Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog offers up a few visual items as we head into the weekend.
First off, here’s the 2024 electoral map:
Next, some joke toys for this Christmas: Continue reading
ELECTORAL MAP AND OTHER VISUALS
Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
CLEOPATRA (1917) SILENT FILM WITH THEDA BARA
Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog may remember my fondness for silent movies.
CLEOPATRA (1917) – Born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, OH on July 29th, 1885, Theda Bara was the first monumental “man-eating”, femme fatale sex symbol in American cinema. It was inevitable that she would portray one of history’s most notorious women. Only part of this film has survived, and the story is a mix of various accounts of Cleopatra’s activities.
Cleopatra is covertly brought to Julius Caesar (Fritz Leiber Sr.) wrapped in a carpet and seduces him. The pair plan to conquer the known world, but Caesar’s assassination prevents this. A plot to kill Cleopatra herself is formed within her own court, but Pharon (Albert Roscoe), the designated assassin, succumbs to his love for her instead. Continue reading
Filed under opinion
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: MOUNTAINS, SEAS AND GIANTS (1924)
MOUNTAINS, SEAS AND GIANTS aka BERGE MEERE UND GIGANTEN (1924) – Written by Alfred Döblin, later famous for the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. A 2021 translation of the book uses the title Mountains Oceans Giants: A Novel of the 27th Century.
I wanted to make sure I made my blog post about this work during its Centennial year and I’m squeezing it in with a little time to spare. Berge Meere und Giganten is quite a piece of work, ranging as it does from standard Future History themes to dystopian settings and ultimately an Earth ravaged by wild and grotesque abominations of nature unleashed by reckless experimentation and terraforming.
The novel is almost Dune-like in its environmental concerns and its epic scope, in this case from shortly after World War One to the 2600s AD. Given Döblin’s experimental use of language I would have loved to read a review by James Joyce if he had ever read this novel.
Berge Meere und Giganten is broken down into nine main sections: Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
ELECTION DAY PLUS ONE ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS
Earlier today Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog posted my congratulations to President Donald Trump and his populist movement which has upset the American establishment’s cesspool of political corruption even more than in 2016.
Hopefully parasitic political families like the Bushes, Cheneys and Romneys (Republican) and the Pelosis, Bidens and Clintons (Democrat) will trouble us no more.
PRESIDENT TRUMP ON HIS “HISTORIC REALIGNMENT” OF AMERICA’S POLITICAL LANDSCAPE.
PEGGY RYAN’S ITEM ABOUT THE TRUMP PHENOMENON. For just one excerpt, “ … in one of the darkest periods of our country’s history, a man stepped out from the political quagmire to stop the attacks on our Constitution, to save America.”
GREAT PIECE ON “TRUMP’S ELECTRIFYING, WORLD-CHANGING VICTORY.”
RECORD LATINO SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP.
CHARLIE HURT: TRUMP’S VICTORY HAS COMPLETELY REMADE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
Democrat snob
THE DEMOCRATS AT MSNBC CONTINUE THEIR SNOBBERY BY CALLING AMERICA’S WORKING CLASS “UNGRATEFUL.”
SALENO ZITO: THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER ONE LIKE HIM. In praise of the new political coalition that formed around Donald Trump. “They have seen what the power of the cultural curators in our country, in academia, media, Hollywood, institutions, and corporations, and in the bureaucracies has done to their lives, and they have rejected it.” Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
THE MORNING AFTER: TRUMP AND THE PEOPLE WIN THIS ROUND, KAMALA AND AMERICA’S CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENT LOSE
Congratulations to de facto Third Party President Donald Trump, America’s populist leader, for enduring a storm of cowardly, destructive attacks that no president since Abraham Lincoln had to endure from their enemies on the way to another term.
Trump’s incredible fighting spirit and grassroots efforts against the white-collar criminals of America’s political establishment have won so far with election night behind us.
Not to be forgotten are the many legislative and court victories for election integrity since the 2020 debacle. Balladeer’s Blog covered all those efforts to prevent a recurrence of such fraudulent tactics every step of the way.
As for the other election races around the country, Real Clear Politics has projected Trump’s political party retaking the Senate, but with the final figure on House of Representatives races still undetermined. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
THE TOP FIFTEEN GODS FROM PEGANA MYTHOLOGY
Gods of Pegana
Lord Dunsany’s 1905 book The Gods of Pegana and its 1906 followup, Time and the Gods, are forgotten masterpieces of comparative mythology which introduced the author’s pantheon of fictional deities. Though neglected today Dunsany’s work inspired authors from H.P. Lovecraft to J.R.R. Tolkein to C.S. Lewis. (But oddly, NOT e.e. cummings or A.A. Milne. Go figure.)
