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.
georgepatton325 
Hi George,
Very nice analysis, possibly the most insightful of the entire series thus far.
Now consider how such a personality could be weaponized inside a construct manufactured by bad guys, for the purpose of demoralizing and disrupting the militia movement. This process could even be done in such a way in which the central character does not even realize that it has been weaponized, but believes instead that its own raw power and intellect is drawing upon the primal forces of nature to catapult it to well-deserved greatness. In fact, harnessing of these primal forces would be all the more genuine if the central figure were unaware that it existed inside a manufactured bubble created specifically to nurture its own predispositions.
Whether or not this particular construct has been weaponized, the fact is that such a weaponized construct would pack so much destructive punch that it would be foolish to assume that bad people, foreign and domestic, would not at some point create such a weapon, or multiple such weapons, for use against American militias.
Because such a weapon can be constructed, one or more will certainly be made and deployed, if not now, then at some point in the near future. The key is to understand its properties and learn how to adapt a response or defenses against it.
If this particular construct has been weaponized, I believe that there is a very strong probability that it is without the knowledge of the individual at its nucleus, and that it is an early prototype of future weapons possibly already being deployed. Each time I have asked others to stand-down against this construct, I have explained that this particular organism, out of all the possible strains which could be created, is relatively benign. It is educable, it has an acceptable mix of attractant and repellent, it has predictable reactions to stimuli and as a result it has shown the ability to be trained to produce useful, if not optimal, results. I also haven’t wanted the business ventures damaged; if they were to fail, they were to fail of their own accord as unviable ventures, and not have an excuse of external conflict causing them to fail.
Now that this and other sites have proceeded down a perhaps irreversible path, I want us to examine this culture in its petri dish, not to destroy or discredit the individual at its nucleus (a process which would be irrelevant and potentially even harmful to our cause), but instead to understand how such a weapon can be created and deployed, along with countermeasures available to us.
Tom
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” Sam liked the model, but in the absence of personal qualifications, he stole the skills and accomplishments of the OSS, namely the Jedburghs.”
It’s no so much that he stole the accomplishments,it’s more like he’s trying to re-create the commandos who made up the Jedburgh teams.
We’ve already been over the fact that weekend classes can not replace the all day every day training the actual Jedburgh teams had.
Not the name I would have picked-but I’m not the one who came up with the idea of linking a bunch of trainers together to provide training-and you have to admit that it is a good idea.
We’ll see what happens with the Jedburgh academy before long-once a class or two has been held,and people start posting about the classes.
Sam Kerodin does not = the III%,none of us should be just following any one guy,or only going to any one trainer,no one trainer knows all the skills we may need,and no one trainer’s method is the “right way” to do something-there are many different ways to accomplish the same task.
That doesn’t mean the trainers that are just providing tacticool bullshit should be apart of your training.
“Sam needed someone on his side so he ended up affiliating himself with folks of dubious skills and reputations.”
?????
As far as I can tell,he is only “associated” with Sparks 31,who certainly does not have either a dubious reputation-Sparks’ skills are also not in question-he’s done tons of classes,and has many satisfied students,as does Max of Max Velocity Tactical who seems to be the only other trainer Sam is associated with at the moment.Max has the skills,and while there was some disagreement between Max and some others-the man offers top notch training,and does not have a bad reputation.
There’s way too much dick measuring pissing contest bullshit going on among the III%/Patriot/Liberty/militia/prepper community.
Too much infighting,not enough working together toward common goals.
This bullshit is worse than I’ve seen it over the past 10 years or so.
It’s getting to the point where many people no longer want to be associated with the III% community-hell,some days I want to just say fuck it,and stop any involvement with any III% anything.
Too many groups using III%,none even remotely related to the others,no common goals,there’s hundreds of III% groups now-maybe thousands-just look on farcebook at all the groups that show up if you do a search for III%.
The III% “brand”may be damaged beyond repair.
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Hi gamegetterII,
I understand your frustration, but is it dick measuring to highlight dishonorable behavior? Of course not.
As I said above and as a comment to the previous post, it would be foolish to not expect that this kind of thing would be weaponized.
