Tag Archives: opinion

December 26, 2025 · 4:46 pm

NEWS ROUNDUP FOR DECEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH

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

DEMOCRAT PARTY

ARTICLE: TEN BIGGEST LIES OF 2025.

MAINE CUTS OFF FUNDS TO ITS SOMALI “CHARITY” OVER FRAUD.

NAIVE ARTICLE ASKS WHY SOME PUNDITS KEEP WINDING UP UNDERESTIMATING THE IMPROVEMENTS FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ECONOMIC POLICIES. We all know why they keep wishing bad results for America’s first de facto Third Party President. Trump’s real results keep outperforming his obsessed naysayers.

EVEN FAR-LEFT AXIOS ADMITS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP IS LOWERING ALL THE CRIME RATES THAT SOARED UNDER THE BIDEN REGIME.   

PRO-TRUMP CANDIDATES WON ALL THREE SPECIAL ELECTIONS IN SOUTH CAROLINA ON TUESDAY. More HERE. As always, I’m skeptical about any broader meanings in special elections but you know that if those candidates had lost anti-Trump fundamentalists would be insisting it spelled doom for next year’s midterm elections.

THORNE LOOKS AT ALL THE POSITIVE TRENDS IN AMERICA RECENTLY.

IHAB MUSTAFA EL MAHMOUD FACES FELONY HATE CRIME CHARGES FOR DRIVING HIS CAR AT MEMBERS OF A GAY WALKING GROUP IN WEST PALM BEACH. Continue reading →

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December 26, 2025 · 4:55 am

BEST OF AUGUST 2025

Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end of the year retrospective resumes with this look at August’s best.

BAD MOVIE REVIEW: TOWING (1978) – Even though this film’s cast includes JOE MANTEGNA, SUE LYON and DENNIS FRANZ it is a thoroughly bizarre attempt at a comedy. It’s based on some real-life unethical procedures by towing companies in Chicago. Relentlessly unfunny and very weird. Click HERE.

ETRUSCAN MYTHOLOGY – Or “Those darn Etruscans” as their category was always called on Jeopardy. I took a look at some of their gods like Tinia, Hercle, Aita and Usil plus some of their goddesses like Uni, Turan, Vanth and Feronia. They’re all HERE.

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Bird of the Iron Feather (1970), the pioneering soap opera about the lives of black Chicagoans HERE.  Barbary Coast (1975) starring William Shatner and Doug McClure working for the U.S. Secret Service on the 1870s Barbary Coast HERE.   Espionage (1963), an anthology series about spy operations from the Cold War, World War 2 and earlier wars HERE.

SOME HILARIOUSLY INACCURATE ERRORS FROM A.I. YOUTUBE CHANNELS – Click HERE.

COOL NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM – Gulf Coast Christian College HERE.

WHISKEY JIM – A neglected Old West gunslinger who interacted with the likes of Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Hoodoo Brown, Bushwacking Joe and the 4th Cavalry. He also fought in the Buffalo Hunters War and later against the Las Lagunas Comanchero Gangs. Click HERE. 

GULLIVAR JONES ON MARS (1905): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – The conclusion of this pre-John Carter novel about an American naval officer winding up on Mars where he romanced a woman named Princess Heru and had various adventures. Click HERE.

KARATE GIRL (1973) – This Turkish martial arts film is one of that country’s premier violent revenge flicks. Fun-bad yet badass all at once. I reviewed it in detail HERE. 

COOL NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM: MONTCALM COLLEGE – Click HERE.

GIANT OF THE EVIL ISLAND (1965) – Mission Impossible‘s Peter Lupus starred in this swashbuckler movie about the Spanish Navy clashing with pirates who use a place called Evil Island as their base. Click HERE.

THE DEFENDERS: AFTER THE EVIL EYE – Marvel’s superteam the Defenders (Hulk, Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, Clea, Silver Surfer, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and Son of Satan) followed up their war with the Avengers over the Evil Eye of Avalon with battles against Xemnu, Nebulon, Magneto, Asmodeus and QuasiMoD.O. Click HERE.  Continue reading →

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December 24, 2025 · 6:07 am

DECEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog serves up another current events roundup.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ECONOMIC POLICIES BRING INCREDIBLE FOUR POINT THREE PERCENT RISE IN GDP IN THIRD QUARTER, THE HIGHEST RISE IN YEARS!  More HERE.  And even more HERE.     The things this man accomplishes while simultaneously fighting America’s cesspool of political corruption are amazing.

TRUMP ECONOMIC BOOM FAR EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS OF “EXPERTS.”

EVEN MORE PRAISE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’S WORK TO MAKE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS MORE AFFORDABLE FOR THE PEOPLE.

TRUMP’S APPROVAL RATING GOES BACK UP AGAIN. More HERE. And HERE. Quite a contrast to the mere eighteen percent approval rating for the Democrats. And all this despite the anti-Trump propaganda spewed by Democrat media outlets 24/7.

