The Friday Link for 1/16/26

Hi all.

It's been a brutal week in Minneapolis. Trump's ICE Gestapo is here, and they are intentionally making everything horrible.  They've executed a woman, shot another person, abused so many people, both citizens and undocumented, and they've constantly lied, no matter what the video evidence shows. 

There are going to be some right-wing protests going on this weekend, and I encourage people to counter-protest peacefully. Watch out for right-wing agitators, people who are trying to start trouble.  If you see someone trying to break the law, film them, grab them, rip off their masks, and make a citizen's arrest! At the very least, make sure you get them on video. 

To try to take your mind off the horrible, let's look at one of the most underrated villains of all time, Clancy Brown's Kurgan from the movie Highlander. 

I remember watching his scenes and how he stole the show. Even still today, there is a perfect level of offset that makes his villain particularly evil.  I also love the design of the character, with his almost lethal cut mark across his neck, made pure classic punk with safety pins. 

Fun fact: Clancy Brown has become an iconic character as he voices Mr. Krabs from the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon.

Enjoy this scene. 

Up next is a fun video, which some people might consider a little adult.

Rock climbing is a fun sport.  With the cold weather, I'm walking at the Mall of America on a more regular basis, and when you walk around the park, you can see the rock climbing walls with the kids having fun. 

Competitive rock climbing is an incredibly difficult sport requiring an insane amount of hand and grip strength, arm strength, and flexibility.  So the YouTube Channel Mike Boyd Climbs asked an interesting question:  Could a pole dancer, who also has to have incredible grip strength and flexibility, be a good rock climber?  The answer is not only yes, but she ends up being so good at it that she probably could compete. 

Finally, as the sports world turns gets ready to turn away from football and focus more on basketball, let's look back on the greatest era in pro basketball history, the 1980s, and watch 50 of the greatest plays from that decade.

One thing that you should prepare for is how much more physical the game was back then.  They are literally beating the living daylights out of each other the entire game.  I'm not sure a lot of the players from today could take the physical demands of the game back then.  Not saying they are not great players, but the game is so different today. 

That's it for this week! 

Please stay safe, Minnesota.

And make sure you get all your vaccinations.  I just got my latest COVID shot.  You should get yours too!

 

The Friday Link for 1/9/26

Hey everyone.

I just let out a massive sigh.  Welcome to Minneapolis for the first full week of 2026.

I will get to the week, but I desperately want to start with something lighter and more enjoyable. Let's go to the bonus round of the 25,000 Pyramid!

Of all the final rounds in game show history, I think it's my favorite. You have to be very sharp to give the clues, and the last one or two are very hard.  I am not sure I could do it, but here are four examples of how you get it done! 

How about the two fastest rounds ever? I swear, I think these are about equal.  First up is the greatest clue ever for 'Things that Sag.'  For some reason, you have to watch this one on YouTube directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBsUewuXqMM

And how about Billy Crystal looking about 12 years old when it was still the $20,000 Pyramid. 

That's fun...

(sigh)

An ICE thug committed a public execution in the streets of Minneapolis this week.  He was not in danger.  She was not a terrorist. He wanted to shut up the F- B- (direct quote). He did so by shooting her three times in the face, a white, blonde US Citizen, mother of three, Christian, prize-winning poet. 

Obvious this tragedy is getting covered by everyone, but I really liked Ronny Chieng's recap on The Daily Show. "Some people see a peaceful protester being murdered. And other people are fascists." Perfect! 

(sigh)

Stay safe out there, everyone.  Donald Trump will kill any one of us to keep the Epstein Files off the front page, and his sexually repressed band of anger issue poster children, who put the ICE in INCEL, are more than happy to do it, to make up for their microscopic penises.

Oh, and get vaccinated!

Peace! 

Mastodon, Let's Just Be Friends

Dear Mastodon, 

Hi there!  I want to come clean. You're great and all, but a harsh reality: you're falling WAY behind the rest of the pack...kind of like what happened to the real Mastodons. 

