Old but Good

 An old but good web site - from which the above "How to Spot a Pyramid Scheme" is taken - is here, about stopping the Amway scam. 

"Rolling Stones" on Moorish Sovereign Citizens

 

These days, with COVID and many other issues, there is significant resentment of the government. This is not a political blog and we are taking no position about which such resentments may or may not be justified. But one result is that groups like sovereign citizens get more popular, or at least, noticed. Here is one example, from the Washington Post, of a recent stand-off between Moorish sovereigns and police on the I-95. (It ended with 11 arrests, no injuries.) 

Van Balion's Sovcit Fails Channel

 

The above YouTube channel is a very cool collection of silly sovcit stupidity - give it a look!  

More on Conspiracy Theories

Source: Skeptic magazine.

The latest issue of "Skeptic" magazine has another good selection of articles about conspiracy theories. Why, after all, would anybody believe that everybody is secretly governed by an "admiralty court" or that everybody was just given $600,000 in their "birth bond" account - and then the government denies it? Why the magical thinking? The reason is that conspiracy theories do not tell us things that are logical. They tell us things that we want to believe. An excellent primer on the subject is here, from the same publisher. 

Skeptic Magazine

Source: Skeptic

If you want to know why people believe tax evasion conspiracy theories, according to which everything is a conspiracy by THEM (TM), you could do no better than reading Skeptic magazine. The latest issue, for example, deals with flat-earthers -- which are surprisingly similar to tax deniers in their way of thinking. They also have, among other things, a very useful document about conspiracy theories and who believes them.

Reichsburger: Germany's Sovereign Citizens

Credit: see below

The German-based web site dw.com has an interesting article about the German so -called  Reichsburger movement. These are in effect the German sovereign citizens. The article is highly informative. The photo, taken from it, is of a police magazine edifying law enforcement on 'How to deal with Reichsburgers'. 

More About Sovereign Citizens

Credit: wvxu

If you want to know more about the American Sovereign Citizen movement, you could do worse than going to the SPLC's web site about them. Note in particular their links to the Moorish sovereign citizens groups and the 'National Liberty Alliance'. 

Academic Paper about Pseudolaw

Source; see below

Donald Netolitzky had published recently "Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments ["OPCA"] as Magic and Ceremony" in the Alberta Law Review. We hope the readers of this blog will find it interesting -- one example he gives of such pseudolaw is the "Moorish Law Affidavit" in the picture above. The article is great fun, and is surely one of the first academic articles (if not the first) which cites Quatloos! as a source...  the abstract notes:

This article discusses ways in which Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments (OPCA) litigants use pseudolegal concepts, techniques, and procedures before the courts. The author begins by looking at where OPCA legal arguments originate, and the historical sources where these arguments find grounding, while assessing the flaws in such. A thorough analysis is then conducted into some of the tactics used by OPCA litigants in order to evade legal consequences, including a survey of global case law where these arguments have been brought before the courts. The article culminates with an analysis of the implications of the use of pseudolaw by OPCA litigants and how tactics permeate through OPCA movements, while looking for solutions in dealing with OPCA litigants as they move through the courts.

Common Law Idiots

Source: see below

The two idiots who run this so-called "common law court" must be real legal genuises. They bring cases against lots of people, and they always win!  Unfortunately for them, nobody takes any notice of these victories. This is due to the evil and disgusting conspiracy by the government against the people. 

Well, either that, or because the two behind these scheme -- Rob C. Sproul and John Smith -- are, in fact, just two blokes without any legal (or, for that matter, any) education, whose imaginary "court"s most recent met in a local pub between a Tesco and a bait-and-tackle shop, which seems oddly appropriate. 

Recently, they were both in court, for sending threatening letters about "summons" they made against all kinds of people. As the updstanding citizen Sproul actually spent eight years behind bars on drug charges, and John Smith is not much of an upstanding citizen himself, the recepients naturally contacted the police. 

The dim duo were tried and convicted. Before the trial, Sproul attempted to raise 20,000 pounds by croud funding, without telling Smith, which was rather annoyed. Why would he need 20,000? Can't he just make it all go away with one of his magical Common Law Court wins? 

Comic Relief

Image credit: Peter of England's Youtube channel

If you want some comic relief, try the following folks. First, there is Peter of England's Youtube Channel. He's still at it, showing how the evil system is going to collapse any day now. Naturally he asks for donations and money for his web seminars. Strangely, no "Re"s are accepted, only worthless fiat money.

Another dim duo is the two guys behind the fake "common law court" -- whose last meeting (seriously) was in a pub between a Tesco and a bait-and-tackle shop, rather appropriately. They want 20,000 GBP. Why? To "fight the system", of course.

