Lights, camera, NO action
Remember when Dear Leader yanked the ribbon on the wondrous Scientology Media Productions facility back in May 2016?
It was offered up as the latest solution to make planetary clearing a reality – following in a long line of promises, from the Golden Age of Tech to Super Power and the Golden Age of Tech II. The Basics. The Golden Age of Knowledge. The largest digital printing plant on earth. The new Bridge Publications. Ideal Orgs. The NN, APS, WTH headquarters. Golden Era productions, the largest free standing studio state-of-the-art audio-visual production facility….
Here is some of the hype gushed by Miscavige at that opening. He is worse than a politician who makes endless promises and never fulfills any of them. Politicians at least have some sort of excuse — they need to get elected (Miscavige doesn’t). And if they DO get elected, they are unable to get their grandiose plans through the buraucracy (he dictates and it shall be done).
“Our uncorrupted communication line to the billions,” said David Miscavige, the religion’s ecclesiastical leader, in a speech to more than 10,000 Scientologists and friends at the inauguration of the Church’s global media center. “Because as the saying goes, if you don’t write your own story, someone else will. So, yes, we’re now going to be writing our story like no other religion in history. And it’s all going to happen right here from Scientology Media Productions.”
Scientology Media Productions (SMP) is poised to broadcast important, good, vital news to the world. News reaching TV screens; facts and opinion destined to radios; magazines hot off of digital presses; information beamed to computers, tablets and cellphones.
Yes, Scientology is in the news—that’s certainly proof that the religion is so interesting. But now Scientology Media Productions IS the media.
Except it isn’t anything of the sort. They have produced NO media other than perhaps a couple of TV ads. But that was nothing new. They have been doing those ads and the event videos at the “state-of-the-art” 500 acre worker’s paradise of Golden Era productions for decades.
Dear Leader prattled on:
Mr. Miscavige commented that to spread the religion’s word, Scientology’s own media must be created. “Such has been our quest,” he said. “And why this facility represents the final component of an interlocking system for our global Scientology communications.”
Scientology Media Productions will be the nerve center spreading the Church’s message to the world, and a resource to the ever-growing number of Scientology Churches, humanitarian endeavors and social betterment programs throughout the globe.
The alternative facts just roll off his tongue — “the ever-growing number of Scientology Churches…” There has not been a NEW scientology church in decades but a few HAVE closed down. Even recently LA Day and Fdn and ASHO Day and Fdn were combined. London and CC London. Las Vegas and CC Las Vegas. Portland and CC Portland. etc
Noting that “the average young adult spends 10 hours of every day on the Internet, and someone searches for ‘the meaning of life’ every five seconds, while someone else searches for answers about ‘spirituality’ six times per second,” Mr. Miscavige said that “SMP will harness the power of every social media outlet imaginable to provide those answers.”
“So for the 95 percent of the world’s population that listens to the radio every day,” Mr. Miscavige said, “and the average viewer who spends some 40 hours glued to a TV every week, the obvious answer was: our own radio station, our own TV channel, and our own broadcasting facilities.”
Lot of crickets. No radio programs. No blogs. No podcasts. Nothing. Even the free stuff that anyone can do. Tony Ortega and I have better internet and social media presence than the “state-of’the-art” SuMP that is “harnessing the power of ever social media outlet imaginable.”
It’s the most modern and sophisticated digital media facility of its kind on the planet. Scientology’s worldwide activities including humanitarian and social betterment campaigns, as well as news of current world events, are fed into Central Ingest, the studio’s international media clearinghouse, and accessible throughout the facility’s broadcasting, audio and publication operations. All of that is linked at its core by 27 miles of fiber optic cable connecting a cluster of super computers with a combined capacity of 3.2 million gigabytes of information and media platforms, distributed to proprietary databases for instant translation.
SMP is not merely an evolutionary advance for the religion—it is a major gift for the community. “We also open our doors to humanitarian organizations, charities and religions of every denomination in Los Angeles,” Mr. Miscavige said. “Our facilities will be open for all manner of community events, telethons, religious programming of all faiths, you name it.”
Well, it may be all modern and have gigabytes of super computers and fiber optic cable, but like his ideal orgs with marble floors and custom woven rugs, it sits idle, gathering dust and doing absolutely nothing. And I would bet there has not been a SINGLE “community event, telethon or religious programming of all faiths…” since this white elephant had it’s ribbon yanked. Not a one.
On the scientology website at the end of this story, they list out some of the other wonders that were promised to “make planetary clearing a reality” all of which have amounted to nothing, just like SuMP:
This past decade has further seen the Church embark upon major projects to spread Scientology’s message of help and hope.
It first came with the establishment of Bridge Publications, the world’s largest all-digital, print-on-demand facilities to make LRH materials available anywhere, everywhere and in any language.
Next came the creation of Scientology’s International Dissemination and Distribution Center in Los Angeles, the Church’s cutting edge, 185,000-square-foot, printing and distribution operation.
