Monthly Archives: January 2020

AMERICAN POLITICAL CORRUPTION EXPOSED AGAIN IN PETER SCHWEIZER’S “PROFILES IN CORRUPTION”

profiles in corruptionIt’s no secret that America’s career politicians are basically career criminals. White-collar criminals, of course, but career criminals all the same. We need Third Parties. 

Peter Schweizer’s latest book exposing some of the uglier activities of American politicians has already become a bestselling sensation. Schweizer doesn’t rely on the “unnamed sources” approach that America’s corrupt corporate media has made synonymous with partisan cheap-shots. Instead there are volumes of documents and legal filings regarding the exposes in Profiles in Corruption.   Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

KILLRAVEN TWENTY-SIX: COCOA BEACH BLUES

FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL COMICS STORYLINE CLICK HERE  The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below.

Killraven farewellKILLRAVEN GRAPHIC NOVEL (1983)

Chapter Two: Cocoa Beach Blues

SYNOPSIS: Killraven and his Freemen continue their guerilla war against Earth’s alien conquerors. It’s February 2020, or “37 years in the future” as it would have been to 1983 readers. As we ended Chapter One last time around, an older but not quite elderly woman with a plasma-ray rifle entered the camp from which the Freemen were planning their assault on the alien-updated Cape Canaveral. She identified herself as a surviving astronaut from the era before the alien invasion 19 years earlier.   Continue reading

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A MODERN DAEDALUS (1887) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

A Modern DaedalusA MODERN DAEDALUS (1887) – By Tom Greer. No, the title’s not referring to James Joyce’s character Stephen Dedalus (sic) but this tale IS about Ireland. The main character is a young man named Jack O’Halloran, a recent college graduate who returns to his native Ireland.

Jack has dreamed about flying since he was a child and now he uses his genius to create a winged apparatus that can be worn by a single person to take to the skies. Our modern Daedalus flies around at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour with his new invention. Jack is thrilled but complications arise when he shares the news with his father.

Old Man O’Halloran wants to use his son’s winged apparatus to wage aerial warfare against the hated British and thereby win independence for Ireland. Continue reading

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IMPEACHMENT “SHOCKER” – PEOPLE WHO HATED TRUMP STILL HATE HIM, PEOPLE WHO LIKED HIM STILL LIKE HIM

mascot new look donkey and elephant heads PEOPLE WHO HATED TRUMP STILL HATE HIM, PEOPLE WHO LIKED HIM STILL LIKE HIM

This could and should be the headline for every impeachment news story going forward. 

Yaaaawwwn! 

Joe Biden brags about blackmailing the Ukraine

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

CASH GRAB AND DOWNCAST 2: A PAIR OF GRAPHIC NOVEL SENSATIONS

Cash GrabBalladeer’s Blog is telling you this: From now on, instead of BC and AD, years will be recorded in terms of BCG and ACG, as in Before Cash Grab and After Cash Grab. Well, maybe not. But you will always remember where you were and what the weather was like and what you were wearing when you first heard about Cash Grab: The Graphic Novel by Cecil

Cash Grab, by internet cult figure Cecil of Cecil Says fame, has launched on Indiegogo. Reserve your copy now! If you miss the kind of gloriously irreverent – some might say sickening – humor of Mad Magazine or Marvel’s Teen Hulk from Crazy, you can find it in this graphic novel. Continue reading

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Filed under humor, opinion, Superheroes

SPIDER OF GUYANA (1860): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION AND ANCIENT CREATURE FEATURE

Erckmann ChatrianTHE SPIDER OF GUYANA (1860) – Written by the team of Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian. Balladeer’s Blog’s previous looks at ancient works of science fiction have established how far back the “big bug” trope goes. Creature Feature movies were far from the first appearance of oversized insects and arachnids. And atomic radiation wasn’t needed to justify such outrageous mutations.

This story is set in Spinbronn, a resort town in the mountains of Germany. Sufferers of gout and other afflictions flock to Spinbronn to soak in its healing waters as prescribed by their physicians. Disappearances begin to plague the area. Continue reading

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

Per the Glitternight Index:

Central_Pennsylvania_UniversityUSCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association) Division Two – 1. CENTRAL PENN COLLEGE SILVER KNIGHTS    ###    2. JOHNSON & WALES (Charlotte) WILDCATS    ###    3. PENN STATE AT WILKES-BARRE LIONS    ###    4. UNIVERSITY OF CINCINATTI AT CLERMONT COUGARS    ###     5. NEW HAMPSHIRE TECHNICAL INSTITUTE LYNX    ###    Continue reading

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REBOOTING STAR WARS

masc chair and bottleBalladeer’s Blog is all about responding to reader questions and requests. Some of you have mentioned that you’d like to see me write about what revisions I’d have made to the Star Wars sequels in the same way I write about revisions I’d have made to old Killraven stories or how I’d have handled the unfinished Harry Flashman novels.

I have only ever been a casual (at most) Star Wars fan so it’s possible that lets me approach the subject with a certain detachment that many others lack. I have no favorite characters and I’m not really invested in the story or its universe outside of the original lightning-in-a-bottle 1977 film.

My take is that the sequel trilogy is too much of a mess and has nothing worth salvaging. However, since there is more and more talk about recasting the major roles like Luke, Han and Leia for a potential reboot or tv series I figured THAT’S what I’d look at.

Star WarsThe original 1977 Star Wars is about as close to perfection as you can get in terms of a movie succeeding at what it was intended to be: in this case a fun, uncomplicated valentine to the days of simpler storytelling as a nice antidote to the glut of self-consciously “deep” movies by that point in the 70s.

There’s nothing wrong with deep or introspective movies, of course, but by 1977 it seems that audiences were VERY hungry for a movie that didn’t wallow in unsolvable problems and was instead sheer feel-good spectacle. (I often speculate that if the Robert Shaw film Swashbuckler had come out after Star Wars instead of before it, it might have been received much more enthusiastically.)

My own take on potentially casting a new Luke, Han & Leia and starting over would be that the original Star Wars should remain untouched. Begin the reboot AFTER that film but eliminate the overrated twist in which Darth Vader turns out to be Luke’s father and Leia turns out to be his sister. Continue reading

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Filed under Bad and weird movies, opinion

TWENTY MARTIN LUTHER KING PEOPLE OF COURAGE

The year 2020 will feature plenty of Top 20 lists here at Balladeer’s Blog. Here are a score of Martin Luther King People of Courage. Their bravery and fortitude in the face of all the racist hostility and threats they face is very inspiring. 

lloyd-marcus-2LLOYD MARCUS – Balladeer’s Blog has previously showcased items by the courageous Lloyd Marcus. Here he is absolutely nailing it when it comes to the rot and sickness which have driven so many of us away from the Democrats. The link is below, but first some excerpts: Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM JANUARY 18th

NAIA

dalton state roadrunnersWHEN RANKED TEAMS CLASH – The number 6 team in the nation – the DALTON STATE ROADRUNNERS – traveled to take on the 24th ranked WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY CRUSADERS. The Roadrunners were trailing the Crusaders 32-28 at Halftime but after the break they outscored their opponents 47-35 for a 75-67 comeback victory. Rand Bell led Dalton State with THIRTY-ONE points.

Harris Stowe State NEWCENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 points or more in Regulation: The HARRIS-STOWE STATE HORNETS defeated their hosts the FREED-HARDEMAN UNIVERSITY LIONS in a 101-96 shootout   ###   Meanwhile the (1) GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS hammered the CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX 116-74   ###   And the BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS downed the BREWTON-PARKER COLLEGE BARONS 101-82. Continue reading

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