HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! As always Balladeer’s Blog marks the event with a few looks at neglected conflicts from America’s past. The servicemen who fought in those actions are just as deserving of being memorialized as those who fought in more familiar wars.
KOREAN EXPEDITION OF 1871 – A Diplomatic Mission was sent to Korea that year, with the time period’s usual military escort of war ships on such ventures. The U.S. expedition was snubbed on the diplomatic side and then Korean shore batteries opened fire upon the military escort. The Americans launched reprisal raids for a few days then departed, leaving U.S. – Korean relations somewhat cold for years afterward. Medal of Honor Winners:
WILLIAM F LUKES
Navy Rank: Landsman
Citation: June 9th – 10th, 1871 – During the assault on the Han River Forts on Ganghwa Island, Lukes came to the assistance of injured Lieutenant Hugh McKee. The Landsman fought his way through heavy resistance to the fallen McKee’s location and refused to abandon his comrade.
Through swordplay, bayonet charges and hand-to-hand combat William received a severe sword cut to the head, a wound which would cause him to suffer convulsions for the rest of his life from the brain damage. When American reinforcements arrived they found the unconscious Lukes had suffered 18 bayonet wounds in the fighting.
JOHN ANDREWS Continue reading
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I am STILL fascinated by the ongoing exposure of exactly how corrupt and rotted the Democrats and Republicans have made the American political system. De facto Third Party President Donald Trump calls the latest revelations “Spygate” but no matter what you call it it is nauseating to see partisan zealots defending the misconduct of America’s rightfully hated “Intelligence Community” – the CIA, FBI ,NSA, etc. 
This first item would normally go with one of my Faculty Lounge Fascist Roundups but since I just did one so recently I’ll include it here instead and also post the link there. 
Here’s another blog post where I take a break from pointing out how the American Left’s unbearable pomposity and snobbery have driven away so many of us who used to consider ourselves part of it. This time my points are being made in a New York Times Op-Ed by Gerard Alexander, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia. 
***
.
Balladeer’s Blog has long emphasized the need for Third Parties in America since the Democrats and Republicans are just rival gangs of white collar criminals. 
ELEVEN YEAR HIGH PERCENT OF AMERICANS SAY THINGS ARE GOING WELL – CNN’s own polling is telling us this – which means the figure is probably even higher than the 59% they quoted. At any rate , I always make it clear that after the 2016 election I don’t trust polls and surveys done by the corporate media but Trump-hating fascists eat, sleep and breathe by such polls and surveys so I periodically have fun mentioning results like this. 
SAMANTHA BEE STUPID – The relentlessly unfunny Samantha Bee looked like an even bigger fool than she usually does recently after New York’s Democrat Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – whom she praised and groveled for in an interview – had to resign amid #METOO accusations of brutal VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. At least FOUR accusers have come forward. 
LLOYD MARCUS: DESPITE THE MEDIA, TRUMP PULLING DOWN WINS FOR WE THE PEOPLE – As I always mention, Lloyd is religious and I’m a non-believer. 
It’s no secret that I consider President Trump to be America’s first de facto Third Party President, nor that I consider him to be the new Franklin Roosevelt AND the new JFK. He has accomplished a great deal for the working class and the poor and I’m not going to ignore all that just because the violent fascists and moronic conformists who hate him whine about him 24/7. These are historic times kicked off when Trump shattered the glass ceiling in November of 2016. 
At a tense hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, the judge said Mueller should not have “unfettered power” in his Russia probe and that the charges against Manafort did not arise from the investigation into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. 
Balladeer's Blog 