Monthly Archives: August 2018

THE PRISONER: MANY HAPPY RETURNS

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the 1967 science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click  HERE 

Many Happy ReturnsEpisode Title: MANY HAPPY RETURNS … In the ongoing debate about the exact numbering of the 17 episodes of The Prisoner I place this as the 7th episode.

This is the most relentlessly downbeat installment of The Prisoner saga.

The Story: The Prisoner wakes up on his own, rather than being awakened by the usual syrupy-sweet broadcast of the Village’s “good morning” message. That is odd, but what is odder is the way that there is no running water as our protagonist discovers when he tries to take his morning shower.

Many Happy Returns 2Number Six gets dressed and ventures outside but finds the entire prison-city deserted. The automatic doors don’t work either, because all the power is out, but the doors can be pushed open since they are not locking like they usually do.

Our hero has access to all of the food and bottled water of the Village’s stores so he is in no immediate danger. In a well-rendered moment of irony this most anti-social of characters actually seems to wistfully miss a little human contact after awhile.    Continue reading

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS FROM AUGUST 23rd

The 2018 college football season kicked off last night in the divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog!

NAIA

Bethel (TN) WildcatsNUMBER TWO TAKES A FALL – The number 2 team in the nation – the REINHARDT UNIVERSITY EAGLES (Should be the Rottweilers) – traveled to face the BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS. The Wildcats put the Eagles on Upset Alert early on by seizing a 21-7 1st Quarter lead.

By Halftime Reinhardt University had pulled to within 24-21, calming their fans for a time. After the break Bethel University’s Defense stepped up big, shutting out the Eagles the entire 2nd Half while adding 7 more points of their own for a 31-21 shocker.

Evangel CrusadersCRUSADE IN MISSOURI – The EVANGEL UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS also knocked off a ranked visitor last night. They welcomed the 22nd ranked SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES OF GOD UNIVERSITY LIONS and made their own case to be ranked. The Crusaders led the Lions 7-0 after 1 Quarter of play, then 21-3 at the Half. A scoreless 3rd Quarter was followed by an action-packed 4th to make the final score Evangel U 28  SAGU 9. 

Rocky Mountain CollegeROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH – The number 20 ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BATTLIN’ BEARS hosted the CARROLL (MT) COLLEGE FIGHTING SAINTS last night. After a scoreless opening Quarter the Battlin’ Bears took a 13-0 lead into the locker room at Halftime. Rocky Mountain College made it a 19-0 game to end the 3rd Quarter while the Defenses shone in the 4th to make 19-zip the final score as well. Continue reading

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DEMOCRATS LOVE CORPORATE FASCISM

Democrat sloganIn a way it’s fascinating as hell to be alive during this period in which America’s rival gangs of white collar criminals – Democrats and Republicans – have been forced to show their true, ugly, totalitarian faces. 

The Democrats, who have lost countless elections at all levels across the country, are openly embracing the concept of having Corporate Rich Pigs force their (the Democrats’) irrational opinions on the rest of us with a savage ferocity that our actual government could never get away with on its own. The Democrats are being referred to these days as “The Party of CEO’s” and with good reason.

In a move even Machiavelli might have saluted, the Left-Wing Archie Bunkers who run the party of the Democrats have basically said to the country: “You can vote all you want, but we’ll just embrace Corporate Fascism to FORCE our dictates upon all of you!”

“After all,” the Democrats’ reasoning goes, “if we can work hand-in-hand with bloated rich pigs to ensure you won’t even be allowed to make a living if you express disagreement with us, then we think you’ll realize it’s in your own best interest to stop resisting and pretend you go along with even our most ridiculous positions.”

fascism is antifaGoing beyond Orwell’s much-cited “2+2=5” example from his novel 1984 the Democrats simply brush aside the impotent, bought and paid for Republican trash and go straight for the kill.  

*** Instead of Orwell’s 2+2=5 we’ll go with another obvious fallacy just for the sake of variety. Let’s pretend the Democrats have somehow determined there is a political advantage to publicly embracing a similarly obvious fallacy – for that aforementioned variety we’ll say that Democrats want to force people to say “Earthworms are mammals.”

The Democrats will follow their tried and true process:

When free-thinking adults refuse to echo the ridiculous claim that “Earthworms are mammals” the Democrats will wheel and deal with bloated rich pigs like Mark Zuckerberg and similar types, like the powers that be at Starbucks and other companies.

Democrats will make it clear to those rich pig CEO’s that there are advantages to be had by cooperating with the Democrats in pushing their latest irrational Papal Bull. Political favors are to be had if various CEO’s use their bloated rich pig power to push the Democrats’ dogma down our throats.

