Category Archives: opinion

ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS: JANUARY TWELFTH

raising bidenHere is the latest current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog. As always, everyone is welcome here no matter who they vote for.

MORE AND MORE REVELATIONS ABOUT CORRUPTION IN DEMOCRAT PROSECUTOR FANI WILLIS’ ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL PURSUIT OF OPPOSITION LEADER TO THE BIDEN REGIME. More HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. When the real corrupt ones run a prosecutor’s office.

biden the fascistBIDEN REGIME INVOLVEMENT IN PROSECUTING POLITICAL OPPOSITION. It’s life here in Joe Biden’s corporate fascist kleptocracy. More HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

JUDGE CALLS OUT WISCONSIN FOR ILLEGAL VOTING ACTIVITIES, THIS TIME FOR THE 2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS. More from CBS HERE. Well, at least it’s a change of pace from all the revelations of vote fraud in 2020.

POLISH MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CITES TRUMP AS AN INSPIRATION. Continue reading

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THE ELUSIVE AVENGERS (Neulovimye Mstiteli) 1967

elusive avengersTHE ELUSIVE AVENGERS (1967) – This movie is often classified as part of the subgenre called “Easterns/ Osterns” – counterparts of Westerns. As an example of global cinema, The Elusive Avengers is worth a watch maybe once in a lifetime, but the cringe factor is heavy as it romanticizes four young guerilla fighters during the Russian Civil War.

The film is based on the 1921 novel Little Red Devils aka Red Devils aka The Hunt for Blue Fox. A 1923 silent movie version was made long before this definitive 1967 adaptation for the big screen. It goes without saying that the story was used as propaganda by Communist tyrants (and just like I never hesitate to say “Nazi tyrants” or “Nazi filth” I’m never going to hesitate to say “Communist tyrants” or “Communist filth”).

elusive posterJudged purely on its production values and competent direction, The Elusive Avengers fascinates as much as it repels. In a world where a piece of garbage like deranged war criminal Vlad Putin runs Russia it can make a film like this a challenge to sit through without the real world intruding on one’s thoughts, but again, for anyone interested in world cinema history the movie is a revelation.  Continue reading

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DECKER SHADO: TERRIFIC REVIEWS OF GOOD AND BAD MOVIES

decker shadoFor several years now I’ve meant to make a blog post recommending the YT Channel of Decker Shado, the often-hilarious figure who calls himself “The internet personality with the best hair.” He focuses mostly on genre films – new and old – and offers a lot of fresh insights on anything from schlock to blockbusters.

Decker’s reviews are energetic and informative even when he’s examining movies that he likes. That makes him stand out on an internet filled with snarky reviewers who can only keep a viewer’s attention when they’re insulting truly horrible movies. Continue reading

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SEPTEMBER NINTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Here is the latest current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog. As always, everyone is welcome here no matter who they vote for.

trump magazineTRUMP MAGAZINE, shown at left, was a 1957 publication that had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump. I posted it here because it’s fun when hysterical, irrational, uninformed, and emotionally unstable Trump-haters fall to pieces.

Anyway, in the news recently we’ve had Mark Ruffalo post fake photos of Trump at Epstein’s island, a person retract their lies about Trump sex tapes at that island and privileged white one percenter Stephen King, who looks NOTHING like a creep who would hang around playgrounds to prey on children, insisting that the economy is fine. And talking down about it to people who live on real world incomes. What a disgusting, snobbish plutocrat. 

epstein and bill clintonMEDIA TRY TO BURY THE NEW YORKER‘S 2019 REPORT IN WHICH SARAH RANSOME RETRACTED HER CLAIMS ABOUT TRUMP-EPSTEIN CONNECTION. More HERE. According to the New Yorker, which reported that Ransome admitted to having “invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behavior, and to make him believe that she had ‘evidence that would come out if he (Epstein) harmed me.’” (That was from a time when Epstein was still alive.)

democrat party platformJOE BIDEN CALLED OUT PUBLICLY AS HE LIES AGAIN ABOUT POLICE SUPPOSEDLY BEING KILLED ON JANUARY SIXTH, OUTRAGEOUSLY CLAIMING THAT HE AND JILL ATTENDED THEIR FUNERALS. But as we all know, Democrat media outlets will continue quoting Biden’s sick claims no matter how many times they are proven wrong.  

FANI WILLIS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY GOING AFTER TRUMP, ACCUSED OF PAYING $600,000 TO A MAN SHE WAS INVOLVED WITH ROMANTICALLY. Plus more about her connections with the Biden Regime HERE

eric adamsNEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS BLAMES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOR THE CITY’S CRIME PROBLEM. It was easy for New York to be a “sanctuary city” when it was only cities in border states suffering the consequences of not securing our southern border. 

