Who is "The Engineer" in the white hard-hat picketing banks and
world leaders with an Abolish Interest Rates placard in one hand and a
Bible and LETS software diskette in the other? Sometimes wearing an
accordion?

Born: Rouyn, Quebec, Canada on February 22, 1951.
Father: miner, steelmaker. Mother: school-teacher, translator.
Holy Angels French Primary School in Hamilton Ontario.
Cornwall College, Eastview High School in Vanier Ontario.
Carleton University in Ottawa Ontario.
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical 1976)
Specialization: Mathematics of Gambling

I'm John "The Engineer" Turmel and I'm in the 1985 Anthology of
Great Canadian Characters and the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records
for having contested the most elections. I also hold the record for
most losses which allows media to chortle: Super Winner at tables,
Super Loser at the polls." My favorite media sobriquets are "Guerrilla
Lawyer" and "Bank-Fighter Extraordinaire" and "The Gambler." I ran in
44 elections and in 1993, organized 80 candidates to register the
Abolitionist Party of Canada to promote using interest-free LETS to
cut the chains of debt slavery. I picketed the Bank of Canada and
Parliament weekly for five years, stalled many foreclosure through the
courts, some right to the top and financed it all with my gambling
winnings. Ottawa Police dubbed their last raid on my Casino Turmel
"Project Robin Hood."

So what is it about interest rates that could have made me blow
millions of dollars in winnings on an eccentric 19-year project to
Abolish Interest Rates world-wide? These pages will provide the answer
but in answer for the notorious, flamboyant, unheard of tactics I use,
I cite the duty to my oath as an engineer found in my Ballad of the
Banking Systems Engineer:

Some engineers have said that the profession I disgrace.
In answer for my tactics do I point out this one case.
Destruction of the Challenger, the shuttle's sorry tale,
With engineers who knew the cold would make the rubber fail.
They argued into coldest night, the problem was not cured,
The crew was launched up anyway, for they were all insured.
If you had lots of money and were one such engineer,
Would you imperil, by objecting, your future career?

Most would have told the astronauts their craft was not too stable.
They would have tried to intervene if they thought they were able.
If no one listened to your warning, would you go ahead,
And write up on a picket sign the words you wished be said?
"The weather's been too cold today, the rubber seals won't hold,
If you go up, there's no excuse, you'll die and you've been told."
Most would have carried picket signs and told all who would hear,
Most would have acted in this case of life and death so clear.

If no one listened to you would you tell them what you are,
And write on cap "The Engineer" who's studied this by far?
"The rubber seals are too unsafe, it's death to him who goes,
Believe me please, I've studied seals, the engineer who knows."
Most would have worn the cap that said this is `The engineer,'
Most people to the engineering ethics would adhere.
The shuttle engineers did fail to stop calamity,
They never should have ceded what was their authority.

We take an oath when we receive our simple iron ring,
And know from where the duty of the engineer does spring.
If engineers will not rise up against this business east,
Who else can be expected to, it's not up to the least.
In the banking system there's a flaw that's got to go.
Interest's feedback positive that forces debts to grow.
It makes debts exponential with a limit out of sight,
Thought flaw is in the software while the hardware's working right,

The word for "mort" is "death" which is a clue we all should heed,
The word for "gage" is gamble and a deadly bet indeed.
It's slowing down capacity while danger looms ahead,
Reprogramming is critical or else we'll all be dead.
The lack of money is the reason used for the delay,
Sufficient funds cannot be found to save us right today.
The problem's getting worse and worse, we must take action fast.
If they slow down our life support, our planet will not last.

But scientists have now in hand the winning way to see,
The mathematical road to infallibility.
We find in theory of games, the stats of wins to come,
In whose dominion lies the key, the word is "Optimum."
Can banking system of the world be programmed instantly,
To switch to maximum employment voluntarily?
Some planetary cures can be delivered at top speed,
The problem's in the software and correctable indeed.

As Banking Systems Engineer, I claimed authority,
And swore to fix the banking system expeditiously.
I donned the cap and carried signs to spread my message sure,
Abolish interest to fund environmental cure.
I picketed the banks at cities all across the land,
I picketed our Parliament, the weather to withstand.
I picketed the meetings of World Bank and I.M.F.,
The Queen, the Pope, and politicians. They were all so deaf.

The words up on my picket sign were large and made it clear,
"Abolish interest and make the problems disappear."
A hundred times I sought injunctions, six right to the top,
In each I sought the order that the interest they stop.
I pointed out they had the might to instantaneously,
Effect repair on our industrial capacity.
It's just like a conveyor belt with people in a line,
Who fall into abyss of Luciferian design.

