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.

NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: APRIL EIGHTEENTH

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

NOTE: Anti-Donald Trump fascists are so dishonest and propagandistic they’ve been lying about illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Democrats and their media outlets have been pretending he was just a “Maryland father” who was scooped up by ICE for no reason. Taking their lies to the next level, anti-Trump loons have even been hysterically pretending that Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s situation meant Trump might “disappear” people at will. More HERE.

These grotesque lies have been proven to be as wrong as the previous claims that Trump put a bounty on the heads of U.S. soldiers in the field or was preparing a nuclear program at Mar-a-Lago or plotted to kidnap Michigan’s Governor Whitmer or any of the other deranged bits of propaganda that anti-Trump people here and abroad are foolish enough to fall for EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.   2025 Democrats are garbage who are trying their hardest to provoke violence and more just because of their hatred for one man.   

EVERYTHING THAT DEMOCRAT FASCISTS DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT THE CRIMINAL KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA. Democrats and other anti-Trumpers are such lying filth. More HERE. And HERE. Is there ANY point at which anti-Trump imbeciles will learn to question the bizarre propaganda that gets spread against him?   

MORE LIES EXPOSED ABOUT DEMOCRATS’ FAVORITE GANG MEMBER. More HERE. And HERE.  

MOTHERS OF SLAIN VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BLAST DEMOCRAT CHRIS VAN HOLLEN FOR HIS CRUSADE FOR KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA. But they’re wasting their time if they think any Democrat will give a damn about dead victims of illegal immigrants – who are STILL the only people Democrats work for. Illegals are Democrats’ sole reason for being at this point. Insane.

By the way, I know Democrats are talking about impeaching Trump over this illegal immigrant situation for “ignoring a court’s orders.” Yet Joe Biden repeatedly ignored multiple SUPREME COURT rulings that presidents do not have the authority to make the taxpayers pay off other people’s student loans. The Republicans weren’t capable of the insane behavior that Democrats are, so they didn’t raise that to the level of impeachment proceedings.

DEMOCRAT MEDIA OUTLETS IGNORE MOTHER SPEAKING ABOUT HER CHILD’S HORRIFIC DEATH AT THE HANDS OF AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT.  (Or “Democrat in training” I guess we should call them.) She begged them to start covering illegal immigrant crimes

DNI TULSI GABBARD DECLASSIFIES AND EXPOSES JOE BIDEN’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL PROGRAM FOR AUTHORITARIAN TREATMENT OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. Hey anti-Trump lunatics in other countries, how about covering this with the same breathless anxiety you bring to every disproven rumor about Trump’s conduct?  Continue reading

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

CYPRIA: ANCIENT GREEK EPIC MYTH

Judgement of ParisTheogony, The Iliad and The Odyssey are a few of the more well-known Greek epics of the distant past. In keeping with the theme of Balladeer’s Blog I will present a look at the neglected Greek epics, many of which cover other aspects of the Trojan War. Yes, for those readers who think The Iliad is the sole epic regarding that conflict there are other tales that chronicle the mythic events from long before the opening passages of The Iliad. Here is one of those neglected works.

CYPRIA – Credited to either Stasinos of Cyprus (my bet), Hegesias or Homer himself. This epic featured the original recounting of the marriage feast of Peleus attended by several deities. Eris, the goddess of discord (and the central figure in the still existing quasi-religion called Discordianism) resents not being invited to the celebration. She tosses in the golden apple labeled “For the fairest” which causes the infamous argument among the attending goddesses as to which of them should be given the apple.

The three goddesses – Hera, Athena and Aphrodite – seek out the shepherd Paris at Mount Ida where he tends his flocks and allow him to judge which of them is the fairest and therefore deserving of the apple. Each goddess tries to bribe Paris with gifts they are particularly suited to grant. Continue reading

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Filed under Mythology

ALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS FOR 2025

Balladeer’s Blog gives one last shoutout to this year’s college basketball champions in the 13 divisions covered here. 

NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) 

National Champions – COLLEGE OF IDAHO COYOTES

Runners-Up – Oklahoma Wesleyan University Eagles

2024 Champions – Freed-Hardeman University Lions 

NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) DIVISION ONE

National Champions – NELSON AMERICAN INDIAN UNIVERSITY WARRIORS

Runners-Up – Columbia International University Rams

2024 Champions – Cedarville University Yellow Jackets  Continue reading

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Filed under College Basketball

WINK MARTINDALE: RIP – HE DID MORE THAN JUST GAME SHOWS

Wink Martindale passed away yesterday at the age of 91. Most tributes are acknowledging his career as a game show icon so Balladeer’s Blog will look at his roles outside of that sphere.

