DECEMBER FIRST NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog offers up a Monday current events roundup.

OVER FOUR HUNDRED MINNESOTA GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT ON DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR WALZ IGNORING THEIR WARNINGS ABOUT THE ONE BILLION DOLLAR MEDICAID FRAUD RING OPERATING IN THE STATE.

        They are even pointing out that Walz retaliated against honest Whistle Blowers who went public when the governor refused to do anything about it. A reasonable person might wonder if Walz was getting some of the money.

DEMOCRAT-DESCRIBED “FISHERMEN” ADMIT IN PUBLIC INTERVIEWS THAT THEY ARE REALLY TRANSPORTING DRUGS. They romanticize the drug trade in their own words while acknowledging they are not “fishermen.”

ANOTHER IMPORTED BIDEN REGIME TERRORIST ARRESTED AFTER BOMB THREAT IN FORT WORTH.

BIG MONEY DEMOCRAT DONOR ERIC SCHMIDT ACCUSED OF RAPE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND MORE.

ARTICLE REMINDING US THAT WITH BIDEN IN THE WHITE HOUSE AMERICA HAD UNELECTED AND UNACCOUNTABLE FIGURES RUNNING THE COUNTRY WHILE AN UNFIT FIGUREHEAD WAS PARADED BEFORE THE CAMERAS.

CARIBBEAN NATIONS LINING UP TO ALLY THEMSELVES WITH TRUMP IN FIGHTING DRUG TRAFFICKING BY VENEZUELA.

AND YET ANOTHER OF THE TRUMPED-UP CASES AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP GETS TOSSED AWAY – AND WITH A REMINDER THAT “IT IS NOT UNLAWFUL TO CONTEST AN ELECTION.” More HERE.

      So all this crooked case from Fani Willis accomplished was to produce the Trump mug shot (above left) which helped return him to the White House because of public recognition of what a travesty the case was. Continue reading

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CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON 2025 CONTINUES: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2019)

Balladeer’s Blog’s Sixteenth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this 2019 review of an adaptation of the Dickens tale.

A Christmas Carol 2019A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2019) – Directed and co-written by Steven Salgado, this adaptation of the 1843 novel sets the story in present-day Miami. Though some may try to pigeon-hole this indy film as “a Hispanic-American Christmas Carol” that would not be quite accurate.

Yes, the movie gives us Roberto instead of Bob Cratchit and Scrooge & Hernandez instead of Scrooge & Marley (Marley is Hernandez’s FIRST name) as well as a nearly all-Hispanic cast, but viewers are not hit over the head with it. There is no attempt to drag present-day politics into the story and ethnicity is not used as a gimmick. It is not even commented upon that the characters are all Hispanic-American, a refreshing change in a 2019 film.

This movie looks absolutely gorgeous. There are probably Miami Tourism videos that don’t make the city look this sunny and appealing. I’m not exaggerating. The cinematography in this flick makes everything look good enough to eat.

Kate Katzman portrays Ellen Scrooge, CEO of Scrooge & Hernandez Pharmaceuticals. Marley Hernandez died just one year earlier instead of the usual seven years. The astonishing youth of nearly all the cast members seems to be the reason for this. Ellen looks like she would have still been in High School seven years earlier, not already a partner in Scrooge & Hernandez. Continue reading

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BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF RESULTS: NOV 30th

NAIA

ROUND TWO: GAME ONE – The BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS played host to the CAMPBELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY TIGERS. The Ravens led 7-0 in the 1st Quarter but Campbellsville U. was on top 17-7 by Halftime. From there, Benedictine College shut out the Tigers while adding a Touchdown in the 3rd and 4th Quarters each. The Ravens won 21-17.

ROUND TWO: GAME TWO – In this game the MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS entertained the DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS. A 6-0 opening Quarter edge for the Knights became 14-0 at the Half. After the break, the Defenders outscored Marian University 18-12 but that still left them short as the Knights logged a 26-18 triumph. 

ROUND TWO: GAME THREE – The MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS took the field against the visiting CARROLL (MT) COLLEGE FIGHTING SAINTS. The Orediggers had it all their own way at first and took a 17-0 advantage into the locker room. The Fighting Saints rallied in the 3rd Quarter, pulling to within 24-21 of Montana Tech, but the Orediggers won out 31-21 in the 4th. Continue reading

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FLASHBACK: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NAMES BARACK OBAMA A WAR CRIMINAL AND HUFFINGTON POST CALLS HIS WAR ON PRESS FREEDOM “A DICTATOR’S DREAM.”

