$200 TO SETTLE $10K? OPEN THE “SECONDARY DEBT MARKET” TO THE PUBLIC AND FIX THE ECONOMY!

Posted on December 4, 2013 by eggsistense

So the Rolling Jubilee continues!  Right on!  It’s a great idea, but one wonders, why can’t we all be given the option to do this ourselves?  That is, why can’t we buy our own bad debts and thereby extinguish them?  Oh right, the “free market” (which is actually known as rent-seeking in the real world)!

Check this out:

“For the [Rolling Jubilee’s] first anniversary, it announced this month that in one fell swoop it had bought up the equivalent of nearly $13.5 million in medical debt that some 2,693 people owed to hospitals and medical offices.

The group purchased the debt for only $400,000 — mainly paid for by small donations made to the organization over the Internet.”

Did you get that?  It only cost $400 thousand to get rid of $13 million in debt.  This brings a number of thoughts to mind: 1) this debt is all obviously fake to begin with if it can be settled with so little, 2) the entire personal debt of every person in the US could be settled very cheaply, and 3) why aren’t regular people allowed to buy their own “debt” so it can be extinguished?  Indeed, the article breaks down for us exactly how many “pennies on the dollar” it cost to extinguish this debt:

“According to Strike Debt member Ann Larson, ‘for every dollar of debt we abolish, we paid only two cents.'”

PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR

TWO CENTS?! WTF!  As in “putting in my two cents” (or insert any other cliche you can think of involving two pennies)?

So let’s do some quick math…if debt can be extinguished for two cents on the dollar, how much would it cost to extinguish a debt of $10,000?  (Checks calculator…checks again…) TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?  Can that be right?  (Checks calculator…tries to remember algebra…or is trigonometry more appropriate…no, just .02 X 10,000…)  Yep, that’s right–a debt of $10K can be extinguished for $200!  So a debt of $100K can be settled for $2,000!  A $200K debt can be settled for $4K!  And so on…

Why in God’s name isn’t this being done on a mass scale?  I mean, I know that the banks and other fake “creditors” want to keep alive the idea that “if we lend you some money, you still owe that full amount, even if we write off that debt as uncollectible.”  I know that the idea is to keep us in debt slavery and that even though junk debt buyers buy our “debt” for two cents on the dollar, they expect us to pay the full amount to them, which is of course how they make money.  And if we don’t pay, they will take us to court and sue for the full amount even though they were not the person that lent us the money and that the debt has in fact been written off and sold to the junk debt buyer for two cents on the dollar.

Having said that, if any politician wanted to get on our good side, they’d immediately advocate–i.e., write up a bill and try to turn it into law–that the “secondary debt market” be opened to the general public so that the general public could buy up its own debt for two cents on the dollar.  That’s how you get consumption back up, fellas!  If all household debt could be paid off for two cents on the dollar, the malls would be full again in no time!

The absolute best way to fix the economy is just to have debt forgiveness on a mass scale, i.e., a bailout for the people.  And then go the way of the Air Standard.  But since–as Michael Hudson points out in the video below–that’s never going to happen, at least we should force the secondary debt market to be opened to the public.  It’s either that or eventual bloody revolution, I’m afraid.  And nobody wants that.

Posted in Debt, Debt Slavery, Federal Reserve, fiat currency, Financial Terrorism, Rent-seeking, Secondary debt market, self-issued currency | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

IS THERE EVEN A “NOTE HOLDER” TO PAY?

Posted on December 3, 2013 by eggsistense

Reaction to a post at Living Lies today in which Neil Garfield said:

“If the owner can’t be known, are we really saying that the borrower still owes the money on the fictitious debt that was described in ether note and mortgage? We have law that covers this. If he the debt was not adequately represented at closing on he the note and mortgage and note, then we can agree that a debt exists, but it not to any of the parties in he the existing paper train.”

I have said this for a while now and made this argument in my own (losing) lawsuit: THERE IS NO “NOTE HOLDER” AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE NOTE ITSELF.  That is, due to “securitization,” there is no person (corporate or natural) that meets the note’s two criteria for earning the title “note holder”: 1) entitled to payments due AND 2) taken the note by transfer.  The “note holder,” by the terms of the note, MUST meet BOTH of those criteria.  It’s very simple.  You need not be an economist, a bankster, an attorney, a judge, or some other sort of “expert” to understand that.

Who among the foreclosing entities meets both of these criteria?  In my case, NONE of the defendants (BoA, Fannie, MERS, Recontrust) met BOTH criteria.  Supposedly it was the investors in Fannie MBS that were entitled to payment, BUT they had not taken the note by transfer.  How do I know that?  Because Michele Sjolander testified under oath on two separate occasions that the note was sitting in a Recontrust vault in Simi Valley, CA.  Therefore, the note was not under the control and neither in the constructive nor actual possession of Fannie Mae or investors in Fannie Mae MBS.  Actual possession is required, by the way–so says the judge in Kemp v. Countrywide.

So while Garfield may be correct that there IS a debt (which I personally dispute, but that’s a subject for another time) that exists, the existence of that debt becomes moot if there is no person in existence to whom that debt is owed.  And such a scenario–i.e., a non-existent note holder–is NOT the fault of the borrower, it’s the fault of the banks.  Because it is not difficult to fulfill the two criteria required to be a note holder.   All one would have to do is have the note properly endorsed AND physically possess said note.  That’s supposed to be the reason for banks; such simple requirements should be a no-brainer for them.  And since THEY screwed it up, all penalties and inconveniences should fall on the banks, not on the homeowner.

This is why they want the note to follow the mortgage!

So if there’s no note holder, how can there be a foreclosure?  That’s the rub, isn’t it?  Perhaps that’s why no bank and no court wants to follow the law of the land, i.e., Carpenter v. Longan which states that mortgages follow notes and assignments of mortgages separate from notes are a nullity.  This is why there has been so much focus on MERS and the MERS assignment of deed of trust/mortgage–they’re trying to make the note follow the mortgage precisely because there is no note holder!  And if there is no note holder, who should we pay?  My vote–cancel the “debt!”

IMPORTANT NOTE/DISCLAIMER:  The above article is not legal advice and was not written by an attorney.  It is merely a collection of common-sense, rational observations written by a sane, rational layperson with common sense.  It is recommended that you consult with an attorney for any and all legal advice and/or action.

Posted in Debt, Fannie Mae, Foreclosure, Foreclosure fraud, MERS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

HEDGE FUND MANAGER SOUNDS JUST LIKE THE POPE!

Posted on November 29, 2013 by eggsistense

PolicyMic posted an article with the following headline: “Pope Francis Denounces Capitalism, But Is He Right?” Short answer: absolutely (dude is infallible, after all)–especially since renowned hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller essentially agrees with the Pope, as we shall see below.

