Monthly Archives: May 2025

MEMORIAL DAY POSTS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

Balladeer’s Blog hopes all of you are having a respectful Memorial Day weekend. I’ll have a brand new Memorial Day blog post tomorrow, but for another seasonal post here are some of my Memorial Day offerings from years past.

I’ve always looked at neglected conflicts or battles. The military members who died in those actions are sometimes overlooked in the big picture.

2012 – THE TOP FOUR FORGOTTEN CONFLICTS IN U.S. HISTORY – A look at the forgotten Revolutionary War battles after Yorktown (1781-1782), the Mexican War (1846-1848), the Nicaraguan Conflict (1926-1928), and the Philippine War (1899-1902).

2013 – FORGOTTEN U.S. NAVAL BATTLES OF WORLD WAR ONE – There were clashes between German U-Boats and the U.S. Navy ships transporting the American Expeditionary Force to Europe, the years-long underwater mining campaign, the German attack on Orleans, MA, the attack on Austria-Hungary’s naval base at Durazzo, Albania and much more.

2013 – THE TOP FOUR FORGOTTEN MILITARY UNITS FROM AMERICAN WARS – Looking at the Oneida Indians First Allies Unit from the Revolutionary War, Doniphan’s Thousand from the Mexican War, the “Yankee Samurai” (Nissei Battalion of 2,000 Japanese-Americans) from World War 2, and the racially integrated 1st Rhode Island Regiment from the Revolutionary War. 

2014 – SOME MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS FROM THE PHILIPPINE WAR OF 1899-1902 – Servicemen from various branches of the armed forces were honored for their heroism during this conflict, including some from Young’s Scouts. Medals were issued for actions at the Sohotan River, Samar, Bayong, San Ysidro, Loac and Catubig. Continue reading

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ELEVEN MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS FROM WORLD WAR ONE

Medal of HonorBalladeer’s Blog offers up a Memorial Day weekend post. In keeping with World War One’s “Eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” tradition that spawned Veterans Day in November, here are eleven WW1 figures who were awarded the Medal of Honor.

J. HUNTER WICKERSHAM

Rank: 2nd Lieutenant, US Army

Site: Limey, France on September 12th, 1918

Citation: Advancing with his platoon during the St. Mihiel offensive, he was severely wounded in 4 places by the bursting of a high-explosive shell. Before receiving any aid for himself he dressed the wounds of his orderly, who was wounded at the same time.

He then ordered and accompanied the further advance of his platoon, although weakened by the loss of blood. His right hand and arm being disabled by wounds, he continued to fire his revolver with his left hand until, exhausted by loss of blood, he fell and died from his wounds before aid could be administered.

Jake AllexJAKE ALLEX

Rank: Corporal, US Army

Site: Chipilly Ridge, France on August 9th, 1918

Citation: At a critical point in the action, when all the officers with his platoon had become casualties, Cpl. Allex took command of the platoon and led it forward until the advance was stopped by fire from a machinegun nest.

He then advanced alone for about 30 yards in the face of intense fire and attacked the nest. With his bayonet he killed 5 of the enemy, and when it was broken, used the butt of his rifle, capturing 15 prisoners.

FRANK MONROE UPTON

Rank: Quartermaster – US Navy

Site: The USS Florence H. on April 17th, 1918 Continue reading

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TRUNK TO CAIRO (1966) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 hosting The Texas 27 Film Vault

Balladeer’s Blog continues its marking of the FORTIETH year anniversary of the sadly neglected cult program The Texas 27 Film Vault. Thanks to my endless research through VERY old newspapers and other sources here’s a look at the very first bad movie offered up and mocked by Randy and Richard, our machine-gun wielding Film Vault Technicians First Class (EO6).

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: Saturday February 9th, 1985 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

SERIAL: There was no serial due to the length of the movie plus the Host Segments with Randy and Richard.

MOVIE: Trunk to Cairo (1966). If the only bad movie show you know is MST3K think ofOperation Double 007Danger: Death Ray and Secret Agent Superdragon

Audie Murphy, America’s most decorated soldier of World War Two, was okay in westerns or military films but he is laughable as a pseudo-suave James Bond wannabe in this flick. For starters his voice is so mild and his mannerisms so meek that he comes across like Ned Flanders: Licensed to Kill!

