FOR PART ONE (2016) OF THIS RETROSPECTIVE FROM INDEPENDENT VOTER SITE BALLADEER’S BLOG CLICK HERE
FACULTY LOUNGE FASCIST ROUNDUP: March 19th, 2018 HERE.
POLITICAL CARTOONS: March 26th, 2018 HERE.
TRANSGRESS WITH ME: MARCH 28th, 2018 – Only for the brave and iconoclastic. HERE.
MOCK HEADLINES: March 20th, 2018 HERE. March 14th HERE. March 9th HERE.
JIMMY KIMMEL: THE BALLADEER’S BLOG INTERVIEW: It’s HERE. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, opinion
This weekend’s escapist, lighthearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at all the Marvel Comics publications for January of 1972, excluding reprints.
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #104 (January 1972)
Title: The Beauty and the Brute
Villains: Kraven the Hunter and Gog
Synopsis: This issue picks up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending – Spider-Man is sinking in quicksand in the hidden Antarctic realm called the Savage Land.
NOTE: Introduced in X-Men #10, the Savage Land was a “lost world” in Antarctica. Geothermal heat kept the place a tropical rainforest year-round, and the Savage Land was home to countless species of dinosaurs, primitive humans and monstrous creatures. The U.N. looked after the Savage Land to preserve it.
Vibranium was plentiful in the Savage Land and it was depicted there even before its presence was mentioned in Wakanda.
Back to the story, Spider-Man is saved from the quicksand by the timely arrival of Ka-Zar, the blonde Tarzan-like hero of the Savage Land, and his sabretooth tiger companion Zabu. Soon, Spider-Man, Ka-Zar and Zabu are attacked by Kraven the Hunter and his enormous creature Gog. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
A HONEYMOON IN SPACE (1900) – Written by George Chetwyn Griffith- Jones under the pseudonym George Griffith. Jones had worked as a sailor, a journalist and a teacher before writing a series of novels covering a broad range of topics.
This story details the adventures of Lord Redgrave and his American wife Zaidie. Redgrave has created the Astronef, a “space yacht” powered by the fictional R-Force, a means of harnessing gravity and deploying its energy in whatever way was desired.
The maiden voyage of the Astronef causes a global sensation and inspires peace between various nations on the verge of war. (no squid-gina necessary) Next, Lord Redgrave decides to take his blushing bride on a honeymoon spent exploring our solar system. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
Here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog I got a kick out of the recent Reuters report on their investigation into the slaveholding roots of U.S. politicians. It’s long been known that Joe Biden is from a line of slave owners but – as I’m sure it galled Reuters to have to report – their bete noir Donald Trump was the ONLY living U.S. president NOT descended from slave owners. (Yes, even Barack Obama’s ancestors were slave owners.)
Republican office holders who are descended from slave owners include some of my frequent targets for bashing over present-day corruption like Mitch McConnell, George W. Bush and Lindsey Graham.
Democrats descended from slave owners and who are among my frequent targets for bashing over present-day corruption include Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, infamous for her exposed lies about being Native American (and using that lie to fill minority positions in academia despite being lily-white). Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
THE MAN FROM PAINTED POST (1917) – Here is another Douglas Fairbanks movie from the years before he became the film world’s premier swashbuckler. Unlike the pure comedy of Fairbanks’ The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, which I reviewed last week, The Man from Painted Post was an action comedy set in the old west.
Doug starred as Fancy Jim Sherwood, a Charles Siringo-style old west private detective whose agency has been hired to investigate and shut down a Wyoming rustling empire run by outlaw chief Bull Madden (Frank Campeau). Fancy Jim sets about his task by showing up in the crime-ridden region undercover in the guise of a clumsy, citified twit from back east.
That allows Fairbanks to show off his athleticism AND talent for comedy through slapstick fakery to make his eastern Dude character seem hilariously inept at roping, riding and shooting. Fancy Jim Sherwood’s masquerade succeeds in making Bull Madden and his gang dismiss him as a non-threatening wimp.
Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO, opinion
The 4th of July holiday is rapidly approaching, so here is another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog. In other blog posts I’ve examined the post-Yorktown battles in 1781 and 1782 in detail, but this item will deal with smaller, neglected clashes.
OCTOBER 24th – Near Sandy Hook, NJ American rebel Captain Adam Hyler leads an unknown number of men in a clash with an unknown number of British Loyalists. Hyler takes 6 prisoners during the action.
OCTOBER 28th – Vince’s Fort, SC, manned by 80 American rebels under Captain Joseph Vince, was attacked by Colonel Hezekiah Williams’ British Loyalist forces in the area. The Americans successfully drove off the attackers with minimal casualties.
OCTOBER 30th – At West Canada Creek, NY, the site of a larger battle in September, American Colonel Marinus Willett led 400 New York militiamen and over 60 Oneida Indians allied with the U.S. Willett’s forces clashed with 750 of Major John Ross’ Tory troops and Native Americans who sided with the British. Colonel Willett’s men were victorious, and Tory officer Walter Butler, one of the most blood-soaked Loyalists during the war, was among those killed.
