First things first, the blog…
Nathan Rich provided a layman’s explanation of what happened to the blog over the weekend – I asked him to make it so even I could understand it:
Here’s how it works and what the evidence is.
If you have a computer you can make it do stuff, like host a website — but then you have people who need access to those websites. But you don’t want them to have access to your system, because you’re the owner, not them.
There’s different ways to handle this. The normal way smaller hosting services do it is by using “jails” — they set up many sort of “sub-environments” inside one machine so you can log in and do ANYTHING you want and you can never affect anything outside of that jail. Outside that jail, on the main part of the system that they control, is where the actual configuration settings are. This is where the real processes which are serving the web are found.
This is what was messed with. And that means a couple of things:
- The problem could not have been generated from malware on your site
- It was a deliberate attack or a serious problem in their system which is usually from an attack.
Generally these systems are more or less ‘auto-built’ and automatically heal themselves. The most likely scenario in my mind is the following:
a.”Unknown” people attempted to attack your website.
b. You are a “controversial” figure, shall we say, and that sways the odds towards you.
c. These people could not find an obvious way into your site.
d. They determined that site5 was hosting your site, and continued their attack, only this time, they found a file with improper permissions on the HOST (the computer outside the jail). This allowed them to alter the configuration files, which instead of ALLOWING your site to be served, instead DENIED your site from being served.
The reason it was taking them forever is because they didn’t just have to stop the attack, they had to rebuild everyone’s configuration afterwards.
It could have been a different scenario but given the fact that the vast majority of sites hosted on these low-end hosting platforms are absolutely uncontroversial, the probability sways more towards you. Of course, it also could have just been a random attack by no one for any reason, but I would guess the scenario I described is more likely.
We have no way of tracing where the attack came from.
But we have now relocated the web hosting and have implemented measures to ensure there is no repeat of this problem.\
PS: You can now edit comments for 5 minutes, at which point they become unchangeable.
And now for something completely different… Scientology’s massive international expansion.
Apologies to Monty Python. I just couldn’t resist a tweak of JAW and Gemma the Twit (if you do not understand this, don’t worry, it is irrelevant to anything important).
Chairman of the Bored has been on a mini-roll yanking ribbons at his latest ideal “orgs” — Dublin two weekends ago, Birmingham last Saturday and Amsterdam coming up next weekend (I wonder if he is going to chicken out of the trip to Holland due to worry that the Germans have a lot of sway over their neighbors…).
One could [wrongly] conclude this 3 in 3 weeks represented an uptick inside the scientology bubble. This is the ONLY reason these yankings are happening. A deliberate attempt to create this [false] impression.
There wasn’t even an org in Ireland, just a bedraggled and failing mission, a hostile press and a persistent and vocal anti-scientology community. Why this ideal org even came to be is a mystery. Perhaps Tom Cruise is going to shoot a movie there (the motivation for a number of other “ideal” orgs in strange places)? Perhaps the IAS had money stuck in Ireland they could not get out — they were Bank or Ireland customers until they had problems with scientology — this is the reason the IAS bought buildings in Harare and Bulawayo decades ago that have been occupied by squatters since. And that crumbling castle in Joburg for their “upcoming Advanced Org” that is never coming.
Birmingham is also a wasteland as far as scientology goes. The last time Birmingham org was doing anything of note was when Haydn and Lucy James were running it and they have been declared for a decade. With a few hulking wrecks of buildings in the UK (most notably Sunderland and Plymouth) purchased back in the “good old days” of wheeler-dealer Bob Keenan riding around the country with tens of thousands of pounds cash in his Triumph’s saddlebags, SOMETHING had to be done because the eyesores were generating a lot more attention and interest than the failed “ideal org” in London.
Amsterdam org has NEVER been anything but a poky dump. And with the recent decision of the Dutch courts to declare scientology NOT tax exempt there is absolutely NO reason to invest money into opening a lavishly appointed new building there. It is all for show. It is all Miscavige has got. Opening empty buildings for the video footage.
Scientology loves to promote how opening these ideal orgs generates massive expansion. They STILL circulate this poster:
It’s as if putting something on a poster makes it true. Or if COB says it at an event it becomes fact.
Hate to be a party pooper, but recent reports from Atlanta (as with EVERY OTHER ideal org on earth) are that it is EMPTY. Like dead. Nobody there.
But you don’t need to take my word for it.
Let’s look at some FACTS that are undeniable.
There are TWO Ideal Orgs in Australia. Sydney and Melbourne. AND a large new “ideal” Advanced Org in Sydney too.
These are the two largest cities in Australia. About half the population of the country lives within 100 miles of those two cities. So, if those two 10X and they represent half the country — discount the AO — by scientology’s reckoning scientology in Australia has expanded 5X with those two ideal orgs. And that is 10X IMMEDIATELY. Over several years that expansion ought to be exponential.
Now for the bad [good] news. There is a VERY accurate way of measuring scientology’s expansion. Australia conducts a census of the entire country every 5 years.
They survey religious affiliation. Scientology is shriveling faster than a grape in the outback sun.
The number of Scientologists in Australia dropped by 21% in the last five years, from 2,163 to 1,684 — that is of a total population of 24 million. (Way to Clear ANZO…)
Now, one could argue “well, there are a lot more that didn’t announce themselves as scientologists” [they were embarrassed?] and that may be true. Though even if you multiplied the number by 10 to 16,800 for the whole country it isn’t even a blip on the radar screen. But what is without doubt — there are less people willing to identify themselves as scientologists now than there were 5 years ago. Less by 21% Forget the 500% expansion, they have accomplished a 21% CONTRACTION.
Now that is the reality of Ideal Orgs. Squeeze the blood out of every last local. Fly in Dear Leader to yank a ribbon with a staged video. The circus leaves town within a few hours and the idle morgue returns to it’s natural state of comatose near-death.
Would love to see the next poster: Each Ideal Org represents 21% CONTRACTION ACROSS THEIR ZONE
Hip hip hooray!!!
The US should follow the Dutch example and revoke the bogus tax exemption. $2m a day?? Mandatory purchases should not be tax exempt. Not to mention that a cult is definitely NOT a “religion”…
This post was a Mike Rinder Mic Drop. Like “mess with my blog, huh?” Those stats from Australia are a punch in COB’s gut.
These ideal Morgs are pomp and circumstance and, as Mike suggests, tax evasion. I wonder what kind of difference the cult could make in the lives of the less fortunate if they spent their money on them instead. My local homeless shelter helps more people in one night than the cult has helped in 40 years.
As far as the website attack…please….OBVIOUSLY!!! Let’s not be naive.
And, Nathan…you da man!
But if you’re homeless, you’re of no interest to Scientology since you are already a degraded being. You have overts that placed you in that position. And you’d have no money, so Scientology has no interest in you. Not you, Teen; the rhetoric you. 🙂
Glad you had an edit plug-in enabled this time around Mike. Thanks to so many familiar names in this section that I’ve “met” in FB groups and on Twitter, you make me feel like I’m part of your family. I’ve read that a couple other blogs and/or websites were shut down too. Does anyone know if this is true? KAW – Keep Aftermath Working!
Thanks for the edit feature Mike. This is very much appreciated for those “d’oh” typos usually noticed a second after posting a comment.
