Monthly Archives: February 2018

February 20, 2018 · 10:42 pm

HISTORIANS PRONOUNCE OBAMA THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER

 

Obama at wheel

The worst president in American history.

Well, it’s official. Barack Obama has been pronounced the worst U.S. president ever by a panel of experts. The weak, inept and crooked little man was denounced for his flagrant failures with the economy, his many scandals, his disastrous foreign policy and for his blatant corruption, including his misuse of the FBI as his own personal secret police.

I’m no fan of Obama, but even I think it was hitting below the belt for the historians to point out Obama’s horrible college grades and his continued embarrassment over them and refusal to be open and transparent about them.

Obama I dont alwaysThey were on much more solid ground pointing out the way Obama was patted on the head, coddled and lied about from day one, being granted a Nobel Peace Prize “on spec” after just a few months in office. And how youtube is loaded with videos of Barack making remarks every bit as stupid as any that the pathetic George W Bush ever made.

However, the experts have spoken and Obama now stands condemned by history for his many, many failures and dishonest acts. It’s no longer up for debate. Continue reading →

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February 20, 2018 · 4:00 pm

BILLY JOEL: SLEEPING WITH THE TELEVISION ON

It’s Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead! Another little shoutout to Billy Joel, this time for his song Sleeping With the Television On. 

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February 19, 2018 · 7:03 pm

1912: BATTLE OF THE THREE PRESIDENTS

Mascot with demo and repub headsHappy Presidents Day! Balladeer’s Blog’s seasonal posts continue with this look at the presidential election of 1912.

I won’t bury this item in unnecessary detail to the point where it becomes boring. My emphasis will be on its three-way battle’s relevance to us in 2018. 

Woodrow WilsonDEMOCRAT: Woodrow Wilson, the victor. To this very day many Republicans blame Wilson for starting the country on its path toward all the things they don’t like.

They ignore the fact that their own party’s movers and shakers of the time spitefully ensured Wilson’s victory by refusing to accept the popular Theodore Roosevelt as the Republican candidate.

That drove him to the Third Party called the Progressive Party, thus splitting the anti-Wilson vote in such a way that enabled the Democrat to win.

Theodore RooseveltPROGRESSIVE: Former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt had come out of retirement to run again because he was thoroughly disenchanted with his hand-picked successor, incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft.

The reason? Theodore felt that Taft was undoing the few inroads that he (Theodore) had made against the moneyed rich pig class. Republican tycoons of the time often expressed their feeling that Teddy was a traitor to his class – an accusation that they would REALLY overuse against Theodore’s Democrat cousin Franklin Roosevelt decades later.  

This is similar to the way current President Donald Trump is often attacked by today’s bloated rich pigs, both Republican AND Democrat, because of the few inroads that HE has made against his fellows in the moneyed class. Some of the rich pigs of Teddy’s era openly referred to the way they generally carry America’s elected officials around in their pockets by saying “We bought the son of a bitch but he wouldn’t stay bought.”       

Let that sink in: Both the brazenness of the public statement AND the notion of people so wealthy they could afford to buy even an Old Money figure like Theodore Roosevelt. This too, shows how dangerous those still-prevalent plutocratic forces are and the uphill fight faced by President Trump, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and John F Kennedy.

William Howard TaftREPUBLICAN: William Howard Taft, the incumbent Republican President and a rich pig who was perfectly happy to conform to the desires of the plutocratic forces that his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt had fought.

When you think of Taft, think of today’s Republican trash like Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Mitch McConnell and all the other GOP wimps acceptable to the kind of moneyed pigs who continue to battle President Trump, even though he is nominally a member of their political party.

Virtually no one seriously doubts that Roosevelt would have defeated Woodrow Wilson if the Republicans had let the returning Teddy be their nominee in 1912. Instead, they coordinated Taft’s nomination at their convention because they knew that Theodore – like President Trump today – would have fought them on certain issues.

Roosevelt retaliated by running as the candidate of the Progressive Party aka Bull Moose Party. With Teddy and Taft splitting so much of the anti-Wilson vote, Woodrow went on to win the election, unleashing all those policies which many Republicans feel “started to destroy the country.”

One lesson from all of that is that the one percenters and bloated rich pigs who run the Republican Party have long been more than happy to spitefully enable the victory of a candidate whom their voters opposed just to block a Republican candidate that they don’t own.

So whenever right-wing Republicans go on a tirade against Woodrow Wilson it can take the conversation to interesting new places to point out that Wilson would never have become president in the first place if not for the spiteful behavior of the Republican Establishment.