IT’S SO CUTE WHEN PEOPLE ACTUALLY THINK THAT THE CLUELESS, OUTDATED AND UTTERLY USELESS PEOPLE WHO RUN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WILL ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.

CONVICTION OVERTURNED IN CASE OF THE BIDEN REGIME PROSECUTING A CONGRESSMAN. The regime tried the defendant in a jurisdiction where they would be sure of a guilty verdict. Nobody venue-shops better than the Democrats. Continue reading

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MAY 2020: A LOOK BACK

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

robert johnson and trumpMAN OF COURAGE ROBERT JOHNSON CALLS ON JOE BIDEN TO “APOLOGIZE TO EVERY BLACK PERSON HE MEETS” – This in reaction to lifelong racist Joe Biden’s pompous remark that if a black person doesn’t vote for him “Then you ain’t black.”

        black voices for trumpAn excerpt: Biden’s statement today represents the arrogant and out-of-touch attitude of a paternalistic white candidate who has the audacity to tell Black people, the descendants of slaves that they are not Black unless they vote for him. This proves unequivocally that the Democratic nominee believes that Black people owe him their vote without question; even though we as Black people know it is exactly the opposite. He should spend the rest of his campaign apologizing to every Black person he meets.”

        The item gets even more hard-hitting next – click HERE.

president trumpSATANIC PANIC 2: ANTI-TRUMP HYSTERIA – As ridiculous as the paranoid anti-Trump loons were back in 2020, they’ve gotten even more shrill and hysterical over the past four years. No lie about Trump is too absurd for the slobbering psychopaths who hate him to realize it’s not true. More HERE.

CHARGES AND A GUILTY PLEA BY DEMOCRATS IN EVEN MORE VOTE FRAUD SCANDALS – Yes, this was months before the 2020 election even happened, but Democrat vote fraud scandals have been covered here since around 2011.

          In Michigan a Democrat official was charged with altering ballots in the 2018 elections. In Philadelphia a Judge of Elections pleaded GUILTY to vote fraud on behalf of Democrat candidates. But hey, Democrats still like to pretend vote fraud doesn’t happen. It sure does, and their “Cheat by Mail” nonsense in 2020 took it to new heights. Click HERE, HERE and HERE.

unfit and pathetic bidenCLEARLY UNFIT JOE BIDEN EMERGES FROM HIDING FOR ANOTHER BOUT OF INCOHERENT GIBBERISH – The corrupt yet senile little man made with the stirring words“You know, one of the things, uh, every morning — this morning I didn’t — I get a brief from medical docs on the status, the status of where things are, and uh, you know, uh, the former head of the, uh, anyway.”  More HERE.

DEMOCRAT ATROCITY ROUNDUP: LATEST ADDITIONS – Sabotaging aid packages? Threatening Supreme Court Justices? Nothing is too low for the Democrat Party. Click HERE Continue reading

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JANUARY SIXTH-A-PALOOZA: 2024

biden bloodHere’s what will apparently be an annual post for as long as demagogues insist on pretending there was an “insurrection” (LMAO) on January 6th, 2021. Uh. Yeah. No guns, no police officers killed (despite Joe Biden’s absurd claims otherwise) and the Capitol building’s doors were OPENED for the trespassers by the authorities, as shown on film.

And remember, NOTHING THAT HAPPENED ON JANUARY SIXTH COULD HAVE PUT TRUMP BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE! Learn something about how your own government works, anti-Trump fascists! At any rate, here we go again: 

biden riots in dc

BIDEN CALLED THESE RIOTS MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS

The overwrought propaganda of Biden supporters on this date has me laughing VERY hard. They theatrically pretend that the mass trespassing incident of January 6th, 2021 was “worse than the Civil War and the 9-11 attacks.” What disingenuous garbage.

Their monumental and hilarious political hypocrisy is on full display in Washington DC as Democrats engage in political theater while pretending to revere the Capitol Building and its “symbolism.” (LMAO) Before I became an Independent Voter I spent most of my life as a Democrat and believe me, they feel contempt for the Capitol and its “symbolism”, even calling it one of the “institutions of imperialist rule” and “the seat of White Supremacy and systemic racism in America.”

Democrats also despise people who DO revere the Capitol and its symbolism, dismissing them as simple-minded patriotic rednecks.