First off since I don’t have a website it wasn’t my fault we went wooky. Now to the really interesting news. Let’s get in lock step with the Dutch and help Jeffrey Augustine and his petition to get the IRS to investigate the tax exempt status of the CoS in the good ole U.S. of A.
https://www.change.org/p/irs-commissioner-john-koskinen-we-demand-the-irs-commissioner-begin-an-investigation-into-scientology-s-tax-exempt-status
People should also write to their state treasurers No more tex free status
Great idea!!! Will be writing quickly! It’s offensive to me that they have a tax-exempt status. They bragged about this and it’s on video that they inundated the government with so many lawsuits that it would tie up our legal system for decades. The government had no other choice but to give in. I thought conspiracy to defraud the government was illegal?? As someone who worked in an Tax Assessors Office and participated in making decisions about Pastoral tax-exemptions on the churches residences..not churches. Not every building can or will be considered exempt by a county. They have to meet certain criteria. As a matter of fact, every three years these counties within the state have the right to ask for records of proof and can recall that Pastor-exemption. They must comply with the county’s requests or lose the exemption by default. My point is that everyone focuses on the Federal, but after getting the local COUNTIES of a STATE on the right side, they could put a lot of pressure on the Federal Government to get this tax exemption re-evaluated. It also provides some more awareness to the general public. In smaller communities they seem to get fired up a tad.
People that are not members of Scientology need to be fired up a little bit. It will help your cause, and it should be everyone’s cause. If you get non-Scientologists a little fired up about why they have to spend hard earned money on yearly real estate property tax for single family homes, yet a Scientology piece of property is getting a full tax exemption, for sitting empty, it could make this go a little faster. FYI. Call your County Commissioners, Country Tax Assessors and County Tax Offices because in each county and state these offices their policies and procedures vary. Depending upon the individual laws in place, not all of their properties can be considered a “church” and the homes in which they reside must be for pastoral or “aiding facilities”. They must serve “church” works, i.e, Pastoral prayer and guidance, In every county rules in regard to what percentages are worked within that RESIDENCE to be considered exempt vary. Again just FYI. Just because they have a FEDERAL tax exemption doesn’t mean that applies to every piece of property on the COUNTY level. It may be small potatoes, but it can serve as a way to stir the non-Scientologists up.
I’m thrilled I wasn’t blocked from this blog. I’m thankful for the explanation for what happened. I find it so interesting and look forward to the day that the people that suffer tremendously at the hands of Scientology are getting closer to freedom to just be allowed to love their family members. Possibly filing a class action suit by ex-scientologists for the money they’ve be swindled out of would be awesome too. I’m sure they have their bases covered on this, but those little laws that no-one takes the time to research and read could do wonders to helping more of them. I’m certain Mike has done a lot of this and I’m sounding naïve, or possibly repeating something they’ve said. I have just found on the outside (wasn’t in) that certain causes affect everyday people that may have unique knowledge or people with the weirdest experience to offer something that may help in the most tremendous ways.
My only interest is that people are being abused and DM should be held accountable for his actions. I’ve witnessed prosperity preachers being accused of breaking the laws and their records being demanded by the Federal Government. They want detailed explanations and yet no one in the Federal Government seems to want to do anything about Scientology. I just wonder WHY???Especially with people being held in home-made unlicensed prisons??? Thanks for the great efforts Mike. Thanks for the thought and suggestion sjnque !!
several of us are writing letters to people in major cities that are running for office. Asking the candidates publicly to state where they stand on the tax exempt status. Some people are concerned about the scienctology groups attacking them but people are on side are marching forward with a letter writing campaign
Wowww!! I’m so glad to see it’s diminishing! I hope I’m still around to see Scientology completely GONE!! Plus, I was wondering why I couldn’t get into your blog!! Thanks for explaining! Glad it got fixed! They will go to any extreme! Why? Because they know what it is, that’s why they want to keep it in the dark! That’s where evil can only reside!
Near-Death Update:
Those who refuse to differentiate Populism from the entrenched establishment continue to fire their own foot bullets on a routine basis. The current Justice Department is working to UNDO NON DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS for testimony. Only those with their own complicit fears (or ignorance) would deny this as THE path to scientology cult justice.
The fact that Bill O’Lielly and that corpulent mass of undead tissue known to humanity as Harvey Weinstein used them to settle sexual assault and sexual harassment cases is prolly a factor as well.
Cute! I love the 5 minute edit feature! Xcellent!!
I love the show. I’m glad the blog is back. What I can’t figure out is how they get away with not educating the children. How do you come back from that? Why can’t the government go after them for that? Education is key, you have to educate the kids or the government will go after you. Even if they claim they are in a ‘school’, if they can’t pass standardized tests how is that an education? Don’t they have to pass state standardized tests? I’m confused.
Ask your state DFC department to investigate
When I was kid on Flag (Apollo) in ’73/74, LRH decried that the kids on the ship must go to school. So they dug up some old school textbooks, I specifically remember a Social Studies book that was way outdated. It was utter confusion. Doreen Gilliam was charged with making sure we did “school”. That amounted to her skulking around the course room and glaring at us. A bad case of the giggles and we were toast.
We expected to have to go through the typical Scientology checksheet…there wasn’t one. No one had the time to create one…we had to do school. This happened two or three times. I suppose LRH changed his mind and decided manual labor was more valuable. But for those few days, I was so relieved to not be washing clothes or cleaning messengers cabins…but my relief was short lived. We were never even on Scientology courses so how could I expect that we’d have school on a regular basis?
When I got offloaded (yay!!) The school year in America was well underway. I don’t even know how my parents explained to the local school where I’d been. I was sea org…they were not. I begged to join when I was 13 and trying to escape the dangerous environment of Jr. High in Hollywood. Going to the safest place on Earth…which turned out to be the craziest place I’ve ever been. My family had left Hollywood so the school didn’t even know I existed. So I repeated the last year I’d completed before going to Flag. I would have never made it starting halfway through the next grade level.
If parents are complicit in the fraud, who is going to call CPS or the truancy board?
However, if you live in California, you may be aware that then Attorney General of San Fran, Kamala Harris, successfully got a law passed that allows districts to fine parents and even give them jail time if their kids don’t show up for school. Of course, the kid has to be enrolled to miss school. So there’s that…
Would love to see Mike and Leah enlist the help of the formidable Ms. Harris in this fight!
sjnque love your suggestions. I think if more people ask of their state and county departments it would put pressure where it needs to be.
I believe the Australian Census number of 1,684 self declared Scientologists to be pretty accurate. The Census is completely anonymous, and I am sure that The CO$ would have pushed its members very hard to declare their allegiance. It is a pitiful number and supports all observations that in Australia, at least, we can see the end. Oh Lordy Lordy that feels good.
can I ask without having read through everything (my apologies )…is the US able to approach the tax free status with the same criteria as Australia? That would he huge – no?
So no more typos or grammar errors? Ha ha ha, as if!
?
Ur jess a poopoo heed!
I’m so glad the blog is back, badder than ever thanks to phenomenal computer genius Nathan Rich!
Note to self..with auto correct, badder becomes bladder. Happy for edit function!!
“a.”Unknown” people attempted to attack your website.”………Damn that Dark Army !
