Year-end is the time for retrospectives of the months just past. Here is a look at Balladeer’s Blog’s Best of January for 2018.
THE TOP FIVE FLASHMAN NOVELS – Little did I know how wild the reaction would be to my reviews of what I consider to be the top five novels featuring George MacDonald Fraser’s infamous antihero Harry Paget Flashman.
Roguish and amoral Harry’s bed and battle historical adventures were new to a lot of readers. Reaction was so enthusiastic I wound up throwing in a bonus Sixth novel PLUS my speculations regarding assorted Lost Flashman Papers. To start click HERE
CRATES: ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES – Balladeer’s Blog took another look at the fragmentary remains of the works of yet another ancient Greek comedian.
Crates had nowhere near the impact of the big names like Aristophanes, Eupolis and Cratinus but his comic plays are still interesting in their own way. To read this item click HERE
ORION: THE ELVIS PRESLEY HOAX/ PUT-ON – Many readers felt this weird topic featured me at my myth-dissecting best.
For Elvis Presley’s birthday I examined obscure and bizarre folklore, demented conspiracy theories and the way the whole Orion/ Dead Elvis tableau presented fiction imitating real-life imitating fiction in a mad loop. Click HERE
REHASHING PRESIDENT TRUMP’S INCREDIBLE 2017 – De facto Third Party President Donald Trump showed the working class and the poor that at long last an American office-holder actually cared about them for the first time in decades.
Trump-o-crats, Re-Trump-licans and the entire Trumpen-proletariat had their economic suffering eased by the Donald, who has proven to be equal parts Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F Kennedy! I was expecting to hate Trump but he proved me wrong every step of the way, from the campaign onward. Click HERE
*** TWELVE MORE COOL FOOTBALL HELMETS FROM NEGLECTED TEAMS – This one is a visual treat, so click HERE
TRANSGRESS WITH ME, JANUARY 13th – One of the earliest installments of what has become one of Balladeer’s Blog’s most controversial and hotly-debated recurring items.
Let your mind explore the forbidden in this fun but challenging bit by clicking HERE
ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE CHANCELLOR MANUSCRIPT – Balladeer’s Blog reviews Robert Bourne Identity Ludlum’s 1977 espionage novel that seems even more timely and possible here in 2018.
See an FBI run amok, Deep State oligarchs (See how old the term Deep State is?) and the consequences of lack of oversight of America’s sleazy, forever-corrupt intelligence agencies. For my review click HERE
*** MOCK HEADLINES JANUARY 17th – One of the most popular and funniest items of the month. CLICK HERE
*** FACEBOOK IS FAKEBOOK: NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS – What more need be said? Click HERE
*** MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ – CLICK HERE
Journalist and strong female role model Kelli Ballard courageously continues to compile as comprehensive as possible a breakdown of the additional crimes committed by people in the country illegally. 
Privileged white one percenter Alyssa Milano told a non-existent reporter for Balladeer’s Blog that for Christmas she recommends the new book BARACK OBAMA IS AFRAID OF SHARYL ATTKISSON: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO THE SHENANIGANS OF AMERICA’S 44th PRESIDENT. 
15: Benghazi
26: Hillary Clinton
If anyone in the world is still wondering why Fake News is what everybody except Democrats call America’s media then this is another flagrant example. Just like the Democrats’ media outlets tried blaming de facto Third Party President Donald Trump for the family separation policy that OBAMA AND GEORGE W BUSH had followed at our southern border they are playing the same game with the tear gas incident. 
I will say again – President Trump gets gifted with more and more loyalty and support every time the Democrats in the media flagrantly lie and lie and lie like this. 
The Democrats at the Boston Globe and the Washington Post recently spewed more venom at the way in which de facto Third Party President Donald Trump has attracted so many African-American voters. Rasmussen and other polls have had Trump’s support among voters of color as high as 40-plus percent, an ASTRONOMICAL number for any Republican not named Abraham Lincoln. 
Mark “Got Milk?” Hamill recently expressed a sentiment that was simple-minded and bigoted even for a straight white male one percenter. That sentiment endorsed the notion that only women should hold positions of power. So here’s some of the people that the delicate child Hamill is suggesting should run things: 
LAURA BUSH, ANN COULTER, SARAH PALIN, NIKKI HALEY, CONDOLEEZA RICE, CANDACE OWENS, MICHELLE MALKIN and on and on. 
I don’t think anyone would seriously dispute that what Li’l Mark really means is that he wants only DEMOCRAT women to run things. Women who don’t mindlessly obey white Democrat males like Hamill, Rob Reiner, Michael Moore and others aren’t “real” women to fascist demagogues like Mark. 
We see the same thing with the narrow-minded, hate-filled way that Democrats react to Muslims who don’t fit the Democrats’ narrow-minded definition of an “authentic” Muslim. In their eyes ONLY Muslims who hate the West are “authentic.” 
You will NEVER see the Democrats’ media outlets giving air-time to Muslims who want to say “The West is not our enemy” or “Actually I find it fascinating to interact with so many non-Muslims. It’s really opened my mind.” and ESPECIALLY not “I came to America so my daughters can have more freedoms and pursue their own dreams.”
Just as they claim women who #WALKAWAY from the increasingly fanatical Democrats are “internalizing misogyny” and gay people who #WALKAWAY from the Democrats are “internalizing homophobia.” 
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’m about responding to you readers. Some of you responded very strongly to the way I sprinkled my reviews of Robert Ludlum’s Top Seven Novels with observations of what I would have liked to see in terms of offshoots or spin-off stories. So, since Expanded Universes are becoming all the rage in recent decades here’s an outline of my fan fiction-style view of an Expanded Robert Ludlum Universe. 
I. BEOWULF AGATE – Series of short stories or a made for cable series. The tales would be set from the 1950s to late 1970s, ending just before the events in The Matarese Circle. Ludlum’s fictional intelligence organization Consular Operations would take center stage.
II. OPERATION: MEDUSA – Another series of short stories or a made for cable series. Ludlum’s Operation: Medusa was his fictional version of the Vietnam War’s real-life Phoenix Project. Operation: Medusa was the top-secret, paramilitary Black Operations outfit in which David Webb aka Jason Bourne got his first covert experience. 
Yes, it’s Thanksgiving Day, another holiday when Democrats – who have absolutely no identity outside of their political opinions – encourage each other to make with their typical ankle-biting, childish political remarks that they mistakenly think are Really Deep Thoughts that other adults haven’t already had … and matured beyond. 
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