(Thanks, s. :)

Reader s. writes (and I'll respond in detail, following);

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Re: ...what Raye said a few days ago...

Dear Hobie,

These continual emails from Raye seem to reinforce that much of the money she asks for goes for the upkeep of herself, rather than solely for RMN. In addition. she appears to be getting older and not too well and perhaps should think of retiring. Also, she pays late charges and interest fees for items she has not paid or forgotten to pay, which add up quickly.

I am retired, live on a very limited income in a small but very convenient apartment. I pay all my bills on time and live with basics only. I have one 13-yr-old car which works fine. I do not have any excess baggage. It is very hard for me to understand how Raye should expect others to support her personal expenses. She needs to take care of herself in her old age and find someone else to run RMN if possible.

Please do not reveal my name or email. Thank you.

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(hobie here.) Thanks for your note, which I expect speaks for many. The things you've touched on are of course things I've looked at and considered for myself. Here are my thoughts:

Yes, she's getting older. Me, too. :)

In earlier days, Rayelan paid all RMN expenses out of her own pocket, providing it for everyone. As things changed in her living, which included quitting a job to be primary caretaker for her mother, she could no longer afford to do that.

The effort was made to support the site with Google AdSense ads, and that worked quite well for a time - until RMN became one of the earliest examples of being "de-platformed" when Google abruptly cut us off from their AdSense service.

(The appearance was that they had actively looked for an excuse to do that. One of the things they pointed to was a post in the RMN Archive from 8 years earlier that included photos of the damage that could result from the bite of a Brown Recluse spider. They said this was contrary to the "no gore" restriction stated in their terms of service.)

Oddly coincidental, this was at about the same time that a hacker, taking advantage of a software vulnerability in the server's operating system, managed to get in and delete 300,000 posts. The effect of that was that RMN also began disappearing, fading away from search engine results. That in turn made RMN less attractive to other advertisers.

And, all that was going on around the same time that Raye was dealing with an unwanted house guest, whose antagonistic behavior was greatly increasing utility bill costs that Raye was obliged to be responsible to pay.

The stress of not being able to oust that unwanted house guest probably set the stage for health issues Raye is now dealing with, years later.

If someone had deliberately set out to destroy Rumor Mill News, that combination of financial upsets and psychological stresses might well have been expected to do it. Yet, we're still here.

In earliest days, RMN was a pretty tightly-knit community. The Agents all knew Raye personally, as did many of the Readers, and it felt very much like a family, all pulling together to "shine the light", exposing the creepy-crawlies that had been hiding in the dark corners of the room. Rayelan was the first to speak of the Factions, working to further opposing goals behind the scenes, and in particular of Faction 2's long-term plan to take down the Federal Reserve and dethrone the folks back of it.

Today, not everyone of the Agents and not everyone who visits here has particular awareness of and relationship with Rayelan. But I believe Raye still thinks of the RMN Agents and Readers as family and friends. :) Which is why she's so free in talking about her personal trials and tribulations. That, and she's essentially transparent in her dealings with others anyway. :)

Ponder this with me: Ben Fulford has a by-subscription membership arrangement at this own website. That arrangement is why we post a portion of his weekly reports on Monday and then the full reports on Thursday. Most of the article is 'embargoed', available only to subscribers, during those intervening days.

Members to Fulford's site pay $11 a month. Now, here are a few questions about that:

- How much money is Fulford realizing from that, each month?

- How is that money being spent?

I'd expect we all feel the answer to that first question is, "I don't know - and it's none of my business!" :) A price is stated; there's expectation of such-and-such benefit to be realized from paying it; and that's all anyone needs to know.

Second question: Almost the same answer. "It's none of my business what Fulford as site publisher does with the money coming in from subscription payments." No doubt he's paying hosting and perhaps webmaster expenses with it, and probably his Internet connection, and perhaps his smart phone and/or computer costs and perhaps a separate phone bill. But he could also be buying new clothes, tires for his car, maybe a Netflix subscription, etc., etc. And we wouldn't begrudge him any of it.

So what's different here?

- The Fundrazr shows everyone how much money is coming in.

- Rayelan is forthcoming about what at least some of her expenses are.

- We don't embargo anything. :)

Blessings, all.

--hobie