Fleecing the right wing suckers - Free Republic, not so Free.

[Mortos]

From the website Free Republic: www.freerepublic.com/home.htm

Who runs Free Republic?
Free Republic, LLC is a non-commercial, limited liability company founded and operated by Jim Robinson, a private citizen of Fresno California.

Free Republic is not a for profit commercial enterprise in the sense of a traditional business selling a product or service at a profit for its shareholders. We sell no product or service. We have no clients, customers or employees. We do not accept paid advertising. Free Republic is not affiliated with any political party, group, news source, government agency or anyone else.


Free Republic Monthly Budget
Once we get our monthly donations to the point where they will cover all of our expenses, we will not need to have fundraisers.

Est. Recurring Monthly Contributions $10,100

Monthly Expenses
Bandwidth and Colocation $2,700
System Administation and Programming 5,000
Administrative and Taxes 9,500
Legal and Accounting 1,000
Bank Fees, Credit Card Fees, Processing Fees 800
Equip, Maintenance and Repairs 300
Office Expenses, Rents, Insurance, Telephone, ISP, Supplies, Misc. 2,500
Travel Expenses 800

Total 22,600.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Est. Monthly Shortfall ($12,500.00)

*********************************************************************************

The monthly cost of running the site, according to Jim Robinson's (the owner) figures, includes $5000 per month for System Administration and Programming (since he is the sole employee of the company, that money would all go to him). There is also a an unusual grouping together of Administrative and Taxes in the amount of $9500. I don't know why a person would group those two items together other than to cover how much you were paying for "administration" by including the vague and hated taxes into the figure. It seems to indicate this money goes to Mr. Robinson as well. These two figures are the majority expenses of running the site $14,500 (64.16% of the budget) per month goes to Jim Robinson. Multiply that by 12 and Mr. Robinson is making up to 174,000 per year for running a site that has only had 200,000 registered users (not active users, registered users) since it's founding in 1996 (averaging 20,000 registered users per year). The difference between active users (users who visit the site and participate on a regular basis) versus registered users (the number of people who signed up regardless of whether or not they visit the site or were booted off the site) is normally significant. Robinson claims tens of thousands of regular users.

Robinson has claimed to be broke or barely making ends meet on posts on Free Republic and has repeatedly threatened to just shut it all down which, I am sure, results in an upswing in contributions. Fortunately for him, his users are either too filled with hate for their mutual enemy to care or too stupid to realize they are being fleeced, probably a little of both.

Jim Robinson has a small core of subscribers who provide $10,125 per month from 606 donors (average of $16.67 per donor) but the majority of his money comes from one time donors during fund drives. So far, during the first quarter of 2007, Jim has received donations totaling $55,351.90 from 1605 donors (average donation $34.49).

There are donations from some surprising areas of the world. In fact, Jim's highest donations come from Australia (2 donations for $550), Panama (1 donation for $400), Sweden (1 donation for $150), South Korea (1 donation of $100) and, my favorite, Kuwait (1 donation of $200). There were also donations from those right wing scourge countries of scorn and disdain, Canada, Germany, China, the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico.

Apparently Jim is a true right winger in that he will take money from anyone.

What do Jim's financial supporters get for their $260,000 dollars per year? Not much, technically speaking. Free Republic is a neophyte quality HTML site with very few of the graphic bells and whistles of similar websites. Jim has apparently kept costs low by keeping Free Republic the same low grade text oriented site it started as in 1996. Most myspace user web pages are better designed than Free Republic so the money is obviously not going into web design or programming.

Where does the money go? No one know but I found this interesting little gem from a proclaimed former member of Free Republic:

"Although I was once a monthly donor, knowing what I know now, I would NOT donate a single penny to FR. It's an LLC entity with no transparency whatsoever, and nobody knows where the money comes from or where it goes. They collect over a quarter million a year yet never once to my knowledge has Mr. Robinson shown anyone any type of money trail. It's his big secret."

For all it's alleged political power and clout, Free Republic has a hard time gathering together more than a couple of dozen people together for one of it's famed right wing shindigs (and Jim Robinson uses every event to solicit donations). It's counter protest of the peace march in Washington, D.C. in 2005, while touted as bringing together up to 20,000, was barely able to scrape together 100 like minded people. Compared to the 100,000 that showed up to protest the war, the group looks pitifully inadequate but pays it's lone employee incredibly well.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Are we supposed to care about the freepers?

I sure as hell don't.

[Mortos]

33. No, the point of this post is to mock them

and could a brother get one more recommendation :)

[Catherine Vincent]

34. Sure, I just gave you your 5th!

Anything to mock the freepers!

[Mortos]

58. Thanks CatGirl

I preciatecha!

[malaise]

40. Mock away

K & R :D

[Ignacio Upton]

2. "Administrative and Taxes 9,500"

Is the money raised from those Freepathons considered to be taxable income? Otherwise, his numbers seem fuzzy.

