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 we start with The Daily Show, but NOT with Jon Stewart (wait for it!). Michael Kosta is the resident white guy, right-leaning correspondent for the show, a role the former correspondent Jason Jones was AMAZING at. I preface this video with that information because he does come off a little jerk-ish in this piece.
With climate change undeniable (See: 2024 Minnesota Winter) there have been a few stories of climate refugees making their way to northern Minnesota and the beautiful city of Duluth. I love Duluth but it is cold, something Kosta plays up here in a piece about the city as a refuge.
It's a little punching down, but I think Duluth looks good at the end of it. And they did make Kosta do a polar plunge!
Since I did mention Jon Stewart, here you go. A lot of Lefties were upset after his first week back (something he addresses at the beginning of this clip) because he spent a lot of time bashing Biden's age. I get what he was doing the first show back; reminding everyone he is an equal opportunity critique expert, but it did feel like Biden took the brunt of his commentary, and he did give credibility to the clearly fraudulent Hur Report.
Fear not Lefties, week two was a delight. He goes after Tucker Carlson and picks him apart with the deft linguistic and comedic ballet he is known for. Not only does Michael Kosta make another appearance in this video, but Stewarts point about Woke Vs. Un-Woke is some of the most spot-on political commentary we've seen in 10 years. HE'S BACK!!!
Finally tonight is Daniel Steiner, a guy who loves maps of cities and seeing how the cities developed. I recently made my first trip to New Orleans in November and had a wonderful time. The history of the city is rich and deep, and this video does a very good job of explaining why the city is there, how it developed, and the significance of the road system.
One last little bit he didn't touch on in the video but is a good add. The Mississippi River from New Orleans down to the ocean was incredibly hard to navigate with boats driven by sails, sometimes taking two to three weeks to get upstream from the ocean. Going upriver from New Orleans was a lot easier. Lake Pontchartrain was much easier to navigate from the ocean, and the bayous and canals allowed for the movement of goods from the Lake to New Orleans, and then upriver. The more you know!
Have a great weekend. Get vaccinated and stay safe!
We delve into familiar territory with this week's Friday Link as we get the best of the Super Bowl Ads.
These are my picks for the best ones from last weekend's game, and FYI the Arnold Schwarzenegger State Farm ad and the Beyonce Verizon ad finished 4 and 5.
Number 3 for me was the Booking.com ad featuring Tina Fey. Forget the 30-second ad from the game and focus on the 90-second MUCH better version:
Next up is the Uber Eats ad with Jennifer Anniston. The guy forgetting how to sit was good, but it was the absolutely perfect final line from David Schwimmer which was the best line from any ad.
And the hands-down winner was the absolutely inspired Dunkin' Donuts ad featuring Ben Affleck. This ad was really good, but the extended 4-minute, 21-second extravaganza is sensational! Not only is Matt Damon 'fall out of your chair' funny, but I do love Jack Harlow's desperate pleading for Affleck not to go through with it. Top-notch and the best of this year's ads.
Speaking of ads, next up is a fantastic political ad from Katrina Christensen, a Democrat who is running for Senate in deep-red North Dakota. This ad is sensational and points out perfectly how in these states where Republicans have been charge forever, your lives have not only not gotten better, they've gotten far worse. This should be copied in every red-seat race this year.
Finally tonight, ME! My friend Cliff Schecter was kind enough to put one of my radio show rants up on his Blue Amp YouTube Channel. It's me talking about the Super Bowl JESUS ads and my family's religious journey.
Carl Weathers will be missed. He was a great actor. 'Rocky' would not have been the hit it was without Weathers' Apollo Creed, we forget 'Force Ten from Navarone' (where he starred next to Harrison Ford and Robert Shaw), he had memorial performances in 'Predator,' 'Action Jackson,' 'Happy Gilmore,' and 'Toy Story 4,' and he had become a popular character in the Star Wars universe with his character Greef Karga on the hit TV show 'The Mandalorian.'
But it was his turn as Carl Weathers on Arrested Development which cemented him as Hollywood royalty to me. His comedic timing was top notch. For him to stand out at times with the comedy legends of that show was a surprising side to his talent.
Here are the scenes he had in Arrested Development. Enjoy!
Also tonight two great videos from Hot Ones. If you are not aware, Hot Ones is a show where the guest and host eat chicken wings with increasingly hotter and hotter hot-sauces on them. It's a fairly entertaining show because the escalating heat of the sauces causes the actors to break from their celebrity mold and get very real while they do the interview. It's already created a few top-notch memes from Paul Rudd and Sydney Sweeney.
The worst sauce is actually two from the end, Da' Bomb, a diabolical concoction that serves no purpose other than hurting people. It is brutal, causing sweats, crying, runny noses, occasional vomiting, and a lot of uncomfortable moments.
Here are ten celebrity reactions to Da' Bomb. Shaquille O'Neal's is an all-time classic moment. Warning there is a lot of salty language with some of these guys.
NOT in a million years!
Have a great weekend everyone. Remember to get vaccinated for the flu and for COVID! I don't want you sick, bankrupt, or dead. Do yourself a favor and get vaccinated.
Hi all! Tonight it's all political on the Friday Link, starting with what might be the smartest mind in political analysis today, Kat Abu!
Katherine Abughazaleh, or as she goes by on social media Kat Abu, is wonderful! Here is a link to the full bio piece Huffington Post did on her last year (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kat-abu-the-tiktoker-mocking-fox-news-just-for-funsies_n_644c0f85e4b04997b577b4c2). Basically this poor woman subjects herself to watching Fox News and breaks down the network's stupidity, so you don't have to watch it. How she manages that without going crazy remains to be seen.
But what makes Kat exceptional is how she takes a complicated issue, breaks it down into almost Hemingway-esque minimalism, and conveys it to the average social media viewer in a completeness that puts a long New York Times article to shame.
Case in point, she tackles the lie that "shoplifting is destroying the retail sector." It's not, and not only does she expose that truth, but then expertly links it back to how this lie is just greedy executives trying to cover their company's disappointing earnings. AND SHE DID IT IN 2:18!!! I'm 55 years old and have 30 years of radio under me and I only wish I could be so clean with a topic.
Follow her on TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and other assorted social media sites. You will be smarter!
Also tonight another delightful visit with The Daily Show's Desi Lyric, as she also subjects herself to WAY too much Fox News, this time to figure out what the real story is on Taylor Swift!
And finally tonight, ME! This is from the show where I explained how I finally was able to come to grips with the reality: A shockingly large portion of this country (25-30%) are just horrible people, Donald Trump managed to do the unthinkable when he molded them into a viable voting block, and how we need to cut them loose and fight to save the country with the much larger sane majority! Heavy lifting is required!
