Monthly Archives: August 2016

WAR OF THE WORLDS (1988-1990)

War of the Worlds tv guideWar of the Worlds posterWAR OF THE WORLDS (Television Series) – This short-lived series proceeded from a fun premise. In this program’s world the Martian invasions depicted occurring in 1901 ( 1897 novel), 1938 (Orson Welles radio version) and 1953 (first film version) were really three separate real-world attempts by extra-terrestrials (NOT Martians, however) to conquer the Earth. In an “X-Files before The X-Files existed” sort of way the world’s governments collaborated in an extensive – and successful – coverup to pass those invasions off as fiction.

The faux-Martian craft were presented as the explanation behind the first UFO sightings and their damaged spaceships and presumably dead bodies were being kept in hiding at various bases around the world for reverse-engineering and other studies. The leftover bodies from the 1953 invasion were really just dormant, thanks to the aliens’ latest attempts at immunizing themselves against the Earthly illnesses that were always their undoing in the past.    

War of the Worlds castThose dormant aliens are now emerging from their sleep and attempting once again to conquer the Earth, this time by taking over the bodies of human beings thereby giving themselves full immunity. Human scientists, military and governmental forces battle the aliens. 

Though all of that sounds derivative War of the Worlds actually managed to make it all seem fresh through quality scripting, fleshed-out characters and a capable cast led by Jared “Fantastic Voyage” Martin, Ann Robinson, Ilse Von Glatz and Richard Chaves. An added element of suspense lay in the fact that the aliens sometimes WON so viewers felt genuine tension. Pacing was a problem, however, and I would say the show’s episodes would have benefited from a half-hour run time instead of an hour-long format.   Continue reading

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AMERICAN COMEDIANS: INSULTING BEGGARS TO MAKE KINGS LAUGH

jonathan stewart

Brown nose ON … Brown nose OFF: Jonathan Stewart – who STILL refuses to donate more to charity –  embodied comedic gutlessness by coordinating with the current administration to make sure he never offended them. That’s called being a propogandist and a panderer, not a comedian.

Comedy is at its best when it is irreverent. The more powerful the object of ridicule the richer the laughs. There’s an old saying about a comedian being so supportive of the world’s underdogs that “He’d insult a king to make a beggar laugh.”

American comedians have become such spineless panderers that they’ve lost any real edginess and especially any desire to be on the side of the underdogs. That would be, like, SO not cool, dude! Today American comedians would much rather insult beggars to make kings laugh.

These Court Jesters of the rich and powerful flaunt a deep disdain for the working class and the unfortunate. America’s comic performers of today sneeringly dismiss the working class and the poverty-stricken as “stupid” or “uneducated” the same way bloated rich pig Republicans dismiss the working class and the poverty-stricken as “lazy.” 

Jonathan Stewart older

*** *** *** **  Know what the exact opposite of an irreverant comedian would be? Jonathan Stewart. He took shots at ONLY the safest targets of the moment. Grow a pair and get back to us, worm.

 

The Jonathan Stewarts and Samantha Bees of the world would never be caught dead siding with the “ignorant hicks” who aren’t rich or don’t hold positions in their political party. The poor and the unfortunate are there to be ridiculed for the amusement of the ruling class and for the career advancement of those court jesters.  

Genuine satirical comedy follows the path of MOST resistance, but the current worms who play at comedy would rather side with the rich and powerful against the disadvantaged. These pompous pricks are about as “daring” as a bully ridiculing the nearest fat person or someone missing a limb. And ALL to put smiles on the faces of elitist jackasses.

Jonathan Stewart 3

One percenter Jonathan Stewart always sided with Obama – the most powerful man in the world – against the working class victims of Obama’s policies. What a guy!

Jonathan Stewart was so much of a lackey for the Democratic Party he used to meet regularly in the White House with Obama to make sure his humor was Government  Approved. How courageous! Bill Maher ridiculed the elderly veterans of what Brokaw called “the greatest generation” when their infirm bodies and aged minds hindered them from circumventing the barriers put up at war memorials during the government shutdown in 2013. Oh, if only one of them had fallen down and broken a hip! Such hilarity, right Bill? Continue reading

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COOL FOOTBALL HELMET: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT THE PERMIAN BASIN

texas permian basinUT-PERMIAN BASIN FALCONS

Location: Odessa, TX 

Division: NCAA Division Two

Conference Affiliation: Lone Star Conference  Continue reading

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MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (1957): TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

monster from green hellIn the middle 1980s/

Way down on Level 31 …

Before MST3K there was … THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT!

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of this neglected cult show from the mid-1980s.

EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Saturday March 30th, 1985 from 10:30pm to 1:00am.

Lost CitySERIAL: Prior to showing and mocking  the movie Randy Clower and Richard Malmos, the show’s machine-gun wielding “Film Vault Technicians First Class” showed an episode of the notoriously campy sci-fi serial The Lost City (1935). That serial featured a super-scientific city lost in the middle of the African jungle plus zombified “giant” African tribesmen, ray-guns, a slinky femme fatale and a tribe of pygmies. There’s also a Great White Hunter as the hero and a mad scientist whose inventions include a machine that turns black people into white people! And the “colorization” is considered a REWARD for tribesmen who serve the mad scientist well! All this plus BOTH William Boyds in one serial!  

