Tony Ortega's Blog, page 345
February 21, 2021
They dedicated their lives to executing libs and all they got was this lousy T-shirt
Some links to Q-related items today…
Patriots spotted something on the White House webcam that set them to speculating…
Somebody put roses on cars in a Walmart parking lot Monday.
The local sheriff posted to Facebook looking for suspects, calling it a “human trafficking technique.”
It went viral. QAnon moral panic.
Turns out they were leftover roses from Valentine’s Day.https://t.co/BCwK6Kt4DI
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) February 20, 2021
The snow is not real, people!
the snow is a deep state plot to protect the wealthy “elites” pic.twitter.com/8ERFSJh0N5
— beer rat (@redbullbaby420) February 21, 2021
Travis View does some field research…
Hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday. I will spend my afternoon with some QAnon followers, COVID denialists, and their fellow travelers for an event at a beachside park in Ventura, CA.
One participant tried to convince me that Biden is filmed in a fake Hollywood White House pic.twitter.com/Z5mhLQhaTn
— Travis View (@travis_view) February 20, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 21, 2021 at 9:05
Scientology social media: The world’s coolest religion is on fire!
Once again we want to thank our source who gives us a look inside Scientology’s social media streams. This week we have another collection of theta energy to help you get ready to rocket up the Bridge to Total Freedom!
Let’s start with Kimball, who is now ready to shatter suppression, so take notice, apostates.
So far, this is the only mention we’ve seen of Chick Corea’s death on anything close to Scientology’s official online presence (Pomerantz is the “voice” of Scientology on its video presentations).
Come see a David Miscavige video briefing, pilgrims!
Willow wiped out more space cooties!
A surprise legendary Scientologist? Hm.
Your personal freedom awaits you!
Those trophies are so big, these people have to be cool!
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“This idea of somebody full-armed from the brow of Jove or something like that, coming down and helping man, and so on, that’s an old story. That isn’t even news. But somebody by his own bootstraps, even as you, pulling himself up through this thing, that is news. And whatever you have done and been on the Whole Track, or whatever I have done and been on the Whole Track, it still amounts to the fact that a guy just like you made this. And has made it, and also ‘physician heal thyself,’ has been broken all ways from the middle. Because it never happened before. That’s what’s news. I suppose my bank to a large degree’s been keyed out but over a period of time has been keying in harder and harder and harder and about knocked my head off, and I was working out technology by which you could get Clear, and I hadn’t had any auditing to amount to anything for a couple of years, actually. Mary Sue rolled up her sleeves and there we went and here we are. And this is a very satisfactory, well, I won’t say an end to the story, because the story is a long way from ended. But I will say it’s a very satisfactory denouement on the question, ‘Can one lift himself by his own bootstraps and beat all the laws of God and men in this whole universe from one corner to the other?’ And the answer, of course, is yes.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 21, 1963
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
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“The UKLO WW SH team, Phyll Stevens, Linda Parselle, Anne Tampion, Darlene Regenas and Margaret Hodkins are leaving today. They have worked hard and done very well. They graduated from the FEBC and attained Grade Clear OT. The Flag Bureaux has totally replanned SH spatially and have re-integrated the successful ’67 pattern. WW is now the UKLO Management Bureau. We wish them very well. The officers and crew have worked very hard completing the entirety of this very extensive project. Now it is up to them to put a UKLO and SH and SH Foundation there and bring SH back to its former glory. Good-bye, god bless, good luck. We wish you well. This is a major completion. A great one.” — The Commodore, February 21, 1971
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“In 1980 or so Diana Hubbard proclaimed that the World would be Clear in 1987. Putting the dream of a Clear planet into reality will take centuries or possibly longer. The Sea Org contract of a billion years meant being here for however long it takes. I am going to be around for those centuries or the full billion years if that is what it takes. Are you? My opinion is that when LRH said that ‘Orders of Magnitude’ was the awareness level of a level above OT8 then he was talking about getting people up to a state where they could accomplish his levels of speed of particle flow and continue at that level for however long it might take.”
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2001: From the St. Petersburg Times: “After listening for eight long days to allegations between the Church of Scientology and its chief critics, Circuit Court Judge Thomas E. Penick spent nearly 90 minutes Wednesday admonishing the church, its adversaries and even the Clearwater Police Department. To the church, Penick said there is no need for Scientology agents to continually stick cameras in critics’ faces. To the keepers of the Lisa McPherson Trust, he demanded they stop taunting Scientologists and fined two of them. To the Clearwater police, Penick said he sympathizes with their struggle to maintain order in downtown Clearwater but warned, ‘They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology.’ Robert Minton, founder of the Lisa McPherson Trust, was fined $500 and given six months’ probation for waving a 10-foot retractable pole with a copy of the injunction hanging at the end outside the windows of a Scientology building. Minton waived ‘The Threep’ on Jan. 6 as he stood in a no-picket zone. Former Scientologist Tory Bezazian, who left the church in July, was fined $100 for walking in a no-picket zone Dec. 7 carrying two protest signs.”
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“Pleasure and pain are what motivates everyone on the most basic level. People do things because they make them feel good, whether it be dope or Scientology. Even after drug addiction becomes destructive, people keep doing it because it’s become their way of life and people fear change (and pain) more than anything.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Next conf to set prelim, March 24.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to March 2.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. March 8: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs.
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
——————–
SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Thanks to some Scientology OTs, you can now rent a cabin only a mile from Shelly Miscavige!
[TWO years ago] If you thought Scientology’s ‘Axioms’ were dumb, the ‘Logics’ are even dumberer
[THREE years ago] Hubbard’s ‘Brainwashing Manual’ — how a crude Scientology hoax became a far-right touchstone
[FOUR years ago] As Scientology shrinks, its leader dreams up new ways to convince followers otherwise
[FIVE years ago] When Scientology was in trouble in 1955, L. Ron Hubbard told prosecutor he was a ‘psychologist’
[SIX years ago] When Scientology was pouring on the ‘religious’ angle very thick: A video mystery
[SEVEN years ago] Federal judge dismisses Georgia class-action lawsuit against Scientology and rehab network
[EIGHT years ago] Narconon Staff Certifications in Jeopardy After New Whistleblower Comes Forward
[NINE years ago] Scientology Hip Hop: The Melbourne Day Rap Battle Team!
——————–
Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,219 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,723 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,243 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,263 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,154 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,461 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,329 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,103 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,907 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,223 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,789 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,708 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,876 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,457 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,718 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,756 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,469 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,994 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 349 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,524 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,075 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,224 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,544 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,399 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,518 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,874 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,177 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,283 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,685 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,557 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,140 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,635 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,889 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,998 days.