Here is the court's web page (they won all their cases against everybody, of course) and here is the qualoos! thread about their adventures. one of the two founders, Robert Sproul, explains everything on Youtube...

Yet the  two blokes who established this "court", Sproul and Smith, despite declare right on its website its decisions are "final and not subject to appeal" (so there!) are on trial for extortion, having tried to "collect" million in their court's "judgments" from people they dislike by sending them threatening letters. Amazingly enough, that didn't work. 

"Married to an Ambot" Blog

Credit -- See below

A shout-out to an interesting blog, "Married to an Ambot", which is maintained by the wife of an ex-IBO in Amway. It's "IBO" for "Independent Business Owner". "Independent" is supposed to mean that you are your own boss, not tied down to a lousy J-O-B ("Just Over Broke"), but in reality it means you don't get paid, you don't get social security, you don't get medical insurance and, in general, don't get anything for working for Amway as a salesman for free.

Oh, did I say "for free"? Not quite;  for a typical commission of about $10 a month for upwards of 100 hours of work a month. At $0.10 an hour, sweatshop workers in China. or federal prisoners, get paid better. And they don't get this "commission" mostly for buying hundreds of dollars a month of lousy products they don't need from the Amway corporation -- or as Amway calls it, "being your own best customer". 

She tells it like it is: the brainwashing, the lousy products sold at absurdly high prices, the need to "edify your upline" -- i.e., to put him on a pedestal and do anything he says, despite the fact that he is the guy from down the block who is only "above" you in Amway because he joined a week earlier and talked you into joining. By the way, "to edify" actually means "to educate" or "to inform", but never mind. 

Behind everything else there is the sheer tackiness of it all. New "Diamonds", wearing suit or frilly dresses (required), walk on a red carpet to the cheers of similarly-dressed Amway members. Numerous cliched speeches saying nothing more than to "keep doing Amway until you make it". Tacky motivational tapes with grinning "uplines" standing next to their brand-new car (90% owned by the bank) and mansion (ditto) and speaking of their great success. 

As they (ungrammatically) say in Amway, "ain't it great"? No, it ain't great. 

Quatloos Status

I just messaged Webhick.

She said that Q is apparently getting a server migration. No ETA.

"Coming together as a people".

From the comments on this blog supporting the "article 61" nonsense which allegedly allows people to "rebel" against the (UK) government and not pay taxes or bills: 

"It is NOT to be used for not paying taxes, but instead to unify. That's always the answer in the end, to come togeather as the people. Our. Ancestors knew that coming together is the only solution."

Nonsense. All these "rebels" care about is how to get out of paying this or that "illegal" bill or tax. Of course, they think other people should pay taxes - otherwise, where will their welfare benefits (they're virtually all chronically unemployed) come from?

Incidentally, it is cute how these brave rebels are certain the evil, illegal, tyrannical government will just continue to provide them with housing, income, medical care, etc., etc., as they "rebel" against it. They're like seven year old's who declare they're running away, until they get hungry or tired, and ask mommy to make them dinner and fix their bed.

Most of these "rebels" wouldn't last a month without mommy, the government, providing them with the necessities of life (and quite a few luxuries, at least by international standards). 

English "Freemen" Make the Big Time

Source: Graham Moore's Facebook page.

Meet Graham Moore and the White Dragons -- yet another group of  English "Freemen" who think they need not pay taxes, obey the law, get a license or registration for their car, etc. because all such laws are a "fraud" by a "fake" government, and that the only laws they need to obey are those in 'common law' (not that they know what common law is) or the Magna Carta (13th century). All other laws somehow don't count, so, in short, that they can do what they want. The Magna Carta doesn't mention you have to get motor vehicle insurance, now does it? 

Naturally, as Moore's web page show, they think the UK government is legitimate is that they have not woken up to the huge world-controlling conspiracy where the usual suspects (The UN, the Illuminati, the Rotschilds, etc.) direct everything behind the scene. 

As the thread linked to shows, they have decided to fight the tyranny of the UK government and had made a cunning plan for a people's revolution! They are going to take back control! Operation Earthquake will have all those treason committing MPs arrested! 

Well, to my and most people's surprise, they actually did try to do it. They have interrupted a speech by London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, bringing along their handy-dandy mobile gallows to show they mean business against all those "traitors" they have "convicted" using "common law".

This was reported (see link) in major news organizations, such as Newsweek. Naturally, Khan was not arrested, and the fact that they declared they were 'standing under common law' and that if anybody touches them they will be 'done for common [law] assault' didn't stop the security guards from throwing them out of the meeting. 

I must admit that making the national and international news, even as loonies, is way more than I thought they are capable of. Usually such "revolutions" end up with five guys showing up in the local pub and/or fast-food joint and declaring the revolution had started, or ranting on a street corner next to Buckingham palace or some other "symbol of tyrrany" of the sort. 