And all in addition to the Church’s first class film studio at Golden Era Productions, where all LRH Scientology training films are produced.
Finally, came Scientology Media Productions.
“Consider all we have to offer by way of real answers, actual Truth and unconditional Help. At which point, the question becomes: How do we bring those answers to everyone, in every language of Earth?” Mr. Miscavige said. “That answer of course lay in what LRH reiterated as the vital necessity of coming to terms with correct orders of magnitude.”
“To at least conceive of those orders of magnitude, as in, seven-billion human beings. Well, in light of what you witnessed thus far, and what you are about to witness, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask: Can you conceive of it now?”
So, now we finally come to what prompted this posting.
A new email about “igniting the golden age of dissemination” — and guess what?
They want more money to get SuMP “broadcasting soon.”
IGNITING THE GOLDEN AGE OF DISSEMINATION!
SMP is engineered for the future. Most broadcast facilities started many
decades ago when technology was very different. Every year these operations
changed the technology enough to get through the next year. SMP is
different. From the very beginning, the Church reimagined what the studio
for the future would look like and built the perfect media facility for
creation and distribution of content.SMP’s arsenal of online media will include live productions and
video-on-demand broadcasting; “over the top” streaming to computers,
tablets, TVs, Internet TV boxes and automobile internet-enabled devices;
broadcasting and Internet radio and podcasts; websites; social media; and
creation of apps that funnel all of the above to users, able to reach any
connected device, 24/7, anywhere in the world and in multiple languages.
HELP SMP BROADCASTING SOON. BUY THE BASICS LEATHERBOUND EDITIONS OR DONATE!
Apart from the strange grammar and syntax, whoever wrote this (I assume it is someone that works at SuMP) really doesn’t even understand the terminology they are using: “over the top streaming to computers”? “creation of apps that funnel all of the above to users”? “able to reach any connected device, 24/7, anywhere in the world”? (like wow, what a breakthrough…)
This whole thing is just another fundraising/tax scam. Raise funds for the building. Raise funds for the renovations. Raise funds for getting it operating. And all the while use it to “prove” massive expansion. And demonstrate that funds ARE being used to “provide a public benefit” to protect against enforcement of IRS regulations (in case you wondered why they always say these buildings are “available to the community”)
“Alternative facts” might be too kind to describe the antics of scientology. And they cannot even be accused of “fake news” because they produce none at all.
Perhaps the best description of this whole thing is summed up in a single, old-school term: bullshit.
Total scam. I can see it now. It follows Super Power and will be regged to death. And in the end, it will end up showing private screenings of Tom Cruise movies. Okay maybe not, but seriously, with all the hype and JUST radio silence?! Are the remaining public that gullible?
Still hard to believe that people “willingly” donate money to something like this repeatedly.
When they opened SuMP, he kept basically saying, “this is it, we did it!” If you had put money into this thing, and heard that message, in most any other context, a follow up for more money would be a major gut punch.
The only explanation I can summon is that perhaps zombies are real, and they happen to be wealthy scientologists.
If someone has an encounter with a scientologist, and there is an attempt to bite you, beware. OT IX might be “Full realization of undead powers”.
Here’s a question for Ron’s followers (in or out of the church):
Given your knowledge of the Admin scale and Ron’s true intentions about scientology. What SINGLE Statistic did Ron give to the TOP Scientology management Executive (Not RTC, ASI or CST exec) to operate off of to determine how good a of job managing the orgs and scientology expansion on the planet he or she was doing?
Lol. Can’t wait to hear the amazing, impactful, world-changing “stats” on SMP announced at the LRH Birthday events next month. Should be some pretty good comedy there.
Did Miscavige actually say “unconditional help”? … hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Dittodittodittodittodittoduttodittodittodittodittodittodittoditto
Thank you Mr. Mike Rinder for preventing me from making a HUGE mistake. Words alone cannot describe how much I admire you. Mad respect for you my friend.
OK, so studios in general have to re-do their technology every year. But scientology has a better plan: Do it right the first time. Brilliant, I bet all the other guys now wish they had thought of that themselves!
What is less clear: If you did it right the first time (and have amassed billions, one may add), why come back for perpetual begging? Wasn’t the point to avoid that in the first place?
It doesn’t really look like planetary clearing in progress. It looks more like a game show in production. The Church has used this line before. Such and such a program puts planetary clearing within reach, and then such and such a rundown puts planetary clearing with reach, and then Scientology media puts planetary clearing within reach. But the fact of the matter remains Clears are what make planetary clearing a reality. People that are Clear make it true. I have all but given up on any Church of Scientology really helping L. Ron Hubbard at all to clear anything, since years ago. 🙂
“Clears are what make planetary clearing a reality. People that are Clear make it true.”
