Day: December 29, 2015

Hate As A Pyramid Scheme

You know hate can be pretty darn lucrative…..hate sells and when it sells it becomes really profitable….I remember the pyramid schemes from years past…you know the ones where you join and work your way up to manager, supervisor or regional director….with each step you would get money from each person you had in your plan……

The reason I bring this up is that the old stand-by for racists and bigots alike….the KKK, the Klan, you know those guys in white sheets and face covers……someone did a bit of historical perspective on the workings of the Klan back in the 1920’s……

Even during its 1920s heyday, the Ku Klux Klan wasn’t a very effective hate group, according to an analysis by Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer and Steven D. Levitt, the latter of Freakonomics fame. However, the Klan was a “wildly successful” pyramid scheme, according to a Priceonomics blog post that rehashes the pair’s 2011 study of the group. In the piece, Rosie Cima writes that KKK leaders “exploited pre-existing, popular racism to make money.” For example, during a time when most in the US made less than $700 annually, the KKK leader in Indiana made some $200,000. He and other leaders managed it through clever marketing and the invention of all kinds of ways to make money off their own members—a classic trait of a pyramid scheme. For instance, the Klan charged members a $10 initiation fee, and Fryer and Levitt provide the breakdown:

  • $4 to the salesman (called a “Kleagle”) who recruited a member
  • $2.50 to the PR firm the Klan had hired to boost membership (it boomed)
  • $2 to the Klan’s self-declared “grand wizard,” William Simmons
  • $1.50 to a regional supervisor (the “Grand Goblin”).

The result, Cima notes, “looked much like a modern multi-level marketing company—with extremely stupid titles.” And it didn’t stop with initiation fees: the Klan leaned on members to buy robes (and robe cleaning), along with Klan-branded life insurance, accessories, bibles, and even candy. The Klan petered out as a genuine national force in the 1940s (the feds got them for back taxes). But small KKK groups are still out there, and, according to Vice, some are using candy as a recruiting tool rather than as a moneymaker. Residents of Cullman City, Arkansas, recently received KKK fliers packaged with Tootsie Rolls and lollipops. Authorities there are investigating the not-so-original scheme.

Like I said…..hate can be very profitable……god bless capitalism…..

While You Were Bitching About Stupid Stuff

In the days before Christmas there has been a running bitch about what Trump said (who f*cking cares) and just what to say during the season (another equally dumb fixation) there was more happening than you were aware of in your daily lives.

We hear politicos tell us about the rise of Russia and that could lead to yet another Cold War (like the old ever ended)…..or just what happens when we enact some stupid laws or well you get the picture….too much lame BS……

So while the world was slumbering awaiting the visit from the jolly fat man….there has been a major situation……

Source: China to open its first naval base in Africa – Al Jazeera English

Does anyone else see a major problem brewing in the Red Sea?

Smells Like Victory?

For over a year we have heard all the horror stories about the Iraqi military and the sneakiness of the militias…..and in all that time there has been very little that anyone could call a success…..so far violence and destruction and yet nothing that we could send a celebratory note about…..is it possible that all that is about to change?

Iraqi forces have reclaimed the central government compound in the city of Ramadi from ISIS, marking what a US commander says is the greatest achievement yet from a force that fled the city in May. The military says it’s now in complete control of the compound, which marks the defeat of ISIS in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, though there are still pockets of resistance, reports the BBC. “Yes, the city of Ramadi has been liberated,” says a military spokesman, per Reuters. The Iraqi flag is now flying over the compound, he adds. Fierce fighting had taken place around the city for days, though suicide bombers, snipers, and booby traps had slowed the Iraqi military’s advance, reports AP.

Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the US anti-ISIS effort, tells USA Today that it has been a great day for the Iraqi military. “What this shows is that the Iraqis have moved from an army that folded on initial contact in the summer of ’14 to an army that has been able to conduct a complex operation in a large, built-up area,” he says. “This is the biggest thing the Iraqi army has done. Period.” He says ISIS is now “getting hit in multiple places simultaneously,” having also lost control of the Tishrin Dam in Syria to US-backed fighters over the weekend, who cut off a key supply line to the group’s Raqqa stronghold when they seized the Euphrates River dam.

Yes!  Strike up the band….celebratory gunfire…..and the peasants dance…..

With all that “good” news may be a bit premature…..why?

Iraqi officials are hyping the narrative that they’ve captured central Ramadi from ISIS and that the final expulsion of the group for the Anbar provincial capital is at hand. US officials, however, say they cannot confirm the claims of Iraqi gains in the city’s center.

Even Iraqi military officials sought to leave some wiggle room in this claim of a gain, however, saying they have “full control” of the compound but that this doesn’t necessarily mean any Iraqi troops have even attempted to enter the compound.

What’s the deal?  The media ran with the “good” news of an Iraqi victory……and yet there is nothing to back it up….at least for now…..maybe this is especially for the American public….this has a ring of propaganda about it……..just a thought…..

 Lawrence Of Arabia Revisited

Back a long time ago I went to the movies and saw Lawrence Of Arabia….I was already interested in history but this made the desire to learn more that much more intense.

After university I went to work in the Middle East and found that there was not an Arab alive that saw his person in a heroic light……if anything, to them, he was a coward and a liar two things that Arabs hate…..after learning more about Lawrence I cannot watch the movie without feeling some sort kinship with the Arabs……

Now as in then, it’s not that the West wants to save the Middle East – it’s that the West wants the Middle East.

Source: T E Lawrence naivete lives on – Al Jazeera English