July 4, 2021 · 10:49 am

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY 2021

American flagBalladeer’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 →

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July 3, 2021 · 9:51 pm

1776: FOURTH OF JULY MUSICAL

1776-musical-movieIt may be my fondness for mythology that makes me love to watch particular movies around particular holidays.  I say that because many of the well- known myths were recited on ancient holidays when their subject matter was relevant to those holidays. The stories helped accentuate the meaning of the special events and that’s the way I use various movies.

At Christmas I watch countless variations of A Christmas Carol, around Labor Day I watch Matewan and Eight Men Out, at Halloween, naturally, horror films like the original  Nightmare On Elm Street, Thanksgiving Eve I do Oliver! and for Frontierado (which is just a month away now) I do Silverado.

Since the actual 4th of July is loaded with activity I always show 1776 on the night before. It’s a great way to get in the mood for Independence Day. It’s a musical but with brilliant dialogue portions and the story involves the political maneuvering  surrounding the Original Thirteen Colonies at last announcing their independence from Great Britain, more than a year after  the shots fired at Lexington and Concord started the war.

The story is excellently conveyed and is moving, comical, invigorating and poignant all at once. As long as you know which parts of the tale are depicted accurately and which are complete b.s. it’s a terrific way to spend each 3rd of July evening. Continue reading →

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July 2, 2021 · 6:51 pm

THE FIRST 20 UNCLE SAM SUPERHERO STORIES FROM THE 1940s

As the 4th of July approaches, Balladeer’s Blog presents one last red, white and blue-themed superhero – Uncle Sam, from Quality Comics. For over 20 more Quality Comics heroes click HERE.

uncle samUNCLE SAM

Secret Identity: Ezra Smith (assumed name)

First Appearance: National Comics #1 (July 1940) His final Golden Age appearance came in 1944.

Origin: During the Revolutionary War, a dying American soldier named Sam (last name unknown) felt such a fervent desire to continue fighting for the new country that he assumed supernatural status. Over the decades he incarnated as Uncle Sam whenever the United States needed him.

In 1940 he appeared to young Buddy Smith, whose father Ezra was just killed for opposing a Fascist organization called the Purple Shirts. Uncle Sam defeated that group and became Buddy’s substitute father, pretending to be his late father Ezra to legal authorities.

uncle sam againPowers: This hero had Superman-level strength and invulnerability. He could fly in a sense by making enormous Hulk-sized leaps. He had a mystic ability to know where he would be needed. Due to his supernatural nature, Uncle Sam could not be photographed or filmed.

Comment: When he was no longer needed in a given time period, this hero faded away, to once again incarnate during the next period of crisis for the country.

national comics 1NATIONAL COMICS #1 (July 1940)

Title: The Coming of Uncle Sam

Villains: The Purple Shirts

Synopsis: The origin of Uncle Sam, including his “adoption” of Buddy Smith, the scrappy kid in short pants depicted on the cover. Uncle Sam wages war on the Purple Shirts army, which is being financed by an unnamed – but obvious – foreign power.

Our hero invades the Purple Shirts’ secret stronghold at Box Valley in the southern Rocky Mountains. Uncle Sam clobbers the villains and rescues the U.S. President, whom they kidnapped earlier in a commando raid. Continue reading →

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July 1, 2021 · 11:47 pm

AND EVEN MORE NEGLECTED BATTLES FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

american flag revo warThe 4th of July is coming up soon so why not do another seasonal post? The format of my recent look at some overlooked American victories from the Revolutionary War was pretty popular with readers, so in that same format here’s a look at some victories AND defeats from 1778.

george rogers clarkMAY 15th, 1778 – George Rogers Clark and his troops seize the British base at Cahokia on the Mississippi River near what is now East Saint Louis, IL. This officially kicks off Clark’s campaign to take control of America’s northwest frontier (of the time) away from the British. The campaign was begun at the behest of Virginia’s Governor Patrick Henry.

MAY 30th, 1778 – British-educated Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant leads a combined force of 300 Iroquois and British Loyalists against 60 militiamen and Continental Soldiers who were defending Cobleskill, NY. Brant’s army wins, resulting in the looting and burning of Cobleskill.

JULY 3rd, 1778 – At what became called the Wyoming Valley Massacre in Northern Pennsylvania, British Loyalist Colonel John Butler leads 574 combined British Loyalists and Mohawk Indians against 360 Americans under Colonel Zebulon Butler. The Americans lose and the British Loyalists allow the Mohawks to torture to death surviving Americans who could not avoid capture. Roughly 340 of the original 360 men were killed, either in battle or by slow torture.   

JULY 4th, 1778 – George Rogers Clark and his American army attack and capture the British post at Kaskaskia, IL at the confluence of the Kaskaskia and Mississippi Rivers. Continue reading →

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July 1, 2021 · 8:15 am

DEMOCRAT ATROCITY ROUNDUP: JULY 1st

democrat platform hatredHere at Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog it’s time for another edition of Democrat Atrocity Roundup. And by the way, BIDEN STILL HAS KIDS IN CAGES. But as we all know, Democrats never really cared about those kids. They just used them as a political stick. 

