the story to deep within the folds of the paper.  By the end of the week, the news media had completely forgotten about the Ebola crisis they had intensely reported on for the last two months.

This story was a plant, a made up crisis pushed by Republicans and their puppet masters to prevent the news media from covering the Election clearly, and to try to scare people away from the polls on Election Day.  After they accomplished their goals, they themselves stopped pushing the story, and the news media, whether in compliance with the Republicans, or blindly following the rest of the lemmings, stoped talking about the story.  It was the all the proof you needed the media of this country was hopelessly controlled by the Right.

Speaking of pandemics, the last two years we've had a bit of a rough go.  Near 80 million people in the US have contracted COVID (including yours truly), and near 975,000 people have died.  Now, if Republicans had the same intensity as they had with Ebola with COVID, those two numbers would've likely been dramatically lower.  Instead, Republicans found political value in denying vaccines worked, discouraging face masks and vilifying the medial and scientific community as a whole. 

The Republicans were so good at their messaging, there are families where a loved one DIED of Corona Virus, and yet they still refused to get vaccinated or wear a mask because the Right told them they didn't need it.  Politicians, drunk on their own press releases, started trying to tell hospitals, including the World's Best Hospital(!!!), The Mayo Clinic, how to do medicine!  And psychopathic, deranged loon balls showed up at school board meetings to threaten to murder them all if they dared shut down schools or even demand a facemark, DURING A PANDEMIC!  And the news media covered all of this as viable 'counterpoint.'

The real failure in both of these cases is not the Republicans.  Quite the contrary, their messaging exceeds  expectations EVERY SINGLE TIME!  They are masters at controlling narrative.  The real problem here is the Democrats, who even though have facts, science and evidence on their side, can't seem to put out an effective messaging campaign to save their asses.  BOTH of these Republican narratives would easily be countered if Democrats created uniform messaging and demanded equal time in all news outlets.  Instead they get so caught up in trying to sound nuanced and clever, trying to make themselves sound bipartisan, tolerating (or even agreeing) with Republican lunacy, and thinking a plucky attitude will win the day (it won't).

Democrats lack of follow through on messaging is so toxic right now, it's my opinion their fear of how they'll be perceived if they hold a Republican accountable for their undeniable criminal activity creates a self induced deterrent to charging CLEALY guilty people (like Trump) for their crimes.

We saw the beginnings of this failure in the W. Bush Administration.  Not only did we know W., Cheney and his Administration LIED us into the Iraq War, we actually had evidence they did so, enough to charge them!  Then suddenly, Democrats came out like whipped pups, starting at the ground, pretending to shift unseeable dirt and sand with their feet, as they meekly said they weren't going to file any charges. They had them dead to rights, and they just let them go.

Compare that to the next 8 years under President Obama. Republican MADE UP a fake narrative that something nefarious actually happened in Benghazi and then initiated 8, EIGHT(!!!), investigations into the attack.  They would have an investigation, they themselves would find absolutely ZERO evidence of the wrongdoing they claimed happened, and immediately open another investigation, claiming "We still have a lot of unanswered questions!"  They didn't.  This was only about controlling narrative. By the way, when the Trump Administration's actions clearly contributed to the deaths of US soldiers in Niger, the same Republicans said "nothing to see here," as the meek Democrats went along.

Today, I've gotten to the point where I've lost all faith the Democrats will actually hold Trump, or any Republican guilty of their crimes. Currently Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has, inexplicably, decided to not charge Trump with financial crimes his own prosecutors have said are a SLAM DUNK conviction. He's even started sending the evidence collected of Trump's crimes back to their respective witnesses. He might be bought off to make the case go away, or he might be afraid his political future might take a hit if he follows through and jails Trump.  Regardless, it's a clear failure to deliver.

As much as what the Manhattan DA is doing is a head scratcher, it's nothing compared to the lack of real action by the 1/6 Commission and the Department of Justice in regards to the Insurrection, the clear attempt to overthrow the government of the United States.  Between clearly guilty rioters getting relative slaps on the wrist, to the mountain of evidence pointing to major coordination and involvement with militia groups, the RNC, Republican Congresspeople and Senators, the Trump 2020 campaign, major factions of the Republican fund raising and organizing operations, a string of incompetent Trump lawyers, the Administration, and Trump himself, it's mind numbing there are not already REAL HARSH CHARGES being filed.  I get the impression this will be W. and the Iraqi War all over again.