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 21, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
February 20, 2021
Trump 2024? For QAnon patriots, the toughest part is the waiting
Some links to Q-related items today…
A patriot looks ahead to 2024 and gets an earful for it…
After all, the waiting is the hardest part…
Whoa, Nelly…
Currently scrolling through my old folder of videos that QAnon followers uploaded of themselves taking the "Digital Soldier Oath." Some of them are doozies. pic.twitter.com/fdb2BSQcIQ
— Travis View (@travis_view) February 20, 2021
She seems nice…
Florida woman arrested after FBI agents call asking about her visit to D.C. during the Capitol insurrection and she posts video on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok threatening to kill them while drinking Jack Daniel's Tennessee Fire #BecauseFlorida: https://t.co/lyKyoEriqy pic.twitter.com/nodVqlWXVh
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) February 20, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 20, 2021 at 9:15
Has Scientology’s cruise ship, the Freewinds, made its last voyage?
We want to thank the tipster who sent us some very interesting images. They are a promotion from Scientology that really knocked us for a loop.
First, we want to review what we know about Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds. It was purchased by Scientology so that it could become the location for the culminating experience of the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” an auditing level known as Operating Thetan Level Eight, or OT 8.
The ship and its first OT 8s had their maiden voyage in June 1988, but the ship was already past middle age by then, having been built in 1968 in Finland as a North Sea car ferry. In the nearly 33 years since its christening as Scientology’s floating cathedral, it has plied the Caribbean, almost always on the move except for annual drydock maintenance in places like Cartagena, Colombia.
For years it’s been pointed out that to us the ship’s hull plates are aging, and Rod Keller last year suggested that David Miscavige might be shopping around for a new vessel.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});But then the pandemic hit. And Kestrel, the Bunker reader who keeps an eye on the Freewinds, tells us the ship has been stuck in port in Aruba since last March.
It hasn’t budged since then. But in that time we’ve seen plenty of evidence that Scientologists are still being encouraged to go to the ship for courses — after all, it doesn’t have to be moving while church members use it for seminars and auditing.
And now, take a look at this new pitch from Scientology to its wealthy members who maybe have gotten used to the idea that during a pandemic they can do their work remotely and can work from anywhere. If that’s the case, they say, why not make the Freewinds your office!
So given all that we know, and seeing the pitch in this latest promotion, we want to get your thoughts on this: Has the Freewinds made its last voyage?
Will it now become for Scientology what the Queen Mary is for Long Beach, California, a permanently docked floating museum, still a living place but not going anywhere?
Give us your thoughts!
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Scientology’s Alternate Reality
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});The latest from Jon Atack.
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“The one thing by which the communist profits in Australia and Suid-Afrika are the laws against perversion. The state, of all means, is regulating how you are going to perform the sexual act. I think that’s very interesting. I’ve seldom seen any police officers in my bedroom. And I’m afraid if I did they’d have short shrift. Of course, I have had the people the police officers are supposed to restrain trying to crawl into my bedroom windows and a few things like that, you know, but that, of course, they wouldn’t be interested in. Now, what are they doing? They’re just trying to invent some new withholds, aren’t they? I think that’s fascinating, because the communist uses blackmail of this particular kind as a means of controlling heads of state. In other words, if the state itself lends its weight to punishment of withholds, see, it has just laid itself out to be crazy. Because now, anybody in the state can be blackmailed so as to overthrow the state, because the state will punish the overthrow or the withhold. Do you understand this, or any part of this?” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 20, 1962
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“LOCAL PROPERTY: I rode the motorcycle Mary Sue gave me for Christmas out to see some property we bought. Arthur Hubbard, my test rider and mechanic in chief, acted as guide on his bike. He took me way out in the green countryside on the excuse he didn’t know any other route to the property. We circled back and found the right place right on the edge of town. Anything for a ride. It’s a very nice property. Several apartments, 18 bedrooms on one upper floor, a dozen garages, a big buss garage, four classrooms and a gym, and a lot of other bits. Our sign is up and well lighted at night. Our caretaker is a very nice chap. The place is well built of stone and masonry, quite pretty in fact. We intended it for light manufacturing but have not put it to use as yet. We own quite a bit of property over the world. Will be acquiring more as well as some countries.” — The Commodore, February 20, 1971
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“Once girl on OT II was sent to me. At one point I was looking downward at the meter when out of my peripheral vision I saw a blinding light right where her head was — obviously I’m talking about a theta perception. And I thought to myself, ‘Good lord, WTF!’ Same kind of white light as from welding but it looked like a ball of intense white fire about the size of a marble and lasted about 2 seconds. When I looked up, her face was bright, BRIGHT red, and she was grinning from ear to ear and obviously shocked and could hardly talk. She said, ‘DID YOU SEE THAT!?!’ Where upon I said, ‘I sure the fuck did!’ And we both had a huge laugh. What I thought was a blush on her part however turned out to be a sunburn because it didn’t go away. Her skin stayed reddish the rest of the day, and when I commented on it, she told me ‘You’re all red too!’ and darned if it wasn’t. The problem was that she had overrun OT II and then gone a bit BIs (bad indicators – indicators in the pc that show something is wrong). We located the point where it started, then when I asked what happened just before that, she located the point where she had released (and subsequently overrun) and the charge that had built up burned off all at once, which can happen. I did some research on this and found that LRH does talk about that happening now and then when he was researching into OT in the early 1950s. Facsimiles can ignite and burn releasing radiation. Anyway, when was the last time you were talking to someone and they thought of something and as a result you got sunburned?”
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2000: The proceeds from planned Battlefield Earth action figures have been identified as benefiting Author Services, a part of Scientology. From Variety: “The most intriguing aspect of the toy line based on summer sci-fi epic ‘Battlefield Earth’ may not be the ‘Ratbastard’-spouting John Travolta doll. It could just be the millions of dollars the Church of Scientology stands to earn from the playthings. Though the church did not participate in the making of the Warner Bros./Franchise Pictures project, it was included in the merchandising agreement, according to Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder. Any deal for merchandising automatically includes Author Services, the agency that handles all of the works of late writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.”
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“All you need to do to strike spiritual gold is to tell the mutant killer apes with the over-developed brain stems that death is not the end and that they’re more than just another species of animal.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Next conf to set prelim, March 24.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. March 8: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs.
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
——————–
SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Blacks not ready for the vote: L. Ron Hubbard’s damning 1960 harangue supporting apartheid
[TWO years ago] Tony Ortega: Musician, songwriter, and steel executive, 1938-2019
[THREE years ago] How L. Ron Hubbard tried to hoax the FBI, and ‘brainwashed’ politicians of the far right
[FOUR years ago] Louis Farrakhan: Nation of Islam will stand by Scientology as Leah Remini ‘goes in hard’
[FIVE years ago] Why Scientology’s petition to the Texas Supreme Court mentions a dildo, and other surprises
[SIX years ago] Scientology’s Orwellian methods of control explained in a new book by Jefferson Hawkins
[SEVEN years ago] Scott Pilutik helps us evaluate Scientology’s petition to Texas appeals court
[EIGHT years ago] Oklahoma Drug Rehab Bill Passes Senate: Scientology’s Narconon Days Numbered?