Couldn’t they just turn on the light?
Other than the inconvenience to Mike, this attack was a blessing in disguise. It once again shows how scientologists are childish. Those infants in charge just keep on emptying rounds of foot bullets. It’s so laughable to the whole planet.
My thoughts exactly WhatAreYourCrimes. Does anyone know if they’ve stopped the harassment of the ex-Scientologists or do they still harass them without mercy? I know it sounds naïve, but really curious if they’ve still found the balls to do this since their numbers are depleting and the truth is coming out. I would think it would put a little leash on that problem. Or are they doing this in other ways not so obvious…such as this Blog.
“Oscar-Winning Writer-Director and Former Scientologist (Paul Haggis) Suggests Hollywood Pedophilia Cover-Up…”
Keep Blogging, we’ll keep reading and supporting you and Leah! As a retired cop, I can’t imagine who’d cyberattack your site…not much!
Anyway to measure the fall (or rise) in recruitment
Stateside since the airing of Aftermath?
“PS: You can now edit comments for 5 minutes, at which point they become unchangeable.”
Nathan, you are a star. Nothing makes me break out in hives faster than seeing a typo I’ve made that I’m unable to correct! Thank you so much for rescuing the site from likely adversarial attack. It feels good to know you have Mike’s back 🙂
<3
Good to have the Error 403 fixed, and thanks for the explanation. As a retired IT manager, I also had the pleasure of long nights fixing such issues (actually supervising the the real techs) when our internal/external facing web sites failed through ‘tomfoolery’! Nice to have editing available, too.
Betty, I appreciate your humor and insight, both here and at the Bunker. My favorite contributor. Hope jolly ole England has a nice Fall!
And editing works!
What a lovely thing to say, Mark. Thank you!
I- Betty spoke for me too, Nathan and Mike.
I am also glad of the edit feature. With out it I drive my Husband crazy!
I also got a message saying that I could no longer get on this Blog. Your blog came on my e-mail, and I wrote a short message (in reality just to see if it would go through), The message came up on your blog, but I have not seen it.
This is a test, only a test, do not adjust your computer. We are in control..
Stop scaring me, Lance. I had enough of that when I was in the cult.
Your right, this cult is scary to us, but, I think that this blog, videos, “Aftermath” and now the informed general public of the World who has seen Scientology for what it really is, is more scary to DM and gang.
To tell the truth, I had thought that I had offended someone and was thrown off the site. For the world, I could not think of what it would be. Wonderful to see Mike’s Blog again, and I read every one of your comments each day. I enjoyed watching “Aftermath” as always, with over a million views per week, the general Wog population is really finding out about this cult. Keep up the flow of information everyone.
Great read today as always! Nathan Rich rocks! I’m so glad he was help you with the attacks on your server and blog!
Good day Mike. I’d like to expand on your lighthearted comments regarding ANZO. Could be the missing Scientologists took a trip out to the Never-never in search of Lasseter’s Gold and never returned? Perhaps they are living with the aboriginals in search of recruits who’ve never heard of Scientology? Either way, a few photoshop edits of the crowd at Melbourne and Sydney orgs will fix that right up.
Actually they did try the Aboriginals about 86 if i remember rightly , Kerry Strongman had contacts and went up into the outback , Scientology mis calculated who they were ,told to Fu off. you honky white man ,
True story.
Priceless!! Lol..
Nah, they went to Hanging Rock for a picnic and vanished. Cue Gheorghe Zamfir and his flutes.
I realize this attack was impossible to trace, but I hope you have documented it well and contacted the FBI or whoever deals in cybercrimes these days. You may not be the only target going forward and circumstantial evidence is still evidence, particularly if it accumulates or indicates a pattern.
Playing dirty on the internet is a double-edged sword – they should already know. There’s a reason evil people everywhere want to restrict access to the free flow of information. Information is light. Ignorance is darkness. Any organization that is not strong enough to have its principles or practice stand up to that scrutiny, that makes its adherents afraid of exposure to “contaminating” outside information, is operating in the dark, regardless of what it claims. Truth is its own protection.
A beaker of water and a beaker of hydrochloric acid both look “clear” to the naked eye. But one of them will dissolve a human being. Facts matter. Critical thinking matters. Anyone who wants to keep people from comparing, vetting or analyzing data and arriving at their own conclusions is not who they say they are. Period. People who won’t allow others that right are simply charlatans, no matter how cleverly they wrap themselves or their philosophy.
Love the edit feature!
Cecybeans, I’m blown away by this post of yours. Thank you.
With the remark:
“Information is light. Ignorance is darkness. Any organization that is not strong enough to have its principles or practice stand up to that scrutiny, that makes its adherents afraid of exposure to “contaminating” outside information, is operating in the dark, regardless of what it claims.”
You condemn the concept of faith and therefore virtually all religions. Good on you!
James Rosso,
How has anything Cecybeans just said been a condemnation of faith and religions?
I don’t understand. Are faith and information inimical?
Faith is by definition belief without evidence or in spite of the evidence. An example of the former would be reincarnation and the latter would be the various types of creation stories found in every religion around the world. Continuing to believe in things without evidence to support them is unjustified and continuing to believe in things where there is evidence to the contrary is irrational. So if you argue against having faith then you argue against having religion.
Also i’d point out that many religions are “aware” of this. You said “Are faith and information inimical?” The answer is ‘yes’ and as an example i would point you to the story of adam an eve eating the apple from the bible. God’s reaction to the couple gaining knowledge mirrors the reactions of many, many priests, pastors, imams and holy men of all types to being questioned. It’s hard to be just obeyed when your audience knows a thing or two.
Thanks. I understand and agree fully with what you’ve just explained. You see, . I mistook your response to her comment as being pejorative and sarcastic. My apologies!
Wow. Cecy so well said..!!
Very true, Cecybeans.
Love this, Cecy..
And each room represents a person/family/couple who secured a 2nd mortgage, maxed out another credit card, and lowered their own standard of living even further for the empty shell of scientology.
Also: Nathan Rich is awesome.
Great explanation by Nathan. None of this is a certainty, and can only be understood using multiple scenarios with likelihoods and probabilities.
I agree that the highest likelihood was that this was a deliberate attack. Although it is not a certainty.
I also agree that there is a likelihood that it was in Scientology’s interests to be the attacker, but the consequences of getting caught lowers that likelihood quite a bit. Mike is a high profile guy now, on a TV show. It doesn’t have to have been Scientology, and it would be a mistake to think that it does have to be.
Multiple hypotheses, each with varying degrees of likelihoods and probabilities. This is the much superior way of figuring shit out after the 100% certainty of Scientology.
And now, whoever did it is much less likely to ever be able to do it again after the move to a new and improved server. In the end, it’s not a big deal at all.
And if forensics can possibly lead to proving Scientology was behind it? This attack would be made very very not worth it for them.
Way to go, Nathan!
Alanzo
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
And then there’s Sherlock Holmes:
“Watson, once you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Which is pretty much what Mike said.
Agree Aquamarine, and love ‘Occam’s razor ‘ as it fits perfectly this scenario. The probability of a hacker getting caught, well it’s very low indeed. According to Michael Panico, “preponderance of evidence rules” (and in this case motive must be carefully considered -or who benefits?) in these types of attacks.