And last night, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife Ginni was exposed as actively communicating with the Trump Administration, encouraging the overthrow of the government of the United States.  Not only that, but her husband was the lone justice (ON THAT COURT) to rule against Trump (and any future President???) from ever having to release internal communications to an active investigation, something we now know he was doing to prevent his wife from getting exposed as being a player in the attempted overthrow of Biden. 

Now, either Justice Thomas is making rulings which he feels his wife would want him to make, OR his wife is directly telling him how to rule on cases.  Regardless there should be an immediate impeachment hearing in the House and a trial in the Senate. I guarantee, if this was a liberal Justice's spouse caught in the same scandal, Republicans would have have 15 investigations already this morning, and a big ol' pot of impeachment brewing, as every news outlet in the country would be demanding accountability, not just reporting on the case.  I can't wait to see how the Democrats drop this ball.

Meanwhile the Republicans are still having a field day with President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and his laptop.  Not only has the entire Joe Biden/Burisma story been proven to be a made up lie, but the supposed laptop with the supposed email which is the Right's so called "smoking gun evidence" is a laughing stock.  A computer repair store in Delaware apparently found his laptop, and instead of looking at the service ticket to figure out whose it is, they opened it up and found ONE email allegedly from Hunter Biden to someone which confirms the entire scandal...which has already been proven fraudulent. 

Yet look at how intently the Right is still screaming this story! Every week I get Republicans saying to me "just you wait until Monday! It'll be the biggest scandal in the history of the country." But when Monday comes, and no scandalous news story drops, it's always "Biden and the mainstream media are covering up the truth!"

The Republican Party and their voters might just be the greatest mind control experiment in human history.

Dear Democrats, FILE THE FREAKING CHARGES!  We've all seen the evidence!  We all know who did what and when!  We all know they're guilty of the crimes!  The Republicans will not be your friends or give you a pass even if you don't file charges, so file them!  Stop sitting there and smugly thinking "we don't have to prosecute these criminals, as 'history' will harshly condemn them for all time!"

Well, that depends on who writes the history books...

Swipe Right For Sloth!

During the Trump years, I made the following observation:  A Trump supporter could walk into their house, find Trump actively having sex with their spouse, and the first words out of their mouth would be "Damn Democrats!"

I want to update that.  It's clear at this point most Republicans could walk into their house, find a deranged Trump chainsawing their loved ones into cubes, and, after watching in adoration, cheering on the carnage, scream "Damn Democrats! Now why haven't they helped me after the loss of my family!  I'm the REAL victim!!!"

I've come to this determination after I stumbled across this meme floating around Republican circles on social media: 

It's stunning a politician and/or his allies would even attempt this farce. The argument of 'you have to stop all investigations into a CLEARLY GUILTY corrupt jackass, because if you don't they'll come after everyone else' is a laughable, pathetic escape attempt.  Any moron should be able to look at this ad and clearly see all Trump is trying to do is prevent himself from being held accountable for his actions.  

But yet the paranoid Trump fans eagerly gobble up this drivel. 

Piggy backing on my point about Trump fans finding him sleeping with their spouse, there is another ugly truth about Trump fans.  Trump fans know Trump is a horrible person, but because he validates their racism, and/or allows them to blame everyone else for their lifetime of mistakes, they create fantastical, laughable conspiracy theories about the other side to validate their love of Trump.  "Sure Trump is not perfect, but Hillary Clinton drinks blood from babies in the basement of a Maryland Pizza parlor, so I'm on the right side of this fight!"

THAT ARGUMENT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!  And it still happens today.

Like all things with the Republicans, when they have success with something, they replicate it.  This deflection technique is now not just for the extreme, far right loon balls in QAnon, but is now a mainstream argument, basically saying "Don't believe what your eyes are seeing, and your ears are hearing.  HERE is what you should believe!"  And this year it's becoming the rallying cry of the Republican politicians.  

Already I've seen at least 20 Republicans who openly railed against vaccines, calling them "dangerous" and something people should avoid, NOW insist they never once bad mouthed vaccines, only said individuals should have the choice of getting vaccinated.  They're now even freely admitting they got vaccinated early on in the process as they were spewing anti-vaxx propaganda, stating, "If I was against the vaccine, why did I get vaccinated right away (something I've intensely kept secret)."

There have already been a few dozen Republicans who PROUDLY voted against the Infrastructure and earmark bills, meaning they were against those bills passing, claiming credit for the elements of those bills which help their district. The argument they put forward is something to the effect of "I was proudly against the bill, but I did convince Biden and the Democrats to put this spending in the bill I VOTED AGAINST, so I deserve credit for it."  It Minnesota, the inclusion of those projects was not due to any Republicans, but rather the two Democratic US Senators.

