Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. I suppose it would be extremely cliche of me to say that we live in unprecedented times, but it's true, we do live in unprecedented times, for sure. There's a lot going on in the world, much of it bad, but a lot of it good as well. And it can really be hard in this information saturated age to really focus on and concentrate on that which is good. I think we should all do that. In my case, with the podcast, I do have to focus on that which is not so good because it needs to be talked about, and maybe you don't have time to do it, but I do, and I will continue to do so, all the while making a concerted effort to accentuate the positive and to also talk about the liberties and freedoms that we currently enjoy, but that are at risk of being taken away from us from those who would wish to force themselves and their power hungry mates on the rest of us. I, for one, won't stand for that. All of this to say, ladies and gentlemen, that I am a pretty optimistic person. And for those who know me best, they know that my life starting out wasn't necessarily like that. That is being optimistic and the glass is always half full. I have made changes in my life. I have done things to try to change the course of my life. I haven't always succeeded in that endeavor, but I continue to strive to do it. And I continue to strive to not allow the negative and the people who want to bring me down to have success. Many times when people are down in the gutter, they want to bring you down with them. But don't do it. Don't succumb to their negativity. We want to have success in every endeavor of our lives. That's the goal for everyone, I think. And not to bag on skunks, but whenever we're driving down the road and we smell that very notorious skunk smell, we can't wait to get away from it. Well, negative people are the same way in my book. Not necessarily that they smell like a skunk, but you want to get away from them as quick as you can. In truth, I think most of us live with a high degree of tolerance, and for good reason. We know that all people are different, and that the golden rule should be lived by everybody. Treat others as we'd like to be treated. It's pretty easy. And as far as I'm concerned, that's a sound philosophy, end of story. However, and you know the story, there's always a but, and here it is. But there are things. There is conduct of some people that I have an extremely high intolerance for. And scam artists, well, they are at the top of that list. Now, to be sure, scam artists come in all shapes and sizes from all walks of life. Some are easy to detect, while others are a little more covert, operating seemingly in the shadows, but all the while in plain sight. Those so-called artists are the ones you really need to watch out for. It's safe to say that scam artists don't apply the golden rule in the way that they live, because if they did, they wouldn't do the things that they actually do. They take advantage of the elderly. They take advantage of the vulnerable, young or otherwise. They take advantage of misfortune during the aftermath of a natural disaster or an accident or whatever. In short, any situation that can be imagined by us, there's a scammer out there ready to pounce. And that you can best believe. So if you're anything like me in this regard, and I think you are, you have a high intolerance for those who try to scam and get over on people just because they can. My message today is to be vigilant and maintain a healthy perspective when contemplating any activity that may potentially jeopardize your identity, your bank account, or any other personal information. First and foremost, we need to protect our family, our loved ones, those who matter the most to us in our lives. And then secondly, we need to really protect our assets, our home, our bank account, our retirement account, anything that has to do with our security. We need to protect it. We have to be vigilant to protect it because guess what? The scammers are vigilant in what they do, and they don't stop. They're relentless. We have to be equally, if not more, relentless if we want to protect that which we have. As most of you know, if you've been listening to me for any length of time, there's a reason why I talk about the things that I talk about in the podcast. Most of the things that I talk about, or at least a large percentage or majority, have to do with our individual liberty and freedom. That to me is one of the most sacred rights that we have as American citizens. These rights and privileges have been granted to us number one by God, and number two, via the Constitution. And just in case someone is not clear or has misunderstood me now or in the past, I believe that God has granted freedom and liberty to every soul who's been born on the earth. But unfortunately, the wickedness of mankind curtails and even does away with the freedom and liberty of many people throughout the world. We should be grateful for the Constitution of the United States. End of story. I am sharing with each of you today a personal story that happened to me a few months ago. Back in October of last year, I