Nancy Pelosi demagogueOn January 6th, 2021, a “mostly peaceful protest” (as Democrats described the MONTHS-LONG Antifa riots which terrorized the country) at the Capitol turned into a chaotic mass-trespassing incident with the Democrats of the Capitol Police even killing an unarmed woman. Suddenly, Democrat pretensions that they revered the Capitol poured from the mouths of the demagogues of the Democrat Party.

Hey, let’s rename it “the Demagogue Party”. After all, the Democrat Party is the country’s oldest existing institution which launched a Civil War and fought for slavery, so a name change for that political party is LONG overdue. Okay, so they won’t rename themselves the Demagogue Party, but they should rename it something to distance themselves from the Democrat Party’s horrifically racist past.

capitol bombing 1983Anyway, Democrats felt that their OWN storming of the Capitol was fine back on October 4th, 2018, even though THEY WERE INTERFERING WITH ONE OF THOSE GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS WHICH THEY NOW PRETEND SHOULD BE SACROSANCT. Democrats/ the left cheered on that activity. And let’s not forget the way the left literally set off a BOMB in the Capitol on November 7th, 1983. Also HERE. A million dollars (by 1983 standards, so much more today) in damage was done.

Most adults are above the fake tears and the fear-mongering which truly pathetic Democrat members of Congress are indulging in regarding January 6th. The Democrats will probably never lose their competitive edge in phoniness and manufactured emotion, so non-Democrats – as in Independents, Third Party Voters, Republicans and People Who Claim No Political Affiliation, in other words THE REST OF US – will always need to remain highly skeptical of any and all political theater from them. 

Kenosha democrat riotIn May 2020 when the White House was violently attacked for about 24 hours and many secret service agents were seriously injured, Biden and other Democrats said Trump “used tear gas against peaceful protestors” even though it’s been proven that he DIDN’T use tear gas on those “peaceful protestors.” Listen to those Democrat hypocrites today and the draconian measures they now recommend against civil disobedience!
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The night of May 31st, 2020 rioters set fires all over the capital of the United States. A mob of them gathered outside the White House and threatened to storm it. The president was said to have been moved to a bunker. Many Democrats laughed at him and supported the mob. Never mind that the safety of the president, as a symbol of America and self-governance, goes beyond individual or party and should never be a laughing matter, like Democrats are now sniveling about the Capitol.
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Who knows? Some day the January 6th protestors may be looked on as the victims of governmental authoritarianism, like the Bonus Marchers of long ago. Nobody knows how events will be viewed decades and centuries from now, no matter how much Democrats pretend that they do with their ridiculous “right side of history” nonsense.

Continue reading

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THE DOORS: THEIR DEBUT ALBUM

the doors coverJanuary 4th of 1967 saw the release of the first album from the Doors. Obviously, Jim Morrison and company achieved fame long before my time, but their work has endured for several decades. My personal affinity for the Doors over other 1960s musical acts comes partly from their precious few years together before Morrison’s death.

I’m assuming that, this many decades later, few people need the one millionth reminder that the band’s name came by way of references to “the doors of perception” from William Blake and Aldous Huxley.

MY FAVORITE SONGS FROM THE ALBUM

other doors picBREAK ON THROUGH – Not only is the song powerful, but it is rightly hailed as one of the most – if not THE most – appropriate opening songs on a first album ever. The Doors’ signature style burst on the scene with a figurative “I’m here, you gotta DEAL with it” boast.

        The music, the lyrics and especially the way Morrison’s voice ranges from Orphic to uncontrollably maniacal make Break on Through imprint itself on a listener’s mind. Continue reading

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BEST OF SEPTEMBER 2023

A bit tardily, Balladeer’s Blog concludes its annual retrospective with this look at the best of September 2023.

14 amazonsTHE 14 AMAZONS (1972) – My review of this terrific movie about the women of the legendary Yang Family in China. This film is set when there were so few male family members left due to losses in war that the women of the family band together and set out for revenge on the Yang enemies. Click HERE

AGZCEAZIGULS – A look at the fictional South American land Agzceaziguls, from a 1919 novel by Charles Derennes. The land is inhabited by descendants of the Incas. Click HERE.

surf nazis must die 1987SURF NAZIS MUST DIE (1987) – My review of the renowned post-apocalypse film about a black woman taking on a gang of Surf Nazis to wipe them out for killing her son. A wild ride. Click HERE.

AN AUTOMATIC ENIGMA (1872) – An “ancient” science fiction story by Julian Hawthorne – Nathaniel’s son. The tale involves an early robot. Click HERE.

