How could we have missed it? All the signs from God were there. I feel so stupid. Casey doesn't drink or so he says. Even his beverages of choice are uncafeinated. He treats his body like a temple.
Galina is dutiful and obiedient.
He never answered why Salt Lake City.
He calls himself a Christian but never identifies a denomination.
He budgeted for tithing.
His views on money and other things are strange to say the least.
In short he's everyone's worst stereotype. I vote: Mormon.
58 comments:
first...she's hot
The fire of the spirit of Moroni burns witihn her.
For the record, Mormonism makes me a little uncomfortable but that's just me. I know the subject is polarizing and surrounded by inaccuracies and mystique. Regadless of your views of the religion don't paint it with a Casey brush.
Damn it! I'd hit that!
Mormon or JW
I am leaning towards JW or extremely evangical christian, he incorrectly called Mormon stake house a temple in Flickr.
Mmm... Hey, baby, want to be on Big Love?
If he likes jello, then difinitely Morman.
I've thought that but there is one problem - he doesn't have kids yet. It also sounded in one thread like he never wants kids. Any dutiful mormon knows you should be popping out babies at the rate of at least one every two years, starting as young as possible. Also he would have had to do a 2 year stint as a missionary.
Yahoo! News
Credit counselors overwhelmed by U.S. mortgage crisis
By Andrea HopkinsThu Mar 22, 8:26 AM ET
Until last year, financial counselors at the Home Ownership Center of Greater Cincinnati spent most of their time teaching Americans how to buy a first home. Now, they're deluged by broken and bereft homeowners facing foreclosure.
"Oh Lord, there is no way we can keep up with these calls," said Kaye Britton, a foreclosure counselor at the downtown nonprofit group that promotes home ownership to minority Americans, among others.
Britton has been helping clients reach the American dream of owning a home since 2002. Handmade wall signs urge would-be buyers to "sweat the small stuff" and note the lender's golden rule: "They have the gold, they make the rules."
Foreclosures were formerly rare, caused mostly by the loss of job, divorce or medical bills.
But when rising interest rates began driving up mortgage payments last year, homeowners started to feel the pain. Phones at credit counselors across the country are now ringing off the hook.
The industrial heartland has been particularly hard-hit. Ohio had the highest number of home foreclosures in 2006, while neighboring Michigan and Indiana -- all sideswiped by the faltering U.S. auto industry -- were close behind.
Housing analysts predict between 1 million and 3 million U.S. homes will be foreclosed upon in 2007. Already a wave of defaults on subprime mortgages held by those with poor credit have caused a crisis in parts of the industry, and some economists believe a recession could result.
"We knew it was going to be bad, but we didn't think it would be this bad," said Britton, echoing many who warned that increasingly exotic mortgage programs -- including those that required no down payment on home purchases -- would come back to haunt home buyers.
PREDATORY LENDING
Subprime loans allowed many Americans with spotty credit to buy into the housing boom, driving home ownership to nearly 69 percent nationwide in 2006, up from 65.4 percent a decade earlier. But teaser rates that kept interest payments low for two or three years have begun to expire, driving monthly payments through the roof.
Shanna Smith, chief executive of the National Fair Housing Alliance, said lenders often targeted the most vulnerable borrowers for subprime loans, even if they were eligible for loans with lower rates. More often than not, the borrowers had little understanding of mortgages.
"All the predatory lending that has gone on, all of the pushing of exotic loans on people of color, female-headed households, families with children, people with disabilities -- it's all coming home to roost," Smith said.
Britton said borrowers and lenders share the blame for the crisis. She sees many borrowers who simply didn't understand their interest rate was only fixed for two or three years, then could rise along with market rates.
"That's all they hear -- that it's fixed, not that it's only fixed for the first two years," Britton said. "They don't know their payment's gone up until they get the notice in the mail. And then they don't have the money."
Not all of the problem is in the subprime market. Many Americans with good credit but low income or no savings signed up for adjustable rate mortgages or interest-only loans to get into the market. As rates rise, they too feel the pinch.
At the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service in suburban Cincinnati, counselor Darcy Blankenship sees a steady stream of people who knew their payments would be going up, but signed the loan anyway because they just wanted a house.
"People are so excited about wanting that house, they don't look at the whole picture. They just want the keys," she said.
CREDIT COUNSELING
Demand for counseling appointments at CCCS's Cincinnati offices has risen 87 percent from a year earlier.
