Monthly Archives: June 2021

NEGLECTED NEWS ITEM ROUNDUP: JUNE 14th

independent voter cartoonIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some recent news stories about the white-collar criminals who run the cesspool of corruption which masquerades as our government. (Links in the text.) 

SENILE AND CORRUPT JOE BIDEN DOES ALL BUT SLOBBER ALL OVER HIMSELF AT G7 SUMMIT. Doddering figurehead continues to beclown himself, but America’s corrupt politicians are glad to have “graft as usual” back in fashion.

CHINA BREAKING LIMBS AND USING GENITAL TORTURE ON UYGHURS – BIDEN AND NBA ARE OKAY WITH IT. “Silence is consent” Democrats tell us.

WANDERING, CONFUSED JOE BIDEN HAS TO BE RESCUED YET AGAIN BY HIS WIFE JILL. Biden the Buffoon humiliated again.

WASHINGTON POST CALLS OUT JOE BIDEN’S LIE ABOUT ALZHEIMERS. And the Biden lie count keeps going up.

BIDEN REGIME CONTINUES ITS WAR ON THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR. The callous, the comfortable and the uncaring Democrats are fine with it.

EVEN THE WASHINGTON POST ADMITS BIDEN IS BRUTAL TO THE PRESS. But Big Tech is glad to censor news stories which put Biden in a bad light.

Tiny hands Joe Biden

Corrupt, senile, tiny-handed Joe Biden

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: HUNTER BIDEN, THE UNDERBOSS OF THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, PROVES JUST AS RACIST AS HIS FATHER JOE. The racial slur count for the Bidens continues to soar. 

KAMALA HARRIS GETS UGLY WITH THE PRESS AGAIN. Hypocrites pretend it’s okay to be testy with reporters if you have a “D” after your name.

HUNTER BIDEN, UNDERBOSS OF THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, PIONEERS NEW SCAM – BRIBING THE BIDENS BY PAYING SIX FIGURE SUMS FOR HIS “ART.” Remember how “donations” to the Clinton Foundation were Hillary’s Pay For Play graft?

VIDEO OF ACCUSED RAPIST JOE BIDEN SCREWING UP AGAIN AT THE G7 MEETING. Other world leaders happy to be back to a U.S. figure they can buy, bribe and bully.

FASCIST BIDEN REGIME STILL HAS KIDS IN CAGES AND STILL HAS FAMILIES SEPARATED. But as we all know, Democrats never really cared about those kids or those families. They just used them as political tools.

MEDIA FORCED TO ADMIT OVER AND OVER THAT TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT WHAT THEY CLAIMED WERE “LIES.” Your best bet: if it was called a Trump Lie, it was probably just an Inconvenient Truth for anti-Trump loons
Continue reading

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REVOLUTIONARY WAR: PRIVATEER ACTIONS IN SEPTEMBER OF 1778

crossed sabresWith the Fourth of July holiday rapidly approaching here is another seasonal post. Previously, Balladeer’s Blog has looked at the swashbuckling actions of some American privateers from the Revolutionary War. This time here’s a look at one of the most successful months for our privateers – September of 1778.

crossed swords picSEPTEMBER 1st-5th – The American privateer ship the Active seized multiple prizes and took aboard several British Prisoners of War. Unfortunately, the Captain of the Active had stretched his crew too thin. The captive Brits gleaned the vulnerable position of their captors and rose up to seize control of the ship and were determined to link up with the first British vessel they could find to help take in the seized U.S. ship and consummate their freedom.

SEPTEMBER 6th – The 10-cannon brig the Gerard, an American privateer, under Pennsylvania’s J. Josiah, came upon the seized Active and, after a long chase, compelled the ship to surrender. Captain Josiah and his men learned they had just saved the American privateer crew and had recaptured the British POWs. The Gerard escorted the Active back to its Philadelphia port in case the POWs grew frisky again.

SEPTEMBER 17th – The 18-cannon privateer ship Vengeance, under one Captain Newman of Massachusetts, chased the British packet ship Harriet (16 cannon) for at least 6 hours before engaging it in battle. The Americans won and the Harriet surrendered.        Continue reading

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SHANG-CHI: HIS FIRST TWELVE ADVENTURES

With the first trailer for the next Marvel Comics movie, Shang-Chi, out already, here’s a look at the first twelve  Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu stories.

shang chi picFirst, a little background information. In the early 1970s Marvel was experimenting with hybrid titles that would combine the old and the new by fusing licensed properties with unique Marvel twists.

The most famous and longest-lasting example was Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu. In 1973 Marvel licensed the use of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu plus other characters from the Fu Manchu tales. Rather than just churn out a Fu Manchu comic book series “the House of Ideas” instead combined it with the Kung Fu craze of the time and created Shang Chi, the son of Fu Manchu.

Shang Chi, as a surrogate Bruce Lee, and Sir Denis Nayland-Smith, as a surrogate Braithwaite from Enter: The Dragon, were the core of the new series. Shang Chi started out as an operative of his evil father Fu Manchu, but realized the error of his ways and threw in with Sir Denis and his team to battle his father’s malevolent schemes.

