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!
The three for this week are all revisiting some of the regulars.
First up is Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. His take on why corporate America is starting to look ridiculous with their botched attempts at appealing to the LGBTQ community at pride, how their stupid mistakes are due to their real master (profits), and how it might be time for them to stop.
As a Veteran, I can relate. A lot of companies try to plaster veterans all over their logos to make THEMSELVES look patriotic. Sure they might offer a minor benefit to those who served, but the real benefit is in their marketing.
Next up is the Honest Trailers for Godzilla Minus One. Not only was this a great Godzilla flick, but it actually had a pretty good human story, focusing on Japan trying to gain back its pride after losing WWII. By the way, this movie won the Oscar for special effects and it did deserve it. See it.
Finally tonight, the latest from Tasting History with Max Miller. I love good pork-and-beans, and we forget it was not too long ago that it was a staple of a lot of people's diets. What I love about this recipe is how freaking easy it is. It takes time, but the results look fantastic!
I just realized I have not done a round up of my favorite SNL sketches from the last season. I know everyone loved the Ryan Gosling Beavis and Butt-Head skit (and it is on this list) but it's not #1.
#10 - Hot Ones with Beyoncé 2 - Maya Rudolph is just too good to not have at least one of her sketches on this list.
#9 - Trump Sneakers with Shane Gillis who actually does a really good Trump impression. And the concept of this bit is very good.
#8 - Pilates - I actually posted this sensational Kristen Wiig skit on an earlier Friday Link. This was the best bit from her show, who like Maya, elevated the entire show.
#7 - Close Encounter - The first of the two Ryan Gosling clips to make the list (and there was almost a third). They revisited one of the better sketch series from the last 10 years. Kate McKinnon is so good in this sketch.
#6 - I'm Just Pete - From the first episode of the season, Pete Davidson sings a song that asks the question "Why am I popular?"
#5 - Bowen's Straight - Bowen Yang (at times) is an all-time cast member. This was a good behind-the-scenes produced bit, with Sydney Sweeney.
#4 - Weekend Update: Colin and Michael Swap Jokes - This is a recurring bit where the two Weekend Update hosts exchange jokes the other person has not read. In the past Micheal Che has dominated Colin, but this time around, the best hit was delivered by Colin, via Kendrick Lamar.
#3 - Beavis and Butt-head - What has become an all-time SNL skit, by far the most popular skit of the season. Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day make everyone roll, but it's Keenan who makes this skit an all-time classic, managing to keep his composure. Yes, sometimes cracking up makes a skit better.
#2 - Washington's Dream - This sketch is so damn funny, making fun of the weird things we do in the United States, as told to the Revolutionary War fighters by Nate Bargatze's George Washington. When he got to football, I was in tears.
#1 - OBGYN - Kenan Thompson is SO DAMN FUNNY! The concept of this is great. What exactly was their new OBGYN's previous career? Everyone is laughing in the end.
Have a great Father's Day weekend everyone.
Please stay healthy and safe. Make sure you stay up to date on your vaccinations!
One thing the Republicans are good at is propaganda. They're fantastic at creating an alternate reality and convincing their followers it's the truth. It helps they have a voter base who has been brainwashed by right-wing media and extremist websites for 30 years, but they know how to play them like a fiddle.
Take this weekend, the first weekend after Trump was convicted in his hush money cover-up trial in Manhattan. EVERY Republican got the memo and is speaking the same tailing point: "Joe Biden controlled this entire outcome!" His guilty verdict has to be about ANYTHING besides his being guilty of the crime.
For the record, he is guilty of the crime. New York started investigating Trump in 2018. This was a New York case, cleared through a grand jury, and his conviction was sealed by a jury HIS legal team HELPED SELECT! Trump is guilty because he hid payments to a porn star to try to help his 2016 election.
The truth doesn't matter though. The point was to ensure all of their voters heard the 'Biden Star Chamber' fairy tale, which they have instantly categorized as a factual truth. They DESPERATELY want it to be true, so their favorite right-wing talking head saying it's true is all the validation they need. Chisel it into granite!
The problem with Republicans and their propaganda machine is there are many times they forget it's propaganda, and they think they can change reality. When reality smacks back (and it always does) it generally leaves a pretty big mark. That's what's happened with the MAGA fantasy "documentary" '2000 Mules.'