Blankenship said one client started out with a 3.9 percent interest rate on his 30-year mortgage. Now it's rising to 11 percent -- and he can't meet the higher payments because once he bought the home he piled up debt furnishing the home.
"Now he can't refinance either, because of the debt. He just said, 'There's no way,"' she recalled.
Once borrowers fall 90 days behind on payments, lenders can start the foreclosure process, which can take up to a year. Owners can try to sell the house, but with prices falling and foreclosed homes flooding the market, borrowers often end up still owing more than they can get for the house.
Britton said people should call a reputable credit counselor as soon as they're in trouble. Loans can be restructured, and emergency funding may be available. But she admits the counseling industry is already overwhelmed.
"If I stop answering calls to actually talk to a client and help them, the messages pile up, and there's no time to call them all back," Britton said. "It's only going to get worse."
If Nigel has anything to do with it Casey is a Christian from the waist up only.
Rob,
Mormon sounds right. LDS types are just like him. As for the popping out babies, not all are completely observant. Mormons are almost predilected toward the RE business. Elders are supposed to eventually get their own planet so there you are. (strange religion isn't it, but they all are!)
Everything I have seen out of Casey so far suggests straight-up Evangelical/prosperity Gospel.
FWIW, Russian Baptists and more modern evangelicals do not drink either. In the Soviet days, their anti-alcohol stance won them many converts among wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers of alcoholics.
Also, the term "Baptist" has a slightly different meaning in Russia.
Casey's probably the son of one of the original Heaven's Gate members. Remember, 10 years ago, in California, no less.
He doesn't care about his financial obligations because he knows there's another comet coming, trailed by a spaceship, to take him away for the ultimate Sweet Deal! ;-p
Heaven's Gate is for sale? Sweet! Do you think God would accept a wrap because I already sold my soul and my CHRISTO Score (TM) is in the toilet.
I vote mainstream evangelical, with a good dose of Kiyosaki Kult worship. Had a few Mo friends when I lived in LA and the things they all had in common were a great work ethic, a good education (mainly at BU, but it's a pretty decent school academically speaking), and a couple of years in some godforsaken (until I arrived for my mission!!) corner of the world.
Typo alert - I meant BYU
Casey doesn't strike me as Mormon. A lot of the signs are there, yes, but the LDS types I've known have had an almost fanatical emphasis on self-sufficiency, sometimes to the extent of stockpiling months and months of food for their whole families. Casey is, well, the opposite of that.
I'm guessing left-wing Protestant, probably an independent megachurch and certainly one that preaches Prosperity Gospel.
Cargo Cult.
Preston, Idaho is a real town located near the Utah border, and is predominantly Mormon. Since the release of Napoleon Dynamite, it has become a tourist attraction of sorts, with the school, Preston High School, being a main feature. In April 2005, the Idaho state legislature approved a resolution commending the filmmakers for producing Napoleon Dynamite, specifically enumerating the benefits the movie has brought to Idaho, as well as for showcasing various aspects of Idaho's culture and economy.[1] On June 24-25, 2005, Preston held a Napoleon Dynamite Festival, celebrating the film. An estimated 6,000 people attended the two-day event. About one year later on July 8, 2006, Preston held another festival, but it was not as successful as the previous year. The film displays some quirky references to Mormon popular culture. Napoleon uses euphemisms, like gosh, heck, and flip, that are characteristic of (though hardly exclusive to) Latter-day Saint circles; examples would include the lines, "What the flip was Grandma doing at the sand dunes?" and "Heck yes; I'd vote for you."
Napoleon is seen wearing a t-shirt that reads "Ricks College", the former junior college located in Rexburg, Idaho now known as BYU Idaho. In the DVD extras, there is an interview with Jon Heder in which he jokes that perhaps Napoleon and Deb may be "sealed for time and all eternity" — a reference to the Latter-day Saint belief in "eternal marriage" or "sealing" performed in the Church’s temples. The principal's reference to "Juarez" — where he assumes Pedro is from — may be a reference to Ciudad Juárez, a city on the U.S.-Mexico border. Characters, even those intended to be the popular girls, do not wear shorts any shorter than knee-length. Fashions in LDS culture tend to be more modest than those of popular culture. Napoleon goes to Deseret Industries, a thrift store operated by the LDS Church, to buy his famous suit. At the same time, the director seems to have taken care to not project an overt presence of Latter-day Saint/Mormon culture. Crosses and statue images pertaining to other Christian churches are placed prominently in some scenes, particularly at Pedro's house, which is full of Roman Catholic iconography.
