The always on-the-ball Tracey McManus has filed a new story about downtown Clearwater, the City Council and scientology. It would appear that the recently elected city officials have had a bit of a wake up call. The conciliatory language they were spouting a few months ago when they were trying to get elected about how they intend to "work with the church of scientology" is now being replaced with expressions of frustration. Tracey's reporting in the Times has been documenting the massive buy up of downtown real estate by scientology and scientologists for years. The alarm bells should … [Read more...]
Scientology and the “Chaos Merchants”
Hubbard designated the media "Chaos Merchants" who are to be harassed and attacked because they publish "lies" about scientology. Ever since he failed to persuade a Saturday Evening Post reporter to write a glowing piece about him in the early 60's, the media have been enemies. In Ron's Journal 67 he specifically states: "Our enemies on this planet are less than twelve men. They are members of the Bank of England and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains, and they are, oddly enough, directors in all the mental health groups in the world." Of … [Read more...]
Clearwater: The First Scientology City — Another Huge Step
It didn't take long. Just days after Mark Bunker was replaced on the city council, scientology's latest, and largest single land-grab in downtown Clearwater was announced. The most prominent office building in downtown, current home to the Clearwater City Council, was purchased by Moises Agami, prominent scientologist. He now becomes the landlord for both the City of Clearwater and Tom Cruise... Remember, the guy who replaced Bunker, old-boy establishment favorite Ryan Cotton, is a scientology apologist who "declined to say whether he believes Scientology is involved in the acquisition … [Read more...]
Clearwater Election: Why Mark Bunker?
A recent article in the Tampa Bay Times highlights why it is so important to re-elect Mark Bunker to the City Council and not either of his opponents. Neither of these candidates opposing Bunker have any understanding of scientology. Mike Mastruserio: Quoting from the Times article: Mastruserio said he considers revitalizing downtown the city’s most pressing issue. In a campaign flyer, he stated: “Scientology continues to hurt our city’s reputation, handicap our overall development, especially downtown.” He said Bunker has not done enough to address Scientology’s … [Read more...]
People Magazine: Where’s Shelly? Scientology: You’re Bigots
Following the excellent and extensive reporting by Yashar Ali on the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige (I just updated my blog post about this to include the latest documents from Yashar), People magazine published a piece on the subject (shallow and revealing nothing new, I wish they had followed Yashar's lead and actually dug into this subject. But, the tremendous reach of People cannot be denied and serves to raise public awareness on the issue. You can read the People piece here. What is also interesting is the inevitable response from the scienobots on social … [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...]
David Miscavige Is Doing Business in Florida
A new article by Tracey McManus reports on the contacts between David Miscavige (Mr. Mickiewicz to his friends) and the former and the interim City Manager of Clearwater. Remember, on 27 December, William J. Schifino (former head of the Florida Bar) and 2 Washington DC lawyers from powerhouse lawfirm Williams and Connolly (Joseph Terry and Krystal Durham) made "special appearances" (cost is no object when it comes to defending the COB, why use one lawyer when you can hire 3?) filed a motion claiming that Miscavige has not been properly served in the Baxter/Paris lawsuit. They claim he was … [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 m … [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...]
Premature Ejaculation in Clearwater
I included an item in last week's Thursday Funnies about a new "hang out" coming to Clearwater. I am not sure who had put this on Facebook as the posting was forwarded to me and I have no way of tracing it back... It certainly made it sound as if the Prelude Coffee and Tea bar was a happening thing. The excitement was barely contained in the posting. This is the thing everyone has been wiating for in downtown Cleqarwater, finally being made a reality... Not so fast. Here is what this property actually looks like -- photos taken Friday: Apparently the idea of … [Read more...]