In a shocking turn of events, Director Clay Jones, after being embarrassed at the 12/14/22 Annual “Homeowner’s” Meeting by advocating converting our Association Reserves into Gold Coins and receiving strong homeowner opposition, once again pushed the Board to reconsider the option. Without prompting, he sent an email that urged other Directors to watch a 1 hour 45 minute YouTube video from a leading Qanon source, Tore Says (alias of Terpsehore Maras, a real person who has recently run for office and has been factually vetted by many in that process).
Here’s a summary of the video generated by Glasp using ChatGPT:
“The video by Tore Says appears to be a conspiracy theory-laden diatribe against a wide range of government agencies, political figures, and institutions, including the intelligence community, the media, and Hollywood. The video accuses these entities of working together in a secretive, illegal, and unconstitutional manner to control the minds of the American people and subvert the US Constitution. The video claims that the intelligence community uses disinformation and psyops to manipulate the public, that the media and Hollywood are controlled by secret groups, and that political figures are selected and controlled by these groups. The video also includes references to historical events such as the Bay of Pigs and the Ukraine revolution, and suggests that these events were orchestrated by US agencies and politicians.
The video also contains a number of false or misleading statements, as well as a variety of conspiracy theories that are not supported by factual evidence. The video uses fear-mongering tactics, and promotes an us-versus-them mentality, which is not conducive to rational and informed decision-making. The video also uses cult-like propaganda techniques, such as repetition and emotional appeals, to promote its message. The video does not explicitly incite or advocate for violence against any persons or groups, but its tone and message could be interpreted as promoting a sense of paranoia and mistrust towards the government and other institutions.“
Source: Glasp Transcription processed by ChatGPT to summarize
Yes, sigh.
I think many of us are tired of “you have to watch this YouTube video” people, but, I’ve volunteered to serve on an HOA Board, and this is the Treasurer who is explicitly positing that Ms. Maras is an “expert”, and that my challenge of her as a legitimate source to guide is “propaganda”. I know some of you just flashed back to the holidays where you had to grab your Egg Nog and Pie and head to the basement to avoid the family “debate”. But, I don’t have that luxury – I have a fiduciary duty to protect a non-profit corporation from being driven into a ditch by listening to “experts” who are frauds and kooks.
I took me 0.03 seconds to find shocking information about Tore, which is most succinctly articulated in this article:
“A QAnon Grifter Who Claims She Can Time Travel Is Running for Office in Ohio
Secretary of state candidate Terpsehore Maras isn’t even trying to hide her affiliation to QAnon.“
URL Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdpwz/ohio-terpsehore-maras-qanon-time-traveler
Director Jones was responding to Director Ballweber’s posting of the Agenda for the upcoming Board Meeting on Tuesday January 10. Director Ballweber ignored concerns I raised about her control of the HOA Agenda, and several Directors have submitted suggestions, so his email was in the context of pleas to add the topic of where to put our Reserve money, once again, to our agenda.
To be fair, when I received the email from Director Jones, I considered the possibility that he had stumbled upon the information and was unaware of the association with Qanon. And, that hopefully, he recognized that such an association with an organization that some academics have determined resembles a religious cult with ties to domestic terrorism was not appropriate for our community and hopefully ran contrary to our values. Emphasis on hope, as Director Jones currently enjoys widespread support as evidenced by getting 60 votes from 87 homes in our community to become a Director in May of 2022. I openly worry we, like other forms of local government, are being targeted and taken over by those influenced by or are agents of, Qanon.
I urged him to reconsider and find a different source to support his advocacy to the Board regarding where we invest our Reserves. He had not mistakenly stumbled into this. He responded by challenging me to prove anything in the 1 hour 45 minute video was false. Flashbacks to the past 5 years of friends and family members who have succumbed to disinformation on social media combined with his memories of his hostility towards issues like whether the Pandemic is real, whether Climate Change is real, and hints about his views on Diversity.
