Spanish flu: the killer that still stalks us, 100 years on

One hundred years ago this month, just as the first world war was drawing to a fitful close, an influenza virus unlike any before or since swept across the British Isles, felling soldiers and civilians alike. One of the first casualties was the British prime minister and war leader, David Lloyd George.

On 11 September 1918, Lloyd George, riding high on news of recent Allied successes, arrived in Manchester to be presented with the keys to the city. Female munitions workers and soldiers home on furlough cheered his passage from Piccadilly train station to Albert Square. But later that evening, he developed a sore throat and fever and collapsed.

He spent the next 10 days confined to a sickbed in Manchester town hall, too ill to move and with a respirator to aid his breathing. Newspapers, including the Manchester Guardian, underplayed the severity of his condition for fear of presenting the Germans with a propaganda coup. But, according to his valet, it had been “touch and go”.

Lloyd George, then aged 55, survived, but others were not so lucky. In an era before antibiotics and vaccines, the “Spanish influenza” – so-called because neutral Spain was one of the few countries in 1918 where correspondents were free to report on the outbreak – claimed the lives of nearly 250,000 Britons. Cruelly for a nation that had seen the flower of British male youth mown down by German guns, the majority were adults aged 20 to 40. The mortality was the inverse of most flu seasons, when deaths fall most heavily on the elderly and the under-fives.

The global death toll was inconceivable: according to the most recent estimates, between 50 million and 100 million people worldwide perished in the three pandemic waves between the spring of 1918 and the winter of 1919. Adjusting for population growth, that is equivalent to between 200 million and 425 million today.

Read the rest here.

Ukraine: It's Official

Bart is going to do it.

The Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced on 7 September 2018 that within the framework of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed as its Exarchs in Kiev His Excellency Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon from the United States, and His Grace Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton from Canada, both of whom are serving the Ukrainian Orthodox faithful in their respective countries under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Source
HT

Lord have mercy!

Good news!

As some of you will be aware I was wondering what had happened to the Midwest Conservative Journal, one of those blogs that was on my check everyday list. I am very happy to report that I just got an email from Christopher J who has started blogging again. The new address is http://themcj.blogspot.com/. I will be adding it to the sidebar directly.

The Coming Schism (maybe)

No, this is not about the Roman Catholic Church. It is about the Orthodox. Sadly, evidence is rapidly accumulating that the Ecumenical Patriarch intends to take actions in the ongoing schism within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that are all but guaranteed to provoke a major crisis within the Church. I am still praying that this will not happen but reports are mounting daily, without any denial from the EP or those closely connected to him, that he intends to issue a tomos of autocephaly to the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kievan Patriarchate.

It is inconceivable that the Russian Church will not respond by breaking communion.

The question is, how far will the schism spread?

I think it quite possible that the Serbians and Bulgarians will side with Moscow. We can assume the ethnically Greek local churches will side with Constantinople. I am including here the Patriarchates of Alexandria and Jerusalem. The latter is of course composed of 99% Arabs, but the hierarchy is 99% Greek.

As for the rest... The Romanians I honestly have no idea. There is not a lot of love for Russia there but I just don't have any feel for how they will go. The Church of Georgia is close to Moscow. Would that be enough to provoke their taking sides in the schism? Then there is the Church of Antioch. They are already out of communion with Jerusalem over that church's intrusion on Antioch's canonical territory and they are none too thrilled by Constantinople's refusal to come to their aid. And lastly there are what may be called the micro churches... Albania, the Czech Lands, Poland and the OCA.

Thoughts...?

Catastrophe

Brazil's National Museum housed in the former imperial palace has been virtually destroyed by fire. The exact extent of the loss is not yet known but is likely to be of staggering proportions. The museum housed one of the most important collections in the Western Hemisphere. This is a cultural calamity likely to be felt around the world.

Ukrainian Autocephapy (updated)

Rumors and reports from sources of unknown reliability are circulating to the effect that the Ecumenical Patriarch may be about to do something very dangerous to the unity of the Church.

