FLASHBACK: ENGLAND’S NICK COHEN ON HOW THE LEFT BECAME APPALLING

From February 17th, 2016. Back when I was still referring to American Democrats as Liberals before I went along with reader requests to just say Democrats instead because they were no longer liberal and were, in fact, very illiberal.

Nick Cohen

“I make no secret of the fact that I’m tired of the outdated Liberal vs Conservative paradigm. I considered myself a Liberal back before the political left became constrictive and totalitarian … I periodically post about fellow former leftists who have also recognized that Liberals throughout the Western World have become everything they pretend to oppose. They’re just better at P.R. than right-wingers are.”

England’s Nick Cohen made plenty of remarks I can relate to:

(A Liberal) cannot break with the pressures that enforce conformity in his left-wing world and accept the real reason why many leave the left. It ought to be obvious. The left is why they leave the left. Never more so than today.”

“The shift of left-wing thought towards movements it would once have denounced as racist, imperialist and fascistic has been building for years. I come from a left-wing family … and I don’t regret any of it. But slowly, too slowly I am ashamed to say, I began to notice that left-wing politics had turned rancid. Continue reading

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NOVEMBER TWELFTH NEWS ROUNDUP

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

DEMOCRAT ANTIFA THUGS VIOLENTLY ATTACK PEOPLE ATTENDING A TPUSA FUNCTION AT UC-BERKELEY. More HERE. And HERE.

        It was the final stop on the speaking tour started by free speech martyr Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated back in September.

ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL HARMEET DHILLON STATES THE DOJ IS LOOKING INTO UC-BERKELEY’S POTENTIAL COMPLICITY OR NEGLIGENCE IN THE VIOLENCE AGAINST TPUSA ATTENDEES. More HERE. And HERE.

ONE OF THE VIOLENT DEMOCRAT MOB MEMBERS AT THE UC-BERKELEY ATTACK IDENTIFIED.

DEMOCRAT VIRGINIA DELEGATE CONVICTED OF COVID RELIEF FRAUD.

DEMOCRAT SENATOR SCHUMER ADMITS OBAMACARE LITERALLY FUNDS HEALTHCARE FOR PEOPLE WHO MAKE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Unreal.

TOP AIDE TO NEW YORK’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR HOCHUL ON TRIAL FOR SPYING FOR CHINA AS AN UNREGISTERED AGENT. And earning millions for it!

TRUMP EFFECT: GOODS SEEING PRICE DECREASES COMPARED TO 2024. The greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime.

PRESIDENT TRUMP PRAISED FOR THE WAY HIS TARIFFS HAVE MADE IT SO U.S. AUTOMAKERS ARE NO LONGER “DISADVANTAGED” FOR MAKING VEHICLES HERE IN THE U.S Continue reading

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COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: NUNEZ COLLEGE

Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at another educational institution whose sports team has a more creative name than the overused Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats.

NUNEZ COLLEGE Continue reading

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THE ORIGINAL SEVEN PILOTS OF THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE

It’s Veterans Day, formerly called Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War One on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. For Balladeer’s Blog’s final World War One post this year here’s a look at the first seven American pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille.

Lafayette Escadrille

QUICK FACTS: The French Foreign Legion connection to this storied squadron of American pilots came about because the United States did not enter the First World War until April of 1917 even though it began in 1914. Many American flyers volunteered to fight for the Allied Powers against the Central Powers.

*** Originally called the Escadrille Americaine, the unit had to drop that name when Germany, the Ottoman Turks and other Central Powers nations complained to the U.S. stating such a name indicated a violation of its official neutrality at that point in the war. The new name was the Lafayette Escadrille in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who served in America’s Revolutionary War.

*** This unit was active from March 1916 to February 1918, at which time it was disestablished and its pilots were absorbed into the official United States armed forces because America had by then been one of the belligerent nations for nearly a year.

*** Officers of the escadrille were French, which was standard for the French Foreign Legion. 

*** 224 Americans served in the Lafayette Escadrille, with 51 slain in battle and 11 more dying from other causes. 15 pilots became Prisoners of War and 11 became Aces.

*** Two lion cubs became the escadrille’s mascots. The pilots named them Whiskey and Soda.

THE FIRST SEVEN PILOTS OF THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE:  

NORMAN PRINCE – This founding member of the unit was a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He was an early enthusiast of the new field of flying and earned his pilot’s license in 1911.

Norman shot down five enemy aircraft and had four more probables before being killed in a crash-landing in mid-October of 1916. The French awarded him the Legion of Honor, a military award established by Napoleon himself. Prince also earned the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille Militaire.    Continue reading

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ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION ABOUT WORLD WAR ONE

Veterans Day is tomorrow, so here’s another World War One post. 

BLOOD AND IRON (1917)Written by Robert Hobart Davis & Perley Poore Sheehan.

Dramatic diesel-punk depiction of advanced technology being used in World War One. In Germany one of the Kaiser’s scientists is experimenting with replacing lost limbs and organs with mechanical replacements. 

He has been trying to create cyborgs out of maimed German soldiers from the front lines.  Continue reading

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NEWS ROUNDUP FOR NOVEMBER TENTH

Here’s a Monday current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog here in an America where, now that the Senate advanced the measure to “reopen” the government on to the House, we’re closer to the period after every shutdown where both political parties claim they “won” that shutdown.

BBC DIRECTOR GENERAL AND THE HEAD OF THEIR “NEWS” DIVISION FORCED TO RESIGN OVER PROPAGANDISTIC AND DECEPTIVE ANTI-TRUMP BROADCAST. Splicing and recutting footage completely distorted Trump’s words and actions. So, business as usual at anti-Trump media outlets, except this time they were held accountable. Trump reacts HERE.

