KID RUSSELL: EPISODE FOUR

For Episode One plus background information click HERE  For a look at the Kid Russell legend click HERE 

William Smith Kid Russell 2

William Smith would have made a good Kid Russell in the 60s.

KID RUSSELL

EPISODE FOUR

Title: Vigilante Justice

The Year: 1884

Synopsis: By April of 1884 the cattle ranchers of Montana are so plagued by rustlers that they are willing to form vigilante groups for the first time since the Montana Gold Rush days of the 1860s. Granville Stuart gathers at least 14 men around himself to take the law into their own hands against the rampant rustling. Continue reading

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Filed under Fantastic Movie Reviews, FRONTIERADO

COCKROACH ROBERT MUELLER, NOTORIOUSLY CORRUPT PROSECUTOR, SCUTTLES ALONG OUR KITCHEN FLOORS AGAIN

Mueller t-shirtRobert Mueller has replaced Richard Nixon as the National Cockroach. Even among notoriously sleazy American Prosecutors, Mueller has a name that’s synonymous with sludge. Just search under “Robert Mueller Scandals” and take your pick from all of the left-wing and right-wing news outlets. Mueller’s infamous involvement in abetting gangster Whitey Bulger by keeping innocent people in prison for years is just ONE of this greaseball’s many scandals.

Mueller CockroachI joked recently that next the Democrats will beg Mueller to write a fictionalized account of what he thinks happened in the nonexistent “Russian Collusion” (LMAO) fantasy. Then they can call him back AGAIN and ask hypothetical questions about what each line in the fictional account might mean, all the while pretending that their obsession with trying to revive Murky Mueller’s failed Witch Hunt means there’s smoke there.   

 

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FARO DEALING AND CHUCK-A-LUCK SUPPLIES FOR FRONTIERADO

FaroThe Frontierado Holiday, coming up Friday, August 2nd is about celebrating the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality.

For reasonably authentic and affordable Faro and Chuck-A-Luck supplies for Frontierado get-togethers I often use River Junction Trade Company and others.

Chuck a LuckSites like theirs will also sell plenty of other supplies that will suit your needs for making your deck or party room look like a Wild West saloon or casino. Clothing, saloon chairs, era-appropriate whiskey glasses, you name it. Continue reading

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TOMAHAWK TAM: FRONTIERADO SAGA

The latest Saga custom written for Frontierado, which is coming up Friday, August 2nd!

TomahawkTOMAHAWK TAM – Tamara “Tomahawk Tam” Wise-Brosnan aka “The Houston Hellcat” led one of the most eventful and action-packed lives in the Old West.

Born in 1863 the ever-willful and rambunctious child ran away in a pouting huff from the westward-bound wagon train her family was traveling with in 1873. Elders from the Nevada Paiute Tribe which adopted her forever maintained that when they encountered the young lady in the desert she fearlessly walked up to them and told them she was hungry and inquired if they had any food to share with her.

Charmed by all this, the Paiute raised her as one of their own. By her teen years Tamara was a close follower of the outspoken Paiute woman Sarah Winnemucca aka Thocmentony aka Shell Flower. It was Sarah who introduced the young Tamara to Eleanor Dumont, the famous gambler/ gunslinger. Eleanor’s free spirit forever after served as an inspiration for the future legend. 

When she was 15 in 1878 Tamara’s tribe left the reservation and found themselves in a conflict with the United States Army, the Bannock War (June-August).

The Paiute tribe under Chief Buffalo Horn could only muster around 500 warriors at the time and during one of the battles Tamara, wielding a rifle and a tomahawk, fought back against the attacking soldiers. From that day forward the newly rechristened “Tomahawk Tam” insisted on fighting alongside the men of her tribe. With her body-count increasing in every clash no one dared say her nay. Continue reading

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LATEST FICTION CONTEST WITH $3,000.00 AWARD

Award

Submit to the Masters Review Summer Short Story Award! The winning story will be awarded $3000 and publication online. Second and third place stories will be awarded publication and $300 and $200 respectively. All winners and honorable mentions will receive agency review. We want you to succeed, and we want your writing to be read. It’s been our mission to support emerging writers since day one.

