A HEAVILY NARCOTIZED ROGER GOODELL RECENTLY SAT DOWN TO TALK WITH BALLADEER’S BLOG.
BALLADEER’S BLOG: Can I call you “Commish?”
ROGER GOODELL: I’d rather you call me what NFL players call me.
BB: The Great White Dope?
RG: No … NO! They call me Commissioner.
BB: If you say so, Roger. How do you feel about the state of the NFL right now? Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
FOR BALLADEER’S BLOG’S SEVENTH PLACE LUDLUM NOVEL CLICK HERE
4. THE CHANCELLOR MANUSCRIPT (1977)
TIME PERIOD: From shortly before J Edgar Hoover’s death in 1972 up to early 1973. The novel’s “what if” premise depicts the 77 year old FBI Director’s death as a planned assassination to prevent the Nixon White House from getting hold of Hoover’s legendary files. (That’s NOT a spoiler – all that is made clear in the novel’s opening pages.)
Those files contain so much “raw meat” on powerful U.S. figures that we readers are told that whoever takes hold of said files will be able to rule the U.S. from behind the scenes by blackmailing the rich and the powerful.
The novel’s naïvete shows in that premise. I despise Hoover but I’ve always considered his abuses to be the EPITOME of the behavior of “the intelligence community” (LMAO), not an aberration from it. The accumulation of private information about people carries with it the implicit intent to USE that information against them. Of course, these days Zuckerberg and his fellow Corporate Fascists cheerfully help “the intelligence community” (LMFAO) spy on all of us.
At any rate this is an escapist novel so the tale gets told in a simplistic “good guys vs bad guys” way, despite Ludlum’s attempts at a more nuanced approach.
HERO: Peter Chancellor, an up and coming novelist who is part muckraker and part conspiracy hound. His successful espionage novels have not only made him rich but have caused minor public uproars over the kind of governmental abuses we take for granted these days but which were considered shocking in this novel’s time period.
Chancellor’s notoriety also means he gets a lot of conspiracy kooks feeding him “tips” about supposedly real intrigues of varying degrees of believability. Hey, there was no Internet yet, so what do you expect?
Peter’s high public profile attracts a mysterious man who tries to convince him the recently deceased FBI Director J Edgar Hoover did not die of natural causes but was instead assassinated. Chancellor doesn’t believe it but considers the idea the perfect springboard for his next novel.
Before long Peter’s background research makes him a target of so many threats and acts of violence that he wonders if the notion of Hoover being assassinated is as far-fetched as he at first thought.
VILLAINS: Typical of Ludlum’s later novels there are multiple groups of antagonists. The main villains remain a mystery until the end of the story so I won’t spoil the identity of the people who really are behind the successful theft of Hoover’s files.
Instead, I’ll deal with the secondary but more active villains: a group of high-level conspirators who go by the code name …
INVER BRASS – In this novel they represent the Left-Wing Deep State just like Hoover represented the Right-Wing Deep State. Though they fancy themselves a benevolent group, they’ve become more like oligarchs, begging the question: how are they any better than Hoover himself? This group seems roughly based on the high-placed members of President Franklin Roosevelt’s unofficial “Kitchen Cabinet for Intelligence Affairs” (aka The Room).
All presidents have had such unofficial advisors who operate out of the spotlight and out of the headlines but Inver Brass and some of its members are modeled very specifically on known FDR associates who belonged to The Room. As you would expect, that makes them VERY old by the time the events in The Chancellor Manuscript take place.
The members: Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog strikes again with a segment of Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead! If you liked the sheer oddball appeal of The Prosthetic Forehead Song from awhile back then you’ll LOVE Nick Lowe’s combination of Buckwheat Zydecko and Buddy Holly. It’s Half a Boy and Half a Man!
Filed under opinion
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I am STILL fascinated with the way that America’s de facto Third Party President Donald Trump has so infuriated the white-collar criminals of our country’s Third-World cesspool of corruption that pretends to be a government.
EVERY DAY THAT NEITHER JEB BUSH NOR HILLARY CLINTON ARE PRESIDENT IS A GREAT DAY!
TRUMP’S MOVE TO ALLOW PEOPLE TO GO BACK TO BUYING THEIR INSURANCE IN STATES OTHER THAN THE ONE IN WHICH THEY RESIDE HAS BEEN A TREMENDOUS RELIEF TO WORKING-CLASS FAMILIES. (So naturally, BOTH the Democrats and Republicans IN OFFICE are outraged by it.)