Menahem Golan (as in Golan-Globus Productions) directed and produced this flick that was distributed stateside by American International Pictures, so this was a royal wedding of sorts in terms of psychotronic cinema

Murphy plays Mike Merrick, a CIA agent who is assigned to work with Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad in order to infiltrate an Egyptian base. A Nazi war criminal scientist played by the very British George Sanders is working with the Egyptians to build rockets capable of wiping out Israel, Europe and the United States. Marianne Koch portrays Helga Schlieben, the scientist’s (Sanders) daughter. Continue reading

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WHEN JIM RHODES WAS IRON MAN (1980s)

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at the period during the 1980s when Tony Stark’s latest bout with alcoholism prompted him to let his pilot Jim Rhodes take over as Iron Man. 

IRON MAN Vol 1 #169 (Apr 1983)

Title: Blackout

Villains: Magma and Obadiah Stane

Synopsis: Iron Man (Tony Stark) is very drunk but is recklessly flying around New York City. His lapse back into heavy drinking was triggered by a combination of being dumped by his latest love interest Indries Moomji and corporate rival Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges in the movies) outmaneuvering Stark in several business deals recently.

Tony faces trouble from the mayor over minor damage caused by his “employee” Iron Man. NOTE: This was back when Tony kept it a secret that he was Iron Man and claimed the hero was just his high-tech bodyguard to explain why they both often showed up at the same locations at the same time.

At a board meeting, Stark gets more pressure regarding his careless spending and mountains of debt he has run up. Obadiah Stane is trying to talk the angry creditors of Stark International into letting him buy and assume the debts, which would give him very serious leverage over Tony’s business.

Tony’s personal pilot and friend Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes, who had been a supporting character in the series for years at this point, catches Tony drinking even more after the meeting. Iron Man’s old supervillain foe Magma, his tank and troops attack Stark’s Long Island HQ. 

When Tony proves too drunk to handle his Iron Man armor, Jim Rhodes dons it instead and flies out to face Magma and company. Continue reading

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MAY TWENTY-THIRD ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

A Friday current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.

TOP SUSPECTS IN FRAUDULENT BIDEN PARDONS SCANDAL NAMED. More HERE.

KAROLINE LEAVITT SMACKS DOWN DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLET LIES CLAIMING THAT THE CROSSES OF WHITE VICTIMS IN SOUTH AFRICA WEREN’T REAL. The media rep even tried insinuating that “we all know it’s untrue.” Appalling.

CNN DEFENDS CHANTS FOR CONTINUED GENOCIDE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

TRUMP’S “BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL” SUCCEEDS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

SENATOR JONI ERNST DISCUSSES THE AUDITED ABUSES OF GOVERNMENT CREDIT CARDS BY BUREAUCRATS AND OTHER FUNCTIONARIES

KELLYANNE CONWAY, THE FIRST WOMAN TO SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE A U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN BACK IN 2016, CALLS OUT THE DEMOCRATS’ LIES AND COVERUP ABOUT JOE BIDEN.

PRESIDENT TRUMP INITIATES FURTHER REFORMS TO KEEP FOREIGN CITIZENS OFF AMERICAN VOTER ROLLS. Election integrity continues to be addressed.

TRUMP’S LABOR SECRETARY LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER ON HER EFFORTS TO FULFILL HIS POLICIES FOR A WORKING CLASS BOOM. The greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime.

DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS ACCUSED BY AUDITOR OF STEERING “NO-BID” CONTRACTS TO HER CRONIES. Have I mentioned lately that many American politicians tend to be white-collar criminals?

CONGRESSWOMAN ASHLEY HINSON PRAISES TRUMP’S BILL FOR ITS ATTENTION TO BORDER SECURITY AND ENFORCEMENT.

AMAZON CEO ANDY JASSY SAYS TRUMP’S TARIFFS HAVE NOT IMPACTED PRICES.

TRUMP EFFECT: VENEZUELA RELEASES AMERICAN POLITICAL PRISONER ARRESTED UNDER BIDEN AND HARRIS. Continue reading

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THE MAD SCIENTIST: A TALE OF THE FUTURE (1908) ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

THE MAD SCIENTIST: A TALE OF THE FUTURE (1908) – Written by Raymond McDonald, a pen name for two Canadians – Raymond Alfred Leger and Edward Richard McDonald. An unusual aspect of this novel was the publisher’s offer of a thousand-dollar reward for any reader who deciphered and provided the best breakdown of a coded message in the story.   

Despite being penned by two Canadians, this tale is set mostly in the United States of the near future. An interesting benefit to authorship by two non-Americans of the time is the rare objectivity they bring to issues like labor vs management, socialism vs capitalism and both the creative AND destructive aspects of scientific progress.