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KILLRAVEN NINE: SOMETHING WORTH DYING FOR

FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL STORYLINE CLICK HERE  The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below. Marvel still rules current Pop Culture.

Killraven nine something worth dying forAMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #26 (September 1974)

Title: SOMETHING WORTH DYING FOR

Synopsis: Writer Don McGregor took one step forward in quality last time around, now it’s two steps BACK with this story that is so bad even the people at DC’s Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth might have rejected it. 

Near Battle Creek, MI, Killraven and his Freemen (M’Shulla, Old Skull, Hawk, Carmilla Frost and her creation Grok) have landed in their  Dyna-Glider. 

Killraven is busy trying to break one of the pinkish-crimson horses with serpent scales and forked tongues which were caused by the biological warfare agents unleashed 18 years earlier in mankind’s futile war to stop the alien invasion.

While time goes by and the Freemen reflect on KR’s stubbornness, dialogue tells us it has been well over a month and a half since the battle in Indianapolis last issue. (This makes no sense since they are flying, which is why my revision last issue made a point of having their Dyna-Glider destroyed by Skar. Hell, they could have WALKED from Indianapolis to Battle Creek several times over in a month and a half.) 

Killraven 2The dialogue also tells us Killraven has not had any of his Visions courtesy of The Power since the encounter with Martians and human Quislings at the Indianapolis Speedway. NOTE: At this point KR and his Freemen have not yet pieced together the fact that his “visions” are really him mentally invading the minds of Martians. Since they have encountered no Martians in the past month and a half, THAT’s why he has had no visions recently.

REVISION: Rather than have the main action focus on KR trying to “break” the serpent-stallion like he’s in a rodeo while dialogue covers important topics, I would have had KR already astride the horse while his Freemen were riding the mutated hybrid animals they would be riding a few issues down the road.

While Killraven and his Freemen – with Deathlok replacing Grok in my revisions – engage in a running battle with human Quislings pursuing them in various land-vehicles, dialogue and narration would let us readers know they’ve been on the run like this for weeks since the clash in Indianapolis.  Continue reading

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MOTHER JONES: TRUMP LINKS JULY 21st

mother-jonesMary Harris Jones aka “Mother” Jones fought the same kind of bloated rich pig oppressors that de facto Third Party President Trump fights. And it’s no secret that Trump has done more for the poor and the working class than any other president in DECADES! 

Once again Mother Jones has communicated with Balladeer’s Blog from beyond the grave to let me know about her favorite Trump links in recent news. 

cancer patient Natalie HarpCANCER SURVIVOR CALLS PRESIDENT TRUMP HER GOOD SAMARITAN. President Trump has been doing amazing things for cancer sufferers, just like he recently moved mountains to help those with kidney ailments.  – click HERE

DONALD TRUMP MUST BE THE CLEANEST MAN IN WASHINGTON DC. Don Surber echoes my take on how clean the Donald must be or the Democrats would have produced SOMETHING on him by now. Instead, every investigation they start goes nowhere, and this week another witch hunt against him was called off. – click HERE 

Donald Trump never called racist till running against DemocratsPRESIDENT TRUMP PROVEN TO BE TREATING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN CUSTODY BETTER THAN OBAMA Numbers don’t lie – click HERE 

DEMOCRAT CHUCK SCHUMER GOT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FROM EPSTEIN. While President Trump banned Epstein from his properties over a decade ago, the minute he learned what Epstein was like, the media keeps coming up with pics of Trump with Epstein from 1992 or so AND IGNORING ALL OF EPSTEIN’S RECENT TIES TO DEMOCRATS. Hilarious hypocrisy!  – click HERE

EVEN MORE PROOF IT WAS LOCAL PUERTO RICAN POLITICIANS, NOT TRUMP, WHO FOULED UP DISTRIBUTION OF HURRICANE RELIEF. Even more protests from the suffering victims against the corrupt Puerto Rican pols – click HERE