If you could press a button and cut power to the beast,
The belt would have momentum but you'd lose the very least.
With the production maximized of butter, not of guns,
We still could not get there in time for all the weakest ones.
So there would be a finite loss of souls until the day,
When all may access credit and for life support may pay.
But if you'd waited for a while before you used your might,
You'd lose some extra souls for failing to so expedite.

And if you had refused to press the button to this day,
It would, on you, the blame for every fallen soul we'd lay.
The number of souls perishing, all due to the delay,
Is equal to the number who do perish on that day.
With 40,000 children dying every single day,
Responsibility belongs to those who had the say.
The number they must answer for which day to day does climb,
Is equal to the number who have perished since that time.
And though I tried a hundred times to get the software switched,
The banking system seems to have the judges all bewitched.
Since all the judges had the power to compel the banks,
To fix the killer program so they don't deserve our thanks.

So I defended victims too, those being repossessed,
I showed them what to do and how to fight the banks with zest.
Each motion was a shot on goal, a chance to fix the flaw,
I took as many as I could but interest is law.
DEFENCE FROM PARABLE OF TALENTS

I funded LETS to run the banks in way once vainly sought,
"Local Employment Trading System" is the name it got,
And finally I'm found in all elections at the post,
Till Guinness has me listed as election races most.

All of the world's injustices can be traced to the shortage of
funds caused by the interest positive feedback on debt. The
Abolitionist movement of yesteryear may have cut the chains of metal
but failed to see the chains of debt. Turning off that positive
feedback on debt with LETS software has already started and is even
easier than most imagine. A network of thousands of big and small
LETS lifeboats is now ready are to accommodate everyone in the
upcoming financial storms.

Though there are many around the world now engaged on Abolishing
Interest Rates with LETS and other means in their own lands, these
pages detail many old and new adventures of John The Engineer Turmel's
attemtps in the fields of politics, law, and barter economics to turn
Earth into Eden by debugging usury from our planet's banking software.
Children of the new millennium born with a credit and not a debt
beside their name is the promise of the Banking Systems Engineer.

Some of the interesting first, most, and last facts:

Political:
- Guinness Book of Records for most elections (73)
- Guinness Book of Records for most losses (72)
- Most votes for a candidate in Canadian jail (3,500).
- Most political debates (too many to count)
- Anthology of Great Canadian Characters
- Founder of The Abolitionist Party Of Canada in 1993
- Author of The Ballad of the Banking Systems Engineer
- Provided significant financing for LETS development
- Generated thousands of stories on TV, radio, and in newspapers
- Made presentations about LETS at hundreds of public engagements
- First systems engineer to have specialized in Banking

Legal:
- Most court appearances by non-lawyer
- Most appearances (5) in Supreme Court of Canada.
(This should never be beaten because unknown to most Canadians, the
right to a personal appeal to the top court was eliminated by the
court bureaucracy in the late 1980s so that those applications may be
dismissed without an appearance.)
- First Video Memorandum accepted in the Supreme Court of Canada.
- First person to file an appeal of an acquittal in SCC
- Most court tangles with media and CRTC.
- First time a Court orders Plaintiff represented by the Defendant.
- Stalled dozens of court foreclosures
- Most cases fought 33 to the Supreme Court of Canada
- Most marijuana charges withdrawn at once > 4,000 Dec 3 2003.


Gambling:
- Keeper of largest gaming house ever raided in Canada - 1993
- First Canada-wide arrest warrant for gambling.
- Only person convicted of possession of an honest deck of cards.
- First innocent man in Triple Jeopardy.
- Only gambler to face 12 years in jail.
- First person convicted gaining by fair winning.
- Last gambler to do time for an honest game.
- First no release pending appeal for danger with a deck of cards.
- First time Superior Court ignored by Provincial Court.
- 6 times court-accredited expert witness on Math of Gambling

PERSONAL
- Longest continuous picket (5yrs) weekly against the Bank of Canada.
- Author of "Play Holdem  Poker Like a Bookie."
- Discoverer of the "Miracle Equation."

VARIOUS MEDIA SOBRIQUETS:
- Gambler, Banking Systems Engineer, Bank-fighter Extraordinaire,
Guerrilla Lawyer, Interest-rate Protester, Blackjack Kintg, TajProfessor,
World's Richest Pauper, Gambling Czar, Great Canadian Gambler,
Spartacus at Babylon, Atlas Shrugged Not, etc.

LETS can save you. Jump on one.

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