I remember the night I stormed out of my own house because a dinner guest refused to acknowledge Ron Hubbard as the greatest man who ever lived. He had the effrontery to ask me what Hubbard did that was so great. I told him he made possible the state of CLEAR!
My friend’s reply is branded in my memory: “So what? I know a lot of Clears and they’re just as fucked up as everybody else!”
The reason I stormed out was because I knew he was correct.
I laughed out loud at you anecdote. It made my day…..and so, so true!
‘Do it right the first time.’ Where have I heard that before? This was heavily stressed just prior to the London ‘ideal org’ renovations. Not more than just a year after the grand opening (and coincidentally right after a DM walk-through) the entire first floor – the Div 6 A area – was ripped out and redone. Someone had apparently overlooked the complete lack of marble flooring throughout (and the gross omission of a 5ft embedded brass Scn logo at the entrance) during the initial renos, as well as the 2 intro film rooms being at the wrong end of the floor (obviously) and then of course the LRH exhibit which was taking up way too much space.
But fortunately DM spotted all of this (although, rather conveniently, not til his second visit) and for the following 6 months London org was left with no intro facilities whatsoever (if you can ignore the fact that even with everything in place, it makes hardly any difference anyway as there has virtually been no 6A activity in that place in the 10 years since its opening.)
A year later (and again, quelle surprise, right after another DM visitation) the entire glass partitioning on the 2nd floor was now deemed to be in breach of health and safety laws (!) and needed to be replaced with identical looking stuff – which it was.
I was amongst the many volunteers on the original renos cycle and recall helping lug these mothers up to the second floor in the early hours of the morning. There were around 20 of them and each one measured at least 13ft by 5ft. It took at least 6 of us over 2 hours to gingerly navigate each one up the 2 floors from from the street.
So imagine the surprise (and minor irritation) at learning it had been a complete waste of time and effort, based upon nothing more than DM’s OT abilities to perceive an inherent risk in them, threatening the safety of all 10 people passing by them each day – that’s how much he cares! (The course rooms they enclosed had been similarly pretty much empty up to that time……but since the glass was changed they had immediately filled up to breaking point…….No, wait, of course they hadn’t.)
I find it hard to believe that I was the only one calling bullshit at the time – albeit quietly.
I heard since my departure that the carpets throughout had also been ripped out and changed for more standard ones, something that brought some expressed disgruntlement from some, so perhaps not after all.
It dawns on me that this seems to be a clue as to his modus operandi with regards fulfilling the IRS requirements, not unsimilar to a local council directing funds into superfluous reparation projects purely for the purpose of meeting dedicated annual budgets.
Don’t always get time to comment, Mike, but always find time to read the posts, which are as ever extraordinarily well written, insightful and relevant, as are those from all your contributors, chiefly RB and TC. Keep it up.
Hi Paul,
We met (or, more precisely, encountered each other) a few times back when you were in and I was protesting London Foundation semi-regularly.
I’m glad you called bullshit on it 🙂
Nice to meet you Jens (as opposed to encountering you..!). How I miss those protests! Although, personally, they never made any difference to me (which is why I’ve never followed suit). It was more what was going on inside that triggered my departure (and of course all of my own crimes, ptsness and mu’s!)
“Apart from the strange grammar and syntax, whoever wrote this (I assume it is someone that works at SuMP) really doesn’t even understand the terminology they are using….”
What do you expect? They never understood a prior technology (Scientology). TCP\IP?
Fuhgeddaboutit…..lol
Same ol same ol from the masters of… I always have trouble describing what Scientology masters the best… But you’re right Mike, & since I’m old school too it’s simply better described as COMPLETE & UTTER BULLSHIT!
I did have a thought stopping moment when reading through said bs, when I came across this gem of a sentence.
“Consider all we have to offer by way of real answers, actual Truth and unconditional Help…”
Now, isn’t that a cracker? A real pick of bunch peach of unsurpassed juiciness… “actual truth and unconditional help…” Wow, that must explain why they have an army of lawyers and as a organisation are in constant state of litigation, must be all that, you know… defending all that truth and unconditional help.
Wonder what’s on the tele today anyway? It sure won’t be anything from SuMP, that’s for sure!
There is a great 3 part series on the “backfire effect” at :
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2017/02/11/yanss-095-how-to-fight-back-against-the-backfire-effect/#more-5523
You can also download a free “The Debunking Handbook”. The podcasts helped me to realize that, although I know sump is a lot of baloney; its not so easy to convince the closed mind. Arguments can
backfire. It’s easy to say that the kool-aid drinkers are just stupid. There is really more to it than that.
“(Super Power) …puts world Clearing within reach.” -L Ron Hubbard
I guess the new Super Power building just didn’t have the requisite “27 miles of fiber optic cable” that SUMP has in order to bring about real planetary Clearing.
My bad. I thought Word Clearing was within reach.
