Some racist jerks are throwing KKK flyers around Sioux Falls… with candy. Sticking messages of racial hate in plastic bags with suckers and dropping them on the street isn’t a new Klan trick (though in Maryland last June, some knucklehead thought birdseed would help spread the hate). Neither is the printed matter found in Sioux Falls. The anonymous papers—and we know such anonymity is the mark of cowards trying to avoid the public shame that they know would crumple their perverse adherence to falsehood—include the Confederate traitor flag, spews boilerplate bunk branding Spike Lee’s BlacKKKlansman film “more lies from the Jewish owned and controlled film industry” and the “NAACP, SPLC, ADL, ACLU” all “Run by Dirty Jews!” The flyer also declares the Klan a “WHITE only Christian organization. No Blacks, No Jews, No Mexicans or Fags, No Asians or Satanic Liberal Catholics.” (Nice, I suppose, that the Klan is at least making room for non-satanic moderate Catholics.)
To cleanse my palette from reporting such vile words, I happily post a recent column by Sioux Falls AFL-CIO President Kooper Caraway celebrating the role of organized labor in fighting fascists like the Klan and warning that Klansmen have often been the willing dupes of “the Boss Class”:
It is our duty to let our fellow workers know that Fascism, White Supremacy, and its organizations have only ever existed to divide us as workers and do the dirty work of the Boss Class. The White Nationalists have always been bought and paid for by those in power, they exist not to fight for any ideal, but to destroy the progress made by us as working class people. That is why the SIoux Falls AFL-CIO voted to Ban all Fascists and White Supremacists from our organization.
It is our duty to hold our Brothers and Sisters accountable. We must dispute and disrupt any attempt at advocating or agitating for Fascist and White Supremacist Causes in our workplaces.
It is our duty to organize. We must confront and defeat the ongoing attacks by so called “Alt-Right” organizations on our Working Class communities [Kooper Caraway, “‘No Union for Fascists’: Why the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO Banned White Supremacists,” Sioux Falls AFL-CIO, 2018.08.10].
The North Dakota AFL-CIO reminds us that Hitler viewed organized labor as one of his enemies:
Understand that one of the Nazis’ first acts in Germany was to crush the labor unions. Knowing that organized Labor was a real threat to Nazi control, the fascist government spent two years outlawing unions, jailing leaders who stood up for workers, and setting up a state run system of worker control. Using ruthless violence, intimidation and murder, the Nazis destroyed everything unions had fought for.
Our union sisters and brothers need to remember that Organized Labor was the first item on Hitler’s enemies list [Waylon Hedegaard, “North Dakota Labor Against Nazis,” North Dakota AFL-CIO, 2017.08.17].
South Dakota’s anti-union “right-to-work” laws rest on racist foundations that corporations are only too happy to exploit:
The drive for such laws was fueled by Texas businessperson and white supremacist Vance Muse, who despised the doctrine of human equality represented by unions.
Muse argued that the only solution for maintaining segregation was to make union membership or any payment of union dues voluntary. Without such “right-to-work” laws, whites would be “forced” to mingle with blacks: “From now on, white women and white men will be forced into organizations with black African apes whom they will have to call ‘brother’ or lose their jobs,” he warned.
Muse’s hardcore racism led to alliances with groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
The appallingly racist views of Muse and his Christian American Association coincided with the mentality of corporate managers dedicated to holding down wages and maintaining the tight control over workers dating back to the days of slavery. The CEOs of the 1930s recognized that Muse’s segregationist “right-to-work” concept would break up unified worker efforts to claim the rights granted under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act [Roger Bybee, “Right-to-Work Laws Built on Racist Foundations,” The Progressive, 2015.03.04].
Sorry, I don’t have candy to put with that. All I’m putting with these words is my name and my pledge not to be a racist, corporatist dupe.
Klan costs taxpayers pesos, too. From Juanita Jeans today-
Remember the United the Right Rally in Washington, DeeCee, where the crowd of white supremacists were in the dozens? Okay, maybe two dozens.
That mess cost the taxpayers of Dee Cee $2.6 million dollars. They figure that’s about $86,000 a racist, which, best I can figure, is about 4 times their yearly income, which makes it kinda like racist welfare.
Here’s the stumper …
The money came from the federally funded Emergency Planning and Security Fund, which reimburses DC agencies for costs that relate to the city being the nation’s capital.
So, actually, that was your taxes paying for that stuff.
It is a pretty short list of groups more incidious and vile than the KKK. I know SD has history with the KKK, Mt Rushmore etc. But that was 80+ years ago. I’m told there are A-K-I-A button wearers at the Sturgis Rally. But is the crowd Sturgis draws in really representative of SD? No doubt we have a large racism problem red/white, something I’ve tried to fight against. I’d like to hear from law enforcement if organised white supremacy is present and a problem in South Dakota.
My point, I’m not convinced these leaflets/candy are really what they appear to be. Is that really how these groups recruit? The contact numbers on the material are dead ends. We live in a day when paid agitators are operating all over the nation. Turns out this guy Kessler who organised the white nationalism rally last year in Charlottesburg was an Obama supporter and Occupy Wall Street guy.
For the good of our state, people on the right and the left should reject the faux-tactics that seek to divide us. I suspect this flyers amount to yelling fire in a crowded theatre. No actual fire, but the aim is to incite a violent and deadly stampede.
Boss Class (It’s not a seminar …)
Cory’s title implies minorities are only working class. Why is that Cory?
Jason … Cory is in the middle of a political campaign. Show some courtesy and hold your misdirecting “gaslight” questions. You and Ol Sarge seem to have a “spank me, Cory” fetish going on. What’s in your background that makes you need to be scolded daily, like a little child? Hmmmm?