This, too, is similar to the way that the Republican Party’s Never-Trump fools and the privileged white males at National Review continue to sabotage the Donald even though following his lead might ensure them a much, MUCH larger share of the working class vote and the African-American vote.

As in 1912 the greedy interests of RepubCorp’s bloated rich pigs matter more to them than the voters and the country as a whole.      Continue reading →

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February 18, 2018 · 9:48 pm

SUPER PRESIDENT’S FIRST CARTOON

Mascot new lookUsually on President’s Day Weekend Balladeer’s Blog reruns my review of the hilariously bad and weird 1960s superhero cartoon Super President.

For a change of pace I won’t repost that old review but will instead provide a look at the very first episode depicting President Norcross’ heroic antics as Super President. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bgf3qYBRdI

IF YOU DO WANT TO READ MY REVIEW OF THE SHOW CLICK HERE

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February 17, 2018 · 8:46 pm

PRESIDENTIAL LOSERS: PROS AND CONS

mascot new look donkey and elephant headsHappy Presidents Day Weekend! Over the years Balladeer’s Blog’s irreverent, tongue-in-cheek looks at the pros and cons of U.S. Presidents have been among my most visited items.

For a change of pace here’s a look at the pros and cons of the LOSERS who were left in a defeated heap enroute to the Oval Office. In reverse order:

hillary-clinton-haitiHILLARY CLINTON (Lost to President Donald Trump)

Motto: “When the money keeps rolling in (to your fake charity), what’s a girl to do? Skim a little (well, quite a lot, actually) off the top for expenses wouldn’t you?”

Nickname: The Rapist’s Wife/ Crooked Hillary 

Hillary clinton dough nationPro: Her childish refusal to address her own supporters the night Donald Trump utterly humiliated her provided a look at how truly petty, shallow and classless she is. 

Con: She and her fascist followers tried to threaten the members of the Electoral College into casting their votes for her instead of Trump, thereby reaching the absolute lowest and most disgusting level that any American politician has ever sunk to. 

MITT ROMNEY (Lost to Obama)

Motto: “Pushing women back to the Fifties … the EIGHTEEN fifties!”

Nickname: The Mormon Mondale/ Ol’ Sploog Face (tie)

Pro: His even more pathetic running mate Paul Ryan actually made him look good by comparison. 

Con: Was so thoroughly inept he managed to lose to Barack Obama even after voters saw what a disaster he was.

John Mccain cheatingJOHN MCCAIN (Lost to Obama)

Motto: “I didn’t spend years in the pockets of the McCain Foundation’s billionaire donors just to watch a candidate even MORE deeply in their pockets beat me … but once Barack did I was happy to kiss his butt!” Continue reading →

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February 16, 2018 · 11:18 pm

U.S. PRESIDENTS FROM EISENHOWER TO TRUMP

It’s Presidents Day Weekend! Here are some takes on the more recent presidents.  

EisenhowerDWIGHT EISENHOWER

Character Type: Well-meaning but befuddled sitcom grandfather.

Military Service: World War One and World War Two

Motto: “FOOORE!” (Remember,  the traditional cry as you’re teeing off in golf? Oh, never mind!)

Nickname: Uncle Milty

Pro: Knew enough to distrust Richard Nixon long before it became the national pasttime. 

Con: Was the first president to pronounce nuclear as “nucular”.

john f kennedyJOHN F KENNEDY

Character Type: Rich playboy who disdained both Liberals and Conservatives and played by his own rules.

Military Service: World War Two

Motto: “Thank God for television!”

Nickname: FDR  

Pro: The man was shrewd enough to distrust both liberals and conservatives equally. I can’t praise that attitude highly enough given our present circumstances. 

Con: Continue reading →

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February 16, 2018 · 1:07 am

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HARRY FLASHMAN

abraham-lincoln-pictureBalladeer’s Blog’s recent look at my Top Five Harry Flashman Novels was a hit. Combine that with the upcoming Presidents Day Holiday on Monday and let’s take a look at one of the other Flashman novels for future president Abe Lincoln’s interactions with George MacDonald Fraser’s infamous antihero Harry Flashman.

In 1971’s Flash for Freedom, set in the second half of 1848 and early 1849, one of the historical figures that Harry encounters is the young Abraham Lincoln when Abe was just a Congressman. Flashman himself – like Lincoln – has not yet achieved the fame that will be his in later life.

Alan Bates -better Flashman than MalcolmThe pair first meet in the fall of 1848 in Washington, DC, when Harry – a Cavalry Captain in Queen Victoria’s army – is trying, Bret Maverick-style, to pass himself off as a Royal Navy Lieutenant named Beauchamp Comber. (Don’t ask.) Abe senses something off about the scurvy Brit and uses seeming politeness mixed with alarming insinuations to set Flashman on edge, terrified that he’ll be exposed.