WITH THAT DAMAGING BIT OF THE OBAMACARE DISASTER ADDRESSED, PRESIDENT TRUMP ONCE AGAIN MANEUVERED AROUND REPUBLICAN GARBAGE LIKE PAUL RYAN
ROY MOORE’S TRIUMPH ON TUESDAY SHOWS THAT TRUMP SUPPORTERS WILL EVEN DEFY THE DONALD HIMSELF IF HE STRAYS FROM HIS PROMISES (That is TERRIFIC since it proves that the Populist surge in the U.S. is deeper than just one man)
WHILE DEMOCRATS (AKA LEFT-WING ARCHIE BUNKERS) CONTINUE WARRING ON AMERICA OF THE 1950s AND EARLIER THE REST OF THE COUNTRY CONTINUES MOVING INTO THE FUTURE
THE RECENT POLL THAT SHOWED MORE VOTERS CONSIDER THEMSELVES TRUMP SUPPORTERS THAN CONSIDER THEMSELVES REPUBLICANS – AND THAT INDEPENDENT VOTERS ARE INCREASING WHILE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS ARE DECREASING (I’m skeptical about polls especially after last year but the Royal Houses of DemCorp and RepubCorp fear them.) Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Balladeer’s Blog’s segment Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead has proven incredibly popular so here’s another round. This shoutout is for what I consider to be the most overlooked hit song from Bob Seger: Rock ‘N’ Roll Never Forgets.
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Balladeer’s Blog
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I make no secret about the contempt I feel toward both of America’s major political parties. I also make no secret about the fact that I feel labels like “Liberal” and “Conservative” are becoming meaningless.
Many of you readers have asked me why I’ve recently begun using the word “Democrat” in contexts where I used to use the words “American Liberal.” I started using Democrat instead because plenty of readers had made the point that many, many disillusioned American Liberals have – like myself and so many others – become disgusted and left the Democratic Party.
I’ve even linked to countless articles over the years by people who came to feel the same way about how the Left has become a collection of cowardly hypocrites, pompous snobs and hilariously pretentious asses – especially the increasingly irrational Left-Wing Archie Bunkers who pretend to be “educators” (LMAO) but are really just Voter Recruiters for the Democrats.
Anyway, I felt that those readers were right and so I switched to using “Democrats” instead of “American Liberals.” Feel free to weigh in if you feel I should switch back to using the word “Liberals” instead of “Democrats”. I’m always interested in the opinions of readers here.
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, opinion
Time for another go ’round of Balladeer’s Blog’s Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead! This time it’s George Thorogood with one of his three best songs about booze, If You Don’t Start Drinkin’ I’m Gonna Leave.
Filed under opinion
In a way it’s fascinating as hell to be alive during this period in which America’s rival gangs of white collar criminals – Democrats and Republicans – have been forced to show their true, ugly, totalitarian faces.
The Democrats, who have lost countless elections at all levels across the country, are openly embracing the concept of having Corporate Rich Pigs force their (the Democrats’) irrational opinions on the rest of us with a savage ferocity that our actual government could never get away with on its own. The Democrats are being referred to these days as “The Party of CEO’s” and with good reason.
In a move even Machiavelli might have saluted, the Left-Wing Archie Bunkers who run the party of the Democrats have basically said to the country: “You can vote all you want, but we’ll just embrace Corporate Fascism to FORCE our dictates upon all of you!”
“After all,” the Democrats’ reasoning goes, “if we can work hand-in-hand with bloated rich pigs to ensure you won’t even be allowed to make a living if you express disagreement with us, then we think you’ll realize it’s in your own best interest to stop resisting and pretend you go along with even our most ridiculous positions.”
Going beyond Orwell’s much-cited “2+2=5” example from his novel 1984 the Democrats simply brush aside the impotent, bought and paid for Republican trash and go straight for the kill.
*** Instead of Orwell’s 2+2=5 we’ll go with another obvious fallacy just for the sake of variety. Let’s pretend the Democrats have somehow determined there is a political advantage to publicly embracing a similarly obvious fallacy – for that aforementioned variety we’ll say that Democrats want to force people to say “Earthworms are mammals.”
The Democrats will follow their tried and true process:
When free-thinking adults refuse to echo the ridiculous claim that “Earthworms are mammals” the Democrats will wheel and deal with bloated rich pigs like Mark Zuckerberg and similar types, like the powers that be at Starbucks and other companies.
Democrats will make it clear to those rich pig CEO’s that there are advantages to be had by cooperating with the Democrats in pushing their latest irrational Papal Bull. Political favors are to be had if various CEO’s use their bloated rich pig power to push the Democrats’ dogma down our throats.
Soon it gets to the point where these CEO’s (at places like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Silicon Valley, etc) will be firing and/or refusing to even hire people for holding positions that their Corporate Fascist political allies don’t like. It will all be done in the name of “combatting hatred” or “preventing puppy-dogs from being kicked” in the usual drama queen manner that Democrats love to use.
