Kerodins take Kenny to Court

I’m merely sharing the post.  I have no comments on it.  It is “just the facts”.  Thought folks should know.

“Okay, I just spent my entire day in court. I was served a notice for a hearing for a restraining order and a civil lawsuit from the Kerodins about 3 weeks ago.

 I do feel the hearing went well for me. I had good representation, I gave my answers clearly and half-assed intelligently and the judge was taking lots of notes. My attorney cost me money I didn’t have but I refuse to walk into a courtroom without one. That’s like going brown bear hunting without a weapon.
I’m not going to say anything more about it because the judge won’t reach his decision on the restraining order until the 16th. I go to court on the civil lawsuit in January.

I’ve turned the comments off for this post and I’m also not going to publish any comments about this anywhere on the blog for obvious reasons so don’t waste your time trying. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m in kind of a shitty mood. I think I’m going to have a beer.”

http://knuckledraggin.com/

 

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Words have meanings. Part Two

In part one (please read first if you haven’t already), we discuss the “roles” of the III Community vice the “names” that are commonly used to call ourselves.

We discussed the notion of a nationwide revolutionary army and some sort of resistance fighters.  In part two we’ll discuss some sort of home defense force (remember part one – call it what you want to, but at the end of the day functions and missions are what’s important, not the name).

Your local area has to be the base of anything else that you plan to do.  Your local area should afford you many advantages over your opponents.

First off, people should know each other.  If they don’t know you and you don’t know them, then you have some work to do.  Start building your tribe.

We in the III movement usually start from the premise that we will find a bunch of III type folks and form our tribe.  If you are lucky enough to have a group of like-minded IIIs living in your neighborhood then you’ve got it made.

Most of us don’t though, and that’s where tribe building runs into its first obstacle.  When we can’t find enough IIIs, we don’t bother starting a tribe.

We need to build and train our own tribe!

One of the best ways to create a tribe is incrementally.  If you start recruiting without building a bond and creating a common sense of interest, at best you will fail.  At worst they’ll think you are crazy and call the police on you.

I think a home defense force should be the model.  Starting with a community watch is the best way to build towards a home defense force.

Organizing a community watch first allows for some great opportunities.  Most folks see it as harmless and don’t feel threatened.  You’ll be able to implement some things without a lot of discussion.  You’ll find out quickly who wants to work and who just wants to be on the team.

Unless you’ve had some increases in crime in your neighborhood, you might not be able to organize it from the beginning.  No problem; develop something that everyone (or the majority) can agree is useful.  Building a coalition of folks who can agree on something is a great start.  It can be a political cause, your local volunteer fire department, or even a high school sports team booster club, the local FFA, etc.

A social setting is a great place to start building the coalition.  Obviously the exact “what” of a social setting depends on your local situation, but you need to find something that you all have in common in order to start.  It could be farming, hunting, fishing, military experience, you name it.

Once you’ve all built up some sort of bond, the evolution to a community watch should be simpler.  With a community watch in place it will be the time to start talking about the upcoming troubles and what can be done to make your selves more resistant to the problems.  If you’ve done the initial preps correctly, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what skills your neighbors have.

Everyone can have a role in your home defense force.  As you develop your potential roster of folks start assigning folks to different categories.

You’ll need:

1. Armed security folks
   1. Internal defense – capable of defending the perimeter both mounted and dismounted. Older folks and even children can be useful in this role.
   2. External defense – capable of responding to threats inside and outside the perimeter; capable of short distance recon along avenues of approach and potential threats. Generally higher skilled and requires a higher degree of physical fitness.
2. Logistics
   1. Communications/Intel – Monitoring local, regional and nationwide news. At a basic level, it’s monitoring radio nets (internal and external) and goes all the way up to more advanced HF radio comms
   2. Food and field sanitation – Procuring, preparing and distributing food supplies.
   3. Medical
      1. Routine
      2. First Aid
      3. Emergency
   4. Vehicle maintenance
   5. Weapon maintenance
   6. Resupply folks

As you analyze your neighbor’s skills, I recommend a three tier grading system:

A – Has a mastery of the skills required and likes doing

B – Likes the skills required; less than mastery skill level

C – Doesn’t like the skill and doesn’t want to do it

As your force develops, you’ll be able to fine-tune these first assessments.