JOE BIDEN, THE “MAD KING GEORGE III” OF 2021, SHOWN IN ANOTHER MEETING WITH HIS UNDERBOSS HUNTER BIDEN AND HUNTER’S MEXICAN “BUSINESS PARTNERS”.

CORRUPT JOE BIDEN AND MORE SMOKING GUNS OVER THE MEXICO DEALS. AND STILL MORE. 

DEMOCRATS AT NIKE STILL FINE WITH CHINESE GOVERNMENT USING SLAVE LABOR AND COMMITTING GENOCIDE. MORE HERE. Does their position on China make them the I.G. Farben of the 21st Century?

aaaaaa

NO DEMOCRAT WOULD ALLOW THIS SIGN IN A CLASSROOM OR OFFICE.

DEMOCRAT SHERIFF COURAGEOUSLY DISCUSSES WHY HE IS LEAVING THAT POLITICAL PARTY. More people need to #WALKAWAY from that party of hatemongers and corruption.

OVER 500 VOTE FRAUD CASES STILL PENDING IN JUST ONE STATE ALONE.

 PEOPLE FIGHTING BACK OVER BIDEN REGIME LETTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH NO COVID VACCINATION LOOSE AMONG THE PUBLIC. 

DEMOCRAT PRIMARY IN NEW YORK REVEALED MORE FLAWS IN OUR VOTING SYSTEM WITH 130,000-150,000 “TEST” BALLOTS THAT MADE THEIR WAY INTO THE FINAL COUNT.  ALSO HERE. AND – PROOF WHY EVERY INSTANCE OF BALLOTS CAST OUTNUMBERING REGISTERED VOTERS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED. The situation would not have been made known if not for that red flag. Members of both political parties should care about such errors.

DEMOCRAT BIG TECH FASCISTS FAIL TO KEEP DE FACTO THIRD PARTY PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP OFF OF SOCIAL MEDIA. He is now at Rumble.

CALLOUS JOE BIDEN TALKS ABOUT “THE GOOD THING” ABOUT FLORIDA BUILDING COLLAPSE. What an imbecile Biden is.

BIDEN VP HARRIS BLASTED BY PROTESTORS OVER BIDEN REGIME’S BORDER ATROCITIES. MORE HERE and HERE. Continue reading →

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June 30, 2021 · 11:21 am

CHUCK NORRIS IN A FORCE OF ONE (1979)

a force of oneA FORCE OF ONE (1979) – Fresh off the success of Good Guys Wear Black, Chuck Norris starred in this action film directed by Paul Aaron in only his second directing effort. The prolific Ernest Tidyman wrote the screenplay.

The Story: In a fictional mid-sized California city, a drug operation is thriving, helped along by bad cops who funnel confiscated drugs right back to the head of the narcotics pushers after pretending to have destroyed the seized goodies per department policy. The drug ring uses a sporting goods store as their front and use an aspiring karate champ as their chief enforcer.

             That enforcer is a deadly human weapon and when cops keep turning up dead at his hands the department hires a local karate dojo master to teach the police better techniques of self-defense. That dojo master falls in love with a lady cop and winds up helping the police to battle the drug ring.   

The Characters:

CHUCK NORRIS is in the role of Matt Logan, a former special forces man from the United States Army. He’s the defending Middleweight Karate Champion and also runs a karate dojo on the side. One of his students is his black adopted son Charlie (Eric Laneuville), whose late mother he had platonically befriended when … oh, don’t worry about it. They might as well have saved time by just having him be one of Matt’s students, PERIOD, since his only purpose is to get killed by the drug dealers, thus giving Logan a personal stake in the crusade to bring them down. Continue reading →

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June 29, 2021 · 5:10 pm

MORE NEGLECTED AMERICAN VICTORIES IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

american rebelsWith the 4th of July holiday fast approaching, here’s another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog. Since too many documentaries and books on the Revolutionary War focus on what seems like the same handful of battles I like focusing on a lot of the overlooked military clashes. This is another go-round.

NOVEMBER 19th, 1775 – Days earlier, British Loyalists in South Carolina seized large stores of gunpowder from the American Rebel forces. Starting a campaign to recover the gunpowder, roughly 560 men under Andrew Williamson established a fort at Savage’s Old Fields, near Ninety-Six, SC. The fort was surrounded by 1,900 British Loyalists under Patrick Cuningham and Joseph Robinson. A siege began.

NOVEMBER 21st, 1775 – After two days of fighting, the Loyalists agreed to withdraw from the area. The action of the 19th to 21st is known as the Siege of Savage’s Old Field or the First Siege of Ninety-Six.   

