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.

KILLRAVEN TWENTY-EIGHT: LET IT DIE LIKE IT’S THE FOURTH OF JULY

FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL COMICS STORYLINE CLICK HERE  The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below.

Killraven in his glory daysKILLRAVEN GRAPHIC NOVEL (1983)

Chapter Four: Let It Die Like It’s the Fourth of July

SYNOPSIS: February, 2020, or 37 years in the future, like it would have been to readers in 1983. Killraven and his Freemen continue their guerilla war against Earth’s alien conquerors.

Their current target, as this four-chapter story comes to a close, is Cape Canaveral. The site has been upgraded with alien tech and serves as both a fortress for the aliens and as a hub of the High Overlord’s Project Regenesis. The High Overlord himself is currently inside the Cape personally overseeing the final stages of this project.

With him is Keeper Saunders, the human quisling who separated Killraven (Jonathan Raven) from his brother Joshua Raven when they were children.     Continue reading

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TWENTY MORE COOL-NAMED NJCAA COLLEGE SPORTS TEAMS

Another Balladeer’s Blog Top Twenty list for 2020. This time it’s 20 more cool-named teams from the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association). FOR THE FIRST TWENTY NJCAA TEAMS CLICK HERE 

Vance Granville VanguardsVANCE-GRANVILLE COLLEGE VANGUARDS

Location: Henderson, NC

Comment: Kudos to the folks at this institution for showing some creativity with the name of their sports teams! The Vanguards definitely stand out and their logo is very, very eye-catching!

Quinsigamond College WyvernsQUINSIGAMOND COLLEGE WYVERNS

Location: Worcester, MA

Comment: Quinsigamond is a mouthful, no doubt about it, and when you combine that memorable school name with the memorable team name Wyverns you have got the kind of magic that Balladeer’s Blog loves!

Faulkner State Sun ChiefsFAULKNER STATE SUN CHIEFS

Location: Bay Minette, AL 

Comment: With a nickname as cool as Sun Chiefs and with a logo that is as eye-catching as this one I can only hope that this college adds football at some point in the future.

newlogo01.aiCHESAPEAKE COLLEGE SKIPJACKS

Location: Wye Mills, MD

Comment: Don’t call them the Flapjacks. Don’t call them the Blackjacks. They are the Skipjacks, one of the most strikingly unique team names in any division of college sports. The Chesapeake College teams take their name from the sloop-rigged sailboat, not the tuna.  Continue reading

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Filed under college sports, Cool names and cool logos

DEMOCRATS FALL FAR SHORT IN THEIR FRAUDULENT IMPEACHMENT ATTEMPT

Trump and Bill ClintonBalladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that equally criticizes both Democrats and Republicans, and I want to remind the uninitiated that SIXTY-SEVEN votes out of the one hundred in the Senate are needed to unseat a president. The Democrats could only conjure up 48 and 47 votes respectively on their two weak and fraudulent articles of impeachment. (Nancy Pelosi should have torn up THOSE when the House passed them!)

I always maintain that neither Bill Clinton NOR Donald Trump deserved to be impeached in the first place, and I know from experience that – just like the anti-Bill Clinton crowd – the anti-Trump crowd will be forever sniveling with impotent outrage that he SHOULD have been found guilty, etc.

trump-and-hillary-map-behind-themIn reality the entire impeachment process has been degraded to the point where it is now meaningless. It’s been reduced to just another tactic in the usual partisan warfare of the Washington DC cesspool. And even worse, in this case it was used to try to undo presidential election results that America’s notoriously corrupt political establishment did not like.

Just like when the Hillary crowd failed to get Electors of the Electoral College to change their votes and put her in office and just like when the Robert Mueller investigation went down in flames, I will repost election night 2016 items. (see below) Because that’s what all this has been about. Trying to overturn the 2016 election: Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

TWENTY BEST SILVER JOHN STORIES

Mascot FOUR original pics

Balladeer’s Blog

Balladeer’s Blog presents another Top Twenty list for 2020. This time it’s a look at the 20 Best Silver John Stories. If you’re not familiar with this neglected Pulp Hero created by Manly Wade Wellman, Silver John was a wandering musician who battled evil supernatural forces in the Appalachian Mountains of yore. His nickname comes from his pure silver guitar strings and the silver coins he wields in his war against darkness. Think Orpheus meets Kolchak. For more info click HERE

Silver John

Silver John

O, UGLY BIRD! – In this debut Silver John story the heroic balladeer squares off against a vile man named Osmer. That villain dominates an isolated mountain community through his ability to send forth his soul in the form of a giant, hideous bird to prey on any who oppose him. 

