WhiteDragon25
Banned
Did they have cell phones in 1977?
There's the Brick, was that available in '77?
Did they have cell phones in 1977?
And part of good poker play is giving your opponents a chance to panic (or steam) and thus play poorly.. . . to call his superiors in the church that 'the FBI is on to them!'. This causes the superiors to panic as well and send out a scrub-order to all their agents currently carrying out Operation Snow White, causing the agents to panic as well and rush to complete whatever tasks they were midway through before making their getaway: this rush-job however results in a lot of sloppiness, as they fail to destroy some records that they were supposed to destroy - records that leave a paper trail right back to them - and destroying some records that they weren't supposed to destroy - namely, a not-insignificant number of IRS tax records.
This sloppiness and the suspicious departure of a great many people from government offices all around the same time tips off the FBI . . .
Ah, yes, this lovable, but still stupidly huge and clunky phone, still functional!There's the Brick, was that available in '77?
All this is, is alpha state meditation. I mean, well, shit, scientology doesn't have any monopoly on this at all!!Why You Could Have Fallen for Scientology, Too
Esquire, Jan. 23, 2013.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a18293/going-clear-scientology-book-review-15010316/
' . . . "Sometimes during the course of these treatments, people have the feeling of leaving their body. They actually 'go exterior,' as they say. After that, you're hooked," [Lawrence] Wright says . . . '
Did they have cell phones in 1977?
Most people reading this probably know that Scientologists will harass people mid or higher who quit, especially if they speak out against the damn organization.
So, a mob boss's daughter joins Scientology. He's not crazy about it, but he figures that if that's what she wants to do, he's okay with it. She even moves up in the organization. Observing too many things first hand and too many broken promises, she decides to quit. She even wants to speak out for the sake of former friends still in the organization.
The Scientologists do their usual method of following her around in white SUVs. They do not immediately realize that they're outclassed (I'm sorry, but this part kind of tickles me!)
Yes, Leah Remini who does her show on A&E. I think she’s a brave and good person.Most people reading this probably know that Scientologists will harass people mid or higher who quit, especially if they speak out against the damn organization.
Yeah, what's her name from King of Queens?
I believe a pager/beeper would suffice. Then it's just as easy as letting them know "this thing goes off,that's the signal".
You know, it might be possible to combine the above with this PoD below:
An FBI agent takes a dim view to some random Scientologist loon showing up to shout at him and his colleagues, so he just up and arrests the loonie, in front of the 'church' representative's entourage, who panic and make a break for it; as other FBI agents chase after them, one of the runners uses his phone to call his superiors in the church that 'the FBI is on to them!'. This causes the superiors to panic as well and send out a scrub-order to all their agents currently carrying out Operation Snow White, causing the agents to panic as well and rush to complete whatever tasks they were midway through before making their getaway: this rush-job however results in a lot of sloppiness, as they fail to destroy some records that they were supposed to destroy - records that leave a paper trail right back to them - and destroying some records that they weren't supposed to destroy - namely, a not-insignificant number of IRS tax records.
This sloppiness and the suspicious departure of a great many people from government offices all around the same time tips off the FBI who were just thinking they were dealing with one loud asshole: investigating the buildings that had sudden departures of supposed employees, they find several record rooms in disarray, and after cleaning up the mess and reorganizing it for proper examination, discover a number of documents are missing pages to them - most notably the ones referring to the Church of Scientology.
The FBI also find that some IRS records are missing as well, and notify the IRS about the damage; the IRS is not amused about this news, and start their own internal investigation to see what the actual damages were to their tax records. Days later the American public gets letters in their mail informing them the loss of their tax filings means they won't be getting their tax returns on time. The public explodes in anger over the loss of their tax returns, and demand answers on why and who to blame.
The FBI, meanwhile, having opened their own investigation on the Church of Scientology thanks to the botched scrub-order, are informed by the IRS about several discrepancies in the CoS's own tax filings - discrepancies that may indicate cross-state financial crimes - and set the FBI on several leads on prominent CoS offices.
The media becomes a flurry of scandal reporting as the FBI raids Scientology's offices all over the country, and end up arresting numerous Church figures on charges of espionage and destruction of evidence. The GOP is initially opposed to this investigation, due to the CoS having given their support to Ronald Reagan's election campaign, but upon the discovery of the CoS's more insidious crimes - kidnapping, child slavery, human trafficking, brainwashing, among others - the GOP quickly changes their tune in order to salvage their chances of victory in the 1980 election, and become the most hardline supporters of the investigation.
The entire circus still ends up damaging Reagan's election campaign, as he only wins the election with a significantly smaller margin than previously predicted before the 'Snow White' Investigation began. Scientology, meanwhile, undergoes complete collapse as the FBI systematically tears the organization apart, culminating in the arrest of L. Ron Hubbard himself, and his court trial ending in his sentencing for 30 years in prison for fraud and tax evasion, among other charges.
With blood now in the water, the FBI and the rest of the Department of Justice start taking a closer look at similar organizations like the now-defunct 'Church' of Scientology, including the increasingly-popular Evangelical 'megachurches', and manage to nab a few of them for their own financial crimes as well. The rise of the megachurch is blunted as a consequence, and with that, the Republican Party's pivot to the Religious Right as well.
Scientology's downfall would have far-reaching consequences for decades to come, but among the more notable ones, is that Tom Cruise never becomes a member of the 'Church', and so his rising Hollywood career remains unblemished by his humiliation on Oprah.
What would be some of the consequences of this alongside the potential collapse of the evangelical megachurches?
Greater scrutiny of the influence of religious institutions in politics?
The rise of the evangelical megachurches doesn't collapse completely, it's just blunted and given a bloody nose; they would still be powerful due to size and wealth, but there would be less of them in total and their influence over the GOP would be far less ironclad than in OTL. While the Religious Right would remain a significant voting bloc, the fallout of the Scientology investigation would make most people much more suspicious of their motives and intentions than what they publicly state, and so the GOP leadership might end up split between those who want to go all-in on getting the religious vote, verses those who take the long-term view that they may be more trouble than they're worth and look elsewhere for a reliable base.
If anything, George W. Bush - if he even gets elected at all - might shy away from his 'faith-based initiatives' policy plan out of reluctance of getting burned by it somehow, and without Bush's limp-wristed attempt at promoting 'compassionate conservatism', the Religious Right wouldn't have grown to exercise such lockstep control over the Republican Party come Obama's (or whoever is the '08/'12 Democratic President's) administration... and if they don't have such levels of control, then a GOP civil war might just happen earlier on before we get to the 2016 elections, thus avoiding the disaster that is Donald Trump altogether.
Of course, that's skipping over the 80's and 90's, so who knows, maybe the Religious Right might claw their back to prominence and we get to where we are now anyways - particularly if that slimeball Newt Gingrich still gets into Congress and pioneers all the dirty partisanship tactics that still plague us today.
And there is something from early in Reagan’s presidency which potentially could spiral.. . . interesting to see if Reagan could screw up this
And there is something from early in Reagan’s presidency which potentially could spiral.
In large part because the issue had been presented in writing to Reagan simply as a freedom of religion issue (and Reagan himself had scribbled “I think we should” in the margin), the Reagan administration ended up reversing course on Bob Jones University vs. the IRS.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/05/14/Washington-WindowReagan-seeks-black-support/7173390196800/
And Bob Jones, Jr. (1911-1997) said some ugly things, and yeah, he really was a nasty man.
I don't really know about neo-conservatives. Maybe ? ? younger and more hardcore ? ?. . . the rest of the Neo-Conservatives 1984 . . .
Scientology's downfall would have far-reaching consequences for decades to come, but among the more notable ones, is that Tom Cruise never becomes a member of the 'Church', and so his rising Hollywood career remains unblemished by his humiliation on Oprah.
I don't really know about neo-conservatives. Maybe ? ? younger and more hardcore ? ?
Especially the People's Temple where over 900 persons died in November 1978. And it was Christian, at least nominally so!This may set a precedent for law enforcement to deal with the more dangerous cults in the '80s and '90s. Hopefully the FBI ITTL would intervene before the People's Temple, Heaven's Gate, and the Branch Davidians become deadly.
....
And perhaps some of these changes do lead to a less cozy relationship between evangelical Christians and the Republican Party.