Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is back with another current events roundup for all you ladies and gentlemen!
Watching President Trump cleaning up the cesspool of corruption in our political establishment reminds me of a much larger version of the cleanup in New York City’s police department in the 1970s following Frank Serpico’s revelations.
And those revelations were just the tip of the iceberg as you can read in the non-fiction book Prince of the City (NOT the fictional film based on it). The corruption was so pervasive that some were even contemplating bringing in the National Guard to replace the New York City police so that hiring could start from scratch once all the incriminated parties were rooted out.
For another comparison remember the real-life efforts of prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino as they tried to end organized crime’s control of Sicily’s governmental figures. They were eventually assassinated after years of having the entire corrupt system against them. The non-fiction book Excellent Cadavers is a great way to familiarize yourself with them.
Long years ago, when I first read that book (full title Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic) I thought at the time that any real attempt in America to clean up our institutionalized political corruption would resemble that situation. Obviously on a much larger scale, of course.
The Establishment Sewer is fighting back, and the outcome of this first dedicated pushback against America’s bought and paid for officeholders and bureaucrats is still uncertain. Our repulsive “intelligence agencies” may try anything and “By Any Means Necessary” has long been the motto of America’s fascist Democrat Party.
Even worse, Trump has made some unforced errors and lapsed into foolish distractions like the whole “51st State” nonsense with Canada. He’s still a de facto Third Party President and given the unreliability of A LOT of Congressional Republicans massive betrayal could come at any time.
The most likely danger may not be that dramatic, however, and may instead manifest in the form of the general public’s tendency to pretend “the good guys won” after a major event and go back to ignoring politics while the rot resumes spreading. Interesting times ahead.
ALLEN WEST COURAGEOUSLY POINTS OUT SEVERAL ATROCITIES FROM DEMOCRAT PARTY HISTORY.
SURVEY: MORE AMERICANS TRUST TRUMP THAN TRUST THE ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA FOR FAIR, FULL AND ACCURATE FACTS. And no wonder.
DEMOCRAT POLLSTER FINDS DEMOCRATS NOW DOWN TO 35% APPROVAL, WHILE TRUMP IS AT 57% APPROVAL.
WISCONSIN’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR SUPPORTS BILL TO CHANGE THE WORD “MOTHER” TO “INSEMINATED PERSON” IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PARTY’S TRANS RELIGION. Continue reading
MOTOR PIRATES (1906) American release title The Modern Pirates – This British action short was directed by England’s monumentally underrated silent film director Arthur Melbourne Cooper. Motor Pirates clocks in at under 9 minutes but crams quite a bit into that runtime. 
The Motor Pirates drive their vehicle on to a country estate where they employ its front-end “suction feature” to vacuum up several chickens. Four men of the estate come out with guns blazing to stop the crooks, but they shoot down their victims, leaving three dead and one barely clinging to life as they drive off. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER ONE – This game pitted the LSU-SHREVEPORT PILOTS (Riverboat Pilots) against their guests, the nation’s number 1 team – the LSU-ALEXANDRIA GENERALS. The Pilots were up 38-31 at the Half before defeating the Generals by a final count of 101-96. Twenty-seven points from Tahjae Hill led LSU-Shreveport.
NAIL-BITER – The INDIANA UNIVERSITY-EAST RED WOLVES took it on the road against the UNIVERSITY OF RIO GRANDE RED STORM. The Red Storm had eked out a 30-29 edge by Halftime, but an equally hard-fought 2nd Half ended in a 63-62 Red Wolves win. Antuane Allen led Indiana University-East with 24 points. 
MS. MARVEL Vol 1 #11 (Nov 1977) 
THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY YEAR OF THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT CONTINUES! In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 came this pre-MST3K show about bad and campy movies. Film Vault Technicians 1st Class Richard Malmos and Randy Clower hosted the show along with their friend and cocreator Ken Miller as Tex plus Laurie Savino as the Film Vault Corps’ Mystery Clip Technician. 
QUEEN OF BLOOD (1966) 
BIG HAWAII (1977) – From a promising pilot movie to “poof” it’s canceled – that’s the story of and that’s the glory of Big Hawaii. I’ve rarely seen such a pronounced overhaul from a pilot movie to the resulting series. 
BIG HAWAII: DANGER IN PARADISE (May 12th, 1977) – The creative team came so close to changing the future of 1970s prime time programming by getting the jump on Dallas, which did not come out until 1978. The network suits or somebody chickened out after this powerhouse pilot movie. 
JOHN DEHNER, forever remembered as the voice of Paladin on the Have Gun Will Travel radio western, played Barrett Fears, patriarch of the Fears family and a veteran power player in what would soon become Jock Ewing fashion. 
INA BALIN as Barrett’s second wife Marla embodied the older-but-still-hot female character that would soon define a genre. Think Joan Collins and Linda Evans on Dynasty, Abby Dalton, Susan Sullivan and many more on Falcon Crest, Barbara Rush and Stella Stevens on Flamingo Road, Katharine Ross on The Colbys plus a few others I’m probably forgetting. 
EL HOMBRE ARTIFICIAL (1910) – This story was written by Uruguayan-born writer Horacio Quiroga under the alias S. Fragoso Lima. Quiroga moved to Argentina in 1902. Upon being diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1937 he committed suicide. 
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