Balladeer’s Blog wishes a happy birthday to the USA! What happened in early July of 1776 certainly needs no rehashing so in keeping with my blog’s theme of addressing more out of the way subjects this post will examine various events that took place on other July 4ths throughout American history.
JULY 4TH, 1778 – George Rogers Clark led his rebel forces in taking the British stronghold of Kaskaskia, near the confluence of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia Rivers. Clark and his Rangers were on a mission for then-Virginia Governor Patrick Henry.
JULY 4TH, 1783 – The Massachusetts Supreme Court is finalizing its written decision holding that slavery has been illegal in the state since adoption of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights in 1780. Continue reading
CASIMIR PULASKI (1747-1779) -Obviously from my last name I’m Polish-American and therefore grew up immersed in the role played by Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kosciuszko in America’s War of Independence. I’m often surprised by how comparatively unknown they are to the public at large, so in keeping with Balladeer’s Blog’s theme here’s a look at Pulaski. I’ll cover Kosciuszko separately. 
The war never became as romanticized as the later Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Turks, but the conflict drew attention to Russian totalitarianism and to the abilities of Polish officers like Casimir Pulaski. In fact, it took an invasion by Russian-allied Austria and Prussia to help Russia put down the rebellion in 1772. 
Franklin was impressed with what he could learn about Pulaski and sent him on to America with a letter of introduction to George Washington. Franklin described the Pole as “an officer famous throughout Europe for his bravery and conduct in defence of the liberties of his country against the three great invading powers of Russia, Austria and Prussia … may be highly useful to our service.”
The 4th of July is fast approaching, so Balladeer’s Blog will be squeezing in a few more holiday-themed posts up til then. In the past I’ve examined Revolutionary War privateers like John Haraden and Silas Talbot. This time around I’ll take a look at the controversial Luke Ryan. 
Some of Ryan’s crew didn’t like the way the spoils were divided from this extracurricular activity and informed the authorities about Luke’s smuggling offense. The Friendship was seized and hauled to Poolbeg and all crew members on board were arrested, then thrown into Black Dog Gaol. This happened on the night of April 11th into 12th. 
We need alternate political parties here in the United States. The working class and the poor are ignored and demonized by both major political parties. Yes, there was a time when things were different but pretending nothing changed won’t help the situation. Both major parties are corporate-owned. 
CAPTAIN SILAS TALBOT – Even if he had never gone on to a career in Privateering, Talbot would still have been a fascinating figure from Revolutionary War history. On June 28th, 1775 Silas was commissioned as a Captain in a Rhode Island regiment and served in the military operations which ended with the British surrender of Boston in March of 1776. 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog takes another look at recent political cartoons, many of them about career criminal Joe Biden and the Biden Crime Family. 
Up first below is yet another reminder about how illegitimate the Democrats’ absurd January 6th Committee is, with Democrat violence once again sweeping the nation and with Democrats calling for the violent deaths of government figures. 
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. 
The notorious 
It’s become impossible to ignore the way that the corrupt establishment and their corporate media outlets fear populism and obsessively try to demonize it. In a way it’s a replay of the late 1800s when the labor movement was striking and demanding better pay and working conditions. The establishment responded with ugly demonization of working class people’s efforts to survive as something more than peasants, just as they have against populists like Donald Trump. 
Here in the 21st Century, in which the old paradigm of Liberalism vs Conservatism is being replaced by Populism vs Neo-Feudalism, we have seen a Populist like de facto Third Party President Donald Trump become the establishment’s new Eugene Debs – a bogeyman to be propagandized against and shrilly demonized along with his supporters. I’m an Independent voter and, like so many other people, I’ve observed how Trump was the greatest president for the working class and the poor in several decades. He was also the first president in decades to keep America out of any new wars and brought us energy independence. 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog wishes you a happy Juneteenth, commemorating the day Democrats lost their slaves. African-Americans continue fighting for their freedom from the Democrats, who today treat people of color like they still own them and that they MUST vote for Democrats and ONLY Democrats. Democrat Joe Biden, embodying the grotesque hypocrisy of that detestable political party, EULOGIZED A KLANSMAN – DEMOCRAT SENATOR ROBERT BYRD – yet Biden thinks he’s fit to give finger-wagging lectures to the rest of us. 
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