Folks with multiple mastery level skills will have to be utilized in the most critical one.  Folks in the B category will have to be analyzed to see if getting them to mastery level requires skills training and/or equipment.  Folks that can’t be trained for anything will have to be utilized in some role that requires little skill.  It might be a function of age, intellect, etc.  Nonetheless, everyone can do something.

The one skill that I haven’t talked about yet is leadership.  If you are doing the organizing, you’ll be the original leader.  At this point in the process, your organizational skills will be the major requirement.  You’ll be expected to be able to “massage” egos and come up with a consensus on overall goals and standards.  At this point a moral compass on what you expect the end state to look like if this force is needed is critical.

Now is the time to discuss racial, religious and other social differences.  A liberty outcome means liberty for all who will embrace it.  If you have folks that don’t like a particular race, religion or other social difference, sorting it out when things go bad would be  virtually impossible.

The prize is freedom.  You’ll have to be the beacon of liberty.

As the tribe continues to grow, there may come a point where organizational skills get eclipsed by other concerns.  People may gravitate to the leadership of the armed part of your group.  It may be a logistician.  Now is the time for you to recognize that Liberty is the goal, not your ego.  The tribe will evolve to the leadership it needs during whatever current crisis is being faced.  Remember that Winston Churchill did not win reelection after WWII was over!

Once you have your group of folks, you need to figure out how to hone them into an efficient force!  Your force could be as small as 10 and as large as 50.  Now you get to organize them into a team.

You need to have some basics that everyone is capable of performing.  In an ideal world the leadership of each of the sub-groups would have a primary and secondary leader.

In the next part, we’ll look at each of the categories and start establishing a skills hierarchy of basic skills, all the way up to master level.

My Kerodin Mea Culpas: III Arms and Others

I’ve read a lot of Tom Baugh’s blog comments over the years.  Certainly read a lot about him on other blogs!  He’s no stranger to folks in the III movement.

You can like him or dislike him, but no one can argue that what he writes is thought-provoking, and unlike so many other sites discusses issues vice personalities.

Those who’ve read this blog have been able to read some well thought-out comments to our posts.

Tom approached us this past weekend as asked if we wanted to post an important article that he put together.  I read it and was impressed with both the factual background of some events that I’d been led to believe were very different that Tom reports, and by the humility of Tom in pointing out some things that he wished he’d done differently.

Here is the lead in:

“Back in 2012, the idea of liberty-oriented get-togethers, or PATCONs, short for Patriot Conventions, was taking off. TL Davis had issued an open invitation to attend his Liberty Summit in Mercer, Pennsylvania, which was intended to be a Mother-Of-All-PATCONs. Earlier that year, TL attended our Georgia PATCON, where all of us bounced a lot of ideas around. When the Liberty Summit rolled around, since no one else from Georgia was going, I decided to go, bringing some of those ideas to share with the larger group.

Some of those ideas were controversial, but were intended to be discussed in an open forum among friends face-to-face to determine the best way forward. TL asked me if I wanted some time to speak, and I asked for an hour to try to compress into that time some of the complex ideas we had discussed at the Georgia PATCON over a two-day session. I also took some time to vent my own personal frustration of what had happened to the country I had fought for, and shouted “we see you” to the surrounding hills as an expression that those who were destroying our nation could not hide in the shadows. Having vented myself, I turned to my list of hastily prepared notes outlining our concepts.

One such idea was that ongoing feuds, such as the one between Kerodin and Vanderboegh, need not be destructive, but instead could become instructive. By the various sites highlighting the differences between various positions (all positions, not just theirs) and letting newbies decide for themselves which was more appealing, they would, in effect, “vote” for any given position by continuing to patronize various sites. And, by crosslinking between sites in an organized way, not just based on buddy-of-the-day arrangements, newbies could navigate from interest area to interest area as their understanding of the problem evolved.”

Here is the whole thing:

http://starvingthemonkeys.com/articles/MyMeaCulpas.html

Is This The End?