FROM NOVEMBER 9th, 2013. Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama are the two presidents I despise the most, but nobody is surprised at what garbage Bush was. Obama loons like to ignore the criticism he received in office. Even when language like “war criminal” and “dictator’s dream” were used to describe Obama, it never approached the hysteria seen in the Trump years. 

A piece of political sewage who bubbled and gurgled up from the cesspool of Chicago politics.

A piece of political sewage who bubbled and gurgled up from the cesspool of Chicago politics.

It’s no secret that the Obama administration may well be the most corrupt and abusive in history. And I’m the furthest thing from a Conservative you can find. I could fill this site every day with stories about the ongoing developments in the countless investigations into this weak, inept and crooked little man but we’d all get bored with the repetitious coverage of this criminal’s venality, pomposity and general douchebaggery. (To borrow a phrase from Ted White)

“Not only did one of Little Barry’s usual lapdogs, the Huffington Post, declare his war on free speech to be “a dictator’s dream” but Amnesty International quite rightly declared him a war criminal, largely for his incessant use of drones to kill and kill and kill. Continue reading

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SPIDER-WOMAN: MORE OF HER EARLY STORIES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist blog post about superheroes looks at more Spider-Woman stories from her early years. For her first post click HERE.

SPIDER-WOMAN Vol 1 #17 (Aug 1979)

Title: Deathplunge

Villain: Wax Man (1st appearance)

Synopsis: Fully recovered now from her long war with the mutant Nekra and her cult of worshippers, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) treats herself to a night out at Monte Disco. She meets a young man named Eric and the two grow closer over drinks and dancing.

In the Ladies Room, another patron of the disco (lol) accidentally takes Jessica’s purse instead of her own, identical one. That purse contains Jessica’s compressed Spider-Woman costume, which the inebriated woman slips into and becomes a hit on the dance floor. 

Our heroine slips away from Eric to try getting back her costume without exposing her secret identity. At one point, the drunken woman dressed as Spider-Woman falls off the deck of the mountaintop disco. Jessica uses her powers to save the woman and recover her costume before the drunk knows what’s what.

Later that night, Eric and Jessica are making out, when Eric mutates into his supervillain form of Wax Man. Continue reading

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL (ITV 2000): CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON 2025 BEGINS

If it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, then regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know it’s the day when I kick off my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon in which I review several versions of A Christmas Carol. I look at movies, television shows, radio shows and books which adapt the Dickens classic. Every year I present new reviews with a few old classics mixed in since newer readers will have missed them.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2000) – Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2025 begins with a new review. This ITV production from British television which presented the Scrooge figure as a loan shark coincidentally came out the same year as the Brazilian version which featured Scrooge as a drug dealer.

Neither one was a comedy, but this UK adaptation adds lighter moments here and there. A Christmas Carol runs just under 75 minutes and was made by a creative team that genuinely understands the Carol. You can tell not just from their insertion of some of the more obscure lines from the Dickens novel but by the way that even their necessary departures from Dickens to stay true to their loan shark gimmick still perfectly reflect the novel’s themes.

That is especially true of the way they almost seamlessly incorporate “repeating day” elements like in Groundhog Day and Happy Death Day

To start this review, let’s look at how the production handles the major characters: Continue reading

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NEWS ROUNDUP FOR NOVEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH

Another current events roundup courtesy of Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog, from an America where Democrat members of Congress now demonize National Guard members to the point where they get shot right in Washington D.C. And by the way, if the trial is located in D.C. the Democrat jury members will not find the killer guilty and we all know it.

***** NEW! THE DEMOCRAT LIES ABOUT KAROLINE LEAVITT’S ALLEGED “RELATIVE” BEING DETAINED BY ICE

A REMINDER THAT AS PART OF THE WAY DEMOCRATS PUT A TARGET ON THE BACKS OF THE NATIONAL GUARD, DEMOCRAT SENATOR (AND FORMER CIA EMPLOYEE) ELISSA SLOTKIN IRRESPONSIBLY CLAIMED NATONAL GUARDSMEN WERE GOING TO START SHOOTING AT AMERICAN CIVILIANS. More HERE. And HERE. And HERE

IN RESPONSE TO THE LATEST DEMOCRAT-FUELED KILLING, CONGRESSMAN TIM BURCHETT POINTED OUT “AS THE DEMOCRATS PROMOTE VIOLENCE TOWARDS OUR MILITARY AND THE LEFT IDOLIZES THEM WE CAN EXPECT MORE KILLING.”

DEMOCRATS RIGHTFULLY BLASTED FOR PLACING TARGETS ON THE BACKS OF NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS THE SAME WAY THEY DID WITH ICE AND CHARLIE KIRK.