DECEMBER 22nd, 1775 – A combined force of 1,300 South Carolina and North Carolina troops attacked over 500 British Loyalists at the Reedy River in the Battle of Great Cane Brake. The American Rebels won and, among other spoils, recovered the stolen gunpowder before the Loyalists could pass it along to Great Britain’s Cherokee allies.   Continue reading →

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June 29, 2021 · 6:00 am

BALLADEER’S BLOG LIKES CALICO JACK RUM FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY

calico jack rumIn the past Balladeer’s Blog has given shout-outs to various alcohol products that I feel go great with the now-global Frontierado Holiday on the first Friday of every August. Since this is, after all, a lifestyle blog (I’M KIDDING!), here is a shoutout for a brand of rum for the 4th of July celebrations.

Calico Jack Rum is named, of course, for the real-life pirate Calico Jack Rackham. It’s a terrific spiced rum that I find much better than Captain Morgan and other brands. I go for Calico Jack #94, named for its 94 proof strength. Continue reading →

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June 28, 2021 · 9:30 am

THE PEOPLE VS JOE BIDEN

biden is a failure

biden n wordWE NEED THIRD PARTIES. It’s no secret that Joe Biden (who comes from a slave-owning family) is a fascist, a longtime racist, a plagiarist, an accused rapist and the head of the Biden Crime Family. He recently made an unhinged threat to nuke American citizens who dare to dissent from his increasingly ugly and totalitarian policies. Biden allows unvaccinated illegal immigrants to flood into the U.S. while tightly restricting the activities of citizens, whether they’ve been vaccinated or not. 

He’s also clearly senile, maybe even demented. Political power in the hands of a man like this has already wrought the kind of disasters that rational people would expect. Periodically, when Joe’s already proven corruption is finally sated with enough graft money and abuse of power, the white-collar criminals he surrounds himself with voraciously grab their share and abuse their power to whatever degree Biden lets them. 

Joe Biden and his creepy accomplices defund the police, encourage violence against police, continue to wage war on the poor and the working class,Senile Joe Biden and continue a political purge of non-Democrats from the military. Claiming apolitical status won’t save you. Under Biden and his thugs members of the armed services must either pretend to enthusiastically embrace every divisive Democrat talking point or get targeted for reeducation/ “awareness and sensitivity training” until they ARE willing to so pretend.

Biden and company continue to dehumanize everyone who disagrees with them, especially targeting people of color, Latinos and gay people who dare to defy the Party. ONLY people of color, Latinos and gay people who unquestioningly support the Party are welcomed in public life and are permitted to hold public positions without getting persecuted and hounded from office and/ or public life.

*** EVEN OBAMA’S ETHICS CHIEF BLASTS JOE BIDEN AND THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY’S BLATANT CORRUPTION.

*** BIDEN SLURS HISPANIC AMERICANS AGAIN WHILE ALSO ENABLING THE ABSURD “LATINX” LABEL WHICH LATINOS REJECT BUT WHICH DEMOCRATS TRY TO FORCE ON THEM.

Biden is creepy*** BIDEN SHOWS EVEN MORE INSTABILITY WITH CREEPY AND DERANGED WHISPERING AT PODIUM. Creepy Joe whispers like a child molester saying to his victim “Remember – not a word to your parents about what I did to you.” 

*** BIGOTED JOE BIDEN CLAIMS HISPANIC AMERICANS ARE MOSTLY ILLEGALS AND FEAR DEPORTATION IF THEY SHOW UP FOR VACCINATIONS.

*** HUNTER BIDEN SLURRED AND REJECTED ASIAN WOMEN AS POTENTIAL PARTNERS.

*** AUSTRALIAN NEWS MOCKS THE DEMOCRAT MEDIA’S PROPAGANDISTIC COVERAGE OF THE DISASTROUS BIDEN.

*** DR NAOMI WOLF BLASTS THE “UNHOLY MARRIAGE” OF THE BIDEN REGIME, BIG TECH AND THE DEMOCRATS. Continue reading →

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June 27, 2021 · 9:45 am

PRIME CUT (1972): MINI-REVIEW

prime cutPRIME CUT (1972) – Directed by Michael Ritchie. Prime Cut was released less than 4 months after The Godfather but it’s difficult to think of two more different gangster films. And I say that as a good thing. Prime Cut is not trying for the epic, operatic scope of The Godfather, it’s just a fairly solid street-level gangster flick with a few admittedly silly action sequences.

The story:

The Chicago Syndicate bosses are being disrespected by a subordinate Kansas boss who is itching to break out from under their thumb and take complete control of his own little empire. Part of that figurative declaration of independence took the form of not sending the Chicago boys their required tribute, or “cut.” 

hackman marvinThe Windy City mob sent a tough-guy “negotiator” to try leaning on the Kansas rebel only to have that Jayhawk State gangster take things to the next level by having the tough-guy killed, then literally ground into hot dog meat. Adding insult to injury the Kansas boss sent the hot dogs/ bodily remains of the negotiator back to Chicago in the package they were supposed to use to send their tribute money.

Chicago’s response is to send four button men under the command of one of their coldest, most hard-assed enforcers, to Kansas to bring the upstart back into line by whatever means prove necessary. Much bloodshed ensues, with butchery and slaughterhouses of all kinds reflecting the title theme.

The characters: Continue reading →

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