Like many of my fellow mythology geeks I spent a lot of time during childhood inventing my own pantheons of gods and breaking down their powers, cultural relevance and relations to their fellow divinities. We can all appreciate the fun Lord Dunsany had with the concept and the ingenious way in which he fused elements of Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Chinese mythology with his own ideas.
Dunsany didn’t just dwell on surface details of the gods he created, he used their tales to reflect the philosophy, customs and taboos of the fictional land of Pegana, just like real-world belief sytems represent those aspects of the cultures that spawn them.
An additional benefit of Dunsany’s work is that it provides us with a consistent vision since it was all composed in the same time period. Real-world ancient myths often evolved or were “retconned” over the ages due to political or social reasons we have no written record of and we are therefore forced to speculate. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology
BEST OF N.E.T. PLAYHOUSE (1966-1972) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION
It is such a waste that so few installments of National Educational Television Playhouse are available despite video copies still being in their archives. For six years, N.E.T. Playhouse offered up some of the most interesting, profound and innovative productions from around the world. That 1966-1972 run puts what passes for educational television today to shame.
HAMILE (January 15th, 1970) – A Ghanaian adaptation of Hamlet written by that nation’s Joe C. De Graft and performed by actors from the National Theatre of Ghana.
De Graft sets the action in Tongo, changes the names Hamlet and Laertes to Hamile and Laitu, plus he adapts swordplay into traditional Ghanaian wrestling in this 2-hour production.
YESTERDAY THE CHILDREN WERE DANCING (February 26th, 1970) – A 90-minute CBC drama about the 1964 terrorist attacks in Canada launched by Quebec Separatists and plans for further attacks during the federal elections.
The French-Canadien Gravel family falls apart over divisions on the entire issue of independence for Quebec. Adapted from the play by Gratien Gelinas. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, opinion
NOV 4th ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at current events.
EVEN MORE OF MINNESOTA’S MUSLIM AND SOMALIAN COMMUNITY ENDORSE TRUMP. “We can’t afford anything as working class and middle-class people. Now please understand this, we love our brothers and sisters who are Democrats, but you left us.” one man said in a recurring theme of Democrats abandoning the working class and the poor.
KIMBERLY BROWN, DAUGHTER OF NFL LEGEND JIM BROWN, DISCUSSES HER SUPPORT OF PRESIDENT TRUMP GOING BACK TO HIS FIRST TERM. Among her remarks: “I came out as a Trump supporter because I saw the moves that Donald Trump was making … I saw that Trump was doing a lot for black people.”
ARAB-AMERICANS IN DEARBORN PRAISE TRUMP AND SAY THEY ARE LOOKING TO HIM “WITH HOPE. Among the remarks “A wise man once said, peace is the prize, and I stand before him today. As Arab-Americans, we unite against the betrayal of those in power.” And pointed out that the Kamala Harris-Joe Biden Regime “has failed miserably in all aspects of humanity.”
Among her remarks “Guess you haven’t met me yet, buddy. It takes a lot of balls to come out and support the anti-war machine, and you know it.” She also posted the following on her X account in response to Mark Cuban and his ilk:
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
SHOWTIME PREP ACADEMY: COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM
Balladeer’s Blog takes its latest look at a post-high school institution whose sports teams have a nickname that is out of the ordinary.
SHOWTIME PREP ACADEMY Continue reading
Filed under Cool names and cool logos
THE NAME DONALD TRUMP DOES NOT APPEAR IN THIS BLOG POST ABOUT JANUARY SIXTH
Here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog I will leave out one particular name in this blog post because it is unbelievable how many people are either uninformed or lying when they say that anything that happened on January 6th of 2021 could have returned the incumbent to office.
I’m making this post today because from tomorrow onward for who knows how long the election will be addressed, so this is a look at a non-election day matter of basic civics.
For people who get angry just seeing a certain name, rest assured I will not include it in the body of this post, so please consider these words as important information, no matter who you vote for. It’s alarming that so much hysteria has been encouraged over a procedure that a lot of Americans and non-Americans are obviously unclear about. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
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