Thursday 23 August 2018

KKK, Then and Now

I'm often amused how journalists get wrapped up on the KKK-topic and they want you to put this topic in your top hundred things to worry about.  So this is one of those historical essays I write....to establish some true basis of understanding.

First, the original KKK-concept occurred in the Pulaski, Tenn area, and probably was more tied to a local group of guys (six total), who wanted to make up a Greek 'club' like organization after the Civil War.  In some ways, it was like lodge-group....with secrecy tied to it, and some likey hardcore drinking.  The first group could be regarded as a weird collection of folks who had a dislike of the Democratic-style politics going on, and influences perceived in 'change'.   Their chief problem in that original couple of years, was no central authority and no ability to kick out the rift-raft.   Most tend to agree...evolution 1.0 of the KKK ended by 1870.

For the next forty years....KKK-like groups come and go, but none use the name.  In some ways, they resemble more the Brown Shirts of Germany or the Black Shirts of Italy, in that period.

So you come to 1915, and version 2 of the KKK, which centered itself around Stone Mountain, Georgia.  This group went back to the Greek-like club thrills, the secrecy, and this time....had a central authority. 

This second group last for almost thirty years and probably reached near 6-million members toward the end.  But their enthusiasm and problems, led onto KKK evolution number three.

For the third era, I tend to argue that this core group went through a massive recruitment spiral, and probably peaked out by the early 1970s.  There might have been 10k to 20k members in that era.

So  you come to today.  You can review various estimations and people put the real number of 'paying members' (with membership) at 3,000 to 8,000 nationally.  Proof?  There simply isn't a reliable way to suggest the numbers. 

Some might still be attracted to the anti-black theme or anti-Jew message.  Some might simply see it as some mysterious Greek-like club (especially those who didn't do the college club membership deal).

If you went and tried to get full-up members to show up for some march?  I doubt if you'd get more than a quarter of folks to go that far.  They like the secrecy, but beyond that.....they don't want the extra thrills.

I think if you went into various communities today, and offered up a modern-day version of the 'Sons of Malta' (another secrecy group but not really into the KKK-type themes), then you'd have a fair number of folks interested and pursuing something like that.  People just have a fascination with secret stuff (like the Freemasons).

Fake KKK thugs around?  Last week, I was reading a piece of news and the news item seemed to have some suggestion of a fake KKK group.  I would take a guess that maybe several fraudulent and fake groups exist....purely for political gathering purposes. 

A threat to the nation?  The 1915 group might have been a threat.  But the original crew and the current existing crew are just not much of a threat. 

Watergate?

I sat there today and watched through about 60 minutes of news coverage over the past three days.....where the term 'Watergate was mentioned at least twenty times.  Watergate-this, and Watergate-that.

I admit I am nearing 60 years old and have some memory of the period, the activity, the characters, and downfall of Nixon.

But here's the thing.  I suspect that two-thirds of the nation has virtually NO MEMORY of Watergate, and this hype?  It'd doing absolutely nothing.

Some folks are probably sitting there and thinking Watergate was some dam structure which collapsed in 1913 in Arkansas, or it was a Detroit car model that was made for one brief year, or that it was a blonde gal from Tulsa who went by the name 'Henny' Watergate and she did some wild topless dancing in the 1970s.

The use of these 1970s journalists?  Being dragged out and propped up for some twelve-minute lecture about something that no one really remembers?  Well....that's the problem.  They might as well be Detroit Lion coaches,  Seattle city council members, or famous Mexican comedians.

By the middle of next week...some intellectual guy will meet up with the CNN, NPR, and CBS crowd.....discussing the discovery that the term 'Watergate' really is a mystery to two-thirds of the nation and maybe there needs to be another angle to destroying Trump (maybe connecting him to a UFO theorist group or a Swedish opera singer with Russian family connections).

Here's the funny thing.....more people can name women 'loved' on by Bill Clinton.....than Republican guys who 'fell' during the Watergate era.  That ought to worry the Democrats greatly. 

NFL

I should note, I just don't care much for the NFL, and have been that way for a couple of years.  The kneeling business simply wrapped up the last bit of enthusiasm I had.

I noticed today that teams are a bit worried over fan numbers and filling seats as the season starts up, and they've gone to a new tactic.....heavily discounting beer and food prices.  Course, this cuts into profits but the desperation is starting to show.

If the attendance or viewing numbers don't return to a norm?  Most journalists were trying to tell a story in the late fall of 2017 that this was a temp thing, and it would return to normal.  Why they choose that wording?  Unknown.

The brand?  It's in a freefall type situation and no one that you can readily identify for blame.  If you were a owner of a billion-dollar club, and your profits were 20-percent off the norm....you'd be upset.  You'd like to fire someone.  But in this case.....you can't.

The camera guys?  They likely have orders to avoid any camera display of empty seats.  So every image will be selected carefully and the majority of camera footage will be of the field itself.  The fact that 10,000 seats might be empty?  It won't be discussed.

Bars that used to make big money off Monday night football?  They would likely be looking for an alternate angle now.

At the bottom of this whole thing are college kids looking at the pay-dynamics and realizing that somewhere in the next year or two....there's going to be some shift in pay, and it won't be positive.