Category Archives: Neglected History

DEMOCRATS PLAY THE SHORT GAME AGAIN: TRUMP VERDICT WILL OBVIOUSLY BE OVERTURNED ON APPEAL

political martyrsIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog recognizes that multiple titles could have applied to this blog post, so before I get into the meat of this item, let’s look at some of those potential alternate titles.

VERDICT MEANS JUST ONE THING: PEOPLE WHO HATED TRUMP YESTERDAY STILL HATE HIM TODAY AND PEOPLE WHO LIKED TRUMP YESTERDAY STILL LIKE HIM TODAY

rock star trumpDEMOCRAT FASCISTS FURTHER TRUMP’S MARTYRDOM IN PURSUIT OF A TALKING POINT THAT WILL ULTIMATELY GET OVERTURNED ANYWAY. (Just like all the frantic “Trump colluded with Russia” nonsense and “Trump was running a nuclear program at Mar-a-Lago” and all the other anti-Trump fables that have been spun out of whole cloth.) ALSO, REMEMBER, ALL OF THESE CHARGES ARE USUALLY MISDEMEANORS THAT WERE DISTORTED INTO FELONIES JUST TO “GET TRUMP,”

CLEARLY PARTISAN JUDGE AND JURY MAKE SURE TRUMP IS THE NEW NELSON MANDELA, MAHATMA GANDHI AND LECH WALESA, ALL OF WHOM WERE ALSO “CONVICTED FELONS” (LMAO) VIA THEIR COUNTRY’S CORRUPT AND SLANTED LEGAL SYSTEMS

mandela and trumpONLY FOOLS ARE ACTING LIKE WE DIDN’T ALL KNOW THIS WOULD BE THE INITIAL VERDICT FROM DAY ONE. THAT’S WHY THE APPEALS PROCESS EXISTS, BECAUSE OF FLAWED OUTCOMES LIKE THIS.

DONATIONS POUR IN FOR TRUMP CAMPAIGN FOLLOWING LATEST LEGAL TRAVESTY AGAINST HIM. More HERE. And HERE. And HERE. Silicon Valley man donates $300,000 HERE.

reminder that trump neverOkay, for overseas readers, let me mention once again that EVEN IF TRUMP IS SENT TO PRISON, HE CAN STILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT JUST LIKE EUGENE DEBS DID. Hell, such a provision was made possible by recognition of the fact that any incumbent administration could well turn out to be as criminal and authoritarian as the Biden Regime has proven to be and would jail political opponents.  I never thought the hopelessly corrupt Democrat and Republican political establishment would allow Trump to win, anyway, and have said so in countless previous blog posts. I will still vote for him, though.  It looks like my comparison of these situations to the ending of the Robert Redford movie Brubaker years ago was accurate.  

trump won twiceAnd remember: “The evidence and testimony don’t matter, because the outcome was predetermined before the “trial” ever started. This is a political operation organized by the Democratic Party to punish Trump and, if possible, to prevent him from being elected president again.
Understand that 86% of voters in Manhattan voted for Joe Biden in 2020. There are no honest people on that jury. They know full well why they are there, and what is expected of them.”      Every word of that is true. Plus, in another of the Trump cases NY literally changed the Statute of Limitations to get Trump, remember that? They also broke ex post facto by trying Trump, for whom that statute of limitations had already passed

Now, on to my usual roundup of news, memes and political cartoons: 

ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST PARTISAN ANTI-TRUMP ZEALOT MERCHAN ALREADY FILED.

tulsi gabbard heroicTULSI GABBARD BRAVELY CALLS OUT BIDEN FOR “ABUSE OF POWER”.

LEGAL SCHOLARS DELUGE THE MEDIA TO POINT OUT THE MANY, MANY THINGS WRONG WITH THIS ABSURD TRUMP VERDICT. More HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.

MOTHER JONES: TRUMP IS MANY HEROES IN ONE. Continue reading

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TRADER HORN (1927) PART THREE

Balladeer’s Blog continues reviewing the 1927 book Trader Horn, the quasi-autobiographical account of the British Trade Agent Alfred Aloysius Horn’s adventures in Africa during the late 1800s. The partially factual book spawned multiple movies. For Part One click HERE.

trader horn another picPART THREE – Trader Horn’s skills at bartering and deal-making with the indigenous people grew as he acquired more and more experience. His account always expressed his awe at the high populations of animal life throughout the region in the 1870s-1880s.

