Author Archives: balladeer

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About balladeer

I am passionately interested in college sports, ancient Greek comedies, bad/weird movies, mythology, the American Revolution, Puck Magazine, World War I, U.S. Presidential history, silent movies, the English Civil War, epic, lyric and comic poetry, U.S. Supreme Court history, the Revolutions of 1848, the Philippine War and old pulp heroes like The Moon Man, Pilot G8, Silver John and The Rio Kid.

NELLIE BLY’S NOVELS

Back in November, Balladeer’s Blog covered female journalist Nellie Bly’s journey around the world. I mentioned the lost but rediscovered novels she had written and fellow blogger The Introverted Bookworm inquired if I was going to cover them. So, here we go:

EVA THE ADVENTURESS  – This was the second of the novels that Nellie Bly (Elizabeth J. Cochrane) wrote between 1889 and 1895. They were considered lost until being rediscovered in 2021.

Eva the Adventuress or A Romance of a Blighted Life was inspired by Nellie’s interview with the convicted criminal Eva Hamilton, wife of a descendant of Alexander Hamilton. The novel features the fictional Eva Scarlett rising from poverty to marrying a dynamic man of means.

Before long Eva learns that the marriage is a sham and she is tossed into the streets, marked as a fallen woman. Our title character begins a climb back up the ladder, seeking revenge on anyone who wrongs her.

Continue reading

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Filed under Neglected History, opinion

JAN EIGHTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog presents another current events roundup from an America where Biden Crime Family front man Joe Biden continues to transform the transition process to a new administration into one long act of petty spite and attempted sabotage of his successor. More HERE.

BIDEN REGIME WHITE HOUSE: CHINA’S HACKERS HAVE THE CAPACITY TO CRIPPLE AMERICA’S POWER GRIDS AND PORTS. Convenient how this was covered up until now. I will say again that buying Joe Biden long ago was the best investment that China’s government ever made.

        “Since autumn of 2023 there have been at least nine U.S. telecom companies hacked, according to (Biden Regime) deputy national security adviser for cybersecurity Anne Neuberger. 

        “We will never know regarding the scope and scale of this,” she told the Journal. “They were very careful about their techniques.”

        “The hacks have morphed from mere “keyboard warriors — once seen as the cyber equivalent of noisy, drunken burglars” to now be “soldiers” with “astonishing skill level and stealth,” according to the Journal.” *** YESALL OF THIS INFO IS NOW BEING ADMITTED BY BIDEN’S OWN PEOPLE!   

DEMOCRAT PARTY

DEMOCRATS AT NEW YORK PRESCHOOL EXPOSED BY PARENTS FOR FORCING TRANSGENDER DOGMA ON THREE AND FOUR YEAR OLD CHILDREN. Among the remarks from the justifiably angry parents – “As a mom of a three-year-old I find this disturbing. Leave these babies alone.” and “A 3 or 4 year old is not your ‘target audience’ another parent said of the LGBT activists.” Democrats, can you please leave children alone?

EXECRABLE JOE BIDEN EVEN FREES ELEVEN TERRORISTS AS HIS TIME IN THE WHITE HOUSE DRAWS TO A CLOSE. More HERE. And HERE. Pure spite toward his political prisoners who are STILL in Washington jails.

Weird little man

ALLEGED HUMAN BEING JOE BIDEN AGAIN FLAILS ANGRILY AT REPORTERS WHILE BITTERLY SNAPPING “I KNOW MORE WORLD LEADERS THAN ANY ONE OF YOU HAVE EVER MET IN YOUR WHOLE GODDAMN LIFE.” And it had NOTHING to do with the line of questioning. More HERE. And HERE.

        Biden continues to be unfit and has even been declared too mentally unfit to stand trial, yet his demented status is treated like it doesn’t affect his Oval Office activities. Former RFK Jr. senior advisor Link Lauren was the latest to point out that “This is the real Biden they’ve tried to hide from you for years.” 

LINDY LI, FORMER DEMOCRAT NATIONAL COMMITTEEE FUNDRAISER, REMINDS US ALL WHY SHE – LIKE SO MANY OF US – LEFT THE INTOLERANT DEMOCRAT PARTY BEHIND. Among her remarks she emphasized again “I am done with them” (Democrats) – and stated she is recruiting others to leave The Party, too.

BIDEN REGIME’S MERRICK GARLAND CALLED OUT AGAIN FOR LYING THAT FIVE POLICE OFFICERS WERE KILLED ON JANUARY SIXTH. Is ANY lie too low for garbage like this to spread it?

JOE BIDEN IS TAKING HIS WAR ON THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR DOWN TO HIS FINAL MOMENTS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

ARREST AND TRIAL (1963-1964) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

ARREST AND TRIAL (1963-1964) – Decades before Law & Order came this forgotten television series which used one half of its 90-minute run-time to depict the police tracking down and arresting a suspect and the other half depicting the trial. Ben Gazzara, Chuck Connors and Don Galloway starred.  