Is this the end?

Lots of excitement the past few days.  It would be easy to sit back, claim some sort of victory and move on.

Lots of folks claiming that it’s the end of the Kerodins in the III movement, while others are claiming that it’s the end of the III movement. The former probably isn’t true, and the latter certainly doesn’t have to be true.

This blog began because of rumors and insinuations of misdeeds over at the Kerodin camp.  The Kerodins could have addressed these early on.  We are all forgiving folks, and the “mistakes were made” defense works well in our society.  Heck, they could have ignored them.

But instead they went on the attack.  Not in defense of their efforts, but to go after the credibility and very life blood of those who dared to question them.

Well, the court of III opinion has met and found them publicly guilty.  They might still have their III Empire, but it will be a mere shadow of what it was.

Part of the Kerodin effort was to turn we IIIs on ourselves.  It started with a Vanderboegh versus Kerodin fight.  You had to be loyal to him and no one else.  Then it went into the tactical trainers – you had to support his designated expert.  Then Sam’s famous “true Patriot” mantra.

And many of us believed it.  It sounded good.  It made us feel special and important.

We’ve all been betrayed by someone or something in the past.  The real pain isn’t the betrayal.  Sadly, it’s easy to feel guilty for embracing them in the first place.  The most common reaction is to remove ourselves from the cause.  To decide that Sammy was the III movement, and if he was bad, then the cause was bad.

The III movement isn’t about Sammy, or Mike, or anyone else but ourselves.  You don’t have to have any mentors, leaders, or internet gurus for you to decide that you are a III percenter.  It’s an internal belief in liberty and freedom with an acknowledgement that you will support and defend it.  It’s in your heart.

The “local, local, local” phrase really means something.  It’s nice to know that there are other folks like you throughout the country, but at the end of the day, when the troubles start, it will be you and your tribe working together to defend what is yours.

We need to spend less time trying to bond with someone across the country and more time bonding with our neighbors.  Build your tribe and make alliances with the tribe next door.  And then with the one next door to it.  Squads, Platoons, Companys.

Share your experiences, both good and bad.  What works, what’s replicateable, what is a disaster.  There is no one size fits all, but there is a lot that fits most.

At the end of the day, what happened is healthy for our movement.  We learned that no one is above the fray, and that honesty and integrity matter.  The “moral” in leadership is still relevant and useful.

I’m hoping to spend more time on this blog addressing the “how-to” of the III movement, focusing on local.  I’ve got to figure out a way to create an atmosphere to ‘cuss and discuss the how-to of stuff.  Let’s create a forum of “hands-on” how to do it.

I hope I won’t have to ever discuss the Kerodins again.

What is Sam Up To?

So what is Sam really up to?

The more research I do, the less I’m inclined to believe that he is doing this merely for the money.

Sam is someone who is very self-centered and believes in his personal greatness.  His frustration is when that greatness isn’t recognized by others.

The venture that caused him to earn the federal conviction also energized him – he loved the attention.  Posing as a security expert gained him all sorts of praise and adoration.  He got published, got to sit on panels as an “expert”, interviewed as a professional, and got him the respect that he believes he rightly deserves.

I’m guessing that he still believes that he did nothing wrong, and was merely targeted because he was a threat to the status quo.  He enjoyed the respect.  It was never the cause, it was the respect.

He figured that he deserved it and came up with some ideas on how to get it again.

By the beginning of 2009 he came up with some ideas to get him back into the limelight and get his “earned” respect.  In all fairness, he did still need to make a living, but I think most of the ventures were designed to support his lifestyle; only a few were designed to earn him his greatness.

The charities, modeling agency, the HVAC business, etc., were there to make a living.  The real venture was to get into the political powerbroker game.

He saw the Tea Party Movement start and figured he could take advantage of it.  Plenty of folks have made millions on the Tea Party.  Some merely made money.  Others gained political influence.  Sam wanted both.

In early 2009 he formed America 527.  A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 527).

In common practice the term is usually applied only to such organizations that are not regulated under state or federal campaign finance laws because they do not “expressly advocate” for the election or defeat of a candidate or party.