DEMOCRATS CAN BARELY CONTAIN THEIR GLEE OVER THE SHOOTING OF NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS IN WASHINGTON D.C. More HERE. They’re celebrating almost as much as when Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September. Continue reading

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2025!

happy t givingHAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy this holiday and the hope for peaceful coexistence represented by the possibly mythic meal that it commemorates. The kind of self-righteous killjoys who bash Thanksgiving are the type of sanctimonious idiots that are fun to laugh at since they have no identity outside of their ephemeral political concerns.

Whether you consider the tale of the first Thanksgiving to be literal or aspirational, enjoy yourselves! Be thankful that you’re not one of those heartless people who try to pollute every happy gathering with divisiveness and turn it into a showcase for the simple-minded, ankle-biting political remarks that those people laughably think are Really Deep.

How sad is it that every year they circulate those articles about which brainless talking points they should use to harass the adults at the Thanksgiving Day table?   

PREVIOUS THANKSGIVING DAY POSTS:

JAMES BATMAN (1966) – A THANKSGIVING TURKEY HERE.

THANKSGIVING TURKEY: AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (1972) HERE.
Continue reading

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TOM TURKEY TRILOGY: THE WASHINGTON AFFAIR (1977)

This wraps up my look at three of Tom Selleck’s early starring roles in turkeys.

Unlike The Chinese Typewriter and The Gypsy Warriors, both of which were tv pilot movies for shows that did not get picked up as a series, The Washington Affair was a theatrical film made in 1977 but was so bad it didn’t get released until the 1980s, after Selleck became a big star.

THE WASHINGTON AFFAIR (1977) – Also released as A Very Intimate Washington Affair, and for all I know as A Very Brady Washington Affair, this movie was a remake of director Victor Stoloff’s own 1966 film Intimacy. Neither version was very successful, but trivia buffs remember the original and the remake for Barry Sullivan playing the exact same character in both.

Sullivan portrayed dishonest businessman Walter Nicholson. In 1977 Tom Selleck costarred as Jim Hawley, a hunky engineer in charge of deciding what company gets a lucrative government contract – Nicholson’s or one of his competitors.

The 1966 flick at least had the advantage of shocking audiences of the time with its depiction of corrupt government figures, dirty businessmen and bribery – both monetary and sexual. Not so for 1977’s The Washington Affair.

By ’77 even the production’s attempt to cash in on Watergate and other government scandals was a bit too late and the sexual angle would barely disturb a contemporary grandma. Add the facts that the script sucks, there are literally only two sets for the entire film, and the central camera gimmick is absurd.    Continue reading

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NOVEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog provides a mid-week current events roundup.

A BREAKDOWN OF THE MONEY THAT THE SOMALI MEDICAID FRAUD SCANDAL IN MINNESOTA RIPPED OFF. Democrat Governor Tim Walz still under scrutiny.

MORE JUDICIAL OVERREACH AS “JUDGES” COME TO THE DEMOCRATS’ RESCUE BY OVERTURNING ONE OF THE FRAUD CONVICTIONS. More HERE. And as we’ve seen before, Democrats will now use the judge’s reasoning to overturn more of the Medicaid fraud convictions. Judges are nothing but politicans and deserve to be treated as such.

REMEMBER, DEMOCRAT SENATOR ELISSA SLOTKIN, ONE OF THE PUSHERS OF THE “ILLEGAL ORDERS” LIES, WORKED FOR THE REPULSIVE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION THE CIA. More HERE. And the detestable CIA has abused the world for far too long. And a reasonable person might wonder if anyone is EVER truly “former CIA.” 

TAIBBI CALLS OUT THE DEMOCRATS’ LUDICROUS LIES IMPLYING PRESIDENT TRUMP GIVES ILLEGAL ORDERS TO THE MILITARY. Democrat hysteria about Trump never ends. Not so long ago the White House Ballroom was their Apocalypse of the Week, and there was the Qatar jet nonsense and so many other Apocalypses of the Week.        More on this latest fiasco HERE. And HERE. And HERE. And HERE. And HERE.    

DEMOCRAT SENATOR RUBEN GALLEGO USES BIZARRE DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMAN DELAURO AS ONE OF MANY WAYS HIS PARTY IS OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE PEOPLE.  

ICE ARRESTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WITH SEX CRIME HISTORY WHO WAS TEACHING AS A PROFESSOR AT FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY. Democrat control of higher education permits situations like this because they think background checks and immigration laws are “racist.” Continue reading

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