Of course, the writer of the article wishes to show how wrong-headed the pope is in his latest apostolic exhortation (the pope’s, not the PolicyMic guy’s). So he says this:

“As is typical with many leftist critics of capitalism, the pope is looking at the end result and losing the forest for the trees.“

What? Someone actually looking at the outcomes a given policy produces and criticizing said policy (of course, capitalism, in this case) based on one’s observations of the outcomes of that policy? That’s preposterous! Except of course, it isn’t.

PolicyMic post actually an apology for “Reverse Socialism”

That sort of criticism is fairly typical of the defenders of what I’ve long called “reverse socialism,” namely the idea that “our theory is absolutely correct even if it’s terrible in practice.” Reverse socialism is, of course, the system to which we are currently yoked and can be defined in a few words: profits are privatized while losses are socialized. The 2008 bailout springs immediately to mind as does the Cyprus “bail-in” of this year. Another way to define reverse socialism in a few words: “too big to fail.”

Redistribution: not what they’d have you believe

The PolicyMic article does make a really good point with which I totally agree:

“Redistribution is totalitarian and oppressive.”

Well, duh! Though the writer does not define “redistribution,” we know without having to ask that he means “redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor.” That kind of redistribution deeply offends the writer.

However, the redistribution is going in the complete opposite direction, from the poor and middle class to the very wealthy. And that’s not just me saying that, that’s Stanley Druckenmiller, again, a well-known hedge fund manger. He says exactly that in this video (at 10 seconds in):

If you didn’t watch the video, he said:

“This is the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever.”

What’s he talking about? The Fed’s decision to NOT stop QE unlimited, which is the Fed’s injection of $85 billion a month into the banking system.

When the pope agrees with a hedge fund manager whose last company had $12 billion in assets as of 2010, maybe we are in fact getting to the heart of the matter, i.e., that putting the lipstick of “capitalism” on the pig of reverse socialism is not getting us anywhere near to anything like the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that are among our “unalienable rights” that our government is supposed to be insuring for all of us.

Posted in Asset Bubble, Debt Slavery, Federal Reserve, Financial Terrorism, QE unlimited, Redistribution, Reverse socialism, Too big to fail | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

POPE: “Money must serve, not rule”

Posted on November 27, 2013 by eggsistense

So it turns out the new Pope is just like me, but infallible!

Pope Francis Holds His Weekly General Audience

Or at least he thinks like me when it comes to money issues.  I read parts of his latest exhortation, and I was overjoyed to hear his take on things, for example:

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.“

I like this part, too:

“…some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”

And of course, the headline quote, which is that “Money must serve, not rule!”

ZIRP-a-dee-doo-dah

On Facebook, I posted a link to an RT article on this apostolic exhortation today and suggested that perhaps the Pope should issue a bull restoring the Church’s ban on usury, which became absolute in 1311 by order of Pope Clement V.  And this meant “usury” in its original and actual sense, i.e., charging of any interest, not just excessive interest.  I suggested that if Pope Francis were to do something like that now, it might help end the Fed in particular and central banking in general.

It is interesting to note then, that the Fed itself has essentially banned usury (again, in the original sense) with its “zero-interest rate policy,” or ZIRP.  There are many problems with ZIRP, of course, but for me, the most galling one is the fact that under ZIRP, banks can get money for free, but regular people cannot.

This is the “economic apartheid” or “interest rate apartheid” that Max Keiser frequently refers to, and the effects of this grossly unfair–and I would argue, immoral–policy do not escape the notice of the Pope.

(Go to approx. 5:44 in the video for discussion of “interest rate apartheid”)

Indeed, the Pope points out that:

“A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power.“

The problem is interest on money created from thin air

The only way that one can possibly justify the charging of interest is if one fundamentally misunderstands how money is created.  If one is laboring under the false yet widely-held belief that banks lend depositor’s money, one thinks that interest is completely OK because the bank is having to go without the use of the amount of the loan until that loan’s maturity.

However, if one understands that money is created out of thin air, one can see that what we now blandly refer to as “interest” is nothing but free money for those who have been able to position themselves as “lenders.”  Indeed, creating money from thin air is not “lending” in any normal sense of that word and when viewed from this perspective, it is clear to see that interest is no different from just plain theft.  Here’s economist L. Randall Wray on the fact that money is created from thin air (very straightforward, non-wonky discussion):

“It is the Fed that brings the wheelbarrows of cash to the banks—NOT depositors. And the Fed supplies cash NOT so that banks can make loans. Rather, the cash is to cover withdrawals from deposits.

Oh, where does the Fed get the reserves it credits to bank “checking accounts” at the Fed? Out of thin air—keystrokes. Where does the Fed get the green banknotes it trucks to the ATMs? Out of thin air—keystrokes instruct the printing press to print more.

Do you notice a pattern here? Money is always created out of  ‘thin air’.”

This is the only discussion worth having these days, as the dollar dies and the failure of the economy is a mathematical certainty.  Glad to see the Pope bringing it up and defending the victims of this theft–to my knowledge, no other significant world leader is doing it.

Posted in class war, Debt, Debt Slavery, fiat currency, Financial Terrorism, Price, Wages, ZIRP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

BLACK FRIDAY: IS NOTHING SACRED?

Posted on November 26, 2013 by eggsistense

What?  Prices at retail are rigged, too?  Even on Black Friday, that most holy of all shopping days?  Heaven forfend!

Yes, turns out it’s not just the price of oil, financial products, gold, etc. that are outright rigged or at least heavily manipulated, it’s also retail prices, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Most deals, however, are planned to be profitable by setting list prices well above where goods are actually expected to sell.

So you mean to say that prices aren’t set according to supply and demand? Everyone knows that supply and demand are the ultimate arbiter of prices in a free market economy–they teach it in school, after all. School!
Well, maybe supply and demand played a role at some point, because the article says:

“Retailers didn’t always price this way. It used to be that most items were sold at full price, with a limited number of sales to clear unsold inventory. That began to change in the 1970s and 1980s, when a rash of store openings intensified competition and forced retailers to look for new ways to stand out.”

Know what else changed in the 1970s? Pure fiat currency was introduced as a result of the Nixon Shock, when the Bretton Woods agreement was ended and the U.S. dollar was severed from all connection to reality. It marked the true starting point of the economy we are now suffering under, in which prices aren’t real, money’s not real, indeed nothing is real but it is something to get hung about!

And here’s why all this is something to get hung about–because as the article states, we’re being conned:

“Enter high-low pricing, a strategy designed to create excitement and lure shoppers by dropping prices for occasional sales.”

