On this 8th day of the 8th month, let’s take another look at some recent political cartoons.
This first one deals with the callous Joe Biden’s word games while the working class and the poor suffer under his policies.
Up next is this non-cartoon reminder from Australia’s Ross McLean about the way China gets its money’s worth from Joe Biden. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
The 2022 College Football season kicks off on August 25th for the divisions covered here at Balladeer’s Blog. Here are my preseason rankings for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics).
*** 1. MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS (Defending National Champions) ### 2. NORTHWESTERN (IA) COLLEGE RED RAIDERS ### 3. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS ### 4. MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS ###
5. SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS ### 6. LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS ### 7. CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY (MI) CARDINALS ### 8. KEISER UNIVERSITY SEAHAWKS ### Continue reading
Filed under college football
Okay, this Saturday’s light-hearted, escapist superhero blog post will take a look at Marvel Comics’ neglected figure It, the Living Colossus.
TALES OF SUSPENSE Vol 1 #14 (February 1961)
Title: I Created the Colossus
Villains: The Kigor, an alien
NOTE: It the Living Colossus was created by Stan Lee, his brother Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby
Synopsis: We are introduced to Boris Petrovsky in the Soviet Union. He is a dissident artist whose brother Ivan, a Party official, had Boris canceled for his pro-freedom views. Ivan also had his brother detained for “reeducation” and was forcing him to create a huge statue glorifying the Soviet Union to show that he had abandoned his insurrectionist beliefs.
Defiant to the last, Boris instead used the months-long period to craft a menacing, horrifying face on the mammoth statue to show how he REALLY perceived the communist government. Shortly before Ivan was due to arrive to inspect the finished statue a spaceship crash-landed near Moscow.
The sole occupant of the alien vessel was a member of the Kigor race, large crab-like creatures of great intelligence who walked erect. Outnumbered on a hostile planet, the Kigor used its alien technology/ powers to transfer its mind into the enormous statue to try surviving.
Whether via technology or radiation treatments or some other method, the Kigor made the statue capable of movement as though it was a living being who had skin and muscles made of other-worldly stone. It’s a comic book, just go with it.
Ivan Petrovsky arrived to see the statue moving around on its own and called in the military. The statue, soon labeled It, the Living Colossus in languages around the world, fought back against the army, tanks and aircraft. It rampaged through Moscow like a kaiju monster stomping Tokyo. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
HAPPY FRONTIERADO! The first Friday of every August marks this holiday devoted to the myth of the old west rather than the grinding reality. For some of us the celebration kicks off Thursday night, for others they wait until the actual day of Frontierado to hold their festivities. Enjoy your buffalo steaks, rattlesnake fried rice, corn on the cob, tumbleweed pizza, cactus salad and more today and tonight, and enjoy the leftovers on Saturday and Sunday.
BUCKSKIN FRANK LESLIE – Franklyn Leslie, full name Nashville Franklyn Leslie, was better known as Buckskin Frank. “Nashville” was, he claimed, his actual first name, NOT a nickname.
Buckskin Frank Leslie had no connection to the popular 1800s magazine of that name, but that’s one of the few questions that can be answered about this gunslinger. Which side of the Civil War did he serve on? He claimed both at various times.
Was he pro or anti-Clanton Faction during the gang war in Tombstone, Arizona? He claimed to be a Lone Wolf, and news accounts of the time do feature him in conflict with figures from both sides. He definitely killed Billy Claiborne and MAY have killed Johnny Ringo. Even his own death is shrouded in mystery.
Nashville Franklyn Leslie was born March 18th, 1842 in Texas. Virtually nothing is known about his early life and at different times he claimed to have served on each side of the Civil War. Why he left Texas is not known, either. By some accounts it was because of a family conflict but by others it was to flee a criminal past, possibly under the surname Korrigan or Corrigan.
Documentation starts to show up regarding Buckskin Frank on July 11th, 1869 when he arrived in San Francisco via the steamship Portland according to the passenger information published by the Daily Alta California.