From Michael Panico, Former FBI Agent, Cybercrime Consultant:
“First and foremost, one of the reasons they don’t get caught is because our cyber law is not in the same maturity as traditional law. For example, a hacker can attack you from anywhere in the world and if they’re in a place where the United States doesn’t have some sort of agreement—a mutual legal assistance treaty or something of that nature—it’s really hard to investigate the crime, get them arrested and then bring them back to the United States. That’s the first thing. The way our laws are set up does not really apply to cyber crime as well.
It’s also incredibly difficult to do attribution when it comes to computer crimes. Digital evidence is very ephemeral. A computer’s time moves much faster than our time so if it takes me 20 minutes to get over to the computer to figure out what’s going on with it, that’s like a lifetime. In those 20 minutes, data could have been overwritten and/or wiped by the attacker in addition to many other things. So at that point, you’re dealing in the world of inference and a preponderance of the evidence versus an absolute certainty.”
So glad you are back Mike! Love the edit feature … thanks Nathan you rock.
Hey, you’re not in the Big Leagues until someone attacks your website. Now you’re officially one of the “big dogs running in the tall grass!” Good show!
Right! Didja hear that, Tommy Davis? Mike’s a big dog now. Eat your heart out. That tall grass was a little too high for you, wasn’t it? But don’t cry; Mommy and Daddy will always love you and send your allowance.
I remember my Mom saying something about “you aren’t worth your salt until you’ve been attacked”. Odd really as she spent a bit of time as Heber’s volunteer secretary and she certainly was privy to a lot of bad stuff that went on at the hands of the GO.
Then there’s the old “you haven’t suffah’d like I’ve suffah’d”… so one attack is relative I guess. Must feel so good to know you’ve gotten to them ?
Either way, keep going and digging Mike – the angels are on your side.
I”m curious; could there be any reason for putting so much money into buildings other than the ‘expansion’ pr? Is there an economic reason, or a financial security reason, would the money be safer there, or appreciate beyond inflation?
Inside the US there is a very good reason — not so outside, but they may be spending “US money” on this.
You are in violation of IRS regulations to accumulate too much cash as a non-profit. The very broad idea is that you are providing services the government would otherwise be providing — like education, helping the poor, succor for ill etc etc. So, no taxation.
But that means you have to SPEND the money you get in for that purpose. Scientology can justify spending money to provide service to “parishioners” and part of that is providing buildings in which to do so. Nobody really contemplated the idea of simply buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of empty buildings — but then again it would be outside the scope of the IRS (or ANY government agency in the US) to investigate this as scientology (and all other religions) would scream that it was a violation of the First Amendment. Also, because of how Hubbard set up the statistics that Miscavige operates on (total “reserves”) — buildings count just as well as cash or investments. You can be sure that if Hubbard had said “only liquid cash counts” there would be no building push regardless of the IRS as they would have figured out some other way to circumvent the rules.
The inability of the IRS or any Government agency to “entangle” itself in matters of religious governance pretty much protects scientology (and all other religions) from scrutiny. This is why I am opposed to the heavy lobbying/control of the religious right. They fight HARD to protect scientology and other “fringe” religions as their outer bulwarks of self-defense. They fear that if the government was allowed to go after scientology (or other fringe groups) it would set a bad precedent that would soon have them in the firing line.
It is why those who think Trump (or any President that kowtows to the religious right) is ever going to do anything about scientology are misguided. And please, those who want to argue that this is somehow invalid because scientology was granted tax exemption during the Bill Clinton administration, realize that the exemption was basically a foregone conclusion when Fred Goldberg (a Bush appointee in the Bush Administration) formed a special committee to “review the exempt status of scientology” in 1992. The final outcome of that was in 1993 a few months after Clinton was inaugurated and it was announced in Oct 1993.
What he said, plus: To get an idea of how religious and political and political-religious (Christian Right) organizations are given protection and free run to violate the intent of the IRS policy for qualification for tax exemption, just look at the totally manufactured bullshit explosion of a nothing scandal re the IRS in the Obama administration. The IRS division that is tasked with investigating whether political advocacy groups posing as not-for-profits were actually qualified was attacked relentlessly by the GOP for merely doing their job. They Republicans tried to impeach the IRS director over it. Obama shriveled like a prune. He made no effort to defend the enforcement of these laws. If there was ever any doubt before, the signal has been sent loud and clear that religious and political organizations will be unconstrained. David Miscavige is a mere piker in the self-enrichment game, compared to the scammy preachers of the mega churches.
ETA: Love the new edit feature. Edited just for kicks.
Spoken like a true progressive. The IRS targeted conservative groups only.
Zombie lies.
In 1997 when I was in RTC, Miscavige said to me candidly and with amusement something on the order of:
“We have too much money. My problem is figuring out how to spend it. Because we can’t just keep it. What a problem, huh? Can you believe it? (chuckle)”
You should have bitch slapped him when you had the chance.
What Old Surfer Dude said.
Interesting tidbit JB.
I’m pretty sure Miscavige’s future cellmate will find such anecdotes pleasantly amusing as they while away the nights together.
Very well said. ITA that it is in the religious right’s best interest to protect CoS to keep away government scrutiny. Although it may not have to fight as hard if it can get the government to rewrite the constitution, which is one of its major objectives. If that happens and the Dominionists succeed in setting the stage for a Christian theocracy, then CoS may have bigger problems than the federal government. (We all will.)
And I realize that public pressure from outsiders may not help. But what about pressure from former parishoners who object to how the organization spends money? If they claim they were forced to leave, not because of ideology but because they couldn’t afford to support the head of the church in the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed, that could spell trouble. I mean, Jim Bakker and others have gone to jail for ripping off parishoners and living lavishly.
I have to think there is a way to go after what COB is doing (and most of the money laundering through real estate has gone on under his watch, right?) that he could be personally responsible for, despite what his loyal minions may say to contradict that. It would be easy to prove that those buildings are both unnecessary and empty – and certainly enough evidence of his opulent lifestyle to show that they are just part of a shell game to hide the assets of parishoners who are being required to take courses over and over because there are no new members to fund anything. Maybe the key is not to go after CoS but the man running it for his own personal profit. That avoids ideology altogether.
Cecybeans, the problem is that David Miscavige is not money laundering. He’s buying and renovating buildings but the money that is funding this is not money on which he’d have to pay taxes, nor is it illegally obtained or earned. Its all legitimate money, having been donated at some time or another by parishioners. The fact that Miscavige is buying buildings for his churches that sit largely empty is another issue but a grey area to pursue legally. Lots of churches are empty nowadays. The issue is a moral one; he’s feeding false information about the “unprecedented expansion” of the Scientology religion to his Sheeple so they’ll keep donating. Technically, this is fraud, but then, legally they’re a church. Not so simple for the government to take action against this. A Class Action lawsuit against Co$, thousands and thousands of people, would help. Far better that the stupid sheep wake the fuck up, stop donating, and get OUT. Which is, I believe, what has been trending for some time now. People are leaving, only quietly, without fanfare. They just quietly withdraw.