Update: The latest from the Russian Church's website seems to throw cold water on some of the alarmist rumors circulating this morning.

Poll: Trump takes a hit

 I would take this with a very large grain of salt as it seems an outlier and is inconsistent with other recent polls. That said, a newly published ABC News-Washington Post poll shows Trump taking a fairly big hit. According to the poll his support level has dropped into the mid 30% range and his negatives have jumped to around 60%. Worse, approximately half of those polled support impeachment proceedings. As this is only a single poll I would wait to see if it is backed by others. But if it is, that would be really bad news for Trump. Washington is populated by people who won't answer the call of nature without first taking a poll and Trump's very strong and sustained support among Republican voters has been a major factor in keeping the rank and file GOP Congress Critters (most of whom privately detest Trump) in line. If they think that GOP support for Trump is starting to crack two months out from a general election where the president is the issue, things could get ugly quick.

Details.

The Pope Takes the 5th

In response to the direct accusations leveled by Archbishop Carlo Viganò, former Papal Nuncio to the United States, in an eleven page indictment alleging moral corruption in the Vatican including the Pope himself, Francis had this to say...

“I read the statement this morning, and I must tell you sincerely that, I must say this, to you and all those who are interested: Read the statement carefully and make your own judgment, I will not say a single word on this.”

Source.

See also Rod Dreher's blog for the latest details.

Ex-Papal Nuncio Accuses Pope of Complicity in McCarrick Coverup- Calls on Francis to Resign

A report that is being described as a bombshell is out in the National Catholic Register (the non-heretical NCR). Unfortunately the death of Senator McCain is likely to give an excuse to the mainstream (read "pro-Francis) press/media to bury this story.

Read the report here.
HT: Dr. Tighe

Memory Eternal

The last Republican presidential candidate that I voted for. He was imperfect, and his interventionist foreign policy tendencies were dreadful. But he was the last of the old breed of Washington pols who had tremendous bipartisan stature and who was not afraid to buck his own party, or president, when he felt obliged to do so.

Poll: 70% Support "Medicare for All"

A vast majority — 70 percent — of Americans in a new poll supports "Medicare for all," also known as a single-payer health-care system.

The Reuters–Ipsos survey found 85 percent of Democrats said they support the policy along with 52 percent of Republicans.

Medicare for all has been in the headlines after a study by the libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center at George Mason University found it would lead to $32.6 trillion increase in federal spending over a 10-year period.

The study’s author, Charles Blahous, wrote in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month that even doubling taxes would not cover the bill for a single-payer health-care system.

The policy’s proponents, however, point to a note in the study showing that health-care costs would also decrease by $2 trillion by 2031 if it became law.

Read the rest here.

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge) : Does Orthodoxy Need Monastic Orders? (& etc.)

Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge) is the abbot of the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross located near Lugano, Switzerland. He is a well-known patrologist, theologian and author of a number of books, which have been translated into numerous European languages. Fr. Gabriel converted to Orthodoxy in 2010. He addresses a number of issues related to monasticism and the prospects for restoration of communion with the Roman Catholic Church in the interview linked below.

Read the full interview here.

Venezuela is pegging its money to a cryptocurrency that’s considered a scam

Venezuela is doing something completely unprecedented. Some even say illegal.

As part of an attempt to stop skyrocketing inflation, the country is issuing a new fiat currency called the "sovereign bolivar," which will be backed by a cryptocurrency. But that cryptocurrency, called the "petro," does not trade, and Venezuela's own parliament says it's being illegally used to mortgage the nation's cash-strapped oil reserves.

"This is a smoke-and-mirrors operation typical of Venezuela — I'll believe it when I see it," said Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University and one of the world's leading experts on hyperinflation. "The problem with the petro is it's a scam, it doesn't even trade."

In February, President Nicolas Maduro unveiled the oil-backed "petro" digital currency as a means to raise cash amid an economic meltdown and economic sanctions. Maduro said each petro token, which is not in circulation yet, would be backed by a barrel of the state's national petroleum. He also said about 100 million petro tokens would be issued — estimated to be worth around $6 billion.