[Mortos]

5. Even if it ws taxable

$9500 dollars is over 40% of the total monthly costs. 40% for taxes, give me a break.

[Ignacio Upton]

6. Can gold-plated RV's be subject to state sale taxes?

Otherwise, I can't think of any reason why he would be paying that much for taxes. DU's fundraisers don't have a fixed amount of cash for the goal, just the individual number of contributions...which in theory could mean people are donating anywhere from $5 to $5,000...yet our website is up to date, while Free Republic looks like it has the latest web design from 1994.

[originalpckelly]

27. ...

*Actually he may have to pay near 40% in taxes because he steal so much money from the freepers!

His brackets are:
# From nil to $7,550: 10%
# From $7,550 to $30,650: 15%
# From $30,650 to $74,200: 25%
# From $74,200 to $154,800: 28%

Then on top of that he'd have to pay the 15.3% Self-Employment tax, which goes to fund Social Security and other safety net programs.

[wakeme2008]

3. It is unbelievable the state of FR software

DU is always upgrading something and has three main employees.....

FR is a scam IMHO...

[originalpckelly]

28. I know, I'm glad I'm a Democrat because I might have to shoot myself..

using FR all the time. DU has the nicest web forum I've ever used on the internet, the Admins DESERVE! to be paid because of the high quality of this product.

On the other hand, RimJob's sites just shitty in the way it's designed.

[Wickerman]

4. D'oh! He forgot Poland

There are donations from some surprising areas of the world. In fact, Jim's highest donations come from Australia (2 donations for $550), Panama (1 donation for $400), Sweden (1 donation for $150), South Korea (1 donation of $100) and, my favorite, Kuwait (1 donation of $200). There were also donations from those right wing scourge countries of scorn and disdain, Canada, Germany, China, the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico.

[NoPasaran]

7. Every dollar the freepers donate for the upkeep of Rimjob's lifestyle

Is a dollar less they have to spend on Snickers and crystal meth.

[twilight_sailing]

8. Patsies!

Do you ever have evil thoughts? I do.

There is a ton of money to be made off these people.

[Mortos]

10. Yes

I have thougt about going undercover as a right wing commentator, becoming a regular guest on an MSM "news" show were I could further spout hateful lies, write a book filled with the same old right wing propaganda, make a few million, get my own radio program, make several more million, write another couple of books, make millions more, get my own televison show on one of the liberal MSM stations, make millions more and then come out of the closet and say a big FU to all the people who spent their money on my right wing lies.

One can dream.

[Hard_Work]

31. Wow!

I have had the exact same thought! Maybe we could form a team! ;)

[Mortos]

32. We need to come up with a snappy name or logo first

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. If I were running a scam

I would pay big bucks to have a Free Republic donor list. Biggest suckers on Planet Earth.

[NewJeffCT]

11. a lot of his expenses seem a bit fuzzy

I wonder how much he is double or triple counting.

Why is bandwith & colocation in one category for $2,700, but ISP in another (lumped with office expenses)

WTF is a one-man show doing spending $1,000/month on legal & accounting fees? Does he get sued all the time? I know they were labeled a "hate site" a few years back, but that was overturned on appeal.

$800 in credit card & bank fees?

[Mortos]

12. That's what I thought

and he is stupid enought to post them but Freepers are too stupid to figure it out.

[sandnsea]

43. I have both

Bandwidth and colocation through one company, but my DSL ISP is through QWest. So that's possible although his figures are absolutely insane. What kills me is the amount of money people will give for bullshit, but won't pay for their own legitimate business web services.

[NewJeffCT]

48. I understand the 2 companies

But, why not have it all on one line "Bandwidth, colocation & ISP" since it's all somewhat related. It just seems odd to lump ISP in with miscellaneous expenses when that is one of the key pieces of them being able to function on a daily basis.

[sandnsea]

51. Difference between cost and expense

IIRC, I cost my server and expense my DSL because it goes with my phone. I don't even know for sure if that's right, it's just easiest is all. I don't think it matters in regards my taxes, so I've never worried that much about it.

[maxrandb]

13. Legal Question

If I were to sign up on Free Republic and become a monthly donor, would I have any legal standing to demand publication and results of an audit?

Not that I would do something like that, but exposing RimJob for the low-life swine that he is extremely tempting.

What rights do a contributor have to ensure the money they give is used for the purposes stated?

Are audits required?

I would like to know.

[LSK]

14. Programming???

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[MiniMe]

15. What taxes? He said they are a non-profit

[salin]

25. he was slipperty on that - he didn't say it was a nonprofit entity

as in tax status - went on to say that in the conventional sense they don't sell a product or have 'clients'. Wiggle words. I am pretty sure it is a for profit venture.

[MiniMe]

49. Well, if they are having a $12,500 shortfall each month, what taxes?

Not to mention what rent? One guy running a website will probably do it from home. I bet it is his mortgage payment.

