LAUGHING AT JOE BIDEN’S IDIOCY IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Joe Biden faceSomething which has united many people under the current circumstances is our shared laughter at the hapless, clueless Joe Biden. Thank you to the BERNIE BROS who notified me about Biden’s latest farcical attempt to pretend he’s not senile and that he’d be capable of handling national affairs.

JOE BIDEN’S LATEST ABSURD PRONOUNCEMENT ON THE CORONAVIRUS WAS THIS:

“WE CANNOT LET THIS, WE’VE NEVER ALLOWED ANY CRISIS FROM THE CIVIL WAR STRAIGHT THROUGH TO THE PANDEMIC OF 17, ALL THE WAY AROUND, 16, WE HAVE NEVER, NEVER LET OUR DEMOCRACY SAKES SECOND FIDDLE, WAY THEY, WE CAN BOTH HAVE A DEMOCRACY AND … CORRECT THE PUBLIC HEALTH.” (video below)

#WalkAwayUh, yeah, Joe. Stirring words, indeed. BERNIE BROS, you are justified in your outrage over the Democrats rigging the 2020 nomination in favor of the senile blithering idiot Joe Biden instead of your candidate Bernie Sanders. #WALKAWAY, Bernie Bros, #WALKAWAY like the rest of us.

I guess Biden’s slogan will be “You can’t spell dementia without d-e-m!” 

FOR THE VIDEO:  Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Milestones In Stupidity, Neglected History, opinion

DAYBREAK (1896): JESUS ON MARS? – ANCIENT SCI FI

DaybreakDAYBREAK: A ROMANCE OF AN OLD WORLD (1896) – Written by James Cowan. Since we’re now in Easter Week what better time for a look at this work of “ancient” science fiction which features – among other things – an interplanetary visit by Jesus Christ.  

This 1896 novel is set in the “future” of 1899 and introduces us to Walter and Margaret, a dreary young couple who are beginning to question their plans for marriage after having spent more time together than usual. They visited parts of Europe and are on board a steam ship bound for America as the story opens.

After reading their stilted conversations the reader may wonder how anybody can stand being around this pair but larger events interrupt their reassessment of their relationship. The moon has been drawing closer to the Earth by the day and is expected to ultimately collide with our planet.

masc chair and bottleWalter makes a reasonably witty joke about the moon wanting to be annexed by the United States while around the world the human race becomes gripped with fear over the approaching collision. At length our former satellite makes impact, scraping down mountain ranges from the Himalayas to the Andes, before coming to a rest in the Pacific Ocean.

Obviously this would not be possible but hey, it’s an 1896 book. The moon sits in the Pacific, having displaced enough water to submerge multiple islands and alter the shorelines of every continent.

Countless lives have been lost and untold damage inflicted but in the aftermath some of Earth’s survivors decide to take advantage of the moon’s new location and explore it. Continue reading

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FOOL KILLER THIRTY-SEVEN: JULY 1910

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE 

Fool Killer timelessLORE ADDITION: For the first time the Fool Killer added a hand-cranked chainsaw to his arsenal of weapons. The Fool Killer’s targets in James Larkin Pearson’s July of 1910 issue:

*** Preachers who smoked. Pearson and his version of the Fool Killer held smoking in such low regard that they felt people who indulged in it should not be trusted with ministering to people’s souls. Shooting the cigarettes, cigars and pipes out of the mouths of smoking preachers was going too far in my opinion, but what can you do?

*** Sid Beckwith of New York, who insisted that the best cure for insomnia was to buy a passenger balloon and take a trip through the skies. He said this would make an insomniac sleep like a baby after that. The clueless Beckwith also warned against spending more than FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS for such an airship. Well, okay, then.

*** Nebraskans who – incensed at the Fool Killer’s criticism of William Jennings Bryan – had taken to bashing and agitating against Pearson’s publication. The Fool Killer dubbed them the Independent Order of Self-Made Fools and proclaimed that their “double-barreled Devil-guns” would kick backward upon firing with more force than would propel their pellets forward. 

*** Writer and philosopher Elbert Hubbard.

*** Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was considering flying one of his eponymous airships to the North Pole. After the Cook debacle Larson and his Fool Killer were fed up with what they called North Pole Yarns. Continue reading

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MARS MEN (1976): MOVIE REVIEW

Mars MenMARS MEN aka HUO XING REN (1976) – What do you get when Taiwanese filmmakers take a co-produced Thai/ Japanese kaiju movie, alter the monsters and the character names then edit in their own actors Mighty Morphin Power Rangers-style?

You get this deliriously weird sci-fi/ monster flick which combines the appeal of Godzilla, Gamera, Jet Jaguar and Ultraman with The Golden Bat and Infra-Man plus a wig or two from Fugitive Alien! Not to mention pirated Pink Floyd music! Who could resist?

Taiwan’s elusive monsterpiece Mars Men has long been the Holy Grail for all fans of kaiju and of overdubbed & re-edited movie mashups from around the world. Huo Xing Ren, as it was called during its Taiwanese run, started out in 1974 as Giant and Jumbo A, a co-production of studios from Thailand and Japan.