The caller who explained how CashCall works scared Casey the most. In the end, of all the various debts, it will probably be this one that acts most aggressively to take away his stuff... legally. You could hear him doing the math: The computer goes away? The car goes away? That would really, really harsh his mellow. Guess he better get on that. Protections for some personal property might finally be the thing that brings him to a bankrupcy court. But that would be acting decisively. So perhaps it won't happen.
Maybe he's a Mormon, except the that going a mission thingy, and a couple of the other mormon thingys he doesn't do, kind of like the kinda sorta Vegan except for the In and Out Burgers.
I'm still wondering when we'll see the flirtation with Scientology. No offense to those guys (okay, well, that's not entirely true), but Casey does seem like a prime fit for their club. If Katie can be a Catholic and a Scientologist at the same time, I'm sure Casey can do the Mormon Scientologist thing.
It's probably just my proximity to Clearwater (aka Scientology Mecca) talking here, but Casey does sound an awful like the ones I've met over the years. The same sense of financial entitlement; the same narcissistic isolation from reality; the same pseudo-pop intellectual rationalizations. Swap out the word "hater" for "suppressive", and I defy anyone to tell the difference.
Admit it: it'd be fun to watch Casey take the Desperation Train into the warm comforting embrace of Zenu. And it really wouldn't be a long trip.
How does Preston, Idaho fit in with his trip to Utah??? Or is there some other link?
"The caller who explained how CashCall works scared Casey the most."
Heehee, that when his Russian accent made an appearance.
@DAWG -- This was really an idiotic, horrible troll. The Mormon angle has already been well covered in earlier threads. You just found a funny girl pic and used it for this troll. Very disappointed in you! This has also encouraged jew baiting on this thread. You're scraping the barrel dude.
There's no way KC is LDS (and if he was, he'd have been instantly excommunicated once his blog was published).
"This has also encouraged jew baiting on this thread. You're scraping the barrel dude."
If you are referring to my JW comment above, I meant Jehovah Witness. I work for/with and know many people of the Jewish faith, most are the polar opposite of Snowflake.
The Dawg also started this thread with a disclaimer
"For the record, Mormonism makes me a little uncomfortable but that's just me. I know the subject is polarizing and surrounded by inaccuracies and mystique. Regadless of your views of the religion don't paint it with a Casey brush. "
Ummm, no troll on my part. How about yours? The call-in ended with a question of his Christian beliefs and a disconnect. I think it needed to be discussed. Understand he is a bad Christian no matter his denomination. note also I called his behavior stereotypical not representative. I had to google using my mad skillz to find that pic. The sad part is for the ladies that read, there's no male equivalent to treat then with in a future post. Maybe this:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/02/07/theater/Mormon184.jpg
That shirt is so true. Two times I dated mormon chicks and ran into the "three date" rule issue. Had to say "Next!". Trust me, those LDS guys are like the Mafia. They get a bit upset when you start digging too deep into their action. And trust me, those are some pretty shady crews. I remember they all had these "bomb shelter" type rooms in their basements that were loaded with stuff. I do agree with the idea that you should be self sufficient if SHTF though. I try and keep the pantry stocked pretty well, keep extra water around, that kind of thing. I also keep a fair amount of ammo on hand. 9mm, .38 Super, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, .223, .308, 30-06, .338 Lapua. You get the idea, lol...plus all the reloading supplies.
No way is snowflake LDS. I could see him latching onto Scientology pretty easy though if he thought for one second it might result in a sweet deal. My guess is he's starting to realize that the jig is almost up. When Walter CashCall called in, you could hear his voice change and his sphincter tighten a bit.
Where would I find the Cash Call bit? Anyone have a link?
My vote is for Jehova's Witness.
WTF does this thread have to do with "Jew Baiting". Someone's hate baiting I think. Casey, is that you boy?
Rob Dawg,
Casey made it to the Economist.
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8885853
Mormons do not 'enjoy the occasional beer' -- they are too disciplined for Casey.
Catholic is better suited to him.
Preserved for posterity another one Young Dandelion missed with hiz mad moderation skillz:
55. oozing_santorum
March 21st, 2007 at 2:51 pm
*I* think that you are looking for a cash cow in a drought-stricken field. Anyone would *want* this *to* be available. However, I don’t think that you will even get enough to get you over the *hump*. I’m sorry, but *your* situation is too serious for you and your *wife* to be fooling *in* this sort of thing. *The* thing for you to do is stop being an *a** *.