CORPORATE FASCIST MARK “SKIPPY” ZUCKERBERG
Bloated rich pigs like Zuckerberg will enforce the ridiculous “Earthworms are mammals” claims by letting all of their social media users hit that all-powerful “report abuse” button to silence all dissenting opinions. Never mind that social media users can block whatever they personally don’t want to see, Democrats ALWAYS insist that opposing viewpoints are dangerous or “hatred” and must be censored.
And if, say, certain states or cities refuse to enforce the Democrats’ “Earthworms are mammals” notion by teaching it in schools then rich pig CEO’s – including the NFL, NBA, etc – will grandly announce they are boycotting those locations until they cave in and go along with what the Democrats have decreed that “all decent, compassionate people” believe.
Democrats will smilingly approve and Republicans – who apparently only run for office to get bribe money and well-placed connections – will bluster insincerely about how they’re going to “stop this corporate blackmail” but will just get paid off by the same bloated rich pigs working with the Democrats and will do nothing. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
The hypersensitive and backward-thinking Democrats of America’s “educational” (LMAO) system are the most narrow-minded and easily offended fools imaginable.
You could probably have found 1600s Puritans more open-minded than 21st Century Democrats, who have hopelessly politicized education and exercise an unhealthy virtual monopoly on every level of the process. (A virtual monopoly they seized by forcing out everyone who disagrees with Left-Wing Archie Bunkers.)
Democrats who pretend to be educators (LMAO) have become incapable of appreciating art and literature. Instead they pompously and intolerantly dissect ancient works of visual and written art looking for nothing but (yawn) racism, sexism, white privilege, colonial narratives, “the male gaze” and all their other paranoid obsessions.
They have no appreciation for beauty in any form. Democrats have no identity outside of their political opinions so when they ponder the magnificent creations of past geniuses they use it as an excuse to pat themselves on the back about how much more “enlightened” or “woke” (LMAO) they consider themselves to be than the brilliant people who created those works.
It’s a very empty way to view the past and it’s also pointless. It’s only natural that people living in different time periods separated by a few hundred or a few thousand years WILL HAVE VERY DIFFERENT NOTIONS OF RIGHT AND WRONG.
And Democrats have become obsessed with forcing their own simple-minded notions of right and wrong upon everyone else. They feel they have “the one true worldview” and want it to literally be against the law to dissent from their bizarre orthodoxy. All while pretending they alone can define “hate.” Continue reading
FOR BALLADEER’S BLOG’S SEVENTH PLACE LUDLUM NOVEL CLICK HERE
5. THE SCARLATTI INHERITANCE (1971)
TIME PERIOD: Pre-World War One Era on up through the start of the Great Depression with an epilogue set during World War Two.
This was Robert Ludlum’s very first novel and it’s a shame that the planned movie starring Ingrid Bergman never panned out. In my opinion there has never been a very good screen adaptation of a Ludlum novel. Or at least not when it comes to adaptations that are actually like their source material.
The successful Jason Bourne movies bear virtually no resemblance to the trilogy of novels that inspired them. Other films or mini-series’ adapted from Ludlum’s writings have tended to be so far off the mark that some of them qualify as classically bad, for instance The Osterman Weekend.
HEROINE: (This novel has a female and a male protagonist) Elizabeth Wyckham Scarlatti, an 1890s adventuress from American Old Money who – in her youth – spurned plenty of bloated rich pigs for not being as high-spirited and daring as she was.
Her heart and loins are finally stolen away by Italian-American Giovanni Scarlatti, a laborer in her father’s factory. Though he speaks broken English, Scarlatti’s mechanical genius is first-rate. The rebellious Elizabeth combines her own business acumen with Giovanni’s aptitude for inventions and before long the two lovers are married and have taken over the companies run by her father and plenty of his friends.
The Scarlattis continue to thrive financially through the expected hardball methods and after having three children they change the family name to Scarlett. Eventually Giovanni dies of natural causes and eldest son Roland is killed during World War One.
Making her own version of Sophie’s Choice, Elizabeth allows her brawling, bullying wastrel of a son Ulster to enlist in the Army to romantically take Roland’s place in the World War while keeping third son Chancellor in America with her to prep him to take over Scarlett Industries when she dies.
HERO: Matthew Canfield, an accountant and investigative agent for the American government – specifically Group Twenty, Ludlum’s fictional agency. Group Twenty was operative during the 1920s, when the bulk of this story takes place. Their agents specialized in uncovering financial hanky-panky in that gray area where dishonest business practices and outright criminality mingle. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
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