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After the successful campaign to raise $3,500 at FD, I imagine that we will have at least one more round of fund-raising to come. On top of that, now that I am a named defendant and not a John Doe, I will be needing to consider personal defence options. I think that these need to be in co-ordination with other defendants and the overall strategy, because my first reaction would be to say (as in my defence concept thread) that I see this as a political struggle that belongs outside a courtroom, and that I have the belief that the world is about to descend into chaos in any case so this trial may be the least of anyone's concerns.
But I always try to operate on the belief that we should continue to respect the legal framework of society, even if it has recently added on some very questionable laws like Section 13, and, that we should act as though these are normal times and not the last five days of the age.
Consequently, I place before you all of these fund-raising suggestions for your consideration. These would apply both to the general FD situation, and to my personal requirements, which would be to find $500 to $1,500 some time very soon, ahead of the schedule by which I can reasonably expect to find it lying around my own home through our (family) efforts.
I should just add that I am not employed in anything very substantial, having left the courier business mainly for health reasons at the end of 2007 with only a modest stash put together, due to the large expenses that almost swamped my income for the year, and the fact that in previous years I was filling in two or three days a week for another courier who has since left the business also, having gone blind (sad story).
Add to this an ongoing history of only part-time employment over most of the past thirty years once I dropped out of the mainstream due to my extensive black-listing by Environment Canada (this goes back to 1979-80), and you get the picture, we have gotten by alright because my wife has (more or less) full-time employment although not at any affluent level, and to secure this we had to move into expensive greater Vancouver rather than our first choice, anywhere else in BC where costs of living might be cheaper as well as salaries lower.
I don't want to impose on anybody, I got myself into this in many stages. My opposition to RW and company is really the 2.0 version of my much longer struggle with the meteo-establishment who have done everything inhumanly possible to make my chosen career a living hell situation.
What happened there, in a nutshell, is that I had to gradually downgrade my research time from 1980 to 1983 due to this blacklisting cutting off employment or research grant opportunities, until by the mid-1980s, I had a stable situation together with my wife, working (both of us) in computer typesetting. This always managed to provide for us and yet it was a dead-end situation, unknown to us, because Bill Gates had this alternative idea going, that everyone should be able to computer typeset from their own homes and offices. This reduced the market for services very rapidly from 1990 to 1993, and made it necessary to find a new living plan.
We did that in stages out here in BC after leaving Ontario due to fears that we would bottom out in a Mike Harris shame camp before finding an exit strategy. Our strategy was moderately successful on the level of regaining a day-to-day solvency and existence, but life has never been affluent for us, and we have no assets or resources that can be converted into money for legal fees (or judgements, so what's the point of naming me as a defendant, other than to waste my time reading all these documents?)
One response I had to the evolving situation was to cash out my rather meager CPP early. As you may know, if you opt to cash out at age 60, you get 60% of the scheduled monthly payments at that point. If you wait to 62.5, you get 80% and if you delay past 65 you can book yourself in for larger payments later on the same principle.
Now you can imagine that my monthly CPP is not all that much. I won't get into exact numbers here, but going early will amount to walking around money in my pocket. It seems like a good idea, though, because all of the other projected cash flow concepts past our mutual age 65 would suggest a level of comfort equal to camping out in a shack somewhere in nowhere-land, which is about our speed anyway (big city life does not suit us except that we have to take it for now).
Therefore, that hundred dollar a month differential probably won't seem like too much when all the other, larger bits and pieces hit the ground in five years. So, I was thinking that I would have easily two or three hundred a month to flash around at the legal community soon. As you may know, I just turned 60. I am waiting to find out when I start to see these monthly amounts. From the forms and procedures (which I completed about a month ago) it seems that I may see my first cheque in about a month. Anyone know more, tell me. Otherwise, I am hitting the ground with only a limited stash o'cash as of today, and I have two big hurdles right in front of me that are much closer than I had expected when I committed to this early pension idea.
You might think, well go out and work for a week or a month, but in point of fact, there is no job market for my skill set. My health is okay if I don't do much, but in late 2007 I was getting concerned that a breakdown or accident was awaiting me if I kept up the rather hectic pace of the courier business. There is no such animal as a part-time courier, you either do it full out, or you don't do it at all. I am also an experienced and qualified church musician, and have had some fill-in stints here and there for holiday times, but no full-time opportunities have been visible for a while. At my age, I am not likely to be top of the list anywhere for that sort of thing. And I am more into Bach and Mozart than twang and whatever.
Here are some of my fundraising ideas then ...
** send cash, send lots of cash (ha ha)
** someone who can afford to do so, between 60 and 65, could think of going my route, early CPP, and pledge it to FD or a specific law firm, and then take the slight hit at age 65 which I am sure grateful FD members might think of restoring to the expected levels -- meanwhile, you weren't thinking of having the cash flow early, so you won't be out of pocket. It does count as income though.
** we could look at a joint sports lottery approach. In any group of four or five games, there is always $200 or more to be made if you can guess the right results (for a $2 or not much larger stake) ... so I would foresee possible schemes where dozens of FD members took on various combinations of results and whoever won would donate, everyone else would be $2 poorer.
** I have the makings of an e-book on climate realism, but I am looking into the details of cost and structure. If anyone out there knows how to create an e-book and wants to be my partner in this for half the incoming cash flow, then I will fill out the template you provide me, and within a week we will have an e-book that might sell at $8 or $12 a pop to quite a potentially large market, for starters, I am already a known personality on three large weather forums, and could imagine 200 or more sales from those who have tended to agree with my posts on this subject. It could spread out from there to be lucrative. This is a new concept as of last night in my case, so I have had no time to develop it. The book itself is easily assembled from material I have already produced.
** I play poker fairly well but I am confined to freerolls on the internet. If somebody wants to stake me, I could go into a larger tournament and see if we could raise some larger amounts faster.
** golf tournament -- I haven't been playing for a year now due to this decision I made to concentrate on research. I was hoping to have a slight cash flow in 2008 to get me out to golf once a month but it didn't work out that way due to health bills. But 20-30 of us in the west could meet for a golf tournament some time this summer. Same for the Ontario contingent at your end.
** appeals to the wider conservative community through the press, such as National Post, as well as renewed efforts on allied websites.
I have to go out now, but I may have more ideas later. Please, post your ideas as well. The sooner we can effectively meet the Warman challenge, the better it will be for all Canadian free thinkers, whatever your politics may be.
Roger over and out.
Less Ottawa.