We have to be “lured” into doing things. That’s how we’re seen by these predators: not as hard-working people to be treated fairly with an honest price for a quality item, but as marks to be taken advantage of and tricked. It’s very much as though our entire “economy” is a cheap carnival game where we can win the giant teddy bear with the sunglasses if we can just toss a ball into a basket, but of course the basket is set up to reject the ball almost 100% of the time so the carnival never loses (or never loses very much).

Indeed, that’s what’s described here in the article in a discussion about JC Penney and its pricing strategy from a 2012 presentation:

“Customers were receiving an average discount of 60%, up from 38% a decade earlier. The twist is they weren’t saving more. In fact, the average price paid by customers stayed about the same over that period. What changed was the initial price, which increased by 33%.”

I was heartened to read that there are lawsuits being filed over these practices. But given the corruption of the courts and the great hesitance of the legal system to provide relief to the “consumer” particularly when that relief has to come at the expense of these corporate monoliths, I don’t have much hope of the lawsuits changing anything.

So what will change things? I don’t know, but maybe if people started to be honest with themselves about the fact that no retailer is ever going to give people a deal that is worth camping out in the cold or trampling other people for, maybe some of this madness will end. As long as we buy their propaganda, they’ll continue to sell it. Or, as the Minutemen put it, “psychological methods to sell should be destroyed.”

And that’s because we have a system in which the price of something is of utmost importance. Indeed, given that we have a system in which, as Yves Smith says, “We have to sell our labor (or be supported by someone who does that) as a condition of survival,” it behooves us to make sure that the prices we are being asked to pay for things have some basis in reality, are not purely fictional, and not designed to trick us.  And it behooves those of us who understand that everything is rigged to help those who think that supply and demand have anything to do with pricing see the light.  It is something to get hung about…

Posted in "supply and demand", Debt, fiat currency, Price, Price-fixing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

VERRRY INTRIGUING US BANK PDF

Posted on November 8, 2013 by eggsistense

Been quite ill the past week…trying to get back into the swing of things, so check this out:

Big-Time Vindication for Neil Garfield from US Bank (don’t know if this has already been posted, I’ve been ill all week):

http://foreclosuredefensenationwide.com/?p=533

“We have been provided with a copy of U.S. Bank Global Corporate Trust Services’ “Role of the Corporate Trustee” brochure which makes certain incredible admissions, several of which squarely disprove and nullify the holdings of various courts around the country which have taken the position that the borrower ‘is not a party to’ the securitization and is thus not entitled to discovery or challenges to the mortgage loan transfer process…The first heading of the brochure is styled “Distinct Party Roles”. The first sentence of this heading states: ‘Parties involved in a MBS transaction include the borrower, the originator, the servicer and the trustee, each with their own distinct roles, responsibilities and limitations.’”

That’s big enough, but here’s where what Neil has said all along is admitted to by a bank itself:

“THE FOURTH PAGE OF THE BROCHURE STATES THAT THE INVESTORS ARE ‘THE TRUE BENEFICIAL OWNERS OF THE MORTGAGES’, and the third page of the brochure states ‘Whether the servicer pursues a foreclosure or considers a modification of the loan, the goal is still to maximize the return to investors’ (who, again, are the true beneficial owners of the mortgage loans).”

Here is a link to the brochure: https://www.usbank.com/pdf/community/Role-of-Trustee-Sept2013.pdf

Thanks to the peeps at Living Lies and Occupy Fights Foreclosures for bringing this to my attention!  And of course, Foreclosure Defense Nationwide!

Posted in Debt, Debt Slavery, Financial Terrorism, Foreclosure, Foreclosure fraud, US Bank | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

PROFILES IN RESISTANCE: SHELLEY ERICKSON, THE SOCIAL MEDIA SCOURGE OF THE BANKS

Posted on October 30, 2013 by eggsistense

PROFILES-HEADER-GIF

Shelley Erickson

Story by: Clinton Kirby (October 30, 2013)

Profile Pic

It’s almost as if the banking industry has never heard the old saw that “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”  The banks are finding this out the hard way, as Shelley Erickson is indeed channeling her fury against them into the kind of sustained resistance that will teach said banks (and indeed, has already taught them) not to scorn homeowners.

When Erickson is not running Shelley’s Total Body Works–her successful salon in Auburn, Washington—she’s blasting out emails to her fellow foreclosure fraud fighters regarding the latest legal strategies, case law, depositions, helpful blog posts, and the like.  To be honest, she does all this while she is running her salon, talking to her customers about their own problems with the banks, and just generally being a one-woman bastion of resistance against the corrupt financial system.  Indeed, if you’ve ever visited a foreclosure fraud site, chances are you’ve come across one of two things: a comment or post of Erickson’s, or a comment or post from someone who got their info from Erickson.  She’s ubiquitous, she’s persistent, and she’s got the goods on ’em—she’s the bank’s worst nightmare.

Having waged my own losing battle with the banks, I got to know—or at least know of—several different people in my same situation.  Erickson was one of them, and her name just popped up everywhere I looked, especially on Neil Garfield’s Living Lies, the grandaddy of anti-foreclosure sites. Eventually I got on her email list and since then have been even more impressed with Erickson’s work as both conduit and supplier of vital information and support.  She really is a stellar example of what resistance is all about in that she does it because she has to, she’s compelled to—she doesn’t wait for orders from headquarters and is a great example of what one person can do to help fight the biggest economic crime of our time.

The Interview

“…the branch manager…told me, ‘See that pile of keys? People are just walking in and handing me their keys.’ She told me, ‘Shelley, go get an attorney to save your house.’ I did just that and I have been on the Internet ever since trying to find out just what, where, who, when and why and saw thousands in the same situation including many of my friends and customers and family.'”

Liberty Road Media: How did you get involved in fighting the banks?

Erickson: I began fighting back against the mortgage fraud when I received a letter from Chase on October 13, 2009 telling me my modification had been denied after being told verbally on the phone that it was approved and to begin making modification payments immediately and to ignore any notices of billing on the regular payments.  I was told to keep making the modification payments until the paperwork came to sign for the modification.

I was never told it was a trial, but the coupons came stating it was a trial payment.  That confused me so I called the bank and was told not to worry, I was approved.  I had spent ten months trying to get the mod approved–sending and resending the exact information in, being told it had not all arrived and there were missing documents, but that was a lie.  The last fax I faxed three times and sent a letter in–three faxes you should have enough paperwork to get all of it.

I was also told–by three different Chase servicer employees–to purposely get three payments behind in order to qualify for the mod.  After the third one, I decided it was not a crazy employee telling me this–they meant it–so I got one payment behind and they approved the mod.  After five payments I received the letter “un-approving” me.

