2011 was a year of incredible changes. It was a turbulent year around the world with events that were difficult to ignore and certainly impossible to be oblivious to. Changes swept through every part of the globe - from popular uprisings in the Middle East to nature’s fury in the Pacific Region. It created chasms and divisions that seemed to be an important ingredient for change. And on the sunrise of that change, illuminating light swept the land to show what had transpired and it brought people together. The world, as it was understood, was never the same again.
Close to home, or should I say, close to where I pass the night, struggles of varying types are in plain view. Unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness and an increase in the number of people digging through trash for recyclables are on the rise. The scavenging of which has taken a hyper-territorial and competitive tone. I wonder sometimes if people will fight for trash cans.
There are individuals in the city who’ve lost their jobs and are receiving unemployment checks. The checks are a great help but only represents a fraction of their previous wages requiring a substantial adjustment in their lifestyle. More bothersome, perhaps, is the looming thought of the checks running out sometime in the future. I could see how that could be stressful.
The official unemployment rate in California is 12%. However, many people will challenge this statistic, as it does not represents the number of people who have fallen off the unemployment roster. It does not take into account those who are underemployed or persons who were business owners who’ve closed shop and aren’t eligible for benefits. Unofficially, the unemployment rate is much higher.
My routine changed considerably this year. As a result, I am much more aware of current events. A page I developed recently - ROBERT'S BRIEFING - allows me to post tweets about events transpiring here and abroad. This requires a reading regimen, understanding the implications of the events and getting a pulse for what is happening. It may seem a departure from my core business of advocating and blogging. Actually it turned out to be an enabler. There isn’t anything that we do in life that isn’t governed at some level and do not intersect with laws. It gave me a view of a life apart from my own - the life of an indigent litigator that I easily view with myopic lenses. Viewing the world outside my periphery gave me a different perspective. It places my struggles in its proper context. It kept my mind away from my difficult travails - insidious self-talk that if given a home between those two ears could cause a person to end up in disrepair - an event that our intrepid people from FBI-NY would be happy to facilitate.
This Christmas I posted a blog and noted the many people who perished around the world in conflicts and the effects of nature’s wrath. Here I am posting yet another blog. I am among those who have survived and with a future to look forward to - a future with a grandness that is limited only by the obstacles that I allow to deter me. Thus, a realization: my struggles are merely an inconvenience compared to those touched by those horrific events.
There were incredible discoveries this year - Eureka moments that now direct our work. If you want to know the truth about anything, you’ll have to have a passion for it and you must be prepared to fight for it. The truth stands on its own, but for reasons not easily understood it is distorted, censured, and in the most extreme cases, erased. In the digital age, corrupting and altering information is easily achieved with the proper tools. The law enforcement community has the resources and a cadre of computer scientists that do nothing but think about such scenarios - primarily to deter, but in the most appalling circumstances actually perpetrate such violations. It is no wonder why none of my cases got to even the first stages of discoveries. We are finding out, it is because I have stumbled on to something so embarrassing to powers that be it required a sophisticated cover-up. Who do you think they sent to do the clean-up? You’ve guessed it - the FBI-NY. So, I became a journalist-in-training, adding to my stated occupation of a Pro Se Litigator - a wannabe Sherlock Holmes and wannabe Clarence Darrow rolled into one.
We recently discovered a California statute that will allow us to generate income in the legal field without a law degree or any other credentials. We are looking at this carefully, wary about violating other laws that prevent non-professionals from making a living in the law. It appears, at this point, that we might have to challenge laws that are already in place. There is obviously a need for document preparation work to assist individuals defending against foreclosures, evictions and harassing collectors. The very fact that a person is in that situation means that their financial resources have been depleted. Affording an attorney likely poses a difficult challenge. This is certainly a policy issue that should be taken up at the highest levels of government. But, if we get sued it might provide us with exactly that - a venue and a microphone.
If there is one thing that might occupy my mind this coming year, it will be working towards acquiring a commercial dwelling. That should be an interesting puzzle to put together as we will try to do so without credit, a verifiable income, a seasoned savings account, references and the most important element of all - money. It we succeed, the place will be a light manufacturing office with walls and lots of floor space so we can lay out documents and exhibits for our actions. I hope to be in such a place early this year. It’s simply impossible to try a case working out of a cafe.
The biggest set-back this year is the loss of the white Dodge van that we acquired for $500 in June of 2011. Along with it were much of what was left of my personal belongings, trial binders and legal materials. It included case files and impossible to replace pieces of evidence and exhibits. If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time you probably share in our astonishment at the ferocity of the FBI’s disruptive operations. This, I can be sure: If I get my case in front of the jury, provided the jurors are not FBI plants, I will use the the faces of their best lawyers to mop the floors with. What they have done is beyond outrageous.
