Tag Archives: opinion

BEST OF FEBRUARY 2025

Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end of year retrospective looks at February’s most popular posts.

GENE HACKMAN: R.I.P. – HIS BEST 1970s ROLES – With the passing of actor Gene Hackman I examined some of his best roles in 1970s movies HERE.

COOL-NAMED SPORTS TEAM: ARKANSAS STATE AT NEWPORT – It’s HERE.

LUCKY SEVEN: SYRACUSE’S PIRATE TELEVISION STATION IN 1978 – For three wild days a renegade broadcasting crew dared to air commercial-free and eccentric programming. Click HERE.

KRIS STRAUB’S NEW EPISODES OF HIS ONLINE SERIES LOCAL 58 TV – I looked at them HERE

THE TELEVISION GHOST: REALLY, REALLY FORGOTTEN TELEVISION (1931-1933) – Much earlier than most people realize, television broadcasts were already hitting the airwaves, including this horror anthology series.

I threw in 1930s newspaper listings of some of the other primitive tv offerings of the time. Click HERE.

BALLADEER’S BLOG RANKS THE PRESIDENTS – I composed this list the way that anyone trying to be objective should – by omitting the most recent presidents. Click HERE.

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: BLACKHAWK TECHNICAL COLLEGE – It’s HERE.

MOTOR PIRATES (1906) – My review of an early silent sci-fi film short featuring a high-tech, armed and armored vehicle and its criminal designers. Click HERE.

PROFILES IN COURAGE (1964-1965) – This Forgotten Television series was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s book and presented dramas about heroic men and women from U.S. history. Click HERE.

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: JOHN MELVIN UNIVERSITY – Click HERE.

TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT – I marked the cult show about bad movies’ 40th anniversary year. Mars Needs Women and Demon from Devil’s Lake HERE, Queen of Blood HERE.

ASTREA: STRONGWOMAN OF ITALIAN SILENT FILMS – Before Gina Carano, Sigourney Weaver or Milla Jovovich came this butt-kicking action starlet from Italy HERE. She did films from 1919-1922 then vanished.

BESS THE DETECTRESS: SILENT FILM ADVENTURESS (1914) – This series of shorts starred Bess Meredyth, starlet, writer, director and the wife of Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) and mother of sci-fi writer John Meredyth Lucas (Star Trek). She’s HERE

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Elektropolis (1928) a German novel about a high-tech city built in the Australian desert HERE, Adventures of Esplandian (1510) when California was an island and the home of odd creatures and a matriarchal civilization HERE, and El Hombre Artificial (1910) an Argentine story about obscene human experimentation HERE. Continue reading

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DECEMBER FIFTH NEWS ROUNDUP

 Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog presents a Friday current events roundup.

PRESIDENT TRUMP THE PEACEMAKER THANKED AGAIN BY THE PRESIDENTS OF RWANDA AND DRC FOR THE HISTORIC PEACE DEAL HE BROKERED BETWEEN THEM. More HERE.

DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMAN ILHAN OMAR BEING INVESTIGATED OVER WHAT SHE MAY KNOW ABOUT MINNESOTA’S BILLION-DOLLAR MEDICAID FRAUD SCANDAL. She joins Gov. Tim Walz on the hot seat.

REPUBLICAN CONGRESSWOMAN NANCY MACE INTRODUCES ACT TO WEED OUT FRAUD IN GOVERNMENT FOOD BENEFITS SYSTEM. The Democrat shutdown backfired by highlighting how much fraud they ignore in the system.

A SHARP LOOK AT THE ONGOING ABUSES BY AMERICA’S DESTRUCTIVE CIA AND OTHER THREE-LETTER AGENCIES. It’s like the 1970s hearings and corrective actions regarding the filth who run the CIA never happened. 

DHS ASSISTANT SECRETARY TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN BLASTS DEMOCRAT DANIEL GOLDMAN OVER NEW YORK RELEASING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RAPISTS BACK ONTO THE STREET. Democrats try to pretend the U.S. suffers under Trump but the only people they ever fight for are illegal immigrants, especially those who have committed other crimes. It’s still “Illegal immigrants uber alles” with the Party.

VIDEO: PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY LIGHTING THE NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE.

DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM REFUSES TO TURN OVER TO ICE THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED IN THE HIT-AND-RUN KILLING OF ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD AIDEN ANTONIO TORRES DE PAZ. See my above remark about Democrats and illegal immigrants, their one-and-only constituency apparently. 

TAIWAN THANKS PRESIDENT TRUMP FOR HIS RENEWED COMMITMENT TO THEIR U.S. TIES.

TRUMP EFFECT: AT&T PLEDGES TO END THEIR RACIST DISCRIMINATION, EXCLUSION AND INTOLERANCE POLICIES. Continue reading

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NEWS ROUNDUP FOR DECEMBER THIRD

Here’s another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog

TRUMP-ENDORSED MATT VAN EPPS DEFEATS DEMOCRAT AFTYN BEHN IN SPECIAL ELECTION THAT DEMOCRATS AND THEIR MEDIA OUTLETS WERE PRETENDING WAS GOING TO GO TO THE AOC-LITE BEHN. More HERE. He didn’t beat her by as much as President Trump won the state last year (by 22%) but Republican voters have proven rightfully reluctant to show up on Election Day when Trump is not on the ballot. After all, most Congressional Republicans are clueless and outdated.

HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE AND THE U.S. TREASURY LAUNCH INVESTIGATIONS INTO DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR TIM WALZ’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE BILLION-DOLLAR MEDICAID FRAUD SCANDAL IN MINNESOTA. More about the state employees accusing him HERE. More about the scandal HERE. And HERE. And HERE.   

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FINDS A FULL THIRD OF MINNESOTA’S ND CDLs WERE ISSUED ILLEGALLY. Walz runs a cesspool of corruption. More HERE.

THE LATEST ON THE AUTOPEN PARDONS AND EOs THAT UNKNOWN STAFF MEMBERS FORCED THROUGH IN UNFIT FIGUREHEAD JOE BIDEN’S FINAL MONTHS – PRESIDENT TRUMP NULLIFIES THEM. Definitely the needed move, but I have a feeling the legal battles over this will go on past Trump’s remaining time in office. More HERE.  

WHEN DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLETS DUEL: THE NEW YORK TIMES CALLS OUT THE WASHINGTON POST’S LIES ABOUT HEGSETH AND THE STRIKES ON THE NARCOTICS BOATS. More HERE. And HERE. And HERE. And remember, ships that travel flying no flags are unprotected.

“READ ‘EM AND WEEP” – PRESIDENT TRUMP FOILS DEMOCRATS AGAIN BY RELEASING HIS EXCELLENT MRI RESULTS THAT HATERS WERE PRETENDING HAD BAD NEWS FOR HIM. Hilarious! Trump remains the Roadrunner and the Democrats are stuck being Wile E. Coyote. More HERE. And HERE

TRUMP EFFECT: ECONOMIC EXPERT DECLARES AMERICA JUST HAD “THE BEST BLACK FRIDAY WE’VE EVER SEEN”, FUELING THE ECONOMY.

KAROLINE LEAVITT SMACKS DOWN DEMOCRAT “REPORTER” (LOL) CLAIMING TRUMP IS “FATIGUED” BY QUOTING THAT SAME REPORTER’S CLAIMS THAT JOE BIDEN “IS DOING JUST FINE” WHEN HE WAS REPEATEDLY STUMBLING AND GIBBERING. More HERE.

A GREAT ITEM ADDRESSING THE DEMOCRAT MYTH THAT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS “DO THE JOBS AMERICANS WON’T DO.” As I’ve been writing here since 2010 they do jobs that snobbish, pompous Democrats won’t do, but working-class people would love to do them. Continue reading

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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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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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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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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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NEWS ROUNDUP: NOVEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH

Here’s a Monday current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

DEMOCRAT SENATOR SLOTKIN ADMITS PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS NOT GIVEN ILLEGAL ORDERS TO THE MILITARY. Yet anti-Trump imbeciles STILL fall for every absurd lie that Democrats tell about him, even though the lies have gone down in flames over the past ten years. Anti-Trump fundamentalists remain the most ignorant, uninformed and emotionally unstable people I’ve ever seen.

TRUMP EFFECT: THANKSGIVING EXPENSES DROP TO THEIR LOWEST IN FOUR YEARS. Have I mentioned that Donald Trump is the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime? *** 

FACULTY LOUNGE FASCISTS: VIRGINIA ASSISTANT SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ARRESTED FOR PLOTTING TO ASSASSINATE ICE AGENTS. Democrat control of school systems has brought us to this point.

FURTHER FALLOUT FROM THE DEATH THREATS A NEW JERSEY LEFTIST MADE TO A SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER. More HERE.

THE DEMOCRAT ORGANIZATION CALLED THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION CRITICIZED OVER LATEST “INSTRUCTIONAL” MATERIALS FOR TRAINING “TEACHERS” TO LABEL PARENTS AND OTHER CRITICS “VILLAINS.” More HERE. To head off anyone sniveling about why I point out that teachers’ unions are democrat organizations just look up their political donations.

ANOTHER REMINDER ABOUT HOW JOE BIDEN ALLIES COORDINATED THE LIES CLAIMING THAT BIDEN FAMILY SCANDALS REVEALED BY HUNTER BIDEN’S LAPTOP WERE “RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION.” And just in time to help Biden in a 2020 debate with Trump.

THE LATEST ON THE DEMOCRAT SCANDAL IN MINNESOTA ABOUT MEDICAID FRAUD BEING USED TO FUND THE TERRORIST GROUP AL-SHABAAB. Another angle HERE. Trump takes action HERE

SENATOR BERNIE MORENO POINTS OUT HOW DEMOCRATS HAVE “GUTTED THE WORKING CLASS“. Continue reading

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FLASHBACK: AND YET ANOTHER FORMER DEMOCRAT WEIGHS IN

BALLADEER’S BLOG

FROM APRIL 18th, 2016 – Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know I used to be a Democrat before leaving the Party to become an Independent Voter because of how unhinged and intolerant Democrats have become. 

“Michael Faraday is another in the long line of people that the increasingly demented political left has driven away. So here are some more reflections from somebody else who became disgusted with the complacent and self-infatuated left – especially the close-minded classroom liberals of the 1960s generation that Faraday came from. His remarks – 

For the millions raised as leftists, it is not an ideology; it is a culture. Since childhood, they have lived and breathed it every day in the home. They know nothing else. Like any culture, it is a way of speaking, thinking and acting, with its own narratives and rituals. Narratives are held sacred, repeated, reinforced and, over time, added to. That which challenges sacred narratives, even reality itself, is met with confusion and hostility.”

Leftists combine child-like naïveté and paranoid aggression in all of their narratives. It is a remarkable and very damaging pairing. The child-like naïveté protects the narrative from facts while the paranoid aggression protects the mind from doubt.”

It (21st century leftism) harnesses together childish emotions and paranoid thought processes. Its narratives are a filter that reality has to try to struggle through, often failing. The child-like thinking solves all problems without pesky details and facts interfering, leading to delusions of intellectual brilliance.” (Balladeer: Especially true of American Democrats Continue reading

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