Corney

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Posts by Corney

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  20

  Help: project to gather statistics on JW congregation finances.

  by Anders Andersen in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many countries demand that charities publish a yearly summary of their finances.. where i live (netherlands), charities must publish these statements themselves, and jw do this at jw-anbi.nl.

  (i'm quite certain almost no jw knows about that site btw.).

  anyway i've been working on automatically harvesting data from all the congregation finance statements to gain more insight in how the borg is doing over time.. now it occured to me that i could do this analysis for more countries and get an even bigger picture.

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  Corney

  Thank you for this great work.
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  20

  Help: project to gather statistics on JW congregation finances.

  by Anders Andersen in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  many countries demand that charities publish a yearly summary of their finances.. where i live (netherlands), charities must publish these statements themselves, and jw do this at jw-anbi.nl.

  (i'm quite certain almost no jw knows about that site btw.).

  anyway i've been working on automatically harvesting data from all the congregation finance statements to gain more insight in how the borg is doing over time.. now it occured to me that i could do this analysis for more countries and get an even bigger picture.

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  Corney

  Anders, after all the scandals, did donations in the Netherlands in 2018 increase or decrease?

  P.S. Add New Zealand to your list: https://www.register.charities.govt.nz/CharitiesRegister/Search
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  10

  Orange County, CA: New Case and New Legal Tactic

  by Corney in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  john roe 1 vs. defendant doe 1, congregation is a child sexual abuse case pending before the superior court of california, orange county (judge john c. gastelum).

  jury trial is scheduled on june 15, 2020, but it may not occur: the judge is expected to decide on multiple pre-trial motions including motion for sanctions filed by plantiffs; next hearing on pre-trial motions is scheduled on may 14.. case docket is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dbqcronnkeax492pshgwpuoubt-xaabz/view?usp=sharing .

  case documents are available for purchase here: https://ocapps.occourts.org/civilwebshoppingns/search.do (case number 30-2014-00741722-cu-po-cjc).. during the course of this litigation the court ordered watchtower to produce molestation complaints it received, redacting only names of victims and elders handling the matters.

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  Corney

  John Roe 1 vs. Defendant Doe 1, Congregation is a child sexual abuse case pending before the Superior Court of California, Orange County (Judge John C. Gastelum). Jury trial is scheduled on June 15, 2020, but it may not occur: the judge is expected to decide on multiple pre-trial motions including motion for sanctions filed by plantiffs; next hearing on pre-trial motions is scheduled on May 14.

  Case docket is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DbQcRONNkEax492pshgWPuOubt-xaaBZ/view?usp=sharing

  Case documents are available for purchase here: https://ocapps.occourts.org/civilwebShoppingNS/Search.do (case number 30-2014-00741722-CU-PO-CJC).

  During the course of this litigation the Court ordered Watchtower to produce molestation complaints it received, redacting only names of victims and elders handling the matters. In August of 2018, Watchtower produced the documents with redactions of all identifying information.

  In September, six Jehovah's Witnesses mentioned in the (unredacted) documents - three victims and three victims' relatives including an individual "accused of, investigated for, and exonerated of, sexual abuse of his daughter" - filed a motion for protective order before the Court "to assert their privacy rights, their clergy-penitent privilege and religious freedom objections to disclosure of the documents".

  Moreover, on August 23, 2018 they (later, an elder joined them) filed federal lawsuit against the Californian Court seeking injunction on enforcement of the discovery order at issue, "with respect to the unredacted names or identifying information of Plaintiffs or their family members".

  Plaintiffs are members of some of the congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses that supplied the documents at issue in the State Litigation to Watchtower. Each one of them is named, identified, or described in the documents that must be produced pursuant to the May 17 Order, and each one of them faces a serious risk that their privacy will be violated if the documents are produced without the redactions requested herein. Three of them are victims whose names will be redacted, and yet each faces a risk of identification because the names of their family members will not be redacted. The other three are family members of victims who are concerned for their own privacy and for the privacy of their victim family members. Plaintiff Doe 7 is a congregation elder. All seven Plaintiffs are mentioned in the documents in the context of sexual abuse, assault, and molestation—allegations that expose Plaintiffs to extreme harassment, humiliation, ridicule, social stigmatization, and physical and emotional distress, and that infringe upon their religious freedoms.
  

  The plaintiffs also requested a judgment declaring the order null and void. On January 14 the case was dismissed without prejudice.

  Interestingly, plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit were represented by Robert Crockett, a business lawyer and a member of the LDS Church (long time ago, he even was a Mormon bishop), and his law firm.

  The case documents I was able to obtain:

  Initial Complaint

  Amended Complaint

  The Discovery Order

  Motion to Dismiss filed by Defendant, the Superior Court

  Declaration and Memo filed by Zalkin Law Firm on behalf of Intervenors, Plaintiffs in State Lawsuit

  P.S. I have to mention Mark O'Donnell who first wrote about the federal lawsuit, even though I dislike him and he didn't provide case name or number or any case documents.

  Sorry for my poor English.
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  12

  Palm Coast Facility Shut down

  by loneranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i understand the teaching facility in palm coast florida usa has been shut down now for about three months or so already.

  this is the facility the wts purchased from embrey riddle univ.

  a few years ago.