Gorillas were plentiful enough to live in what Horn and his fellow Trade Agents called colonies. It was from observing gorillas that humans had learned to break open the huge water vines to drink the water inside. Alfred was always grateful for the way this practice allowed one to make one’s water supply last longer on extended journeys through the jungle. The water from the vines was clean enough to avoid dysentery, too. Continue reading

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FOOL KILLER: MELUNGEON TALES

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 condensedMELUNGEON VARIATIONS PART ONE

In the previous installments I reviewed the various surviving Fool Killer Letters recounting the folk figure’s homicidal adventures in North Carolina, Virginia (including what is now West Virginia) and Kentucky.

Those tales presented the Milton Chronicle‘s Fool Killer from the late 1840s or early 1850s on through the late 1870s or possibly as late as 1880. That figure slew fools with his club/ walking stick/ cudgel and his set of Bowie knives, each blade inscribed with the words “Fool Killer.”  

The very first Fool Killer Letter by Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans’ fictional Jesse Holmes has not survived, so if Evans made reference to being inspired by any older Fool Killer traditions we have no way of knowing it.

East Tennessee MountainsIf he had, one possible source would be the Fool Killer figure from Melungeon folklore in East Tennessee and other Appalachian areas. Or, since we have no way of checking exact dates, Evans’ darkly satirical tales may have influenced the existing Melungeon lore since Melungeons at the time were scattered from Tennessee to North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. Continue reading

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ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS: MAY 28th

From the corrupt political cesspool called Joe Biden’s America it’s another current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.

biden crime family shirtBIDEN CRIME FAMILY: ASSOCIATE OF JOE BIDEN’S BROTHER JAMES PLEADS GUILTY IN DEFRAUDING MEDICARE OF FIFTY-ONE MILLION DOLLARS. White-collar criminals in action. Meanwhile the Biden Regime continues persecuting the opposition leader with kangaroo court trials. 

JOE BIDEN’S LATEST SCANDAL: WITNESS INTIMIDATION REGARDING HIS UNDERBOSS HUNTER BIDEN’S UPCOMING TRIAL. Tara Reade, Joe Biden’s rape accuser, was probably right to flee the country in fear for her life. The Biden Regime is criminal trash.

DEMOCRAT JAMES CARVILLE COURAGEOUSLY CALLS OUT THE PARTY’S GROTESQUE BEHAVIOR. A few excerpts – “The generational thievery that has occurred in this country is criminality of the first order. We keep wondering why these young people are not coming home to the Democrats. Why are blacks not coming home to the Democrats?”

          student loans biden And especially “Why are we forgiving student loans for people that go to Harvard? Which, according to Scott Galloway, quite accurately, is nothing but a hedge fund that has classrooms. Well, they got a $52 billion f*cking surplus. Why are taxpayers going to bail these people out? Why don’t you come out with a proposal to tax every university with an endowment of over $5 billion and use that money to give their former students relief?”     

           WOW! Those remarks make me miss the days when the Democrat Party was actually worth supporting. And Carville forgot to mention that the Supreme Court already ruled that Biden does NOT have the authority to forgive these debts, but he just keeps on doing it while the impotent Congressional Republicans do nothing.

behizyVOTERS OF COLOR PRAISE TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS AT THE BRONX RALLY. Video HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. My favorite one was when the reporter tried to steer the Bronx resident into making an anti-Trump remark but she wouldn’t do it. Second favorite was the breakdown of how much better off the country and the world were with Trump in the White House.

           DEMOCRAT SNOBBERY TOWARD THOSE SUPPORTERS HERE and HERE and HERE    

MARINE WIDOW WARMLY RECALLS THE COMFORT THAT DE FACTO THIRD PARTY PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP GAVE HER SON AT HIS FATHER’S GRAVE IN 2017. Wasn’t it nice to have a president who actually understood what Memorial Day is about?   Continue reading

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MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS FOR AMERICA’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE SECOND SAMOAN CIVIL WAR (1898-1899)

HAVE A RESPECTFUL MEMORIAL DAY, EVERYONE! I like to honor American veterans from some of our nation’s overlooked military actions since their service often seems forgotten. This year it’s the Second Samoan Civil War (1898-1899).

american samoaTHE CONFLICT – On August 22nd, 1898 Malietoa Laupepa passed away. He had been the ruling King of Samoa by agreements among the German Empire, Great Britain and the United States. With his passing, the U.S. and Great Britain supported the ascension of his son Malietoa Tanumafili to the throne. The Germans supported Mata’afa Iosefo, a former rival of the late king who returned from exile.