[NINE years ago] Scientology’s OT Powers! A Hubbard Holiday Miracle
——————–
Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,218 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,722 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,242 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,262 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,153 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,460 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,328 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,102 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,906 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,222 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,788 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,707 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,875 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,456 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,717 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,755 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,468 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,993 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 348 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,523 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,074 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,223 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,543 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,398 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,517 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,873 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,176 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,282 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,684 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,556 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,139 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,634 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,888 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,997 days.
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 20, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
February 19, 2021
Patriots find a new platform for grabbing cash, er, making America great again, that’s it!
Some links to Q-related items today…
Patriots are more than ready for this show to start!
The grift has found a new platform…
New from me: Multiple far-right and white nationalist figures — including some involved with the January 6 insurrection — have shifted to the gaming-streaming platform Trovo since the insurrection. They have used the platform to monetize their content. https://t.co/mRG68b18Oq
— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) February 18, 2021
Sell the home! Sell the car! Sell the kids!
Just got a very fun and uplifting email from Gab! pic.twitter.com/y6m9lY2N8H
— Q Snatch: Antifas Gone Wild (@amandahugnkis_) February 19, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 19, 2021 at 9:15
Transcript: In the Danny Masterson lawsuit, Scientology continues to get its way
After Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Kleifield stunned us with a December 30 ruling for the Church of Scientology, denying the right to trial for former Scientologists who are suing the church and actor Danny Masterson, forcing them instead into Scientology’s internal “religious arbitration,” the decision left the case in a bit of a pickle.
While his decision put the case on hold for Chrissie Carnell-Bixler, her husband rocker Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and two women going by the names Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, that decision to force them into arbitration did not effect the fifth plaintiff in the case, a woman named Bobette Riales.
Bobette was never a Scientologist, and had never signed Scientology’s service contracts with their arbitration clauses. So what should happen to her part of the lawsuit now? Should she be put on hold while the others go through arbitration? Or should Bobette be allowed to continue and maybe start putting Masterson or Scientology officials through depositions and otherwise gathering key evidence for her lawsuit and potentially for use by the others?
At a hearing on January 29, what to do about Riales was something the judge had wanted to decide. Instead, we learned that he put the matter off until March 8 after some kind of hold up. Since then, we’ve been wondering what happened in that hearing (we tried to listen in that day, but the court’s remote audio service never came on), and now we’ve managed to get a transcript of the hearing.
We know it’s somewhat technical and not everyone is going to be interested in this kind of minutiae. But this is an important lawsuit, and we thought it was interesting to see, once again, that Scientology seems to get what it wants in these hearings.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Watch for example as Scientology asks for and gets an extension on filing a planned anti-SLAPP motion against Bobette, while the attorney for Bobette and the other plaintiffs, Stewart Ryan, gets shut down when he asks for a simple clarification on the judge’s December 30 order, and whether the judge had made his ruling from federal or state law.
We’d really appreciate the perspective of the lawyers who read this site. Is it just us, or are the attorneys for these women still, nearly two years after filing this lawsuit, not somehow playing hardball with Scientology and with this judge? And how does Scientology blithely get extensions and such easy treatment? Well, someone will tell us we’re reading too much into it, we suppose. But here’s the whole thing, warts and all, picking up right after the various parties had made their initial appearances…
Judge Kleifield: OK. So today we have a case management conference, and in a previous order I said put on the agenda today what should be done with the remaining plaintiff, Riales, who has not been ordered to arbitration. And I requested a briefing from the parties. And I did receive some briefs from the defendants. Did the plaintiff file any briefs?
Steward Ryan: Your honor, I believe that we filed a case management conference memorandum on January 29th. A case management statement, rather.
Judge Kleifield: I did see that. It was filed on the 25th, I think. Just the case management —
Stewart Ryan: Yes, I’m sorry. Yes, today’s’ the 29th. You are right.
Judge Kleifield: OK. All right. Well, that’s sort of what I thought. OK. Well, the issue that I wanted to address was, the reason I put it out there was, so the case is now stayed as to three of the — or actually four of the five, if I have them down right. There’s one remaining plaintiff whose case would not ordinarily be stayed as a result of being sent to arbitration. I guess my question is what really is the utility of staying Ms. Riales’s case? She remained a part of this case because of the existence of certain comments, issues of fact, and conceivably issues of law. If her action is stayed and the arbitration gets completed, really, what effect will that have on her case? That’s really the question. Would any of the factual findings, assuming there are factual findings, made in the arbitration, what consequence would they have in her case? So really what reason is there to stay her case? I know that there’s no objection to it, but it seems to me that there’s no reason for it. I’m happy to hear from anybody who wants to be heard.
Stewart Ryan: Sure, your honor. This is Stewart Ryan on behalf of plaintiffs. So I can address a couple things with respect to the issues that your honor raised. And so first and foremost, and I’m sure your honor recalls having denied already a motion to sever in determining that, from a joinder perspective, all of these claims not — [technical difficulties] — because they do involve common issues of law and fact. And, ultimately, as it relates to the claims advanced in the first amended complaint, the deposition as from, of course, a factual perspective at a minimum, that all of the — the claims advanced by each plaintiff are all intermingled. It will involve, I mean, almost actually identical questions of fact, save for differences with respect to allegations of each individual sexual assault. So from that perspective, I think that it would be — there would necessarily be implications from a factual perspective whether we’re talking about litigation or arbitration.
Beyond that, your honor, I think it’s important to note that with regard to the motions to compel arbitration, those were filed by the institutional defendant, Church of Scientology, Celebrity Centre, and RTC, the Religious Technology Center. Defendant Masterson did not file a motion to compel arbitration, nor at any time did he join any of those motions. His entitlement to enforce arbitration has never been the subject of a motion or briefed.
And so with respect to application at this stage, we understand your honor indicated in the order compelling arbitration for the institutional defendants that defendant Masterson may participate in the underlying arbitration, but based on the fact that the, that defendant Masterson never himself sought to enforce arbitration, there would be application that there remain claims of the Bixler plaintiff as well as Jane Doe Number 1 and Number 2 that are subject to litigation and that we would proceed discovery on in the event that there’s not a stay as to not-yet plaintiff Riales’s case, but as to potentially all access of the case, arbitration and litigation.
And we advanced in our motion that has yet to be heard — we attempted to move ex-parte for an order shortening time, but there’s still an outstanding motion which relates to mark as well, which is something that was raised at certain points during the arguments with regard to arbitration.
