Random Freemanesque Babblings II: Back to the Futile

[CrankyBoomer]

While I'm at home wondering how the heck we came to have some people who think Covid-19 is a scam I'm also asking myself how come a certain conspiracy theorist who used to be a footballer and sports presenter came to have as much influence as he has now. I'm old enough to remember when he was ushered off Wogan at the time he said he thought he was the Messiah and the idea then among most of the pubic was that he had become something of a crank. It's a while ago I read something about him on Wikipedia which stated he had been suffering from arthritis and had found some sort of alternative treatment helpful and that it was when he became affiliated with woo-woo.

However I remember when there was a furore in the British press about Glenn Hoddle becoming associated with woo-woo in a religious way. He did say something daft about disabled people being how they were because they were possibly as a result of living lived sinful past lives (that's probably over-simplifying it). The press absolutely roasted him and he lost his position as the manager of the England football team. GH did get further in his football career than conspiracy man did but it seems to me that the press never went after conspiracy man as savagely and ruthlessly as they did after GH and I wonder why. GH has managed to make something of a career for himself with his football academy and giving commentaries on football matches. Crumbs, I'm remembering that in the 1990s real rather than online copies of newspapers were not that unusual.

[jcolvin2]

As I've said I know little about the CRA's involvement in all of this but the news certainly indicates that the IRS is very aggressive in pursuing American citizens resident in Canada regardless of how attached they are to their native country.

It is my understanding that, having more than one million US citizens living within its borders, Canada played an instrumental role in pushing the US/IRS to provide easier paths for US citizens living overseas to come into compliance. For taxpayers who can certify that they were not intentionally shirking their obligations, taxpayers now can come back into compliance by filing only three years of back taxes. (Normally, little or no US taxes are due for US citizens living in Canada because of the foreign tax credit.) No penalties are applied.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/interna ... ted-states

[Burnaby49]

I saw something on YouTube a few years ago where some Ftlers had gone to a Catholic church in Coventry 'to arrest the Pope' (though I would have thought even Ftlers knew the Pope lived in Rome not Coventry).

You have a much higher opinion of their intellectual capacity and general knowledge than I do.

[notorial dissent]

I saw something on YouTube a few years ago where some Ftlers had gone to a Catholic church in Coventry 'to arrest the Pope' (though I would have thought even Ftlers knew the Pope lived in Rome not Coventry).

You have a much higher opinion of their intellectual capacity and general knowledge than I do.

I suspect most/all of them couldn't find Rome on a map, with hints. Let alone know that the Vatican has achieved something they never will and is a sovereign state with him as the soverign.

[Gregg]

I'm kind of alarmed at the number of English people who don't seem to have heard of The Reformation. A good part of it was played on your home field.

[aesmith]

No obvious sov-cit relationship here but I thought I'd share this one anyway on the tenuous grounds that it happened in Nottingham ..

UK cops managed to nab a wanted man who had been hiding in bushes when he loudly passed wind and gave himself away.

https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/no ... ad869b80fd

[longdog]

While I'm at home wondering how the heck we came to have some people who think Covid-19 is a scam I'm also asking myself how come a certain conspiracy theorist who used to be a footballer and sports presenter came to have as much influence as he has now. I'm old enough to remember when he was ushered off Wogan at the time he said he thought he was the Messiah and the idea then among most of the pubic was that he had become something of a crank. It's a while ago I read something about him on Wikipedia which stated he had been suffering from arthritis and had found some sort of alternative treatment helpful and that it was when he became affiliated with woo-woo.

I think explanation is "because internet".

Back when Captain Lizard was doing his purple aspect of the godhead routine people got their information almost exclusively from the TV, radio and newspapers and the best they could do to spread their crazy was write a letter.

Now they have the interwebs to get their "facts" and give everybody the benefit of their ad hoc, evidence free bullshit.

The weakening of the traditional media has meant that it now has to get a lot of its content from the internet and so there's a lot of cross-over between the two.

I'm not sure there's that many more cranks than there ever was, they just have a platform now.

[ArthurWankspittle]

Before internet days, Mr I-must-dress-only-in-purple-because-I'm-the-messiah wrote a book(s) IIRC about his conspiracy theories. Consequently it was likely one of the few passably literate and readable works on the subject, which helped his reputation.

[Wakeman52]

Icke's many works include promotion of anti-semitic tropes (the Protocols for a start) and holocaust denial, although, IIRC, he has never been prosecuted for racism. His humiliation on a live edition of Wogan in the early 1990s was described as a 'crucifixion by media' at the time, but only seems to have reinforced his views, which, due to the internet, have subsequently attracted a large audience.

Sadly, that has allowed him to flog those ideas and formed the basis of a living (his books are all still in print, for example & his lectures regularly sell-out) for nearly 30 years, a result that the likes of Mr O'Waugh et al can only dream of.

[hucknallred]

All this nonsense went on before social media became rampant.
You must all remember the emails that went around:

Just heard this from a friend, it's been confirmed by the police. If you're held up at an ATM, enter your PIN number backwards, this will alert the police.....

Unless your pin is 2002...

My friend was walking behind an arab man in Victoria Centre, he dropped his wallet so she picked it up & gave it him back. He thanked her & said, don't come here on xxxxx date.

There were many many more of these all documented on snopes.com.

I trawl the 5g groups on Facebook, some of the stuff on there is staggering. The latest thing is taking photos of phone masts that have probably been up for 20 or more years & saying

I just noticed this near my house, is it 5g?

followed by

Yes, burn it down.