Aquamarine, I appreciate your information. I know it was intended for Cecybeans, however, it did explain a few things I didn’t understand about how they’re getting away with empty buildings. I brought up on another post about the “Pastoral exemptions” for residential or non-qualifying empty buildings on a county level. Is the entire Clearwater County corrupt or just turning a blind eye? How about the other areas that they’re located in within the United States? Are they allowing the exemptions on a county level because of fear, corruption or Scientologists on their boards? Is there a map of all the Scientology locations within the United States? Would you know a way of obtaining that quickly so that I’m not wasting a lot of time chasing something you would know how to find in a moments notice? I have learned that Scientologists are very hard working, independent, self motivated individuals. This is how their taken advantage of. Ex-Scientologists amaze me.
I’ve wanted to explain why I keep asking the questions without doing my own work. I may seem that I want people to do all the work for me. I assure you that I’m not a lazy individual and have been extremely self-dependent since a minimum of 5 years old. I developed a medical condition that only allows me to read short portions of time before I seizure. This is why I rely upon documentaries, testimonies and people that will answer my questions. It helps me maintain some level of health. I do read books and also attempt to educate myself thoroughly. Obviously, I can type for longer periods of time, but this too is an illusion, I took a typing class in my youth that allows me to type at high speeds. Prior to this medical condition, I worked extremely long hours, multi-tasked consistently and had a memory that many admired. It is not my finest moment to admit this, especially publicly. I did want you and some others to understand that I’m not asking you to do my hard work for me in a negative manner. I chose not to abuse my body anymore than I have to. Books that are read are helpful, but again, my medical condition is something that affects me in odd ways. Learning the ins and outs of this cult would probably be sadly amusing and at the same time amazing to me, I like to get into the mind of people or groups and understand. I just chose to keep my money and more importantly maintain my body in the best health I’m capable of. DM is NOT worth my health. People who obviously need assistance is important to me and worth my time. This is why I’m here. To learn and possibly help in ways people of the “real world” sometimes are able to.
The empty Scientology building in Boston is becoming an eyesore. I know its on thee market now but a big letter writing campaign could force the city to take action on the building. Urban blight
Back when coal mining was the ONLY huge daily employer going in this area, there were dozens of Catholic Churches, nearly one on every other block or so. When the coal mining industry for the most part went belly up, & the coal miners were now too ill, too old to mine, or simply died, most of those churches lost parishioners.
It was then that parishes began to close, or two or three parishes would combine into ONE church which was given a new name…& the other now unused church bldgs. sat empty for years. These empty building were eventually sold off, turned into in some cases businesses or bought & converted into family residence…some were demolished & the property used for a parking lot or a new office or business building.
Real Estate IS money…..even if it sits idle…..either the building can be renovated & reused or the land’s location is a draw for investors.
WHY won’t anyone in the Government take on the organization……simply put….the organization has, how do THEY put it????….”dozens & dozens” of lawyers that would tie this up in court for decades.
Meanwhile the Government would spend millions & millions & millions of tax payers money (including the tax paying money of those who were NEVER involved in COS & would get nothing in return), trying to resolve the creditability of “the cherch”…….mostly for dissatisfied former or members of the COS…….to get what they paid back from COS.
Mike’s reply seems spot on to me. I have thought for awhile that these idle orgs are idle for a reason – they are just real estate assets, to be used like the old Swiss secret numbered accounts: a place to securely hide and hold Scientology funds.
I wonder who advised DM on Money Laundering?
They are sitting on a building in Boston saying its on the market again. Not being used at all
In the 17th century the Dutch gave religious refuge to Jews, English Pilgrims, philosophers,etc. Amsterdam itself was comprised of many religious beliefs and remains that way. If Scientology is denied tax exempt status in the Netherlands, the Dutch courts are telling the world this group does not meet our qualifications as a religion. And the Dutch have enough history to back that up. Yes !! ( fist pump )
As Mr. Burns would say, excellent.
This comment is true. It contains irrefutable logic. But I’m more of an idealist, hoping somehow things will change on a government level. In such status quo no president will be able to change anything. I just don’t see the power of right wing religious groups diminishing anytime soon.
It would be a good start if the government would start to actually measure how much public benefit a religious group provides. How much of it’s assets are spent on how many people. And those that fail X standard, get their tax-exempt status revoked. There are countries in the world using such a system. I believe the main and most influential US religious wings wouldn’t have to worry too much then, because many do actual charity work. The classic cults will fail the test because they cater only to their own and not the public at large. It all comes down to collecting data. Surely that won’t be considered a violation of the 1st amendment right, would it?
I’d just hate to see groups such as Scientology continue to harm people with tax-free $$. And I envision a future where society says no to that. But maybe I’m too much of a dreamer.
Please write that to you state treasurer and only running for office that wants to talk about taxes
I don’t have a great deal of confidence in our government pursuing the investigation of the cult tax exempt status. Bunch of pussies are not going to stand on integrity and do the moral thing because it’s not self-serving. What I do believe, however, is that the fall of this cult will be a result of criminal,activity prosecution and a judge who does not fear career retribution. Just my 2 cents…
AND, you can forget about anyone on the left going after religious tax exemption too. Because then churches will null the agreement with the IRS to not preach which candidates their flock needs to vote for.
In short religious tax exemption is going NOWHERE. So, go after the nonprofit status violations only.
“Nobody really contemplated the idea of simply buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of empty buildings — but then again it would be outside the scope of the IRS (or ANY government agency in the US) to investigate this as scientology (and all other religions) would scream that it was a violation of the First Amendment.”
Mike, I don’t understand why it would be a violation of the First Amendment – freedom of religion – in the first place. And secondly, because the buildings are virtually empty, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make the case that purchasing them is a way of getting around IRS regulations. Right?
You’re back?
Read the First Amendment. Look up “excessive entanglement” and do a bit of google research and you will understand.
I’ll take that as a welcome back. 🙂
And thanks for the answer.
Wow, the child rapist apologist and CoS defender (criminally insane) marildi is back!
Wynski, when are you going to stop telling lies – and in such a childish way with the name calling. Honestly, you embarrass yourself.
Not going to let you back here to just start fighting with people. You are going to be criticized for your support of Marty Rathbun. If you don’t like it, don’t post here. But I don’t want everyone’s time wasted with endless back and forth personal attacks and insults. This is your response. Be forewarned.
I can understand that, Mike. But being “criticized” for, as you worded it, my “support of Marty” (on some things) does not have to mean putting it the way Wynski did.
I just don’t think he should get away with calling people “criminally insane” and other things just as extreme, and I’m not the only one he does it to – there have been numerous others. IMO, it lowers the mentality level and the quality of the discussions here. Besides, he usually gets quiet when confronted with his crap, so I didn’t expect to get into an extended “fight” with him. And in general, I’m no longer interested in extended back-and-forths, you’ll be happy to know.
Happy to hear that. Stick to that promise and all will be well.
marilidi, claiming it as a First Amendment violation is indeed a stretch, but the CofS will of course try any legal gambit available. Just the threat of dealing with such a litigious opponent, dissuades the IRS from trying to take action – Hubbard’s bullying tactics do work.
