Did we already know about Thomas Benson?

[rogfulton]

Article in Las Vegas Review Journal.

Article is mostly about sovereign squatting.

[Arthur Rubin]

I don't recall seeing the "universal post office" before.

[morrand]

Seems like a lot of new or new-ish items:

At least one thing seems certain: Benson left stacks of bizarre court papers in his wake in recent years.

•  A filing in the check case said Benson was an “official carriage registered under the universal post office” and authorized to carry “sacred cargo beyond the sea.”

I guess "universal post office" is a corruption of the Universal Postal Union, given which this is a vanilla admiralty law claim (though it's interesting to see the genetic drift in action with these things, isn't it?).

• He filed in Kansas federal court an “Ecclesiastical Deed Poll” that said he is “living flesh and blood, sentient man.” The filing included a page with footprints and thumbprints in blue ink labeled “Proof of Life Footprints of the Living Man on the Land Known as thomas arvel benson.”

I thought red ink was supposed to indicate the living man? I dunno, I lose track. Maybe the hospital that issued his birth certificate—er, "Ecclesiastical Deed Poll"—didn't have a red stamp pad handy.

• He incorporated a business in Missouri called THOMAS ARVEL BENSON and filed a $499,999,999.99 lien against it.

That's...odd. Even in context, that's just weird. Obviously this is an extension of strawman theory somehow (hence the ALL CAPS NAME), but I don't get the point filing a lien against your own strawman: I thought the point was that the strawman absorbs all the debts (and other things) from the natural man.

• His filings have featured red thumbprints, crests or coats of arms and a copy of the Declaration of Independence that appears to include the signature of one “thomas arvel benson” not far from John Hancock’s.

OK, there's your red ink for you. Whew, I thought he was completely off script for a while there, although the Declaration of Independence thing is cute.

The custom-built property . . . was bank-owned at the time. But according to the lease, the landlord was a person named Nana I Am and the tenant was The Batangyagit Foundation. . . .

Nana, who could not be reached for comment, is a mysterious figure who’s been accused of posing as a lawyer and of getting paid to help people stall foreclosures or evictions. Nana has filed dozens of lawsuits in recent years, often with people who lost their home to lenders, but he never seems to win. Most cases seemed to involve homes in Southern California, though he’s tied to at least a handful locally.

Nana sounds like a prime candidate for a thread here, assuming Nana is not Thomas Benson's alter-ego. (Which sounds a lot like the plot to Psycho, actually.)

When the family arrived with U-Haul trucks, their belongings were strewn everywhere. The couple’s teenage daughter, Alexandria, got into a screaming match with a woman who wouldn’t say where her jewelry went. Tom also was at the house and talked about aliens and how Jesus had created the X-Men, she said.

Well, I can...um...huh.

[notorial dissent]

The International Postal whatever has been around for at least five years that I know of. I don't know which of the nutbars it was that came up with it, but the basic premise is that they think since there is an International Postal union, they aren't real big on understanding the words, that somehow then Postmasters have all sorts of magical mystical all overriding powers, kind of like notaries. At any rate they think they can declare themselves Postmasters and then do whatever they want. They are looneytoons, and Destry fits right in with them. It's a sovcit thing that pops up periodically, but never amounts to much when it does.

[grixit]

"Nana I Am" sounds like something the moorish branch of soverism would use as a name.

[Quartermass]

"Nana I Am" sounds like something the moorish branch of soverism would use as a name.

I think he's related to "Iamwhat I Am" who was a noted enforcer for the admiralty and also to "Iamthat I Am" who is rumored to be the creator of the vast majority of these SovCit types.

[Pottapaug1938]

"Iamwhat I am" an enforcer for the Admiralty? Sounds to me like they've enlisted Popeye the Sailor Man as a Shore Patrolman and Master At Arms.

[notorial dissent]

I think it is just so cute, in a disgusting nasty really offensive sort of way, how they think using sort of biblical sounding types names excuses what they are doing and somehow makes it alright. Just shows they know as much about the Bible as they do about the law, which is to say NOTHING.

[Gregg]

Benson was an “official carriage registered under the universal post office” and authorized to carry “sacred cargo beyond the sea.”

Just saying that put him under the jurisdiction of Maritime Law and the Admiralty Court System, big mistake.

[The Observer]

"Nana I Am" sounds like something the moorish branch of soverism would use as a name.

But only after reading Green Eggs and Ham repeatedly over 72 hours.

[notorial dissent]

Only after a sort of very perverse drinking game I should think requiring copious amounts of strangely green liqueur.

[obadiah]

I can supply 4 different kinds of the Green Fairy if required.

Only after a sort of very perverse drinking game I should think requiring copious amounts of strangely green liqueur.

[AndyK]

I don't recall seeing the "universal post office" before.

Check back to any number of Van Pelt's posts. He was a strong believer in the UPO being one of the ultimate forms of law.

[notorial dissent]

Yeah, it's a very specific, and did I mention small, subset of sovrun moeron quackery. Although to give credit, such as it is, where credit is due, there are at least two if not more subsets of that particular delusion, all made up of different nutbars with one or two adherents. They aren't even particularly amusing or even entertaining.