When Elon Musk announced he was buying Twitter in 2022, I, like a lot of people, was hesitant at the time. Twitter was the main social media page for most of us, but Elon had yet to show us how horrible and self-centered he was.  He claimed at the time he would remain neutral politically and would not change Twitter to help Trump and Republicans.

By 2023, it was clear he was lying. He started to turn Twitter into the cesspool it currently is.  I, like many others, started looking for alternatives to Twitter.  I was hearing from multiple people to "try this site," and "try this site." What I ended up doing was starting four new social media pages based on suggestions from friends.

One of them I don't even remember (Hive???).  It was clear within weeks that the site was worthless, and I closed my account very quickly.

The other three were Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky.

BlueSky didn't start off fast, but within the last year, I have jumped to over 25,000 followers. I really recommend BlueSky as it is a pleasant, fun, positive social experience, and it leans left politically.  There is no reason on the planet that any Democrat should be treating any other social media site with a higher priority than BlueSky. 

Threads was interesting, as initially it looked like it was going to be my biggest audience. I was at about 2500 followers there until November of 2024.  Then, Mark Zuckerberg went to Trump and kissed his ring. IMMEDIATELY I lost hundreds of followers, and my posts no longer seemed to be getting seen.  I've slowly lost followers, resting currently at around 1700, which seems to be the number Threads has set as their "well, if we purge their followers any more, they might shut down their accounts" level. I pick up 25 to 50 followers a day on BlueSky.  Picking up 20 new followers a week on Threads SHOULD be happening. It's not. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be there.

But Mastodon...you've never really connected. I have only picked up 258 followers there in 2 and a half years.  Those 258 are great, and they interact with me regularly, but I only have so much time in the day, and the lack of connection on Mastodon is leading me to have to change.

Well, that and the rise of Substack.  Substack has really taken off, and I am going to give that social media page a chance for a bit.

I'll no longer be posting the litany of posts I've been doing on Mastodon. I will occasionally post something there, but it will be limited.  Also, I probably won't interact too much with the followers there.

I'm not meaning to hurt anyone's feelings. I really appreciate all my followers, but I can no longer justify the time commitment I'm making to Mastodon.

Follow me at these places:

BlueSky - @mattmcneilshow

Facebook - Progressive Citizen X/The Matt McNeil Show

Threads - @matthewemcneil1

Substack - @mattmcneilshow

Feel free to curse me out.  All my best on Mastodon.  PEACE! 

The Friday Link for 1/2/26

Happy New Year, everyone! 

This week (and year), we start with Astro Alexandra, a fantastic YouTuber/TikToker who is a must-follow if you like science and space. Her videos are wonderful, talking about major discoveries in the scientific world, stories that used to get covered in national news media, but today are often ignored.  As I said, I'm a big fan of her videos and shorts, but it was one she did earlier this year on the scientific findings from the asteroid Bennu that was the biggest scientific news of the year, and something that should have been one of the biggest stories of the year as well.  Follow the link to see for yourself (Shorts on YouTube are harder to share, so just follow the link). https://www.youtube.com/shorts/stbcn0QB6C0

Alexandra also seems to be one of the most congenial people ever.  Here is a video of her debunking the multiple conspiracy theories about how the moon landing is fake. I admit that I would probably let out a "You're a bunch of F-ing idiots" in response to these bozos, but Alexandra just keeps knocking them down with a smile and cold, hard facts. 

Next up, a fun video from Antiques Roadshow. This time, they feature 6 items which were found in thrift shops, but ended up being worth quite a bit more money. I had a friend who once found a painting worth a few thousand dollars at Goodwill. I think she spent 2 dollars on it. 

Finally tonight is a nice, easy video from Watch Mojo where they talk about 20 movies that were way ahead of their time, whether that was because of special effects, how they were filmed, or the subject matter they broached (Metropolis, Blade Runner, and Network still stun me for how ahead of their time those movies were).  

This is interesting because I have recently watched two movies which seem to be reactionary to the modern world we are currently in (One Battle After Another, Wake Up Dead Man, both of which are very good), but it is amazing when you get something that is calling their shot from decades in advance. 

Have anice weekend, everyone! 

Make sure you get vaccinated and stay safe!