THE GREAT MOLASSES FLOOD OF 1911 – Read about it HERE.

of ac and his ruinOF ANTICHRIST AND HIS RUIN (1692) – John Bunyan’s neglected novel about the Antichrist, his methods and the destructive war that is unleashed. Click HERE.

THE SILENT FILMS OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK – His overlooked movies from the silent era. His films from 1922-1929 HERE.

ANOTHER WORLD (1873) – An “ancient” sci fi novel about the history of civilization and technology on the planet Mars. Click HERE.

JUSTICE SOCIETY STORIES: 1950-1951 – The JSA’s final Golden Age adventures vs the Diamond People, the Four Kings, the Circus of Thrills, Bakeelu of the Green Star, the Chameleon Race and the Key. Click HERE Continue reading

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SAM SPADE: DASHIELL HAMMETT’S NEGLECTED SHORT STORIES

dashiell hammett picIn the past I’ve covered my fondness for Dashiell Hammett’s mysteries. Given my whole theme here at Balladeer’s Blog, this time I’ll take a look at Hammett’s often overlooked Sam Spade short stories that followed a few years after the novel The Maltese Falcon.

Three of these tales are complete and one other was left tantalizingly unfinished, I’m afraid. 

a man called spadeA MAN CALLED SPADE – Published in the July 1932 issue of The American Magazine.

The Client: Financier Max Bliss, who calls Sam Spade in a panic and wants him to come to his home immediately because his life has been threatened.

The Mystery: When Spade arrives at Max’s 10th floor apartment home on Nob Hill, Bliss has already been strangled to death. Detective Sergeant Tom Polhaus and Lieutenant Dundy from The Maltese Falcon are on the scene but are more cordial than they were in Spade’s most famous case.

        bogart as sam spadeMax lies on the floor, partially undressed. A five-pointed star has been drawn on his bare chest in black ink and with a Greek letter tau in the center. Spade, hoping Max’s daughter will pay him the fee that her father now cannot, tries selling her on the notion that he’s now working for her late father’s estate, and her.

        As the investigation rolls along, Sam seeks out one of his academic sources, Harry Darrell, who recognizes the star with the tau in the center as the mark of assorted Rosicrucian Lodges. The two nearest lodges are in Point Loma/ San Diego and San Jose. The odd design also shows up on a threatening letter found among the murder victim’s papers.

The Suspects: Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOON ROUNDUP: JANUARY 2nd

Sorry for my sluggish posting routine the past few days. With the hectic holidays behind us I will be back to my normal rate of blog posts today or tomorrow. Here is the latest current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog. As always, everyone is welcome here no matter who they vote for.

biden crime family shirtBIDEN REGIME’S DOJ BLASTED FOR CUTTING SECOND TRIAL FOR SAM BANKMAN-FRIED OF THE FTX SCANDAL. More HERE. It pays to be a big contributor to The Party. It’s life here in Joe Biden’s corporate fascist kleptocracy.

JOE BIDEN SPENT 37% OF 2023 ON VACATION. More in 1 year than the past 3 presidents took in 4-8 years.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON OPPOSITION LEADER. And believe it or not, it’s not about the Democrats … yet, anyway.

Crazy Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi, whose policies harm the working class and the poor.

INSIDER TRADING SCANDAL AMONG DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS STILL IN THE AIR. Congressional Democrats’ stock earnings somehow beat the S&P 500 by 7 points. Remember, privileged white one percenter Nancy Pelosi has for years led the fight against banning members of congress from playing the stock market because of all their insider information. Are the accusations that she benefits from insider trading true? 

denver mayor mike johnstonDENVER’S DEMOCRAT MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON SAYS THE SANCTUARY CITY WILL “HIT A CAPACITY AT WHICH WE JUST WON’T BE ABLE ANYMORE TO MANAGE THE AMOUNT OF INFLOW” OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. He further stated “we’re hitting a breaking point at which there’s just not enough volume of work or housing in the city to support this ongoing volume”.

           Gee, it’s almost like there’s a reason that national borders exist in the first place and it’s inviting disaster when a country stops enforcing its immigration laws. NEW YORK’S DEMOCRAT MAYOR ERIC ADAMS ALSO SAYS HIS CITY HAS RUN OUT OF ROOM FOR ILLEGALS. Funny how reality works. 

CONGRESSMAN STEVE SCALISE, SURVIVOR OF DEMOCRAT VIOLENCE, ENDORSES TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT.

VICTORY FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY IN GEORGIA. Another win in the ongoing efforts to prevent a recurrence of 2020’s vote fraud. Continue reading

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