NOVEMBER 1st-6th – At Gowen’s Fort, SC, Roebuck’s Battalion and civilian non-combatants were attacked and besieged by a combined force of British Loyalists and Chickamauga Indian allies of the British. On November 6th, the Americans surrendered after the Loyalist Captain William Bates guaranteed their safety.
However, after the fort’s gate was opened, Bates ordered all those inside – including women and children – to be killed. Details are hard to nail down from this action and no estimates of American and Loyalist numbers are available. Mrs. Abner Thomson, scalped and left for dead, was one of the few survivors. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
A look at some of the latest from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.
HUNTER BIDEN PAID FOR $300 PER MONTH INTERNATIONAL PHONE FOR JOE BIDEN. How convenient. Joe’s conversations with Hunter’s “business” partners overseas (LMAO) were on a phone not in Joe’s name. It’s life in the Biden Crime Family’s corporate fascist kleptocracy.
BURISMA WHISTLEBLOWER FOUND DEAD. How convenient for the Biden Crime Family.
BIDENS RECEIVED OVER FIVE MILLION DOLLARS WITHIN DAYS OF THE NOTORIOUS APP MESSAGE. Just a coincidence, right?
CELEBRATED DEMOCRAT LEGISLATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE ARRESTED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES. Democrats, can you please leave children alone?
BIDEN’S DOJ BLOCKED ATTEMPTS TO PROSECUTE HUNTER BIDEN. More HERE. But prosecutors abusing their positions by going after Joe Biden’s political enemies go unchecked.
THE DEMOCRATS CALL ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. “A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY” FOR CHALLENGING THE UNFIT JOE BIDEN. See? They will say that about ANYBODY who doesn’t toe The Party line. But for four years fools bought into it when The Party said it about Trump.
DEMOCRATS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES CLAIM ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. IS A “RUSSIAN PUPPET.” The Party is still trying the old “Russia, Russia, Russia!” nonsense.
COURAGEOUS DEMOCRAT CALLS FOR RETAKING THE PARTY FROM THE INTOLERANT FASCISTS WHO NOW RUN IT. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
THE PURPLE DEATH (1895) – Written by William Livingston Alden. Presented in the first person this story is narrated by a British gentleman staying in Italy. He becomes friendly with his neighbor, a German M.D. and bacteriologist named Dr Schmidt.
Subsequent conversations reveal that Schmidt is a good old-fashioned mad scientist who has some very odd sympathies. The German doctor sides with Anarchists (among the biggest bogey-men of the 1890s) and his only objection to the occasional assassinations that Anarchists commit is how impractical those crimes are. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
FOR PART ONE (2016) OF THIS RETROSPECTIVE FROM INDEPENDENT VOTER SITE BALLADEER’S BLOG CLICK HERE
OVERLOOKED NEWS STORIES FROM THAT MONTH – Another scandal from the Obama Administration saw Obama’s top attorney for I.C.E. plead guilty to wire fraud and to forging documents in order to open credit card and bank accounts under stolen identities. The court case had been dragging on for years, as so many do here in the U.S.
All that plus 100,000 more non-citizens were found on the voter rolls, this time in Pennsylvania. Funny how it’s only Democrats who keep claiming such vote fraud isn’t a problem.
SEX, LIES AND POLITICS – This February 2018 item dealt with the disgraced Congressman Adam Schiff actually falling for a scam in which he thought pranksters could provide him with compromising photos of Trump! Plus, Hillary Clinton on marriage.
STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS: 2018 – The nation was flying high.
FISA-GATE CONTINUED – F.B.I. = S.C.U.M.
MOCK HEADLINES ARE BACK – The comedy bit was back with mock headlines like “CNN CLAIMS NO CHILD’S PETS WOULD EVER DIE IF NOT FOR TRUMP” Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, opinion
This weekend’s escapist, lighthearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the 30th Century Legion of Superheroes. DC fans are still saying I don’t cover enough DC characters, so here we go.
LEGION OF SUPERHEROES (Superboy starring the …) Vol 1 #203 (August 1974)
Title: Massacre by Remote Control
Legion Roster: Sun Boy, Phantom Girl, Invisible Kid, Superboy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Mon-El, Brainiac 5, Dream Girl, Karate Kid and Element Lad
Villain: Validus
Synopsis: Mon-El, the current leader of the Legion, is outraged that Invisible Kid has been letting his relationship with a woman from the invisible dimension – Myla – interfere with his obligations to the team.
Eventually, Dream Girl has a dream foretelling an imminent attack by Validus – the huge, mindless monster who is strong enough to take on entire teams of Legionnaires at once. Because Validus is usually harmless unless controlled psychically by its fellow Fatal Five member Tharok, the Legion makes sure that the cyborg Tharok is still safely incarcerated at Space Prison Complex X33.
Not only is the villain still in custody, but he has been undergoing repairs to some of the cybernetic devices in his brain, meaning he cannot be mentally controlling Validus at all.
When Validus ultimately attacks Legion headquarters in future Metropolis, he is routing the heroes while withstanding all their counterattacks. Invisible Kid at first seems to have abandoned his post to dally with Myla but it turns out he actually solved the problem at hand.
In the Legion trophy room, the Kid has deduced that components of Tharok’s brain that are on display (These are the good guys, right?) have activated themselves and THEY have summoned Validus to attack them. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
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