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  Corney

  Watchtower still owns the properties: https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=598&LayerID=9801&PageTypeID=4&PageID=4330&Q=2057205553&KeyValue=44-11-31-0000-01010-0020

  Moreover, during 2017-2018 it spent nearly $3M on extensive renovations: https://www.palmcoastgov.com/search/permits/by-parcel?id=44-11-31-0000-01010-0020&display=detail

  The main contractor was Gary M. McCumber (dba McCumber Homes Inc) who appears to be the son of Mark McCumber, a professional golfer and a Witness.
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  39

  New Poll : Trump 51% Approval Rating

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  more than half the country approve of the president.

  ( just thought you might wanna know)🤓.

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  Corney

  Rasmussen's prediction for 2018 midterms: GOP leads by one percent point.

  Fact: Dems won the House by 8.6%.

  That's a huge error.
  
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  33

  Jw.org news about new assignment

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just read this interesting news at jw.org.

  g.. .

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  Corney

  Inform Lloyd Evans.
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  39

  What a Bad Day for Democrats

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. current

  so first the mueller report .... ... then avenatti, the hero that never was.. ... cnn panelists being arrested.. ... now obamacare has been rule unconstitutional so it's official - he achieved nothing at all.. what is gonna happen next?.

  i bet beto will stand on a glass table and fall through it.. or aoc will choke to death trying to eat a tide pod..

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  Corney

  ... now ObamaCare has been rule unconstitutional

  Trump's subordinates refused to defend duly enacted federal law and nothing more. There is no final court decision.

  so it's official - he achieved nothing at all.

  Or Trump is just obsessed with destroying Obama's legacy.
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  19

  Electronic Frontier Foundation v Watch Tower Society

  by Corney in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  [disclaimer: the headline is slightly misleading since the eff itself doesn't participate in the case, so read more below].

  it's not a secret that during the last two years watchtower obtained nearly 40 dmca subpoenas requiring google, facebook, instagram, twitter, soundcloud, scribd, reddit and other isps to provide personal information of users that allegedly infringed the society's copyright.. since subpoena proceeding is ex parte, almost all the requests were granted.. but one of the affected users contacted, on advice of youtube's legal team, the electronic frontier foundation (eff), and the foundation found a law firm ready to represent him pro bono, namely garvey schubert barer:.

  youtube's legal department emailed the user on or about july 10, 2018, five days before the subpoena's return date, stating that it would comply with the subpoena unless it received a file-stamped motion to quash "or other type of formal objection before july 20, 2018.

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  Corney

  EFF's staff attorneys filed new motion to quash DMCA subpoena - now on behalf of Reddit user darkspilver: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-backs-redditor-fight-stay-anonymous
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  4

  17 October, 2018 Russia - Kerch College Massacre

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  sadly an 18 year old russian male shot and killed 20 people and injured another 70. this occurred last year on the 17th october, 2018. kim and mike (youtubers) reported this today.. the russian had been raised by his mother who is a jehovah's witness.

  his ex girlfriend said that he had been subject to bullying because he was seen as different by other school kids and believed the shooting may have been a form of revenge.further information can be found here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kerch_polytechnic_college_massacre.

  his mother belonged to the local jehovah's witnesses,[27][28][29][30] limited his social activity, searched his pockets and refused to allow him to go to the cinema or use a computer, only allowing the latter when he turned 16.

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  Corney

  This part of the Wikipedia article is very poorly written. It gives the impression that multiple sources were taken into account but in fact it cites mostly third-hand reports based on very few secondary sources. All media reports contradicting the main narrative are ignored.

  I wrote on this issue here: https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5073857628078080/russian-gunman-raised-jw-family?page=2#/5643711020007424

  Unfortunately, I have almost nothing to add. Journalists have lost interest in this story, and there were no new info, no valuable, informative media reports were published during the last 4 months. Available information is incomplete and inconsistent, often unverified. The official investigation is conducted in secrecy, and even when it will be over the case files won't be released. It is SAD, isn't it?

  Maybe Mike & kim can give us a more balanced view.

  I would also love to hear Johnny the Bethelite. For his balanced view and inside information.
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  20

  Russia Confiscates $30.4 Million Property From Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Room 215 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/russia-confiscates-30-4-million-property-jehovahs-witnesses.

  it would appear that with this most recent confiscation the total taken from the jws by moscow amounts to more that $75 million.

  (ouch!

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  Corney

  OrphanCrow,

  You ignore the context and connect unconnected. The org had no intention to avoid established procedures and tried to obtain proper permits but local authorities often abused and violated the law by refusing to issue them. Then it obtained permits for commercial or residential buildings. Just like many other minority religions had to do. Was it honest? No. Did it harmed public interests? Again, no: land was obtained legally (generally bought), not by fraud, building safety wasn't impacted, the state wasn't deprived of any taxes. Compare with the Orthodox Church that often doesn't even try to obtain any permit but authorities almost always help it to legalize its illegal buildings.

  As to the org's unsuccessful attempt to prevent unlawful confiscation of its properties after countless flagrant violations of the law committed by police, "experts", "judges" with total impunity, I cannot blame it.

  Finally, a proper "price" of minor regulatory violation could be a fine, not confiscation.
  

  Splash,

  The campaign was started after the MoJ filed its application with the Supreme "Court". Do you really believe it could lose? In no way it could.

  I'm not saying the campaign was wise - no, it wasn't. But, first, its impact shouldn't be overvalued; second, the most of those criticizing it are just sympathizers of other campaign - of raids, searches, arrests, criminal prosecutions, surveillance, intimidation, tortures etc.