DECEMBER 11th, 2019 – On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, cave art was discovered that has been recognized as the world’s oldest example of pictorial storytelling, dating to approximately 43,900 years ago.
The precise location of the discovery was in the limestone cave Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4. The art depicts therianthropes, abstract figures with qualities of human beings and animals combined, hunting wild pigs and dwarf buffaloes. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
THE PETTICOAT REVOLUTION – On December 5th, 1916 the “Petticoat Revolution” occurred in Oregon. Women had been allowed to vote in the state since 1912 and in the town of Umatilla several women ran stealth candidacies for municipal offices.
Quirks in the Umatilla laws at the time enabled the ladies to keep their bids for office a secret even from their spouses. Driven by a desire to reverse the town’s decline and slack law enforcement at the time, Robert and Lola Merrick plotted this odd operation with six other women during a card game at their home.
The residents of Umatilla found out on the afternoon of election day that the ladies were running for mayor and other elected positions. Voting participation was so low in the town at that time that the current mayor’s wife Laura Stockton Starcher (above left) was elected as the new mayor by a vote of just TWENTY-SIX to EIGHT! Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
FROM NOVEMBER 9th, 2013. Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama are the two presidents I despise the most, but nobody is surprised at what garbage Bush was. Obama loons like to ignore the criticism he received in office. Even when language like “war criminal” and “dictator’s dream” were used to describe Obama, it never approached the hysteria seen in the Trump years.
A piece of political sewage who bubbled and gurgled up from the cesspool of Chicago politics.
“It’s no secret that the Obama administration may well be the most corrupt and abusive in history. And I’m the furthest thing from a Conservative you can find. I could fill this site every day with stories about the ongoing developments in the countless investigations into this weak, inept and crooked little man but we’d all get bored with the repetitious coverage of this criminal’s venality, pomposity and general douchebaggery. (To borrow a phrase from Ted White)
“Not only did one of Little Barry’s usual lapdogs, the Huffington Post, declare his war on free speech to be “a dictator’s dream” but Amnesty International quite rightly declared him a war criminal, largely for his incessant use of drones to kill and kill and kill. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, opinion
It’s Veterans Day, formerly called Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War One on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. For Balladeer’s Blog’s final World War One post this year here’s a look at the first seven American pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille.
Lafayette Escadrille
QUICK FACTS: The French Foreign Legion connection to this storied squadron of American pilots came about because the United States did not enter the First World War until April of 1917 even though it began in 1914. Many American flyers volunteered to fight for the Allied Powers against the Central Powers.
*** Originally called the Escadrille Americaine, the unit had to drop that name when Germany, the Ottoman Turks and other Central Powers nations complained to the U.S. stating such a name indicated a violation of its official neutrality at that point in the war. The new name was the Lafayette Escadrille in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who served in America’s Revolutionary War.
*** This unit was active from March 1916 to February 1918, at which time it was disestablished and its pilots were absorbed into the official United States armed forces because America had by then been one of the belligerent nations for nearly a year.
*** Officers of the escadrille were French, which was standard for the French Foreign Legion.
*** 224 Americans served in the Lafayette Escadrille, with 51 slain in battle and 11 more dying from other causes. 15 pilots became Prisoners of War and 11 became Aces.
*** Two lion cubs became the escadrille’s mascots. The pilots named them Whiskey and Soda.
THE FIRST SEVEN PILOTS OF THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE:
NORMAN PRINCE – This founding member of the unit was a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He was an early enthusiast of the new field of flying and earned his pilot’s license in 1911.
Norman shot down five enemy aircraft and had four more probables before being killed in a crash-landing in mid-October of 1916. The French awarded him the Legion of Honor, a military award established by Napoleon himself. Prince also earned the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille Militaire. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
Harry Truman in World War One
Veterans Day is two days from now so Balladeer’s Blog is presenting another look at World War One since November 11th marks the date that war ended.
HARRY S TRUMAN, CAPTAIN OF BATTERY D – This future Senator, future Vice President and future President is credited with one of my favorite quotes: “There’s nothing new in the world except the history you don’t know.”
That Show-Me State Seneca was in charge of Artillery Battery D, a hard-fighting unit that was often deployed well forward, in the heart of the action. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918 Truman’s Battery D provided fire in support of the young George Patton’s tank brigade. “Captain Harry’s” boys engaged German field guns, eliminating and forcing the abandonment of enemy batteries at a noteworthy rate. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
Veterans Day is just a few days away so Balladeer’s Blog looks at some more World War One history.
SERGEANT ALVIN YORK – At age 29 (yes, twenty-nine) Alvin York of Tennessee was drafted into the United States Army in November of 1917. York trained with the 82nd Infantry Division at Camp Gordon, GA. In April 1918 the unit arrived in Liverpool, England and by mid-May was at Sommes, where they began relieving various units in the trenches to acquire their first field experience.
June saw York and the 82nd move to Lagney, where they patrolled and raided enemy lines for several weeks. In September York and his comrades participated in the St Mihiel Offensive and in October they fought in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, during which York earned the Medal of Honor. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
Balladeer’s Blog examines American Flying Ace Eddie Rickenbacker as we lead up to another November 11th, now called Veterans Day but formerly known as Armistice Day since November 11th, 1918 marked the end of World War One.
EDDIE RICKENBACKER – “Fast Eddie” Rickenbacker was first known as a race-car driver who competed in four Indianapolis 500s before the U.S. entered World War One. Upon America’s entry into the conflict Rickenbacker enlisted in the Army and was in France with his unit by late June 1917.