Jason, the headline makes no such implication — in fact to make “division” implies wedging one or more apart from others. I know it is a stretch for you, but if you look at the other (albeit smaller) words under that headline, you see the political strategy of wedging apart a unified labor force by using race influenced separation strategies.
Jason, here is your opportunity to teach — when has the Klan or other white supremest organization taken a stand against corporate power? No cheating — not a stance against some phantom Jewish cabal in Hollywood or banking, but a real stand against corporate exploitation of the working class.
This crap is always east river. You would think they would learn to simply live with each other without judging others based on the pigment of one’s skin.
Porter, why the nasty streak all the time? Find peace.
I believe this happened before west river in the hills where Meade County had a strong presence. There is also a motorcycle gang in Sioux Falls called the Dead Men MC that wear vests that display the swastika.
Here they are in all their glory: https://www.reddit.com/r/SiouxFalls/comments/841jm7/spotted_on_10th_street_today/
Nice swastika and the dude wasn’t aware he was under suspicion.
Hey OldStogie- yer buddy’s military parade cost has climbed 800% to over 90 million. You and Drumpf should be so happy.
Thanks for the comraderie, OS. We could probably be drinkin’ buddies, someday. Who’s your favorite football team?
I don’t watch football. Never have. For that matter I really don’t follow sports. I’ll play some golf on the 9 hole courses now and then but mostly fish, swim and lift. You can see me in the creek by Canyon lake or behind the AA building by the bridge. Just mellow. Tonight is Hot Summer Nights but also the ACLU is at Hay Camp so if the wife gets busy talking I’ll slip in there.
As O and Porter recognize, my title implies no such thing, Jason. Neither does Kooper’s commentary. Read it again (or read it for the first time).
Jason’s effort actually sounds like the same thing Kooper and I recognize the KKK does: sow division to keep the working class, folks of all backgrounds, all colors, all religions, all education levels, from uniting against the wealthy elites.
@OS … Nice 👍🏻 Sounds like fun. Hope you guys have a good one.
I understand Steve’s impulse to believe that the Klan propaganda is something other than it seems to be: not cowardly white folks justifying their racism with Christianity, but some other party whom Steve can more comfortably treat as an enemy.
Klan documents in baggies with candy has appeared in other places, as I’ve documented with links above. The anonymity of the droppings leaves many possibilities open, but consider: if it were some liberal false-flag operation, it’s ill-targeted. Sowing vague fear is the Republican gig; we Democrats would look at the situation rationally: “We’ve got money to buy some paper and candy and we’ve got volunteers to deliver them. Should we print some flyers promoting the KKK and throw them around anonymously in town, in a way that might actually encourage some people to join the KKK while only briefly outraging some people who are already on our side, or should we print up some flyers for actual candidates, like Billie Sutton and Randy Seiler, deliver them in person, and try raising some money for our candidates?” and we’d conclude that we should promote our real candidates.
Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is that the candygrams were thrown around by racist jerks, getting their kicks by playing anonymous unpunishable bullies and trying to sow fear among minorities in Sioux Falls.
Not all conservatives are racists, but all racists call themselves ‘conservative.’
I am actually quite happy that the pus which is the conservative base is now officially on display for everyone – as I was getting pretty tired of being the only guy around talking about what radical crap-asses these voters have been, for decades now.
Republicans have spent decades cultivating an amoral, fully-ignorant, radicalized rural culture – yet, today old school Republicans pretend like they don’t know what the hell just happened to their party. They do, indeed, know what happened – as it’s their fault for having only wanted continually lower taxes forever and placating to racists ideologies to get their political agenda passed. Old School Cons thought they could ride the tiger forever – SAD.
Unfortunately, if you want lower taxes for yourself in 2018, then you’re likely an idiot racist.
Conservatives (and the GOP) know that racism is their highest powered political juice. They used to try to be clever about sharing racist thoughts, but now even the most half-assed Americans are learning about this one fundamental difference between the two political parties, and that much is worth celebrating.
Everyone knows it was a false flag put on by leftist democrats. There is not a single example of a Constitutionalist doing such a thing. Standard ops. . .
Went downtown. Band was too good to leave. Hope the Hay Camp and ACLU made their blood dime.
When a conservative says ‘false flag’ in ANY context you can be sure they consume Alex Jones’ programming and rely on spreading conspiracy theories to achieve credibility in most political conversation.
SAD.
Oh, the Alex Jones the left has taken Freedom of Speech from? Weird how that works. The left is a lot like Antifa. They claim to be gaits what they, in fact, do.
Against
Spoken/written like a true nutbag.
Relax OldSpice, the FCC decision on Texas Pirate Radio shut down had zero to do with Jones and his lies. Don’t be so quick to get your knickers in a twist. You’ll be burnt out by noon.
Jone’s alleged 1st amendment rights do not allow him carte blanche to violate rules of engagement from private entities like Facebook or Twitter. Aw, hell. Blow a gasket. Maybe you’ll feel better.
I know I will. Have a nice day.
mike it doesn’t matter if is lies or the truth. It is the selective suppression of speech. What would you do if they decided stupid people could not post, would we ever hear from you again?
Radio station was shut down for filing to have a LICENSE! That rat bastard violated protocol and got punished for that. It has nothing to do with free speech of Jones. Twitter et al have rights, too,stoopid.
“everyone knows”—no, actually, OS, that’s a lie. No one knows the thing you’re saying.
The most logical explanation is the simplest: racist jerks distributed these hate flyers and candy.