received an unsolicited email from a person named John J-O-N Casey, C-A-S-E-Y. Now, as some of you know, I am the author of a book called The Poison of Politics. It was published over 13 years ago. And this is the topic of the email that I received from air quotes John Casey. The book that I wrote is nonfiction. He started out in the very first sentence and said he would like to express interest in purchasing, quote, your script with the intention of producing it as a feature film. End of quote. Again, the book is nonfiction. It's not a script for a play or for some stage act or feature film or whatever. So air quotes John Casey had me skeptical in the very first couple of sentences. But here's the thing. Most of us, I think, want to give people the benefit of the doubt. So part of me is saying, hmm, this is interesting. Let me read on. The other part is saying, uh, be wary, this could be a scam. His email was around five paragraphs long. The paragraph's not very lengthy, as you might imagine. He said in the second paragraph that he'd like to discuss the terms of the potential purchase, and that included financial arrangements, quote unquote, and that they would like to establish a fair and mutually benefit agreement, quote unquote. He goes on to talk about how they're committed to appropriately crediting me for my creative contributions to the project, and that their goal is to collaborate with talented writers like you to bring exceptional stories to the screen, quote unquote. Now, mind you, he referred to my nonfiction book as a script right from the jump. He goes on to say, quote, if this opportunity interests you, we would be delighted to schedule a meeting or a call to discuss the specifics of the potential purchase, including the terms, financial arrangements, and any creative involvement you may desire. End of quote. And then in conclusion, he says, quote, thank you for considering this inquiry. We're excited about the possibility of working with you to bring your screenplay to life on the big screen and look forward to hearing from you soon. End of quote. Man, where do I sign? This sounds great. Now, I'd have to say, if I ever got a chance to talk to this guy, I'd have to say, bro, do your homework. I've never written a screenplay. Well, I decided to uh play along and I emailed him back. And one of the things I said to him is I said that I live with a healthy skepticism, especially in today's upside down world. I actually included an IMDB link and said, Hey, if this is legit, I welcome the opportunity for a discussion. Please let me know the next step. Stay with me here. This gets even better, folks. The next day he emails me back. He says, quote, I appreciate you getting back to me. In any case, I believe a phone call will be more effective than a chain email in organizing this project. Can you give me your phone number so I can call you? End of quote. I know what you're thinking. Rex Rex, don't don't do it, don't do it. I did. I did. And he never called me. But guess who did call me? Someone by the name of Catherine Jordan, supposedly the engagement manager for Movie Central. She called me a few days later and then sent an email after the call with all the information or a good bit of the information that she had given to me over the phone. I'll highlight some of that information to you from the email. She said, quote, it's essential that you submit a soft copy of the book and a cinematic trailer. The evaluation will take approximately three weeks, after which we will schedule a presentation meeting with five producers. Let me continue. She said, I want to emphasize that the cinematic trailer you submit must be created by a reputable and professional trailer house. Our company has strict standards and criteria that we need to meet before presenting it to the board of directors and company investors, end of quote. Then she said this, quote, by the way, we called and confirmed we can refer you to a reputable and licensed trailer house that can produce your cinematic trailer. Since our company does not produce cinematic trailers, we only produce films and movie trailers, end of quote. And can I just say to everybody that Catherine Jordan was no Catherine Jordan? In other words, English was not her first language. Now, before you start crying racist and all kinds of other things, I don't care about the race of any other person. I recognize that we are all different, that there are all sorts of races and cultures and the world and languages. I'm totally fine with that. But if you try to rip me off or try to bamboozle me or try to scam me, then I'm intolerant of you, for sure, at the very least. Now, air quotes Catherine Jordan saved this juicy tidbit for the end of the email when she said, quote, once we have successfully presented your cinematic trailer, their producers will make a decision regarding acquiring the film rights. The acquisition price will range from wait for it five hundred thousand to eight hundred thousand dollars, depending on the quality of the material. This will be paid to you directly by our company, Movie Central, after contract signing to buy the movie rights of your