I just love when dumb do some ‘splaining of things for your benefit. Take, for example, this little bit about how normal broadcast facilities keep up with changing technology:
“Most broadcast facilities started many decades ago when technology was very different. Every year these operations changed the technology enough to get through the next year. SMP is different.”
I don’t think that broadcasters have had to update technology every single year. That’s just nonsense. These operations, known in the Wogland as “TV stations,” have mostly updated equipment as it wore out from continuous use. Sometimes, as with the advent of HDTV, they have made technology changes. SMP is indeed different. Their equipment will never wear out. It will be kept in pristine, in mint condition. It will eventually become obsolete, though not by next year.
For the love of Xenu, can someone tease apart that gibbery comm and tell me wtf it is supposed to mean?
I was there just yesterday. We were shocked to see a car actually leaving the empty lot. A whole car was there!
Was probably the cable guy leaving after installing cable for the people who work there
Because nothing else is working there
Most likely it was there to shuttle away the 3 or 4 staffers at SMP from the “Call Me” billboard dedication event that was happening just down the street.
Casing the joint maybe? Not hard to tell no works there.
Hey at least they Cleared the parking lot.
Dave Miscavige, guess he saw the movie and was really impressed with the saying “If you build it, they will come”. Worked in the movie, not so much in the real world. If you built a twenty story cow pie, would the public flock in?
But they really have a problem that is solved by all this expensive real estate. They have to report cash holdings and it looks really suspicious for a non-profit to have massive amounts of cash. An intelligent and knowing observer might be tempted to call it a money grab or some kind of fraud, even if it is not obvious who is benefiting. Can’t have that. And there is only so much cash you can throw at lawyers. Eventually they get greedy.
So it helps their financial statements to have large expensive real estate on the books. They can say they are benefiting society with all the “new” churches, huge buildings in Clearwater, new auditoriums, on and on. Does a completely empty but beautiful building benefit society? I guess it benefits “Mr. Paint”, the Scientologist who often gets a contract on the construction. But unless they open the place up for tours it has very little actual benefit to society.
And Dave really does think that the equipment makes the man, as someone noted down thread. He gets this from Hubbard, who had dozens of expensive cameras, piles of sound equipment, whole rooms full of musical instruments and so on. And who created such artistic splendors as the “Windsplitter” song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtxWlTIWRHo
When Dave was just taking over they were building a music studio. We were told it was to record “Ten Mission Earth music albums, one for each volume of Mission Earth”. They actually did one of the Mission Earth albums with Edgar Winter, and a handful of others like the “Hymn of Asia”. Nothing in the last twenty years except music for event videos that could be done on a laptop these days.
An incredible waste of money and effort. A commercial studio that size could put out an album every week or two. It has 72 tracks of Otari analog recorders, dozens of Pro Tools tracks, a massive one-of-a-kind George Massenburg mix board, a huge recording space with a drum booth, huge echo chambers, on and on. All sitting idle.
You could say the same about the massive sound stage at the Cine Studio, the Mad Hatter music studio in LA, and now the SuMP. Lots of hat but no cowboy. But it looks on the books like something is happening besides pure unbridled avarice, and gives Dave something to brag about at the events. Got to keep the whales on the hook.
Bruce,
Even “Mr. Paint” is sucked dry. Over a decade ago, he was in dire financial straits since his old van had flunked its Smog Certification and been DECLARED an ‘extreme polluter’. His major source of income was from painting cell phone tower installations’ control rooms.
Dave continues to melt down, along with the inconvenient-facts denialists. His parallel universe is unsustainable in this era of information. Paranoia and exposure loom large.
Bruce, you are right about CofS corporations needing to avoid having cash reserves be too high, to avoid issues with their tax exempt status, as there are some particular guidelines about that. But as Mike has referred to, they also have to be able to show “public benefit” to avoid problems on other accounts. At some point with too many huge empty buildings and a small and shrinking active membership, that will start to become an issue. Minimal donation and membership income in comparison to vast assets, is another specific point where they could run into trouble.
I think that it is less than likely that a dramatic revocation of tax exempt status is going to be their undoing, but questions or even some challenges to tax exemption with be among the problems that will start to dog them and reveal conditions that will erode their standing with both members and the public.
I am constantly amazed that my former Scio friends still begrudgedly give their money away with so many justifications and despite no evidence of any kind of product. One went so far as to tell me it was an overt not to give to the IAS.
You and many others keep chipping away at the marginal members and keep new ones from joining. It is a fantastic product. The cherch is going down. But I fear there are still too many who will go down with the ship and never wake up. These were good friends….as long as I didn’t say anything bad about the cherch. I really feel sorry for them.
Please keep up the fight! Maybe when Davey is holed up in his Colombian fortress they will get their lives together again.