But as your honor, I believe, is aware, there’s an ongoing concurrent criminal prosecution of defendant Masterson that deals with the three female plaintiffs that have been compelled to arbitration by the institutional defendants. There’s a criminal protective order in place that we believe would functionally prohibit their participation in arbitration because, for example, defendant is not allowed to be within 100 yards, I believe, of this — of these three plaintiffs, nor are there allowed to be any communications.
So that’s a long way of saying that ultimately deposition and everything must be stayed at least until the outcome of the criminal proceedings. But in the event that your honor doesn’t order a stay as to the arbitration, we’re prepared to move forward on discovery in plaintiff Riales’s case, as well as to the Bixler plaintiffs and Jane Doe as it relates to Mr. Masterson.
And, you know, at the end of the day we see it as essentially an all-or-nothing proposition in that regard.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Andrew Brettler: If I may respond, your honor? It’s Andrew Brettler on behalf of defendant Masterson. Mr. Ryan is incorrect in his statement that Mr. Masterson did not join in the motion to compel arbitration. He absolutely did so verbally in court, and the court’s order reflected as much. So that’s just a false or an incorrect statement.
As as for, you know, the issue of the protective order that Mr. Ryan raised, it does not — that doesn’t make sense. You know, whether or not we’re proceeding in court or in arbitration, you know, I don’t understand the issue of how the protective order would prevent either proceeding from going forward. You know, it certainly doesn’t apply only in the context of an arbitration, nor, you know, would it apply only in the context of a courtroom. And I’m not sure that a protective order, you know, would prohibit this case form — it’s the plaintiff’s case — would prohibit plaintiff from pursuing their claims regardless.
Notwithstanding, you know, any of the forgoing as stated in our supplemental briefing, Mr. Masterson has no objection to the court staying Ms. Riales’s case. All discovery with respect to Mr. Masterson or discovery propounded on Mr. Masterson would be stayed as a result of the pending criminal charges against him in any event. So there would be no prejudice for the court to stay that portion of the case because they wouldn’t be able to take any discovery against Mr. Masterson regardless.
Judge Kleifield: All right. Getting back to the question that I raised, setting aside for a moment the various requests for stays based on the criminal proceedings, and so on, setting those aside because there are motions that I guess are being brought on those subjects that haven’t been ruled on, but just based on the fact that three or I guess it’s four, four plaintiffs have been ordered to arbitration, one has not — Riales — and getting back to my question, what is to be gained by delaying Riales’s case pending completion of the arbitration? The arbitration gets completed. What could happen in the arbitration that would be of any consequence to Riales’s case?
William Forman: Your honor, this is Bill Forman for Church of Scientology International and Celebrity Centre International. And I’d like to comment on that and on the position taken by the plaintiffs, which it would have been helpful to have a brief from them to know exactly what their position is.
But Mr. Ryan stated repeatedly in his presentation that there are intermingled issues of law and fact between Riales’ claims and the plaintiff’s claims, and the court previously on ruling on the demurrer opined that there were common issues of fact, potentially common issues of law. Now, under controlling authority, what has to happen is this case has to be stayed and the arbitration goes forward.
In Heritage Provider Network, Inc., v. Superior Court, 158 Cal.App.4th 1146, the court held, quote, “Any party to a judicial proceeding is entitled to a stay of those proceedings whenever, one, the arbitration of a controversy has been ordered, and, two, that controversy has been ordered, and, two, that controversy is also an issue involved in the pending judicial action. The purpose of the statutory stay is to protect the jurisdiction of the arbitrator by preserving the status quo until arbitration is resolved.”
And that case, of course, cites to code of civil procedure section 1281.4, which provides for a stay of the civil proceeding when there is a common issue involved in the arbitration to preserve the jurisdiction of the arbitrators.
That is the case — that is what is to be achieved, and by plaintiff’s counsel’s own statements, they are asserting that there are overlapping issues of fact and law.
Judge Kleifield: Is that —
William Forman: And the court has opined that as well.
Judge Kleifield: Is that a case that was cited in your papers?
William Forman: It was not a case that was cited in our papers, your honor, and we had — in fact, we did not know what the plaintiff’s position was and we actually did not know what it was until this hearing began, but it’s also under the statute CCP 1281.4.
Judge Kleifield: Well, I have not read the case, and so I don’t really know the facts of the case. I’m not sure if it applies or not. I haven’t read the case. This is the first I’m hearing of it. So I — first time I’m hearing the plaintiff’s position is today, and the first time I’m hearing about this case is today. I don’t know that what you have told me really tells me what I need to do here.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});William Forman: I would —
Judge Kleifield: Go ahead.
William Forman: I would direct your honor then to the statute CCP section 1281.4 on which the case interprets, and it states — they’re asserting now that there’s a — there’s common issues of fact and law. The court has taken that position in ruling on the demurrer. What happens then is this case is stayed and the arbitration goes forward.
Judge Kleifield: Also, if you look at the final paragraph of 1281.4, it says, “If the issue which is the controversy subject to arbitration is severable, the stay may be with respect to that issue only.”
William Forman: Yes, your honor. And I heard the plaintiff take the position that there were many intermingled issues of fact and law. That’s what they said here this morning.
Robert Mangels: Your honor.
Judge Kleifield: Go ahead.
Robert Mangels: Robert Mangels on behalf of Religious Technology Center. Your honor, in deference to the court, I would suggest we put this over — so we now understand Mr. Ryan’s position. We just pulled the rabbit out of the hat a few minutes ago — to allow the court to consider his new position and consider this Heritage case and consider the statute.
I would say all of us would be well-served by doing that in a couple days, whenever it’s convenient to the court. It’s an important juncture in the case, and I don’t think anyone wants to go down the wrong road here.
Judge Kleifield: Well, first of all, would you give me the case name and citation again.
William Forman: Of course, your honor. Heritage Provider Network, Inc., v. Superior Court.
Judge Kleifield: OK.
William Forman: And the citation is 158 Cal.App.4th 1146, and the page I read from was 1152, and it’s 2008 is the year of decision.
Judge Kleifield: Well, I guess that’s fine. I guess we can come back again. I was hoping to have this issue decided today. All right. Well, that’s fine. We can put this over. Let me see what we have. We don’t have anything coming up for quite a while on this case.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Let’s see. The next scheduled date is May 12th. So I guess the parties can file another brief let’s say no more than three pages, and addressing the issues that we have set for today in light of the Heritage case, and file your briefs no later than five court days before the hearing.
I do agree this is an important juncture in the case, and, unfortunately, we’re not making any progress here today.
Let’s get a date out maybe 30 days or something, whatever is available.
Court clerk: March 8th at 8:30.
Judge Kleifield: OK. March 8th, 2021, at 8:30 am.
William Forman: Bill Forman for Church of Scientology International. That’s fine with us, your honor. May I raise on housekeeping issue in connection with that date?