So, I wrote back with some information about his source, including the fact that his source, known as “Tore Says”, was a real person who ran for Secretary of State in Ohio in the November 2022 Elections. Her background included falsifying herself as a medical doctor, a PhD, and an MBA. She also claimed to be a super-secret intelligence officer, and explained that when the Navy said she wasn’t, her response was “people like me don’t exist.”. Also, she’s a time-traveler. I’m not joking about ANY of this. It’s not propaganda or an ad hominem attack, but rather quoting public facts and her own words!
But, as for her credentials in Finance, she’s also a fraud and grifter. No further example needs to be considered beyond her conviction of stealing $25,000 from a charity for homeless persons that she used to fund, among other things, her personal shopping on QVC. Of course, she says she was framed. See the article linked above.
I would have thought that revealing this background would cause Director Jones to withdraw the material as supportive of his investment advice. Instead, he doubled down and recommended that if I did not wish to watch his 1 hour 45 minute video and take the time to prove which elements were false to him, I should instead read a recent article from Victor David Hanson posted on Zerohedge – a website that has multiple authors who think it is cute to post under the byline “Tyler Durgen“. Click the link if you are unfamiliar with the reference to the villain from the movie “Fight Club”, which is about, among other things, using terrorism to disrupt a world that the character perceives as weak and corrupt.
Good Lord. Is this for real?
Well, I did take the time to read several articles from VD Hanson, and found that as recently as January 3, 2023, he wrote an article that was Anti-Diversity. This isn’t my interpretation, he’s explicit.
“When we obsess in neo-Confederate style on race, ethnicity, or religion as the defining element of who we are, and we do this to leverage political advantage, then we set off a chain-reaction of Yugoslavian- or Lebanese-style tribalism. Like nuclear proliferation, once one group goes tribal, then all others will strain to find their own deterrent tribal identity.“
Source: Victor Davis Hanson: The Baleful Cargo Of Woke Diversity Worship
I sent Director Jones 3 published criticisms of VD Hanson’s published works railing against Diversity:
1. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/its-the-racism-stupid/278026/
Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic described Hanson’s column as “stupid advice”: “in any other context we would automatically recognize this ‘talk’ as stupid advice. If I were to tell you that I only employ Asian-Americans to do my taxes because ‘Asian-Americans do better on the Math SAT’, you would not simply question my sensitivity, but my mental faculties.”
American journalist Arthur Stern called “Facing Facts About Race” an “inflammatory” column based upon crime statistics that Hanson never cited, writing: “His presentation of this controversial opinion as undeniable fact without exhaustive statistical proof is undeniably racist.”
3. https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-sermon-on-race-from-national-review
Anglo-American journalist Kelefa Sanneh, in response to “Facing Facts About Race”, wrote “It’s strange, then, to read Hanson writing as if the fear of violent crime were mainly a “white or Asian” problem, about which African-Americans might be uninformed, or unconcerned – as if African-American parents weren’t already giving their children more detailed and nuanced versions of Hanson’s “sermon”, sharing his earnest and absurd hope that the right words might keep trouble at bay.”
I had hoped after a day or two, Director Jones would contemplate this information and return to some rational center or moderate point of view. This morning, he wrote back tripling down on all of this with insults about my ability to view, read, or understand the information he’s providing. You know, actual ad hominem attacks, again demonstrating psychological projection. It’s sad.
As with many social media debates, it devolves into personal criticism and . . . Cancel Culture. I want to make clear my motivation to publicize this exchange isn’t to try to silence or exclude Director Jones from participation in the HOA. I’ve been subjected to this effort led by now Director Flanary and his Proxy Political Party, Poudre Overlook Advocates (POA).
In fact, the agenda for the meeting on Tuesday will be dominated by two such efforts – one to remove me from the Board (yes, another Petition has circulated), and the “dog incident”, where we are apparently gearing up to spend all of our money to try to force a dog out of an owner’s home with expensive litigation that has less than guaranteed odds of success. POHOA Cancel Culture is as much a cancer on our community as it is in the broader American experience with Cancel Culture.
