It Doesn’t Have to be the End

Some folks are questioning why this blog exists.

Based on some of the feedback, some folks are questioning motivations and suggesting that the blog is trying to destroy the Kerodins (with an inference that this will destroy the III movement).

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We’re not politicians of any stripe.  We are 3% ‘ers.  When we started to see the back and forth stuff, we hoped that ultimately this would make the movement stronger.  Blindly following anyone or anything does not serve our cause.  We’re all human and we all make mistakes.

We have no dog in this fight for any one individual, merely the cause.  We made no judgments as to the veracity of the complainers, or those being attacked.

The concerns were initiated by JC and Kenny on their blogs.  With their actual records of being on the Board, they certainly had credibility.  It doesn’t mean that how they interpreted it was correct, merely that they saw something that was perplexing.

The responses were disappointing:

Personal attacks on those who might question anything

Professional attacks on those who might question anything.

Attacks questioning how folks benefit from questioning anything

Attacks against folks who weren’t even part of the original questioning

Lawsuits threatened

Essentially right out of the Clinton playbook – attack and divert.

The objections are raised:

“don’t you realize that LLCs are the most common business types for small businesses?”

“If you buy something from Kerodin, what you deserve to know stops there. The transaction is for the product being sold, not for you to know what happens to the money afterwards”

And that’s pretty much the point.

The Kerodins strongly state that this is all about the 3 movement.  “The cause” their defenders like to claim.  Although never explicitly stated, the intimation is pretty strong that everything sold, every venture, every company, you name it, it all supports the 3 cause.

Maybe it does.  There is nothing wrong with running a business.  Catering to the 3 movement isn’t a bad thing in and of itself.

Certainly the folks that write comments on his blog don’t seem to think so.  Nor do they think they should.  It might all be ok, but appearances mean a lot.

Unanswered questions lead to more questions and more doubt.

Attacks on those who raise the questions lead to more skepticism.

Threats of lawsuits lead to folks looking forward to discovery.

For the purported leader of some of the 3 types, “He who must not be questioned” this is an inappropriate response to criticism.  There could be lots of very legitimate and reasonable reasons for what some folks see differently.  Perhaps a “mistakes were made” followed by some restructuring of the various pieces would be appropriate.

Certainly the defenders have created lots of moving pieces and initiatives.  Much of it may be useful and productive to some 3’s.   No one can question that lots of stuff has been started.

Maybe though in the hustle and bustle of getting as much going as possible, some feelings were hurt, folks got rubbed the wrong way, some corners cut, who knows.  Perhaps now that there are lots of moving pieces it might be time to take a deep breath and reexamine where we are, how we got there, and make some legitimate changes to keep things going in the right direction.

Disagreements over some of the items and features are a sign of a healthy organization, not some evil plot.  3% is a small enough number to begin with.  Let’s figure out what we have in common and adjust from there.  We can’t afford to alienate any of our group.  Agreeing to disagree sometimes is a healthy thing.

At the end of the day we all agree on more things than we disagree on.  We 3% types are lovers of liberty, not a group of sycophants with blind allegiance to some leader.  Encourage discussion.  Appearances are everything.  Let’s practice what we all claim to aspire to.

Cui Bono

Who Benefits Part 3

If we all recall from Part 2, according to the Oxford Dictionary, the complete definition of “cui bono” is, who stands or stood to gain from a crime and so might have been responsible for it!

As for benefits, a recently disclosed document that Sam wrote for the Board discussed pay. “The faster we can get every member of this group on better financial footing, the more we can accomplish.”

And what did he mean by this?

Well, Binding Resolution 01 for the III Percent Society for America, LTD is titled “Financial Compensation of Directors and Officers.”

The resolution (authored by Kerodin) directed that the President be paid at the level of an Army Colonel and that Board Members get paid at the level of an Army Major!

The current president is Sam himself.  Even if this resolution never passed, his intent is that he receives $7623.30 a month for being the president of the group.  Holly, who is also on the board would only receive a mere $6959.10 a month.  Family income of $14,582.40 A MONTH!  Paid for by the IIIs.

I like to collect old military vehicles.  I’d love it if someone sent me $15K a month and they didn’t get to own a single one of the vehicles.

Time for the reader to decide…….“cui bono”

Who benefits, or

Who stands or stood to gain from a crime

Why Miller and Why Now

Why Miller and Why Now

The attacks by the Kerodins centered on five people:

Kenny Lane

JC Dodge

Mike Vanderbough

Jim Miller

Sam Culper

Kenny and JC were the first to question the fiscal management of the III% Society.  They did it on both their own web blog Knuckledraggin (Kenny) and Mason Dixon Tactical (JC) and via comments on the Western Rifle Shooters Association web blog.

Ok, that makes sense that his rebuttal against them would be personal and professional attacks on them.

The bad blood between Mike Vanderbough and the Kerodins goes back years.  A simple search of Mike’s Sipsey Street Irregulars web blog or any of the various Kerodin web blogs will show many disparaging back and forth comments.

The attack on Jim Miller was perhaps a little less expected.  As recently as at a board meeting of the III% Society, Kerodin was singing Jim Miller’s praises.  “Jim Miller went into his retirement and personal savings (deeply) to keep III Arms going especially when parts prices went through the roof post-Sandy Hook.”

Miller broke off with the Kerodins over a serious of personal disagreements.  Sam can’t have anything to do with guns and of course Holly doesn’t know how to manufacture guns.  Miller leaving left a big hole in the III conglomerate.  A hole that needed to be filled.

III Arms didn’t just open one day with the Kerodin’s deep pockets.  They solicited for and came up with founders who supplied cash to get the venture up and running.  Unlike any other venture they started, they had to produce guns.