Judge Kleifield: Yes.
William Forman: We have under current stipulation, if the Riales case is not stayed, the defendants — this is the last day for the defendants to file an anti-SLAPP motion against Riales. Could we continue that date to March 8th and pick up at that time?
Stewart Ryan: Your honor, this is Stewart Ryan for the plaintiff. We have no objection to that.
Judge Kleifield: All right. Now, in other words, you want there to be an extension to file it until the date of our next case management conference, and then you would seek another order from me at that point depending on how I rule.
William Forman: If the case is stayed, I would probably not need another order from you. If the case were to proceed, we would be prepared to file the motion that day.
Judge Kleifield: OK. All right. That’s fine then.
William Forman: Thank you.
Judge Kleifield: The time for you to bring a anti-SLAPP motion is tolled until the date of our next hearing.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});William Forman: Thank you, your honor.
Judge Kleifield: You’re welcome. I’m also looking at the calendar. I know that the plaintiff was — there were various motions for stay, I guess the plaintiff was going to bring a motion for stay, and I don’t see a date that’s been reserved for that either.
Stewart Ryan: Your honor, this is Stewart Ryan for the plaintiff. I don’t have that date right in front of me. I do believe that the motion was filed, but I’ll look into that and determine what it is.
Judge Kleifield: OK. All right. Then anything else that anybody wants to discuss this morning?
Stewart Ryan: Stewart Ryan for the plaintiff, your honor. One point of clarification, if I’m able to state it now, and if not it may be something raised on March 8th? But under your order compelling arbitration, it was not clear to me whether your honor was compelling arbitration pursuant to specifically the FAA of the CAA. I know we briefed specific issues the regard to the FAA, which leads me to presume that you were compelling it pursuant to FAA. But I sought clarification on that, if you can.
Judge Kleifield: Well, I haven’t looked at my order since I issued it in December, and whatever the order says, it says.
Stewart Ryan: What I read it to say is you made reference to the fact that there were motions filed on the basis of CAA and FAA, but it was not — I don’t think that there was a specific statement as to how the court — under what facts the court was compelling arbitration.
William Forman: Your honor, Bill Forman for Church of Scientology. There’s no motion for clarification or reconsideration pending.
Judge Kleifield: I agree.
Steward Ryan: OK. Thank you, your honor.
Judge Kleifield: You’re welcome. All right. Does somebody want to give notice or is notice waived?
Stewart Ryan: Notice waived, your honor.
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Scientology’s paranoia, a podcast
We enjoyed speaking with Champlain College instructor Michel Gagné for his podcast Paranoid Planet. Our bit starts at about 30 minutes in.
Another exciting show! "Episode 3.3: “The Cultic Culture Club,” (part 3), feat. Journalist Tony Ortega" at https://t.co/oEmbACDl0P
— Paranoid Planet (@ParanoidPlanet1) February 18, 2021
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“We’re not in the business of whether people are crazy or not crazy. It’s just a method of calling dirty names anyway. The psychiatrists have no idea who’s crazy and who’s sane, and so forth. It’s just a matter of saying, ‘This fellow’s no good, and the US government wants to get him out of the way so he’s crazy.’ It’s just a matter of expediency. It says en masse, ‘We don’t agree with this particular person. He sees spiders on the ceiling and we don’t. Therefore he’s crazy.’ Has nothing to do with anything we are doing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Just forget those classifications. We don’t care how potty this guy’s ideas of the physical universe are, you know, he just might have come down here from the Martian scout command or something like this, and they probably have very, very odd ideas, you see? The quality, the significance of the fellow’s ideas are no business of the auditor’s.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 19, 1963
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“Recently Flag was divided into 3 separate orgs. The Flag Bureaux (FB), the International Management Org was the first to be formed fully. It is the FOUNDING Org of the other two. It is doing very well and has stats rising in most areas and is heavily in the Mission business. Its colour flash is GREEN. The Flag Admin Org (FAO) is the Service Org. It trains, processes and handles Finance. It has the pattern of the standard 7 Division Organization. It is the ESTABLISHING ORG. The FAO flash color is RED. The Flag Ship Org is the ship itself. It consists of the usual yacht organization functions of Command, Deck, Stewards and Galley and Engine Room. The Ship Org Flash color is BLUE….To summarize the FB is running excellently, the tech and training of the FAO is tops. Finance FAO is going in well. By constant personal work and lots of help, I have these points in hand. Now the three numbered points above must occur and every effort, including very heavy Ethics, will be made to bring them into existence. Your cooperation will be appreciated.” — The Commodore, February 19, 1971
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“A friend of mine had cancer that just vanished with auditing. The most I’ve had so far is about a year ago I was getting some auditing and I got sick. We located the suppressive terminal and it totally blew, which I thought was pretty cool. It would be cool to have a book of this stuff, sort of like the format of Have You Lived Before This Life. Maybe it doesn’t immediately cure every physical illness, but there are enough ‘miracles’ that it would be hard to deny there is something to it.”
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1999: Adweek published an article this week on the controversy over anti-Scientology advertising on public buses in Clearwater, Florida. “The ads were purchased by Former Scientologists Speaking Out, which asserts its First Amendment rights were violated when the ads were removed. ‘When you look at the board’s definition of political advertising, it is limited to that for candidates running for office,’ said Ken Dandar, the ex-Scientologists’ attorney. ‘They now have a nonprofit organization that is willing to sue them if they don’t do the right thing.’ Scientology lawyer Paul Johnson said the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority should move to strike any noncommercial ads from public transportation, or else the county could see ‘hate organizations like the KKK’ running ads on its buses. ‘This is important stuff under the First Amendment, but the American Association of Advertising Agencies believes that advertisers should be able to advertise,’ said John Kamp, a Washington, D.C., attorney at the 4A’s.”
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“Confiscating people’s passports is a classic Eastern European sex trade/slave tactic. It doesn’t get more obvious and sinister.”
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Next conf to set prelim, March 24.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to March 2.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. March 8: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] California is going ‘Ideal,’ and Scientology is on fire about it
[TWO years ago] Leah Remini accuses former Scientologists of sabotaging an episode of ‘Aftermath’
[THREE years ago] Atack: What David Mayo told me about L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the upper levels
[FOUR years ago] Disconnecting from the dead: Another employer accused of forcing Scientology is taken to court
[FIVE years ago] DOX: A former L. Ron Hubbard business partner dishes on Scientology to the feds
[SIX years ago] HBO moves back ‘Going Clear’ to March 29 and TV’s most coveted spot: Sunday night
[SEVEN years ago] SCIENTOLOGY’S PRAYER: The Hail Mary petition to keep David Miscavige from being deposed
[EIGHT years ago] SUPER POWER UPDATE: Scientology Has Even More Excuses Not to Open Its Boondoggle
[NINE years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: There’s a Chill Down Under!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,217 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,721 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,241 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,261 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,152 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,459 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,327 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,101 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,905 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,221 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,787 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,706 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,874 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,455 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,716 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,754 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,467 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,992 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 347 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,522 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,073 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,222 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,542 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,397 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,516 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,872 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,175 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,281 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,683 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,555 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,138 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,633 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,887 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,996 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 19, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
February 18, 2021
Patriots left to ponder: Why couldn’t Rush have been saved in a cancer-curing ‘medbed’?