I have also been made aware that this effort to remove me is coupled with a whisper campaign to change our Bylaws so that X number of Board Removals would automatically bar the person from ever serving on the Board again. No, that is what CRS 7-128-109 is for – when you go before a judge to have such persons barred based upon criteria – not based upon being able to get 9 households to sign a Petition, including under false pretenses. Do we really need this drama to cut our grass and do snow removal?
The question I have to contemplate, as a Director, is whether or not it is necessary to be tolerant of these points of view and negotiate with them, or whether this is, in fact, some evidence of objective disqualification as a matter of judgement. It is true, Qanon is not illegal. But, a study found that the decentralized organization both resembles a religious cult and a terrorist organization.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8960683/
“Although QAnon qualifies as a new religious movement, it can also meet the definitional criteria of a terrorist organization. Agencies, countries, and organizations all employ different definitions; however, there are some shared characteristics that are generally undisputed. First, terrorism involves the use or threat of use of violence to further a political, social, or economic goal (LaFree and Dugan 2007). Second, terrorist groups are non-state actors who use terrorism as a means of communication, directing their message to an audience that extends beyond the immediate victims. We posit that QAnon meets these criteria, thus allowing us to include terrorist organizations in our comparative analysis.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“In sum, although QAnon is nontraditional in its adaptation to a technologically advanced era, it also fits the definitional criteria of a cult. As such, we can turn our attention to other new religious movements as viable points of comparison. After scouring the collection of current and historical movements inhabiting the western world, two stood out as particularly compatible with QAnon on many, if not all, of the key variables or metrics cited previously: Christian Identity and the LaRouche Movement.
In consideration of such opposing opinions and facts, Director Jones has written back to me this morning (a few times), going deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole. Or, as some might see it, painting himself more tightly into a corner. I simply want to know if he disavows Qanon and Qanon followers as an “expert” source that the POHOA Board should consider and rely upon. It is my opinion that we should use more traditional and conservative sources of financial advice material when considering what to do with our collective money. Even if we are missing out on a grand investment opportunity that amounts to glorified day-trading, in my opinion.
If Director Jones was alone in this POV, I think the question of giving him space to voice his opinions would be no problem at all. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how it appears or received by others. And, we are obligated as a Board by CCIOA to allow voicing of opinions, in fact, prior to every single vote the Board takes on any matter.
But, in spite of being rejected at the Annual Meeting on 12/14/22, Director Jones persists in pursuing this, and we now have an issue where Director Ballweber has both refused to give new Directors access to the Gmail account, the Quickbooks account, and is POSTPONING the new Election of Officers because she is prioritizing the newest Petition for my removal. This is an abuse of her imaginary powers as President – and a challenge to her authority remains unanswered, as she refuses to cite where in CCIOA, the Governing Documents, or Robert’s Rules of Order she has such powers and authorities to determine unilaterally our agenda and priorities.
While I hesitate to publicize this as a matter of the confidentiality of the Board, I am compelled simultaneously to blow the whistle on what I believe is a matter of fiduciary duty and non-compliance. And, I get hammered for it by certain members of the community every time. This begs for STATE REGULATION (which Qanon adherents call the “deep state”, which Tore Says should be “mass arrested”) of HOAs, because this type of retaliation has no remedy in the courts, or, frankly within the HOA. And, it’s why many POHOA residents refuse to volunteer and are even hesitant to show up at meetings.
My concern is that we are seeing the slow takeover of Qanon cult followers of our HOA. It is in fact the stated goal to take over local government (school boards, planning commissions, etc), and reflects what we see in public statements by political leaders from one party in Colorado who has succumbed to Qanon influence. While I may not have the votes or electoral support, I can shine the light of day on this situation as a disinfectant against what I perceive as a destructive influence on our community. I wish there was a better way, or a way to simply turn the matter over to a state agency – like the State of Nevada affords it’s HOA owners.