After working as a bartender in San Francisco and possibly other California cities Leslie worked for Wells Fargo and similar outfits for a few years as a gunslinging guard before becoming an army scout under various commanders including Custer. He dabbled in law enforcement as a Deputy Sheriff and may or may not have met Wild Bill Hickok during the early 1870s, depending on which source you go by. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
It’s time for another news roundup here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.
THE LATEST ON THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY AND ITS UNDERBOSS HUNTER BIDEN. “No-show jobs” – common to organized crime AND Hunter Biden.
ELECTION FRAUD CONCERNS ARE DELAYING THE U.K. VOTE FOR THEIR NEXT PRIME MINISTER. The repercussions from America’s tainted and corrupt 2020 presidential election continue to be felt around the world.
POLL: SIXTY-TWO PERCENT CALL OUT BIDEN FOR BEING A RECESSION DENIER BY CORRECTLY IDENTIFYING THE ONGOING RECESSION. More HERE. Majority also say that de facto Third Party President Donald Trump handed a surging economy over to the Biden Regime, who proceeded to crash it into the ground.
ANOTHER DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE CALLED OUT FOR OMITTING MORE THAN $200,000 FROM THEIR INCOME DISCLOSURE REPORT. Life in Joe Biden’s Corporate Fascist Kleptocracy.
DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR TIM WALZ CALLED OUT FOR HIS FAILURES DURING HIS POLITICAL PARTY’S RIOTS IN 2020.
THIS YEAR TRUMP-ENDORSED CANDIDATES HAVE WON 170 PRIMARY RACES AND LOST ONLY 10. But the Democrats’ media outlets claimed each of the 10 losses were “proof” that Trump no longer has influence.
AND ANOTHER DEMOCRAT OFFICE HOLDER CAUGHT FOR FAILURE TO PAY TAXES.
BIDEN ADMITS TRUMP WAS RIGHT BY ADDING TO THE BORDER WALL. More HERE. And, needless to say, the Party’s news outlets are fine with it. A wall was only bad if Trump was doing it. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
The Frontierado holiday, on August 5th this year, is hurtling toward us. Balladeer’s Blog will squeeze in a few more seasonal posts for this year’s celebrations. Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality.
PONY BOB – Robert Haslam, better known as Pony Bob, holds multiple records set in the Pony Express during its year and a half history, including the longest individual round-trip ride – 380 miles – when one of his relay riders was put out of action during the Paiute War in 1860.
Pony Bob was born in England in January, 1840 and in his teens moved to the United States. For a few years Haslam worked around Salt Lake City, Utah, doing ranch work and serving as a mounted government messenger before joining in the construction work on the Pony Express stations. When the Express launched in April of 1860, he was among the earliest Expressmen, the official title of the Pony Express riders.
Haslam’s route in Nevada was from Friday’s Station to Buckland Station near Fort Churchill. Among Pony Bob’s experiences during the Paiute War –
Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO, Neglected History
THE RAINBOW OF ADAMANT (1897) – Written by Charles Kelsey Gaines, this short story is an excellent example of how slowly word of scientific discoveries was spread in the 19th Century compared to our lightning-fast communications of today. The Rainbow of Adamant was written during the period when most of the world was still going by assumptions and theories about helium.
That element had been officially detected in 1868 and subsequently confirmed but its exact properties were unknown for decades. In 1895 a trio of scientists – Per Teodor Cleve, Nils Abraham Langlet and Sir William Ramsay – found helium emanating from “cleveite” (now known as a variety of uraninite) and documented its properties.
As word of the trio’s work was slowly disseminating among the rest of the scientific community and the general public, the April 1897 issue of The Pocket Magazine published Charles Kelsey Gaines’ short story The Rainbow of Adamant. That tale, reviewed below, presented a much more fanciful and exciting version of helium’s properties. Continue reading
Filed under Ancient Science Fiction
With Frontierado rapidly approaching on August 5th – or for those of us who kick things off the night before – August 4th – let’s take a look at some of the most obscure but laughably weird Italian westerns. And what better way to start that list than with one of the countless Spaghetti Westerns with phony Django titles?