Some links to Q-related items today…
QAnon patriots believe that the ‘elites’ are keeping miraculous technology from the rest of us that includes cancer-curing ‘medbeds’ that are based on alien technology or something and that when the storm comes, the military will make this miracle technology available to the rest of us. But they can’t help wondering, why wouldn’t the military have stuck Rush Limbaugh in one of the beds to keep him from dying, and especially on February 17? (17 = Q, remember.)
And how terrible of the elites to keep medbeds from the thousands of children being hidden in tunnels so Democrats can drink their blood. Tsk tsk.
Milo still doesn’t like Joy and her Scientology.
Meanwhile, back where it all started…
Total despair on the QResearch board on 8kun. Volunteers are apparently unhappy with the way Jim Watkins is running things since Ron quit. "Ron, you're still cool," this one says, "but god damn I don't like your dad." pic.twitter.com/JNpHZRUrhL
— @nickbackovic (@nickbackovic) February 18, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 18, 2021 at 9:50
Scientologist and accused Ponzi schemer learns government has 13 MILLION documents on him
We tried to listen in on a court hearing held in Brooklyn Tuesday, but there was a technical issue and the telephonic system failed to work properly. To make up for it, the court yesterday put a transcript of the hearing on line, and we really appreciate it.
That transcript shows that David Gentile, the Scientologist money manager we’ve been hearing about for a couple of years now, learned on Tuesday that the government has 13 million documents of evidence that he ran a $1.8 billion Ponzi scheme that will be turned over to his defense attorneys in the next few weeks.
13 million!
There were a few other notable moments in Tuesday’s hearing that we wanted to show you. Gentile and two of his associates, Jeffry Schneider and Jeffrey Lash, are each facing multiple counts related to what went on at GPB Capital, their private equity firm. They were charged on January 29, their indictment was unsealed on February 4, and they were arraigned on February 9. Now, US District Judge Diane Gujarati wanted to get a sense of the scope of the case so she could begin thinking about scheduling matters.
She asked Assistant US Attorney Lauren Elbert to give a basic description of the case, which we think really helps explain what this is all about. Here’s what Elbert said.
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JUDGE GUJARATI: I would like to turn to Ms. Elbert to provide a brief summary of the case, and then I will also ask you what the status of discovery is. But if you can tell me just briefly about this case.
MS. ELBERT: Certainly, Your Honor. This case involves a private equity fund called GPB Capital that offered a number of funds in which investors could invest money. And the three funds that are sort of central to the indictment are GPB Holdings I, GPB Holdings II, and GPB Automotive Portfolio. And those funds, all for various periods, were pitched to investors as offering opportunity to invest in privately-held private equity businesses, but received monthly liquidity in the form of a monthly distribution payment. And so the investors were led to believe that their invested capital would go on to support the growth of these businesses, but they would get back this monthly payment targeted to be equivalent to 8 percent of their invested capital per year, and the investors were told that these payments were made from cash flow spun off by the private businesses held by the funds. So the idea was that these businesses — to take Automotive Portfolio as an example, was invested in car dealerships, that these car dealerships were sufficiently profitable, that the profits would be paid back to investors sort of equivalent to a dividend in the targeted amount of 8 percent per month. But in reality, and starting in or around August 2015 and continuing through December 2018, the distribution payments for those three funds were in substantial part paid through investor capital rather than the cash flow of the portfolio companies, and this is because the portfolio companies underperforms the projections of the fund.
And then there’s an additional component of the scheme which alleges that the defendants inflated — artificially inflated the revenue of two of the funds for two audit years through the use of fraudulent performance guarantees. So essentially, they included, in their annual revenue for the fund, income that was not earned by the portfolio companies or that was received in connection with a legitimate performance guarantee, but was made to appear as though it was received that way so that the income numbers would be artificially high. And that’s a very brief summary of the allegations in the indictment.
In terms of discovery, Your Honor, immediately following the arrest of the defendants in this case, we provided a proposed protective order to the defense. Our initial discovery production, which we expect to make this week, includes search warrant returns that were the result of a search executed at GPB’s offices some time ago. And those returns include information, private, you know, personal identifying information for various investors and various other individuals. We are negotiating that protective order.
I believe that we will be able to submit it to the Court for entry within the next day or so. And within a day or two after that, we’ll be in a position to make our initial production, which will be over 300,000 documents largely deriving from this search warrant return. And then in about a week or two, we should be able to make a second substantial production, which is a production of documents that we received from the Securities and Exchange Commission which has a related case pursuant to an access request letter, and that will be about an additional 6 million documents. So we are geared up and ready to go with making very large productions within the next couple of weeks.
And later, trying to help the court judge how quickly to schedule the next hearing, Elbert revealed more…
MS. ELBERT: Based on what we have today that we’re ready to produce, I think we should be in a position to get everything turned around within, you know, to be conservative, six weeks. And there’s a possibility that we’ll get additional materials in as we go that we’ll produce on a rolling basis, but I think we have everything pretty well prepared to be produced over the next, I’d say, six weeks, roughly. But it is going to be substantial. I think in total what we have now, we’re looking at roughly 13 million documents to turn over. And so in view of that, I can’t anticipate what kind of technological hurdles we might run into that I don’t expect at this time. But it is going to be a substantial amount. So even if we get everything out in six weeks, it will give the defense, you know, much to review.
That is a lot of evidence to sift through. But Judge Gujarati set the next pretrial conference for April 29, and got the two sides to agree that when a trial is held it would last about five weeks.
Another interesting moment occurred when the judge asked defense attorneys if they planned to file motions that would tend to complicate the schedule. Gentile’s defense attorney, Matthew Menchel, then offered this intriguing glimpse of what he’s planning…
MR. MENCHEL: Your Honor, we are considering a potential motion that involves the fact that one of the employees in this case, a gentleman by the name of Mr. Cohn,
apparently without knowledge to the company, had been arrested and charged and had been reinserted into the company and, it’s our understanding, had sat in on a number of meetings that involved attorney-client communications. We don’t have a lot of details on that yet, but potentially there could be some kind of a motion around that depending upon what discovery shows us.