Mike, thank you for covering this story. As a neighbor to SuMP, I have watched the former KCET studios rot for a while, get renovated to much hushed fanfare and then go dormant again. Currently the only activity I have observed there is security patrolling the grounds and an occasional Sea Orger hurrying from one place to another. Even the parking structure is oddly empty most of the time. Not the type of activity I would associate with a bustling studio. But, now I know it is because they need to sell more leather bound books to get that thing running. *facepalm*
If the SuMP and its nonexistent products are such a foolproof method of Global Insemination, a total game-changer according to the Toxic Dwarf and subsequent hype, then a question needs to be asked: why wasn’t this done forty years ago when L. Fraud was still alive? Back in the late 70s, the Pat Robertsons of the world were syndicating their “message” through shows like the 700 Club, and it was working. They were hauling in tons of cash.
The method was out there and proven. The cult was flush with cash and could afford to syndicate shows (and, remember, this was the time of the 10% Monthly Price Increases). They still had people who could sell the message like David Mayo. So why didn’t they do it then? Imagine a Scientology version of the 700 Club with guests like John Travolta, Karen Black, Isaac Hayes, and Chick Corea. This could have definitely brought in donations and channeled people into orgs.
So why didn’t they do it? If I had to guess, it was another Sin of Omission by L. Fraud. Just like he didn’t see the Internet coming (and it took them thirty years to react to that), he couldn’t see what was in front of him. Just like Admin Tech, they’re forty years out of date and doomed to fail.
This, of course, is assuming that they actually want to put stuff out there to the world instead of just using the SuMP as the latest money soak. With these creeps, you do have to wonder about motivation.
Dave is soaking up the cash and downsizing the membership, for his retirement.
threefeetback, I think it’s hardly that simple – and probably more insidious.
Clearly, CofS is stripping members of all the cash possible, and banking assets (including in real estate) as much as they can get away. And, deliberately or not, winnowing the membership and staff (particularly SO) down to a loyal core as well.
My guess is that the backup plan is more like luxurious exile, under the guise of retreat from a suppressive environment and attacks by the “psychs.” There are the examples of Hubbard’s “Belgravia,” a haven from legal problems, or even taking to the sea the way the Commodore did.
More than that, my estimation is that the remaining upper management is some mix of true believers in Hubbard’s reincarnation, people who really do believe that something like a world crisis is going to drive the masses into the orgs, or those in denial and so wrapped up in the characteristic environment of ongoing minor crises that they can’t confront the big picture. And I would say that Hubbard actually used (or exploited) all of those particular mechanisms to get people to be loyal and work ceaselessly.
Plus people like Miscavige live for the game, retirement is not in their consciousness. That can be observed now in the political arena in the US, where there are several very wealthy people of what would generally be considered retirement age, who are going into public service for a few years in what may be the last decade of their life, but who can’t seem to just cleanly divest their assets into a retirement fund and leave it all behind, and who instead seem to want to hang on and even be ready to jump back in with both feet.
Damn right, TFB!
Good point – they could have done it during the 80s like everyone else. I kinda want (and kinda don’t) to see what sort of TV shows they would produce. They do have a you tube channel but it looks like it’s mostly commercials? And maybe some of the videos they display for free to the public?
Espi, in the 70’s L. Fraud had just discovered color film. He was a coupe decades away from discovering video for live or recorded televised uses.
“Lot of crickets. No radio programs. No blogs. No podcasts. Nothing.”
Buildings expand without any humans who communicate freely into society.
IN the meantime, they could pay to keep up the audio book playing of Lawrence Wright’s “Going Clear…” audio book at least.
When I think of the challenges and possibilities, the mind just explodes with ideas
of shows and topics of planetary relevance. As a sounding board for showvcasing new talent, expanding
realities, and even documentaries and interviews, what a blank slate!
Suggestions:
History channel – The fate of Popes – Good or bad endings?
Karma’s a B*itch – highlights actions and consequences of people in the past –
Tech Channel – Floating Needles of the world – different races and their characteristic needle patterns.
Theta – the 4th Dimension? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0WjV6MmCyM&app=desktop for example.
Squirrels – rodents and otherwise.
Moby Dick – the oTHER side of the story. How Ahab killed Moby’s wives, and brought it all on
himself…
Current Events – Where’s Dali? With the current incarnation of the Dali Lama announcing whether the
Institution will continue in the near future, if he should so announce, and the search for….
Criminal Minds….crossroads of political and private psychopaths. Featuring Grant Cardone…
Comedy channel – If Joan of Arc were comm-eved by a British Sea Org Inquisition….
Cosmology channel – Is there anybody out there? Why UFO’s DONT land…
Nearby planets I have known….an OT channel special, as OTs discuss their ‘whole track recall’…
The next universe ‘out’…..are inhabitants already here?
Will it happen? Nah, But I can dream can’t I? Or is dreaming a ‘thought-crime’?
If their new media dissemination department would lead to Sea Org members actually being allowed access to the internet (unfiltered), I’d be all for this. But from what I’ve learned about how this group operates so far, I know that it’s basically just set up like a propaganda-laden, state-run media machine, a la North Korea.