FOR STORIES TEAMING IRON FIST AND SHANG-CHI CLICK HERE.

shang chi 1SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION #15 (December 1973)

Title: Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu

Villain: Fu Manchu

Synopsis: One night Shang-Chi, the son of the insidious Dr Fu Manchu, penetrates the Mayfair home of his father’s old enemy Dr Petrie and, though he hesitates when he sees how old the sleeping man is, kills him as ordered. A wheelchair-bound Sir Denis Nayland-Smith, Fu Manchu’s archenemy, arrives in the bedroom too late to save his longtime ally Dr Petrie but is holding a gun on Shang-Chi.

Shang effortlessly disarms Sir Denis and turns to leave, only to be amazed at the way Nayland-Smith is weeping over the dead doctor. He engages Denis in a conversation about why the Britisher has opposed his father for so many decades. Shang-Chi is disturbed by the passionate conviction with which Nayland-Smith describes his father’s global activities, activities that Fu has kept hidden from his son.

mascot sword and gun pic

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What really piques our hero’s curiosity is when Sir Denis shows him how Fu Manchu had him abducted recently in Burma and tortured until he could no longer walk, thus confining him to a wheelchair. Conflicted, Shang-Chi goes to Honan, China to visit his mother and question her about his father’s true nature. She informs him that what Nayland-Smith said is true, but she had hoped her son would not learn the truth until he was much older. (Shang was around 18-19 years old as this series started.)

Determined to confront his father about his lies, Shang-Chi fights his way through his father’s international headquarters, decorated in priceless Chinese artwork and other fineries. After overcoming all of the guards barring his way, our hero faces a gorilla that has been biologically mutated by Fu Manchu. Even this creature is overcome. Continue reading

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PYTINE (423 B.C.) – ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

As anniversary month continues at Balladeer’s Blog here’s my 2012 review of Cratinus’ ancient comedy Pytine.

Mascot and guitar

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PYTINE (423 B.C.) – Welcome to Balladeer’s Blog’s latest post on ancient Greek comedies. If Pytine was an episode of Friends it would be titled The One Where Cratinus Fires Back At Aristophanes. This play is also known under English language titles like Wine Flask, Flagon, The Bottle, and others along those lines.

Cratinus, galvanized by the tongue-in- cheek caricature that Aristophanes presented of a drunken, washed- up Cratinus in his previous year’s comedy The Knights, turned that caricature into the premise of his final comedy.

THE PLAY

From the fragments of Pytine that remain it seems Cratinus had an actor portraying himself (Cratinus) as the booze-soaked Grand Old Man of Attic comedy at the time. I always picture the character as a cross between Dudley Moore in Arthur and Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben. Anyway, in the play Cratinus is married either to Thalia, the Muse of Comedy or to simply a female personification of Comedy.  

Comedy complains to Cratinus’ friends, who make up the chorus, that she wants to take her husband to court for abandonment. She states that he is neglecting their marital bed because he has been spending too much time sleeping around with Methe, in this comedy a personification of  Drunkenness. Continue reading

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ESTABLISHMENT FEAR OF POPULISM

democrat republican or awakeIt’s become impossible to ignore the way that the corrupt establishment and their corporate media outlets fear populism and obsessively try to demonize it. In a way it’s a replay of the late 1800s when the labor movement was striking and demanding better pay and working conditions. The establishment responded with ugly demonization of working class people’s efforts to survive as something more than peasants.

America’s President Grover Cleveland even went so far as to describe labor activist Eugene Debs as “an enemy of the human race.” That is certainly reminiscent of the over the top rhetoric used today by the Powers That Be to instill the public with feelings of fear and hostility toward popular movements that threaten their privileges. 

It’s important to remember that Eugene Debs called himself a socialist back when socialism was largely about fighting the entrenched Big Money interests on behalf of the suffering poor and the working class, not the pseudo-religion it is today, when socialism is all about dictating every aspect of our lives. Debs was demonized by the establishment from around the 1890s through the 1920s, even arrested and left to languish in prison merely for protesting America’s involvement in the First World War of 1914-1918. Continue reading

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LIGHT SPEED ESPER (1967-1968)

light speed esper coverLIGHT SPEED ESPER (1967-1968) – This overlooked Japanese television show was titled Kousoku Esupâ in its nation of origin. If you enjoy live action programs like Ultraman or other shows from the tokusatsu subgenre of entertainment then Light Speed Esper will certainly appeal to you.

Hikaru Azuma (Kiyotaka Mitsugi) is a boy out enjoying a trip in a balloon with his parents. Tragedy strikes when their balloon collides with a spaceship piloted by aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy. As happens. You know how it is.

light speed esperHikaru’s parents are killed in this intergalactic accident, filling the extraterrestrials – called Alien Espers or Esper Seijin – with immense feelings of guilt. They possess and animate the dead bodies of Hikaru’s mother and father to make amends. Very morbid amends, I grant you, but amends nonetheless.

