It may be my fondness for mythology that makes me love to watch particular movies around particular holidays. I say that because many of the well- known myths were recited on ancient holidays when their subject matter was relevant to those festivities. The stories helped accentuate the meaning of the special events and that’s the reason I love holiday-themed movies.
At Christmas I watch countless variations of A Christmas Carol, for New Year’s Eve it’s Bloodhounds of Broadway, around Labor Day I watch Matewan and Eight Men Out, at Halloween, naturally, horror films like the original Nightmare On Elm Street, Thanksgiving Eve I do Oliver! and for Frontierado (which is just a month away now) I do Silverado.
Since the actual 4th of July is loaded with activity I always show 1776 on the night before. It’s a great way to get in the mood for Independence Day. It’s a musical but with brilliant dialogue portions and the story involves the political maneuvering surrounding the Original Thirteen Colonies at last announcing their independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the shots fired at Lexington and Concord started the war.
The story is excellently conveyed and is moving, comical, invigorating and poignant all at once. As long as you know which parts of the tale are depicted accurately and which are complete b.s. it’s a terrific way to spend each 3rd of July evening. Continue reading
We need alternate political parties here in the United States. The working class and the poor are ignored and demonized by both major political parties. Yes, there was a time when things were different but pretending nothing changed won’t help the situation. Both major parties are corporate-owned.
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at recent political cartoons, many of them about career criminal Joe Biden and the Biden Crime Family.
Up first below is yet another reminder about how illegitimate the Democrats’ absurd January 6th Committee is, with Democrat violence once again sweeping the nation and with Democrats calling for the violent deaths of government figures. 
The notorious
It’s become impossible to ignore the way that the corrupt establishment and their corporate media outlets fear populism and obsessively try to demonize it. In a way it’s a replay of the late 1800s when the labor movement was striking and demanding better pay and working conditions. The establishment responded with ugly demonization of working class people’s efforts to survive as something more than peasants, just as they have against populists like Donald Trump.
Here in the 21st Century, in which the old paradigm of Liberalism vs Conservatism is being replaced by Populism vs Neo-Feudalism, we have seen a Populist like de facto Third Party President Donald Trump become the establishment’s new Eugene Debs – a bogeyman to be propagandized against and shrilly demonized along with his supporters. I’m an Independent voter and, like so many other people, I’ve observed how Trump was the greatest president for the working class and the poor in several decades. He was also the first president in decades to keep America out of any new wars and brought us energy independence.
THANK YOU once again to all of you readers for making Balladeer’s Blog so enjoyable to write. As I always say the unusual and controversial items I sometimes churn out here mean that readers have to be open-minded and very secure in their own beliefs not to just take offense and leave.
PRIME CUT (1972): Gangster movie review 

Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog wishes you a happy Juneteenth, commemorating the day Democrats lost their slaves. African-Americans continue fighting for their freedom from the Democrats, who today treat people of color like they still own them and that they MUST vote for Democrats and ONLY Democrats. Democrat Joe Biden, embodying the grotesque hypocrisy of that detestable political party, EULOGIZED A KLANSMAN – DEMOCRAT SENATOR ROBERT BYRD – yet Biden thinks he’s fit to give finger-wagging lectures to the rest of us. 
(NOTE FOR OVERSEAS READERS: “C’mon, man! I heard you liked me” is what Biden allegedly said to the woman who accused him of rape, that’s why “C’mon man!” is so often used.)
As I always say here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog, we need alternate political parties. At any rate, here are some quick headlines. 
Before moving on to my usual weekend blog posts of lighter fare, here is a post explaining Liz Cheney, her warmonger father, etc.
Overseas readers have been asking me about the Republican Liz Cheney’s role in the illegitimate January 6th idiocy in Congress. Since Balladeer’s Blog is an Independent Voter site I’ve always made it clear I would be fine if both the Democrats and Republicans splintered into multiple smaller parties because neither one represents the needs of their constituents at this time. That’s why people know they will get a response from me that is NOT motivated by political party bias.
And remember, even if you hate Donald Trump, another reason the Cheney-Bush Warmongers opposed him is because HE KEPT THE U.S. OUT OF ANY NEW WARS. Even the most anti-Trump media outlets in the U.S. are often willing to concede that point. AND SINCE THE CHENEY-BUSH WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WANTS ALL-WAR, ALL THE TIME, WITH VAGUE OBJECTIVES THAT THEY CAN ALWAYS CLAIM HAVEN’T BEEN MET YET, THAT IS WHY LIZ CHENEY AND HER ILK BASH TRUMP. If you back her, you’re backing open-ended warfare, among other things.