And I’m no sociologist, and I don’t care to waste my time researching statistics just to dispute a bunch of BS that spews from Miscavige’s mouth, but 95% of the global population listens to radio every day? Are people living under extreme poverty, isolation, and/or oppression in many third world countries around the globe also included in this 95% that “listens to radio every day”? I’d bet that not even 95% of Americans listen to radio every single day. I know that’s nit-picking a bit, but it just shows the pattern of deception (or outright lying, or just made-up bullshit that’s pulled straight out of his ass) that this psychopath engages in so he can keep getting more donations to support his own personal lavish lifestyle (the only SO person that reaps those particular benefits it would seem).
Translated: “Ok, all scamologists, give me all of your remaining money before I have to flee the USA.”
“3.2 million gigabytes” is about three petabytes of storage. That’s quite a bit, but how does it really stack up? Other large religious media organizations I have worked for have far more storage. 30+ petabytes of storage is common. 300+ petabytes is a little more rare, but exist. I suspect they are using the bigger term to simply impress those who don’t know the difference between giga, tera, and petabytes.
It is also odd to me that Scientologists are always touting things instead of people. For example, David rattles on about how great his multimillion dollar buildings are, but never focuses on the individual people who run those buildings. The cameras and lights won’t turn themselves on. It takes highly qualified people to run a studio like this, with years of experience.
A single expert in the media industry could advance Scientology with a fraction of these resources. Where are the experts? Isn’t Scientology (the religion) supposed to be about people? Has Dianetics given church staff the skills need to understand the difference between a gigabyte and petabyte? Clearly not. Miscavige is counting on Scientology not working. He is counting on parishioners, that don’t know the difference, to keep feeding the beast. Wost of all, he does not seem to be “in the present” enough to understand he is doing this. It seems like the biggest dupe of all is himself. It is kind of sad, really.
That’s the problem. It’s all about buildings now instead of people. I would quote L. Ron Hubbard’s own opinion on what he thought should be done “when buildings become the most important thing”, but if OSA reads my comment here, they would probably accuse me of recommending violence against a “place of worship”, even though those are LRH’s own words. I’m sure most here know that quote (and I don’t think anything like what LRH wrote here should be done against any person or building……for the record).
Honestly, Mick, I wish somebody WOULD blow up Central Headquarters!
Okay scientologists, reach deep into your empty wallets because here comes another donation drive. Only this time its REALLY important! Hopefully some of those funds will be earmarked for the first anniversary celebration of SuMP’s grand opening this May. A star-studded affair with Chill EB and champagne maybe. Or maybe not. No doubt Mike and Tony won’t forget to throw a party for that slightly less-than-auspicious event should the church decide to not draw undue attention to one of its more stellar empty promises.
Suppose to be get off your asses, but auto correct incorrectly corrects. So seemingly weird words appear an arguing with my phone is exhausting.
Apologies, but hope you get my drift.
All I have to say is this……….wow, if you can’t manage all the monies better than asking for endless supplies of it; What the he’ll are you doing with all that money Davey?????
Someone, please, somewhere, WAKE UP an audit the books with a forensic auditor!!!@@
IRS, here is you GOLDEN, (lol), opportunity.
Help our government handle it’s debt!
It’s here waiting, an waiting, an waiting.
Look around. Switzerland, the Camians(sp), Germany, but, you all have to get up of our assessment, put on your thinking caps and earn your paycheck.
For my children, for everyone’s children, grandchildren, an so on. Help the Treasury, help by paying down our debt.
Example, by legalizing a certain drug-medicine, those states have profited greatly.
By revoking “church” status to a cult that in no way resembles ” organized churches” ie Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, even LDS, their ability to preach, offer aide, social programs and charities are so far removed from what scientology does that it is laughable.
All that you heard, all that would learn from every other source about this so called religion should cause you to do something, but instead all is quiet. Are you deaf? Are you blind? There are none so deaf and blind than those that neither hear or see.
Ps……not a cult member, past or present, but Human Rights offenses, kidnapping, and child labor disturb me. Why does it not disturb you?
Find those hungry legal researches and turn them loose. Loopholes people……he’ll, if you can’t find anyone, at 66 years of age and a paralegal who can write a he’ll of a memorandum of law to convince someone, hire me an give me the Lexis an Westlake, and a well stocked library and I’ll look till I drop.
peggy, in all likely-hood the money is being spent as per IRS regs. (Hence all the new church building and what not) An audit wouldn’t do anything. Stripping their tax exempt status WOULD harm them, moving forward in time.
MW – Spot on. IRS regs are clear on how much cash a non-profit can hold. Scn can mitigate exposure to exemption review by putting up ‘spiritual’ centers, facilities, orgs, ranches, etc. And, they must offer a certain availability to the community. However, there is nothing in the regs that says people must attend or take advantage of the offer of open use. After all, Scn can’t force people to be there, (can they?).