Neither side would yield, and the three nations began reinforcing their military positions in the Samoan Islands to fight the imminent war. By January of 1899 Malietoa Tanumafili had been driven into exile by the Germans and their Samoan allies. The German-Mata’afan forces began forcibly removing Americans and Europeans from their homes.   Continue reading

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NOVEMBER 2021: A LOOK BACK

FOR PART ONE (2016) OF THIS RETROSPECTIVE FROM INDEPENDENT VOTER SITE BALLADEER’S BLOG CLICK HERE.

freedom of expression is a human rightDEFENDING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY. Also covers Biden eliminating Trump’s Department of Education policy which tracked the outrageous number of sex crimes committed by teachers. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?

DEMOCRATS ARE AGAIN ENCOURAGING RIOTS IF A JURY REACHES A VERDICT THEY DON’T LIKE. Only Democrat fascists would be so deranged that they would think the white Kyle Rittenhouse shooting other white people is somehow “White Supremacy.” Tulsi Gabbard and others weigh in, too.

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY UNDERBOSS HUNTER BIDEN PROFITED FROM HIS FATHER JOE’S SUBMISSION TO CHINA. And remember how entangled Joe and Hunter’s finances are.

joe biden is so creepyJOE BIDEN: A FAILURE AND AN EMBARRASSMENT. Among other items, features more excerpts from Ashley Biden’s diary about her creepy, lecherous father Joe Biden – as in “Was I molested? I think so” and she also mentions taking “probably not appropriate” showers with her father when she was a child and incapable of consent.

BIDEN REGIME CORRUPTION AND SCANDAL ROUNDUP: NOVEMBER 23rd.

MORE ABOUT HUNTER’S ROLE IN BIDEN REGIME CORRUPTION. And more HERE.

steele dossierAUSTRALIAN NEWS IS ALSO COVERING THE DEBUNKING OF THE “RUSSIAN COLLUSION” LIES AGAINST TRUMP. Just as they will someday cover the debunking of the latest lies and lawfare against Trump.

JOE BIDEN DISASTERS PILE UP. Biden’s Afghanistan hostages, the impeachment articles introduced against the career criminal and more. Continue reading

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THE 1926 AERIAL BOMBING IN ILLINOIS … BY GANGSTERS

two seater biplaneGANGSTER WARFARE FROM THE SKIES – November 12th of 1926 saw the very first aerial bombing on United States soil. It was not a foreign power or terrorist group behind the attack, however.

The bombing was part of a gang war between two rival groups of bootleggers in Williamson County, located in southern Illinois. On one side was the Shelton Gang, led by Bernie, Carl and Earl Shelton. On the other was the Birger Gang, led by Charlie Birger.

birger gang at shady restThe two gangs were fighting it out for control of the bootleg whiskey racket in the area. Being so far away from Chicago and vicinity, the Shelton-Birger War was not well known to the rest of the United States. 

By some accounts, the falling out between the formerly allied gangs resulted over protection payments being made to them by suppliers of bootleg whiskey. When both gangs claimed some of the same bootleggers owed the protection money to them the rift occurred and the bullets flew.
Continue reading

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TRADER HORN (1927) PART TWO

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the 1927 book Trader Horn, the quasi-autobiographical account of the British Trader Alfred Aloysius Horn’s adventures in Africa during the late 1800s. The partially factual book spawned multiple movies. For Part One click HERE.

trader horn cover picPART TWO – Aboard the S.S. Angola, the teenaged Alfred Horn approached Africa on his first assignment as a Trade Agent for the firm of Hatson & Cookson, whose business operated from Bonny Brass to Old Calabar and up the Niger River as well as coastal ports along Cameroon.

