Tag Archives: Balladeer

DYSTOPIA NATION: THE NEW COLONIALISM

FOR A LOOK AT MY PREVIOUS DYSTOPIA NATION POSTS CLICK HERE

Mascot sword and pistolTHE NEW COLONIALISM – Here’s another situation to embellish and extrapolate from in standard Dystopian Literature format. It’s the way that isolated, heavily-populated regions of pompous snobs, cowardly hypocrites and hilariously pretentious asses consider themselves the rulers of the entire rest of the nation.

Part of the inspiration for this installment came from the way Ben Franklin observed that – leading up to the Revolutionary War – even everyday citizens in Great Britain would snobbishly refer to Americans as “OUR subjects in the Colonies.”

That possibly apocryphal account easily puts one in mind of the snobbish way that Democrats pompously think they know how everyone else should live their lives. And if the people they consider to be THEIR “subjects” don’t agree, well, in the words of the fictional Darth Vader “Then they should be MADE to agree!” That’s the Democrats’ mantra. (I’m an Independent voter.)

mapAnyway, in our fictional future for this time around, the isolated areas of Democrat Supremacists or “Blue Meanies” began to panic as they felt their tyrannical grip on their “Colonies” slipping.

As far back as the early 21st Century the Democrat Supremacists had formed masked hate groups like Antifa – really KLAN-tifa – to inflict violence on dissenters.

The Dem-Sup control of the media, internet and film-making ensured that the only opinions that got wide-spread exposure were the opinions shared by millionaires. Dem-Sup contempt for the working class and the poor grew in direct proportion to the way in which the working class and the poor rejected the “One True Worldview” being forced upon them by Dem-Sup plutocrats.     Continue reading

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Filed under Future History, Neo-Pulp, opinion

DYSTOPIA NATION: TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY

Mascot sword and pistolHere at Balladeer’s Blog I write plenty of items about myths from around the world. I often mention that my blog posts about figures from the American West are along the same lines to me since I think the exaggerated tales of whatever their real-life stories were originate the same way that many religious fables do: the usual human tendency toward superstition and embellishment.

Dystopian literature is similar but instead of embellishing figures and events from the past this type of fiction involves taking contemporary problems and/ or trends and extrapolating them into larger than life menaces in the near or far future.

Soylent Green did it with overpopulation and food shortages, One Blade of Grass did it with environmental issues and Orwell’s 1984 did it with totalitarian political forces which still threaten to use his nightmarish novel as their road map. Countless other examples could be cited.   

THE TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY – The modern-day versions of the disgusting old Robber Barons might well be the corporate fascists aka techno-fascists in assorted tech industries, not just regarding Silicon Valley but also  privacy-violating rich pigs at Facebook and elsewhere.

In fact, you could make the case that people like Mark “Skippy” Zuckerberg and his fellow corporate fascists are even worse since I don’t recall bloated rich pigs like E.H. Harriman or Cornelius Vanderbilt trying to police other people’s every thought, word and deed. The invasive and ever-expanding tentacular reach of techno-fascists or in this fictional case Techno-Tyrants would make these villains a very credible threat to political freedom and freedom of expression. Continue reading

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Filed under Future History, Neo-Pulp, opinion

DYSTOPIA? YOU’RE LIVING IN IT!

MASCOT SABRE POSE 2You could say we now live in the Dystopian States of America. So many negative predictions for the future have already come true. On top of that our elected officials run the country like a Mafia bust-out operation, making themselves rich while ensuring an increasingly bleak future for the rest of us.

They fancy themselves to be the New Aristocracy from the Royal Houses of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They spend their entire careers barely one step ahead of a criminal indictment yet they have the audacity to LECTURE the rest of us about values and morals.  

No Democratic or Republican politician is in any way fit to handle the administrative duties they are elected to handle, let alone sit in judgment on the rest of us. They don’t deserve respect. The Democratic and Republican Parties deserve to be treated like a hostile occupying force, like a group of oligarchs who have taken over the country.

Too strong? Continue reading

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Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

FOUR COOL BUT FORGOTTEN GUNSLINGERS FOR FRONTIERADO

Bear River Tom Smith

Bear River Tom Smith

The Frontierado holiday is coming up on Friday, August 2nd and Balladeer’s Blog continues presenting holiday- themed articles. I know that in reality the gunfighters of the old west were thugs and worse but Frontierado is about the myth of the American west, not the grinding reality. 

As the glorious day approaches and we are all making our holiday preparations enjoy a sampling of this group of colorful characters who don’t get the attention – or movies – they deserve.

1. BEAR RIVER TOM – That’s our top-ranked figure in the photo to your left. One of the few actual gunmen to wear a fancy two-gun holster, Bear River Tom Smith’s myth begins with his birth in 1838 in New York City. He either did or did not serve in the Union Army in 1861 (accounts vary) but was definitely part of the NYC police force by 1862. In 1867 he headed west, working as a laborer laying track for the Union Pacific Railroad  in Nebraska.