Mars Men side by sideThe “heroic” monster and giant were Yak Wat Jaeng (right) & Jumborg Ace, respectively. Yak Wat Jaeng was a fanged, green-colored stone statue from the Thai movie Tah Tien (1971).

Jumborg Ace was a Jet Jaguar/ Ultraman-ish kaiju superhero from a Japanese tv show (all 50 episodes are available for purchase). Continue reading

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TWENTY WRY QUOTES

Mascot sword and pistolAnother of Balladeer’s Blog’s Top Twenty Lists for 2020.

“Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.” – Nicolas Chamfort 

“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” – Albert Camus

“Education is a state-controlled manufactory of echoes.” – Norman Douglas

“To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.” – George Santayana

“Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.” – Honore de Balzac Continue reading

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TOP MOVIES OF SHINYA TSUKAMOTO

tetsuo-bDirector Shinya Tsukamoto hails from Japan and is noted for his surreal, nightmarish excursions into the darker side of transformative  industrial technology … especially any technology that impacts the human anatomy.

Tsukamoto’s noteworthy films include:

 

tetsuoTetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) – From the early shots of a man removing one of his own bones and replacing it with a piece of metal viewers knew this was a work of true genius. Tetsuo becomes more and more relevant by the year, especially with the advent of nanotechnology and its potentially invasive effect on the human mind and body. Continue reading

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Filed under Halloween Season, opinion

TRUMP’S PAYROLL PROTECTION PROGRAM FURTHERS HIS FDR IMAGE

Trump is the new FDRBalladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that equally criticizes both Republicans and Democrats. With all the doom and gloom in the news lately let’s put aside partisan politics and mark Friday with a positive take that anyone with compassion can appreciate. President Donald Trump’s Payroll Protection Program (see link below) is rolling and it’s as historic as any of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

Even the Democrats at CNBC are marveling at how quickly the president got this program running in a process which they noted “would usually take months.” And in another example of how Donald Trump is a de facto Third Party President I have to say I can’t picture any hard-core Republican taking necessary steps like this. Usually Republican office-holders refuse to accept the fact that governments spend money. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

MASKED MAN: STORY NINE

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of B.C. Boyer’s neglected 1980s superhero the Masked Man. For Part One click HERE

Eclipse Monthly 7ECLIPSE MONTHLY Vol 1 #7 (April 1984)

Title: Confessions

Synopsis: The Masked Man (Dick Carstairs) shared this issue of Eclipse Monthly with the new superheroine the Nightingale and the early 1800s western hero the Californio.

The relationship between our hero and his reporter friend Barney McAllister got stretched to the breaking point in this tale as the Masked Man found himself tempted by the offers from Dan Drekston. Those offers: to cash in on Masked Man merchandising, Masked Man action figures and books adapted from his adventures. 

Eclipse Monthly 6Once again, years before the overrated and overpraised Alan Moore’s work The Watchmen we see other comic book writers covering material that Moore was praised for as if he was the originator of such meta concepts. Drekston is planning a merchandising empire similar to that of Moore’s superhero Ozymandias.  Continue reading

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TWENTY MORE HAWAIIAN GODS AND GODDESSES

hawaiianislandsBalladeer’s Blog’s Top Twenty Lists For 2020 theme continues with this look at 20 more Hawaiian deities. FOR THE ORIGINAL LIST OF HAWAIIAN GODS AND GODDESSES CLICK HERE

OPUHALA – The goddess of coral, coral reefs and canoe bailers. Because of the sharp, abrasive nature of coral, fish with spiny scales were also considered to be under her rule. She was the daughter of the sea god Kanaloa and the aunt of the demigod Maui. In some traditions it is said she provided enormous jagged chunks of coral for Maui to use as hooks when he was fishing up islands.  

KALAIPAHOA – The Hawaiian poison god. His images were always carved from the nioi, a poisonous pepper tree sacred to him. He was believed to be able to ride comets across the sky. Kalaipahoa was originally worshipped only on the island of Molokai but his worship spread to all the other Hawaiian Islands after their unification into a single kingdom under Kamehameha I. Oddly, this god is also associated with gamblers.     Continue reading

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BERNIE SANDERS BROS HIT JOE BIDEN OVER HIS CORONAVIRUS LIES AND MORE

Trump with biden as backseat driverThank you to the BERNIE BROS who brought all this to my attention.

While I was fully aware that Joe Biden’s lying claim that Trump had called the Chinese Coronavirus a hoax had been proven false I missed a few of these other items. Links are below.

Trump state of the union 2TRUMP HAD MENTIONED THE NEED TO FIGHT THE WUHAN CORONAVIRUS IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS – So much for Biden’s claim that the president was not prepared. Trump’s coronavirus remarks were among the items that privileged white one-percenter Nancy Pelosi tore up in a childish fit.

Bernie BrosRemember, Nancy had even encouraged people in her district to come out and celebrate Chinese New Year despite the coronavirus risks at the time. She and Biden were not taking the threat seriously just to play a game of political spite.  

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDY SHOWS THE U.S. WAS MORE PREPARED FOR THE PANDEMIC THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY – When even the anti-Trump JHU points out this fact then you know it must be manifestly obvious. Thanks again, BERNIE BROS for pointing this out! Continue reading

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