Last week we pointed out what some of our readers had noticed, that some Scientology orgs and missions are boarded up, and we’re not sure why.
A reader sent us a photo of the Silicon Valley org boarded up, for example, and it really seemed puzzling. On social media, Scientologists are celebrating their efforts against the coronavirus, and are making announcements that orgs are re-opening. And the Silicon Valley org is one of those more recent Ideal Orgs that is in a business park and not in a central downtown area. It has no foot traffic and isn’t in an area prone to street protests.
So what gives? We also published photos of DC and Dallas orgs battened down, and also the windows boarded up in Detroit. And since then, we’ve received more dispatches from readers.
A reader in San Francisco let us know that the Ideal Org there is boarded up…
Chicago’s Ideal Org hasn’t had its grand opening yet, and in the meantime its current location is boarded up…
Denver is sealed up tight…
On the other hand, Columbus is not only unboarded, it seems to be doing a brisk business…
The Harlem Ideal Org was board-free when our reader went by this week…
…but on closer inspection they noticed a lot of plywood stacked up just inside, so perhaps it’s about to be boarded up as well:
Last week, we reported that Kestrel had found the Dallas org boarded up, but another of our readers received this invitation for an event there…
What’s happening? There’s no indication on Scientology social media accounts that the church is going out of business. And street protests from earlier this year don’t really explain why orgs are boarded up at this point.
If you have a chance, please go by your local org so we can get some more reports. We’ll just continue to search for some clue to what’s actually going on.
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“As long as religion brings solace to man in any way, shape or form, as long as churches stand in any way for the spiritual freedom of man, psychiatry will not really be able to progress, whatever its end goals are. Therefore, our rebuttal to any such attack is that psychiatry should not be permitted to wipe out a small church and then go on to a bigger church and then go on to a bigger church, and so take it all over. And also that the Minister of Health, as we have just told the press, has no right whatsoever to comment upon religious beliefs or practices. And in addition to that, that they are telling us that we must not do something we are not doing. Now, this is the yickle-yackle that appears in the world. The public at large is in actual fact getting ready to turn. Much of it has already turned. They see something very rotten in this idea of attacking Scientology. They are sick of this, see, because it’s gone on too long. And we hear cross comments of this particular character here and there. And they’ve gone too far and they’ve said too much! And they are now talking to a hostile public on the subject. It’s up to us to make sure that this is the downfall of all suppressive practices in that line.” — L. Ron Hubbard, December 13, 1966
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“Lots of fan mail and FN VGIs from people on the FSO on Valuable Final Products. I hope we can get in any corrections and additions. Send them to LRH Comm Ship. Funny but it’s like gold. Before one sees real gold dust in a miners pan, he can be fooled by anything. He thinks mica, bright rocks, fool’s gold, anything is gold. Then you show him real gold and never afterwards does he fail to recognize it. Can’t be fooled at all. It’s that way about a list of actual valuable final products. Once you see what sort of they are for a department, div or org you can’t ever be fooled.” — The Commodore, December 13, 1970
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“Is the Galactic Federation behind Trump (covering his back), Communists being the Marcab side, what do you think? This news is interesting because it’s mainstream, and the timing of it. ‘This is going to be BIBLICAL’ was Powell’s words about the massive voter fraud now being unwinded. We will also have the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ in the sky for the first time in 800 years. Can this get more interesting than it already is?”
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1996: Stefan Mars posted that his newly created NOTS page has come under attack by Scientology. “CoS has more or less FAX-bombed the University of Linkoping, but so far my page is still up. For those that email me requests the NOTs I am still shipping them, and intend to keep on doing so until the end. Helena Kobrin emailed me at that address btw, I thanked her for her interest in the documents and sent a copy of them to her. She then faxed to the university claiming it was proved that I did send NOTs to people, like I was going to deny it 🙂 Some people just don’t have a sense of humour.”
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“Future membership growth for the Church of Scientology has been effectively terminated by the Internet and Anonymous and the old guard critics. Its name is MUD. It’s definitely headed for Shakerdom and that was the original goal. As far as bringing DM to justice and the government doing anything about that, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
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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’s demurrer denied Oct 19, arraignment delayed to Jan 6.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed for ‘Fatico’ hearing on Jan 19.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
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 18, re-hearing on motions to compel arbitration; Jan 29, Masterson’s request to stay discovery pending the criminal case
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Nov 18: Feshbachs indicated they will enter into consent judgment to pay the debt.
— 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] Scientology will try to force Danny Masterson accusers into its internal ‘arbitration’
[TWO years ago] Scientology reveals it has a secret donor with an NFL connection giving millions
[THREE years ago] Defeated in court, L. Ron Hubbard’s son boasted about spreading lies in new FBI document
[FOUR years ago] Tonight on ‘Scientology and the Aftermath’: When the fraud & abuse becomes overwhelming
[FIVE years ago] Scientology’s latest filing in the Trout Run zoning fight: We bleed for all religions
[SIX years ago] Jonny Jacobsen: New Scientology legal setbacks in Belgium, France, and Holland
[SEVEN years ago] TEXAS JUDGE ORDERS DEPOSITION OF SCIENTOLOGY LEADER DAVID MISCAVIGE
[EIGHT years ago] HOMELAND SECURITY INVESTIGATING SCIENTOLOGY FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING
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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 2,149 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,653 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,173 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,193 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,084 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,391 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,259 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,033 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,837 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,153 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,719 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,638 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,806 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,387 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,648 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,686 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,399 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,924 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 279 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,454 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,005 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,154 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,474 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,329 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,448 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,804 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,107 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,213 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,615 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,487 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,070 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,565 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,819 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,928 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 13, 2020 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, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), 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