[Wakeman52]

Then there's the one about adding the year of your birth to your age on your birthday this year giving the current year.

Only happens in 2020 apparently.

[The Observer]

Then there's the one about adding the year of your birth to your age on your birthday this year giving the current year.

Only happens in 2020 apparently.

Back during WWII, this little gem went around the public in 1944 announcing the "coincidence" of finding out that the 5 leaders of the European Front had something mysterious in common:



Adding up all those different dates and years elapsed resulted in the "magical" and perhaps "sinister coincidence" of the number 3888. Of course, a simple analysis would have revealed that all the exercise above accomplished was proving that picking a starting year and adding the number of elapsed years since that date results in getting the current year.

[grixit]

He best be careful or he will be transported to the Village (or, failing that, Portmeirion).

If I ever make it to the UK, I'd love to visit Portmeirion. I've located it on the map, and it doesn't seem to be near any large cities, so it would be a pretty significant side trip from, say, London. IIRC, its on the west coast of Wales.

There's a house here in Santa Maria, less than two miles from me, that's got a tall dark green metal peak with a pennyfarthing for a weather vane.

[mufc1959]

More gibberish, this time from Crabbie's snappily-titled "Council Tax & many more gov.acts are Unlawful - Let's fight back" (sic) Facebook group.

Q: Can I use a commercial lien to rebut council tax demands?

A: Be careful , Council tax is a commercial taxation and they put your postcode In capitals to support this.
Look into declaring your home as a Hereditament instead as this then puts your home away from commercial.

Where the hell do they get these crackpot ideas from anyway?

[AnOwlCalledSage]

...they put your postcode In capitals to support this.

And there was me thinking it was to aid Optical Character Recognition. They do know that normal people can read their stupid moronic postings?

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/how-to-address-mail

When posting something to someone in the UK, write the address like this:

Addressees' name
House number and street name
Locality name (if needed)
Town (please print in capitals)
Full postcode (please print in capitals)

[notorial dissent]

And the better speeding of postal operations. Silly us. Imagine us not seeing it was all some grand conspiracy.

As I remember, didn't your postcodes used to be just three characters until the volume got so large? Back in the old days here before went to a 5 digit and Zip + 4 we had a three digit code. Kind of like the days when you could write a check with no sort code and it would get processed quickly and fairly efficiently even so. The secret of course was that there actually was a code that id'd the banking region and bank and then the banks had to worry about the account number once it got there.

Again, I think I 've asked this before, but isn't there NOT a concept of commercial lien in the UK, doesn't all have to go through the courts to get a charging order??

As the saying goes, "You can use an albatross to attempt to rebut your Council Tax, it will have every bit as much effect as your silly lien" and probably get you on the council's bad books, and deservedly so, in the bargain. No consideration for you.

[John Uskglass]

Looks like someone's decided that Crabby's supporters are a target rich environment.

Apologies for not screenshotting this post from CTIU. I can never get it to work.

Thank you for inviting me to join the group; I am spending my time during this Covid -19 lock down working with a not for profit organization called Action4justice.
Ever considered what does go on behind the transaction of your mortgage? When you entrust your bank to deal with your account you place unquestioned trust with them to look alter you as a professional body. They have a Banking Charter that they are so proud of which can be seen in most branches. We have proof of that with, some of the people we are helping; their encounters with the bank have been less than honest. Even as I write this post; people are losing their homes and being evicted into the street. The DSAR (Data Subject Access Request) is the most essential and valuable bundle of documents available to you. How do you obtain your DSAR with the best possible result? www.Action4justice.co.uk has the answer!
We are running a simple explanatory 30-minute Webinar on 29th May at 12.00hrs covering the salient points you need to know about how to correctly apply for your DSAR (Data Subject Access Request), and what you should receive. We have helpful templates available to simplify your application process so that you get the very best results.
ONLINE WEBINAR LINK
We look forward to seeing you there.
The Action4Justice Team

This is their site
https://www.action4justice.co.uk/

It's worth looking at their services, which remind me of Expert in FA, and also at the press releases page which is..puzzling. Especially as the links to the stories are dead.

[notorial dissent]

If they had money they'd be paying their mortgages and council taxes, some of them at least, so not prime pickings, except for the whole terrifyingly gullible bit.

OKAY, I 'll bite, what's a DSAR?? And why should I care?

[HardyW]

DSAR = Data Subject access request. It is part of privacy or rather Data Protection legislation. You are supposed to be able to require any institution (bank etc) to supply you with all information they hold on you as an individual.

[Pottapaug1938]

And the better speeding of postal operations. Silly us. Imagine us not seeing it was all some grand conspiracy.

As I remember, didn't your postcodes used to be just three characters until the volume got so large? Back in the old days here before went to a 5 digit and Zip + 4 we had a three digit code. Kind of like the days when you could write a check with no sort code and it would get processed quickly and fairly efficiently even so. The secret of course was that there actually was a code that id'd the banking region and bank and then the banks had to worry about the account number once it got there.

Again, I think I 've asked this before, but isn't there NOT a concept of commercial lien in the UK, doesn't all have to go through the courts to get a charging order??

As the saying goes, "You can use an albatross to attempt to rebut your Council Tax, it will have every bit as much effect as your silly lien" and probably get you on the council's bad books, and deservedly so, in the bargain. No consideration for you.

Before ZIP codes, I knew that my (boyhood) mailing address's final line was "Newton Centre 59, Massachusetts" (Mom drilled it into me); but if a letter was addressed to us at "Newton, Massachusetts", it would get to us, albeit more slowly.