Holly’s greatest fear was that the founders would ask for their money back if they didn’t produce guns.

Oddly enough, III Arms (the one owned by the Kerodins) never had any equipment to produce/manufacture guns!  Jim Miller had created a company with his own money to produce the guns for III Arms.  With all of the founders money collected a small amount was paid to Miller for the first two guns.  The rest of the expenses for Miller came out of his pocket.

So, with Miller gone, they had to find someone else to produce the guns.  In the early days before Miller got his FFL, III Arms actually contracted with a number of manufacturers to make the III Arms weapons.  They burned those bridges through over promising and under buying.

In the search for someone to make the guns for III Arms, they had to fear that someone would contact Miller to ask why he stopped.  In order to insure that folks either wouldn’t check or wouldn’t believe what Miller said they had to enter into the politics of destruction.

Destruction is a two way street.  The Kerodins are working on the notion that they have enough “dirt” on Miller to get him down and keep him down.  They are counting on Miller not having enough “dirt” on them.

It should be fun to watch.

In the next blog entry, we’ll discuss, “Why Culper and Why Now”

Who Benefits Part 2

The latest attempt at an attack by Sam & Holly is entitled, “cui bono”, with the strong inference that those who are questioning their financial dealings somehow have something to gain.  This is obviously a Freudian slip on their part, because according to the Oxford Dictionary, the complete definition of “cui bono” is, who stands or stood to gain from a crime and so might have been responsible for it!

First used by Roman consul, Lucius Cassius, most of today’s writers say that the modern phrase would be, “follow the money.”

We examined just some of the businesses that they own.  Understand folks, they own them.

Not any of us IIIs.  Not friends,  No one except the Kerodins.  And they are all LLCs, so it is all counted as personal income as far as the tax collectors are concerned.

All of the donors send them money, but they don’t own a thing.  The Kerodins could close down every one of them tomorrow, take all of the money out of the banks, and other than feeling butt hurt, there is nothing anyone could do about it.

Time for the reader to decide…….“cui bono”

Who benefits, or

Who stands or stood to gain from a crime

On the Light Side

Although the Kerodin issues are serious, sometimes words aren’t enough.

Satire is one of the better forms of humor.

Enjoy the continuing adventures of Sam and Holly on my YouTube page!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI4vCHFFEmqjIvgPTG9hPIQ?view_as=public

Who Benefits Part 1

In a bold move, Sam announced an audit by a third party auditor.  Probably a good move.  But also a safe move.

In a Clintonesque move, Sam has been very specific when he does address the complaints.  Very specific.

The bigger question is what isn’t being audited?

Perhaps his own choice of words is appropriate here, “WHO BENEFITS”?

Sam and Holly have been some of the bigger supporters of Legal zoom over the years!  They currently have no less than 15 businesses registered in Idaho.  If you count the ones that have been forfeited or dissolved just in the past three years, it goes up to 26!

The big business seems to be III Percent LLC.  It has six additional “Doing Business As” (DBA) listings registered, to include MacGregor and Grey, America 527, Samuel White, Spartan MMA Academy, Light Warrior Fitness, and Studio III.

A recent venture is the III Partners LLC, registered a mere ten days ago.

With the exception of the III Percent Society for America Ltd, they are all LLCs.  The simple definition of a limited liability company (LLC) is that it is a form of business entity that limits the liability of its owners while allowing flexibility in operation and management and passing through its income to its members with no tax at the entity level.  In other words, there is no business income tax per se; the income is treated as individual income.

So, let’s look at what is currently registered for business in Idaho.

• III Arms Idaho LLC
• III Comms Idaho LLC
• III Partners Idaho LLC
• III Percent LLC
  • DBA MacGregor & Grey
  • DBA America 527
  • DBA Samuel White
  • DBA Spartan MMA Academy
  • DBA Light Warrior Fitness
  • DBA Studio III
• III Percent Patriots  Idaho  LLC
• III Percent Society for America Ltd  Idaho  Non Profit
• Idaho Patcon  Idaho LLC
• Citadel Land Development  LLC
  • DBA Rightful Liberty Project
• Loden  LLC

Who funds what and where does the money go?  Are donations and funding to one cause diverted to support another cause?

In the interests of transparency, the Kerodins owe it to their supporters to open up and explain where the interests of these various businesses cross and where is the money shared.  If it says III on it or is related to III ventures, we deserve transparency

Hello world!

Blogging isn’t easy.  I like to consider myself a III.  I’m very concerned with what I see going on right now in the III movement.

The attacks by some on the Kerodin empire may or may not be legit.

It appears that the attackers are upset with what they perceive to be money mismanagement by Sam and Holly Kerodin.  This originally was mismanagement within the III% Society.

Now, JC Dodge and Kenny Lane and Jim Miller have some insight that none of us have.  JC and Kenny were actually on the original Board of Directors of the III% Society and Jim Miller as the head of III Arms at the time was an insider.  This certainly makes it difficult for an outsider to immediately ignore the complaints.

Sam’s responses have been very Clintonesque.

First, attack the attackers.  Question their motivations and question their personal lives.

Second, appear to give in to the demands.  Announce an audit.  Be VERY specific in what you say, so folks can’t accuse you of lying later.

Third, attack the attackers.  Come up with all of the hot button names to call them.

Like many folks, I find personal attacks foolish.  They are clearly diversions from what’s really going on.  But they work, so people do it.

I’ve been “trained” by the Clintons to see the “very specific” responses for what they are.  Diversions from what’s really going on.  You know they are hoping you’ll never see the enormity of the problem, so they only answer exactly what you ask for.