Crypto rating site ICOindex.com, which rates initial coin offerings, labeled the petro "scam status." The site evaluates coins based on their white papers, and said while petro promised to be backed up by oil resources, "the technology and mechanisms to do so are not adequately explained." Another site, ICObench, gives it a 1.6 out of 5 stars.

Read the rest here.

Socialism + fiat money + cryptocurrency= The trifecta of make believe economics.

Traveling

Little or no posting until the 23rd.

Russian Church Reportedly Ready to Discuss Restoration of the Monarchy

I don't see this going anywhere for now. Putin is not likely to want anyone in even a ceremonial role that might hold enough moral authority to pose a threat to his rule.

Source.

LGBT ‘Catholic’ groups: If Pope can reverse Church teaching on death penalty, why not homosexuality?

Now who didn't see this coming?

 (Image HT: E. T. Ybarra)

Pope Francis Declares Capital Punishment Inadmissable in All Circumstances

It's all over the news, and the blogosphere. My views on this Pope have been firm for quite some time. Pope Francis is a heretic. And no, I am not referring to the various theological differences dividing Rome from Orthodoxy. He is essentially a liberal Protestant.

I have no idea how serious Catholics, who have been doing contortions to try and reconcile themselves with this papacy, are going to jam this particular square peg into the theological round hole. But I expect most will find a way. What alternative do they have? The Catholic concept of Doctrinal Development has been used to explain some crazy stuff before, but this is going to be on an altogether new level. To accept this is to effectively concede that there is no fundamental article of faith that cannot be revised or in this case, de facto reversed.

[Longtime readers will know that I am generally opposed to capital punishment. But my opposition is not based on Christian morality. It is pragmatic and utilitarian. And I do concede some rare exceptions.]

God, Sports and Martyrdom

There are quite a few people out there who seem to believe that He takes an interest in sports. This is not new. We know that as far back as the glory days of the Empire the Blues and Greens both called out for divine favor on behalf of their respective chariot teams in the Hippodrome. The Blues were generally supported by the upper crust of society and were associated with strict Orthodoxy. In contrast the Greens were seen as the team of the working class and were suspected of harboring at least some sympathies for Monophysitism.

Personally I have been rather skeptical of the idea. How could a just God allow something as abhorrent as the New York Yankees? See this earlier discussion by Dr. Hart. All of which said, I have been toying with another line of thinking. Perhaps God's intervention in sports is solely for the purpose of preparing the righteous for eventual martyrdom.

How else can one explain this...?

Study: ‘Medicare for all’ projected to cost $32.6 trillion over ten years

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan would increase government health care spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study by a university-based libertarian policy center.

That’s trillion with a “T.”

The latest plan from the Vermont independent would require historic tax increases as government replaces what employers and consumers now pay for health care, according to the analysis being released Monday by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. It would deliver significant savings on administration and drug costs, but increased demand for care would drive up spending, the analysis found.

Sanders’ plan builds on Medicare, the popular insurance program for seniors. All U.S. residents would be covered with no copays and deductibles for medical services. The insurance industry would be relegated to a minor role.

“Enacting something like ‘Medicare for all’ would be a transformative change in the size of the federal government,” said Charles Blahous, the study’s author. Blahous was a senior economic adviser to former President George W. Bush and a public trustee of Social Security and Medicare during the Obama administration.

Responding to the study, Sanders took aim at the Mercatus Center, which receives funding from the conservative Koch brothers. Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch is on the center’s board.

“If every major country on earth can guarantee health care to all, and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States cannot do the same,” Sanders said in a statement. “This grossly misleading and biased report is the Koch brothers response to the growing support in our country for a ‘Medicare for all’ program.”

Sanders’ office has not done a cost analysis, a spokesman said. However, the Mercatus estimates are within the range of other cost projections for Sanders’ 2016 plan.

Read the rest here.