Unused real estate assets are not as obviously a violation as cash sitting around, so it’s harder to enforce – the IRS would need to make a case based on information gathered about just how much all the locations really get used, and their prospects for ever being used. It will probably take time before it becomes clearly established that they are not providing any real benefit, and the CofS would have minimal chance of fending off a challenge
Well said. To me, that seems to be the best way to go.
we have a letter writing campaign going to major cities where they are. Claim Urban blight. Boston has a major housing shortage, the building there should be opened up instead of standing vacant and unused
I disagree Mike. I don’t mean to be rude, but your limited information may lead you to the wrong conclusion. There are many good and decent churches working to abolish these “fringe” pseudo-religions and Scientology is one they have focused on for years. They have nothing to hide so no reason to protect the evil cults. I’ve helped their efforts by sharing my personal story. I’ve helped a number of Christian Chiropractors as well, who have come under the SCN full court press.
I don’t know what first-hand experience you have with with these “churches” to which you purport the protection of SCN, but there are plenty of phonies out there…and they are in the same mindset of SCN…they want money.
To some extent this is the “down side” of free speech. It’s either free for all or free for none. When it becomes destructive, like SCN, or white supremacists, or communists, or far-Left, or far-Right rhetoric, then we run the risk of devolving to defending our favorite evil.
In 1997 when I was in RTC, Miscavige said to me candidly and with amusement something on the order of “We have too much money. My problem is figuring out how to spend it. Because we can’t just keep it. Can you believe it? (Chuckle)”
Yes, it was an accurate statement. So, he has bought a shitload of useless buildings, spent hundreds of millions on plants to manufacture CD’s and books when the world is digital, hundreds of millions on studios while closing down Gold, and wasted tens of millions on lawyers and PI’s just because he could.
What he hasn’t spent it on is providing relief for disasters or the homeless or reduced the price of scientology services…
Amazing isn’t it?
That is very evil Mike. If he cannot keep it he will waste it, so others can’t benefit from the cash.
So glad everything is back to normal on your site. I remember trying to click to it from my email’s link and a message saying ERROR. I totally panicked because that had never happened before. Thanks for giving us peace of mind…
The photo at the top of the page says it all as in “WTF was I thinking joining COS”……..
Balletlady, we didn’t have the internet back then. Now, the Internet sees all and knows all. I mean, all the OT levels are all over the world. So are their crimes. Just a matter of time…
Just a note: AFAIK the Amsterdam org NEVER had tax exempt status.
They fought hard to get it but failed ultimately. The Dutch Supreme Court turned them down.
There are a few COS-related legal entities that DO have tax exempt status, Narconon being the biggest. Because of its tax exempt status however Narconon has to publish its financial records. Tony reported about that more than once, the latest episode is here: https://tonyortega.org/2017/09/07/forced-to-open-its-books-one-overseas-scientology-rehab-shows-that-business-is-grim/
The others are smaller: https://whyweprotest.net/goto/post?id=2612184#post-2612184
Thanks for clarifying. Love the fact that exempt organizations have to disclose their financial records. Exactly as it should be. These are organizations intended to be for the public benefit. It’s very wrongheaded in the US. See my other comment about the lobbying power of the religious right in this country.
And did Miscavige actually pronounce “Birmingham” as in Alabama and not the one in England? … Talk about cringe worthy and freakin’ CHEESY! … and just plain ol’ DUMB!
How is it pronounced?
Ohhhh, I adore the new edit feature! Nathan Rich, you rock, and that’s coming from someone who was born in ‘59 and has been in the industry since ‘63.
I FINALLY got over to the Philly “ideal” org and their unobtrusive storefront in Philadelphia. The towering Ideal org has brown paper blotting out the windows and very faded Way to Happiness posters. The windows are fifthly. There were collapsed cardboard boxes in front of the door. There was a piece of trim flopping up and graffiti on the place. It’s in a bustling section of Philly, across from Macy’s. Last I heard, they were being fined for neglect and officially considered a “blight” on the city.
A few blocks away is their storefront. It’s right behind the very active convention center. There were about a 100 conventioneers or more on the sidewalk near the convention center, but no activity near the org.
I guess they don’t even have enough people to walk a few blocks and clean the “ideal” org or replace the faded posters. What a scam!
It’s a great sight to see Scientology withering in Philadelphia. May they continue to rot away.
A cyber attack, eh? Hmm. Who would do such a thing? Such a bad judgement on their part. The most they can do is devil you for a day or two, but they’re not going to stop the truth.
I trust you have multiple backups and I’m glad you now have a much better ISP.
Write to the city officials asking that something be done with the eye sore
OK, so that explains the 403 error. I had a feeling you were under attack, but was not sure.
On to something a little off topic. I play this game on XBox One called “Watch Dogs 2” It is set in San Francisco and in one of the chapters I have to talk to this very big actor and break into the building of this type of religion he is in. As I played the game, it became obvious to me that this “religion” had some interesting similarities to another religion…scientology…maybe.
It was a lot of fun to sneak around and do this and that and finally end up in the headquarters and end up in their basement, where the “sacred stones” were located. The sign said “Don’t touch the Sacred Stones” but of course I had to do it. When I touched what looked like a 2 ton stone, it fell over, it was a plaster cast made to look like a stone. I also had to rescue the actor, who was held captive in one of their other locations, all guarded by real nasty guards. The game is loads of fun to play, lots of puzzles and gun play, but I just thought you would be interested in that interesting part of the game.
Being 70 years old and playing video games may seem a little odd, but a few years back, I had a mild stroke that took out most of my left side, and since I am a “lefty” I had little function in my left hand. The “Brain Doc” as I call him, who I went to see, asked if I have a video gaming system, when I said yes, he told me to start to play “first person shooter” games (which I was already playing with my Grandson). It took about 6 months, but I am back to being a full functioning “lefty” (My mom use to tell me “all lefty’s are crazy…I tend to agree with her). I play my Grand Son (10 years old) online and he kicks my tush all the time, but it’s great fun.
Just thought you’d find this a little interesting, even though it’s off topic, so to speak.
Off topic… not at all! Hey, if you find something that works and creates a smile or three at the same time, I’d call that “on topic”. Best of luck getting the most out of that 70 year old body, they can kick back sometimes with some weird happenings hey?
Thanks, nice to read your comment
The game “Dead Space” did something similar with its ongoing reference to a religion called Unitology.
In fact, I think the whole chaos and ruin of everything and everybody in this game was linked to this crappy religion. Quite befitting.
“Altman be praised!” Altman is even depicted as being similar in appearance to ole’ yeller himself.
As for 1,684 Scientologists in Australia … Does anyone really think that 1,684 different people did a MAJOR service in Australia in the past couple of years? … REALLY? .. Cause if folks ain’t doing major services, there ain’t no way no place is gettin’ cleared no how, baby … People who do an extension course or go to events to remain in good standing or say they are Scientologists to appease a family member are essentially UTR …
Would the hacker or hackers please stand up. One of Davy’s major fears must be those that do his dirty work will go public or spiteful/vengeful when they realise what they work for. It’s happened before, can’t wait for it to happen again. But it is comforting to know that what this site does really pisses off those in or in control of Scioland.
Take a bow Mike, you’re impinging!
Yes PLEASE!
Wouldn’t it be great if someone was brave enough to do this, then plea bargain any possible punishment down to nothing. Meanwhile the authorities can go after the real kingpins (or pinheads in this case), like in a RICO trial.
Man, what a hero that person would be. Seriously!