I called the bank thinking this was a bad mistake.  I was told that because of the Obama changes I was now unqualified, and therefore my modification payments were now partial payments and I was in default.  I went to branch manager Diane Fritchi and had her call the bank to straighten this out.  After she talked to the servicer, she put down the phone and showed me the pile of keys she had left on her desk to show the shock of what was happening.  She told me, “See that pile of keys? People are just walking in and handing me their keys.”  Then she told me, “Shelley (we have known each other for a long time), go get an attorney to save your house.”

I did just that and I have been on the Internet ever since trying to find out just what, where, who, when, and why and saw thousands in the same situation including many of my friends and customers and family.

Liberty Road Media: What is Shelley’s Total Body Works? How long has it been in business? Is it still in business? How did you get into that line of work?

Erickson: Shelley’s Total Body Works Day Spa is a tanning parlor with 21 beds, 17 hairstylists, 2 massage therapists, 3 nail artists, 1 facial specialist and permanent make up and 1 esthetician.  We are in an 8,000 square foot modular building due to crime on Main Street.  I was forced to beg for a modular building to place on the approved SEPA site for a building of this size.  I had to forget the 21,000 square foot concrete tilt-up I had planned on another site and was deceived and betrayed by my city officials.

The city had illegally withheld my building permit for the concrete tilt-up and had lied to me that modular buildings were illegal.  Therefore, my pre-approved loan from US Bank was canceled due to not having permits for a permanent building, but only a temporary permit for a building to be dismantled within a year, so I had to fund $600,000 out of pocket to move into a temporary building.  The courts are so crooked and the system is so crooked–I have battled this crime as well as the mortgage crime since 2004.

My business has been in this city for over twenty years, but I was treated badly by the city officials and nearly put out of business.  Eventually, the city gave me the permanent permit and I am still here with the help of God, my determination, and my family and friends.  Some of my girls returned within a few years when they found out my business had a permanent permit and I was staying.  And I have slowly filled the rooms again.  But I also lost thousands in customers that thought I was going out of business.

Now the economy has hit my business and most all businesses.  But the worst of it is the fraud and modification scam that sucked most of us into manipulated defaults, not to mention paying attorneys and paying for pro se paperwork (and filing fees) to save our homes from outrageous thieves that have set us up to literally steal our houses with the blessing of the federal judges.  I have been going through hell for a long time.  I am not alone unfortunately, so I have tried my best to help everyone I can reach to stop this crime against us by our banks and our politicians.

Liberty Road Media:  If I remember correctly, somewhere you posted that people who come to your shop will open up to you about their problems with the banks—tell me about how that works? Do you have to coax it out of them?

Shelley croppedErickson:  I could see the dramatic drop in business beginning in 2006, with customers telling me they were losing their incomes, jobs, and businesses or being cut back on income and some losing their homes.  None of us realized this was man-made economic terrorism by the banks.  Some are very lucky and have not walked in the shoes of millions who have been devastated by the banks and politicians.

I began hearing the same stories that happened to me after my mortgage was unapproved.  I went online and began to investigate what was happening.  Many of my clients came right out and told me what was happening.  Many came in with grave faces and I asked them about it because I could see it on their faces–I was right every time. Way too many were going through the same ordeal for the same reasons at the hands of multiple banks.

Only a small amount of my customers were not experiencing this hell, however they told me they could feel the evil in the air and did not know why or how but were frightened and felt helpless and scared for their future, as well as the future of their children and grandchildren.  I was told over and over that America has become a third world country and the America we knew does not exist anymore.  I had people literally throw their heads on my front desk telling me they were so frightened, scared and felt helpless and did not trust our government anymore.

Many of my customers are preparing for the worst and many have no funds left to fight back.  Every customer I sent to someone for help is still in their homes, doing paperwork to fight off the banks.  Many were helped by the paperwork on Living Lies by Neil Garfield’s posts and documents he lists for people.  Not one of the people I sent to Neil’s site has lost their home yet since 2009, including me.  Only the ones that had no idea of what was happening and what to do or why it was happening lost their homes.

One of my customers was actually evicted by the sheriff from his house worth $3.5 million.  I pleaded with this customer to go and ask an attorney to file a suit for unlawful foreclosure and unlawful sale at auction and linked the customer to information on the web.  The customer did that and the attorney added loss of equity to the complaint.  Within 6 weeks, this customer’s attorney received a letter from the bank rescinding the foreclosure and rescinding the sale at auction.  It was three years ago when he moved back into his house.  He has not made a payment of $26,000 a month for about four years.

Liberty Road Media: You have a very active email list and Internet presence—was that something you purposely set out to do or did it just kind of evolve naturally?

Erickson: I began an email list right away to expose the crime. I felt the more people you reach, the more you can help, and the more you can expose to stop this crime.  The email and Facebook and blogging is my way of fighting back and trying to help inform all.  I have a list of attorneys who let me know they appreciate my help (as well as a few that did not want to be on my list).  I know a lot of paralegals and attorneys and we put our heads together as a team to find robo-signers and info to help homeowners.  I also have a list of people who want to be updated on what is going on, because they are busy trying to make ends meet with no time to be a watchdog on the Internet.

My emails are huge.  Most appreciate the exposure and information.  I have a team that will dig up robo-documents and information for attorneys.  Sometimes I ask the public via email if they have robo-signers on their documents or info to help the attorneys and law professors.  And vice versa.

Liberty Road Media: I know of you only from your online activities—what sort of bank-resisting activities do you engage in offline, in the real world?

Erickson: Because I am running my business seven days a week, twelve hours a day, I only take time out of the salon to go to Senate meetings and seminars given by lawyers and paralegals to see who to trust and what can be done to help homeowners, including myself.  I feel being a watchdog on the Internet–forwarding depositions sent to me to expose the judges and foreclosure mills for the unjust treatment of the homeowner, as well as posting this information and digging up robo-signed documents and case law for paralegals and lawyers–keeps me very busy along with the duties here at my salon.

I boycott all large banks as much as I can, and have taken my accounts to a credit union, which many of my customers have told me they have also done.  I promote boycotting the banks and businesses related to the banks, one of which I recently found out is Wal-Mart.

“…homeowners and their attorneys still have a huge bridge to cross guarded by federal judge trolls that don’t allow the rule of law in their courtrooms.   I give full credit for the case law gains in the State of Washington to the due diligence of homeowners and their attorneys battling this crime against all odds.”

Liberty Road Media: Washington state has made some strides in bringing the banks to heel—what are your thoughts on that?