For the Community, they could open up SuMP as a public parking lot and rake in ‘donations’ that way.
Mike, I’m not a tax lawyer, but I think I can speak to a couple of things, including that it is not so much that there are detailed regs, as that there are general principles such as “inurement” and “private benefit” which are not totally prohibited but may not be “substantial”. It’s a judgment call, leaving the question of at what point the IRS is going to make the call or compelled to examine the situation.
Another major aspect is that the CofS’ tax compliance requirements are determined in part by the 1993 agreement. They are probably in violation of multiple provisions of the agreement including most obviously one where they agreed to make “fair” refunds for monies on account through a process that is supposed to involve a simple request.
I think that some inquiry like an audit is going to be the first step in the process that might ultimately lead to the CofS losing its tax exemption, and that the process might itself reveal damaging information but it is likely to be lengthy. The other thing is that the IRS exemption included provisions such as the unique tax exemption for all “fixed donations” for services that are probably not actually legal for the IRS to make, and that most likely would be thrown out if someone sued the IRS about it.
Peace, I’m not either. However, I would bet a substantial sum that the IRS won’t get them (in ANY meaningful way) for inurement or private bene. 1) Statute limitations on most known examples. 2) Leeway given to other religious leaders in the USA by IRS. 3) Difficulty in evidence. 4) The refund policy has been ruled legal by a court already. So, not likely IRS will go against the court ruling.
The most likely chink in the armor is that they provide no public benefit for the tax exemption. That is what I was told by an Ex IRS regional auditing supervisor.
This makes me glad that I’ll never ever ever again give them one dime.
WOW on the orgs combining. I missed all this while In. As I read the lines above, immediately came to mind – “closing or combining orgs”, isn’t that a high crime? So I googled it and got this most excellent prior Rinder blog post:
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/big-expansion-news-another-org-closes/
this is an excellent and thorough unmasking. How the hell did they handle the closing orgs’ staff on the fact that it was so off policy? How’d THAT bunch of lies go?
the lies we sit through at events: “Scientology goes to all of these far away countries where the psychs haven’t taken over, and we do big big things with education tech getting into school systems, WTH handling crime, Narconon eradicating drug use, etc.” These are huge hoo-rahs in the Birthday event, the May 9th event and so on.
Yet I had never actually thought about or questioned with all this magic, why wasn’t there mass clamoring creating new missions and orgs in these succored and rescued locales? Why don’t we have big booming orgs in all these African countries without psychs who just love all our tech?
It makes me think about attending the next event…. just so I can watch it and then while munching on the double-dip pot luck spread… casually keep dropping the muse: “oh I wonder if an org will pop up soon there after all this great stuff. There will be SO much “reach!”
You mean to tell me that I’m not going to be able to tune in to the Scientology Network? No XenuTV? No “Sunday Morning with Kaye Champagne”? No “Today’s Words of Knowledge from David Miscavige “?
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Thanks, Mike! You just ruined everything!
No early morning Talk Show with “Muffins”???
Maybe Muffins could be bought, I mean urged to do a segment on the lines of ‘A Catholic’s Guide to Child Raising while making a living with Scientology.” She’s extremely well versed in cashing Scientology’s checks and praising Scientology’s treatment of children on the TV.
There is a wonderful way to test if those buildings are open to the community and other organizations. The Temple of Satan. I’ve heard they are generally groups of atheists that have banded together to form chapters in various cities and states to test out the laws regarding separation of church and state and fight back when necessary.
One of them in Oklahoma insisted on putting up a statue of Baphomet in front of a courthouse that had a nativity scene displayed. Another group in Texas recently filed that a new regulation requiring fetal tissue from abortions have funeral rites was a violation of their own religious practices.
They seem to operate as a social gadfly in testing and unmasking various claims that government agencies are religiously unbiased, so maybe they would not have a problem doing the reverse and getting Co$ to open its buildings to other “religious” groups in the community. And I think they know that forcing the issue does not bring good press to the organizations they expose.
It sound like within the message above is the very reason Co$ won’t survive another generation. If the average teenager spends 10 hours a day on an internet-connected smartphone, they now have access to every bit of anti-Co$ information floating around in cyberspace, so that punches a whole in the bubble of silence and secrecy the organization tries to maintain. Maybe adult members won’t look up information exposing what Co$ actually has done, but most teenagers can hardly wait to do something verboten. And they often crosscheck sources for more info. The seeds of destruction are already sown, imo. Unless their “media empire” targets the demographic that is “low-info” – and those tend to be a much older and less educated group – they are not only unlikely to grow the organization, but are unlikely to keep younger members.
Which also begs the question – if the organization is worth billions and these buildings, which seem to be the bulk of their efforts, represent only tens or even hundreds of millions then where (or to whom) is all the rest of the money going to and why are people still paying through the teeth to support it financially? It looks to the outside world more like a pyramid/Ponzi scheme model.