Franco Nero starred as the original Django but sadly had just a cameo in the 2012 reboot. The original movie was a monumental success everywhere in the world except the U.S. back in 1966. There was only one other “official” Django movie (also starring Nero) but there were literally nearly a hundred false Django movies featuring different actors in the lead role (my favorite being Terence Hill) or that just plain retitled and redubbed other Italian westerns to make them seem like Django movies.
1. DJANGO KILL (1967) – Originally titled If You Live, Shoot!, this was one of the many Eurowesterns to be re-released to theaters years later as a phony Django movie just so it could clean up on the guaranteed cash cow of the Django name.
In this one our pseudo-Django finds himself involved with a kidnapped teen boy, the gay outlaws who have kidnapped and raped him (seriously), and their Wild West castle (?) where they torture their victims medieval-style, including roasting them on spits. Pseudo-Django shoots gold bullets in this flick and greedy townspeople rip open the corpses of the gunmen who fall to him just to get at the precious metal.
Even worse is the scene where the gold-hungry townspeople rip open the wounds of people who were just injured by the gold bullets, adding wince-inducing screams to the tableau. For my review of the original 1966 Django movie click HERE. Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog comes to you from the recession-stricken United States.
MORE EVIDENCE THAT JOE BIDEN WAS INDEED “THE BIG GUY” REFERRED TO IN HIS UNDERBOSS HUNTER BIDEN’S INFLUENCE PEDDLING SCHEMES. More HERE. As in “10% for the Big Guy” if you’ve forgotten the organized crime approach of the Biden Crime Family.
BIDEN REGIME’S UNFORGIVABLE BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE CONTINUES.
EVEN THE DEMOCRATS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES ADMIT: BIDEN IS A FAILURE.
WHISTLEBLOWER OPENS UP ABOUT THE FBI (FORGETTA BOUT INTEGRITY) NOT ONLY SUPPRESSING THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP REVELATIONS BUT GOOSING THE “DOMESTIC EXTREMISM” (LMAO) STATISTICS. More HERE.
MORE DEMOCRAT VOTE FRAUD PREPARATIONS: OBSERVERS WILL NOT BE PERMITTED IN LOS ANGELES RECALL ELECTION. Democrats are calling the election to recall one of their office holders “not a real election” and therefore observers can be blocked from carrying out their duties.
DEMOCRAT-RUN COUNTY IN CALIFORNIA ELIMINATES THE CITIZENSHIP REQUIREMENT FOR GOVERNMENT JOBS. Even for federal jobs whose location happens to be in that county. Apparently Democrats feel “Fewer and fewer citizens agree with our policies, so we’ll hire non-citizens.”
BIG TECH CAUGHT TRYING TO CHANGE THE DEFINITION OF A RECESSION TO HELP THEIR INSTALLED BIDEN REGIME PRETEND THAT WE’RE NOT IN ONE. And the Regime can claim they had nothing to do with the change in definition. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
Frontierado is coming up on Friday, August 5th!
POSSE is a terrific western about a gang of African American gunfighters (plus the goofiest Baldwin brother) involved in an action-packed epic journey across the American west. The Frontierado holiday is the perfect time of year to hunker down with this film while drinking a Cactus Jack or a Deuces Wild or two. I’ll review the recipes for those mixed drinks in a few days, but for now we’ll focus on this movie on our countdown.
Posse stars Mario Van Peebles, who also directed, as Jesse Lee, the brooding, revenge-driven hero of the saga. He and all but one member of his gang, our titular posse, are soldiers fighting in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898. A dangerous assault they carry out turns out to be Continue reading
Filed under FRONTIERADO
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