NEW YORK TIMES HAS REPORTED THAT BILL CLINTON’S FBI COVERED UP REPORT ABOUT JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S GROTESQUE ACTIVITIES AS FAR BACK AS 1996. More HERE.

EPSTEIN FILES REVEAL JEFFREY EPSTEIN-RICHARD BRANSON-BARACK OBAMA CONNECTION.   MORE EPSTEIN-DEMOCRAT CONNECTIONS HERE.   EPSTEIN-OBAMA-CLINTON-SCHUMER HERE.

EXCELLENT POINT ABOUT “AMERICA’S PRINCE ANDREW” BILL CLINTON.     EPSTEIN LETTER TO NASSAR MENTIONING TRUMP IS REVEALED TO BE FAKE. More HERE. Trump-haters falling for hoaxes HERE.

CONGOLESE FOREIGN MINISTER THERESE KAYIKWAMBA WAGNER PRAISES PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PEACEMAKING. 

CNN ANALYST ADMITS IT IS PERFECTLY LEGAL FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION TO GO AFTER VENEZUELAN TANKERS THAT ARE STILL UNDER SANCTIONS FROM BIDEN AND OBAMA. He even stated that what Trump is doing is “very canny.” I’d love to have seen all the spit takes from outraged anti-Trump loons over this. Continue reading →

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December 22, 2025 · 4:49 pm

BEST OF JULY 2025

Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end of year retrospective continues with this look at July’s best.

RICHARD DENNING’S PSYCHOTRONIC MOVIES – Before he was the governor on Hawaii Five-O, Richard Denning appeared in several campy sci-fi movies in the 1940s and 1950s. ** Those included Target Earth, about alien androids invading Chicago; Unknown Island, about “modern” people finding an island populated by dinosaurs; Creature with the Atom Brain, about atomic-powered zombie gangsters; Day the World Ended, about post-nuke survivors fighting a monster; The Black Scorpion, about two giant scorpions on the loose, and the iconic Creature from the Black Lagoon. They’re all HERE. 

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM: MESALANDS COLLEGE – Click HERE. 

THE DOUBLE DAGGERS (1877) – The second Dime Novel about the fictional masked Old West outlaw and champion of the underdog – Deadwood Dick. This time he and his Nighthawks face a traitor within and defeat a new set of villains. Plus, our hero falls in love and gets married in the finale! Click HERE. 

FIVE LOST OUTLAW TREASURES OF THE OLD WEST – I examined what is known about lost plunder from Old West outlaws, including Henry Seymour’s haul of gold coins, the silver and gold buried by the Musgrove Gang, & the Ellis Payroll Robbery proceeds. Click HERE.

THE PENOBSCOT CAMPAIGN FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR – The massive 1779 American effort to drive the British out of the area of Maine that they had seized and renamed New Ireland. Click HERE. 

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Story of the Second Traveler (1879) about an island where gold is as plentiful as grass, the foodstuffs alter human anatomy, there are birds large enough to ride and three-eyed humanoids with tails. Click HERE.   A Voyage to the World in the Center of the Earth (1755) about an advanced human civilization deep in the Earth HERE.   

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Stagecoach West (1960) starring Wayne Rogers as a gunslinging stagecoach driver who has adventures HERE.   Cimarron Strip (1967) starring Stuart Whitman as a U.S. Marshal in the Old West HERE. Decision (1958), an anthology series about people in dangerous situations HERE. And Casey Jones (1957) with Alan Hale playing the legendary train engineer during the 1890s HERE. 

THE NEGLECTED RAILROAD WAR OF 1878-1880 – Real life conflict involving Railroad Barons plus several gunslingers like Doc Holliday, Texas Ben Thompson, Prairie Dog Morrow, Bat Masterson and more HERE. Continue reading →

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December 22, 2025 · 7:38 am

NEWS ROUNDUP FOR DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND

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

NINE MORE MAJOR DRUG COMPANIES JOIN PRESIDENT TRUMP’S COALITION THAT’S LOWERING PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES FOR AMERICANS. DR. MEHMET OZ ELABORATES.

REAL INCOMES RISING UNDER TRUMP’S POLICIES. Best president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime. 

DEMOCRATS REMAIN AT RECORD LOW EIGHTEEN PERCENT APPROVAL RATING IN QUINNIPIAC POLL. More HERE. CNN’s Enten HERE. 

EPSTEIN FILES: BILL CLINTON AND OTHERS CONTINUE TO BE EXPOSED. More HERE.

VESPA ON DEMOCRAT DESPERATION REGARDING THE FILES.

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT ANTI-TRUMP CONSPIRACY GOES DOWN IN FLAMES. 

BYRON YORK HELPS DISMANTLE IT.