The Oath and Consecration of the Newly Elected Bishop Methodius

The solemn affirmation of the Orthodox Faith by a newly elected bishop. I don't recall this ceremonial oath before. Perhaps it is unique to the Serbian Church. The English translation is imperfect but you can clearly get the gist of what is being said.

The Great Scandal

I am extremely reluctant to go there, but it is the subject of discussion and debate in the religious blogosphere right now. That being the ongoing fallout from the Cardinal McCarrick affair. The most common questions are who knew what, and when did they know it? And as of right now very few people in positions of authority in the Catholic Church seem to want to address those questions. But the real questions, that are being studiously ignored in the mainstream press/media are, to what extent does the so called "lavender mafia" in the Catholic Church bear responsibility for this? How many other McCarricks are out there, and who is protecting them?

Those seeking a solid, no holds barred discussion of these questions should probably be reading Rod Dreher's blog. He has a lot of background where the subject is the sexual abuse scandals within the RCC and he has sources that either nobody else has or that others are choosing to ignore. A word of caution, this is a spiritually poisonous subject and some of the details are ugly. Proceed with caution.

Food for Thought

Services in Honor of the Royal Passion Bearers of Russia

More than 100,000 marched in a procession from the Church on the Blood in Yekaterinburg to the monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers outside the city. There followed a moleben in honor of the Royal Passion Bearers and a hierarchical liturgy that night.

Vigil for the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia

Butchered 100 years ago tonight by the Communists.

The Trump Putin Meeting

Some people are using the word "treason" in reference to Trump's behavior. That's an overstatement. But it was way beyond horrible. An American President just stood in front of the world and effectively took the word of a foreign dictator, the leader of an unfriendly power, over the intelligence and security services of his own country. And he did it after blowing off most of our country's friends and questioning our alliances. Oddly Trump reminds me of Tsar Peter III and his bizarre fawning relationship with Frederick II of Prussia. The man is without doubt the most incompetent booby ever to occupy the highest office of the republic.

David Bentley Hart: The Yankees Are a Moral Abomination

I have had my occasional disagreements with Dr. Hart, but all is now forgiven...

Soberly considered, the New York Yankees and their fans present a moral dilemma. Our consciences, naturally abhorring everything abominable, tell us that such things simply ought not exist. And yet we also know that the evil they represent is one we would not really want eradicated. Somehow we depend on it, not because it appeals to some morbid subliminal fascination with the horrific in us, and not even because it teaches us about the world’s deep Darwinian laws, but because it answers to a psychological need.

By exciting in the rest of us that sweet cold loathing that only they induce — that strangely tender malice, at once so delicious and yet so purifying — the Yankees and their followers provide an emotional cleansing. They give us occasion for the discharge of a dark, dangerous passion, but one unburdened by guilt. The detestation that any rational soul spontaneously feels for the Yankees is so innocent, so uncontaminated by spite — just instinctive revulsion before something obscene, like the goat-headed god of the diabolists. And there are few luxuries more gorgeously nourishing than the license to hate with an unclouded conscience.

Yankees fans, of course, never having drunk from those healing springs, typically mistake this hatred for envy, and so for an inverted admiration. But nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, those of us whose teams hail from smaller markets sometimes fall prey to a slightly petulant, even bilious resentment of all that boughten glory — the exorbitant free-agent contracts, the legions of scouts, the colossal television revenues — but who can blame us? And how could we fail to be vexed by the fawning servility of a national media incapable of telling the beautiful from the meretricious?...

Read the rest here.

Baptist claiming trademark on name/image of Elder Arsenie wields law against Orthodox Church

A bizarre legal battle is playing out in Romania right now, as the Romanian Orthodox Church is fighting for the right to use the name and image of Elder Arsenie (Boca), a faithful son of the Church, against a private individual who owns the right to use the elder’s name and image that were trademarked with the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

Elder Arsenie, who reposed in 1989, was one of the great Romanian spiritual fathers of Communist times, and is revered today as a saint, although he has yet to be canonized. Thousands go on pilgrimage annually to his grave at Prislop Moanstery in Silvașu de Sus, and images of him are seen as a blessing.

At least one such image, bought at Prislop Moanstery, began miraculously weeping in May 2015. A miracle is known to occur at his grave as well: Even though the temperatures there can be extremely low, often reaching -5 degrees, all of the flowers that have grown on his grave neither wither nor freeze and die by the extreme temperatures but instead remain in full blossom. From winter to summer, the elder’s grave remains full with blossomed, multi-colored fragrant flowers.

But now those beloved images are being confiscated by the police, Balkan Insight reports.

Police have been called to the monastery twice this year, and also to a shop in the western city of Arad in May. Daniel Gheorge, one of the two owners of the Fr. Arsenie trademark, complained to police that the monastery and shop were selling images of Fr. Arsenie without the proper license.

Through his lawyer, Gheorge has made more than 100 complaints against churches and stores.

Read the rest here.

The bond market is flashing a warning sign on the economy

The U.S. economy is more vibrant than it has been in years, yet the bond market insists a recession could be on the horizon.

Some market pros say that warning from the Treasury yield curve, which has long been viewed as reliable, is not as relevant as it once was because of the long years of central bank easing that has depressed interest rates and turned debt markets into far more placid arenas.

The curve has been getting flatter by the day — meaning short-end interest rates are rising faster than long-term rates, and they are growing closer together. A flattening curve is a warning about economic weakness ahead, but should the curve invert— where the short end yield, like the 2-year, is actually higher than the 10-year—that would be viewed as a very solid recession warning.

On Friday, the gap between the 2-year yield and 10-year yield narrowed to just 25.5 basis points, a new 11-year low.

“The bond market is telling us the [economic recovery] is going to end soon, so let’s price it in with certainty,” said George Goncalves, head of U.S. fixed income rate strategy at Nomura. “They might be right, but they’re too early to call the end of the business cycle. It’s more the fact that it’s flattened so low, and it’s that people are dismissive of this economic recovery…If you look at the facts, why are people jumping on this ‘recession yield curve’ bandwagon when they haven’t given the U.S. economy a chance to see how much it can run? It could show up two years later. Why price it in with such certainty?”

Read the rest here.

Democratic Socialism Is Democratic Doom

A political novice who calls herself a “democratic socialist” wins an unexpected Democratic Party primary victory, and now political taxonomists are racing to explain just what the term means. Here’s my definition: political hemlock for the Democratic Party.

I write, of course, of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s the onetime Bernie Sanders organizer whose victory last month over long-term New York congressman and party boss Joe Crowley is being compared to Tea Partyer Dave Brat’s 2014 primary defeat of the Republican House majority leader, Eric Cantor — a sign of what’s to come, both for the Democratic Party and the country at large.

Well, maybe. It wasn’t long ago — March — that Marine reservist and former federal prosecutor Conor Lamb was feted as the Democratic future for winning a House seat in a Pennsylvania district that Donald Trump had carried by 20 points. The shared secret of Lamb’s and Ocasio-Cortez’s success is that they ran energetic campaigns, reflected the values of the people they sought to represent, and faced lackluster or entitled opponents.

Not every political contest is a battle of ideas. Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing up.

Still, it should be said: “Democratic socialism” is awful as a slogan and catastrophic as a policy. And “social democracy” — a term that better fits the belief of more ordinary liberals who want, say, Medicare for all — is a politically dying force. Democrats who aren’t yet sick of all their losing should feel free to embrace them both.

Start with democratic socialism. The Democratic Socialists of America, of which Ocasio-Cortez is a member, believe in economies defined by state-owned enterprises and worker-owned cooperatives. Versions of this have been tried to varying degrees before: Israel in its first decades; post-independence India; Sweden in the 1960s and ’70s.