THE DESRICK ON YANDRO – Desricks are old mountain cabins dating back to Colonial times. Such cabins were heavily fortified against potential attacks from hostile Native Americans or wild animals. This particular desrick houses a powerful old witch and is guarded by a virtual army of horrific monsters. Silver John must face the Bammat (the last of the woolly mammoths) and the Toller (a deadly winged creature), plus others called the Culverin, the Flat, the Skim and the Behinder.     Continue reading

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Filed under Halloween Season, Pulp Heroes

DEMOCRAT TULSI GABBARD HEROICALLY DENOUNCES DNC OVER IOWA DEBACLE

Tulsi Gabbard CDemocrats usually reserve their vote fraud for the general elections, but beginning in 2016 they extended it to the primaries by robbing Bernie Sanders of the Democrats’ presidential nomination. Always innovative when it comes to robbing the voters of their choices, the Democrats have now extended their corruption of the voting process to the Iowa caucus.

Countless news stories have already been written about the debacle that the Democrats authored this week, and multiple candidates are trying to claim victory amid the muddled results.

#WalkAwayHeroic role model and member of Congress Tulsi Gabbard courageously spoke out about the corruption at the Democratic (sic) National Committee and elsewhere: “It’s clear that the corporate media, the military-industrial complex, and the party establishment are threatened by [my] message, because it challenges their grip on power. They will do everything to silence us, while also rigging the primary process for billionaire candidates who think they can bypass the kind of grassroots campaigning that is the fuel of our movement.” Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

UP IN THE AIR AND DOWN IN THE SEA (1863): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Boys' JournalUP IN THE AIR AND DOWN IN THE SEA (1863) – Written by William S Hayward, this story was originally serialized in The Boy’s Journal from February to August of 1863. In 1865 it was published in novel form as The Cloud King

The main character of the tale is scientific adventurer Victor Volans, who has been obsessed with ballooning all his life. During his childhood he would spend untold amounts of time sending up balloons and noting how long they would stay aloft and how far they would travel.

Eventually he moved on to an experiment in which he sent kittens up with a larger balloon, but unfortunately the kittens died from the cold air at the altitude their balloon reached. Little Victor followed up that tragedy by sending up his little brother. The brother survived his balloon trip but the horrified Volans parents angrily forbade Victor from conducting any further experiments.

masc graveyard newYears later, when Volans was a teenager, his parents moved the entire family to California to try to cash in on the Gold Rush. Victor took jobs to earn his own money and returned to his ballooning experiments.

On a test flight in his brand-new balloon, Volans loses control to intense winds which blow him and his aircraft over the Pacific Ocean. Eventually Victor winds up encountering two Lost Worlds somewhere in the Pacific. The first of these is the Region of Eternal Night, where our hero must fend off flying fire beings whose touch can burn humans to death.   Continue reading

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Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG

Per the Glitternight Index:

Great Lakes Christian College CrusadersNCCAA Division Two –   1. GREAT LAKES CHRISTIAN COLLEGE CRUSADERS    ###    2. JOHNSON (TN) UNIVERSITY ROYALS    ###    3. GRACE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY TIGERS    ###    4. ARLINGTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY PATRIOTS    ###    5. CHAMPION CHRISTIAN COLLEGE TIGERS    ###    

Ozark Christian College Ambassadors new logo6. OZARK CHRISTIAN COLLEGE AMBASSADORS        ###    7. MANHATTAN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE THUNDER    ###   8. BOB JONES UNIVERSITY BRUINS   ###    9. JOHNSON (FL) UNIVERSITY SUNS    ###    10. CENTRAL CHRISTIAN COLLEGE OF THE BIBLE SAINTS (Should be the Heralds)    ###    Continue reading

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Filed under College Basketball

UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR FILES OFFICIAL COMPLAINT AGAINST JOE BIDEN FOR GETTING HIM FIRED FOR INVESTIGATING BIDEN’S SON

Joe Biden brags about blackmailing the UkraineHere at Balladeer’s Blog I often point out that American career politicians are nothing but career criminals. Democrat Joe Biden, head of the so-called Biden Crime Family, often comes to mind when American political corruption is discussed.

An official complaint demanding an investigation of Joe Biden was filed by Victor Shokin, the prosecutor that Biden bragged about getting fired by threatening to withhold aid to the Ukraine when Shokin was investigating Quid Pro Joe’s son Hunter for his alleged influence-peddling scam via Burisma.

Per the French source Les Crisis (link below), the complaint reads in part:

“Throughout the last months of 2015 and the first months of 2016 Joseph Biden, taking advantage of his position, came several times on official visits to Ukraine in order to negotiate with the leaders of the country my eviction and, consequently, the closing of the objective investigation into the offenses committed by persons associated with the company “Burisma Holding Limited” (Cyprus), including the son of the aforementioned US official. (NOTE FROM BALLADEER: That “son” is Hunter Biden.)

mascot new look donkey and elephant heads“Due to continued pressure from the Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden to oust me from the job by blackmailing the allocation of financial assistance, I, as the man who places the State interests above my personal interests, I agreed to abandon the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

“After my resignation caused by illegal pressure, no active investigation into the offenses concerning the company “Burisma Holding Limited” (Cyprus) was carried out and, therefore, the persons implicated in these offenses were not identified, nor arrested or charged.

“According to the conclusions of the International Law Association of 18.04.2017, made by the doctor of law, Professor O.O. Merezhko, at the time vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the request of the Vice-President of the United States Joseph Biden concerning my ousting from the post of the Attorney General of Ukraine as a condition for the granting of financial (economic) assistance is qualified as pressure, which represents interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine on the part of a foreign power in violation of one of the principles of international law. Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

STALLONE: THE EXPENDABLES GO TO HELL (2020)

ExpendablesSylvester Stallone and the Expendables franchise join forces with independent comic book giants like Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan and Richard C Meyer! As the promo says, “The creators of ROCKY and BANE tell a story of supernatural combat.”

The Expendables Go To Hell graphic novel is sort of like The Expendables Meet Army of Darkness with a little of Clive Barker’s Scarlet Gospels thrown in for good measure. (And yes, wouldn’t Bruce Campbell make a great addition to the ranks of the Expendables someday?)

The Expendables Go To HellAnyway, per Sylvester Stallone’s own story, Barney Ross (Stallone) and his badass mercenary buddies wind up in Hell where they battle dark supernatural forces as well as some of the most vile figures from history in a joyously over-the-top action extravaganza! And it’s all presented by some of the boldest, most daring and iconoclastic talents working in comics today! Continue reading

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Filed under Pulp Heroes, Superheroes

COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM FEBRUARY 1st

NAIA

Arizona Christian University Firestorm BIGNUMBER SEVEN TAKES A FALL – The 23rd ranked ARIZONA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FIRESTORM took it on the road against the number 7 team in the nation – THE MASTER’S UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS. The Firestorm made the Mustangs faithful nervous with a 54-47 Halftime lead, then consummated the Upset, winning the game 93-84. Tim Soares led ACU with a Double-Double of 23 points and 12 rebounds.

LCSC Logo - Primary Full… AND NUMBER EIGHT COMES TUMBLING AFTER – The number 12 LEWIS-CLARK STATE WARRIORS visited the 8th ranked PROVIDENCE (MT) ARGONAUTS yesterday. The Warriors (should be the Explorers) laid down the law in the 1st Half, leading 53-25 by the break. From there Lewis-Clark State authored a 96-65 beatdown led by 25 points from Trystan Bradley. Jake Albright logged a Double-Double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.

USAO Drover newOTHER UPSETS IN THE RANKINGS – The UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & ARTS OF OKLAHOMA DROVERS brought down the (10) JOHN BROWN UNIVERSITY GOLDEN EAGLES (should be the Abolitionists) in OT 90-84   ###   Meanwhile the WILLIAM JESSUP UNIVERSITY WARRIORS beat the (18) HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS 96-86   ###   And the THOMAS MORE COLLEGE SAINTS won 69-60 at the (25) SHAWNEE STATE BEARS.  Continue reading

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