The author George MacDonald Fraser handles this section very cleverly as Lincoln comes across like a homespun Sherlock Holmes, chewing up Harry’s lies and spitting them out on the b.s. pile. Harry/ Beauchamp counters with an observation that Abe isn’t entirely on the level, either, masking his obviously calculating nature behind a facade of folksiness.

The two part on reasonably friendly terms, but Lincoln smilingly makes it clear that he knows Flashman/  Comber is conning everyone about being a naval officer. However, Abe also makes it clear that whatever the rascal is up to it doesn’t seem to pose any harm to him, so he shrugs it off and goes on his merry way. 

The second meeting between the future President and the future Sir Harry comes in the very early months of 1849 in the novel’s thrilling finale. A convoluted set of circumstances have led to Lincoln being at just the right place at just the right time to face down a pack of Fugitive Slave Hunters in order to save Harry and a female slave that Flashman is smuggling to freedom in Canada. 

Flash for FreedomThe next day a bedridden Harry is recovering from wounds received during this adventure. He’s staying at the home of an acquaintance of Lincoln, and Abe has been visiting the ailing Englishman, sitting in a bedside chair. They’ve had a lengthy conversation during which Lincoln has made it clear that he now knows who Harry really is and Flashman asks why Abe continues to cover for him.

By way of an answer Lincoln muses aloud about the various newsworthy escapades that “Beauchamp Comber” has been having as a reluctant agent of the Underground Railroad. He also recaps the number of former slaves that Flashman has incidentally helped recently during his usual selfish pursuits. We join the narrative as Abe sums up:

“I don’t pretend to know why you’ve done these things and I don’t think I want to know. It’s enough for me to know that you HAVE done them, and that none of those unfortunates will ever wear chains again.”   

I started to make with the kind of simperingly compassionate noises that I thought would appeal to a man like Lincoln but he stopped me short with a raised hand and a wry smile before saying “Save it for the Recording Angel, Captain Flashman. I have a feeling you’ll need it on that day.” Continue reading →

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February 15, 2018 · 10:00 am

THE DOOM OF LONDON (1892): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Doom of LondonTHE DOOM OF LONDON (1892) – Written by Robert Barr. In the “far future” of the mid-Twentieth Century the narrator of this tale looks back at the catastrophe that hit London in the 1890s.

The premise is that our narrator is outraged by a piece written by a Professor Mowberry in which the professor ventures the opinion that the destruction of London was an overall beneficial event. His reasoning is that it got rid of millions of unnecessary people. Pretty callous attitude, unless you’re talking about getting rid of the Kardashians.

At any rate we readers are informed that in the mid-Twentieth Century fog has been completely done away with (?), preventing what happened to London in the 1890s from ever happening again. It turns out that what started out seeming to be nothing but the usual London fog was actually deadly gases unleashed from deep in the Earth by careless mining. Continue reading →

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February 14, 2018 · 11:30 pm

VALENTINE’S DAY SHOUTOUT TO FORMER PRESIDENT MCKINLEY AND HIS WIFE IDA

MckinleysSince today is Valentine’s Day AND we have Presidents Day coming up here’s a brief shoutout to the often neglected love story about President William McKinley and his wife Ida Saxton McKinley. The McKinley years were far enough away that there is a certain sincerity to their relationship that could never be trusted in these days of endless media overload. 

Years before they were President and First Lady the McKinleys lost both their daughters in tragic circumstances. Ida was never the same and became epileptic plus showed signs of other disorders. As president, William happily restructured the usual social agenda for First Ladies to accommodate Ida’s special circumstances.

Ida was permitted to sit rather than stand for the endless receiving lines that STILL take up too much time in the world of politics. McKinley’s administration had Vice President Hobart’s wife tend to many of the strenuous hostessing activities that First Ladies usually have to endure.

Perhaps most touchingly, President McKinley had Ida sit right next to him at formal meals rather than at the opposite end of the table, as was the usual custom. He did this so that when Ida had one of her epileptic seizures at the table he could place a napkin over her face to prevent guests from noticing. Although personally, I’ve always been convinced that the guests were just pretending not to notice. But that’s just me. 

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February 14, 2018 · 12:02 am

DEMOCRATS: WILL THEY EVER GROW UP?