book. End of quote. Can you imagine what was going through my mind when I read this? Wow, I'm gonna be filthy rich off of this. Whew, I can't wait. Please. Miss uh air quotes Catherine Jordan had the audacity to say that, quote, please note that the deadline for submission is by mid-November. Never mind that the date of the email that she sent me was October 24, 2023. So essentially, I got like three weeks to get this movie trailer in to meet their supposed deadline. What a joke. Now of course I was nice and I sent her an email and thanked her for the information. That was on the same day that she sent that lengthy email to me. The timestamp on the email that I sent to her thanking her for the information was 131 PM. On one thirty three PM, she says, Hi there, Rex. I just want to confirm. Do you want me to endorse your information? Or do you need more time to think about this? My parents taught me to be polite, so I emailed her back and said, I'd like to get home and discuss it with my wife, and I'll let you know in the next twenty four hours. A couple minutes later she sends an email back saying, sure, sure, willing to wait. Just email me or call me back once you've decided. Thank you. The next day I sent an email to Air Quotes Catherine Jordan, saying to her that after talking it over with my wife, I decided to move forward with the process. Let me know what the immediate steps are moving forward. Yes, I'm was trying to have a little fun with it at this point in time. Roughly forty-five minutes later, Air Quotes Catherine Jordan sent me an email back. She said, quote, thank you for getting back to me, and I'm glad to hear that you are willing to move forward with the project. To tell you honestly, I'm so grateful that you agreed to collaborate since you are the fifth author that we're gonna gonna G-O-N-N-A be working with this year, and you filled the last spot, end of quote. Who writes a supposed professional email using the word gonna instead of going to or some other way to express it than using the word gonna? Please. Check out this next sentence if you want to call it that. She starts it off by saying, quote, meaning we will just wait for your requirements and we can already start the evaluation process of the five books and prepare for the presentation to our investors. End of quote. About ran out of breath there, because she had no punctuation there. And she started the sentence with the word meaning. Here's the next paragraph. In the very first sentence, she says, quote, We had confirmed the creative films studio to do your cinematic trailer in a rush. End of quote. You see, she's trying to, well, I say she, it could have been anyone, uh a he or a she or whatever air quotes Catherine Jordan is. I don't care. She goes on, quote, the usual time frame is five to eight weeks, but we asked it to be done in two to three weeks since we have a deadline for requirements on the second week of November. Yours might run late, but a week late is okay. We will just present the first four books first, and we'll wait for the trailer to finally present yours. End of quote, guilt trip much? Air quotes Catherine Jordan said that Creative Films Studio quote, agreed to do it, meaning the trailer, for three K. They actually asked for an additional one K since this is a rush order, but since this is for Amazon Studios, they agreed to just take it for three Kind of quote. The way that she listed the dollar amounts are just three K and one K. No dollar signs, no zeros, which a professional email would have done if it was professional. And then this is the first I had heard of Amazon Studios. What? Amazon Studios agreed to take it for just three K. Yeah, sure thing. Listen to this next paragraph and the sentence structure, if you will. She said, quote, just a reminder, endorsing your contract information to them means you are already willing to hire their services to make your cinematic trailer. So make sure you are prepared and also ask for the service agreement so that we have something in hand that we can use to demand from them to finish the cinematic trailer in two to three weeks in case they'll be late. They might say that the regular time frame is five to eight weeks, and we only paid 3k. So just want to make sure that they know our situation and they won't cause a long delay on our part. End of quote. What the heck is that? Now I truly believe that this next portion is where the scam was being pushed. She said, so expect a call from them around 5 p.m. Central Standard Time. Keep your lines open. And please write me an email once you've made the deal, because I will also inform my team that we have finally collaborated with five authors and soon Ghana, G-O-N-N-A, start evaluation. So glad we're moving forward too. End of quote. So yes, of course, she was excited about this because they were going to get their $3,000 when I paid it to these scam artists who were supposedly going to create a cinematic trailer for me. What a bunch of BS. Well, the next day, which was Thursday, October 26th, I sent an email to her at 9.58 in the morning and said, Good morning. I am consulting with a group of people that I know and