MARS PATROL (1953-1955) – At age 19 – and already smiling like somebody just broke his jaw – the go-getting Winston Conrad “Wink” Martindale was the star of 514 episodes of Memphis’ weekday show Mars Patrol. (Ignore the incorrect IMDb entry which lists him as the star of just 1 episode. Memphis newspapers and Martindale himself recount how he starred in the entire series.) 

Wink starred as Mars Patrol Captain Martindale and with six Mars Guard children aged 6 to 10 he would blast off in his cheap-looking spaceship. After he and the kids did their live ad for Bosco, that is.

Martindale and the diminutive Mars Guard members wielded ray-guns in their adventures and also hosted episodes of old Flash Gordon and other space serials of the past, making Wink a kind of movie host variant as well. The young fans of Mars Patrol could write in and join the show’s Star Dodgers Club, complete with Captain Martindale photos and other merchandise. Continue reading

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Filed under Forgotten Television, opinion

APRIL SIXTEENTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

It’s another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASED BY COURT IN DEMOCRAT “SANCTUARY CITY” NOW ARRESTED FOR TWENTY CHILD SEX CRIMES. Democrats and their media outlets will never do stories about the victims but will do countless stories ennobling illegal immigrants (think convicted criminal Kilmar Abrego-Garcia) and demanding they stay. It’s still the Democrat Party against the rest of us.

MAN ARRESTED FOR SETTING FIRE TO PA GOV SHAPIRO’S RESIDENCE ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF PASSOVER IS A HAMAS SUPPORTER. Is anyone surprised?

TRUMP EFFECT: NVIDIA JOINS THE GROWING LIST OF COMPANIES THAT WILL BEGIN MANUFACTURING IN THE UNITED STATES AND WILL INVEST FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. More HERE. Even more jobs created with this, but anti-Trump fascists are still busy pretending they understand what tariffs are and how they work.

MORE TRUMP EFFECT: AMD TO NOW MANUFACTURE PROCESSING CHIPS IN THE U.S. FOR FIRST TIME EVER. Trump is the best president for the working class and the poor since Franklin Roosevelt. And as with Roosevelt, ugly forces attack his visionary moves.

POLL FROM APRIL TENTH TO FOURTEENTH: PRESIDENT TRUMP SOARS TO HIS HIGHEST APPROVAL RATING SINCE INAUGURATION. Looks like the “Tariff Madness” hysteria should join Reefer Madness in the bin of ineffective propaganda.

DEMOCRAT LETITIA “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW” JAMES GETS REFERRED FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR MORTGAGE FRAUD. Sometimes the wheel turns slowly, but it turns.

PRESIDENT TRUMP STILL FIGHTING TO SAVE AMERICAN RETAIL.

BOSTON’S DEMOCRAT MAYOR IN NEW SCANDAL OVER BEING FUNDED BY A CHINA INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE. No surprise for a Democrat “sanctuary city.”

DEMOCRAT-RUN SCHOOL VIOLATED PARENTS’ OPT-OUT REQUEST IN SEX AND GENDER IDENTITY ACTIVITY. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT FOUND GUILTY OF RAPING AND MURDERING MARYLAND MOTHER OF FIVE. Will he be the latest Democrat hero? Continue reading

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

CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES SIX TO TEN

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE. For my look at the first five stories in the weekly text series click HERE.

THE TREASURE OF THE FLAMING MOUNTAIN – The early Pulp adventures of Kapitan Mors continue. The part-Captain Nemo & part-Robur the Conqueror and his mixed crew of Europeans and people from India are flying over Nicaragua. They prevent the suicide of a despairing young woman whose father has been imprisoned by an up-and-coming dictator to try forcing him to reveal the location of his hidden treasure.

The masked Kapitan Mors leads his crew in a raid to free the young lady’s father and prevent the rising dictator from laying his hands on the treasure hidden in the Volcano de Fuego near Antigua. The Luftschiff heroes succeed and turn over the treasure to the proper authorities in Nicaragua after taking a sizable amount to spread among the world’s suffering poor.  Continue reading

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Filed under Pulp Heroes

TAXIARCHOI (427-414 B.C.) ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

TaxiarchoiBalladeer’s Blog presents another examination of an ancient Greek political satire.

TAXIARCHOI (Tax Collectors) – By Eupolis, who was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. Tax Day is the most appropriate day to examine this comedy because its premise serves as a pointed reminder of the inherent ugliness in all taxation – that the power to impose and collect taxes is, ultimately, backed up by the use of force. (If you doubt me go without paying your personal property taxes. Then we’ll discuss how much you truly “own” your home or your car.)  