And infighting would imply conflict among similar interests. Should you not infight if you have been hijacked? I think no doubt remains at this point from where most of the conflict and worse, dishonor, stems, with predictable regularity, and which always appears guided, as if a missile, to disrupt or co-opt whatever portion of the movement is showing the most potential.
If anything, rational, fact-based dissection of the offending construct increases credibility to newcomers, and increases rapport among those who have gone this way before. Back in the days when most of the recent crop were behaving like suckers, I was just shaking my head and biding my time in patience. Now that they have cold-turkeyed themselves from that psychological drug, as rational people tend to do eventually, we can get things done with mutual respect and common understanding, and be prepared to receive others who will come later.
This destructive construct wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. But, I am convinced that, despite the chaos and aggravation, it is possible to understand and to extract value from this and similar weaponized constructs. All sources of energy can be re-directed.
Tom
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Yeah,I believe you are right.
Last summer,there was what many-myself included- considered to be pissing /dick measuring contests in the comments at WRSA,involving several trainers- and some of us said as much in our responses to some of the comments.
Yes,you should fight and stand up for yourself when your ideas,plans,etc. have been hijacked,especially by those who are supposed to be working with you toward a common goal.
It’s true this isn’t the first time stuff like this has happened,and that it won’t be the last.
I’m not the only one who thought the III% Society For America was a good idea,and I still believe it WAS a good idea.
Turns out it was doomed from the start.
When the board all quit is when most of us should have realized it was over.
I think many of us really wanted to see the III% Society succeed,so much so that we overlooked obvious clues.
It’s the mutual respect and common understanding that’s been lacking-and it’s not just the III% society-it’s all across the III%/Patriot/liberty/ militia movement.
I’ve seen it over and over during the past 10 years or so,where I live,the “militias”are a freaking joke-at least as far as NE Ohio goes. Then again,I gave up on them years ago,maybe there’s one or two that are squared away now.
As I said,using III%….. for the name of any group is now pretty much pointless,as there are far too many groups using it.
We all need to focus on local first,so maybe now is a good time for most of us to just take a break,focus on our individual families and groups,step up our PT programs,keep prepping, and not worry about any organized resistance at a national level.
While some of us are taking a break,hopefully one of us can come up with an idea for a nationwide group/org focused on restoring individual rightful liberty, reducing the size of government,dismantling the police state,and slowing or stopping the leftists relentless bleating about gun control.
Me,I’m gonna focus on whacking a nice sized buck,as it’s middle of the rut here in NE Ohio,plus I spent all summer shooting arrows into a foam block target every day-sometimes twice a day.
Sitting in the woods all day where it’s nice and quiet gives me time to think,and I think more clearly then anyhow.
Yes,it is possible to learn from this,some of us will,but some won’t.
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However it turns out gamegetter your still welcome in my AO and still think we can put together a Patriot Community…I think a lot of backstabbing goes on in this community to further agendas, gain marketshares, or agent provocateurs…I think a lot is said behind the scenes and then the victim status comes out when they are called on it…I’m not taking anyone sides because I don’t have the whole story from any sides…All I know this isn’t good for the III or the Patriot Community in general and when Pete throws up his hands it has to be bad…Anyone that wants to chat about it you know where to find me…
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“I think a lot of backstabbing goes on in this community to further agendas, gain marketshares, or agent provocateurs…I think a lot is said behind the scenes and then the victim status comes out when they are called on it…”
I still want to move out there-if I can get through the winter without any one getting sick,or any financial emergencies with the kids-I may be able to head out there mid to late summer.
I like your AO better than Idaho-when I can move out of here-that’s where we’re heading.
All this bullshit has destroyed the III Society,and pretty much was the last nail in the coffin for the so called III%.
Just go on Farcebook,and type III%/Three percent in the search box and look at all the groups that show up-do the same for a Google search.
Check this site out-these guys-and ladies are on the right track for the Patriot/liberty/III% community…
http://www.whiterose.us/
One of the organizers of the site is Kit Lange from The Patrick Henry Society.
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