Balladeer’s Blog’s Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead strikes again. This time around it’s Pat Benatar with her song Promises in the Dark.
Category Archives: opinion
TRUMP CONTINUES TO KEEP BIG PHARMA ON THE DEFENSIVE
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.
Those of us in the real world all know many families whose financial survival has been possible because of this and other ways that President Trump has kept his promises to them. And he’s done it while having to fight BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans as well as the deep-pocketed pharmaceutical companies who own those Democrats and Republicans.
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.
These are not “theoreticals” or “opinions” these are CONCRETE ways that this President has helped the forgotten working class and poor people clearly hated or ignored by Trump’s critics. Anyway, on this particular issue, here are the excerpts and the link for the article:
“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.”
“Big Pharma doesn’t like that under Trump, drug prices are being held down and products like biosimilars and generics are grabbing more market share (if you want to know how much a bunch of them hate biosimilars, go read this). But according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the health care industry— including Big Pharma in good measure— spends $30 billion a year on marketing — i.e., those annoying pharmaceutical ads on TV — and pressuring doctors to prescribe their drug, not the cheaper one that works just as well.”
“Maybe if Big Pharma is so terribly upset about its theoretical profit margin being cut by things like the president using the bully pulpit to hold drug prices down, more generic drugs hitting the market, and drug discount programs, they could spend less on marketing and pocket the change.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
ROBERT O’ROURKE: CALL HIM BETO, BOB OR MR PRESIDENT?
As always Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog is the only site on the web that criticizes both major parties equally. Thoughts are turning toward the 2020 Presidential race here in the U.S. At this point the Republican candidate will likely be President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, everybody but the corpse of Lyndon Johnson seems to be announcing their candidacy on the Democrat side of the aisle.
One of the candidates for the Democrats is Robert O’Rourke, who likes to go by the nickname Beto. We’ll take a look at why everyone may be underestimating him. Why start with O’Rourke? Well …
Joe Biden is too old and white and gaffe-prone and gropey for a party which has been putting a premium on youth, #MeToo, etc.
Kamala Harris is far too open about her contempt for Catholics and Jews and, being a Senator from California, she seems to mistakenly assume that won’t matter to nationwide voters.
Bernie Sanders was robbed of the nomination in 2016 by Hillary Clinton and the DNC machine. Though he once seemed to have the same populist appeal as Trump he has earned a reputation as a sellout in the past few years.
Getting back to O’Rourke, here’s a quick non-partisan take on what he has going for him.
A. O’Rourke’s unsuccessful Senate run in 2018 was partly marked by the way he imitated Donald Trump’s 2016 tactic of setting records on INDIVIDUAL donations. As it did with Trump this gave O’Rourke a positive image compared to candidates who prefer nothing but Big Money Donors.
B. “Not experienced” has come to mean “not yet fully bought and paid for” in the public mind, and in this era of Trump and AOC O’Rourke’s inexperience could actually help him or at least be a wash. This element was looked at in even greater depth HERE Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
DENNIS QUAID FILM FESTIVAL
Dennis Quaid aka Furious DQ is the subject of this list of brief film reviews. Ignore Buzzfeed reports that Dairy Queen (DQ) is partnering with Balladeer’s Blog to sponsor a Dennis Quaid Film Festival in Rio. In fact, you should just ignore ALL Buzzfeed reports, period, at this point.
Let’s dive into this look at some of the films of Ed Miller himself from The Long Riders: Dennis Quaid. NOTE: These will be films in which Dennis was the male lead, hence no Right Stuff, Wyatt Earp, etc. Quaid should have been made the new Indiana Jones right after Harrison Ford’s Last Crusade in 1989. Magnificent missed opportunity.
THE BIG EASY (1986)
Role: Police Detective Remy McSwain
Female Lead: Ellen Barkin
Comment: One of the most underrated films of the 1980s. Think of The Big Easy as Cajun-blackened Film Noir, which, of course, makes it colorful and upbeat Film Noir with kickass music.
Set in New Orleans (known as the Big Easy for you overseas readers) this hardboiled mystery features Assistant DA Anne Osborne (Barkin) clashing, bickering, flirting with and falling for Quaid as Lt Remy McSwain. Remy is investigating Wiseguy murders that hint at an impending gangster war while Anne is probing police corruption.
The sparks fly between McSwain and Osborne but we viewers wonder if he’s playing her because he has too much to hide or if she’s playing him A Taxing Woman style. We also wonder if the omerta practiced by Remy and his police colleagues is simply because of the casual graft they’re into or if they’ve graduated from being crooked cops to being outright soldiers of organized crime.
Ned Beatty, Grace Zabriskie and John Goodman are in supporting roles in this enjoyable mystery/ rom-com/ travelogue for New Orleans.
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE (1989)
Role: Jerry Lee Lewis
Female Lead: Winona Ryder
Comment: What The Buddy Holly Story was to Gary Busey, this movie was to Dennis Quaid. Hollywood bio-pic rules apply so the emphasis is on old-school rock music and a rip-roaring good time instead of accuracy. The movie plays its story so lightly and entertainingly that the approach works. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY – MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ
WHY WAS MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY ESTABLISHED?
A. So that it could be politically exploited by out of touch White Democrats of Privilege who think that making a hobby out of the real-life suffering that African-Americans went through means they are qualified to speak on their behalf
B. To commemorate the life of a man who expressed a message of unity and non-violence
C. So that the racist hatemongers of BLM could pretend to be honoring the man’s memory by preaching non-stop race hatred and cop killing
WHEN DEMOCRATS SAY THEY WANT A DAY OF “RACIAL HEALING” WHAT DO THEY MEAN BY THAT?
A. A day where everyone mindlessly agrees with the divisive, hatemongering rhetoric spouted by Democrats
B. A day where everyone refrains from mentioning that the Democrats were the party of the KKK, Jim Crow and slavery yet they think they’re fit to lecture the rest of us about racial matters.
C. Both A and B
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT DEMOCRATS AND THEIR AL SHARPTON-STYLE KAPOS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY WOULD CALL A CIVIL RIGHTS HERO?
A. An African-American teen who studies hard and works toward a better future but who gets gunned down by black street criminals
B. A black street criminal who guns down the aforementioned African-American teen as long as that criminal charges at cops and gets killed by them
C. People of color who point out that they are free to decide for themselves which political party they will vote for
WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING IS A RACIST EXPRESSION?
A. Colored people
B. People of color
C. Neither, and only a paranoid race-baiter would say otherwise
WHICH OF AMERICA’S TWO LARGEST POLITICAL PARTIES BEST REPRESENTS THE INTERESTS OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS?
A. Democrats
B. Republicans
C. Neither of those parties represents the interests of anyone except white collar criminals who hold office and the bloated rich pigs who own those office-holders
AN OVERWHELMING NUMBER OF PEOPLE SURVEYED AGREED THAT:
A. The Democrats are vermin for treating Martin Luther King Day like it’s a day they own even though King was a Republican
B. The Democrats are vermin for treating Martin Luther King Day like it’s part of one of their political campaigns
C. The Democrats are vermin Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
NPR/ PBS POLL SHOWS PRESIDENT TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATING AMONG HISPANICS HAS GONE UP BY 19%
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.
Also this week a poll done by the Democrat outlets NPR and PBS showed that President Trump’s approval rating among Hispanic voters has gone up by 19%. As always I’m very skeptical about polls, especially after the beautiful way Hillary lost in 2016, but it’s always funny to watch anti-Trump loons froth at the mouth when the polls they live by poke them in the eye.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
STRAY CATS: STRAY CAT STRUT
Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead strikes again.
This time around it’s another shoutout to the Stray Cats and their hit song Stray Cat Strut. Only Adam Ant has received more coverage in this feature than the Stray Cats.
Filed under opinion
PUCK: ROBBER BARONS THEN AND SILICON VALLEY ROBBER BARONS NOW
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.
The point of the cartoon is the way those two Robber Barons – allied with like-minded newspaper tycoons – abused their wealth and political influence to bind the United States (represented here by Uncle Sam) to their will.
Joseph Keppler was outraged at the power so unethically wielded by such figures to cloak themselves in righteous, philanthropic public images while in reality they – in Keppler’s words – clutched “the United States and all its institutions by the throat.”
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.
The Robber Barons criticized by Puck magazine exerted their ugly influence on behalf of right-wing politicians. The Robber Barons of the 21st Century tend to exert their ugly influence on behalf of left-wing politicians. The end results are equally totalitarian. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion, Puck Magazine
MOCK HEADLINES: JANUARY 17th
ANTI-TRUMP LOONS ACCIDENTALLY PROVE DEMOCRAT COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA WHILE PURSUING TRUMP
DO GILLETTE RAZORS CAUSE CANCER? WHY TAKE CHANCES?
CRAZED DEMOCRATS INSIST TRUMP IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY FINISHED THIS TIME BECAUSE yaaaaaawwwwwwn
LOW IQ AOC IS LMAO FUN!
FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP STILL SPEAKS MORE LANGUAGES THAN BOTH OBAMAS COMBINED
NEW CALL FOR STUDY OF HOW MANY CONVICTED RAPISTS USED GILLETTE RAZORS
DEMOCRATS VOW TO MAKE 2019 THE YEAR THEY RENDER THE TERM “WHITE SUPREMACIST” AS OVERUSED AND MEANINGLESS AS THEY MADE THE WORD “RACIST”
FBI INSIDERS SAY “LOOK, WE CAN ACT AS POLITICAL SABOTEURS FOR THE DEMOCRATS OR WE CAN DO OUR ACTUAL JOBS, BUT NOT BOTH”
NANCY PELOSI REFUSES TO MEET WITH FAMILIES OF VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIME (This one is true, by the way.) Continue reading
Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
DEMOCRAT NANCY PELOSI SICS POLICE ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO CLIMB THE “IMMORAL” FENCE AT HER MANSION
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.
Courageous activist and strong female role model Laura Loomer led a group of illegal immigrants over the fence at Pelosi’s obscenely wasteful mansion and grounds at her home.
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.
The fence to Nancy’s tasteless, disgustingly gawdy mansion is what Pelosi calls “immoral” when used as a boundary at America’s unsecured southern border. Nancy once told a group of illegal immigrants that she “wished she could take them all home with her.” Obviously that was a lie, even though Pelosi’s ill-gotten wealth would certainly permit her to house thousands of them at her otherwise useless mansion. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
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