HARVARD-HARRIS POLL: SIXTY PERCENT BELIEVE DEMOCRATS SHOULD STOP AUTOMATICALLY OPPOSING EVERYTHING PRESIDENT TRUMP DOES AND SHOULD WAIT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. Now if only Democrats cared what the public wants.

INFLATION CONTINUES TO FALL UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP’S POLICIES.

GEORGIA COUNTY NOW ADMITS TO ILLEGALLY COUNTING ROUGHLY THREE HUNDRED FIFTEEN THOUSAND BALLOTS THAT WERE NOT PROPERLY VERIFIED IN 2020 ELECTION. More HERE. And HERE. I will point out again that the 2020 presidential election was at least as corrupt and tainted as the 1876 and 2000 elections were. Continue reading →

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December 19, 2025 · 4:38 pm

BEST OF JUNE 2025

I’m continuing my annual end of year retrospective with this look at June’s best.

NATIONAL VCR DAY – I marked the day with this blog post reviewing 8 films from several genres and all released on video during the 1980s heyday of VCRs. Click HERE.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: NEGLECTED BATTLES FROM MARCH AND APRIL 1777 – March: Overlooked battles in New York and New Jersey HERE.  April: Overlooked battles in Connecticut, New Jersey and off the coasts of Delaware and South Carolina. Click HERE.

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM – Texas Southmost College HERE.

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Paris (1979-1980) – James Earl Jones starred in Steven Bochco’s show about police detective Woody Paris HERE.  The Witness (1960-1961) – Dramatized versions of how trials might have gone against figures like John Dillinger, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Mayor Jimmy Walker and more HERE.   The Devlin Connection (1982) – Rock Hudson plays a detective who works as a private investigator alongside his long-lost son Jack Scalia HERE.

COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM – Truckee Meadows Community College HERE. 

DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.’s SWASHBUCKLER FILMS – The son of THE swashbuckler from Silent Movies appeared in several of his own, like The Corsican Brothers, Sinbad the Sailor, The Fighting O’Flynn and more. I reviewed all of them HERE.

ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES – My reviews of the fragmentary remains of ancient Greek comedies from hundreds of years B.C. Plays like Poleis HERE, Callipides HERE, and Cothurnus HERE.

D-DAY AND OTHER HISTORICAL EVENTS FROM JUNE SIXTH – I looked at that date’s events from various wars, scientific progress, disasters like fires and much, much more. Click HERE.   Continue reading →

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December 19, 2025 · 7:14 am

DECEMBER NINETEENTH NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog closes this week with another current events roundup.

PRESIDENT TRUMP DELIVERS EVEN MORE DROPS IN PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE PRICES. The greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime.

LATEST INFLATION FIGURES: PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SUCCESS IN FIGHTING INFLATION LEAVES HIS CRITICS EMBARRASSED.   INFLATION FALLS TO LOWEST LEVEL IN YEARS.

WIDBURG STATES TRUMP’S SPEECH WAS “BOMBASTIC BUT ACCURATE.” Trump does have a certain Theodore Roosevelt quality. More HERE.   MARGOLIS PRAISES TRUMP’S ECONOMIC TURNAROUND FROM BIDEN’S DISASTROUS YEARS. 

H.U.D. SECRETARY SCOTT TURNER REVEALS THAT FIFTY-NINE PERCENT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE ON ONE OR MORE WELFARE PROGRAMS.

KENNEDY CENTER BOARD UNANIMOUSLY VOTES TO RENAME THE KENNEDY CENTER “THE DONALD J. TRUMP AND JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS”. More HERE.

CONGRESSMAN AUGUST PFLUGER IS THE LATEST TO CALL OUT THE WAY OBAMACARE GIVES A BLANK CHECK TO GREEDY INSURANCE COMPANIES TO JACK UP PREMIUMS. We all knew this years ago. Obamacare was a unilateral favor to insurance companies that donated heavily to Democrats. Remember, Obamacare passed without one Republican vote in Congress.

JUDGE HANNAH DUGAN FOUND GUILTY OF FELONY OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE BY TRYING TO HELP AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN HER COURTROOM ESCAPE IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCERS. More HERE. Many more of America’s judges need to pay for their abuses.

REAL CLEAR POLITICS SHOWS TRUMP IS STILL AT A HIGHER APPROVAL RATING THAN EITHER BIDEN OR OBAMA WERE AT THE SAME POINT IN THEIR PRESIDENCIES.    Continue reading →

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December 17, 2025 · 8:30 am

NEWS ROUNDUP: DECEMBER SEVENTEENTH

Time for a midweek current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

NOVEMBER’S JOBS REPORT SHOWS PRESIDENT TRUMP’S POLICIES CONTINUE TO INCREASE JOBS AND DECREASE UNEMPLOYMENT. Have I ever mentioned that Trump is the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime?

