Author Archives: balladeer

balladeer's avatar

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.

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

8 Comments

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

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

4 Comments

Filed under Ancient Science Fiction

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

2 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies, Halloween Season

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

4 Comments

Filed under Pulp Heroes

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

6 Comments

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

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

6 Comments

Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy

JOHN DEREK: HIS SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

Today, actor and director John Derek is remembered mostly because of his wives – Bo Derek, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Pati Behrs.

Some film fans remember him for his supporting roles in The Ten Commandments, All the King’s Men, Exodus and Knock on Any Door.

Surprisingly, most people have forgotten that Derek starred in a long list of B-movies, from westerns to war films as well as – for this blog post – a string of swashbuckler movies.

ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1950) – John starred as Robin, Earl of Huntington, the son of Robin Hood. When Richard the Lionheart passes away in 1199 A.D. King John (George Macready) returns to his old ways of oppressing and heavily taxing the citizens. He also imports an army of foreign mercenaries faithful only to him, not England.

The villainous king even tries to have Robin, the son of his old enemy, slain during a rigged jousting match. Our hero survives but soon takes to Sherwood Forest to gather many of his father’s former Merry Men around him to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Alan Hale played Little John for the third time in his career, the first in 1922 in the Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood and again in 1938 in Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood Continue reading

12 Comments

Filed under opinion

THE GREAT GARLOO: VINTAGE TOY FROM 1961

The Great Garloo was a two-feet tall remote controlled “monster” toy from Marx. Garloo could be controlled to walk, bend down and pick up things. For adults, boring, but for kids, it must have been the best gift they got that year.

A Son of Garloo followed later. It was smaller and was a wind-up toy. Marx should have cemented Garloo in the public’s consciousness by licensing a kaiju movie or two featuring the figure. The Great Garloo could have stood alongside Godzilla and Gamera.

Below is a vintage television commercial for the Great Garloo. Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under opinion

MAY NINETEENTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

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

COURAGEOUS LINDY LI AGAIN SPEAKS OUT ON THE TRAVESTY OF UNFIT AND ILLEGIT JOE BIDEN’S SHAM PRESIDENCY. And if Democrats had their way, Biden would have still been in the White House and they would STILL be lying that Biden is “sharp as a tack.”   Ignore the media sideshows about irrelevancies, THIS should be dominating the headlines and would be if the clueless Republicans knew how to use their media outlets as well as Democrats do.

AMID HUR TAPES REVELATIONS THAT BIDEN WAS TOO UNFIT TO HAVE UNDERSTOOD ANY OF “HIS” LAST-MINUTE PARDONS, CALLS EMERGE TO INVALIDATE THOSE PARDONS. More HERE. In addition to having had a corrupt, addled husk in the Oval Office, we still have no idea who was actually making decisions, including on the atrocious last-minute pardons.

DEMOCRAT OUTLET CNN’S VAN JONES PREDICTS DEMOCRATS WILL PAY FOR COVERING UP JOE BIDEN’S UNFITNESS “FOR A LONG TIME.”  

BIDEN SUBORDINATE LITERALLY SCREAMED AT MEDIA OUTLET NOT TO GO WITH A TRUE STORY REGARDING JOE BIDEN’S UNFITNESS. Again, THIS needs urgent coverage. If not for Donald Trump, the thing called Joe Biden would still be getting paraded out as if he was “president” and the coverup would STILL be going on.

MOODY’S DOWNGRADED THE U.S. UNDER JOE BIDEN AND BARACK OBAMA, TOO. More HERE. But the corporate media only cares if it happens under a certain president who’s only been back in office for four months.

DEMOCRAT JAMES CLYBURN STATES HE STILL BELIEVES JOE BIDEN COULD HAVE SERVED ANOTHER FOUR YEARS. Unreal. Continue reading

24 Comments

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

EVERGLADES (1961-1962) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

EVERGLADES aka Lincoln Vail of the Everglades (1961-1962) – This short-lived syndicated series stood out from other law-enforcement programs of its era by not being set in either a big city or the American West. Constable Lincoln Vail of the Everglades County Patrol policed the Florida Everglades in his airboat, giving this series its signature visual appeal.   

Even here in 2025 the shots of the airboat speeding along through Vail’s turf really catch the eye. In the starring role was Ron Hayes, stuntman and devoted conservationist in real life. The unique situations and challenges of law enforcement in an area like the Everglades have ensured this program’s lasting cult legacy, but sadly the expensive series lasted just 39 half-hour episodes.

Lincoln Vail was part wildlife ranger, part liaison with the Seminole Tribe and part traditional cop. The up-and-coming Burt Reynolds, former Florida State Seminoles football star, appeared in 3 episodes of Everglades.    Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under Forgotten Television