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
THANK YOU TO THE BERNIE BROS WHO POINTED OUT THIS VIDEO TO ME. In reality, people who hated Trump 6 months ago still hate him and people who liked him 6 months ago still like him. The Democrats and their media outlets love to subject us to the same Trump-haters over and over again, pretending it means something. Their “polling” from Harvard/ Harris claimed a 12 point lead for Hidin’ Biden over de facto Third Party President Donald Trump. 
Meanwhile, Senile Joe Biden emerged from his bunker once again for a tightly-controlled event AND STILL BLEW IT, YET AGAIN! Watch as the demented fool claims that 120 MILLION Americans have died from the Coronavirus, then, wonderfully, the screen glitches on the “D’OH!” look Joe got on his face when he realized his stupidity. Biden and his people cannot run small campaign events, let alone the country. Watch the whole video. 
Regarding the actual 2020 campaign, it is still anybody’s race, but the Democrats are trying to intimidate the nation with their rioting and their disastrous “autonomous zones.” And their push for mail-in voting everywhere is obviously so that they can insist that “all the votes haven’t been counted yet.” This lets them see how many votes they need to win certain states and, as we’ve seen in the past, Democrat-run areas will MIRACULOUSLY find enough “uncounted” votes to reach those levels. 
CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS Vol 1 #1 (March 1941) 
Story 2: Case Number 2 
For Balladeer’s Blog’s review of the first episode of this 1971-1973 series about London by Gaslight detectives from both the Victorian and Edwardian Ages you can simply click 
Episode: FIVE HUNDRED CARATS (February 5th, 1973) 
For the first time in this series we have a story set outside Great Britain, which I found to be a welcome change of pace. Leo Lipinzki (Barry Keegan) works as a Detective Inspector for the Cape Police, but technically the already wealthy and powerful De Beers Diamond Corporation is who he really answers to. 
Martin Luther King Person of Courage Leo Terrell, noted Civil Rights attorney, joined the chorus of voices coming from African-Americans disgusted with the Democrats and their hypocrisy on racial issues. (Link below)
Terrell, like so many others, has pointed out how de facto Third Party President Donald Trump has been better for African-Americans than any Democrat in decades, especially Joe Biden, noted for his draconian legal positions against African-Americans. 
Balladeer’s Blog concludes its examination of another neglected pulp hero – in this case Northwest Smith. Created by the female author C.L. Moore in the 1930s Northwest Smith was a ruthless outer-space smuggler and mercenary decades before Han Solo. With his Venusian partner Yarol at his side and armed with a trusty blaster Smith roamed our solar system in his deceptively fast spaceship The Maid. For more on Northwest Smith and other neglected pulp heroes click here: 
He reveals that Northwest Smith is not his real name (Well, duh! I always figured his real name was Northwest Rabinowitz.) and is uncharacteristically serious- minded as he soaks in the atmosphere of the woodland area where his fate was determined so long ago. 
Balladeer’s Blog is happy to announce that at least one of the many divisions of college football covered here has made an announcement about their 2020 season. The NJCAA will begin practices on August 1st and the opening night of the season will be Thursday, August 20th. 
Balladeer’s Blog presents another examination of an ancient Greek political satire. This comedy by Aristophanes was one that I was planning on covering very soon when I started posting my reviews of Attic Old Comedy years ago. For various reasons it kept falling by the wayside. 
More than 2,300 years before George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, Aristophanes was dealing with some of the same political themes. 
THANK YOU once again to all of you readers for making Balladeer’s Blog so enjoyable to write. As I always say the unusual and controversial items I sometimes churn out here mean that readers have to be open-minded and very secure in their own beliefs not to just take offense and leave.
FIRST AND SECOND BATTLES OF MACHIAS – Revolutionary War history about the two separate battles in Machias, Maine. CLICK 
THE MONKS OF MONK HALL – This neglected American horror classic was the country’s best-selling novel prior to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. CLICK 
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