Let me first explain the laughable argument the film makes. The three entities behind this mess are the conservative non-profit True the Vote, right-wing political commentator Dinesh D'Souza, and Salem Media Group, the company that published the film and book (a book which was never released). The argument the "documentary" makes is that left-leaning groups, working hand in hand with the Democratic Party, hired people (referred to as mules) to illegally collect and deposit fraudulent ballots into ballot drop boxes in swing states, flipping the 2020 election win to Biden over Trump. They said they proved this with two sources. The first is the use of geolocation data to determine the mules were constantly going to multiple ballot drop boxes, repeatedly, and mailing fraudulent ballots. They even showed video footage they claimed showed people 'muling,' identified by pinging their cell phones. The other source was an anonymous whistleblower who claimed they were aware of the entire scheme (but because of a confidentiality agreement, they could not offer any information about John Doe), as well as the names of ballot harvester whistleblowers who authenticated the fraud.
This movie had A LOT of deception, half-truths, non-existent facts, and outright lies. Pretty much every time someone pointed out an undeniable flaw with the facts of the "documentary," the groups dismissed the criticism, falling back to the geolocation data and the confidential sources as their "proof."
This group was so committed to their propaganda that they actually encouraged the Georgia Secretary of State and the Georgia Election Board to conduct their own investigation in November of 2021. This is where they made their mistake. My guess is they thought the Republicans involved with those offices would just show 2000 Mules at the trial and then scream "We rest our case!" That's not how investigators work.
The geolocation data was quickly picked apart for its fraud. Basically, their argument was that in a major city, they could accurately pinpoint where people were with their cell phones. That's just garbage. Millions of people live in these major cities so there are automatically going to be a lot of people going by ballot drop-off boxes regularly. The movie showed security footage of people dropping ballots in boxes, CLEARLY implying they were mules, partially "identified" by their cell phone geolocation. That's actually impossible to do with their method. There's no way they could correctly identify a person dropping a ballot into a ballot box as carrying the phone they said was pinging.
That's not liberal Matt McNeil pointing this out. That is Trump's own AG, Bill Barr!!!
Many others have pointed out the CLEAR LIES stated about geolocation data in 2000 Mules, something the people behind the film either insist they never said was definitive or imply the critics are intentionally dismissing their data, without clarifying the critic's mistakes.
But even with all this, the investigators wanted to talk with the 2000 Mules sources, but (FUNNY!!!) True the Vote didn't want to give them their evidence, namely their contact information for the main informant, his confidentiality agreement, and the names of the other people who helped corroborate the ballot harvesting story. The Georgia Election Commission went to court to force them to give them the information, INFORMATION TRUE THE VOTE, DINESH D'SOUZA, AND THE SALEM MEDIA GROUP ALL REPEATEDLY INSISTED WAS REAL!!! The following excerpt is from a July 2023 AP story (https://apnews.com/article/georgia-election-board-true-vote-ballot-harvesting-a6669b44107201e2485b15d8f5b2a45f) on the case.
The courts sided with Georgia, and finally, in February of this year, the truth came out.
Here's where reality is starting to smack back, hard. One of the people show in 2000 Mules they accused of ballot harvesting and being a mule, Mark Andrews, was only dropping off ballots for himself, his wife, and his kids, something VERY LEGAL to do. How could they be so stupid to accuse him of something they know he didn't do? He's now suing True the Vote, Dinesh D'Souza, and (up until this last week) Salem Media for falsely depicting him illegally voting, allegations which led to numerous death threats against him. On Friday Salem Media apologized to Mr. Andrews, pulled the movie and book from its catalog, and viciously threw True the Vote and Dinesh D'Souza under the bus. We can only hope Mr. Andrews gets in the high 8 figures from the other two clown cars.
In the end, the damage has already been done. Not only will most conservatives insist 2000 Mules is truthful, but they'll never even see the news stories exposing the massive lie. Not only does the conservative media attack the Left, but they also bury stories that will make the Right look bad. They don't want to stop anyone from believing the lie.
Over the next few months on your social media pages, you'll have numerous conservative family members, coworkers, and trolls insist 2000 Mules proved fraud existed. The only counterpunch you have is posting this article to their timeline. I'm not saying they'll believe what I've typed, but at least they'll have some doubt. Maybe they'll begin to see the emperor's splendid new clothes might not be what he claims them to be. I know that it's not much of a consolation prize, but it'll have to do. There will never be any real justice for the lies these traitors told our country.
Conservatives will sit in their basements rewatching the DVD over and over again.
None of the news outlets that allowed repeated positive coverage of 2000 Mules will dedicate even a syllable to correcting the record.
Cinemark Theaters will never apologize for showing 2000 Mules on the big screen.
And after the 2000 LIES that the people around 2000 Mules told the American people, there will only be one apology, an apology to the people they stupidly falsely accused of voter fraud, an apology True the Vote and Dinesh D'Souza will hope no one will ever hear.
When that story comes out, post it like they WRONGLY think votes were cast in 2020, early and often.