“While Michael Cohn was working as a compliance examiner in the Enforcement Division of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, he allegedly accessed classified information on SEC computers about an investigation into GPB Capital — at the same time that he was interviewing for a job with GPB Capital to become its chief compliance officer,” says Jeffrey Augustine, who has been covering the David Gentile story for us for a couple of years now. “Cohn shared the SEC information with GPB executives during the interview process. It got him the job, at $400,000 a year, a considerable increase over the $145,000 or so he was likely earning as a midrange GS15 government employee. And the move was good for GPB as well: It issued a press release and hyped Cohn’s SEC background, hoping to create the impression with investors that Cohn could get GPB Capital into full compliance with SEC rules.
“What Cohn didn’t realize is that when he accessed the GPB materials while at the SEC an internal red flag was triggered. Cohn was not authorized to access that information, and the SEC notified the FBI, who put him under surveillance. A year after he went to work for GPB Capital, Cohn was very publicly indicted and arrested in October 2019. But it looks like, from what he told the judge, that Gentile’s attorney suspects Cohn had been ‘reinserted’ into the company as part of the FBI investigation. He’s hinting here that Cohn wore a wire to gather evidence in order to get a lighter sentence. We don’t know if that’s what will come out in those millions of pages of evidence, but we do know that Cohn pleaded guilty in September to one misdemeanor charge of stealing government property,” Jeffrey says.
“The Scientology-like aspect to this particular matter is David Gentile’s attorney claiming that Cohn was arrested and then sent back into GPB Capital Holdings to gather incriminating data. L. Ron Hubbard was always having this same problem of SMERSH sending in undercover agents to destroy Scientology organizations. David Gentile should have been sec-checking his staff on the e-meter to find their hidden crimes, one supposes.”
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});We look forward to the April 29 hearing, and hopefully this time the audio system will work.
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Luke Catton on Narconon shrinkage
Narconon whistleblower Luke Catton discusses our recent news about the Scientology rehab network shrinking to only five clinics in the US.
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“I just had a phone call from California, by the way: A girl who was on the handbook — fifteen hours, really, on the handbook, running it through — went down to a secretarial course (never seen a typewriter before), sat down and read the chart, spent ten minutes reading the chart, sat down at the typewriter with blank keys and started writing at twenty-five words a minute. Here sits an atom bomb. That atom bomb is a complete threat to this whole society, culture, your body, your civilization.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 18, 1952
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“REGRET: I am sorry that Ethics has to be stepped up. But each day a few more omissions land on my desk. The FSO and FAO have not formed up and the FB and myself are having to carry the load.” — The Commodore, February 18, 1971
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“LRH cared a lot. He had four staff answering his letters in accordance with his instructions — I knew them and saw the confidential issues. I remember one thing particularly that showed his caring. A staff member was in love with a girl and went psychotic when she married another man. He started sticking his fingers into electric sockets until he collapsed. The Guardian’s Office had him offloaded and put into a psychiatric hospital in the USA. LRH heard about what they had done and ordered them to have him extricated from the hospital and brought back to the Apollo. When he arrived back LRH C/Sed his case daily ensuring that he was brought back to sanity. He was given a simple job for a while after he was sane again and then chose to leave the Sea Org.”
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1998: John Travolta’s claim to have influenced U.S. President Clinton’s opinion on Scientology and Germany was the subject of NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’ televisions show. “RUSSERT: What this says, Mr. Berger, is that John Travolta, was seduced by the president, and has created, a movie called ‘Primary Colors,’ which in the words of ‘George’ magazine, is a ‘celluloid valentine’ to the president, because you helped him out… on his pet cause of Scientology. SANDY BERGER: It sounds to me, Tim, like you’re getting, you’re getting, developing your own conspiracy theories here. The fact is there has been an issue about, the treatment of Scientology, in a number of countries, Germany in particular. The State Department Human Rights report was critical of the Germans in terms of discrimination against Scientologists. I did meet with a delegation including Mr. Travolta to indicate that we would continue, to discuss with the German government our belief that one should not be discriminated against on the basis purely of, of belief. And that’s, that’s the long and the short of it.”
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“I was just ruminating that Manson probably got the idea for ‘creepy crawl’ from some Scientology experience.”
Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Next conf to set prelim, March 24.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to March 2.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. March 8: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
Concluded litigation:
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs.
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] In Scientology’s Sea Org, the terror originates inside your own head
[TWO years ago] Is Beck divorcing Scientology along with his wife? Here’s the evidence for and against.
[THREE years ago] Scientology opened an ‘Ideal Org’ in Salt Lake City yesterday. We have its secret plans.
[FOUR years ago] Augustine: Why is it so hard to find a Scientologist in good standing?
[FIVE years ago] David Miscavige wastes no time once the stay is lifted in Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit
[SIX years ago] TAMPA SHOWDOWN: Scientology’s religious exception faces mini-trial today
[SEVEN years ago] Going three feet back of your head: Scientology’s Original Operating Thetan Level Six!
[EIGHT years ago] Tom Cruise Under Oath: We Have His Deposition Questions!
[NINE years ago] Scientology Campout: Commenters of the Week!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,216 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,720 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,240 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,260 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,151 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,458 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,326 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,100 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,904 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,220 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,786 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,705 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,873 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,454 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,715 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,753 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,466 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,991 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 346 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,521 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,072 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,221 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,541 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,396 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,515 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,871 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,174 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,280 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,682 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,554 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,137 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,632 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,886 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,995 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 18, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
February 17, 2021
Trump’s denouncement of McConnell is making patriots antsy for action
Some links to Q-related items today…
With Trump denouncing McConnell, patriots are getting awfully restless…
It’s all about the kids…
A woman who runs a legitimate Disney-Princess-For-Hire company is creating anti-mask videos for parents to show their children. In them their favourite princess attempts to convince the kids not to follow mask regulations or socially distance.
My latest: https://t.co/Q6uR92t0HH
— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) February 16, 2021
Fool me once…
You might think that all Q and MAGA folks will rush back to Parler now that it is on the verge of being back up, but I think many have gotten really comfortable on Gab and Telegram. They also think Parler is a bit of a honey pot. pic.twitter.com/oKuEqmbKg5
— Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) February 16, 2021
On the other hand, all the best people are there…
Parler looking like its old self again….. pic.twitter.com/bNqaD9MoX8
— (((ben))) (@btdecker) February 16, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on February 17, 2021 at 9:00
The FBI wants a word with Leigh Dundas, Scientologist attorney and Capitol rioter
We first noticed Leigh Dundas, a Scientology OT and “human rights attorney” last year as she made a name for herself as a firebrand anti-vaxx and anti-mask activist who had driven away an Orange County health official with her brand of political extremism.
More recently, we’ve been posting information as it has come in about her remarkable couple of days at the US Capitol on January 5 and 6 as she took part in the speechifying and marching that ended up being a deadly insurrection.