Below is a complete thread of the discussion with Director Jones thus far. I hope this reaches the thoughtful homeowners of POHOA, and some are motivated to speak up and take action within the boundaries of the powers of homeowners votes and petitions.
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It is my thinking that any board member is entitled to their beliefs, no matter how bizarre they are. However, all board members must act in good faith for the benefit of the HOA. It’s the law. When a board member uses his belief’s to dictate policy that goes clearly against the will of the homeowners, as such will was demonstrated at the Annual HomeOwners’ meeting in December, that board member must either back off imposing their beliefs on the HOA, or be removed from the Board. I am interested to see what Walker Flanary and Lora Ballwebber think about Clay Jones’ persistence and “reasoning”.
Let me get this straight: Clay Jones believes the US economy will implode because we are sending too much money to Ukraine to help Ukraine battle for us in our “deep state”, federal government-sponsored program of child and narcotic/controlled substance trafficking. Thus we should invest in gold. I think this is an outlandish assessment and proposal for action by Clay Jones and he and those that might allow such nonsense need to be reigned in if not removed from the board.
I have no agenda in stating this, but I do love so much about our neighborhood and hate to see it taken over by Qanon supporters who feel so emboldened as to think they can impose their beliefs on others.
There’s a related issue that was cut from this article: The POHOA Policy on Conflicts of Interest.
Per Section 6 Paragraphs 1.2-1.3, all new members should read and sign this policy. I did so on 12/15/22 and submitted it to Secretary Ballweber. I did not receive a confirmation of receipt, nor any reply. I have also not seen, but may simply be unaware, of any other Directors signing this Policy. I’ve requested an update.
Paragraph 1.4 and schedule an “Annual Refresher”. We have not had one since at least March of 2021, which is the last date of any Director signing the policy (see Frontsteps). I recommended that it be part of the agenda on 1/10. No response.
It is an interesting situation when Director Jones, who profits from the sales pitch that predicts doom and gloom and actually brings PRODUCT to meetings and displays them DURING the meetings, is essentially getting free advertising for himself and/or his shop as a part of our meetings.
The reason we have Conflict of Interest Policies is so that when people are being given this information AT meetings, there is a simultaneous disclosure of that self-interest so the audience can factor in that information vs. treating him as an “expert”.
We also have to consider the fact that due to Director Jones’ inherent self-interest in painting a bleak future to drive sales, he may not be able to approach the matters of the Association in an unbiased manner. Attempts to reason with him about his sources are met with demands that we prove something false in his YouTube videos. If he is so self-invested in this world view that capitulating on the record at an open meeting might hurt his sales, me may choose to vote based upon what bolsters his profits, not what is truly in the best interest of the association.
A case in point is moving our money from First Internet Bank of Indiana, we we could be earning over 3% Interest in real-time, but instead, due to his paranoia of this day-after-tomorrow financial collapse, we are forced to live with his decision (it was a 1-0 vote at the meeting in June, as I abstained because he would NOT reveal his sources) and LOSE MONEY. Over $500 since June with the meter running.
He would prefer to lose OUR money than admit his predictions were wrong, and instead pivots to crazier and crazier theories that rely upon Ukrainian conspiracies that in many cases have been publicly debunked and discredited with easily verifiable public facts.
Director Jones need not necessarily resign. We simply need a signed Conflict of Interest Policy, and then, if any of us feel there is a conflict, we follow the procedure in the policy – which means the homeowners get to vote, ultimately, if necessary.
It’s important to note that Director Ballweber never allowed a vote on the budget on 12/14, which is a right of the owners. Even if the vote could be anticipated as supportive (or failing to veto), the right to that vote was denied. We’ve not had another Annual Meeting where homeowners were not allowed to vote on the Budget.
The combination of all these factors is why disclosure was necessary at this time. This isn’t right.