The plot thickens as the Alien Espers (lower left) share their knowledge about an impending invasion of Earth by the Giron Seijin (Feuding Aliens). Continue reading

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SWALLOWED BY AN EARTHQUAKE (1894): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

swallowed by an earthquakeSWALLOWED BY AN EARTHQUAKE (1894) – Written by Edward Douglas Fawcett. The Rinaldi family in Naples invite a group of friends, consisting of young Charlie, his uncle, his friend Jack and Dr Ruggieri, to pay them a visit. An earthquake of record intensity rips open deep chasms in the countryside, with the four travelers sliding down into one.

The foursome are cut off from the surface world but find a subterranean river which they explore in a rough boat they construct out of the ruins of a villa which collapsed into the chasm with them. They take along guns and plenty of ammunition from the aforementioned villa. Typical of these hollow Earth/ underground civilization stories, phosphorescent rocks provide plenty of light in many areas. There is abundant vegetation.

Eventually our main characters survive encounters with an exhaustive number of dinosaur species and make a temporary home for themselves on an island in the middle of the underground waterway. While there they build a much larger boat, gather vegetables and catch plenty of fish to be smoked so that they have food for the seemingly long journey ahead. Continue reading

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ANTHONY FAUCI: THE BANALITY OF WEASELS

fauci picAnthony Fauci certainly seems to be more interested in self-promotion than in doing his job. It’s easy to forget that this is the same Anthony Fauci who was part of a very inept effort to combat AIDS decades ago, only to see any real progress coming from figures working OUTSIDE of the Fauci Fiefdom. Why were some people foolish enough to listen to this attention whore who jumped on bandwagons and contradicted himself almost daily depending on which way the political winds were blowing? And all the while the body count was rising …  How do you spell “malpractice” by the way? 

As if Fauci wasn’t already a prime example of bureaucratic dysfunction granted far too much influence, he has sunk even lower by resorting to the NEW last resort of a scoundrel – claiming that investigating his scandals is an attack on “science.” Ah, the old “Science? C’est moi!” defense.

fauci back and forthWith sites pulling “Faux Fauci’s” self-aggrandizing new book and with the weaselly, wormy little man refusing to take questions during a public appearance at a vaccination site recently, Doctor Death more and more reminds me of the hilariously sleazy, disingenuous and dissembling character Martin Short played long ago: the slimy fraudster inevitably whining “Did I say anything? I didn’t say anything. Did you hear me say anything?”

More items on Faucism and what is now being called the Fauci Flu:

fauci pandemic memeSix Bombshell Revelations from Fauci’s Emails

58% Believe Coronavirus Originated In Wuhan Lab.

#FauciEmails Reveal A Career Bureaucrat Who Followed Political, Not Medical, Science (legalinsurrection.com)

Like His Credibility, Fauci’s Book Has Disappeared – PJ Media

Fauci Ignored Email From Scientist Saying Hydroxychloroquine Could Help Battle Coronavirus.

Democrats Apparently Felt “Better Dead Than Admit Trump Was Right.”

“Too Long/ Didn’t Read” Was Literally One Of Fauci’s Excuses. Continue reading

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HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS ARE NJCAA FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS

The Covid-prolonged college football season came to an end with TWO final games:

Hutchinson Blue DragonsNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The number 1 team in the nation – the HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS – clashed with the 2nd ranked SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS for the NJCAA football crown yesterday.

The Blue Dragons were chasing the Badgers 14-3 in the 1st Quarter and 14-10 come Halftime. Snow College held a 21-16 advantage to close out the 3rd Quarter but in the 4th Hutchinson College blazed from behind to win it all by a final score of 29-27. * THE BLUE DRAGONS ARE NJCAA FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS Continue reading

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FIRST TWENTY SPIRIT OF SEVENTY-SIX STORIES FROM THE 1940s

With less than a month now until the 4th of July here’s a look at the first twenty stories of the Harvey Comics superhero called the Spirit of 76. For more than two dozen Harvey superheroes CLICK HERE 

Spirit of 76THE SPIRIT OF ’76

Secret Identity: Gary Blakely, West Point Cadet

First Appearance: Pocket Comics #1 (August 1941)

Origin: Gary Blakely, scion of an American family which had distinguished themselves on the battlefield in every conflict from the Revolutionary War onward, was a Cadet at West Point. By chance he uncovered a Fifth Column plot by Nazi agents to blow up the academy. He adopted the costumed identity of the Spirit of ’76, foiled the Axis plot and resolved to continue fighting evil afterward.

Powers: The Spirit of ’76 was in peak human condition, was exceptionally agile and was very skilled at both armed and unarmed combat. His costume was bulletproof and he wielded his saber expertly in battle. This hero lasted until 1948, so he faced Communist villains instead of Nazi villains after World War Two was over.

pocket 1POCKET COMICS #1 (August 1941)

Title: Cadet Blakeley, Spirit of 76

Villains: Nazi saboteurs led by Herr Hoch  

Synopsis: West Point Cadet Gary Blakely discovers a Nazi plot to blow up West Point. Donning a costume and armed with a sword, he calls himself the Spirit of 76 and takes down the spy ring. 

Comment: You have to admit, there’s something appealing about a superhero whose secret identity is that of a West Point Cadet.  Continue reading

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