Mascot with demo and repub headsFirst off, I’ll point out again that I think the Democrats (DemCorp) and Republicans (RepubCorp) are both gangs of white collar criminals. However, there is no shortage of outlets pointing out the faults of just the Republicans, even though Democrats are just as disgusting.

Democrats are in SERIOUS need of introspection and soul-searching, yet refuse to venture out of the pompous haze of self-infatuation that they wrap themselves in 24 hours a day. THEY are the 21st Century’s “Ugly Americans” who prance along oblivious to all of their faults while fancying themselves to be THE moral models for the rest of us. 

Over the past year I’ve been making a point of emphasizing the way that so many of the negative aspects of our history were caused by Democrats and how they need knocked down a few pegs when they dare try to elevate themselves above the rest of the country and lecture us.

They claim all of us bear guilt just for being Americans yet seem to think THEY can dismiss their political party’s role in slavery, Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan, the Japanese Internment, the Trail of Tears, etc. One way they do that is by saying “Hey, that was long ago. We’re better people now.” Well if that applies to Democrats it applies to the country as a whole, too.

Another way they do it is through their ridiculous claim that “Hey, uh … all those Democrats of the past? Uh, they would be Republicans now … Yeah, that’s the ticket …” When I was still a Democrat I often mouthed those same words. I was wrong and so are any other Democrats who hide behind that lame excuse.

We are long past the time when America’s pompous, pretentious asses called Democrats need to be called out on their ridiculous airs. Transgress with me as I dare to blaspheme against the Democrats’ most sacred deities – Themselves: 

*** GROW UP, ALREADY! YOUR PERCEPTIONS HAVE BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN WISH FULFILLMENT OR DELUSIONS TO STROKE YOUR OWN EGOS AND TELL YOURSELVES HOW WONDERFUL YOU CONSIDER YOURSELVES TO BE. (Over and over again, too, until you become unbearable. Then when you drive people away you despairingly moan how you think  everyone you know is becoming right-wing.) 

*** FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIVES THINK ABOUT HOW CHILDISH YOU SOUND WHEN YOU SPOUT THAT NONSENSICAL EXCUSE ABOUT DEMOCRATS OF THE PAST. YOU ARE BASICALLY SAYING “ALL THE ‘GOOD’ PEOPLE IN HISTORY WOULD BE DEMOCRATS TODAY AND ALL THE ‘BAD’ AND ‘ICKY’ PEOPLE IN HISTORY WOULD BE REPUBLICANS TODAY.”

*** YOU HAVE A SIMPLE-MINDED, COMIC BOOK-LEVEL WORLDVIEW IN WHICH LIFE IS A CHILDISH FANTASY ABOUT GOOD GUYS AND BAD GUYS WITH YOURSELVES CONSTANTLY PAINTED AS THE GOOD GUYS AND EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH YOU AS THE BAD GUYS.

*** YOU INSIST ON CASTING ALL OTHER ADULTS AS SUPPORTING PLAYERS IN YOUR INCREASINGLY JUVENILE DRAMAS, WITH YOU AS THE CORRECT-THINKER SETTING STRAIGHT THE VILLAINS OF THE PIECE.

*** AND IT ISN’T JUST THAT YOU PERPETUAL CHILDREN CAST EVERYONE ELSE AS SUPPORTING PLAYERS IN THOSE DRAMAS, IT’S THAT YOUR LIMITED IMAGINATIONS CAN ONLY CONJURE UP SUCH FOURTH-RATE DRAMAS.

*** I AM TELLING YOU UNEQUIVOCALLY THAT MANY REPUBLICANS, OR RIGHT-WINGERS, OR INDEPENDENT VOTERS OR TRUMP SUPPORTERS REALLY ARE AS TOLERANT, INTELLIGENT AND COMPASSIONATE AS YOU EGOMANIACS ONLY THINK YOU ARE.

*** THE DOGMATIC ASSERTIONS THAT YOU TRY TO PUMMEL THE REST OF US WITH ARE NOT FACTS AND JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN SUMMON EQUALLY SMALL-MINDED PEOPLE (or maybe just sock puppets) WHO AGREE WITH YOU DOES NOT MAKE THEM FACTS. THEY ARE STILL NOTHING MORE THAN ASSERTIONS SHARED BY A CERTAIN NUMBER OF PEOPLE.

*** YOUR PERCEPTIONS MIGHT BETTER BE DESCRIBED AS JUST AN EXERCISE IN WISH FULFILLMENT OR PROPS FOR YOUR SIMPLISTIC WORLDVIEW IN WHICH YOU ARE “GOOD” AND EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH YOU IS “EVIL.” (As if such childish concepts belong anywhere outside of religion.) Continue reading →

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