----
I thought this was too obviuos but not for Snowflake.
jeez, of course he's mormon. if the 10% "tithing" requirement didn't give it away, at some point he put up a picture of him holding a card from one of his supporters that had a verse from the book of nephi on it.
(for anyone not familiar with the idiocy that is mormonism, that's one of the books in the book of mormon that joseph smith supposedly translated from golden plates given to him by the angle moroni (emphasis on the "moron" part). it's even more absurd than the other "holy" books it was cribbed from.)
Casey is the worst form of religious type, the one that hides behind his proposed Christianity while doing everything in his power to do the exact opposite. The only thing he worships is the almighty dollar.
Case in point
1) Bullshit tithings (he even thinks he can BUY his way into heaven)
2) The way he screws over his lenders, creditors, and the Utah couple.
3) No piousness or humility, the guy believes he is entitled to the good life
4) The numerous lies we have uncovered that he tells
5) His complete lack of respect for his marriage or his wife
6) his uncontrollable avarice.
Huh. Well, score one for the good guys. I had forwarded on stuff about Casey to the Economist.
Here's a picture on Casey's Flickr site that I haven seen before. Maps out all his travels for 2006.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/96/269766261_c9fa007ffc_o.jpg
@ Stephanie J
Not quite. I remember several of my buddies who were Morman that partied like rock stars. I'm Episcopalian and they put me to shame. Several of the girls were that way too. Just not the ones I hooked up with...
So, I made a post to Nigel's fan site.
Brief. Succint. Think he'll get the point?
I vote "none of the above". Casey's god is the easy life, and his religious leaders are the gurus who are telling him how to get there. Religion is just a tool he uses to push peoples' buttons and get what he wants or improve his position. Whatever he was brought up as, he clearly has thrown it out the window.
He's not mormon. He's a fundamentalist christian. There are tons of them that came from Ukraine and the other Russian countries back in the mid-90s. They went to Sacramento because there was a preacher there that was sending literature and what have you to the variou Russian churches. Many of the Russians that moved to the US thought that it was official government literature.
They have like 30 5,000+ member churches in the city that do services in both English and Russian. They're highly homophobic, which is pretty interesting considering that they're 90 miles from San Francisco.
That's why Casey is so sensitive about being called a mormon and about his murse. I can't believe he actually talked about getting highlights in his hair too.
Steph - Mormons do it all, just under the covers. They have to hide everything from the Church.
Big Tony S is right....
Yo this is Walter Cashcall here--just wanted to clarify, I picked that name kind of randomly, but apparently it got his attention cause as soon as I phoned in he picked up. However, I didn't discuss the cashcall issue, I kind of rambled about his lack of fix abilities and the homeless dude wouldn't want to live in whichever house it was (Burdett or Larchmont?)
Well he isnt a JW since they dont celebrate Christmas.
JW = Jehovah's Witness.
It's not jew-baiting.
I vote that he's a member of the Church of Universal Light. Hell - now that I filled out the form on their website I'm now one of their ordained ministers!
(does that mean that I get a tax break?)
(reposting) If you haven't listened to the webcast already get it here :
http://files-upload.com/140154/FacingForeclosureLiveCall21-March-2007-T.mp3.html
KC gets $4 bucks for every 100 downloads of that file - but only if its pulled from the talkshoe site. :)
spread the word!
I'm laying two bucks on there being SOME sort of LDS connection with Snowflake. Whatever it is, you can bet he's milking it for all it's worth.
He might be an "investigator"; someone who expresses interest in the church. They will shower anyone who they consider a possible convert with tons of support in hope of getting it back on the flipside.
True, he misidentified a "temple" on the SLC trip....true he doesn't fit the mold or meet the criteria, but anyone who can snag a convert has big medicine in the celestial kingdom.
I don't believe he's sincere; not for a minute, but doesn't it seem like Snowflake's M.O. to take advantage of anyone and everyone to suit himself?
Can you just imagine the wheels turning in his head when they told him he could get his own WORLD...I can see his visions of sweet passive income....on a global scale.
Maybe someone will hang on to the question and see if he'll play his hand on the topic.
Dear Exurban Nation readers,
our newspaper is working on a story on Casey Serin.
he has so far refused to be interviewed by our reporters.
if you have any information pertaining to Casey Serin and his real estate investment activities please contact our newspaper.