By 1868 the crew he was with had reached Wyoming, where the Hell On Wheels town of Bear River sprang up around their work camp. Bear River was to wild, lawless railroad towns what Dodge City, Kansas was to wild, lawless cattletowns. Bear River Tom put his guns, fists and law enforcement experience to Continue reading

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Filed under FRONTIERADO

FOUR FORGOTTEN GUNSLINGERS WITH COOL NICKNAMES

Bear River Tom Smith

Bear River Tom Smith

The Frontierado holiday is coming up on Friday, August 3rd and Balladeer’s Blog continues presenting holiday- themed articles. I know that in reality the gunfighters of the old west were thugs and worse but Frontierado is about the myth of the American west, not the grinding reality. 

As the glorious day approaches and we are all making our holiday preparations enjoy a sampling of this group of colorful characters who don’t get the attention – or movies – they deserve.

1. BEAR RIVER TOM – That’s our top-ranked figure in the photo to your left. One of the few actual gunmen to wear a fancy two-gun holster, Bear River Tom Smith’s myth begins with his birth in 1838 in New York City. He either did or did not serve in the Union Army in 1861 (accounts vary) but was definitely part of the NYC police force by 1862. In 1867 he headed west, working as a laborer laying track for the Union Pacific Railroad  in Nebraska.

By 1868 the crew he was with had reached Wyoming, where the Hell On Wheels town of Bear River sprang up around their work camp. Bear River was to wild, lawless railroad towns what Dodge City, Kansas was to wild, lawless cattletowns. Bear River Tom put his guns, fists and law enforcement experience to work protecting the Continue reading

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Filed under FRONTIERADO

COLLEGE BASEBALL RESULTS FROM DAY THREE OF THE NCCAA WORLD SERIES

 Welcome to the 3rd day of the NCCAA Division 1 College World Series. The Mid- Continent University Cougars (logo at left) were one of the biggest stories from Day 2’s action. “Upset Thursday” is how yesterday will be remembered as all but 2 games saw the underdog defeat the higher-seeded team.

The 10 seed MCU Cougars stood out as the biggest giant-killers of the day, notching take-downs of both the 2nd-seeded Cal Baptist University Lancers and the (7) Bluefield College Ramblin’ Rams. The 9 seed Nyack College Warriors defeated the Series’ top seeds the Cedarville University Yellow Jackets but then got crushed by the (8) Emmanuel College Lions, so Mid- Continent won the feature spot for today. 

Tomorrow the first pitch gets thrown in this year’s NJCAA3 College World Series so there will be even more baseball action. Meanwhile keep checking back here at Balladeer’s Blog for updated scores throughout the Continue reading

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Filed under College Baseball

DAY TWO OF THE NCCAA COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

 This is the second day of the NCCAA division 1 College World Series. The Cal Baptist University Lancers (logo at left) are among the teams competing for the title and notched a pair of wins yesterday.

No upsets yesterday but plenty today! Most notably the 9th seeded Nyack Warriors toppling the top seeded Cedarville Yellow Jackets! CU barely skated by with 1-run victories over (5) Southeastern and (8) Emmanuel yesterday and today the Warriors gave them a Three Stooges Nyack – Nyack – Nyack! (Sorry) For updated scores from today’s action keep checking back here at Balladeer’s Blog throughout the Continue reading

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END OF THE WORLD MYTHS: 15TH CENTURY BLOCK BOOKS

Plenty of gullible people believe the world will end this coming December 21st, so Balladeer’s Blog has been examining various end of the world predictions and scenarios from the past.

Block books from centuries ago were a form of illustrated storytelling, most often associated with religious topics. Naturally in a period of limited literacy the graven woodblock picture- stories made theological tales even more popular with the masses. In approximately 1455 – 1480 these “proto- comic books” addressed the Antichrist and the End Times.

These particular block books depicted the Antichrist being Continue reading

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ANOTHER WAY LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES ARE THE SAME

“Can 2 of the worst presidents in history share an apartment … without driving each other crazy?”

 Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, the only Independent Voter site on the internet that criticizes both Liberal fanatics and Conservative fanatics equally. This time around we’ll look at another of the many ways that Liberals and Conservatives are the same kind of unbearable people.

And not just because of the way they can’t comprehend that the rest of us (aka “adults”) aren’t the same narrow- minded partisans they are.  

Conservatives delude themselves that Continue reading

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SHINTO DEITY: SUSANOWO

 SUSANOWO – The Shinto storm god. He is appropriately depicted as an impetuous, ill-tempered god and was often at odds with his sister the sun goddess, Amaterasu. In the Nihongi he is the son of both Izanagi and Izanami but in the Kojiki he is born from Izanagi’s nose as a sneeze. 

At one point he was seriously over-stepping his authority in a fit of anger. In some versions he was angry over his sister Amaterasu being the Chief Deity in the Shinto pantheon instead of him, in others he was angry because his mother the goddess Izanami could never return from Yomi, where she was now fated to rule over the dead forever. At any rate he was Continue reading

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Filed under Mythology