The Mad Scientist: A Tale of the Future inspires genuine examinations of all sides of those subjects and doesn’t devolve into a simplistic “good guys vs bad guys” narrative until dramatic necessity demands it in the finale. 

The title character is Maxim Folk, a scientific genius who embodies the cliche of pushing so hard to show how he can do something that he neglects to ask IF he should do it. His work in the properties of electricity, matter and light waves is decades ahead of his colleagues.  Continue reading

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OGROFF (1983) BAD MOVIE REVIEW

OGROFF aka The Mad Mutilator (1983) – This thoroughly bizarre French movie whose maker somehow conned horror icon Howard Vernon into appearing is easily one of the worst films ever made. Norbert G. Moutier owned a video store in France and published a horror fanzine. 

Moutier decided to make his own movie on Super-8 and despite having virtually no money he succeeded. While most films like Ogroff go absolutely nowhere, Moutier rented out his labor of love to customers of his video store.

Like a film version of a garage band miraculously making it big, word of mouth spread regarding the graphic (yet fake looking) blood and gore in the movie. Howard Vernon’s name gave it the extra push it needed to become a cult item in Continental Europe and then the world.

WARNING: Ogroff is not for everyone. If you don’t like bad horror films which are so poorly made that the ineptitude makes them more disturbing than many polished projects, don’t click on “Continue reading.” Continue reading

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CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES THIRTY-ONE TO THIRTY-FIVE

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE

RIDDLE OF THE SULIOTEN MOUNTAIN – Kapitan Mors and his crew land their air ship on a mountain on a Greek island between Korfu and the Ionian Isles. A Suliot sponge diver sees the Luftschiff land and informs the villainous autocrat who imposes his own iron rule on the locals.

The despot plans to capture Mors and his crew for the enormous reward offered by the tycoons who want to stop our masked hero’s crusade of robbing from the rich in order to give to the poor. The villain’s plot fails, of course, PLUS Kapitan Mors at last perfects his spaceship the Meteor. Continue reading

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ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS: MAY TWENTY-FIRST

Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog serves up another current events roundup.

WE STILL DON’T KNOW WHO WAS UNCONSTITUTIONALLY MAKING DECISIONS WHILE BIDEN WAS USED AS A FIGUREHEAD. There’s a constitutional procedure for presidential disability – Vice President Kamala Harris was next in line. The Democrat coverup was the REAL “threat to democracy”.

NEVER FORGET: DEMOCRATS AND THEIR MEDIA OUTLETS REPEATEDLY LIED ABOUT BIDEN’S UNFITNESS AND CALLED FOOTAGE OF HIS DEMENTED BEHAVIOR “DEEP FAKES.” More HERE.  

MEDIA AND POLITICANS LIED ABOUT BIDEN BEING “SHARP AS A TACK” LIKE THEY LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS OR DOES.     MARLOW WEIGHS IN

JIM JORDAN ON DEMOCRAT LIES AND PROPAGANDA ABOUT BIDEN.

PRESIDENT TRUMP ONCE AGAIN WARNS CONGRESS: “DON’T F**K WITH MEDICAID.” But Trump-haters are still pretending otherwise.

DHS ARRESTS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SEX OFFENDERS, MURDERERS AND DRUG DEALERS THAT DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR TIM WALZ PROTECTS UNDER MINNESOTA’S “SANCTUARY” POLICIES. I will say again that Democrat sanctuary policies never protect the victims, just the perpetrators.

DEMOCRAT CITY MANAGER OF WORCESTER, MA BLOCKS POLICE COOPERATION WITH DHS AND ICE. At this point Democrats are accomplices to the additional crimes committed by illegal immigrants.

DHS: DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY” POLITICIANS ARE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH AMERICAN LIVES. “If it saves even one life” these sanctuary policies should be done away with.

TRUMP’S AGRICULTURE SECRETARY BROOKE ROLLINS DISCUSSES HOW PRESIDENT TRUMP IS RIGHTING THE WRONGS INFLICTED ON AMERICANS BY OTHER NATIONS’ UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES.

TRUMP EFFECT: MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND SET FOR LOWEST GAS PRICES IN OVER TWENTY YEARS.

SENATE PASSES TRUMP’S “NO TAX ON TIPS” BY UNANIMOUS CONSENT. Trump remains the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime. Continue reading

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PYTINE (423 B.C.) ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Welcome to another one of Balladeer’s Blog’s posts about ancient Greek comedies, this one written by Cratinus, who was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy with Aristophanes and Eupolis the other two.

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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