Soon it gets to the point where these CEO’s (at places like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Silicon Valley, etc) will be firing and/or refusing to even hire people for holding positions that their Corporate Fascist political allies don’t like. It will all be done in the name of “combatting hatred” or “preventing puppy-dogs from being kicked” in the usual drama queen manner that Democrats love to use.

corporate fascist Mark Zuckerberg

CORPORATE FASCIST MARK “SKIPPY” ZUCKERBERG

Bloated rich pigs like Zuckerberg will enforce the ridiculous “Earthworms are mammals” claims by letting all of their social media users hit that all-powerful “report abuse” button to silence all dissenting opinions. Never mind that social media users can block whatever they personally don’t want to see, Democrats ALWAYS insist that opposing viewpoints are dangerous or “hatred” and must be censored.

And if, say, certain states or cities refuse to enforce the Democrats’ “Earthworms are mammals” notion by teaching it in schools then rich pig CEO’s – including the NFL, NBA, etc – will grandly announce they are boycotting those locations until they cave in and go along with what the Democrats have decreed that “all decent, compassionate people” believe. 

Democrats will smilingly approve and Republicans – who apparently only run for office to get bribe money and well-placed connections – will bluster insincerely about how they’re going to “stop this corporate blackmail” but will just get paid off by the same bloated rich pigs working with the Democrats and will do nothing.

Republicans like John McCain, Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham will publicly lecture the nation that they need to stop being “divisive” and get on board with this whole “Earthworms are mammals” program. After all, if the Democrats have decreed that it be taught at all levels of the educational system then it MUST be the truth.

All the Democrats in the Teachers Unions agree, for crying out loud. (That’s only because teachers who dissent from Democrat dogma get “complaints” filed against them until they’re gotten rid of, but still. Teachers agree! Or else they won’t be employed as teachers for very long. “Haters” don’t you know.)

Besides, the Democrats’ irrational dogma is so thoroughly embraced by shallow, uninformed and emotionally unstable singers, actors and talk-show hosts that – horror of horrors – they MAKE FUN of people who don’t conform!

Why, the underlings who manage the social media feeds of those celebrities might – OMG – BLOCK you or “unfollow” you if you publicly disagree with Democrats.

Corporate Fascism is openly proving on a daily basis that the ballot box can be bypassed and political dictates can be enforced through this totalitarian alliance of political zealots and Corporate Rich Pigs.

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

BLONDIE: CALL ME

Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead returns to Balladeer’s Blog with this look at Blondie’s hit Call Me

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ROBERT MUELLER: GANGSTER BOSS

Wizards of OMurky Mueller and his Funky Bunch of Hillary donors continue their criminal antics. Mueller and his fellow thugs have so many conflicts of interest that I would not blame any reasonable person who rejects anything and everything peddled by those gangsters.

The more that comes out the more clear it becomes what a pro-Hillary and anti-Trump hit job Mueller’s work is. The following is a terrific piece. The link is below, but first some excerpts: 

From 2001 to 2005 there was an ongoing investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
A Grand Jury had been impaneled.
Governments from around the world had donated to the “Charity”.
Yet, from 2001 to 2003 none of those “Donations” to the Clinton Foundation were declared. Now you would think that an honest investigator would be able to figure this out.
Look who took over this investigation in 2005: None other than James Comey; Coincidence?”

“Guess who was transferred into the Internal Revenue Service to run the Tax Exemption Branch of the IRS? None other than, Lois “Be on The Look Out” (BOLO) Lerner. Isn’t that interesting?
But this is all just a series of strange coincidences, right?”

Russia Hoax“Guess who ran the Tax Division inside the Department of Injustice from 2001 to 2005?
No other than the Assistant Attorney General of the United States,
Rod Rosenstein.
Guess who was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during this time frame?
Another coincidence (just an anomaly in statistics and chances), but it was Robert Mueller.
What do all four casting characters have in common?
They all were briefed and/or were front-line investigators into the Clinton Foundation Investigation.
Another coincidence, right?”

“Fast forward to 2009 … Continue reading

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BLUE DRAGONS FOOTBALL OPENS TONIGHT AGAINST ELLSWORTH

… And that’s just one of ELEVEN games tonight as the 2018 College Football season begins. KICKOFF FOR HUTCH VS ELLSWORTH WILL BE 8PM ET.

BlUE DRAGONSBIGGGGGGGGGThe Hutchinson College Football team opens its 87th season tonight as the Ellsworth Panthers come to Gowans Stadium. 

This will be Hutchinson’s fourth Thursday Night season opener, the first since 2015. 

The Blue Dragons have won 10-straight season openers and are 50-34-2 all-time in season openers.

Thursday night’s game with Ellsworth also kicks off the fifth season of the Jayhawk Conference-Iowa Conference scheduling alliance. Last season in a rain-soaked Iowa Falls, the Blue Dragons defeated Ellsworth 25-13. Hutch and Ellsworth are 2-2 in the first two seasons of the scheduling alliance.

Thursday’s game will be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and sister station KWBW-AM (1450) beginning at 6:30 p.m. with Countdown to Kickoff. Rusty Hilst (play-by-play), Rob Dreher (analysis) and Glen Grunwald (sidelines) will call the action. The game will also be videostreamed on the Blue Dragon Sports Network with the link available at 6:50 p.m.