Fast Eddie’s mechanical abilities – honed working with engines during his racing days – kept him grounded as a mechanic for several months. During that period Rickenbacker learned to fly in nearly every spare moment. Eventually he got his wings and took to the air with America’s legendary Hat in the Ring Squadron (the 94th Aero Squadron).
Eddie made Ace – five confirmed kills – with less than a full month between his first kill and his fifth. Lieutenant – eventually Captain – Rickenbacker scored his sixth verified kill on May 30th, 1918 before getting an ear infection which kept him out of the air for a few months. Many more kills lay ahead of him. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
Yes, it’s once again Guy Fawkes Day, the day Balladeer’s Blog celebrates figures who became symbols of the exact opposite things they represented in their actual lives!
Guy Fawkes was a religious fanatic whose face became a symbol of resistance against a fictional theocratic dictatorship thanks to a comic book. Che Guevara was a murderous, homophobic, racist would-be dictator depicted as a symbol of youthful rebellion thanks to the spiteful cluelessness of Left-Wing Archie Bunkers.
Thank the forever-childish 1960s generation leftists for elevating such a repulsive and barely human creature to such heights. Even at HUFFINGTON POST the truth about blood-soaked animal Che has been written. Click HERE
Here are some actual quotes from hatemonger Che:
“Go ahead and try them tomorrow morning — but execute them NOW!”
“We must do away with all newspapers. A revolution cannot be accomplished with freedom of the press.”
“Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood.”
“We don’t need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it’s necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate.” (Note from Balladeer: Gee, I thought the poseurs and buffoons of the American Left said they’re AGAINST “hate.”)
“What we affirm is that we must proceed along the path of liberation even if this costs millions of atomic victims.”
Read more of this animal’s own words and you will see what a callous, unfeeling political fanatic this hate-filled scumbag was. He never wanted to overthrow dictatorships to help “the people”, he just wanted to overthrow them to install dictatorships more to his liking.
In other words, dictatorships that would let that bloodthirsty maniac kill as many people as he wanted. Che Guevara was a waste of biomass and was the exact opposite of what delusional and uninformed fools consider him to have been. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History, opinion
Eugene Bullard
With Veterans Day approaching, here’s a shoutout to the Flying Aces of World War One. The movie Flyboys is a good fictional film about their mystique (but based on the real-life Lafayette Escadrille).
EUGENE BULLARD – This African-American boxer from Columbus, GA served in the French Foreign Legion as early as the Battle of Verdun in 1916 and had already won a Croix de Guerre before joining the legendary Lafayette Escadrille on a bet.(!) He qualified but the prejudiced French Foreign Legion’s Dr Edmund Le Gros rejected him for service.
Bullard instead flew a Spad 7 with French Escadrille 93. Eugene still had an uphill fight against prejudice and the French supposedly failed to credit him with all of his kills, limiting him to just 2 in the official records but tradition credits Bullard with between 5 and 9. He had what may be the best nickname outside of the Red Baron and was called the Black Swallow of Death. On the side of his plane he painted the words “ALL blood runs red” in reference to the bigotry he had faced.
THE IACCACI BROTHERS – In the 1960s young American men would head to Canada to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. During World War One a number of young American men headed to Canada to serve in British Military Units because the U.S. had not yet entered the conflict.
Two of those men were Paul T Iaccaci and his younger brother August. The brothers served in the 20th British Squadron flying Bristol F.2 Fighters.
Both brothers were Ivy League men – Paul at Harvard, August at Princeton. Both Iaccaci’s became Aces on the exact same day – May 31st, 1918. Paul ended the war with 17 kills and his brother August … kept the uncanny coincidences going with 17 kills of his own. In late October of 1918 August was wounded in the eye and spent the few remaining days of the war hospitalized in England. Continue reading
Filed under Neglected History
FROM OCTOBER 17th, 2019 –
Even if you hate Donald Trump I have no idea how you can possibly think he is worse than the corrupt white-collar criminals arrayed against him.
Given that various Marches for Trump are taking place today across the nation, here are excerpts from Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Matt Taibbi’s perceptive analysis of the ugliness of the Democrats’ slow-motion coup against President Trump … AND WITH JUST OVER A YEAR BEFORE THE ELECTION WHEN THEY COULD VOTE HIM OUT WITHOUT DIVIDING THE NATION.
Link is below. First the excerpts:
“Taibbi’s article comes after he criticized corporate media’s framing of the Deep Stater as a non-partisan “whistleblower,” despite being a registered Democrat who worked with former Vice President Joe Biden in the White House.”
Taibbi also stated “My discomfort in the last few years, first with Russiagate and now with Ukrainegate and impeachment, stems from the belief that the people pushing hardest for Trump’s early removal are more dangerous than Trump. Many Americans don’t see this because they’re not used to waking up in a country where you’re not sure who the president will be by nightfall. They don’t understand that this predicament is worse than having a bad president.”
“The Trump presidency is the first to reveal a full-blown schism between the intelligence community and the White House. Senior figures in the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies made an open break from their would-be boss before Trump’s inauguration, commencing a public war of leaks that has not stopped.”
“I don’t believe most Americans have thought through what a successful campaign to oust Donald Trump would look like. Most casual news consumers can only think of it in terms of Mike Pence becoming president. The real problem would be the precedent of a de facto intelligence community veto over elections, using the lunatic spookworld brand of politics that has dominated the last three years of anti-Trump agitation.” Continue reading
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