One thing does annoy me, however: the reports all concentrated on the fact that they are Trump supporters and 'far-right'. They are both, but a little digging -- such as visiting the quatloos! forum -- would have helped the reporters find out the relevant information that they are not just pro-Trump or far-right, but in particular 'Freemen' who think everybody they don't like is a traitor. 

The Harm 'Freemen' do.

Source: See Below

It is well known that so-called 'Freemen' tend to congregate into self-reinforcing echo chambers, where they pretend they are just about to "win" against the "evil system". So long as they only harm themselves, one may wonder what harm they do to others.

Well, here is an example. The above screenshot is taken from a Facebook group dedicated to the Freemen "philosophy" -- everything is a contract, you do not have to consent to laws you dislike, your "strawman" JOHN SMITH is not the same as the "real flesh and blood, living soul, human being" John Smith (or John: Smith, John of the family Smith, etc.), and so on. I am not giving its name to not give it free publicity.

An obviously desperate woman, Tina Bell, wants help. Her son was sentenced to federal prison -- and, as another post by her made clear, got 115 (!) years: in effect, life in prison. What is her 'remedy', she wants to know.

For Freemen (see link above) 'remedy' does not mean 'what can I do to help my son'. It means, 'what magic words should I tell the judge to make my son go free on the spot'. Well, there isn't one, of course. But Ruiz Michael and Conor Duke-- the most active members of the group -- gives her all kind of totally nonsensical advice.

The connection of both to reality can be noted by the fact that, based on other postings, Conor is currently "almost ready" with the paperwork to serve a billion-dollar lien on a traffic cop because of a traffic stop, while Ruiz is trying to find the "secret way" that will allow him to find the number of his "secret birth bond" bank account based on his Social Security number. Perhaps it is the number without the dashes? He asks.

If Ms. Bell does the right thing and goes to a real lawyer who specializes in post-conviction work, she may indeed help her son. (To be fair, another person posting in the group suggested this, giving contact information to an organization that helps family members of convicts find such lawyers). If, however, she follows these two idiots -- not other word fits, frankly -- and floods the courts with this Freeman nonsense, she may well both whatever chance her son had for ever seeing the light of day again.

But what do these "Freemen" care? It's all just an ego trip for them. They do not give a damn about either Bell or her son.

Israeli Freeman Movement's Continued Saga: Recruiting the Masses to the Cause Fails Miserably

Credit: see below

Eyal Lior, which we have met before, had apparently organized a "Freeman Festival" (that is what it says above in Hebrew) on Facebook (link in Hebrew). The event shows '31 joined' (i.e., told Facebook they did) and '69 interested'. I have no idea how many actually showed up.

For comparison purposes, I checked near my own location for all events, and discovered that tomorrow (Sept. 3rd), one "local" (Facebook seems to ignore international border and considers only distance) event is a group that is going swimming on the beach in El Biyada, Lebanon. This one has 263 people interested. For the less adventurous, a lecture by a visiting German artist in Tel Aviv's 'House of Modern Ceramics' has 15 coming and 78 interested.

In any case, Lior seems to have gone "full sovurn", as quatloos! calls it. He actually has an 'I am a Freeman' ('Free Man' in his version) declaration for people to sign (in English). Looks quite familiar -- it's the same nonsense as with American or other 'freemen'.

It goes without saying that this declaration, or petition, has no legal effect; but however meaningless, how popular is it?

Well, it is hosted on the website https://www.atzuma.co.il/ ('atzuma' means 'petition' in Hebrew). According to the statistics page of this petition, here, (scroll down a bit for the numbers - link in Hebrew), it has been up on the website since 28/8/2016 -- more than a year -- and reached a grand total of 100 (online) signatures and one Facebook comment.

Looking around at the 'atzuma' website for comparison, this is less than the number of signatures collected by a petition opposing the closure of a coffee house in Ramat Gan (109), or one asking the Jerusalem city council to 'Improve the 88 bus line's route' (183).

This is not because the site is obscure: it is perhaps Israel's most prominent social-activism site, and the most popular petitions on the website achieved nearly half a million (464,000+) signatures. Many others achieved tens or hundreds of thousands of signers.

It is rather typical of "sovurn" types to think, that if only they got out the word, everybody will agree with them, and that the Internet will cause the revolution. This isn't true, as can be seen by the utter lack of interests in Lior's claims. People don't agree with them because they are speaking nonsense, not because of "evil government brainwashing".

Stan Vaughan and the Kingdom of Ourania: A Chess-Themed Micronation

Credit: micronation wiki

Well, here is something you don't see everyday. Ever heard of the "Kingdom of Ourania"? If you haven't, it's because it's one of those fake nations created by cranks for various reasons - especially to avoid taxes, declare themselves "sovereign", make themselves kings and thus free, and so on. But this particular micronation seems even more bizarre than most.