RENO COUNTY FIRST RESPONDERS NIGHT

The Blue Dragons and Hutchinson Community College are honoring all Reno County first responders at Thursday’s game. All Reno County first responders Continue reading

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$3,000.00 PRIZE – SUBMIT BY SEPT 30th

It’s that time again!

Craft 2 Continue reading

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THE PRISONER: LIVING IN HARMONY

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the 1967 science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE 

Living in HarmonyEpisode Title: LIVING IN HARMONY … In the ongoing debate about the exact numbering of the 17 episodes of The Prisoner I place this as the 6th episode.

In this installment the Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) finds himself living a western version of his current plight. After resigning as a Sheriff and turning in his badge he is captured and knocked out by unknown parties.

When he comes to he discovers he is trapped in a Wild West town called Harmony … And his captors are obsessed with finding out why he resigned as Sheriff.

Living in Harmony 2First-time viewers of this episode are as disoriented as McGoohan’s character. The program starts with this “western” revision of the usual opening sequence in which he is shown resigning from British Intelligence and getting abducted to the prison city called the Village.

It’s easy to underestimate the commitment shown by creative director McGoohan in insisting on this alternate version of the opening credits sequence. I’ll bet NO American television executives of the time would have okayed reshooting the entire opening for just one episode.

“That’d cost too much! Plus the audience will be confused and won’t understand what’s going on!” That would no doubt have been the reaction back then. It’s all just another of the many ways that The Prisoner was ahead of its time. Sometimes it pays to have faith in the intelligence of your audience.

The Story:
Continue reading

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JOHN BRENNAN, C.I.A. FILTH … PLUS MORE!

CIA John BrennanJOHN BRENNAN: THE MAN FROM S.C.U.M. – The anti-Trump fascists have proven once again that they will ally themselves with ANYONE, no matter how low, in their insane hatred of President Trump, the working class and the poor.

John Brennan, former head of America’s forever- repulsive C.I.A. had his Security Clearance rightfully yanked by President Trump since Brennan has been abusing it by peddling his access to make money as an “expert” on Democrat tv programs.

C.I.A. trash Brennan resigned long ago after a scandal involving illegal and unconstitutional COVERT SPYING OPERATIONS ON MEMBERS OF CONGRESS! Democrats have decided to pretend amoral C.I.A. thugs like Brennan are heroic when they’re running Dirty Tricks Programs for their political party and are pretending it’s a “scandal” that Trump yanked “Dirty John” Brennan’s Security Clearance.

PRESIDENTS HAVE BEEN WITHDRAWING SECURITY CLEARANCES FOR FORMER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR YEARS – Obama, George W Bush and other presidents have withdrawn security clearances for former officials for YEARS. If you weren’t upset about it when previous presidents did it, don’t pretend to care when President Trump does it.

Trump is SerpicoTHE GANG WARFARE IN OUR GOVERNMENT CONTINUES – It’s no secret that Donald Trump is a de facto Third Party President. His efforts to Drain the Swamp of Democrat and Republican corruption is why career politicians from both political parties – AND the bloated rich pigs who OWN those career politicians – have been fighting President Trump so hard.

Only an outsider like Trump could do what he has done to rock the boat of crooked business as usual in Washington D.C. and I have been riveted by the man’s virtual one-man battle against the white-collar criminals called Democrats and Republicans.

Supposedly – I repeat – supposedly, we are close to seeing the much-hyped possibility of the President de-classifying some of the documents about Obama’s FBI, NSA and CIA helping Hillary Clinton while targeting Trump in our last presidential race. NewsMax TV ran an interview with Joseph DiGenova regarding this possibility. It’s all just talk right now but supposedly the President will declassify the docs if Congress refuses to expose Obama and Hillary’s abuse of the intelligence agencies. For the DiGenova interview click HERE  and for a written piece outlining the potential implications click HERE . Continue reading

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL: D2 RANKINGS

This Thursday the 2018 college football season kicks off in the NAIA and NJCAA. D2 kicks off the following week, so here’s Balladeer’s Blog’s preseason rankings in NCAA D2.

Texas A&M Commerce LionsRANKINGS: 1. TEXAS A&M AT COMMERCE LIONS (Defending National Champions)    ###     2. UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS    ###     3. INDIANA UNIVERSITY – PENNSYLVANIA CRIMSON HAWKS    ###     4. MINNESOTA STATE MAVERICKS    ###     5. FORT HAYS STATE TIGERS    ###    

Northwest Missouri Bearcats6. NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE BEARCATS    ###     7. FERRIS STATE BULLDOGS    ###     8. UNIVERSITY OF INDIANAPOLIS GREYHOUNDS    ###     9. GRAND VALLEY STATE LAKERS    ###     10. HARDING UNIVERSITY BISON    ###     Continue reading

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