Erickson:  It appears former Attorney General Rob McKenna literally used the Washington v. Recontrust case to look good for his campaign to be governor.  He knew Recontrust was leaving the state and Northwest Trustees and Crabtree and Olsen were taking over the dirty deeds of MERS and Recontrust, therefore he filed only against Recontrust and not all the banks as he promised to do.  Then McKenna was part of the $25 billion ridiculous settlement giving a pittance to the homeowners and allowing the banks to continue their crime breaching the settlement and letting the banks off the hook for trillions in damages to the people.   McKenna was also one of the AGs that did not disclose the case against LPS. 

It appeared to me the Washington Senate pretended to pass a bill to help homeowners a year ago, supported by Pam Roach, but when we went to the Senate to testify for the bill, the bill had been gamed by Senator Steve Hobbs and the banking association, who changed the language in the bill just moments before we testified.  Therefore we were all saying we had heard of the language change just minutes before testifying for the bill that made the bill worthless and were understandably not sure how to testify.

Then a few months ago I was told an email came from Representative Roger Goodman telling us not to come to testify against bill SB 1435, supposedly because it was a badly written bill and was going to be pulled.  However,  it appeared that Goodman gamed us not to come, finding he did not pull bill SB 1435 and was bragging on video the bill was so awesome that no one came to testify against the bill.

I and three others complained heavily regarding this con game pulled on us, and Goodman invited us to a meeting in his office.  However, we could not get to the meeting for various reasons and with one day’s notice, I was the only one who could make it.  Unfortunately, my car had a last-minute issue come up, making it dangerous to drive.

Goodman told me I could send my letter by email to him, but told the Senate we did not bother to come to his office.  We did make it to the second hearing, however, and testified about this con game.  Also, I tried to testify with proof that we could not trust the banks because the banks testified that they had credible people working on SB 1435 for two years.  However, I was stopped dead from testifying about their credibility.

I brought a copy of the complete 650-page “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collaspe” U.S. Senate report as well as the recent U.S. Senate report on JP Morgan Chase proving that Chase was responsible for criminal behavior.  However, I was not allowed to give these reports to the state Senate, which left me at a loss for words and a slight sense of shock.  I was told to stick to the language in the bill in my testimony.  [EDITOR’S NOTE: You can watch the testimony of Karen Pooley and Shelley Erickson beginning at 1:01:59 in this video.  The video will not properly embed on this page.  This video also includes the testimony of Stu Halsan, who said that, “…if you start requiring the original note that has been gone through I don’t know how many hands — but the collection is being done by a servicing company that we know — if you require that original note, none of you will ever be able to sell your property. You just won’t.”]

My last words of testimony were, “this bill allows thieves to sell stolen property.”  The senators have done great harm to the people in this state with all of them passing “BS 1435.”  It enables thieves to sell stolen property without authentic notes.  The AGs have harmed the people by concealing the LPS law suit and the $25 billion settlement that was a joke.

The case law in the state of Washington has come to us through honorable attorneys by a slow boat, passing the blocking bridges of the troll judges in federal courts, as well as the constant badgering of the bar and seminars asking bank attorneys to file harassing complaints to have homeowner attorneys sanctioned and disbarred for helping homeowners.  I would not give credit to any politicians in this state for helping the homeowners as of yet, with the exception of Maria Cantwell, who has stood with Elizabeth Warren in support of a modern Glass- Steagall Act.  

Judge James Dixon blatantly stated that Bain v. MERS case is not significant in his courtroom.  Judge Gerold Johnson states he is an advocate for the banks and has served the banks as a trustee numerous times.  And Judges Pechman and Settle have dismissed all cases for the homeowners, with one exception that is recent–Pechman is allowing Melissa Huelsman to take one of her cases to the Supreme Court to ask a federal question.  One of Melissa Huelsman’s federal questions in the Bain v. MERS case was, “Does the rule of law still stand in the State of Washington?”  Pretty sad to have to ask that question.  [EDITOR’S NOTE: A great video of Erickson discussing Pechman with Janet Reiner of MIRS can be found at this link–embedding not allowed herein.]

The Walker case took a turn for the homeowners in the Washington Appeals court.  That is fantastic.  Unfortunately for many states including Washinton, the judges can play God by not publishing the decision if the case is won by the homeowners even though they always publish a decision if it is in favor of the banks.  Indeed, there is a lot of unpublished case law in Washington and other states that the people should fight to get published so it can be cited as precedent.

The Bain v. MERS case was not complete and therefore left the people scraping for justice, but it did put a dent into the crimes of  MERS.  However, homeowners and their attorneys still have a huge bridge to cross guarded by federal judge trolls that don’t allow the rule of law in their courtrooms.   I give full credit for the case law gains in the State of Washington to the due diligence of homeowners and their attorneys battling this crime against all odds.

The Glaski case out of California is very promising also.  In Washington we have the duty to demand proof of standing, or be subject to paying both the thief and the real party in interest.  The judges in this state have blocked us from questioning the securities pools for proof of standing, which is where the proof of standing or no standing lies.  I sent my letter of opposition to de-publication of the Glaski case and am praying Glaski stays published.

“I don’t believe in giving up and letting the bus run over me.”

Liberty Road Media: Having fought the good fight for so long now, what suggestions could you give readers about how to take on the banks?

photoErickson: My recommendation to homeowners is to take a stand, don’t let them push you out without a paperwork battle and until there is a judgment from the court to oust you.  The more people that fight back and get professional help will not only stay in their houses longer, they will also block the banks and cause a lot of extra cost to the thieves–and I truly believe they are thieves–attempting to steal property they know (and their lawyers know) they do not have authority to take.

Every homeowner who can afford help fighting the battle in the courts will slow down the system while we acquire case law to help us, and the case is law coming now to help us.  Every pro se case will slow the courts and banks down from unlawfully foreclosing.  I highly recommend going to attorneys and going to Michelle Darnell for help.  The company she works for does the paperwork and letters to fight the banks at a lower cost than the lawyers and she sends you to the lawyer she knows will be best for your case when it comes time.  The paperwork helps you in the courts and is essential to your case.

I don’t believe in giving up and letting the bus run over me.  This is a war of the classes and the wealth is being taken, including our property and homes.  This war can be won without bloodshed, by paperwork and litigation.  The more paperwork and litigation the better for all of us.

Liberty Road Media: Your efforts stand out to me because you seem to be everywhere at once and you never stop: posting comments on anti-foreclosure blogs, sending out email blasts of helpful case law and other info, and of course prosecuting your own case. How do you find the time to do all that and also have a “normal” life?

Erickson: Whose life is normal right now?  Certainly not mine.  I have worked hard all my life and battled this crime from Main Street to the White House and Federal courts since 2004.  Until this crime is stopped few of us will have normal lives.  Nor will our children and grandchildren if we good people stand by doing nothing.