TRUMP EFFECT: APARTMENT RENT PRICES DROP COMPARED TO LAST YEAR. Have I ever mentioned … oh, yeah, I have.

CHRISTMAS GAS PRICES LOOK TO DROP TO LOWEST LEVEL IN FIVE YEARS.

KASH PATEL’S FBI THWARTS PLANNED NEW YEAR’S EVE TERRORIST ATTACKS BY LEFTIST GROUPS. More HERE. And HERE.

LAST WEEK’S LIE ABOUT DHS SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM DISPROVEN.

VIDEO OF PRIVILEGED WHITE DEMOCRAT KAREN HARASSING 72-YEAR-OLD TARGET EMPLOYEE IS THE LATEST REMINDER THAT 2025 DEMOCRATS ARE INTOLERANT GARBAGE. Luckily the people have her back.

ANOTHER CALL FOR TIM WALZ TO RESIGN OVER HIS EXPLODING SCANDALS. More HERE. This time over student loan fraud. Walz’s Minnesota apparently never met fraud it didn’t like. More HERE.

MAINE’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR MILLS PROVIDES MORE PROTECTION FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. “Illegal immigrants uber alles” is still The Party’s motto.

AND ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRATS PROVIDING TAX-PAYER FUNDED HEALTHCARE TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.   Continue reading →

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December 15, 2025 · 3:29 pm

BEST OF MAY 2025

Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end of year retrospective continues with this look at May’s best.

MINNIE’S BOYS (1970) – My review of the original production of this stage show about the hilarious comedy team the Marx Brothers. Click HERE.

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Frontier Circus (1961-1962) about a circus traveling the wild old west HERE; The Great Adventure (1963-1964) dramatizations of historical action HERE; Everglades (1961-1962) about a law enforcement ranger whose beat is the Florida Everglades HERE; and Together We Stand (1986-1987) starring Dee Wallace, “Short Round” and Elliott Gould HERE.

THE MICHIGAN BRIGADE – A Memorial Day look at this Union Army Cavalry unit from the Civil War. Click HERE.

JOHN DEREK: HIS SWASHBUCKLER FILMS – The man who married Bo Derek, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans & Pati Behrs also starred in swashbuckler movies like Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950), The Sword of Monte Cristo (1951), Prince of Pirates (1953) and The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954). Click HERE.

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – A Trip to the Moon by Mr. Murtagh McDermot (1728) a clever man encounters various life-forms on the moon HERE; The Mad Scientist (1908) about the title character and his inventions unleashing an incredible war in the U.S. HERE; and Wonderworlds (1911) an Earth crew explores our solar system and then the Alpha Centauri system HERE.

THE SILENT FILMS OF ALICE GUY-BLACHE – This pioneering woman was for a time the only female director in the industry. I reviewed her works from the 1890s to 1920, including comedies, dramas, westerns, black cast movies, love stories and horror movies like Esmeralda (1905) – the first known film adapting The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Click HERE.   

APOCALYPSE CULTURE (1987) – Before the internet there were books like this collecting some of the most daring, iconoclastic, demented and just plain perverse writings of the late 20th Century. Click HERE.  Continue reading →

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December 15, 2025 · 9:30 am

DECEMBER FIFTEENTH NEWS ROUNDUP

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog makes with a Monday current events roundup.

ANOTHER ANTI-TRUMP FAIL: DEMOCRATS EXPOSED FOR THEIR LATEST FRAUDULENT ATTEMPT TO TIE PRESIDENT TRUMP TO ANTICS ON EPSTEIN ISLAND. More HERE. That picture of Trump posing for the photo with several Hawaiian Tropic models is from a 1986 event at Mar-a-Lago. It wasn’t Epstein Island and the models were all legal age AND it’s the kind of public celebration photo that was fairly common in the 1980s.

        Some legal experts in the media are saying this attempt to smear Trump was so blatant that he may have grounds for another lawsuit against his hysterical, overreaching haters. Democrats sinisterly blacked out part of the faces of the models to make the photo look incriminating. The full photo has been published and the ladies are known.

HEROIC MARIA CORINA MACHADO CONTINUES TO DAZZLE THE WORLD. More HERE. Haters, meanwhile, are outraged that her white pantsuit resembles the kind favored by Tulsi Gabbard.

INTERNATIONAL ROLE MODEL MARIA CORINA MACHADO ALSO SAYS “I ABSOLUTELY SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S STRATEGY” ON VENEZUELA.   

DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR TIM WALZ CONTINUES TO TWIST IN THE WIND OVER MINNESOTA’S MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR MEDICAID FRAUD SCANDAL.

A LOOK AT THE FOUR HUNDRED WORST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH ADDITIONAL CRIMES ARRESTED BY ICE IN TIM WALZ’S “SANCTUARY STATE” MINNESOTA. Continue reading →

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