Will Reyes
Editor-in-Chief
Valley Star newspaper
LOS ANGELES VALLEY COLLEGE
5800 Fulton Ave
Van Nuys CA 91401
818.947.2576
thevalleystar@yahoo.com
Hey, is that post from the college newspaper really Casey (or Cashcall) trying to find out how much people know?
Why would a college use a Yahoo email account?...Don't they have servers?
As I noted earlier this month....Casey's religion is his own newage overlay on what is most likely an evangelical baptist or pentecostal christian fundamentalist sect. Here in the Sacramento area, we have been experiencing a wave of Russian evangelical immigration since the late eighties. There are over 80,000 immigrants, most of them from the Ukraine, though all the Soviet states are represented. As Casey and his family are ethnic Russian colonizers of Soviet Uzbekistan.... perhaps further explanation for his sense of entitlement.
Around the Sacramento region, there are significant concentrations of Russian evangelicals in North Highlands (where the Larchmont house is located), Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, and West Sacramento. Each of those areas has an abundance of relatively affordable housing and the churches, grocery stores and businesses that serve the Russian community. And a prevalence of the chosen profession: auto repair and dismantling. Not all of it legit.
This background helps explain Galina's loyalty (divorce would result in shunning), the support of the family, and Casey's access to a community of gullible investors.
More insight to the large Russian evangelical community here in Sacramento:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-russgay13oct13,0,3388537,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=oid%3A9012
@Morini -- "I'm laying two bucks on there being SOME sort of LDS connection with Snowflake. Whatever it is, you can bet he's milking it for all it's worth."
Nah, he'd absolutely be poison to them -- he's the perfect example of an "anti-mormon."
Valley Star Newspaper Myspace Site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=83474506
That, I guess, is the email address. They are part of the Syndicated College News Network so their reach is greater than the school itself.
To those who insist that Papa and Mama Suprun will "shun" or otherwise be angry with their daughter if she dumps Casey, ya'll don't know Russian people very well, evangelical or no.
The conversation will go something like this:
G: Mamochka, I am divorcing Aleksei, I am so tired of his lies, living with Yulochka, tired of hearing about deals that never happen...
M: You know you are married to Casey in the church, and that the Bible forbids divorce, you cannot do this..
G: But Mama, Papa, I met a man, he has money...
M: Money? How much money? Real money or Aleksei money?
I'm LDS, and I'd be willing to bet money--except that I don't gamble, look, I made a joke!--that he's not. Mistaking a stake center for a temple is the sort of mistake that no one but a brand-new convert would make. Also, the fact that he referenced a "pastor" in one of his posts is a clear indication that he's not Mormon, that term is never used among Mormons.
That said, this little Housing Bubble of ours knows no denominations, and I'm sure there are plenty of Mormons involved, just as there are plenty of Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics, agnostics, atheists, you name it.
@PV: do Mormons ever espouse anything like the "prosperity gospel"?
I've heard reports both ways.
@sid_finster:
Good question. There is not an official doctrine that living a faithful life leads to prosperity. There is, however, a widely-accepted feeling that people who live good lives end up prosperous, and so there's a tendency to equate the two--but it's not doctrine, and there are plenty of Mormons, like myself, who don't buy it. If you're really intent on following Jesus, then bear in mind that he paid taxes with money produced by miraculous means, which would rather indicate that he didn't have any in his pockets.
For their part, the LDS leadership has been counseling members for years now to avoid consumer debt, speculation, living beyond means, home equity extraction for personal consumption, etc.
By way of full disclosure, some Mormons--and I would say, specifically, Utah Mormons--have a certain susceptibility to shady schemes, in particular multi-level marketing. It's a complex phenomenon, and not a small part of it is a feeling that prosperity is "deserved" because someone is living their life "right". I don't agree with that sentiment at all--I think people should worry about working hard to support their family and contribute to society. Sometimes that means prosperity, sometimes not.
And by way of FULL disclosure, while I'm almost completely certain Casey is not Mormon, it's possible Nigel might be.
The prosperity cult and all that is far older than Smithism. Remember Smith was of New England Yankee roots as were most of the early faithful. Joseph was 'molded' by the 'shame' of being needy in a society that valued self sufficiency.
My vote for what kind of religion Casey practices is whatever kind of late night cable televangelist he saw first.
I mean geez he got the RE investment idea from Carleton Sheets on late night cable tv, and he borrows money from Cash Call, a 'lender' that advertises on late night cable TV.
If someone wanted to be nice and do Casey a favor, they should take away his tee-vee.
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