Category Archives: Neglected History

MORE DEMOCRATS REBEL AGAINST PELOSI AND SCHUMER’S BLOCKING OF FUNDS TO CONTINUE TRUMP’S PAYROLL PROTECTION PROGRAM

mascot new look donkey and elephant headsBalladeer’s Blog is always emphasizing how out-of-date the traditional “shirts vs skins” two-party system is in the U.S. You would think that Democrats could set aside partisan politics when it comes to President Trump’s FDR-style Payroll Protection Program, but no, as many have noted, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are AGAIN strategizing to try holding the country hostage by blocking the renewal funds for the Program.

Courageous Democrat Senators like Tina Smith and Kyrsten Sinema have criticized the cruel obstructionism of their party’s leadership (link below), with Sinema even calling to renew the funds the swiftest way – through unanimous consent for the PPP with no debates even considering the corrupt Schumer’s proposed deal-breakers. Continue reading

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THE GUARDIAN’S MELANIE PHILLIPS: “WHY I LEFT THE LEFT”

Melanie PhillipsBalladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that equally criticizes BOTH the political left and the political right. Here is a terrific interview with Melanie Phillips on her disillusionment with the UK’s news outlet The Guardian. Like so many of us she reflects on the totalitarian nature of the left and how it has driven us away.

Intolerance, fanaticism and black-listing are intolerance, fanaticism and black-listing no matter which side of the political spectrum is pushing them. Phillips describes it as her journey “from fantasy to reality.” Continue reading

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FOOL KILLER THIRTY-EIGHT: AUGUST 1910

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer timelessPART THIRTY-EIGHT – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets in the August of 1910 issue of James Larkin Pearson’s Fool-Killer:

*** The owners of mills and sweatshops in which children age 10 and under worked under grueling conditions. (Child labor was not yet against the law.) Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will recall that child labor was one of the MAJOR beefs of Klarenc Wade Mak’s 1917 Fool Killer.

*** Lobbyist Jake L Hamon Sr, who was accused by Senator Thomas Gore (author Gore Vidal’s maternal grandfather) of offering him a $25,000.00 bribe. The alleged bribe was for Gore to vote in favor of a land purchase that attorney J.M. McMurray was trying to make from the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. Hamon allegedly stood to earn 10 percent of the Thirty Million Dollar deal.

Fool Killer condensed*** Senator Gore himself, for muddying the waters of his own accusations by accusing Vice President James S Sherman of an illicit interest in the land deal. Gore wound up having to admit that his accusation was based on hearsay.

*** “Frenzied Financiers” – the name for shady Wall Street dealers who exploited loopholes to fleece their clients and endanger the economy. (See my review of the 1907 novel Friday the Thirteenth for more details on Frenzied Finance.)

*** President William Howard Taft, whom Pearson and his Fool Killer accurately predicted would NOT get reelected in 1912. Continue reading

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MARTIN LUTHER KING PERSON OF COURAGE KAREN WHITSETT ON TRUMP AND CORONAVIRUS

Karen WhitsettDemocrat State Representative Karen Whitsett of Michigan has credited President Trump and his touting of hydroxychloroquine with saving her life as she recently combated the coronavirus.

(Link below)

Donald Trump never called racist till running against DemocratsWhitsett courageously went non-partisan and publicly stated she would not have thought to ask for it (hydroxychloroquine) if President Trump had not touted its benefits as a possible coronavirus treatment.

“It has a lot to do with the president … bringing it up,” Whitsett said. Her body reacted to the hydroxychloroquine fairly quickly. According to Whitsett, “It was less than two hours” when she started to feel relief. Continue reading

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SIXTY MINUTES INVESTIGATES THE CHINESE “WET MARKETS” WHERE THE CORONAVIRUS STARTED

Sixty Minutes Australia with a piece on the infamous “wet markets” of China, where bat soup and other items are common offerings. 

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LAUGHING AT JOE BIDEN’S IDIOCY IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Joe Biden faceSomething which has united many people under the current circumstances is our shared laughter at the hapless, clueless Joe Biden. Thank you to the BERNIE BROS who notified me about Biden’s latest farcical attempt to pretend he’s not senile and that he’d be capable of handling national affairs.

JOE BIDEN’S LATEST ABSURD PRONOUNCEMENT ON THE CORONAVIRUS WAS THIS:

“WE CANNOT LET THIS, WE’VE NEVER ALLOWED ANY CRISIS FROM THE CIVIL WAR STRAIGHT THROUGH TO THE PANDEMIC OF 17, ALL THE WAY AROUND, 16, WE HAVE NEVER, NEVER LET OUR DEMOCRACY SAKES SECOND FIDDLE, WAY THEY, WE CAN BOTH HAVE A DEMOCRACY AND … CORRECT THE PUBLIC HEALTH.” (video below)

#WalkAwayUh, yeah, Joe. Stirring words, indeed. BERNIE BROS, you are justified in your outrage over the Democrats rigging the 2020 nomination in favor of the senile blithering idiot Joe Biden instead of your candidate Bernie Sanders. #WALKAWAY, Bernie Bros, #WALKAWAY like the rest of us.