And with Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson getting peppered in the US Senate, Republicans are not only smearing her with racist statements, argument and tropes, which they try to reframe by intensely screaming "HOW DARE YOU CALL ME RACIST (for the clearly racist things I said)," but they're also floating the evil villain story they've been floating the last few years: "Sure we're horrible at leading this country, but the other side of the aisle are all child molesters, or openly supporting child molesters, so my racism, bigotry, hate, pandering to the wealthy, corporations over citizens stances, and forcing of Christianity on all people is noble and justified!"

By the way, they scream the "all Democrats are child molesters" lie as it seems the VAST majority of people arrested for child sex crimes in this country seem to be staunch Republicans. This would be what a psychologist would call 'classic projection.'  It's like when the most anti-gay politicians come out as gay, or Putin claiming he's attacking Ukraine because "they're the real Nazis."

The worst part of all of this is a weakened news media which refuses to do their job.  In the last three weeks, I've seen the news media run pro-Republican political stories obnoxiously full of lies(!), lies which are laughably easy to fact check.  Instead of simply holding the Republicans up to their own record, they instead either fail to bring up the truth surrounding the 'new found' Republican stances, or they outright publish Republican campaign talking points as 'news' but really are designed to erase the truth.  It's one or the other.

This is what we are up against this election cycle, easily fact checked lies being presented by Republicans and the news media as "truth."  It'd be like if Sloth, from the movie the Goonies (the less nauseating photo above) got on an online dating site. Knowing he has a few things going against him, to make himself more palatable, the argument he makes is "Don't let your eyes fool you!  Everyone else on this dating site is a Nazi, Fascist, Communist, Vampire, child molester who wants to force you to have an abortion, wants to abort already born children, wants to force your kids to beg for forgiveness for being white, wants to make every woman athlete in Division I sports transgender, wants to make Christianity illegal, wants to kill grandma, take your house, kill your dog and take all your money!"  Meanwhile the supposedly independent watchdog tasked with shining a light on the truth gives a big thumbs up to Sloth's claims, calling it "a bold new strategy geared to finding that special loved one!"

Swipe right for Sloth.

Friday Link for 3/18/22

I have two Star Wars related videos this week.

I love Star Wars, but one thing that hasn't aged well is the original battle in A New Hope between Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi.  Especially when you look at how bad ass Jedi's get when the special effects can match their true powers (think Luke Skywalker taking on the Empire in The Last Jedi).

As Lucas has revisited his old movies and added Ewoks, lizards and far too many droids, I wondered if he'd ever try to remaster the original lightsaber duel, to make it worthy of the series.

Leave it to some fans to put together a sensational lightsaber duel which should be inserted into A New Hope.  The images are not framed perfectly, and the special effects need to be cleaned up a little, but it's worthy of inclusion on the Star Wars universe. 

Then again, I think our minds would've exploded if this was the lightsaber fight in the original film in the 1970's. 

Also tonight another Star Wars clip, this from one of their video games which talks about the Old Republic, stories from long before the current Star Wars universe.  

When the last few Star Wars movies came out, I though they were very good.  I'm a defender of The Rise of Skywalker.  Sure Palpatine returning out of nowhere with very little explanation is a massive MacGuffin, but I think it was hard to wrap up all of those plot points and not have a few holes. 

That being said, The Empire Strikes Back is still the high-water mark for all Star Wars films, and as good as the final three were, they are still no where near as complete and as entertaining as Empire.  That's why this simple 6 minute Old Republic video game trailer is astonishing.  I think this is as good as Empire! Watching this makes me want to see a movie around all of these characters.  

Watch for yourself and see if you're like me, wanting more! 

Have a great weekend and please get vaccinated if you haven't already!

The Friday Link for 3/11/22

Here in Minnesota, we are almost out of winter.  One more morning of really cold temperatures and then we enjoy 40 and 50 degrees beginning next week.  I know a lot of people, especially people in the south, will hear that and be shocked we're excited about what sounds like cool temperatures, but most Minnesotans will be showing off their pasty white thighs in shorts if it breaks 55. 

It's been a long winter.

This week we say goodbye to the cold by remembering one of the worst snow storms of all time.  The Blizzard of 1888 was a monster, killing a lot of people along the Eastern Seaboard.  I'll let The History Guy give you the history of the storm.  He even does a very good job explaining how the storm affected city planning across the globe, but one of the things he doesn't really delve into is how the storm was also one of the first dominos in what was to become the labor movement in the United States.

This storm happened on a Sunday, but many people ended up dying because they were headed into work, or trying to get home from it. People worked 7 days a week and even in the face of a life threatening storm were headed into the office.  They ended up finding people in Philadelphia frozen to death in snowbanks, succumbed to the weather as they tried to get to work.  It's no surprise people started asking the question of "why people were trying to get into the office on a massive snowstorm," and "why was there such need for offices to be opened on a Sunday anyway."

This wasn't the one thing that borough change, but combine this with the Johnstown Flood disaster, the ruthlessness of company towns, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the rise of the union movement, brought into the US via immigrants, and the days of businesses mistreating their employees were numbered.

Speaking of old things, the other video this week is a restoration video.  This genre of videos is where they find something old and rusty and they go about painstakingly restoring it to its former glory. You see this a lot with cast iron pans, lighters and knives, but a corn sheller?

Sometimes technology of the past is so cool.  Enjoy this restoration video from Lost & Restored, but the incredible part is when they use it at the end.  That is an amazing machine! It makes me want to grow my own corn, dry it and then use the...well never mind.  That sounds exhausting, but I still can enjoy the ingenuity of the designers. 

Have a great weekend and if you still haven't gotten vaccinated, please do.  Thanks! 

Troll Bridge

The Republicans have gone NUTS in the last 24 hours.  After President Joe Biden banned Russian oil imports to prevent American dollars from supporting their evil slaughter of innocent Ukrainians, something which was achieved via a fairly large bipartisan majority, Republican spin doctors immediately began screaming about how Joe Biden was directly responsible for raising gas prices.  When the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki corrected that notion and specifically mentioned the current 9000 oil and gas leases the oil and gas industry already have in hand that are not being utilized as a contributing factor to limited gas and oil production, they lost their freaking minds.

Nothing angers Republicans today like a proud Democrat using facts to defend their position. NOTHING!

I could spend this blog post talking about how the real culprits in regards to gas price increases are the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the unused 9000 gas and oil leases not being utilized (by intention), and about how Trump in April of 2020 specifically coordinated a worldwide 10% decrease in oil production, knowing it would lead to soaring gas prices (if Trump won in 2020, he could use the high gas prices to justify opening up all the pristine wilderness to drilling/If Biden won, Republicans could blame him directly for something he did not do [WHICH THEY HAVE!]), but I want to address the mindset of these clowns.

Trump Republicans are in a delusional state today.  Most of them were 15 time losers, many of whom were racists, who couldn't get out of their own way, living a life full of angry bitterness, constantly running their endless would've, could've, should've scenarios in their mind.  Trump changed that.  He looked at them and said "you're not the loser, EVERYONE ELSE IS!"  They gobbled it up.  He recklessly validated the losers, knowing their blind allegiance would never subside.

But Trump lost, and not only that but he's become an endless embarrassment of scandals and anti-American behavior.  The Trump Republican's golden calf is now a hollow shell of it's former self, but considering the Trump Republicans are determined to never go back to reality, incapable of looking in the mirror and saying "wow! I'm the screw up!," they have decided they will gladly sink on the USS Trump.

My daughter asked me to describe the mindset of the modern Trump Republican and I can up with four distinct features.

1) They will do ANYTHING to avoid having to acknowledge a reality or fact they disagree with.  Trump didn't lose.  Trump was the smartest president of all time. Trump was beloved on the world stage. Trump did a fantastic job with CoronaVirus! These delusional gems are just part of the daily affirmations the standard Trump Republican has to believe.  They even go as far as believing things which contradict other things they believe; stuff like: 1/6 wasn't an insurrection, but Antifa was behind the 1/6 insurrection! Even when the world plays along with them, like in Arizona, with the election recount.  They were allowed to control every aspect of that investigation into the wrong doing they KNEW happened.  When they found no wrong doing at all, do they sit back and say "I guess we were wrong"?  NOPE! They are so convinced of the lie they just keep muttering how the election was fraudulent and EVERYONE knows it.  

They lies they convince themselves are truths are infallible in their mind, and they will NEVER not believe their made up 'truths,' even when it whacks them in the face like a 2 X 4.