Happy all is well again! 🙂
“…chicken out of the trip to Holland due to worry that the Germans have a lot of sway over their neighbors”.
From what I know of the Dutch it’s highly unlikely that they’d take any notice of what a German said; unless it was to do the opposite. The Nazi’s inhuman treatment of the Dutch, including their attempts to flood large swathes of the country at the end of WWII, is a national memory which will take generations to fade.
True but mutual enemies make strange bedfellows and money talks. Germany is the economic powerhouse of the EU. Don’t doubt how much influence they can exert.
Last night we came up with a logo/motto.. Scientology..where stupid happens
Scientology: Where Stupid Happens. One of THE best mottos regarding the cult I’ve ever seen. Well done! Damn well done!!
Yeah it was pretty funny when it happened in the FB group lol
Spot on Cj. Scientology sure has a home ground advantage with stupid. It is the home of stupid, and has a multiple management level structure and all. I also didn’t know they could stack shit, oh I’m sorry… I mean stupid that high either. Goes all the way to very TOP and then some! It’s enough to make a cheer leaders legal team do a blink-a-thon at half time!
I don’t know. Most of the so-called Greatest Generation is dead now. Most Millennials don’t seem to give AF about history before the iPhone 1.0 or the PlayStation.
Don’t count the millennials out. There are a lot of great people in all generations. You’d be surprised how informed the millennials are.
Talking of Monty Python, it was storm Brian that buffeted those attending last Friday’s Birmingham opening. When ‘Slappy’ Dave came on stage I wonder if JAW paused to ponder those magical words from The Life of Brian: “He’s not the Messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy!”
Rumour has it that the calgary location in Canada is closed but I haven’t driven by to check.
Calgary is a mission – most of which are dying. It appears to be one that has, or had, a cheap second-story walk-up location over retail space, which is fairly typical for the missions that still have standalone locations. Some of the locations also turn out to be where the mission holder runs some sort of other business.
The typical pattern seems to be that the standalone locations reduce and then stop keeping their posted hours (Calgary apparently now claims 4 half-days a week) and are only open occasionally, and then close the location entirely. They may claim that the mission has moved to an address which turns out to be the mission holders’ home, or the business of someone affiliated with the mission.
Can you take a drive by it, Tracy? Maybe take some pics?
You can see how dead all these scientology locations are on Google street view. I looked at the street view of the Edmonton one awhile back after seeing some moronic event advertisement shown on Mike’s Thursday Funnies. It was in an industrial park next door to a paint distributor or something. Not too cosmically appealing in the gargantuan effort of planetary clearing.
In fact, someone should make a website showing Google streetview photos of all the known scientology locations in the world, updated periodically. I know I know, I should do it.
Had occasion to walk by the Toronto location recently (the big building on Yonge near Charles St) and was surprised to see some activity there, maybe it’s not so unusual but the first sign of life I’ve seen there in some years. One guy with a table full of dianetics books and a giant (approx 6′ X 3′) oversize dianetics book to attract people… I guess. Did not appear to be attracting any. This building has maybe 100 windows visible from the street and it looked like all the ones not boarded up had taped over cracks. Talk about blight. A door was open into the darkness inside with a ‘free stress test’ sign taped beside it.
Continuing south, at Yonge and College there were ‘for lease’ signs in some of the second floor windows, as I understand this is where the Toronto location moved when the big building closed, although I have no idea if the units for lease are the ones scientology occupied.
Your friend was right Mike. Attacks these days are money driven. The attack on your site was a paid attack. No one randomly (for no compensation) takes out sites anymore. No money (or as in this case, cancellation of a lower condition assignment) no attack.
Please don’t stop doing what you are doing no matter what D M and his merry band of fools try. Any smart person see’s them for what they are and are not taken in by them. That’s why they are having such a hard time opening up New brain washing centers. If the money dries up so do they.
Yeah, I don’t think Mike is going to be scared away by any of David Miscavige’s infantile tactics. Neither is Leah Remini, Tony Ortega, Chris Shelton, or any of the the countless ex-scientologists speaking up fearlessly against scientology.
In fact, the whole world has turned on this so-called “church”, and any thinking practitioner with any modicum of decency is embarrassed by being a scientologist in good standing.
Census stats on religion in Ireland were also released recently. There are no numbers for 2011, but for 2016, according to the census, the numbers of Scientologists in Ireland was 87.
Source: http://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/presspages/2017/census2016profile8-irishtravellersethnicityandreligion/
They have 87 members? Whoa! They’re just about ready to take over all of Ireland!
Probably 87 retired English expats.
Well…ok, but, think of all the drinking games we could play with the 87 expats! We could take over Irish bars and drink for days.
It could be an infinity of 7. You know what Scientology does with numbers and stats?
And as that old song goes – “87 green bottles sittin on the wall… and if one green bottle should accidently fall, there’ll be… ” Ahhh the Irish!!!!
Each attack by Scientology reveals again and again of the dangers of Scientology.
Each attack reveals, for all of us, the deviant nature of Scientology.
Each public attack, by Scientology, is a public service announcement, created by Scientology, that advertises:
STAY AWAY FROM THIS DEVIANT GROUP OF DELUDED DANGEROUS ZOMBIES
The greatest threat to Scientology is Scientology expressing itself. Scientology’s expression of it’s deviant doctrines is always a self inflicted wound.
In that regard, the greatest existential threat to Scientology is the standard application of L Ron Hubbard’s psycho paranoid doctrines on critics.
Sometimes I think the Feds are simply sitting back eating popcorn and watching the destruction of Scientology taking place organically.
It’s possible that the Feds are simply watching the public take down and are waiting to pick up the broken pieces at the right time.
Leah, Mike, Jefferey, Karen, Tony and the rest are slowly building the case.
The tipping point is nigh.
Wow! Click to edit! Cool!
The sad part is that some of the zombies are very intelligent, but are so well trained (okay, brainwashed) not to look at anything controversial 🙁 Even though I ran from DM, SO & Scientology long before DM could publicly proclaim himself COB, it took over 30 years for me to break that last piece of brainwashing! It’s very sad 🙁
It was sad, but now it’s a success story!
CMO, at least you broke that last piece of brainwashing. And when you left, you got your old life back! I know you were in for 30 years, but, you’re now, Free at last, free at last! Thank God almighty we’re free at last.
CMO, I’m still looking at stuff as well. Especially when we got in as kids. Those formative years, ingesting Hubbard’s madness, I find to be very deeply rooted in me still.
I feel like I’m peeling off layers.
And Mike: this Aftermath did the trick. It really layes out the legal fraud. Very powerful episode.
Don’t forget the unbreakable Miss Lovey Paulette Cooper
I got to meet her at a Tony Ortega book signing a couple of years ago. After what she went through, she is my hero.
I also love Paulette! She’s the original warrior against Ron’s social deviance.
Brian,
Great encapsulation of where scientology is going and what they will continue to do to get there. It’s in a DOWN elevator with no stop button.
And, Mike, Thanks for the open and transparent rundown on the site attack. You are held dear by all of us and your welfare is important to each of us.
I’m sure there is a Fed agent, Fed department head, or whole Fed department that is gearing toward making a gigantic career move in taking down Miscavige and scientology. Whatever group of people makes the move, they probably have been weeding out scientology spies and tattle tales before proceeding.