THE TUNNEL WITH THE MINIATURES OF MULTIPLE VAULT DOORS  THAT OPENED AS THE POV CAMERA FILMED THEM.

THE TUNNEL WITH THE MINIATURES OF MULTIPLE VAULT DOORS THAT OPENED AS THE POV CAMERA FILMED THEM.

FILM VAULT LORE: One eye-catching element of The Texas 27 Film Vault was the POV shot down a tunnel of various vault doors which would open in turn as the camera approached them. It’s another aspect of the show that had Vaulties feeling deja vu when MST3K debuted years later.

The shot was achieved through miniatures, of course, and Randy Clower was kind enough to provide me with the behind-the- scenes photo shown above.

Monster from Green Hell 3THE MOVIE: Monster From Green Hell was one of the many, many “Big Bug” films of the 1950s. Most of those “bugs” on the loose were mutated to giant size by atomic radiation but in this flick it was cosmic radiation instead which was the culprit.

Two scientists at a desert testing lab featuring the WORST paintings masquerading as scenery outside a window in film history are launching rockets with various life forms aboard. They do that to test the effects of exposure to cosmic radiation on those life forms. Continue reading

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HILLARY CLINTON, THE KKK AND CITIZEN KANE

Hillary Clinton and Robert Byrd

Hillary with Democrat Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd. Yet she lectures US about racism.

Hillary Clinton continues her historic attempt to be the first organized crime leader to become president. Since I’m an Independent Voter I can objectively point out a few things that need emphasized right now. 

*** HILLARY IS IN NO POSITION TO CALL OTHER PEOPLE RACISTS – Hillary, like so many Democrats, was close to Klansmen. Senator Robert Byrd – a Democrat – was the last known major federal politician to have been a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan hate group.

Clinton referred to Byrd as her mentor on many occasions. In the Arkansas political milieu in which her career started she doubtless interacted with plenty more KKK members. Also knowingly.

democratic party donkey

“Oppressing people while posing as the oppressed!”

*** THE DEMOCRATS WERE THE PARTY OF SLAVERY, JIM CROW AND THE KU KLUX KLAN – As I’ve mentioned in the past, Americans are fools for letting DEMOCRATS of all people browbeat them about slavery. Hillary Clinton, like all Democrats, tries to act like their party is free to put its ties to slavery behind them, but Americans as a whole still bear some absurd collective guilt over it.

Nope, Democrats, YOU are the organization that perpetuated slavery and continued harassing African-Americans for a century AFTER slavery was abolished here. If YOU can just say “Well, that was long ago. We’re better people now” then so can the rest of us. Especially Americans whose families weren’t even LIVING HERE during the slavery era. 

Hillary Clinton crazy smile

Hillary Clinton trying to imitate the way human beings smile.

*** THE CORPORATE MEDIA’s obsession with trying to force the public to like the execrable Hillary Clinton has reached insane levels. Comically enough, it puts me in mind of the movie Citizen Kane, in particular the portion when Charles Foster Kane uses his media empire to try to force the public to pretend his wife Susan Alexander Kane is a talented opera singer.   

It’s all meant as a counterpoint to the earlier scene in which an increasingly authoritarian Kane tells his original wife that people will think … “What I TELL them to think!” The ugly cockroaches of the American media apparently feel this same way. However, the fictional Susan Alexander Kane was a horrible singer and Hillary Clinton is a repellant human being. Hillary’s media allies are left like Charles Foster Kane – loudly clapping alone in the dark.    Continue reading

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SAM SIXKILLER: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER

People who experienced their very first Frontierado with Balladeer’s Blog this year agreed it was a warm and beautiful experience they’ll remember for a lifetime. Anyway, to meet the demand for more Frontierado items til next year here’s one last neglected Wild West figure. 

Sam Sixkiller

Sam Sixkiller

1. SAM SIXKILLER – Not only does this  gunslinger have a name that screams out for cinematic treatment (or at least a cable television series) but he also saw more action than many western figures who are better known. Born in 1842 Sam Sixkiller was a Cherokee lawman in Oklahoma back when it was still being called Indian Territory and had not yet been opened up for white settlement. The unique setting of life in Indian Territory and the way it served as a microcosm of issues that the nation at large was dealing with after the Civil War adds layers of depth to Marshal Sixkiller’s tale that I find incredibly intriguing. 

After starting out in the Confederate Army, in 1863 Sam enlisted in the Union Army as the Civil War raged and saw action in Arkansas and Indian Territory. Because many Native Americans owned slaves (black and mixed-race) as their tribes had for centuries the Indian Territory was as split in terms of support for the Union and Confederacy as were badly-divided states like Missouri. Between conventional battles and Bushwacker raids the Territory was reduced to a wasteland in many areas by the  end of the war. In May 1865 Sam was discharged and returned to his wife Fannie to attend to their farm.