There are neither upper limits on contributions to 527s,  nor  restrictions on who may contribute. There are no spending limits imposed on these organizations; however, they must register with the IRS, publicly disclose their donors and file periodic reports of contributions and expenditures.

Examples of 527s include Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, The Media Fund, and America Coming Together.

Sadly for Sam, he dissolved this in 2011 after a little more than two years.  527s are required to disclose their donors, and when we looked at the online reports, he had attracted no donors.

But he wasn’t done with the Tea Party!  On one of his many blogs, he describes the two years he spent crisscrossing the country following Tea Party groups.  He published two books during this time (one of 108 pages and one of 194 pages) all trying to garner respect for the Kerodin brand.  They were self-published by the publishing company that he started.  They are still for sale on Amazon, even though the publishing company’s business license was forfeited to the State of Maryland.

He even convinced the Examiner (a specific subject-oriented web blog) to allow him to blog as the Washington DC Tea Party “expert”.

Along the way, he heard folks talking about the III Percent movement as being the “armed” wing of the Tea Party movement.  He found Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and acted like a fan and supporter.  Once he learned the language and folks learned a little about him, he made the big split and went off on his own ventures.

We’ve talked about the dozens of ventures he started.  While many of them helped fund his lifestyle (and not that fancy a life style, by all accounts), the goal was to get as many folks in the III movement to associate the III brand with the Kerodin brand.  Instead of having to attract someone with a general belief in the III movement, he made “boutique” sub-groups to attract as many folks as he could.

Originally I thought it was about making a fortune, but they aren’t rich.  It merely is about getting as many different interests associated with the Kerodin-III brand.

It appears that he learned about the efforts of Bo Gritz.  Bo had quite the following with his STRIKE training.  Thousands of folks who bought into (quite literally) the Bo model of training.  As much as Bo made off the ventures, it had to be gratifying to be surrounded by large numbers of sycophants.  Sam figured he could do the same thing.

Of course Bo had the credibility of actually serving in the Army during Vietnam!  Sam liked the model, but in the absence of personal qualifications, he stole the skills and accomplishments of the OSS, namely the Jedburghs.

In the absence of real skills though, Sam tried to associate himself and his brand with respected professionals.  When they discovered who Sam really was, they turned their backs on him.  Sam needed someone on his side so he ended up affiliating himself with folks of dubious skills and reputations.

Bo’s other successful venture (at least for a little while) was an off the beaten path residential place called Almost Heaven.  Bo made millions on this venture (bad business decisions caused him to lose the money, but it sold well for a while).  Sam couldn’t copy it exactly, so he came up with the notion of a walled city.  Copying Bo’s model, he chose Idaho for the base of his operations.

For a short period of time, Sam had achieved his goals.  He was respected as a force in the III movement.  His time with Glenn Beck had to bring flashbacks from his glory days working as a security “expert” after 9-11.  But unlike Bo’s efforts, Sam’s Citadel plan was as much fantasy as the romance novel that he based it on (a book that he wrote and published).  It sounded too good to be true and actually was.

Then the clouds burst and people figured out that it was all a dream.  A dream of Sam’s that could never come to fruition.  His efforts to save the Sam brand, caused him to double down in his attacks on his perceived enemies.  Enemies that meant him no physical harm, but enemies that threatened his credibility and resultant respect in the III movement.

Folks started detaching the III brand from the Kerodin brand.

So, what’s left for Sam now?

His goal was personal respect and adoration.  It still is.

He’s changed his focus on his various blogs to be the aggregator of the “truth” of the day.  Political, military and other topics that he is “hand-picking” to make his sites the “go-to” place for patriotic, liberty minded folks.

Unlike many who create popular blogs, I don’t think he wants to build up a followership in order to sell the site.  He wants to be the next Drudge, the next Limbaugh, the next Savage.

It will be up to his readers to decide if he can change his brand.

He’s lost lots of followers.

Perhaps a new batch of followers who aren’t familiar with his past will get him the power and respect that he believes he so rightly deserves.  It’s up to those of us who have figured him out to make sure that potential new followers learn the truth before they get hurt, after that the decision is up to them.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see another name change in the near future.