I guess Biden’s slogan will be “You can’t spell dementia without d-e-m!” 

FOR THE VIDEO:  Continue reading

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FOOL KILLER THIRTY-SEVEN: JULY 1910

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE 

Fool Killer timelessLORE ADDITION: For the first time the Fool Killer added a hand-cranked chainsaw to his arsenal of weapons. The Fool Killer’s targets in James Larkin Pearson’s July of 1910 issue:

*** Preachers who smoked. Pearson and his version of the Fool Killer held smoking in such low regard that they felt people who indulged in it should not be trusted with ministering to people’s souls. Shooting the cigarettes, cigars and pipes out of the mouths of smoking preachers was going too far in my opinion, but what can you do?

*** Sid Beckwith of New York, who insisted that the best cure for insomnia was to buy a passenger balloon and take a trip through the skies. He said this would make an insomniac sleep like a baby after that. The clueless Beckwith also warned against spending more than FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS for such an airship. Well, okay, then.

*** Nebraskans who – incensed at the Fool Killer’s criticism of William Jennings Bryan – had taken to bashing and agitating against Pearson’s publication. The Fool Killer dubbed them the Independent Order of Self-Made Fools and proclaimed that their “double-barreled Devil-guns” would kick backward upon firing with more force than would propel their pellets forward. 

*** Writer and philosopher Elbert Hubbard.

*** Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was considering flying one of his eponymous airships to the North Pole. After the Cook debacle Larson and his Fool Killer were fed up with what they called North Pole Yarns. Continue reading

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TRUMP’S PAYROLL PROTECTION PROGRAM FURTHERS HIS FDR IMAGE

Trump is the new FDRBalladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that equally criticizes both Republicans and Democrats. With all the doom and gloom in the news lately let’s put aside partisan politics and mark Friday with a positive take that anyone with compassion can appreciate. President Donald Trump’s Payroll Protection Program (see link below) is rolling and it’s as historic as any of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

Even the Democrats at CNBC are marveling at how quickly the president got this program running in a process which they noted “would usually take months.” And in another example of how Donald Trump is a de facto Third Party President I have to say I can’t picture any hard-core Republican taking necessary steps like this. Usually Republican office-holders refuse to accept the fact that governments spend money. Continue reading

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BERNIE SANDERS BROS HIT JOE BIDEN OVER HIS CORONAVIRUS LIES AND MORE

Trump with biden as backseat driverThank you to the BERNIE BROS who brought all this to my attention.

While I was fully aware that Joe Biden’s lying claim that Trump had called the Chinese Coronavirus a hoax had been proven false I missed a few of these other items. Links are below.

Trump state of the union 2TRUMP HAD MENTIONED THE NEED TO FIGHT THE WUHAN CORONAVIRUS IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS – So much for Biden’s claim that the president was not prepared. Trump’s coronavirus remarks were among the items that privileged white one-percenter Nancy Pelosi tore up in a childish fit.

Bernie BrosRemember, Nancy had even encouraged people in her district to come out and celebrate Chinese New Year despite the coronavirus risks at the time. She and Biden were not taking the threat seriously just to play a game of political spite.  

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDY SHOWS THE U.S. WAS MORE PREPARED FOR THE PANDEMIC THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY – When even the anti-Trump JHU points out this fact then you know it must be manifestly obvious. Thanks again, BERNIE BROS for pointing this out! Continue reading

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FOOL KILLER FOR APRIL FOOL’S DAY

Fool Killer illustrationIt’s April Fool’s Day! This time around Balladeer’s Blog will forego its usual Aleister Crowley item and holiday-themed slasher reviews for a breakdown on the assorted depictions of the neglected American folk figure called the Fool Killer.

A. THE MILTON CHRONICLE YEARS – Late 1840s (?) to 1880 (?) – In the earliest WRITTEN versions of American Fool Killer lore the homicidal vigilante wrote letters to Milton Chronicle Editor Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans regarding his victims and why he chose them. (Evans was the real author of the letters.)

              Fool Killer picSurviving Letter One (February 1857): The Fool Killer used his trusty club/ walking stick/ cudgel to slay trigger-happy slave hunting patrols, some “foolish” University of North Carolina students and faculty, a would-be lynch mob, a ruthless land speculator, a vain Southern Belle and her panting suitors plus political figures abusing their positions for partisan purposes. CLICK HERE 

              Surviving Letter Two (March, 1859): The Fool Killer whacked a turkey thief, some Don Quixote Invincibles, a fortune-hunting conman, partisan newspaper “journalists” and corrupt politicians in the North Carolina State Legislature. CLICK HERE 

              Surviving Letter Three (June 1861): In this last surviving Fool Killer Letter PRIOR to his Civil War hibernation period, the wandering killer bumps off slave-owning Democrats who avoided military service, war profiteers, General Benjamin Butler plus a phony “witch” and her clients who were trying to railroad some innocent victims. CLICK HERE   Continue reading

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