Following the Civil War the slaves in Indian Territory were declared Freedmen like the slaves in the late Confederacy, and as citizens of Indian Territory those Freedmen were in theory entitled to some of the money that was still being paid to the tribes in the Territory and to land. In reality the Five Civilized Tribes who called Indian Territory home were resentful of their former slaves’ new status and often used violence to drive out the freed slaves, even burning down their homes in many cases.

Outlaw bands would ride in to loot and pillage in the Territory then flee outside its borders to escape prosecution. In addition bootlegging and rustling were rampant and construction of railroads through Indian Territory brought new crimes. Throw in the usual inter-tribe conflicts that still surfaced and the Territory was a very dangerous place at the time. Continue reading

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MUSLIM ATROCITIES: THE LATEST

Islam signs

Islam

The Muslim World continues to wallow in heinous behavior that the Western World moved on from long ago. Islam means slavery, misogyny, homophobia, oppression of religious minorities, mass rape, mass killing and a relentless assault on the civil rights of non-Muslims. Here are just a FEW of the latest blood-soaked actions from the religion which has been retarding the rest of the world’s social progress for centuries.

August 13th: Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo – SEVENTY-FIVE innocent people are hacked to death with machetes by the local franchise in the Global Muslim Fascist Murder Machine. Obama and Hillary Clinton no doubt blamed gun-owners in America.

August 21st: Galkayo, Somalia – Islamofascist suicide bombers killed 23 innocent people and injured over 30 more.

August 18th: Sirte, Libya – Operatives of the Islamic State (Obamastan), spawned by Barack Obama’s premature withdrawal from Iraq, killed 19 innocent people and injured over EIGHTY more. 

Islam blood on swordAugust 20th: Kuruburu, Nigeria – Muslim fanatics gunned 10 innocent people to death, injured 13 more and abducted roughly a dozen women. Hey, maybe Michelle Obama can do a selfie with another worthless “Bring Back Our Girls” hashtag. 

August 12th: Chanchur, India – Muslim fascists opened fire on a store, killing 2 innocent people and injuring 3 more. REMEMBER: Decades ago Muslims claimed that they would stop killing people in India as long as Pakistan was officially designated as its own state for Muslims. It was, of course, but Muslims have STILL not stopped the violence. THIS IS ALWAYS ISLAM’S PATTERN OVER THE DECADES  –

a) Use violence to force political, social, territorial and religious concessions from non-Muslims, promising to end the violence when those concessions are granted.

b) After the concessions are granted, refuse to stop the violence anyway. Repeat the process indefinitely. Plus in the 21st Century Muslims can count on the Left-Wing Archie Bunkers who pretend to be Liberals to provide PR aide by siding ONLY with Muslims who hate the Western World.

August 13th: Poonch, India – Muslim fascists bombed a Hindu market, leaving 12 casualties. (Plenty more Muslim attacks in India below) Continue reading

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM AUGUST 27th

Dakota State Trojans helmet NEWUPSETS IN THE TOP TWENTY-FIVE – The unranked DAKOTA STATE TROJANS paid a visit to the number 16 team in the nation – the DAKOTA WESLEYAN TIGERS. At the end of a game that saw 9 lead changes the Trojans defeated the Tigers for the 1st time in 12 years. The final count was DSU 34  DWU 30.   ###   And the MISSOURI VALLEY COLLEGE VIKINGS toppled the homestanding (23) WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY STATESMEN by a baseball score of EIGHT to SEVEN!  Continue reading

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TABOO CONVERSATION: IF ZUCKERBERG IS FREE TO DISCRIMINATE …

Mascot with demo and repub heads

The symbol of the nonexistent Balladeer Political Party

Balladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that criticizes American Liberals and Conservatives equally. Let’s have fun pondering a few concepts. 

Regular readers here know I openly supported gay marriage YEARS before the weak, inept and crooked little man named Barack Obama did. I still do, so understand at the top that I’m presenting this topic as a hypothetical for discussion’s sake. 

When the news came out about Facebook’s blatant censorship of various subjects like Muslim homophobia and misogyny or corruption scandals in one particular political party I was curious how a lot of Facebook consumers would react. Some were outraged, but the usual brigade of people who can talk themselves out of EVER taking a stand on any issue mumbled about how “it’s Zuckerberg’s company … he can run it the way he likes.” 

Okay, so if you feel that one percenter Mark Zuckerberg can run HIS company however he pleases and can ban items he disagrees with, why is it wrong for bakery owners to refuse to bake wedding cakes for gay couples? The same principle should apply in BOTH cases: either Zuckerberg should be forced to stop discriminating against consumers who want to use HIS public business OR bakery owners should be free to say they don’t want their public business to be forced to participate in things that offend THEM. Continue reading

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GAB – THE FREE SPEECH ALTERNATIVE TO TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

GabGab.ai is billing itself as the free speech alternative to Twitter and Facebook. In response to the grotesque censorship at Twitter and Facebook many people are turning to the social network called Gab.

I think this makes a lot of sense since – as countless news stories have made clear – Twitter and Facebook are staffed by hyper-partisan emotional cripples who insist on completely banning articles, links and people rather than just telling people to use their “block” option to avoid things they don’t agree with or that (yawn) offends their dainty, delicate sensibilities. Continue reading

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