We appreciate that readers are often sending us links to stories that only tangentially relate to Scientology, or don’t have a connection but still evoke Scientology’s well-known controversies and tactics.
And with some recent examples getting notice from our readers, we thought we’d acknowledge them and get your thoughts: Is it that Scientology’s thuggish ways are really spreading in our world, or was Scientology always reflecting the bad behavior and grifting habits of the cruel reality we live in?
1.
We want to start with something that has us really mystified. It’s an example of how we live in a world of technology that has no accountability and yet has such an influence in our lives.
What we’re talking about are the faceless robots that run social media, and in particular, YouTube. We received a notice recently that the video platform had taken down a March, 2023 podcast episode we had posted with HBO’s Q: Into the Storm star Fredrick Brennan.
Why? Scientology’s robots said we were “spreading dangerous conspiracies” in the episode, and it gave us a timestamp as evidence.
Say what? After being posted at our channel for more than a year, a podcast episode that was audio-only was suddenly in violation of YouTube’s standards? According to whom?
We listened to the episode, focusing on the area around the timestamp, and of course there’s nothing like conspiracies being discussed. In fact, we were talking to Brennan about his interest in Scientology and the articles he has written about it at Wikipedia. Fred said that at one point, he heard Jon Atack mention that when Scientology sued over the publication of his 1990 book A Piece of Blue Sky, it was one of the first times a US judge had declared that a book could not be published. Fred wondered, was that true? So he researched the legal papers, and found that it was even worse than Atack had said.
Here’s the actual transcript of our discussion before and after the timestamp YouTube objected to:
Fred: Scientology is so interesting to me. I read a lot of legal articles…
The Bunker: You’re right…
Fred: And so, there are legal battles and all the crazy stuff they’re doing in courts around the world is one of the things I find interesting about them. So no, the case was real, New Era Publications International APS, because bizarrely they are suing sort of this Denmark corporation…
The Bunker: Right!
Fred: …in US court. I wasn’t able to find out why, or what the legal theory behind that was, and, it’s probably a tax dodge that came to, that was my only explanation in the end. But I’m not sure why they would incorporate in Denmark? I mean, who the hell knows. Maybe…
The Bunker: You know, Jefferson Hawkins would probably know. Because I think he, in his book he talks about their publications being based there.
Fred: Yeah, I’d really like to know why.
The Bunker: Jefferson was working out of Copenhagen, I think. Yeah, that’s interesting.
Fred: Yeah, because the name of the case, New Era Publications International APS vs Carroll Publishing Group and Jonathan Atack, APS stands for ‘Anpartsselskab’ or something.
The Bunker: Whoa.
Fred: Yeah, very weird.
The Bunker: Well, I think A Piece of Blue Sky is the first full-length book about Scientology that I ever read.
Fred: I think in the case briefs they say that it was the first academic study of Scientology. It’s very, and it’s so detailed. There’s so many footnotes when you read it. Which I really appreciate. Because if you know anything about Wikipedia it’s all about the footnotes.
As you can see, we had asked Fred about the things that aroused his interest in Scientology, and he talked about researching an actual Scientology lawsuit over an actual book. No conspiracies involved. And certainly no “dangerous” ones.
Knowing that it was likely pointless, we appealed YouTube’s decision, and when it was upheld, asked for a “human review.” But the video remains down.
We’ll just say, when you’re trying to report on the controversies of a litigious, dirty-tricks bully like the Church of Scientology, the last thing you need is this kind of faceless cowardice from a platform like YouTube.
Oh. and we’ll just point out, YouTube’s takedown of the episode hasn’t affected the copy that still exists here at Substack. You can listen to it in full here.
2.
We heard from quite a few of you about the very Scientology-like tactics of Disney attorneys, who are trying to force a wrongful-death lawsuit into arbitration.
Jeffrey Piccolo is suing over the death of his wife Kanokporn Tangsuan, a New York doctor, who died of an allergic reaction after dining at a Disney World restaurant last October. A waiter at the restaurant had assured the couple that the things she wanted to order did not contain the ingredients she had serious allergies to, and that turned out not to be true.
But Disney is arguing, in very Scientology-like fashion, that Piccolo is in no position to sue and must instead take the case to arbitration because at one point he had tried out a free trial of Disney+ for a month in 2019, and that the fine print of that trial contained an arbitration clause.
Yes, it does sound a lot like Scientology, which has been derailing lawsuits filed by former members because they had signed service and employment contracts with “religious arbitration” clauses.
In this case, however. the public seems to understand how unreasonable this is. And our friend and attorney, Scott Pilutik, at Facebook provided this analysis about how boneheaded this move has been by Disney:
This was a huge public relations blunder, asking a judge to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit (filed by the estate of a Disney restaurant patron who had food allergies) and relegate the claim to arbitration because the decedent had, in 2019, signed up for Disney+, whose fine print reads that…
“…any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration.”
Essentially, Disney is saying that its millions of Disney+ subscribers can’t file any lawsuit against Disney for any reason.
The mind-blowing cherry-on-top part is that lawsuit was only seeking $50,000 (which is remarkable in itself if the facts as alleged are accurate) [EDIT to note that this is likely the amount of the jurisdictional threshold, the actual damages request could be (and should be) far higher].
Now Disney corporate has to answer for this suddenly-widely-reported story, surely costing it much more. Plaintiff was doing Disney a favor with such a low damages demand, and Disney repaid that favor by shooting itself in the foot.
The analogy with Scientology and its tax exempt status as a religious organization is not exact, but we can certainly see why our readers have seen Scientology’s thuggish tactics in Disney’s boneheaded move.
3.
And finally, we wanted to acknowledge how refreshing it is to see a grifter caught for their crime. Well, alleged crime. News broke yesterday of an arrest in the attempt to auction off Graceland, which turned out to be an elaborate scam of forged signatures and loan documents that was stopped when Riley Keough went to law enforcement and the sale of her grandfather Elvis Presley’s iconic Memphis home was halted at the last minute.
Now a woman named Lisa Findley has been arrested after a federal investigation, and she’s being accused not only of dreaming up the scam, which claimed that Graceland was in hock because of a (non-existent) loan taken out by Lisa Marie Presley before her 2023 death, but also then trying to cover her tracks by claiming that Nigerian scammers were actually behind the scheme.
As far as we can tell there’s no Scientology angle to Findley’s alleged scam, but of course Lisa Marie’s longtime involvement in Scientology and her dramatic break from it (which she talked to us about), and Riley’s departure and possible return to Scientology makes any story involving them interesting to us.
We hope Riley is keeping Scientology at bay these days, and we’re glad that she not only foiled this attempt to steal Graceland from her, but also that someone is facing charges for it.
Scientology comes up in a case of murder in Italy
A tragic case of a 33-year-old Italian woman, Sharon Verzeni, being stabbed to death on her evening walk the night of July 29-30 in Bergamo has captured local media there, with police struggling to find solid leads.
News stories there are beginning to mention that Sharon and her partner, who were about to marry, were said to have been taking Scientology courses at the Bergamo mission. But Vanity Fair Italy says the parish priest dismisses this as an important element, insisting that the couple was preparing for a Catholic wedding.
Police have begun taking DNA samples from some people in the town as they continue to search for Verzeni’s killer. If Scientology continues to come up in coverage, we’ll let you know.
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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
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
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“It’s probably a tax dodge?” That’s the only straw I could come close to grasping as far as the YouTube video.
The Disney case is scary because it means other attorneys are paying attention to what Scientology lawyers are getting away with. It is so far out in left field, let’s hope no judge bites.
As for the murder in Italy, I’d like to believe there’s no connection to Scientology, but Scientology always seems to find its way into tragedies.
I’m using AI for many aspects of my film/music career. The use of a crude form of this technology has been extant for censorship for more than a few years. And groups like Scientology and other high control groups are now using it to lie and manipulate group members or critics.
Now their trick will be gaming AI. Scientology has no doubt figured this out. I use AI for creative purposes, criminals will use it to scam people and evade justice.
My suggestion is do your own research and understand how the AI technology is reshaping our world. Here is a link to a promo video for my music catalogue. Almost all of the video and images were created with the help of AI. The music was written and produced by me and my partner.
Tune Sonic Music-
https://youtu.be/ooS3gMy2vCQ