There is a great book in all this.
The train wreck of scientology sure makes for great melodrama, doesn’t it?
Yes :-), it’s got all of the elements of a good story. Great bad guys, reluctant heroes, sacrifice, intrigue; it’s amazaing.
I’m looking forward to the Hollywood Blockbuster: Scientology!
Shawn Penn as Miscavige. There will be a movie. Aftermath has the church on the ropes. It’s becoming chic to being a Scientology critic.
I can see lawyers licking their chops after tonight’s show. And maybe writers writing a screen play. It’s all there.
I’m hoping that the last of this series is an episode on where all of this fraud comes from: Hubbard. I’m hoping Hana Whitfield tells us some Hubbard tales.
We need an episode just on Hubbard.
Watch the Jamie DeWolf videos. He is the great-grandson of LRH, and his insight to his great-grandfather’s is extremely entertaining and informative.
It is easy to be fooled (by a cherch) showing pictures of beautiful large buildings and PR tha goes with it.
Thank you and all who help expose these lies from the “Chairman of the Bored”.
It is too bad that the hacking website ‘invaders’ cannot be ‘marked’ in some way, like bank robbers are with exploding indelible purple ink bombs stuffed in the cash bags. The tech geniuses need to work on that one.
Heh heh heh.
Nice work/explanation, Mike & Nathan. Thanks.
Was a secy for many years for a company that had offices in Almsmeer and Dublin. About four times a year the US office made “purchases” from the Netherlands and Ireland offices. About once a year they made “purchases” from US office. Even though we were all the same company we were technically completely separate entities. Every few years the companies would close and re-open under a different name & with a different set of officers . It’s just legal tax avoidance strategy.
I assume you read my posts to you on Facebook? Or maybe on The Bunker? I asked my friends at The Bunker, (who are on twitter) to please contact you regarding an SSL certificate on your website. Without encryption your site will be hacked sooner than later. I am happy to see that you did, in fact, Have an SSL certificate added to your website…You can now rest much easier with your website being encrypted…
You are a treasure Trashton….(I’d call you “T.P.” but that doesn’t sound too great)…thank you for all you are doing to help Mike Rinder……
The Adelaide Org in Australia has been getting smaller and smaller too.
The buildings they rent that is.
Won’t be long and it will be run from someone’s backyard shed because that is all they can afford.
Glad your blogs back. I was going through Rinderblog withdrawal symptoms. 🙂
Love the photo Mirror T. Looks like he/she is paralyzed by the LRH look alike portrait. Bet you find a strategically placed hairball later.
The ‘jail’ you posit is usually called a ‘sandbox’ in the internet world. Just saying.
The Idle mOrgs are just a Norwegian Blue with its feet nailed to the perch. It’s dead, dead I tell you. It’s an ex mOrg. Paint it blue all you want, it’s not even Norwegian.
They’re pining for the fjords… they’re tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk
Ok I just spit my coffee out on that one… You guys are killing me this morning!
Were they killing you softly with his song?
So what WOULD happen if you put four thousand volts through it?
I thought this was meant to be a cheese shop?
Well, there are cheese shops, and there are cheesey shops, I Yawn. Ya gotta pick ’em carefully.
A welsh rarebit said that too… am I missing something?
A welsh rare bit? How rare rare is it? Is it for sale?
As far you missing something, I’m the king of….I’m the king of…never mind.
It didn’t have a for sale on it that I saw. But it did raise it’s little paw in an obscene fashion. I think it hates cheese!
Hey Mr Rinder:) I am so glad you are back:)) Thankyou (and Nathan) for the explanation:))
Testing whether I can edit my comment within 5 mins. Ooh yes! I can! [and just have!] Very useful feature. Thanks Mike.
“Massive Internal Expansion” or Breakwind strikes again…lol
Mike, this cyber attack is a badge of honor for you and Leah. Proof that you are truly a thorn in DM’s knickers. Keep up the good work!
So very true for Australia – and sadly, so many bankrupt or near bankrupt current or former Scientologists.
But it’s going to be the firs clear continent! LRH said so!
BTW, love the new editing feature. Should save me much embarrassment (did I spell that right? Yes, I did!)
Maybe the first continent clear of scientologists. One can only hope.
Suspect that will be Africa or Asia.
Pretty much the whole continent of Africa is bereft of scientology except S. Africa and it is dying rapidly there.
Asia is a wasteland, only orgs in Japan and Taiwan. Not even a single org in India (despite years of hype about missions exploding with demand there) and banned in mainland China. 2.5 billion with nada. Taiwan does seem to be the only place on earth where scientology is having some success…
Tim Fitzgerald comes to mind. He was an Aussie whale for such a long time and now he’s toast! Lost he lot, family included. He did however rip off his business, his partner and their dealings with external labour, their working capital, his own companies employees & contractor’s fees, even local govt councils he owed $ to and gave it all to Scioland. So on source he was and turned out to be such a criminal – it’s amazing he still has the use of his arms and legs. Geezers he ripped a lot of people off! Seemed like a nice guy but turned out to be such an asshole, no remorse that I ever saw either for other people’s hardship he created under his employ/influence, just a burning desire to lap up the Cof$’s praise of him while the money flowed. I was actually in the same room as him a couple of times and listened to him being regged on the phone. He just couldn’t say no and lapped up the bs like a dry sponge and then gave over his cc #. Needless to say our relationship didn’t last very long, I ended up making him fell very uncomfortable by just being near him. It boggles to mind to meet people like that. His every sentence a lie.
Yeah ,but hes got toast and freedom ,Lidoran Roofing was a target for the Regs,On a daily basis
Lidoran Roofing…Yes it was indeed a rege’s target indeed. Fitzgerald just let it happen too. I had some tradesman friends who got entangled with him owing them money = ugly!
Then there was that quarry at Kings Plains near Blayney NSW. What a cluster fuck that was for investors, they lost everything. The only winner was the local farmer who got to graze his cattle on the site. Fitzgerald is an asshole, he owes a lot of good people an apology – BIG TIME!
“Chairman of the Bored” – first time I’ve read that one. :))))))
But the most classic line of all: “Scientology is shriveling faster than a grape in the outback sun.” That started my day off with a good laugh.
Nathan Rich – what a guy! I find it poetic that someone who was so abused and thrown away by his family and this church has picked himself up from the bottom and really made something of his life. AND been the one to fix and explain the problem with this blog. He truly demonstrates how on “Something Can Be Done About It.”
Chairman of the gored? Okay, I’m trying.
That’s a good one too, but then it would be COG. :))) Heh! I just had a COG!
That’s a good one too! But then it would be COG. :)))
I was gored by a chairman once. But the Chairman of the Board intervened.
Interesting! Glad to hear the numbers are dwindling. I’m an Evangelical who prays for you and your family to find perfect peace and may the true God strengthen you in this important work you do.
Ditto from a Catholic.
🙂 That’s a very nice sentiment.
Amen Barbara, God can heal the broken hearted!
Crazily suspicious what happened to your site. Glad it hasn’t prevented you from blogging.
In theory, mathematically they could claim infinite expansion and get away with it. Anything multiplied by zero is still zero, but it sounds good in the tag lines.