trust, including a lawyer. As you can appreciate, this is a big step for me to be taking. I told her that I need to be a hundred percent certain that it's the right thing to do, and then having said all that, I need to take the weekend to be completely certain that this is what I should do. Well, she emailed me about a half hour later and she said, quote, thank you for letting me know your current thoughts. I understand the concern, and I fully understand where you are coming from. I can give you more time to think, but please give me the final decision as soon as you possibly can because I think the cinematic trailer will be super late if we can't start this as soon as possible. End of quote. So here's the guilt trip trying to seduce me into falling into her trap, her quote unquote, trap. Wow. She goes on, quote, our deadline for requirements is also around the corner, so I hope you understand my circumstances too. I just wanted to also consider the remaining time left for us to look for a new one for the slot just in case you will not push through. You heard that right. She said I just wanted to also consider the remaining time left for us to look for a new one. A new one what? She hadn't talked about these so called five authors or four, counting me five. How pathetic and stupid do these scammers really think we are? It's unreal. She goes on in the same email and she says, I'm just asking for your consideration of our situation too, since we have a deadline to meet. I sincerely apologize if this may sound to be pressuring on your end. Just like what I told you the last email. That was a direct quote. Let me go on. I was so glad of the thought that we've already filled the five authors that will I can't. I can't, I just can't. It's just so ridiculous and pathetic to think that there are people out there like this who are trying to rip people off. It's disgusting, and you can see while I said at the outset, I have a high intolerance for people who do this to other people. Unsuspecting, vulnerable, old, whatever. It's sickening and it needs to be stopped. And then at the end of the email, she has the audacity to say to me that they really can't move forward until we can make sure that we already filled the last spot. Seriously? What would that have anything to do with me? Well, the short answer is that it doesn't have anything to do with me. She's trying to give me this cock and bowl story about how we gotta have five authors, we gotta be ready to go so we can represent this information to the investors and to the producers and blah, blah, blah. What a Dummy, air quotes Catherine Jordan. I gotta wrap this up, I know, but there's more. Here's what I said to her in an email. I said thank you for the reply. I have some thoughts. First, I've been thinking about this deadline you're talking about, and it seems to me that if there was a hard and fast deadline, that mister Casey would have mentioned it in his initial email to me. It was only a week ago that I received my first email. End a quote. Literally. This is a week after receiving the initial email from air quotes mister Casey. Pathetic. I go on. Second, I'm planning a trip out to SoCal to meet you and perhaps get a tour of the office. If I can arrange my schedule, I could be out there as early as next week. What is the office address? And finally, with respect to the five authors, if I'm indeed the last one to commit, then it shouldn't require much effort to find my replacement should I decide to pull out. Well, she didn't waste much time, about a half hour, and replied back to me. She said, Again, thanks for getting back to me. I think I have to explain where I'm coming from when I said that we have to meet a deadline. End of quote. I thought I would just paraphrase the rest of what she had written, but I can't. I have to quote it verbatim. She goes on to say this. Quote, I mentioned during our call that we are only allowed to work for five projects per year, and we have to have the list to start it in 2024. Year 2023 is ending, and our investors and board of directors are already looking forward to having the list of films finalized. We started looking for qualified prospects in June this year, meaning 2023. And to tell you honestly, we also have few books in line. We also have few books in line, but we prioritize the referral of director air quotes Casey. I added that, of course, since we trust his judgment. She goes on. We are assuming that you already have the materials that our company requires, which is to our advantage since our deadline is in two to three weeks. This is the reason I got worried when you said that you don't have a cinematic trailer yet. End of quote. What the she said she got worried, and she talked about assuming that I already have the materials that their company requires? What on earth could she be talking about? I know she's probably talking about the cinematic trailer, but so convoluted and juggled and ridiculous. Air quotes Catherine Jordan ends with a little contrition by saying, quote, again, I apologize. I know it's unfair on your part. We don't usually also work in a rush. Again, take your time and just let me know what