On the one hand the never ending money grabbing con job has amassed huge sums of money. On the other hand it has driven off many, many past supporters of Scientology. You can only lie and con a person so many times even with the best smoke and mirrors. The slogan of Scientology should be “More whales and less fish”.
SMP could license and pay for the continual “radio station streaming online” playing audio books of the critical books on Scientology, and intersperse those critical audio books with Scientology advertisements, at least.
Like Scientology pays for Scientology ads to show up on YouTube adjacent to critical material on Scientology already, LOL.
” Perhaps the best description of this whole thing is summed up in a single, old-school term: bullshit.”
It’s much more degraded than that Mike.
DAVESHIT is the only realistic description of it. It’s a special one of a kind type of shit that only the greatest ecclesiastical leader of out time can produce. And it’s really toxic so treat it accordingly.
Yo Dave,
We are all waiting out here on the fringes for some kind of announcement from Your SuMP good buddy!
Speak up Davey boy and tell the rest of the world how it is. Give us all a treat to some of your real Daveshit.
In fact, why not invite Leah to be your first guest and that way you can debunk all of the lies once and for all, before your flock has completely disappeared. Hey, you could even offer up an amnesty for all defrocked apostates who come in and enroll on a course. Maybe ………… your stats would soar! Thinkaboutit!
All of this must be mind-blowing to the Beaver Cleaver clan. “Gosh, Mister M, you sure are smart”
Typical of the church’s “foresight”, they invest heavy in a technology that’s already being replaced.
Media and Advertising has always been fast-moving and quickly changing; even more so in the past decade. They speak as if they are the vanguard of cutting-edge media technology. Boasting “video on-demand” (1992) and “pushing out apps” (1993). For over a year, the mobile industry has declared the app to be “dead”, and have been speculating about the next evolutionary step.
But, here’s a free tip for ya, Dave. Success in media has nothing to do with the “length of your optic cable” , and everything to do with content. And that is where you’ll fail.
Any kind of media content they produce will undergo public scrutiny and will be ripped to shreds. And they will be helpless to defend themselves, other than to cite their constitutional rights. Their content will get more airplay with Bill Maher and John Oliver.
However, Scn views the people on this planet to be “barking dogs”, stimulus-response reactive minds. And all they have to do is “press” the right button, or use the right symbol and BAM! You got a new person in the door. So, it makes sense that they would broadcast to the masses, sit back and watch the orgs fill up.
You are flogging a tainted product to an educated public, that everyone knows doesn’t work, and could possibly do you harm. You’d be better off investing in lipstick…’cause you’re gonna need it, given looks of that pig. Scientology is DEAD, it just doesn’t know it yet.
Mike, timely article. In a world where bloggers and YouTube artists and interviewers gather millions of followers from their bedrooms and living rooms the, SMP is the typical of how Miscavige thinks and acts. He is so deluded he believes that if he buys the best formula one race car he is now the best race car driver in the world. Or if he buys Jimi Hendrix original electric guitar for $400,000 he can play just like Jimi. Money can buy him anything.
All you say regarding his scams of pretending to be a religion are true with the added important aspects of content and intention.
Promoting Hubbards partial truths and lies are now being rejected by an ever increasing educated global public and Scientologys intentions are clear: extract all the money and/ or resources possible from as many people as possible.
All the advanced media technology, hardware and facilities cannot overcome those facts.
Mike, There is an old saying that applies here that aligns with your final statement in today’s blog.
“You can’t polish a turd”.
Love this Mike. I have to say those still in are in a deep black trance to not walk through SMP & not view the dust & emptiness. As for the cult versus the Internet, that shermanspeak about funneling Scientology through apps had me laughing. So stuck in the swamp of their own making, the Internet will not be their next regging ground. Too much is now on-line about Scientology that dm is powerless to control. It does give me much pause that here they go again more money needed to pump up the Scam. I have to say the bs shoveled every second by the cult is growing by the minute. Soon there will be so much, implosion could occur. ?
Getting money in exchange for nothing is, by LRH definition, criminal. Providing false information in order to get money is fraud and punishable by society with a jail term.
The IRS gave the Church of Scientology a license to steal. Without the IRS’s protection Miscavige’s abomination would not exist. Wake up IRS!
I drove by there yesterday. I saw one person painting.
That was me, Brian. I didn’t have anything better to do….
Mike, I’m afraid you do a disservice to bulls! Scios stuff is far, far worse. Perhaps the excrement of a leftover brontosaurus?
I really tried to make some sense of the email. All I could reall gather from the bad grammar and tangled syntax was that the author believes that SUMP is fully ready and fully stocked with the latest greatest state of the art equipment to do more than any other studio has ever done. No explanation as to why it can’t start today.
Oh and buy some books.
❤️❤️