This 30-episode series often kept viewers guessing, as sometimes it turned out the cops arrested the wrong person and they would be found not guilty. The trial portion also alternated between the prosecution winning and the defense winning, so neither side of the law was portrayed as infallible.

Arrest and Trial lasted just one season (yes, some shows did 30-episode and even 39-episode seasons back then). Audiences may have been too used to the comfort food of crime shows where they knew going in who was guilty and who was innocent. Cop shows like Dragnet always showed the police nabbing the guilty and lawyer shows like Perry Mason always showed the defendants being innocent. No such convenience on this show.   

Ben Gazzara played Detective Sergeant Nick Anderson, Chuck Connors portrayed Defense Attorney John Egan and John Larch was District Attorney Jerry Miller. Jo Anne Miya played Janet Okada.  Continue reading

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Filed under Forgotten Television

CHARLEMAGNE: ROLAND BATTLES MOROCCAN CORSAIRS

These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. 

FOR MY FIRST CHAPTER ON CHARLEMAGNE’S PALADINS CLICK HERE.

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ROLAND BATTLES MOROCCAN CORSAIRS – The Paladins recently freed by Astolpho from the prison of the sorcerer Atlantes all hastened to rejoin Emperor Charlemagne’s army. The war against the Muslim invaders from colonized Spain and North Africa was still raging. 

Roland, the greatest of those Paladins, was so anxious to link up with the forces of his uncle the Emperor that he tried riding his horse up a mountainside as a shortcut. Part way up, Roland spotted light emerging from the entrance of a cave.

Our hero investigated and found a young woman being held against her will by a toothless hag who threatened and abused her repeatedly. Roland entered the furnished cave and asked the captive about her plight. Continue reading

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Filed under Mythology

REBLOG: LIFELONG FREEDOM FIGHTER ALVAREZ GALLOSO ON JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S DOWNFALL

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Filed under opinion

JANUARY SIXTH-A-PALOOZA: 2025

biden bloodHere’s the 2025 edition of what will apparently be an annual post for as long as demagogues insist on pretending there was an “insurrection” (LMAO) on January 6th, 2021. Uh. Yeah. No guns, no police officers killed (despite Joe Biden’s absurd claims otherwise) and the Capitol building’s doors were OPENED for the trespassers by the authorities, as shown on film.

And remember, NOTHING THAT HAPPENED ON JANUARY SIXTH COULD HAVE PUT TRUMP BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE! Learn something about how your own government works, anti-Trump fascists! At any rate, here we go again: 

biden riots in dc

BIDEN CALLED THESE RIOTS MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS

The overwrought propaganda of Biden supporters on this date has me laughing VERY hard. They theatrically pretend that the mass trespassing incident of January 6th, 2021 was “worse than the Civil War and the 9-11 attacks.” What disingenuous garbage.

Their monumental and hilarious political hypocrisy is on full display in Washington DC as Democrats engage in political theater while pretending to revere the Capitol Building and its “symbolism.” (LMAO) Before I became an Independent Voter I spent most of my life as a Democrat and believe me, they feel contempt for the Capitol and its “symbolism”, even calling it one of the “institutions of imperialist rule” and “the seat of White Supremacy and systemic racism in America.”

Democrats also despise people who DO revere the Capitol and its symbolism, dismissing them as simple-minded patriotic rednecks.

Nancy Pelosi demagogueOn January 6th, 2021, a “mostly peaceful protest” (as Democrats described the MONTHS-LONG Antifa riots which terrorized the country) at the Capitol turned into a chaotic mass-trespassing incident with the Democrats of the Capitol Police even killing an unarmed woman. Suddenly, Democrat pretensions that they revered the Capitol poured from the mouths of the demagogues of the Democrat Party.

Hey, let’s rename it “the Demagogue Party”. After all, the Democrat Party is the country’s oldest existing institution which launched a Civil War and fought for slavery, so a name change for that political party is LONG overdue. Okay, so they won’t rename themselves the Demagogue Party, but they should rename it something to distance themselves from the Democrat Party’s horrifically racist past.

capitol bombing 1983Anyway, Democrats felt that their OWN storming of the Capitol was fine back on October 4th, 2018, even though THEY WERE INTERFERING WITH ONE OF THOSE GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS WHICH THEY NOW PRETEND SHOULD BE SACROSANCT. Democrats/ the left cheered on that activity. And let’s not forget the way the left literally set off a BOMB in the Capitol on November 7th, 1983. Also HERE. A million dollars (by 1983 standards, so much more today) in damage was done.

Most adults are above the fake tears and the fear-mongering which truly pathetic Democrat members of Congress are indulging in regarding January 6th. The Democrats will probably never lose their competitive edge in phoniness and manufactured emotion, so non-Democrats – as in Independents, Third Party Voters, Republicans and People Who Claim No Political Affiliation, in other words THE REST OF US – will always need to remain highly skeptical of any and all political theater from them. 