It always led to crisis: hyperinflation for Israel in 1980s; an I.M.F. bailout for India in 1991; a banking meltdown for Sweden in 1992. It’s usually a recipe for corruption: State-owned enterprises such as Pemex in Mexico or Eskom in South Africa are local bywords for graft and mismanagement. It frequently leads to dictatorship. Hugo Chávez was also a democratic socialist.

Read the rest here.

Mexico — What Went Wrong?

Mexico gets a massive cash influx in remittances, American corporations get cheap labor, Democrats get voters . . .

Mexico in just a few days could elect one of its more anti-American figures in recent memory, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Obrador has often advanced the idea that a strangely aggrieved Mexico has the right to monitor the status of its citizens living illegally in the United States. Lately, he trumped that notion of entitlement by assuring fellow Mexicans that they have a “human right” to enter the United States as they please. For Obrador, this is an innate privilege that he promised “we will defend” — without offering any clarification on the meaning of “defend” other than to render meaningless the historic notion of borders and sovereignty.

Obrador went on to urge his fellow Mexicans to “leave their towns and find a life in the United States.” He has naturally developed such a mindset because he assumes as normal what has become, by any fair standard, a historically abnormal relationship.

Obrador is determined to perpetuate, if not enhance, the asymmetry. In the age of Trump, Obrador also reasons that the furor and hysteria of the American media toward the president represents a majority and a domestic grassroots pushback against the Trump administration — apparently because of Trump’s “restrictionist” view of enforcing existing immigration law. Polls, however, suggest otherwise, despite their notorious embedded anti-Trump bias.

Mexico, the Aggressor

Facts are stubborn and reveal Mexico, not the United States, as a de facto aggressor and belligerent on many fronts. Mexico runs a NAFTA-protected $70 billion trade surplus with the U.S., larger than that of any other single American trade partner (including Japan and Germany) except China. The architects of NAFTA long ago assured Americans that such a trade war would not break out, or that we should not worry over trade imbalances, given the desirability of outsourcing to take advantage of Mexico’s cheaper labor costs.

A supposedly affluent Mexico was supposed to achieve near parity with the U.S., as immigration and trade soon neutralized. Despite Mexico’s economic growth, no such symmetry has followed NAFTA. What did, however, 34 years later, was the establishment of a dysfunctional Mexican state, whose drug cartels all but run the country on the basis of their enormous profits from unfettered dope-running and human-trafficking into the United States. NAFTA certainly did not make Mexico a safer, kinder, and gentler nation.

In addition, Mexican citizens who enter and reside as illegal immigrants in the U.S. are mostly responsible for sending an approximate $30 billion in remittances home to Mexico. That sum has now surpassed oil and tourism as the largest source of Mexican foreign exchange. That huge cash influx is the concrete reality behind Obrador’s otherwise unhinged rhetoric about exercising veto power over U.S. immigration law.

What is also unsaid is that many of the millions of Mexican expatriates in the United States who send remittances home to Mexico are themselves beneficiaries of some sort of U.S. federal, state, or local support that allows them to free up cash to send back to Mexico.

When Obrador urges his fellow citizens to abandon their country and head illegally into the United States, his primary concern is not their general welfare and futures. He seems quite unconcerned that those who send home remittances live in poverty in the United States and seek offsetting subsidies from the U.S. government to find enough disposable income to save the Mexican government from its mostly corrupt self.

Why the U.S. government does not tax remittances and why it does not prohibit foreign nationals on public assistance from sending cash out of the country are some of the stranger phenomena of the entire strange illegal-immigration matrix.

Read the rest here.

On a related note; I talked about this back in 2011. You can read that blog post here.

Cardinal Meuller hits one out of the park

In an exclusive CWR interview, the former prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith discusses tensions over the proposed reception of Holy Communion by Protestants, continued conflicts over the Church’s teaching about ordination, and homosexuality and ideology.

“We are experiencing conversion to the world, instead of to God”

HT: Dr. Tighe

Greek Government to Propose Separation of Church and State

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras intends to initiate the process of separating the Greek Orthodox Church from the Greek state and revising the relevant article of the Greek constitution, reports Russian Athens with reference to the Greek paper Kathimerini. 