Shelley Erickson can be reached via email at: shelleystotalbodyworksATcomcast.net

If you know of someone who’d be a good subject for a Profile in Resistance, email me at: leftbehindchildATgmail.com

Posted in class war, Debt, Financial Terrorism, Foreclosure, Foreclosure fraud, MERS, Profiles In Resistance, Resistance, Washington | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

HOW TO WIN THE CLASS WAR WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT

Posted on October 21, 2013 by eggsistense

Brilliant, dead-on analysis of the current state of play on the chessboard we call life by Chris Hedges at Truthdig–“Let’s Get This Class War Started“:

“For every dollar that the wealthiest 0.1 percent amassed in 1980 they had an additional $3 in yearly income in 2008, David Cay Johnston explained in the article ‘9 Things the Rich Don’t Want You to Know About Taxes.’ The bottom 90 percent, Johnson said, in the same period added only one cent. Half of the country is now classified as poor or low-income. The real value of the minimum wage has fallen by $2.77 since 1968. Oligarchs do not believe in self-sacrifice for the common good. They never have. They never will. They are the cancer of democracy.“

This class war Hedges is describing is only nominally about money–it’s really about control.  Control of the vast many by the very few.  It’s about control via money rather than control through naked force, although the threat of naked force is always there, just over the horizon–but it’s getting ever closer.  But the oligarchs Hedges is talking about know that money is much more effective than force as a mechanism of control, if only for the simple reason that the oligarchs are overwhelmingly outnumbered and would obviously badly lose any straight-up literal shootin’ match.  This principle was summed up brilliantly in the children’s classic “A Bug’s Life”:

But how do the oligarchs control us with money?  Simple–THEY are allowed to 1) create the money and 2) sell it to us.  They have taught us to call this, respectively, 1) a “loan” and 2) “interest.”  They have taught us this since birth, to the point where it really doesn’t even need to be taught anymore, it’s just accepted as the natural state of things.  In fact, the oligarchy’s mind control about money is so complete that they feel perfectly comfortable admitting, in public documents, that money is created from nothing, and has no real value except that which we give to it in our own imaginations (see “9 Mind-Blowing Facts About Money” just as a starting point).  So whether we want to admit it or not, we are in fact living under the heel of a system that keeps us in constant desperation and compliance because we have been made to believe that we must perform intense labor for the benefit of someone else in exchange for tokens that have value only because we imagine them to have such value.  In other words, we create the money and give it value, but we are told that it is banks and governments that do that and that is the reason we are told that they must have power over us.

Win the war without firing a shot

So what’s the answer?  The peaceful, non-violent answer?  It’s so simple, as stated at The Air Standard blog:

“It is beyond dispute that money can be–and has been–anything: gold, paper, shells, sticks, salt, binary code, cigarettes, fabric, etc., etc.  So it stands to reason that money can (and arguably ought to) be the following:  a check written by a buyer for any amount requested by a seller and drawn on a fictional, non-existent account.   In other words, self-issued currency.  And everyone would have this same check-writing power.  The only problem with this scenario?  No more poverty, no more control of the masses, no more larceny, no more want, no more war, no more prostitution, no more slavery, no more debt.  Oh wait, those aren’t problems at all–unless you’re one of the few people benefiting from the present system of rapaciously fraudulent currency.”

In other words, the way to win the class war totally peacefully is to simply acknowledge, by law, that money is now created and always has been created and given value by the people, not by banks and governments.  And because that is true now and always has been, each person ought to be legally given the power to issue their own currency, for any amount.  The day that happens–class war over.  Problem solved.

Wouldn’t that make money worthless?  Yes, of course–but it already is worthless.  The dollar has lost essentially all of its purchasing power since 1913.

And again, remember that it is an open secret that money is given value only by the belief of the people that the money has value, even when, as in our current system, the money admittedly has no intrinsic value at all.

Posted in class war, Debt, Debt Slavery, fiat currency, Financial Terrorism, self-issued currency | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

OUR DEBT SLAVERY EXPLAINED–PLEASE WATCH!

Posted on October 17, 2013 by eggsistense

This explains the root cause of debt slavery–yours and mine.  Very straightforward and informative.  You owe it to yourself to watch this.  It’s not left or right, R or D–has nothing to do with Obama or Boehner or Bush or any of those puppets.  We are not taught this info in school, yet it is not a secret at all.  The bigger the lie, the more people believe it, and this video exposes the biggest lie of them all.

Posted in Asset Bubble, Conspiracy, Debt, Debt Slavery, Police State, Rent-seeking, Rentier, ZIRP | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

NEW FEATURE: “PROFILES IN RESISTANCE”–SCOTT SORENSEN

Posted on October 16, 2013 by eggsistense

Introducing a new, hopefully recurring, feature here at Liberty Road Media: Profiles in Resistance. This series (again, hopefully it will turn into a series) is intended to focus on people who are resisting the madness of the corporatocracy, to put it as succinctly as possible. And there is no better person I can think of to help this feature/series get off the ground than Scott Sorensen.

PROFILES-HEADER-GIF

SCOTT SORENSEN

Nice portraitStory by: Clinton Kirby (Oct. 16, 2013)

Scott Sorensen is an artist, activist, and master of alternative accommodations currently living in Jackson, Mississippi. He lives in a tent in a friend’s backyard (he was there first) and has been there for two years and counting. He paints, smokes, paints, sleeps, works with Occupy Jackson, bemoans the oppressive heat (in all senses of that word), sells paintings, works on his tent, works on other assorted projects, climbs trees, and goes to town. He doesn’t have a mortgage, he doesn’t pay rent, doesn’t have a 9 to 5. Doesn’t have a car payment. No utilities. It should be noted, however, that he also doesn’t have a house or a car–but he has recently started building a kayak. To put it mildly, he is a very intriguing cat.

It has only been a little over two years since I moved to California from Mississippi–where Sorensen and I have a lot of mutual friends–but we have never met face to face. However, we are friends on Facebook and I quickly became intrigued by Sorensen’s status updates for a number of reasons: 1) he shares my scorn for the debt slavery system, 2) he is a talented painter, 3) he is brutally candid about his experiences, and 4) he is more than “off the grid”–he has removed himself as much as possible from the wearying, worrying, crazy-making hamster wheel of what passes for polite modern society.

That last point was what made me finally contact him for an interview, because while I gathered from his Facebook posts that his life outside the mainstream lacks the numbing comforts of an existence with all mod cons, it was also clear that—to a large degree–he has escaped the clutches of the debt-peddlers and the modern slave merchants. And contrary to what those same debt-peddlers and slave merchants would have us believe about not having access to their version of how life ought to be, Sorensen’s life has neither ended nor became a horrible nightmare.