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRAT STACIE LAUGHTON PLEADS GUILTY TO THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN. More HERE. Democrats, can you please leave children alone? If you don’t remember Laughton, he was praised by The Party as “the first openly transgender candidate elected to a state legislature.”  

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

DISGRACED, PRIVILEGED WHITE ONE PERCENTER DEMOCRAT NANCY PELOSI FINALLY REMOVES HERSELF FROM CONGRESS. Her disastrous terms as Speaker of the House caused the Democrats to lose their majority two times, but The Party will praise her as she goes out the door, of course. That’s politics!

NANCY PELOSI’S INSIDER TRADING SCANDALS GO BACK MANY YEARS. Yet anti-Trump hypocrites never called for HER to provide several years’ worth of tax returns. And remember how her husband’s business conveniently got awarded lucrative government contracts over the decades? Nancy embodied the Swamp.   

PELOSI’S CORRUPT LEGACY CALLED OUT. She’s now worth two hundred eighty million dollars

BABYLON BEE’S MASTERFUL SATIRE ABOUT PELOSI’S CORRUPTION AND INSIDER TRADING. Some excerpts: “Having long been in the privileged position of using her status as a Washington power player to pad her impressive stock portfolio, Pelosi now faced the the grim reality of having to trade stocks without insider info just like a regular peasant.”  …  “It’ll be the total opposite of what I’m used to,” Pelosi reportedly told her aides. “Once I retire from public office, I’ll be forced to trade stocks blindly, just like the rest of the schmucks and peons I’ve governed for the last four decades. It’s beneath me, honestly. How am I supposed to make millions of dollars off of shady stock trades now?”  Continue reading

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DEMOCRAT HARRY TRUMAN’S WORLD WAR ONE MILITARY SERVICE

Harry Truman World War One

Harry Truman in World War One

Veterans Day is two days from now so Balladeer’s Blog is presenting another look at World War One since November 11th marks the date that war ended.

HARRY S TRUMAN, CAPTAIN OF BATTERY D – This future Senator, future Vice President and future President is credited with one of my favorite quotes: “There’s nothing new in the world except the history you don’t know.”

That Show-Me State Seneca was in charge of Artillery Battery D, a hard-fighting unit that was often deployed well forward, in the heart of the action. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918 Truman’s Battery D provided fire in support of the young George Patton’s tank brigade. “Captain Harry’s” boys engaged German field guns, eliminating and forcing the abandonment of enemy batteries at a noteworthy rate. Continue reading

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BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS: NOV 9th

HEADLINES

NUMBER FIVE FALTERS – Down in NCAA Division Three, the UNIVERSITY OF MARY HARDIN-BAYLOR CRUSADERS played host to the country’s number 5 HARDIN-SIMMONS UNIVERSITY COWBOYS. At the Half the score was knotted up at 7-7 but the 3rd Quarter ended with the Cowboys up 10-7. In the 4th, the Crusaders came from behind for a 21-17 Upset.

UNLUCKY OVER LUCKY – Staying in D3 for a moment, the unlucky number 13 CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY CAPTAINS played the visiting lucky number 7 SALISBURY UNIVERSITY SEA GULLS. The Sea Gulls were up 30-28 at the midpoint of the game. From there, the Captains rallied to win out 45-42.  

DOWN GOES NUMBER EIGHT – In the NAIA, the 15th ranked COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES visited the number 8 team in the nation – the CARROLL COLLEGE FIGHTING SAINTS. CC led 7-0 in the 1st Quarter but by Halftime the Coyotes held a 26-7 advantage. After the break, the College of Idaho outscored the Fighting Saints 10-6 for a 36-13 manhandling. Continue reading

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SGT. YORK: LEGEND OF WORLD WAR ONE

sergeant-alvin-york

Veterans Day is just a few days away so Balladeer’s Blog looks at some more World War One history.

SERGEANT ALVIN YORK – At age 29 (yes, twenty-nine) Alvin York of Tennessee was drafted into the United States Army in November of 1917. York trained with the 82nd Infantry Division at Camp Gordon, GA. In April 1918 the unit arrived in Liverpool, England and by mid-May was at Sommes, where they began relieving various units in the trenches to acquire their first field experience.  

June saw York and the 82nd move to Lagney, where they patrolled and raided enemy lines for several weeks. In September York and his comrades participated in the St Mihiel Offensive and in October they fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, during which York earned the Medal of Honor. Continue reading

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SUPERHEROES OF RURAL HOME-CROYDON-ENWIL PUBLISHERS

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the 1940s publishers at Rural Home, Croydon and Enwil.

Captain WizardCAPTAIN WIZARD

Secret Identity: Joseph Preston

Origin: Joseph Preston was unjustly suspected of a murder he did not commit. While fleeing the police he took shelter in a haunted wax museum where he encountered a wax figure who was really the magician Theophrastus.

The magician’s powers told him Preston was innocent so he gave the man a mystical cape, costume and mask which granted him superpowers. Calling himself Captain Wizard our hero caught the real murderer and went on to fight the forces of evil on a regular basis.

First Appearance: Red Band Comics #3 (April 1945). His final Golden Age appearance came in 1946. 

Powers: Thanks to his enchanted costume Captain Wizard had super-human strength, could fly and was invulnerable. He also never required sleep. In addition he could switch from his street-clothes into his costume and vice-versa simply by saying “Abracadabra.”   Continue reading

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