So, this year, we begin with the primordial emotion of anger - the emotion that has helped me survive this episode of my life and the emotion that will insure my success. Litigation is inherently adversarial. And it is high time that I embrace it for what it is.
All the best in 2012.
Close to home, or should I say, close to where I pass the night, struggles of varying types are in plain view. Unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness and an increase in the number of people digging through trash for recyclables are on the rise. The scavenging of which has taken a hyper-territorial and competitive tone. I wonder sometimes if people will fight for trash cans.
There are individuals in the city who’ve lost their jobs and are receiving unemployment checks. The checks are a great help but only represents a fraction of their previous wages requiring a substantial adjustment in their lifestyle. More bothersome, perhaps, is the looming thought of the checks running out sometime in the future. I could see how that could be stressful.
The official unemployment rate in California is 12%. However, many people will challenge this statistic, as it does not represents the number of people who have fallen off the unemployment roster. It does not take into account those who are underemployed or persons who were business owners who’ve closed shop and aren’t eligible for benefits. Unofficially, the unemployment rate is much higher.
My routine changed considerably this year. As a result, I am much more aware of current events. A page I developed recently - ROBERT'S BRIEFING - allows me to post tweets about events transpiring here and abroad. This requires a reading regimen, understanding the implications of the events and getting a pulse for what is happening. It may seem a departure from my core business of advocating and blogging. Actually it turned out to be an enabler. There isn’t anything that we do in life that isn’t governed at some level and do not intersect with laws. It gave me a view of a life apart from my own - the life of an indigent litigator that I easily view with myopic lenses. Viewing the world outside my periphery gave me a different perspective. It places my struggles in its proper context. It kept my mind away from my difficult travails - insidious self-talk that if given a home between those two ears could cause a person to end up in disrepair - an event that our intrepid people from FBI-NY would be happy to facilitate.
This Christmas I posted a blog and noted the many people who perished around the world in conflicts and the effects of nature’s wrath. Here I am posting yet another blog. I am among those who have survived and with a future to look forward to - a future with a grandness that is limited only by the obstacles that I allow to deter me. Thus, a realization: my struggles are merely an inconvenience compared to those touched by those horrific events.
There were incredible discoveries this year - Eureka moments that now direct our work. If you want to know the truth about anything, you’ll have to have a passion for it and you must be prepared to fight for it. The truth stands on its own, but for reasons not easily understood it is distorted, censured, and in the most extreme cases, erased. In the digital age, corrupting and altering information is easily achieved with the proper tools. The law enforcement community has the resources and a cadre of computer scientists that do nothing but think about such scenarios - primarily to deter, but in the most appalling circumstances actually perpetrate such violations. It is no wonder why none of my cases got to even the first stages of discoveries. We are finding out, it is because I have stumbled on to something so embarrassing to powers that be it required a sophisticated cover-up. Who do you think they sent to do the clean-up? You’ve guessed it - the FBI-NY. So, I became a journalist-in-training, adding to my stated occupation of a Pro Se Litigator - a wannabe Sherlock Holmes and wannabe Clarence Darrow rolled into one.
We recently discovered a California statute that will allow us to generate income in the legal field without a law degree or any other credentials. We are looking at this carefully, wary about violating other laws that prevent non-professionals from making a living in the law. It appears, at this point, that we might have to challenge laws that are already in place. There is obviously a need for document preparation work to assist individuals defending against foreclosures, evictions and harassing collectors. The very fact that a person is in that situation means that their financial resources have been depleted. Affording an attorney likely poses a difficult challenge. This is certainly a policy issue that should be taken up at the highest levels of government. But, if we get sued it might provide us with exactly that - a venue and a microphone.
If there is one thing that might occupy my mind this coming year, it will be working towards acquiring a commercial dwelling. That should be an interesting puzzle to put together as we will try to do so without credit, a verifiable income, a seasoned savings account, references and the most important element of all - money. It we succeed, the place will be a light manufacturing office with walls and lots of floor space so we can lay out documents and exhibits for our actions. I hope to be in such a place early this year. It’s simply impossible to try a case working out of a cafe.
The biggest set-back this year is the loss of the white Dodge van that we acquired for $500 in June of 2011. Along with it were much of what was left of my personal belongings, trial binders and legal materials. It included case files and impossible to replace pieces of evidence and exhibits. If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time you probably share in our astonishment at the ferocity of the FBI’s disruptive operations. This, I can be sure: If I get my case in front of the jury, provided the jurors are not FBI plants, I will use the the faces of their best lawyers to mop the floors with. What they have done is beyond outrageous.
So, this year, we begin with the primordial emotion of anger - the emotion that has helped me survive this episode of my life and the emotion that will insure my success. Litigation is inherently adversarial. And it is high time that I embrace it for what it is.
All the best in 2012.