In fact, from the outside looking in, Sorensen seems to have achieved a freedom that people living dutifully within the system only think they have. Sorensen’s life has now become an act of resistance, and reading about it status update by status update on Facebook gave me hope that there is another way–that we don’t, as a people, have to accept the version of society that we are literally being sold. That opting out, while not easy, is not impossible. That maybe we can beat the system, or at least not let it beat us so badly.

I decided I had to know more about how Sorensen got to where he now is, in the hopes that it will inspire others as it has inspired me and given me hope. So I emailed Sorensen some general questions based on general information I had gleaned from his various Facebook posts, not sure how much he would say (since again, I only know him through Facebook even though we have a lot of mutual friends both on and offline), and thinking I would use any responses to those introductory questions as a jumping off point for further questions. To my pleasant surprise, Sorensen returned eloquently thorough responses to my initial queries, rendering further questioning redundant.

Backstory

“I continue to live in the tent because I hate the system. I just hate it with the blackest hate imaginable. But it won’t do anything to me ever again.”

The most pressing question in my mind for Sorensen has always been how he came to live in a tent full-time, working as an artist, and whether that was a conscious choice on his part or simply what circumstance had led him to—or a little bit of both. After all, I already knew from Facebook that he was divorced and in the past he had problems with alcohol. I also knew that he had lost his house after the divorce.

To make a long story short, Sorensen confirmed all that in his responses to my questions. “My divorce wasn’t unique,” he said. “Our wiring was very different.” He acknowledged that he’d had problems with alcohol on and off since he was a teenager, and it finally got the best of him when he found the divorce papers: “I started drinking after work and even before work.” He met a woman—whom he refers to as “E.” in his responses—who moved in with him (his wife having been gone for about a year by that time).  His ex-wife didn’t approve Sorensen’s new living arrangement: “…this was trouble because the house was technically owned jointly by both of us.  She demanded that I throw E. out on the street.  I refused.  So she began to throw all our stuff into the street each night while I was at work.”

Landscape-2nd SaleIt is apparently at that point that Sorensen made a life-altering decision. He and E. packed their motorcycle and left the house after “an ugly confrontation” with Sorensen’s ex, and “rode away from that house to live in the woods.”  He eventually quit his job and “began to sell art beside the road.”  “I’m not a trained artist,” said Sorensen, “but I had been reading books and had practiced doing landscapes.  These were pretty little things with real blue skies and real green trees—not very good color accuracy but they were drawn well.  I would frame and mat them for about ten bucks each, and I would sell them right off the motorcycle for $75.  We did all right.  We did fine.”

Eventually though, E. had enough and left.  “Honestly, the life we were living was brutal,” said Sorensen.  He continued that life however, drinking and painting.  “My drinking got wild,” he said.  “I had become like an animal, but the painting didn’t suffer a bit for it.”  It was a suicide attempt that finally, luckily brought him back from the brink.  “Finally, one very hot miserable dirty broke day, I decided that life was too much. So I climbed a tree, said a prayer, put a rope around my neck, and jumped.”  Fortunately, a kid saw what happened and got some help.  Sorensen then spent three days in detox and upon his release stayed with a friend for a couple weeks, where “mostly I just cursed out the world and slept and drank coffee and smoked,” he said.

Sorensen then found his way to the yard where he now lives in his tent. “I painted in the mornings and slept in the afternoons, mostly.” His fortunes definitely turned around for the better: “People continued to buy art, and about a year ago I managed to land a solo exhibit at the Mississippi Arts Center,” he said.

And then he answered that most pressing question of mine: “I continue to live in the tent because I hate the system. I just hate it with the blackest hate imaginable. But it won’t do anything to me ever again.”

The Present

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  Where do you live?

SORENSEN:  After I lost my house, my first “camp” was on the hill at Ridgewood and Lakeland, overlooking the River Hills Club.  The land belongs to the Education and Research Center, and the view is spectacular.  You can see for miles to the east, and the trees are pine so they smell good.

Me and E. would sometimes build a small campfire late at night. I’m sure you could see it from the road, but we didn’t care.  We packed our stuff each morning and didn’t leave a mess. Eventually some guy in a suit came up there and ran us off, so we began camping in the back of Fowler Boyll Park.  We stayed there every night for about a year and we got to know a few of the neighbors.  We didn’t leave a mess, and nobody seemed to care that we were there.  Remember that we had the motorcycle then, so sometimes we camped in other spots.  After E. left, the motorcycle just wore out.  I think I had close to 80,000 miles on that little air-cooled engine.  I sold it for six hundred bucks and drank up most of the money.

TentAfter my hospitalization, I began camping in the back yard of an abandoned house.  One morning I woke up and there was a moving van in the driveway.  I heard voices and knew that I was busted.  I packed up my gear and began walking up the driveway.  To my surprise, a friend of mine was standing on the front porch.  I had worked with her at W.C. Don’s bar.  I asked her what she was doing there, and she said, “I’m moving in. What are you doing?”  I told her I had been camping in the yard back there to avoid the cops.  She replied that I could stay there as long as I wanted.  Right now I guess it’s been a couple of years.  It makes it easier not having to carry eighty pounds of gear around with me.  I can go to restaurants and stuff.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  What do you do for money?

Painting--crucifiedSORENSEN:  I’m still doing art.  Each year I get a little better and more people buy paintings.  I’m not any faster and my prices have not gone up much.  Ten bucks maybe.  My strategy has always been to do the best work within my ability and sell low.  I feel that the system is rigged, but if people see my name on paintings all over Jackson, they will be forced to pay attention whether they want to or not.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  How long have you been painting?

SORENSEN:  With a brush, not long.  In fact everything that me and E. sold was done in colored pencil.  I had seen work done in crayon by an artist named Jeffrey Roberts, and I was surprised at how lifelike they were.  But the problem with crayons is when you run out of one color, you have to buy a whole ‘nother box.  Colored pencils can be purchased individually as needed.  They aren’t cheap, but they go a long way.  The problem with working on paper though is that you have to baby it, and it requires a frame and mat. Often I’d finish one and wouldn’t have any money for a frame.

Geodesic domeSo around October of 2007 I did my first acrylic painting on a piece of wood I got from the garbage.  It was very nice–a painting of Scott Albert Johnson.  Acrylic paintings don’t need glass or a mat.  If you go to galleries, all the paintings–oil or acrylic–are framed without glass.  This is because they are more durable.  Bugs don’t eat paint, and acrylic is waterproof.  About six months ago I built a geodesic dome out of cardboard and painted it with acrylic house paint.  It made it through several rainstorms without leaking.  The cardboard eventually got moist though, so I coated it with varnish.  It’s still standing outside today, six months later.  No leaks.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  What is your typical day like?

