Clearly scientology is worried that Mark Bunker is proving to be a viable candidate for the Clearwater City Council. They are now resorting to one of their tried and true tactics against those who worry them the most (see below in this blogpost for earlier examples of the same playbook). Following is a series of short videos of a recent candidates forum. Scientology sent along a gaggle of hecklers to disrupt Mark's statements -- pursuant to the policies of L. Ron Hubbard. Unfortunately, there is no video showing their faces -- perhaps next time when both Aaron Smith-Levin and I … [Read more...]
Where Clearwater Candidates Stand on Scientology
Tracey McManus published another of her uniformly excellent articles recently: Where every Clearwater City Council Candidate stands on Scientology I have excerpted most of the answers to her survey and offer my biased views on them. I believe there are just two reasons why scientology is actually being spoken about in this election. It has been a taboo subject for local politicians for decades. They have steered clear of this topic like it was the plague... Now for the first time in recent memory, it is something to be debated. The two factors are Tracey's bombshell article … [Read more...]
Flag is Empty
They claim it is a 4 star hotel. This is the peak season in Florida. Yet while every other hotel is charging the highest prices of the year, they are trying to attract people with special discounts -- $113 for a 4 star hotel in Florida in January? Absurd. And breakfast thrown in and chocolate covered strawberries. At this time of year you would be lucky to get into a 2 star hotel for that price. The place is empty and they are doing anything they can to get some rooms occupied. If Flag was "booming" the Ft Harrison would be full and they would not have room for locals to … [Read more...]
The L. Ron Hubbard Hall Money Making Machine
Scientology is still hard at it, raising money for the completely superfluous auditorium they say they are going to construct next to the Super Power building. And they are sending out new promotional pieces about it at an increasing rate. This is a very recent fundraising letter and there is also a whole magazine devoted to the subject: This is the cover of the mag... It is a strain for them to come up with reasons why anyone should be giving money to such a boondoggle. That this is going to be an event hall "large enough to hold every international … [Read more...]
The Economic Impact of Scientology on Clearwater
Scientology spews out paid ads proclaiming their wondrous contributions to society, most especially to Clearwater. I see these things on Twitter and when I respond they delete my responses. So, in keeping with the time-honored solution of “doing what Ron says,” I am putting my response on my own channel of communication where it cannot be altered (or deleted). Their tweet above makes the bold claim that scientology paid $3.1 million in property and tourist taxes in 2018. And that they "generate $1 billion impact into the local economy." As for the first claim -- this may well be … [Read more...]
More on Miscavige and Clearwater
Further on the blog post from yesterday (Miscavige Schmoozing City Officials) -- some important points I omitted to mention and an update. First: Why were these 3 city officials at the meeting? As I said yesterday, Miscavige considers Bill Horne and Pam Aiken to be his buddies. But the real reason is that they are not ELECTED officials. If there were two ELECTED officials in the room it becomes a "public meeting" subject to the Sunshine Act laws. Bill Horne and Pam Aiken are very well aware of this. They were complicit in making sure this meeting was not one that had to be … [Read more...]
Miscavige Schmoozing City Officials
Tracey McManus is on the ball again. Reporting on the ongoing efforts of Miscavige and Co. to fulfill their plans to make Clearwater the “first scientology city”. Her latest story covers a recent meeting between scientology’s capo di tutti capi and three non-elected city officials. Miscavige has had a long term relationship with City Manager Bill Horne and City Attorney Pam Aiken. It seems they brought along Michael Delk so he could be introduced to the big cheese. Miscavige first began schmoozing Bill Horne and Pam Aiken when he was here trying to keep his ass out of a sling in the Lisa … [Read more...]
Why Clearwater is Losing to Scientology
Tracey McManus broke another story concerning downtown Clearwater and scientology on Friday. It speaks volumes about why scientology has been able to proceed unchecked with its announced plan of making Clearwater the "first scientology city." The elected officials of Clearwater are so intimidated by the organization, and so lacking in understanding of how it works, they stumble along "trying to get along." They are forever being quoted saying "you have to play the hand you deal" and other explanations/excuses for being outplayed, outsmarted and outwitted by scientology. David Miscavige … [Read more...]
Names of the Flag OT Committee
This is a lazy post today, so I can take a day off. I am simply including the latest commendation from the Flag OT Committee which lists all the active members of the Committee. The mos gung-ho clapping seals of the Tampa Bay scientology community. Scientology is trying to promote “I am a scientologist” but it’s hard to find out who they are so now their names (other than seeing them inside the magazine). Their names will now be searchable on google... If you search for CLEARWATER SCIENTOLOGISTS these names should show up. This is the email they sent out: The following … [Read more...]
Scientology in Clearwater
Scientology has been desperately trying to generate some goodwill in Clearwater. They are advertising on local radio for people to watch ScientologyTV (you can bet that isn't working)... They are sponsoring Tweets every day like this one. The problem is, those first two comments are only the tip of the iceberg. Here are the rest of them (haven't looked for an update since I wrote this a couple of days ago -- but I am sure things have NOT improved). Not a SINGLE supportive reply -- and I assume they have been deleting "entheta" responses fairly … [Read more...]