First, as per its web page on the micronation wiki, it actually claims as its territory a significant part of Antarctica, though it takes some digging to figure it out; there is no map of its alleged territory, perhaps because such a map would make the absurdity even more obvious. It claims a territory of about 1,700,000 square kilometers. That's one big micronation - roughly the size of France, Germany, and Italy combined.

Second, it is led by "His Majesty King Immanuel X Jesus-Izates Mono-Basileus (Christ-os) bar Ab-gar-os au Kamala bar Phraates, Lord of Lords of the Roman Empire". I have a suspicion this might not be his birth name.

Third, it set its sights, apparently, on being, of all things, a chess powerhouse. It issued a call for chess players, offering them land if they agree to play for Ourania in the chess olympiad, and issued a stamp celebrating the secret chess champion of the world, the man with the highest chess rating ever -- Stan Vaughan. Well, according to himself, anyway; in reality, he is a crank who believes himself to be world chess champion, the "real" successor to the famous Robert "Bobby" Fischer, a claim accepted by nobody but himself, among other reasons because his actual chess level is at best that of a good amateur.

The truly absurd thing here is, Vaughan's Ourania "stamp" is actually based on a real stamp. Somehow, Stan Vaughan was chosen by Burundi to be featured as one of four "chess masters" on a set of stamps it issued (picture from this link), together with those of the genuine chess champions Emanuel Lasker, Paul Morphy, and Alexandra Kosteniuk:

Credit: "Chess for all Ages" blog

Ourania may be the weirdest micronation ever, and that's saying something.

Oh No! I "Libeled" an Anarchist!

Image credit: http://replycandy.com 

The Israeli anarchist I have mentioned a few posts ago, Eyal Lior, is really angry. He writes, on the preview of his Internet radio show ("the only show dedicated to freedom", link in Hebrew but you can go from there to the English part of his web site), that I wrote a "hate letter" about him on this blog.

Well, what can he do against my "libel"? Sue me? Nope; that would require using the evil government's court system. Threaten my ISP? With what? With a lawsuit? Same problem. With a customer boycott, say? Not if I am a better customer, or he isn't one. He could, theoretically, bribe them into deleting my account, or hire hitmen to threaten me to stop the libel. But what if I am richer and offer the ISP more money, or can hire better "muscle" than he can hire?

So I don't see why, in Lior's anarchy, with no government, I should give a damn if I libel him or not. All I should care about is to be stronger than him. Then I could libel him with impunity, since, in his anarchy, there is nothing and nobody to stop the rich and powerful from doing what they like, while the poor and weak suffer what they must.

The whole point of having a state at all is, as Hobbes points out, that it is far better to suffer even tyranny from one person, the sovereign - let alone suffer the annoyances or bureaucracy of a modern democracy - than to be contantly at the mercy of anybody and everybody who happens to be stronger. Gee, perhaps there's something to this whole "state" thingy after all.

More on the Actual Effect of FMOTL Acts

Image Credit: here.

If one wishes to know the dangers of acting on absurd "freemen on the land" (FMOTL) beliefs, look no further than this Facebook group.

They believe for some reason that article 61 of the Magna Carta (1215), allowing the Barons to elect 25 of their number to petition or perhaps replace the king, somehow is (a) in force today, and (b) allows anybody, or at least any 25 people, to declare themselves not subject to the laws and, therefore, they need not pay taxes.

The result is as expected. They get notices to pay the council tax or the vehicle insurance; they refuse; they get another notice; they declare themselves lords and masters of the evil corrupt courts; they get fined and/or arrested and/or get their car or license taken away.

Ah well.

The Effect of "Sovereign Citizen" Nonsense on Family Members

Credit: see link below.

So what if someone is a "sovereign citizens"? One may ask. After all, we have the courts to deal with that, and it's a free country -- everybody has the right to go to hell in their own way, as the old saying has it.

A lot of what, that's what. This article -- 'The Crazy Tax Scam You've Never Heard of' -- from which the photo above is taken -- shows the effect it has on family members, here, young children. The author's father, in desperation, fell for this scam, with terrible effect on his family.

But sometimes, incidentally, they get what's coming to them. Here is a "Freeman" getting owned by a judge, who spews his nonsense right back at him: the "Freeman" insists he is the settler, the agent, and the individual David Hall (DAVID HALL?), but not the the person David Hall.

The judge notes, that, in that case, the settler, agent, and individual David Hall is staying in the county jail -- adding 'and if you meet the person David Hall, tell him he's not leaving jail either', to the laughter of the spectators.