The Friday Link for 12/29/23

Hi all!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year's.  Plan ahead and PLEASE do not drink and drive.  It has been a long year for me, recovering from being hit by a drunk driver. The pain, stress, and awfulness of the last 12 months should not be thrust upon anyone. 

Plain and simple this week.  The Honest Trailers folks have put together their trailers for some of the worst movies ever made. Some of these are brutal, but Honest Trailers always does a good job. Enjoy! 

Remember to get vaccinated and stay safe!

Happy 2024 everyone!

The Friday Link for 12/22/23

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  I hope everyone has a great next few weeks!

First off this week I have to right a wrong.  Earlier this year I posted the "Lost Episode" of Last Week Tonight, the extra episode they decided to do for viewers under 35 who they insisted would never be able to own a home, hence their actual story that week on Homeowners associations was worthless to them. For the 35 and younger viewers, John Oliver did a deep dive into Chuck E. Cheese, which was a freaking riot.

I posted a link to a You Tube clip but I was informed this week that the original link was pulled down not more than 24 hours after I posted it.  It seems Last Week Tonight, with solid justification, wanted to make sure this special episode was only to be viewed on their special webpage they made for the Chuck E. Cheese episode, Last Squeak Tonight. 

You have to click on the link, so enjoy!  https://www.lastsqueaktonight.com

Also tonight, since we are on classics, here are 12 minutes of Jon Stewart absolutely obliterating Fox News. We forget how good he was at peering through their veil and exposing the ugliness of who they really were.

And what would the Christmas post be without Colbert's Holiday animated classic, 'The Indict-Mare Before Christmas!' Enjoy! 

No matter how you celebrate, if you even celebrate at all, I hope nothing but the best for you and everyone in your family this season.  

And please remember to get vaccinated for the flu and for COVID.

The Friday Link for 12/15/23

I hope everyone had a nice week and has a wonderful weekend.

Since Saturday Night Live aired the classic Schweddy Balls sketch, they've tried replicating it with other sketches. Most of them fail, but this latest one with Adam Driver proves he's one of the better hosts.  It's not as good, but a lot of laughs on ShopTV Christmas.  By the way, the throw-away joke about the patriotic nativity scene is a riot. 

Warning a lot of innuendo! "Without becoming a meme.."  Hilarious!

And since I brought it up, possibly the greatest payoff line in any sketch they ever did on Saturday Night Live. 

And why not an informative nature video from ZeFrank, True Facts: The Rise of the Kitten Snake! 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Stay safe and keep your family safe.  Get vaccinated for the flu and for COVID! 

Dear Twitter, It's Not Me, It's You!

I'm officially calling it.  Although I won't kill my Twitter page, I'm mostly done posting there. 

(What Twitter thinks it is)

(What Twitter actually is)

Yes, it's Elon Musk. I'm not sure if he bought this site because his petty small ego couldn't handle criticism, if he was actually part of a plan to try to manipulate public sentiment to welcome fascism to America, or a little of both, but his latest decisions make me staying on Twitter feel more like watching that friend or family member spiraling out of control. While you hope they pull out of their tailspin, you finally come to the realization they are beyond saving.

There was a nice stretch of Twitter post-Trump, a reminder of what it was like before Trump and the trolls took over in 2016. I was able to have discussions again, my timeline and DM's were relatively civil and I didn't feel icky after spending 10-15 minutes scrolling posts. That all immediately changed after Elon took over. 

I have 5 other social pages: Facebook, BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, and Instagram. Of the six total sites, the vast overwhelming amount of threats, insults, and stupidity/bigotry/racism trying to disguise itself as viable political opinions I'm exposed to on any given day are on Twitter. 

Since Thanksgiving, I've blocked a total of 487 people on social media, 460 on Twitter.  If I remove the Facebook scams where they are trying to convince me my page is about to be shut down, it's 460 out of 462.  

The stunning level of racism and bigotry spewed on Twitter today is unbelievable. It's like you're at a convention in a hotel and the hotel is also hosting a KKK/Nazi convention at the same time.  It's not just the exposure to racism and bigotry you see coming and going in the hotel halls, but it's also that when you're supposedly in the safety of your own conference room, there's not only the occasional emboldened racist or bigot co-worker who comes by, but it's also a feeling of dread which permeates your existence in the hotel itself.  You know it's only a matter of time before you have someone screaming horrible things at you. That's Twitter, and I'm really tired of it.

There is one metric that causes many people to hesitate to quit Twitter, followers.  I was at nearly 4000 on Thursday (more on that in a second) and walking away from a following you've cultivated over time is not easy.  That's what initially kept me on the site. 

When Elon endorsed an anti-Semitic post, and then doubled down on his intolerance, that's when I knew the convention was pretty much over for me.  I made the decision that if my newer, lesser three social media pages (Threads, BlueSky, and Mastodon) got to 1000 followers, I'd stop posting regularly on Twitter.  

Then came the bizarre interview where he started to swear at the leaders of other major corporations for daring to not advertise with him due to his endorsement of anti-Semitism. That was not a mentally well man. I realized I might need to speed up my decision.

But now we have two things that show me Elon's buying of Twitter might indeed be more about trying to sweeten the appeal of fascism in America. The first was his decision to reinstate Alex Jones, a man who is human feces.  This is the guy who insisted the Newtown massacre never happened and encouraged his followers to harass and torment the families of the young victims, something he is already been found guilty of, and now is desperately trying to prevent from paying for.  No decent human being would ever think this guy has anything to add to the betterment of humanity.

Then there is this..."event" Elon hosted on Twitter, the one where Vivek Ramaswamy went to the bathroom live.  Out of decency, I won't post the audio, but rather a screenshot:

Look at the lineup of this clown brigade.  It's Alpha Bros' self-gratification event.  What respectful individual would even bring together this insecure pathetic man version of the Legion of Doom?

Now I know I will get Far Rightos screaming "You're against free speech." Absolutely not. Alex Jones is more than welcome to go to the town square and scream his thoughts into the air.  Twitter is NOT a town square.  It is a privately held corporation that already restricts a lot of comments from opinions Elon doesn't like (but far Rightos have NO PROBLEM with that censorship). That aside, Freedom of Speech doesn't mean anyone HAS TO listen to it. That's the Right's fantasy; forcing people to have to listen to and respect their brainless grunting.  I've often said the modern Republican thinks 'debate' is them kicking in your front door, going to the bathroom on the floor in your living room, pointing at it with a smile on their face, and screaming "YOU HAVE TO LIKE IT!"  No, no I don't.  You can't force people to stand in the town square and agree with insanity, nor does anyone have to stay on a social media site and listen to/sponsor this craziness.

These clowns think 'Freedom of Speech' means 'Freedom from Criticism' (unless it's something they don't like!). Rightos, stop screaming your Freedom of Speech is being infringed from the biggest megaphone you can find, and stop expecting others to live by a code you yourselves are nowhere even close to following. 

Since Alex Jones was reinstated by Elon on Twitter, my follower count has dropped significantly.  I presume this is the people fleeing the site.  I have currently 570 followers on the other three sites so that is good enough. I highly encourage anyone to follow me on those sites or on Facebook:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/TMGImNotIdiot/

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mattmcneilshow.bsky.social

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@matthewmcneil1

Mastodon: https://mstdn.party/@MattMcNeilShow

Instagram (but I don't use it that much): https://www.instagram.com/matthewmcneil1/

I will keep Twitter open, but I just won't be posting there with any regularity, mainly retweets of other people's posts or the occasional post where I know a person mentioned is mainly on Twitter.  I would hope someday that I might revisit this page when someone else finally buys it at a steeply discounted rate from Elon, but I think Elon would rather turn the site off than admit how bad he is at running it. 

And Elon, Stop trying to make 'X' happen. It's not going to happen.

The Friday Link for 12/8/23

Howdy all! 

I have featured Joe Scott and his YouTube channel 'Answers With Joe' a few times in the Friday link.  One time was the fascinating question 'Who the heck is using all the glitter?' Another time I focused on his piece about the actual oldest human-recorded voice, from the year 1860.

This week, I give Joe his due, because his videos are really addictive. Three for you tonight starting with a look at the countdown of the worst years in human history.  I featured some videos about 536, which even Joe agrees (with evidence) was the all-time worst, but some of the other years mentioned were pretty horrific too.  And Joe's arguments on including them are spot on.

Next up is the most popular video on Joe's page.  Was there actually a time traveler?  There is a story of a guy in Ukraine who seems to have traveled through time, but as Joe points out later, while it's a great story, it's pretty darn light on the facts. 

And finally, tonight is a fantastic look at the Victorian Era and how it was just amazing; both horrible and incredible at the same time. 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Get vaccinated for both the flu and for COVID. I don't want you to get sick.

The Friday Link for 12/1/23

Guess what everyone?  I'm actually going to post the Friday Link on a Friday this week!  YEA!

Sorry, I was MIA last week.  It was Thanksgiving and time with the kids overrode everything else.

This week we start with a video that seems to size up the feelings a lot of people had at the news of the passing of Henry Kissinger.  Don't get me wrong, I think the former Secretary of State is going to have some serious explaining to do in the afterlife, but some people were ecstatic.  He had a pretty horrific track record, something that showed with the jubilation and celebration embraced by many by the news.

I don't take joy in people dying.  There are always those who did love him and will miss them. You can cheer someone's death as loudly as you want, but the only people who will hear it will be the ones who are mourning. 

The last time I saw this many people happy at someone's death would be...this little musical number. 

I know I featured it before, but it is a good song and one of the best 'A Christmas Carol' versions you can find. 

Two more videos this week.  First up is the likely chance there might be two more undiscovered planets in your solar system.  Gravitational data points to a likelihood of at least one more ice giant (like Uranus and Neptune). SciShow has the latest on the search.  #PlutoNeverForget! 

Finally tonight, ZeFrank is back with another top-notch video, this time pointing out the superpower features some of the animals of the planet have evolved! Enjoy!

With COVID and flu numbers rapidly increasing, get your vaccinations today! I want you all safe! 

Have a great weekend!