QUESTION: How come you no longer make as many mentions or blog posts about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) as you used to?
ANSWER: First let me provide clarification for newer readers why I used to invoke the Spanish Civil War so frequently. I used to use that conflict’s imagery and terms as a departure from over-used World War Two and Cold War clichés when describing the current forces tearing the U.S. apart.
Ultimately nobody (except maybe the Anarchists) were worth rooting for in the Spanish Civil War once you had Stalin aiding the leftists and Hitler & Mussolini aiding the right-wingers. No matter which side won it was clear that Spain would no longer be a free country like it had been under the short-lived Republic.
Long ago I used to condemn the Anarchists for finding both the left and the right too totalitarian to be worth siding with and fighting both sides. In recent years I’ve certainly come to sympathize with their position as we here in America have seen that the political left is every bit as bad as the worst right-wingers ever were.
I stopped using Spanish Civil War imagery and terms as frequently as I used to because more and more people on the internet have taken to using them, too. I’m not implying those others imitated me, I’m just saying that it’s no longer as unique as it used to be.
And I could swear that a certain wide-eyed, fanatical chipmunk in Congress fancies herself to be America’s version of La Pasionaria from the Spanish Civil War era.
At any rate I still find that conflict – and the countless movies about it – fascinating. Orwell, Hemingway and Andre Malraux aside you’ve also got the American volunteers who fought in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. Plus there’s the pop culture appeal, like with the way Rick Blaine in Casablanca served in the anti-Franco forces in the Spanish Civil War.
And on a more comical note, it was always fun to trip up America’s increasingly deranged left-wingers with Spanish Civil War references. Just because the American Volunteers were called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, American leftists would often sneeringly accuse you of not knowing that “Abraham Lincoln was a President during OUR Civil War, fucktard, he wasn’t in Spain.”
It was fun to then cut the smirking fools off at the knees by pointing out how THEY are actually the ones who are uninformed, by revealing what the Abraham Lincoln Brigade really was. Continue reading
De facto Third Party President Donald Trump continues to provide TANGIBLE, financial help to the working class and the poor. In this case it’s through the way his Theodore Roosevelt-style squeeze on Big Pharma has helped keep U.S. drug prices from spiraling out of control. The link to the article is below, but first some thoughts and excerpts. 
No matter how much the Fake News outlets distort every single thing Trump says and does, no matter how many brain-dead professional athletes trash him and no matter how many shallow, uninformed and emotionally unstable entertainers lie about him, those of us in the real world – not the callous, comfortable and uncaring world of One Percenters – continue to support him. 
“It’s (Trump’s role in this) also one of the reasons, beyond the insanity that is the current Democratic Party (see: Sanders, Bernie; Warren, Elizabeth; Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria; Pelosi, Nancy; Tlaib, Rashida; and on and on), why people who supported Trump in 2016 remain loyal to him. He has, in fact, delivered on things like this that his voters care about.”
WHY WAS MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY ESTABLISHED?
Anti-Trump loons have had a VERY bad last couple of days. The Fake News outlets of the Democrats ran with ANOTHER false story – this one about Trump supposedly ordering Cohen to lie ONLY TO HAVE ROBERT MUELLER HIMSELF PUBLICLY POINT OUT HOW WRONG IT WAS. 
Puck magazine (1871-1918), the well-known political humor magazine, was at its height under original founder and creative director cartoonist Joseph Keppler. Here is a February 23rd, 1881 Keppler political cartoon depicting Jay Gould, the telegraph monopolist, and Cornelius Vanderbilt the railroad baron. 
This is similar to the way the Silicon Valley and Social Media Robber Barons of today cloak themselves in “socially conscious” public images while in reality clutching the United States and all its institutions by the throat. 
Projected Title: FLASHMAN ON THE GOLD COAST 
In June the advance of the Ashanti was halted at Elmina and back in England Her Majesty’s Government made plans to send additional troops to the Gold Coast to deal with the situation. By August 13th General Garnet Wolseley was chosen to lead the army. 
Privileged white one percenter and Democrat career criminal Nancy Pelosi once again demonstrated her political party’s typical hypocrisy on the issue of illegal immigration and border enforcement. The link is below.
Loomer, a heroine to an entire generation of empowered young women, then read aloud from a list of the dead and raped victims of illegal immigrant violence until Nancy Pelosi sicced police on the crowd. 
January is an appropriate month for this latest post about Puck magazine (1871-1918). Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve long made clear my fascination with that political humor magazine. Puck political cartoons – especially from the covers – are still much sought-after and I own a few myself. 
RED CROSS COMPARES THE U.S. – MEXICO BORDER TO A WAR ZONE – Apparently the white collar criminals of the Washington D.C. Swamp are going to wait until Mexican Drug Cartel gunmen are trading shots inside the Alamo itself before they deign to acknowledge the druglord no-man’s land in the American Southwest. 
Nor do they care about all the additional crimes committed by repeat deportees who simply re-cross the border. Democrats consider all illegal immigrants to be voters for their political party, either with or without amnesty. AND the party’s big money donors want the flood of illegals to continue so that wages fall, padding their own financial bottom lines. 
DEMOCRAT JERRY BROWN, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA LIKE HIS FATHER BEFORE HIM, PARDONED HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AS HE LEFT OFFICE. Brown did that so that the poor, delicate little darlings – who had committed multiple ADDITIONAL crimes – would not have to be turned over to the Immigration authorities. 