2) They speak with conviction and confidence on things they know absolutely nothing about.  It is stunning.  Used to be if you didn't know about something, you said nothing. Only fools or grifters tried to sound authoritative beyond their ability.  Today, the standard Republican will tell you everything you need to know about politics, racial relations, societal breakdowns, foreign policy, medicine, voting, Russia, Ukraine, oil production, the stock market...no matter what, they all pretend to know what is REALLY going on. They don't have a freaking clue.

3) They create super villains.  It's my theory, down deep inside, most Republicans know Trump is a horrible person.  They do, but to allow themselves to feel like they are on the right side of it all, they create super villains to compare Trump with, so they can feel better about supporting him.  Example: "Sure Trump is a horrible person who clearly treats women, veterans, minorities and the poor horrifically, and seems to be a very dishonest person, but Hillary Clinton kills babies and has Satanic rituals in the basement of a Maryland pizza parlor, so I'm on the right side of this argument.  He might not be perfect, but we're fighting the devil people!"  They convince themselves these outrageous slanders are real and this is how they walk around with a clear conscious.

4) They will always consider themselves to be victims.  They are the biggest whiners I've ever met.  There is nothing they can't turn into a slight against them.  They go on television and scream their 1st Amendment Rights are violated.  They scream their rights are being taken away if you merely suggest equal rights for all people. The same people who mocked and taunted Democrats for four years of Trump can't stop blubbering about how they're the victims of a massive conspiracy to cheat them of their golden idol.  And when it came to the pandemic...SWEET LORD! Used to be we would tolerate mild inconvenience as long are we were stopping needless suffering and needless death.  Not anymore!  You need to wear a mask, "You're forcing me to wear a face diaper!" We are going to shut down schools to prevent a massive outbreak, "I don't care about the health of teachers, why aren't you doing what I want?" And suggest a vaccine to prevent the outbreak from getting worse, "You are trying to turn me into a lizard person!"  

In their minds, if they'e not the victim, then even they realize they're just massive douche bags.  They will never admit their own faults, so they quickly jump aboard the victimhood train! 

I'm not saying understanding all of this makes it any easier to deal with these clowns, but what it does do is give you an idea if someone is even worth your time.  It's gotten to the point where I can spy a waste of my time in the first sentence of their social media post.  You start to see the tell tale signs of a Trump Republican, save your brain cells and just block them.  I do, and I love it.  Down deep inside, what Trump Republicans want is to be validated, so by ignoring them, you are denying them of their much desired attention. 

Every time I block a troll, a Trump Republican sheds a tear.  I'm okay with that.

The Friday Link for 3/4/22

It doesn't surprise me when someone I know has never seen a "classic" movie.  I had a friend who shocked me about 10 years ago when he admitted he had NEVER seen the Star Wars movies, any of them. I was stunned, but he said most of his friends never watched any of them either, or had only seen one.  The more I thought about it the more his point made some sense.  

I've often talked about how popular culture skews perception into thinking EVERYONE is watching, listening or participating in something.  Actually it's pretty far from he truth.  The Super Bowl aired a few weeks back and the total audience was a little over 112 million viewers, but that doesn't factor in bars and parties.  Probably 150 to 160 million people watched the game, in a country of 330 million-ish. That means half the country didn't watch the biggest cultural event of the year, and had no interest in doing so. 

Last week I had a friend post they were watching The Godfather for the first time. I was surprised they hadn't seen it, but I once again filtered my reaction through the magnifying glass of "popularity."  Not only has most of the country not seen The Godfather, my guess is this is one of those movies where the gender imbalance is at the most extreme.  Most guys I know have seen it, but most women I know have not.

It is a classic all time great movie.  I highly encourage you watch it, and The Godfather Part II; equally as good.

Godfather scenes for you this week on the Friday Link, starting with the horse head scene.

Warning, this has a pretty gruesome ending to it, but remember it's all fake.  If you not a fan of blood, skip this one and move onto the next one.

This scene is so important to establish the nature in how the Corleone family conducts their business. 

Another scene which establishes a lot of how the mafia operates is this simple scene.  The interaction between Marlon Brando and a wildly young James Caan is amazing and so natural. 

I wish I could post the entire film, but you can't.  Here is another classic scene.  Michael takes control of the family by agreeing to take care of business. 

One last clip, but once again a warning that it get's pretty brutal in the end. Also, this clip will show you a lot of how the first Godfather ends, so if you want to see the movie without knowing the end, don't watch this clip and enjoy the whole film.

Michael's son gets baptized and business is taken care of.

Have a great weekend.  Things are getting better in Minnesota, but still get vaccinated and please wear a mask!