[madinmaryland]

16. "We (FR) do not accept paid advertising"

:wtf:

Their whole home page is covered with links to other sites. They must be getting a cut on having those links.

[Mortos]

17. Someone is paying for all those great right wing book

links.

Ann Coulter is at least giving him a reacharound.

[NewJeffCT]

18. I thought they got money from the RNC?

Or, am I mistaken in that regards?

[NewJeffCT]

19. $9,600/year in travel?

is that for traveling to all those counter-protests?

[Mortos]

20. Where did you get that figure?

I only see $800 a year for travel

[NewJeffCT]

21. I thought that was monthly?

$800 means $800 x 12 for a year, no?

[Mortos]

22. you are right

I didn't even catch that and I wrote the original piece. Jesus Christ! $9600 dollars a year for travel. I am starting my own right wing website.

[NewJeffCT]

24. I took my wife & daughter

for a 2 week trip to China a few years back and paid less than 1/3 of that for everything - round trip flights between CT and China; flights within China; hotels & meals; etc.

[MadHound]

23. Pretty much, and judging from what I've seen, Jim doesn't go to very many

Two, maybe three a year. So either he's going first class all the time, or he is essential paying himself to be a professional protester.

I also suspect that Rimjob is getting some financing from the neo-cons and 'Pugs. He seems to be a second tier member of the RW echo chamber, and does lots of grass roots stuff, such as the Swiftboat folks, and other sordid stuff. I think he is kept around in order to be an astroturf attack dog when needed. It would be interesting to see how much of these sort of payment he gets.

But yes, Rimjob is not hurting for cash. Besides FR, he owns Proto Source Network, his very own ISP, does computer consultation, and get this, did lots of college course work in accounting and tax law. It would probably be a really interesting read to go over his books and see just how much they're being cooked, but he's made sure that nobody excepting the IRS can do so.

Yeah, the man's a ripoff artist and con man, and sadly his poor sheep are sheared on a regular basis. But I'm thinking that between his own harsh handling of FR, and the general disenchantment with the right wing in general, he and FR are starting to fall on hard times. His last fundraiser took forever to complete, and I think that FR posters are fleeing in droves, either voluntarily or otherwise. I imagine that in a few years FR will just be another internet legend.

[yardwork]

37. He does computer consultation???? ROTFL!

On what? Bad HTML?

[karlrschneider]

41. He pays himself 5 grand a month to push the reset button on the computer.

:eyes:

[BuyingThyme]

26. He's probably writing off car payments.

On two cars.

[proud2BlibKansan]

38. And don't forget those porta potties!

[BuyingThyme]

50. Oh, good point.

We shouldn't be jumping to conclusions.

[The Straight Story]

30. In Jim's defense on that one item

As far as I recall he travels in a motor home, and not only is gas for that probably pretty high - but writing off the travel expenses helps out - ie, every trip to a protest (which I think he used to do weekly) would be considered travel, and using that large RV would probably eat up about that much a year in gas (plus food, etc).

I had my falling out with Jim and crew, and I don't defend their actions/funding but I do think it is fair to point out that in this case I can actually see that being a real expense (especially if one wants to be able to deduct as much as possible).

[Raffi Ella]

29. .

I've clicked over to F.R. once or twice and honestly that site is little more than a message board.I can't imagine that people would pay for that.If D.U. were like that I wouldn't just not donate I wouldn't come here.

[Mortos]

35. one last kick for the evening crowd

:kick:

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. There were only 35 freepers at the march on Jan 27

and the official count of the marchers was 400,000.

[The Straight Story]

39. I am sure the rest could not be there cause they were fighting in Iraq

:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. No I think our spit on steriods drove them away

:rofl:

[NewJeffCT]

47. To be a new gadget/weapon in the upcoming Bond movie

Spit on steroids - see Bond using his explosive nitro spit to knock the bad guys silly while he escapes...

[PaDUer]

42. Didn't freepville owner have a nice lawsuit

in Calif against some reporter, and won an amt that was posted at one time on their site that the resident helped them win?

[Mortos]

52. I didn't read anything about that in my research

but he was sued by the Washington Post and another paper for using entire articles without permission. He lost that case. I don't know how much that cost him or the users, I do know he used that case to solicit even more donations and recieved thousands of dollars for that purpose.

[The Straight Story]

54. There is a post from Jim about it all, if I can dig it up will send to you (nt)

[Initech]

44. $10 says that the $10,100 monthly contribution comes directly from the RNC

Any takers?

[Zhade]

45. Isn't this fraud?

Arrest that asshole!

:evilgrin:

[DarkTirade]

53. *sigh*

I wish I had no morals and the willingness to fleece stupid/gullible people out of their money... I'd be totally rich by now...

[wicket]

55. Remember in the 2000 primaries how anti-Bush they all were?

They were pulling for McCain, big time, and they all hated Bush.

[Mortos]

56. They love him now

like a god and you don't question God!

[Marr]

57. He gets funding from the conservative establishment as well, doesn't he?

Like think tanks and so on?