your decision is. Sorry that I'm letting my little pressure pass on you. End of quote. What? Sorry that I'm letting my little pressure pass on you. No, honey, your first language is definitely not English. Sorry. The next day, october twenty seventh, Friday, I sent her an email, and I said, Quote, I didn't realize that you were worried that I didn't have a trailer. Considering it has barely been a week since I first heard about this supposed opportunity, I can't imagine why you would have been worried that I didn't have a trailer. Up to this point, I've had no reason to create a trailer. So now it's my turn to be worried. I'm getting the impression that the offer from Movie Central is not above board. Do I have reasons to be concerned? Who are some of your past clients? Authors who have been accepted into your program? Shouldn't something like that be well publicized? In any case, I'm starting to really doubt the legitimacy of the whole process. Please provide me with the assurance that I'm not going to get ripped off by continuing to go down this road. If I don't hear from you, I'll understand. I don't want to jump to conclusions. However, I have reason to doubt the legitimacy of all that has been communicated to me to this point. So that weekend came and went, and on October thirtieth, on Monday, she sent an email to me that morning saying, quote, thanks for always getting back to me. Whatever. I already provided our address to you. You can visit us during production, and we are actually asking you to come here during contract signing. We had a quick meeting and we decided to just proceed with the next book project on the list tomorrow since we don't have enough time and energy to make things clear to you. In the first place, our collaboration project doesn't ask you anything in return aside from the requirements. All I hear is Lati da Freakin' Blah. If you can provide the PDF and cinematic trailer without spending any money, that's the best option for us too. End of quote. What? Provide to them a cinematic trailer in the PDF without spending any money when she already told me there was three thousand dollars to do the cinematic trailer? What kind of nonsense is this? Well, the next day I dropped the old hammer down on air quotes Catherine Jordan by saying, Catherine, I truly wish I could trust what you're telling me, but unfortunately, I don't. And unless you can give me a reason with a hundred percent certainty that I should continue this journey, we may have to part ways. End of quote. She replied the next day by saying, quote, I understand, Rex. I think you're right that we have to part ways for now. I've sent you all the things you've asked for. Let me stop there. No, she did not. She never sent me any info on other authors, past clients, where I can find anything publicized about what they've done in the past. So no. Air quotes, you did not send me everything I asked for. She goes on. Quote, you can also check our website every now and then because aside from this, we own an entertainment magazine and we provide monthly to our two M subscribers, I guess she means million, around the world. This includes film companies, directors, producers, and business establishments that we are in partnership with. Best regards. And she didn't even put her name. Now, if all of that wasn't enough, guess what? On January twenty-third of this year, I got an email from a supposed gentleman named air quotes Todd Peters. Yep. Let me just read a quick excerpt from this email. He addresses me and he says, quote, I am Todd Peters, a director based in California. Recently, our esteemed book agent brought your remarkable book to my attention, highlighting its potential for a film adaptation. I must admit, I was captivated by its unique narrative and rich storytelling. Your book has been on our database for quite some time, and we've been closely monitoring its growing popularity and the increasing demand from our audience. End of quote. That's laughable. Okay, I'd love to think and believe that my book has a captivating narrative and storytelling, but it is a contemporary political manuscript, now book, of course, and published in 2010 called The Poison of Politics. It's not a storytelling type book, although I do, in the book, point out stories and things that politicians have done to screw over the American people. If you're interested, go to Amazon, and perhaps you can still purchase it. I assume it's still in print, but I don't even know. How pathetic is that, right? Air quotes Todd Peters goes on to say, quote, with the recent surge in interest and demand for your book, laughable, we feel that this is the opportune moment to discuss the potential of bringing your story to life on the big screen, end of quote. I have yet to reply to air quotes Todd Peters, but who knows, in a moment of boredom, I just might do it. I'd like to end this episode, ladies and gentlemen, with a quote from Robert Kennedy, who said this Every time we turn our heads the other way, when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice. End of quote. In any case, ladies and gentlemen, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.