In Taxiarchoi the god Dionysus is depicted joining the title military unit. Those Taxiarchoi units would periodically collect the “taxes” or – in its most honest form – “tribute” from the various regions, not only of Athens proper but of the Athenian subject states. Military units were necessary for such tasks for the reasons you would expect – attempted resistance on the part of those being taxed and/or attempted robbery by bands of thieves after the taxes had been collected.     Continue reading

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Filed under Ancient Greek Comedy

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE GUARDIAN OF MYSTERY ISLAND (1896)

Guardian of Mystery IslandTHE GUARDIAN OF MYSTERY ISLAND (1896) – Written by Dr Edmond Molcini. Mystery Island lies off the coast of Maine and everyone near the coast considers the place haunted by a true monstrosity – a large ghost-dog.

Sam Lenartson, the hero of the story, is new to the region and is bemused by the superstitious whispers about Mystery Island. He decides to investigate by sailing over to the place but can’t find anyone willing to brave the isle with him.

Sam arrives alone and, though he hears distant barking of an apparently large canine when he follows the sounds he finds a small dog and its owner. That owner is a very, very, VERY old French woman who is either senile or insane. She says she has been around since the 1790s, kept alive by chewing what she calls “Devil Weed.” Continue reading

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NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: APRIL FOURTEENTH

 Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog does another current events roundup from an America where supporters of political corruption continue to hate President Donald Trump.

LATEST DEMOCRAT HERO: FBI SAYS ARRESTED WISCONSINER KILLED HIS PARENTS IN PURSUIT OF THE “FINANCIAL MEANS AND AUTONOMY” TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT TRUMP. Like Democrats’ beloved Luigi Mangione he’s charged with murder and more. 

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT HERO: THIRTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD PENNSYLVANIA MAN ARRESTED FOR THREATS TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT TRUMP AND CALLS TO KILL ALL HIS APPOINTEES. More HERE. Democrats always tell us that “silence is consent” so unless they condemn all this it means they consent to it by their own standards.

Democrat Party

DEMOCRAT JASMINE CROCKETT UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING VIOLATIONS. Maybe she feels suddenly becoming loudly anti-Trump will see her through this scandal.

BOSTON DEMOCRAT CITY COUNCIL MEMBER AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY ON CORRUPTION CHARGES. More HERE. Have I mentioned lately that America’s politicians tend to be white-collar criminals?

ALSO IN MASSACHUSETTS, DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN CHARGED WITH FIVE COUNTS OF WIRE FRAUD AND FALSIFICATION OF RECORDS. See above item.

HHS SECRETARY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. CALLS OUT THE DEEP STATE AND CALLS THE FDA A “SOCK PUPPET” FOR THE PHARMA COMPANIES IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE REGULATING. More about Kennedy and the forces opposed to him HERE.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STRIPS FUNDS THAT JOE BIDEN GRANTED TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ON THE TERROR WATCH LIST. More HERE. “Illegal immigrants uber alles” becomes “illegal immigrants on the terror watch list uber alles” as the Democrat motto.  Continue reading

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

BLOOD BEACH (1980) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Randy (right) and Richard way down on Level 31 as they host their 1985-1987 show The Texas 27 Film Vault.

In the middle 1980s/ Way down on Level 31 …

Balladeer’s Blog continues its marking of the FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY year of The Texas 27 Film Vault, which debuted on February 9th of 1985. (MST3K debuted on November 24th of 1988.) 

EPISODE ORIGINALLY BROADCAST: Saturday February 22nd, 1986 from 10:30pm to 1:00am. Broadcast throughout Texas and Oklahoma. 

SERIAL: Before showing and mocking the movie machine-gun toting Randy and Richard, as members of the fictional Film Vault Corps (“the few, the proud, the sarcastic”) showed and mocked another chapter of the Republic Serial Radar Men from the Moon (1952).

FILM VAULT LORE: Our Film Vault Technicians First Class would pull the usual Movie Host duties like providing background info on the films and serials, and would also do comedy sketches centered around their fictional Film Vault Corps before and after commercials. They protected their duty station from menaces like giant rats, cellumites, a subterranean race of Drones and other threats. 

That duty station – Level 31, Core 27 of the Film Vault System was accessed via an industrial park behind KDFI Channel 27’s headquarters off Highway 183 near Dallas. The show was directed by Karl Newman, who often good-naturedly bemoaned Randy and Richard’s tendency to ad-lib. Sometimes in print interviews Newman would joke that if they used a script they would need far too many takes for Clower and Malmos to read their lines right, hence the ad-libbing.

THE MOVIE: Blood Beach (1980) was one of the least effective horror films of the 1980s. It had a half-decent premise – a monster beneath the sand at a California beach sucking victims down into its hellish maw – but squandered that premise with incredibly slow pacing.

The inane dialogue spouted by the annoying characters didn’t help matters.  Continue reading

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Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts