PatrickPretty.com

Tag: gold and silver

  • An AdSurfDaily Imponderable: ‘Ad-Packs’ As Currency

    All sorts of incongruities dot the AdSurfDaily landscape. Perhaps none is odder than this:

    Some ASD members say currency issued by the U.S. government is fraudulent, that the Federal Reserve is a fraud, that Federal Reserve Notes are a sham and not “money” because gold and silver coins are the only real money — and yet they seem to have no problem at all with the concept of “ad-packs” as currency.

    Andy Bowdoin was not paying them in silver and gold — and they nevertheless were happy to receive their money, which they incongruously claim elsewhere to be Unconstitutional.

    “Ad-packs” always have made news, but perhaps particularly when prosecutors revealed ASD was paying certain employees in “ad-packs.” There was no hue and cry from the Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists, even though “ad-packs” aren’t backed by silver and gold and have no street value, Constitutional or otherwise.

    They are not redeemable at, say, the neighborhood kid’s sidewalk Kool-Aid stand.

    A kid might take a silver coin or a gold coin — but he or she ain’t gonna take no stinkin’ “ad-packs.” You gotta show a kid the money, not a theory. Any money that spends at the Mall will do.

    Did you know a man who was paying employees in “ad-packs” any kid running a Kool-Aid stand would reject as unacceptably risky got an award from the President of the United States for business acumen? If not, consult the literature of ASD promoters, who helped a lie on the institution of the Presidency go viral because a trusting widow in Florida with $10,000 in her bank account meant they might score a commission of $1,000.

    No one raised a ruckus about Bowdoin treating “ad-packs” as currency — and the Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists presumably did not renounce the paper profits showing in their back offices because Bowdoin had not set aside a like amount in gold and silver to back his “ad-pack” notes.

    If  paper money not backed by gold is a conspiracy, how could electronic “ad-packs” not backed by gold not also be one? Their value might not survive even a strong thunderstorm.

    Call it the Bowdoin Standard.

  • DEVELOPING STORY: Sheriff’s Department, Deputy, County Attorney Sued For Not Accepting Bids In Gold And Silver At Foreclosure Sale In Pennsylvania

    EDITOR’S NOTE: We previously have reported that some members of AdSurfDaily Inc. and AdViewGlobal are part of a subculture that views the Federal Reserve and banking in general as illicit operations. Some members, for example, have been involved in the credit-repair industry and have been parties in lawsuits against the government and/or individual banks and bankers. Part of the Utah “Indian” litigation grew out of banking lawsuits, for instance. We also have reported on a case in which a member sued a bank to reverse a mortgage foreclosure, filing a bond purportedly consisting of “twenty one dollars in silver coinage.”

    Some of the elements in the story below will sound familiar to readers who have been following the ASD case. The plaintiffs in the case cited below said their bids to purchase properties with gold and silver at a Sheriff’s sale in Pennsylvania were rejected, and they now seek more than $1 million in damages against public officials.

    A county solicitor, sheriff’s department and deputy have been sued in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania amid allegations they defamed three bidders at a sheriff’s sale who wanted to pay for properties with gold and silver.

    Meanwhile, the wives of two of the plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit, saying stress caused by libelous remarks by the county have or will cause them “to lose the companionship, consortium, society and services” of their husbands.

    One of the husbands/co-plaintiffs — Michael Proetto — “requries psychiatric care,” according to the lawsuit.

    Victor Balletta, another husband/co-plaintiff, “purchased firearms for protection,” according to the lawsuit.

    Michael Reis is another co-plaintiff in the case.

    Named defendants were Karl Longenbach, solicitor of Northhampton County — although Longenbach’s name was not specifically referenced in the complaint caption; Christopher Spadoni, the assistant county solicitor; the Northhampton County Sheriff’s office; and Dave Ruberry, a deputy sheriff whom the plaintiffs said presided over the October 2008 Sheriff’s Sale.

    The county has denied wrongdoing.

    Balletta, Proetto and Reis said they attended a Sheriff’s sale in Easton, Pa., on Oct. 10, after registering and advising the county “they had gold and silver currency that they wished to bid,” according to the lawsuit.

    The plaintiffs “bid successfully on approximately nine (9) properties,” they said in the lawsuit, but Ruberry “ignored Plaintiffs’ bids, instead accepting other bids predicated on credit. In contrast, Plaintiff’s were prepared to pay their entire bid at the sale, with gold and silver.”

    Proetto brought his gold and silver in a “bulging sandwich bag,” according to The Morning Call of Allentown.

    Bids were refused, according to the plaintiffs. They seek damages of more than $1 million for alleged civil-rights violations and other violations.

    Balletta, Proetto and Reis claimed the defendants made libelous remarks about them, falsely linking them to anarchist groups, extremist groups and “paper terrorism.”

    The Morning Call, which was not named a defendant, “printed the defamatory statements made by the Deputy and Solicitor,” the plaintiffs said.

    Subsequently, the plaintiffs were “threatened; approached by extreme/radical groups mentioned in the Article; have lost business opportunities; have had their [families endangered]; Proetto  requries psychiatric care; and Balletta purchased firearms for protection,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit.

    Read the lawsuit.