WOMEN FOR TRUMP. Further reflections from women for Trump’s reelection. And by the way, already more women have contributed money to President Trump’s 2020 campaign than did to his 2016 campaign!  – click Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion

COOL-NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM: FAULKNER STATE

Faulkner State Sun ChiefsFAULKNER STATE SUN CHIEFS

Location: Bay Minette, AL

Division: NJCAA

Comment: This excellent institution was founded in 1965 and has additional campuses in Continue reading

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APOLLO 11 ANNIVERSARY PLUS THE 6 OTHER MOON LAUNCHES

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! America’s Apollo 11 moon landing gets all the attention, so in keeping with Balladeer’s Blog’s overall theme here’s a look at the six missions that followed that very first manned moon landing. 

Apollo 12 patchAPOLLO 12 – Overall Commander: Charles “Pete” Conrad (not to be confused with Peter “Chuck” Conrad)

Command Module Yankee Clipper Pilot: Richard F Gordon, Jr

Lunar Module Intrepid Pilot: Alan L Bean 

Less than four full months after Apollo 11’s successful mission the Apollo 12 crew provided a SECOND fulfillment of President John F Kennedy’s goal of landing men on the moon and returning them safely to the Earth. 

The Lunar Module Intrepid touched down on the moon’s surface on November 19th, 1969 at 1:54am EST and lifted off to rendezvous with the orbiting Command Module Yankee Clipper on November 20th at 9:25am. Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean was on November 24th at 3:58pm.

The Mission: The Yankee Clipper was struck by lightning during its ascent from the Earth, knocking out all power but the back-up systems successfully restored all operations to normal. Apollo 12 made a perfect touchdown at its predesignated landing area, already improving on the previous mission, which had been very slightly off-course.

After landing at the Ocean of Storms Astronauts Conrad and Bean had to contend with a much more powdery surface than the Apollo 11 crew had encountered. The lunar dust and powder clung to the Astronauts’ suits and nearly clogged vital portions of the high-tech outfits. Continue reading

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KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH: GUNS & GAMBLERS FOR FRONTIERADO

MASCOT COWBOY 2Frontierado is on August 2nd, so two weeks from now blog posts related to that major holiday will wrap up for the year.

A neglected aspect of Wild West lore is the Alaskan Gold Rush. Klondike Kate was the only figure I’ve covered from the Yukon so it’s long past time for more. Think of dogsleds instead of stage coaches and instead of hot deserts, snow and temperatures so cold that whiskey freezes in the bottle. Think of winter storms of such magnitude that the entire city of Nome, AK was literally wiped out late in the Gold Rush. Boomtowns, gunslingers and gamblers are common to Gold Rushes in the frozen north AND in the continental U.S.

Klondike Gold Rush mapTHE MONTANA KID – Dan Egan, before his Yukon fame, was a boxer during the dangerous years when the sport was illegal in many areas and boxing matches were subject to being raided by the police. He had only limited success and his career as a pugilist is distinguished mostly by his losses to THE Billy Hennesy.

Already called the Montana Kid, Egan lost to Hennesy in boxing matches from Leavenworth, KS to San Francisco, CA between 1888 and 1892. Beginning around 1896 the Kid was in Alaska and made a name for himself smuggling whiskey from Juneau and Skagway to Dawson via his notoriously fast dogsled team.

Egan became a legend from his escapades eluding Canadian Mounties and American authorities with his ever-expanding inventory of smuggled goods. The Montana Kid would spend his down time between smuggling runs drinking and gambling in the many saloons in the Gold Rush boomtowns.  

When he was on a winning streak Egan would reward his sled-dogs with prime steaks from the best available restaurants.

This amiable but deadly man was a frequent participant in the marathon, multiple-day card games held at the Bank Saloon, along with equally colorful Klondike figures like Silent Sam Bonnifield, One-Eyed Riley, and the gambler known only as the Oregon Jew.   Continue reading

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