Scientology propaganda update: The Fabos Factor is back as the entire US goes Ideal!

We want to thank the readers who send us some of Scientology’s latest propaganda. It never fails to fascinate us, the way this organization gets its members excited about handing over even more of their hard-earned cash for Scientology leader David Miscavige to turn into his vanity construction projects.

In particular, Dave’s “Ideal Orgs” promise to create a new “Golden Age” of civilization, and Scientologists are being told that they are tantalizingly close to this goal: Only 12 more gleaming cathedrals left to build to make the entire United States “Ideal,” at about $25 million per facility or so. Chump change.

In order to promote this idea, a “convention” has been scheduled to take place in a couple of weeks at the San Fernando Valley Ideal Org, with Scientologists expected to have their butts in seats from 9 am to 10 pm. Hey, those are Sea Org hours!

But wait, there’s a special treat in store if you show up: At 5:30 pm, the superstars of expansion will show up to hand out some awards! Let’s take a look at who’s going to be featured…

First, there’s Tom Cummins who, after Bob and Trish Duggan, is the biggest single donor to Scientology there has ever been. At last count, he had donated something like $40 million, and that’s just to the IAS, Scientology’s membership slush fund, and that doesn’t count the millions more he’s given to Ideal Org projects.

He runs a deregulated electricity concern in Florida, which we’re sure is completely not some kind of utility MLM. And look at this badass billing!

Also showing up is Tom’s partner in crime, his best pal and fellow electricity mogul, Jim Bridgeforth, who’s no slouch at about $15 million in IAS giving.

But the names that really caught our eye were this next couple, none other than Steve and Peggy Fabos, otherwise known to Scientology watchers as The Fabos Factor!

Well, it’s good to see that Steve and Peggy are back in Dave’s good graces, because we had noticed their scarcity from recent fundraising materials.

You may remember the backstory. In 2017, Steve’s son Shaun Fabos was recorded in a pretext phone call with Danny Masterson rape accuser Jane Doe 1, who got Shaun on the phone to ask him if he remembered her telling him, in 2003, about being attacked by the That ’70s Show actor, and just a few days after that incident occurred. While he was being recorded, Shaun said that he did remember Jane Doe 1 telling him that in 2003, and that he had been so angry he wanted to kick Danny’s ass.

Masterson’s prosecution considered this a key piece of evidence backing up Jane Doe 1’s case, and they planned on calling Shaun to testify about it. That was not just bad news for Danny, it meant that a Scientologist, Shaun, whose parents were wealthy members of the church, found themselves in a position that they might be contributing to the prosecution of a Scientologist celebrity.

We couldn’t help noticing that it was precisely at that time that Shaun’s father Steve and Steve’s wife Peggy suddenly stepped up their fundraising for the church, making a big show of being major donors to multiple Ideal Org projects around the country, and in fanciful outfits, calling themselves The Fabos Factor.

It sure looked to us like some kind of “amends” project, intended to make up for what their son was involved in.

As it turned out, Shaun’s testimony was a disaster. If prosecutors thought they could get a Scientologist to stick to the script and merely admit to what he’d said in a 2017 recorded phone call, they were mistaken. Not only did Shaun fight the direct examination (and was declared a hostile witness), but he volunteered some pure fantasy, that he’d actually been along on a 2003 Florida trip and could impeach Jane Doe 1 about her condition on that trip.

Shaun Fabos is not being asked by the prosecution to testify in the retrial, which is no surprise. But we couldn’t help wondering if his testifying at all had been just too much for Miscavige, and perhaps Shawn’s wealthy parents were out of favor.

But now, with their inclusion in this new Ideal USA convention, we can see that all is well, and The Fabos Factor is back. Hip, hip, hooray!

We only wish we could attend the convention and see all this star power in one room. It will no doubt be a barn-burner!

And hey, Canadian Scientologists are getting a convention of their own the very next week. This continent will be Cleared in no time!

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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

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