This month's edition of Tampa Bay is evidence of how hard scientology is still working to "safepoint" the Clearwater community. There is a concurrently published YouTube video on this subject: Tampa Bay magazine is typical of this sort of publication you find in many major cities -- it's glossy pages feature full page ads for the restaurants they review, ads from realtors for the homes they highlight, ads from lawyers who write columns in the magazine and a bunch of "social" shots of the local luminaries attending events in the area. There is no real reporting, it's all puff … [Read more...]
Re-elect Mark Bunker to the Clearwater City Council
The election for Clearwater City Council is in March 2024. Campaign season has begun and the candidates are now raising funds. Mark Bunker is up for re-election. It is important that he retain his seat -- he remains the only politician in the City of Clearwater or Pinellas County not in fear of scientology. He continues to raise the issues of concern with respect to scientology trying to make Clearwater the "first scientology city." He does not fall into the "let's all just get along" bleat of so many elected officials as a means of avoiding calling out scientology for their bullying … [Read more...]
Exposing Scientology’s Latest Clearwater Takeover Plan
Another excellent piece of investigative journalism from Tracey McManus in the Tampa Bay Times yesterday: Email detailed plans to obscure Scientologists role in Clearwater project No wonder scientology spends so much time and effort trying to smear her -- accusing her of being a bigot and a hater. It's all they've got. Her stories are carefully researched and documented, and in this case she has a smoking gun email. Her story details the land grab ongoing just north of downtown Clearwater, spearheaded by an Arizona real estate developer named Rodney Riley. He is a newcomer on … [Read more...]
Clearwater Development and Scientology
Happily, the referendum passed to allow the City of Clearwater to sell property to developers. Tracey McManus reported on the outcome. The development aims to bring up to 600 apartments, a 158-room hotel and a half dozen restaurants and retail spots along the city’s bluff. Right in front of the Ft Harrison and between it and the Sandcastle. Miscavige and scientology are no doubt very unhappy with this turn of events. I suspect when the information becomes available we will learn that the majority of "No" votes came from scientologist heavy precincts. The measure passed by a 2 to 1 … [Read more...]
“Safepointing” Clearwater (The First Scientology City)
Hubbard instructed scientologists to ally themselves with real organizations and religions in order to establish a "safe environment." This is something scientology treats seriously, especially in Clearwater, home of the "spiritual headquarters" of scientology. Lisa Mansell and Pat Harney work on trying to accomplish this almost full time. And they have local scientologists like Joanie Sigal who are also heavily involved in these efforts, along with other lesser lights like Daniela Nessen and Pam Ryan Anderson. This is a page from the latest issue of Tampa Bay magazine covering a recent … [Read more...]
Yes for Clearwater
Mark Bunker sent me the two videos below and asked that I share them here. I gladly do so and wholeheartedly support this effort. Citizens of Clearwater will vote on November 8 to allow the city to sell two parcels of land to developers (Mark explains the process in the second video). They are planning major construction that will bring people to downtown Clearwater -- despite scientology's best efforts to buy up all available properties and keep Clearwater on track to achieve their goal as "the first scientology city." This plan will throw a major wrench, or more aptly a whole … [Read more...]
The OT’s Saved Clearwater
Scientologists actually believe "OT's" can influence the weather, bring down the Berlin Wall and restore calm to areas plagued by violence. Their fantastical thinking never seems to take into account the fact that these OT's can't seem to manage to deal with the massive negative PR associated with scientology. See the arguments made by Danny Masterson's lawyers, splashed all over the media “There is a really negative view of Scientology… the general public's view of Scientology is more negative than any other religion.” Or the fact that the hurricane even came near Flag and shut … [Read more...]
City of Clearwater and Scientology Maneuverings
The latest reporting from Tracey McManus highlights the tensions in the city as they try to deal with the maneuverings of David Miscavige. The Mayor and City Manager are on one side, and the City Council on the other in the battle over parcels of downtown property scientology wants. Tracey's earlier report goes into more detail about the plans to build affordable housing across the street from Miscavige's office and the termination of that planned construction after Miscavige got involved. Now, City Council members (notably Mark Bunker and Kathleen Beckman) are upset that they have … [Read more...]
The Hubbard Hall Boondoggle Rolls On
The latest puffery selling the idea of constructing a completely superfluous "L. Ron Hubbard Hall" in Clearwater. I have written about this before a number of times, most recently here. But this new magazine promoting their latest adventure, taking another "Journey with Ron," highlights a whole new level of deception. The trip was to Ireland and Scotland: I won't go into a lot of detail about Ireland. Hubbard did visit there and had an office at one point and tried to establish a "Personal Efficiency Foundation." Nothing ever came of it, and it … [Read more...]
“Freedom” Magazine Very Old News
Happened to see this tweet from Freedom magazine on my Twitter feed this weekend. I thought it was a new campaign they were starting. Turns out, it's just a rehash of the last Freedom mag of any note -- released in 2019. They are still playing that same old song "we are good citizens of your fair city and we just want to get along." It's a big lie. Ws then, remains so today. I wrote about it at that time: Scientology BS Grows Deeper Scientology wants only one thing for Clearwater. What is good for scientology. They have made their intentions clear -- Clearwater is … [Read more...]