Kenosha democrat riotIn May 2020 when the White House was violently attacked for about 24 hours and many secret service agents were seriously injured, Biden and other Democrats said Trump “used tear gas against peaceful protestors” even though it’s been proven that he DIDN’T use tear gas on those “peaceful protestors.” Listen to those Democrat hypocrites today and the draconian measures they now recommend against civil disobedience!
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The night of May 31st, 2020 rioters set fires all over the capital of the United States. A mob of them gathered outside the White House and threatened to storm it. The president was said to have been moved to a bunker. Many Democrats laughed at him and supported the mob. Never mind that the safety of the president, as a symbol of America and self-governance, goes beyond individual or party and should never be a laughing matter, like Democrats are now sniveling about the Capitol.
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Who knows? Someday the January 6th protestors may be looked on as the victims of governmental authoritarianism, like the Bonus Marchers of long ago. Nobody knows how events will be viewed decades and centuries from now, no matter how much Democrats pretend that they do with their ridiculous “right side of history” nonsense.

Continue reading

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Filed under Anti-Donald Trump hysteria, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROCK (1956)

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROCK! (1956) – Rocksploitation at its campiest! In this hilariously bad movie Rock and Roll music is blamed for the Juvenile Delinquency epidemic of the 1950s.

Not only does one particularly irrational city ban rock music completely but it puts the local rock DJ ON TRIAL for playing rock and roll records! Continue reading

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Filed under Bad and weird movies

BALLADEER’S BLOG: COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM JAN FOURTH

NAIA

PROUDLY PREVAILING POMEROYS – The ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS COLLEGE POMEROYS hosted the INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST GRENADIERS. By Halftime the Pomeroys had so completely dominated IUS that they held a comfortable 39-20 lead. After the break, SMWC kept the Grenadiers at arm’s length for a 69-58 victory. Greg Jenkins led the Pomeroys with 23 points and his teammate Shon Tupuola had a Double Double of 15 points and 18 rebounds. 

STORM FRONT – The UNIVERSITY OF RIO GRANDE RED STORM took it on the road against the SHAWNEE STATE BEARS. Another lopsided game was in store here as the Red Storm were on top of their opponents 44-29 at the Half. From there they got more separation from Shawnee State to win out by a final score of 93-72. Twenty-three points from Eric Butler led URG. Continue reading

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Filed under College Basketball

DC SUPERHEROES OF THE SIXTIES TO EIGHTIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog picks up from last weekend’s look at DC’s 30s-50s characters by examining some of their 60s-80s heroes. 

FLASH VS HIS ROGUES GALLERY – I looked at the 1960s to 1980s stories in which Flash did battle with many of his foes assembled during their Semi-Annual Convention of Flash Villains and its related mayhem.

Readers got some landmark tales as the Scarlet Speedster took on his recurring foes like Mirror Master, the Trickster, Captain Cold, Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang, the Golden Glider and others. Click HERE.

BLACK LIGHTNING – Beginning in the 1970s, High School teacher Jefferson Pierce became the costumed superhero called Black Lightning. He used his new powers to fight crime and other dark forces in Metropolis’ Suicide Slums.

Black Lightning faced a variety of villains, like the Whale, Syonide, Cyclotronic Man, Steel Fist, the Annihilist and the criminal organization called the 100. Click HERE. Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: JAN THIRD

Another roundup here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog coming to you from an America where the repulsive Biden-Harris Regime spent years lying that their political targets were the greatest danger regarding domestic violence, thereby enabling the New Year’s attacks

        You’ll notice Biden didn’t blast the pro-terrorist Democrats who marched to celebrate the attacks “globalizing the Intifada” the way he did to people who simply didn’t support his policies.

AND AN ADDITIONAL REMINDER THAT DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLETS IGNORED THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY BEING TIGHT WITH AND GETTING FUNDS FROM THEIR CHINA ACCOMPLICES.   

SPENCER’S TERRIFIC TAKEDOWN OF THE MAKE-BELIEVE “FACT CHECKERS” OF THE CORPORATE MEDIA. Fact-checkers (LMAO) are anything BUT.

SUIT: TRANS CHILD MOLESTER PRETENDING TO BE A WOMAN WAS IMPRISONED WITH BIOLOGICAL WOMEN AND COMMITTED REPEATED SEXUAL ASSAULTS. More HERE. Democrats, we know you don’t care about children and now you’re determined to show that you don’t care about real women when it comes to your Trans religion.

TEACHERS IN NEW JERSEY NO LONGER NEED TO DEMONSTRATE BASIC COMPETENCE IN MATH, READING AND WRITING TO BE HIRED. More HERE. And the circus that Democrats have reduced America’s school systems to continues. This is why there is so little respect for the Democrat clergy members who pretend to be “teaching.” Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion