Monthly Archives: June 2022

HOW DEMOCRATS LOST THE WORKING CLASS

democrat republican otherWe need alternate political parties here in the United States. The working class and the poor are ignored and demonized by both major political parties. Yes, there was a time when things were different but pretending nothing changed won’t help the situation. Both major parties are corporate-owned. 

It’s difficult to remember a time before it became a hopeless cause. Let’s take a brief look at November 15th of 2016, when the British news outlet the Guardian of all papers acknowledged how the Democrats of 2016 had more in common with Republican pigs like the Bush Family and the Cheneys than they did with former Democrat presidents like Franklin Roosevelt or John F. Kennedy.

Back in that November the Guardian (link below) observed “The Democratic party once represented the working class. But over the last three decades the party has been taken over by Washington-based fundraisers, bundlers, analysts, and pollsters who have focused instead on raising campaign money from corporate and Wall Street executives and getting votes from upper middle-class households in “swing” suburbs.” Continue reading

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SILAS TALBOT: REVOLUTIONARY WAR HERO

Balladeer’s Blog’s 2017 post about Revolutionary War Privateer Captain Jonathan Haraden has proven to be a very popular item. Here’s another neglected American Privateer cut from the same cloth. And for the Haraden post click HERE

Silas TalbotCAPTAIN SILAS TALBOT – Even if he had never gone on to a career in Privateering, Talbot would still have been a fascinating figure from Revolutionary War history. On June 28th, 1775 Silas was commissioned as a Captain in a Rhode Island regiment and served in the military operations which ended with the British surrender of Boston in March of 1776.

During the New York campaign Talbot and a picked crew sailed a Fire Ship into the 64-gun British ship Asia. Under heavy fire from the Asia and with his own craft already burning, Silas was the last man overboard, suffering severe burns which left him temporarily blinded. Talbot was promoted to Major upon recovering and rejoining his unit. Continue reading

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RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS (1983) – GUILTY PLEASURE

raiders of atlantisRAIDERS OF ATLANTIS (aka ATLANTIS INTERCEPTORS) – This 1983 Italian film is my guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Even though it’s directed by horror legend Ruggero Deodato, Raiders of Atlantis combines science fiction and horror with testosterone-fueled action in a Pulp Magazine premise that makes for fun, mindless escapism.

There’s just something about this flick that almost feels like it’s an early adventure of the characters from the later film Predator. In fact, it’s basically a smorgasbord of elements from Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Road Warrior, Tom Baker-era Doctor Who and the siege scenes from any number of Italian zombie movies. And needless to say, the fate of the world is at stake.

chris and tonyChristopher Connelly stars as mercenary Mike Ross, a Vietnam War veteran who does any dangerous and dirty job for the right amount of money. Tony King is his black fellow mercenary who used to go by Washington but has recently converted to Islam and now calls himself Mohammed.

Believe it or not, Connelly and King have definite chemistry and their Butch & Sundance camaraderie carries the entire movie. In the sort of teaser opening that James Bond and Indiana Jones films feature, our two leads pull off the abduction of a reclusive crime lord in Miami amid a lot of bullets and punches. Continue reading

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POLITICAL CARTOON ROUNDUP: JUNE 27th

Biden sick and tiredIndependent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at recent political cartoons, many of them about career criminal Joe Biden and the Biden Crime Family. 

Stop Democrat ViolenceUp first below is yet another reminder about how illegitimate the Democrats’ absurd January 6th Committee is, with Democrat violence once again sweeping the nation and with Democrats calling for the violent deaths of government figures. 

democrat swamp creatures

Next is a clever look at the way that the installed career criminal Joe Biden’s Regime has destroyed the country.

biden like Scar Continue reading

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Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLES BEFORE JULY 4th 1776

Balladeer’s Blog as usual will be marking the USA’s upcoming birthday with a series of holiday-themed posts. Since we get overexposed to the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 and the actual signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 I will instead stay true to my blog’s theme and focus on the action in between April 19th, 1775 and early July 1776.

May 10th, 1775 – The British Fort Ticonderoga in New York is seized in what would today be called a Special Forces raid by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, who beat other American forces to the valuable military prize. Allen and his men had the advantage of being an organized body under arms for quite a long time because they were originally formed to fight for the independence of what is now the state of Vermont (“Green Mountain”).

They had been an active guerilla force fighting for Vermont’s right to be an independent entity rather than part of the Hampshire Grants being fought over by New York and New Hampshire. Their secret headquarters was the Catamount Tavern which is why the University of Vermont’s sports teams are called the Catamounts. 

May 12th, 1775 – Crown Point, NY is taken by American forces in another early but forgotten action. 

May 16th – Benedict Arnold’s ultimately ill-fated invasion of Canada sees its first action as his forces besiege St John. Among Arnold’s troops are Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys and Daniel Morgan’s Kentucky Rifles, a unit that will see impressive action throughout the entire war, from Canada to the Deep South.   Continue reading

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MINUTE-MAN: THE EARLY STORIES

With the 4th of July Holiday rapidly approaching, Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at one of the patriotic superheroes of the World War Two Era – in this case Minute-Man, whose nom de guerre came from the famed Revolutionary War militiamen. 

minute-man picMINUTE-MAN

Secret Identity: Private Jack Weston, U.S. Army

First Appearance: Master Comics #11 (February 1941) His final Golden Age appearance came in 1944.

Origin: Private Jack Weston at Camp Blaine was selected by General Milton to secretly become America’s costumed operative Minute-Man, sent on missions of vital national security on a minute’s notice like the Minutemen called to action in the Revolutionary War.

Powers: Minute-Man was in peak physical condition and possessed the agility of an acrobat. He was a master of unarmed combat in addition to being well-versed in commando techniques. 

Comment: Jack Weston was later promoted to Lieutenant in order to give his secret identity more flexibility, but General Milton remained the only one privy to Minute-Man’s real name. Jack’s father Robert was killed in action during World War One.

mmSTORY 1: The Origin of Minute-Man

MASTER COMICS #11 (February 1941)

Synopsis: General Milton gives Private Jack Weston his secret assignment to be the costumed operative called Minute-Man. The hero thwarts a ring of masked spies from an unknown country (but clearly Germany) who want to discourage America from entering World War Two.

Minute-Man saves a train-load of new soldiers from plunging over a cliff, then stops the foreign spies from blowing up an entire U.S. Army training base. Continue reading

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A.D. 2000 (1890) – ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

a.d. 2000A.D. 2000 (1890) – Written by Alvarado M. Fuller, this was one of the earliest imitations of Edward Bellamy’s 1888 work Looking Backward. The main character is a Cavalry Lieutenant named Junius Cobb.

Lieutenant Cobb has invented a powerful explosive that the Army has contracted for use. Cobb has also befriended a scientist named Jean Colchis and fallen in love with the man’s daughter Marie. Colchis has invented a means of “crystallizing ozone” and Cobb uses that process to induce a state of suspended animation on himself.

pic from 2000With the cooperation of friends, Lt. Cobb seals himself away in a San Francisco replica of the Statue of Liberty with an alarm set to revive him in the year 1987. Due to a mathematical error, however, our main character is not awakened from suspended animation until the year 2000 A.D.

One of the friends who helped seal Junius Cobb away back in 1887 has a grandson who is president of the United States in the year 2000, and the president has a party sent to San Francisco to revive Cobb lest his state of suspended animation continue indefinitely. Cobb recovers slowly, but within months he is ready to become acquainted with the world of 2000 A.D. Continue reading

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DONALD TRUMP SCARES THE ESTABLISHMENT LIKE EUGENE DEBS ONCE DID

trump did not actually sayThe notorious Time magazine article literally bragging about the corruption of the 2020 presidential election reflected how much of a bubble that America’s notoriously crooked political establishment lives in. Reasonable people did not believe the establishment’s bizarre propaganda which demonized de facto Third Party President Donald Trump and his supporters and therefore saw Time’s article for what it was – an admission that every level of the 2020 election was tainted.

The anti-Trump loons had even adopted “By any means necessary” as their slogan, trumpeting their intention to go beyond legal measures in order to install the disastrous career criminal Joe Biden.   

populismIt’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, just as they have against populists like Donald Trump.

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.

President Trump and flagHere in the 21st Century, in which the old paradigm of Liberalism vs Conservatism is being replaced by Populism vs Neo-Feudalism, we have seen a Populist like de facto Third Party President Donald Trump become the establishment’s new Eugene Debs – a bogeyman to be propagandized against and shrilly demonized along with his supporters. I’m an Independent voter and, like so many other people, I’ve observed how Trump was the greatest president for the working class and the poor in several decades. He was also the first president in decades to keep America out of any new wars and brought us energy independence. Continue reading

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INVASION FROM INNER EARTH (1974)

invasion from inner earth saucer

invasion from inner earthINVASION FROM INNER EARTH (1974) – This hilariously bad science fiction film was one of the early efforts from Bill Rebane, whose low budget movies were to Wisconsin what Larry Buchanan and his productions were to Texas. Invasion from Inner Earth is a perfect example of “so bad it’s good” filmmaking … for the first half hour or so. After that the story drags on agonizingly and the apparently improvised dialogue pushes your sanity to the breaking point.

A disease has been killing off human beings by the millions while the aliens who unleashed the disease further torment humanity with red smoke bombs and buzz attacks from their flying saucers. Scattered pockets of people have survived but most of those groups seem absurdly unfazed by the apocalyptic events that are unfolding.

invasion posterSome news broadcasts take the events seriously but others present the victims of the chaos as bone-headed rubes deserving of ridicule. We are even shown viewers laughing at these victims but we never understand why, since the Earth is obviously under attack with millions of dead and missing. At no time are we shown the mockers getting their comeuppance for their smirking callousness despite how wrong they are. It’s that kind of movie. Continue reading

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IRON MAN CHAPTER LINKS

With Balladeer’s Blog’s look at 1970s Iron Man classics over with, here are the chapter links.

im 55ONE – While Marianne Rodgers is plagued by psychic visions, Iron Man has his first clash with the enigmatic Black Lama. The Lama’s powerful disciple Raga the Son of Fire rampages through California. Click HERE.

TWO – Iron Man gets caught between the new menace called Thanos and his foes the Eternals of Titan. The Sub-Mariner, Moon Dragon and Drax the Destroyer guest star as Tony faces the Blood Brothers and more. Click HERE.

THREE – Iron Man’s archenemy the Mandarin returns with a new plan and a new ally – Tony’s old foe the Unicorn. Click HERE. Continue reading

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