SORENSEN:  Not too many of those.  I’m still at the mercy of the weather, and I have numerous projects going on at once.  On bathing day I might paint in the morning, then go steal a bucket of water from a public faucet, warm the water over a fire, fill my shower bag, and take a bath in my outdoor shower stall.  The whole process eats up a large part of the afternoon, but I’m not at the mercy of the shelters.

On laundry day I either wash my clothes in a bucket and hang them, or I load them on a mountain bike and ride five miles to the nearest laundromat.  It’s a very third-world existence, but there’s no sense of urgency really.  After doing laundry I usually just go chill at Starbucks (sorry) and do internet.

Fagen or SorensenOther days I go to Sneaky Beans coffee house and paint until my eyes grow tired.  I’ve been known to paint for twelve hours at a stretch, taking breaks only when I need a cigarette.  So I don’t really have a typical day.  Some days I just screw off and go rope climbing in the woods.  I like to climb difficult trees.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  Where do you see yourself in a year? In five years?

SORENSEN:  In a year, hopefully, I’ll still be in my friend’s back yard.  I have a large, roomy tent that sits underneath a steel-framed geodesic dome with a fifty-foot tarp over it. I get wifi and I have music and cool gadgets to play with.  In fall and spring it’s pretty nice.

At some point, though, I know I’ll have to move on.  One possible strategy is to get a job but continue living off-grid until I can save up enough for an RV, or a stealth van with a small shower in the back.  The problem with this is I don’t know if I can get insurance without a physical address.  And insurance is mandatory.  Laws often have a stated purpose and an unstated purpose.  The unstated purpose of the mandatory insurance law might be to prevent homeless people from owning RV’s.  I don’t know.

But anyhow, there’s a plan B:  Plan B is to search out public land and build a small cabin. This can be done without too much fuss–you get a level and some bricks, build a simple foundation, nail some pallets together, build the walls from pallets, and add a roof. Remember that the only requirement for a roof is that it blocks water.  Shingles can be made from unwrapped beer cans, soda bottles split open and ironed flat, or just a tarp. Once it’s built, you can improve it.

Political Views

“My goal has always been self-sufficiency, and if they set up obstacles to self-sufficiency, then they better get used to the homeless.”

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  Any memorable experiences as part of the Occupy movement?

SORENSEN:  The biggest thing I remember about the Occupy movement is the sense of not being alone. I had been writing blogs on MySpace, and people seemed to like them. They sounded just like Occupy stuff.  But really I felt alone.

OccupyThen, when Occupy began, I was stunned.  It was like a miracle.  Thousands of people telling their stories, shutting down ports, shutting down bridges, and creating amazing artwork.  Somehow I stumbled across Anonymous.  I watched some videos.  And I realized I wasn’t alone at all.  We were going to change the world.  And really, I think we will.

Look, Occupy isn’t just another movement like the 60’s.  It is a continuation of the 60’s movement.  This is the struggle of humanity against greed and oppression, and thirty or forty years from now there will be yet another uprising, and another, and another.  I don’t think we’ll ever reach Utopia, but we may reach something sustainable that most people can live with.  If we don’t, there will be hell to pay.  We could literally destroy the planet.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  Are you happy with your choice to live outside the “normal” bounds of “the system?”

SORENSEN:  Yes and no.  I’ve solved the basic problems.  I don’t eat out of dumpsters any more.  On cold February days I bathe with warm water in a booth that gains 30 degrees from sunlight alone.  I have super-duper gear and waterproof buckets to store it in.  I never get cold, and I’m always busy learning.

On the other hand, not too many people here think like I do.  Jackson is the legal and medical center of the state.  People like me are viewed as weird.  Sure, I have admirers, but nobody’s really gonna make the leap unless it becomes easy.  And right now, it’s not easy. And it can be lonely.  I’m not very marketable on Match.com.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  What are your views on banking and money?

SORENSEN:  Quite simply, the banksters are scum.  They don’t give two shits about anything but making money.  They don’t care how many lives they destroy.  They don’t care if you die under a bridge or howl in pain all night from an abscess tooth.  They put little old ladies out on the street and toss their belongings in the trash.  They sell the house to the highest bidder or simply board it up.  They’re evil.

However, they don’t see themselves as evil.  They are sheltered in gated communities. They go to nice churches.  They see themselves as entitled.  They may know in some vague way that their policies are causing harm, but they justify it as “business.”  They have to do it.  They pay cops to scare off homeless people so they don’t have to look at them.  They pay cops to throw out the little old ladies too.  What we as a country need to do is show them the result of their policies.  Stick it in their faces with art and writing and video.  Leak secrets.  Expose lies and corruption.  Shame the cops.

LIBERTY ROAD MEDIA:  What do you say to people who derisively ask you “Why don’t you get a job?”

SORENSEN:  I got that a lot early on.  I was drinking too much and I looked awful. People yelled things and scowled at me.  I was aware of it.  But I noticed something–they never looked at the artwork.  They only looked at me and made assumptions.  So when they yelled these things, I’d give them the finger or just ignore them.  And then I would look at the artwork to get centered again.  And then I would keep on painting.

And really, they don’t have anything to bitch about because I haven’t accepted any taxpayer money.  They aren’t really funding my lifestyle in any way.  My goal has always been self-sufficiency, and if they set up obstacles to self-sufficiency, then they better get used to the homeless.

But look, I gained a lot of perspective one night when me and E. were camping in the woods.  It was bitter cold–in the teens.  There had been a rain, and the ground was solid ice.  It hurt to breathe.  A fire was impossible because all the wood was frozen solid.  And that night, I realized the system had failed.  None of these naysayers were there to help if by chance we froze to death.  And at that moment, more than any other moment, I stopped caring what they thought about me.  I knew I was on my own.

Smoking on park benchOnce I got free of the booze, I kind of revisited this idea.  I started making lists of all the immediate things in life that were uncomfortable.  I started relaxing more.  I bought gear that I needed.  Today it’s a lot easier, and I try to remind myself it doesn’t matter what other people think.  What are my immediate needs?  Am I sleeping OK?  Have I eaten?  Do I have clean water?

The focus has become less about escaping my situation and more about learning to thrive with what I’ve got.  I might have said it before, but I’ll say it again–It’s better to ease into a situation like this than to just make the leap without being prepared for it.  And when I’m in my warm sleeping bag at night, listening to some techno in my nice big tent, I realize it just doesn’t matter.  I’m OK.

For more info on Scott Sorensen, visit his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/scott.sorensen.714

If you know of someone who’d be a good subject for a Profile in Resistance, email me at leftbehindchildATgmail.com

Posted in Debt Slavery, Off-the-grid, Profiles In Resistance, Resistance, Self-sufficiency | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment