Spectacular, yes. If they can afford to live like tourists for the rest of their lives . . . .
But boring after a while, no?
Still, I bet they can't afford to live like tourists for that long.
Paul
Spectacular, yes. If they can afford to live like tourists for the rest of their lives . . . .
But boring after a while, no?
Still, I bet they can't afford to live like tourists for that long.
Paul
Spectacular, yes. If they can afford to live like tourists for the rest of their lives . . . .
But boring after a while, no?
Still, I bet they can't afford to live like tourists for that long.
Paul
I'd be curious to hear from Tikk again at this point on whether he now thinks Debbie and the cult did or didn't negotiate a side agreement that included the cult settling more money on her in exchange for her turning off her megaphone.
During the Monday morning quarterbacking that went on here, the Village Voice, Marty's blog, and other venues, the following statements were printed:
Tampa Times: "The agreement dated Monday allows both sides to essentially call it even and go their separate ways. Neither pays the other side money, and Cook and her husband are legally prohibited from ever again speaking ill of the church." At http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1226702.ece
See settlement document at http://markrathbun.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/injunction.pdf
However, it's seems unlikely to me that Debbie and Wayne could finance such a relocation -- even to Guadeloupe -- if they didn't have some new-found resources to do so.
TG1
Who would want to live there?
My guess is that she'd be set up in hotel management, a travel agency, i.e., become part of the tourist economy, not opening a liquor store in a sketchy neighborhood.
I think I explained in one of the Voice stories but basically, the reason I maintained Cook couldn't have gotten paid beyond what was stated in the above settlement order is because the terms of the breach were in that agreement; and Scientology couldn't have thus gone back to the court and argued "Cook breached and owes us the million dollars we secretly gave her." And that's still true--there can't be secret money tied to Cook's silence because there's no 'consideration' (a contractual term of art meaning that where, in a bargain, one party gives something and the other party gives nothing, there is no contractual obligation for lack of consideration). But there could be 'secret money' given in exchange for something else, which no one was aware of at the time, that being banishment to Guadeloupe.
I guess some might see the situation as Cook/Baumgarten *wanting* to go to Guadeloupe as opposed to *having* to go to Guadeloupe (and evidence of this would be their having little left here), but my sense is that it benefits Scientology more than it benefits them; to the extent serendipity played a factor, perhaps, but I think Scientology just wanted Cook far away from Marty and US courts. For Cook/Baumgarten, Guadeloupe is an unknown. Sure it's a vacation spot, but it's not like they know anyone. People don't just get up and move to Guadeloupe, even when they have money.
But to the extent Scientology helped this move along, or set her up in a new business, I believe that any financial help they gave or are giving is severely limited and every penny accounted for. The last thing they're going to do is give her enough money to leave her in a position to turn and fund her own litigation against them. So my guess is that she's not being paid so much as having her rent paid, having perhaps a startup business financed, etc., and that would all disappear if she suddenly decided she didn't want to continue cooperating.
That's a damn good guess, hadn't thought of that. She does have extensive experience in running hotels.
I just hope she can resist the temptation to replace room Bibles with Dianetics and order hotel guests to get Sec Checked when they complain about having to attend morning muster.