Their trading territory included the Ogowe River, the shores of which boasted a vast population of gorillas at that time in the early 1870s. Trader Horn features many of Horn’s accounts of the comparative swarms of wildlife throughout Africa in that era before vast depopulation by poachers.

Along the Ogowe River lived the Ashiwa, Fans, and M’pangwes tribes, who hunted the enormous numbers of elephants in Africa at that time. The tribes used the meat and skin of the elephants they killed and traded the priceless ivory tusks with Trader Horn’s firm among others. Continue reading

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MAY 22nd ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

From an America whose corporate media will offer up the kind of gushingly reverent praise of a dead Iranian official responsible for the imprisonment and torture of untold numbers of people that they will NEVER offer up for any dead opposition party President or official, it’s another current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.

Stop Democrat ViolenceDEMOCRAT BIOLOGICAL AGENT ATTACK TARGETED AT TRUMP. I’m not even surprised at this point. Will the Democrats “denounce” this act the way they would demand that Trump denounce any similar action against his opponent? I doubt it.

ANTI-TRUMP PROPAGANDA FILM FABRICATES RAPE OF IVANA BY HER HUSBAND. IVANA PASSIONATELY SAID THAT NEVER HAPPENED. But anti-Trump fascists will use any lies that they want to try to destroy the opposition leader. And their ignorant, uninformed and emotionally unstable followers will believe – or pretend to believe – whatever The Party orders them to. 

fbi and doj mugging justicePRO-TRUMP WITNESS THROWN FROM COURTROOM IN MERCHAN’S KANGAROO COURT SPEAKS OUT ON THE DEVASTATING TESTIMONY THAT MERCHAN WANTS KEPT FROM THE JURORS.

VETERAN LEGAL SCHOLAR ALAN DERSHOWITZ AGAIN BLASTS MERCHAN’S OUTRAGEOUS PREJUDICIAL CONDUCT. Another legal scholar weighs in HERE.

OVER FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CASH AND ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS IN GOLD BARS FOUND BY AUTHORITIES AT DEMOCRAT SENATOR BOB MENENDEZ’S HOME. Have I mentioned lately what career criminals America’s elected officials tend to be? Continue reading

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FOOL KILLER: THE BEGINNING

Fool Killer wardrobeOver five years ago Balladeer’s Blog began a detailed look at the neglected folklore surrounding the Fool Killer figure. It’s been a while since I left off and I’m about to dive back in. There are so many new readers here that I’m posting a recap of the very first Fool Killer item from the 1850s. Next time I’ll resume where I left off – in 1913. 

Fool Killer illustrationBalladeer’s Blog kicks off a multi-part examination of the neglected 1800s folk figure called the Fool Killer. I will cover the various stories featuring the Fool Killer and the different ways the character was used by the authors. If I ever examine the related character called the Rascal Whaler it will be in a separate series of blog posts.

NOTE: FOOL KILLER LORE IS STRICTLY FOR ADULTS. IT IS NOT FOR THOSE WHO ARE SIMPLE-MINDEDLY OFFENDED BY ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. 

The Fool Killer stories began in 1850s North Carolina. Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans, editor of the newspaper called The Milton Chronicle, introduced the character around 1851 (some sources say as early as the late 1840s). If Evans had been a political cartoonist he might have used the Fool Killer as his mascot, like the figure Punch over in England or Puck here in the U.S.

Skull walking stick 3However, since Evans was all about the written word, he used the Fool Killer as a much more active figure. Evans’ Fool Killer – claiming Jesse Holmes as his real name – roamed North Carolina and Virginia (which at the time still consisted of what would become West Virginia) looking for fools to kill with a club/ walking stick he always carried with him. The character would then send letters to Editor Evans explaining why he had chosen victims, defending his actions with puckish commentary.

I’ve always been struck by the similarity with the way real-life serial killers would correspond with newspapers, explaining and/or defending their deeds. In the case of Charles Evans’ Fool Killer, it was Evans himself writing the letters as if they were pieces of correspondence that “Jesse Holmes” sent to him.

The killings never happened, of course, and were simply Evans’ way of using political commentary in an entertaining way. Instead of high-brow social criticism, the Fool Killer Letters were very dark satire in which the mock author of the letters bashed the life out of corrupt politicians and other malefactors. Continue reading

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