On January 5 she urged on a crowd with this rhetoric: “We would be well within our rights to take any alleged American who acted in a turncoat fashion and sold us out and committed treason, we would be well within our rights and take them out back and shoot ’em or hang ’em…”
And on the day of the riot itself, she filmed herself pushing toward the Capitol and screaming “Traitor!” at Capitol police. Video also emerged showing her near the doors of the Capitol itself. Later that afternoon she gave another fiery broadside exhorting her listeners to “fight on! Fight for your country!” while protesters were breaking windows and pushing into the building behind her.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Each time we’ve posted these updates about Leigh, we have said that we don’t know whether any of this adds up to a punishable offense, and we have not accused Leigh of committing a crime.
However, we have now learned that the FBI would like to talk to Leigh Dundas.
One of our sources has called in multiple tips to the agency, and yesterday they received a phone call about Dundas and were asked for more specific information about her whereabouts.
Our source then imparted what they knew, that Dundas absconded to Mexico soon after the riot and as far as we know is still down there. The last thing Dundas indicated on a web posting was that she was headed for Yucatán’s capital, the city of Mérida.
“They understand she’s in Mexico. They know she was down there with the group at the resort, and were trying to pin down where she may be now,” our source says.
Leigh, if you do talk to the FBI, we’d love to hear about that conversation. Please drop us a line.
Reviewing what we’ve previously posted about Dundas, we noted that on the day of the riot itself, January 6, she recorded several videos showing that she had moved with the mob toward the Capitol, screaming “traitor, traitor, traitor!” at Capitol police.
In a since deleted FB live, Dundas states, “you have no idea what’s going to be in store for you the next time around.” But you know we got the receipts. pic.twitter.com/XfnvufywbE
— Cineaste_C (@Cineaste_C) January 11, 2021
Hey look, she made it by the Capitol doors. @TonyOrtega94 pic.twitter.com/Rs73IBihmI
— Cineaste_C (@Cineaste_C) January 18, 2021
Video then surfaced showing that after the 1 pm riot surge, Leigh hurried back to a nearby stage where she had been scheduled to give a 2 pm speech. In her stemwinder, she referred to “what you saw an hour ago with the patriots storming down the Capitol,” and she said “God bless everybody who had the guts to show up here today and the guts to storm the Capitol.”
And then she uttered this screed, apparently still amped up after the experience of being a part of the mob on the Capitol steps. (Well, to be fair, Leigh is always pretty amped up.)
“Fight on! Fight for your country, fight for your president, fight for everything that is important to you and never forget that what you are fighting for is freedom.”
If she uttered these words a little after 2 pm, that was about the time that the first rioters were entering a broken window at the Capitol.
The next time we saw Leigh, she was south of the border.
This photo was posted on January 25 to the Instagram account of the woman to Leigh’s left who goes by the name “Imani Mamalution,” and who was also at the January 6 riot with Dundas. Mamalution indicated that the photo was taken at Playa Troncones in Guerrero state on the west coast of Mexico, where they were taking part in something called “The Greater Reset,” and she refers in several places to it being a “sovereign” event.
Observers have noted that the QAnon movement is increasingly intersecting with “sovereign citizen” nuttiness, resulting, for example, in an outlandish theory that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president of an illegitimate “corporate” version of the United States and that Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the country’s 19th president on March 4.
In more recent web postings, Dundas said she was headed for the “second safest city in North America,” and then more plainly revealed she was talking about Mérida.
We hear it’s lovely down there this time of year.
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“[The] press and the public are interested in murder, assault, destruction, violence, sex and dishonesty in that order. Investigations which can uncover these factors in the activities of individuals of a group attacking Scientology are valuable in the degree that they contain a number of these factors. The more factors a case contains the more important the case is. The idea is that the press feeds on these factors and we feed them someone else’s. It will be found that our own Scientology groups contain so few of these they have to be invented about us. We need never invent them in the attacking group. They will be found to be there.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 17, 1966
“The Flag Admin Org has a deficiency in LINE CONSCIOUSNESS. Because a line is invisible, one overlooks their presence. It’s public lines and routing lines are very poor. Lack of signs and advices and flash colors obscure lines. The staff member has to know where to route the particles and bodies and signs and flash marked paths and signs have to exist. An engineer flash marking pipes would understand this. I recommend the whole FAO get genned in by Dave Murphy on pipe flows as a starter. That makes the idea visible.” — The Commodore, February 17, 1971
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“I am back home for a little while. The Covid was insignificant compared to the diagnosis of terminal mesothelioma. It almost certainly was caused by working with asbestos many years ago on the Apollo…It has saddened me too over the years to see long time Scientologists, LRH included, fall prey to ailments of the body. We quite simply do not have OTs at the level of disintegrating cancer. I shall however be looking at various approaches in the forthcoming months. I did get rather flattened recently with a pile of negative postulates that I have been peeling off.”
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1997: Jeff Jacobsen and his family came under additional harassment this week, with a visit from a Scientology private investigator and two pickets. “As I type this, Eugene Ingram, Scientology private investigator, is in South Dakota visiting my father’s business establishments, asking questions about me. It is a written practice of the church to noisily investigate someone that they are upset at. I was warning my neighbors that there might be private investigators hanging around the area again. One neighbor then told me that two women were picketing my house a few nights ago about 9:30pm. The neighbors told the women to leave or they’d call the police, and they left. The Scottsdale police told me that there is a law against picketing in a residential area here.”
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“47x Shades of Cray: The Grant Cardone Story”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Next conf to set prelim, March 24.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to March 2.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. March 8: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
Concluded litigation:
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs.
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] DRONE FLYOVER: Another look at Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s final hiding place
[TWO years ago] Another Scientology monument to L. Ron Hubbard is going up in besieged Clearwater
[THREE years ago] Scientology set to turn Silicon Valley ‘Ideal!’ Here’s our first look from the grand opening
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s next move in forced-abortion lawsuit: Deposing defectors
[FIVE years ago] When will academics acknowledge that the Scientology ‘apostate’ theory is finished?
[SIX years ago] On the eve of the big Tampa hearing, the Garcias fire back at Scientology’s ‘bench memo’
[SEVEN years ago] NEW DATE: Celebration details of Los Angeles Scientology facilities leaked
[EIGHT years ago] Sunday Funnies: The Grant Cardone Is An Asshat Special Edition!
[NINE years ago] Debbie Cook: “I Have Seen L Ron Hubbard’s Technology Create Many Miracles”
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,215 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,719 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,239 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,259 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,150 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,457 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,325 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,099 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,903 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,219 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,785 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,704 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,872 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,453 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,714 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,752 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,465 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,990 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 345 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,520 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,071 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,220 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,540 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,395 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,514 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,870 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,173 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,279 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,681 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,553 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,136 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,631 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,885 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,994 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 17, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
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