According to the Greek publication, within the next month Tsipras will present his plan for the revision of the constitution, including plans to separate the Church from the state, ahead of the expected submission of the SYRIZA proposal to parliament, planned for October.

Tsipras and his advisers are aware that the initiative is likely to cause strong reactions from the Greek Church, although Tsipras believes he will be able to manage the situation. The initiative will be presented as “progressive,” and therefore the prime minister is hoping to receive the support of the centrist party “Movement for Change.” 

The project on the separation of Church and state from SYRIZA, the Coalition of the Radical Left, was published about a year ago. The project provides:

1. That Church and state discretion are fully established with full respect for the Orthodox Church and its historical role;
2. The explicit fixing of the religious neutrality of the state, recognizing Orthodoxy as an historical religion;
3. The obligation to guarantee a single political oath for president, prime minister, legislators, judges, and other public officials.

The Holy Synod of the Greek Church has opposed the government’s plans to unilaterally separate the Church from the state. The bishops argued that one political part cannot make such a decision, but only with the support of the people. 

Source.

Ex President of Ireland claims baptizing infants is a violation of their human rights

Details.

It's getting real folks. There was a time when I dismissed warnings about a coming persecution as hysteria. I don't anymore. In Australia they just passed a law requiring priests to report any confession of child sex abuse. The general hostility on the part of the secular left to Christianity that goes back decades, is reaching the point of visceral hatred. And in some parts of the world they are in firm control of the state.

The latest claims from the Ukrainian schismatics

Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine [sic] Filaret claims that after receiving a Tomos on autocephaly from Constantinople, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that  is now in unity with the Russian Orthodox Church will lose the right to be called "Ukrainian."

"It is the Ukrainian Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the UAOC (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church) who will receive the tomos, which will mean the unification of said churches. The Moscow Patriarchate will have to decide: either to join the canonical Ukrainian Church, recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other churches, or not. We assume that not all parishes, priests and bishops will join the Local Church. No one will force them to do this. However, those who do not join will not have the right to be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, remaining only the metropolis or exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine," Patriarch Filaret told the parliamentary newspaper, Holos Ukrainy.

He also estimated Ukraine's chances of obtaining the tomos at "99 percent," adding that "the Synod meeting is scheduled to be held in the Constantinople Church in Istanbul in the first half of July."

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on April 17 that the heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church had decided to officially appeal to Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for autocephaly. Autocephaly is the status of a hierarchical Christian Church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop (used especially in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Independent Catholic churches). Autocephaly opens the way for the creation of a united Orthodox church in Ukraine, which will not be subordinate to Moscow.

Ukrainian experts recently explained, and debunked, Russian propaganda's narratives aimed at hindering Ukraine's efforts to gain autocephaly for its church. It was also reported that Russian intelligence could resort to provocations to sow discord.

From here.

I would take this with a grain of salt. That said, there are  a few unbiased sources predicting that Constantinople will in fact grant the tomos. If that happens the Church could shortly be facing the most serious crisis since the Great Schism.

For the record

Cardinal McCarrick, the former Roman Catholic archbishop of DC has been effectively suspended as a result of credible allegations of sexual misconduct. It seems likely that the Catholic Church had at least some warning long ago that he might be a scandal bomb waiting to go off.

In any event we Orthodox should not be patting ourselves on the back as we look down our nose at the Roman Church. It is common knowledge that we have our own "lavender mafia" in some of the jurisdictions in North America. On which note; we need to stop making unmarried diocesan priests bishops. Bishops should be drawn from monasteries, and only monastics with a long and solid reputation. For that matter we should really not be ordaining unmarried men to the priesthood unless they are monks.

Marriage as a Lifetime of Suffering

I would like to commend Fr. Stephen Freeman's latest reflection to readers of this blog. I am not going to excerpt it. Just go here and read it all.

Irish PM Says Catholic Hospitals Will Be Forced to Abort Children

Just weeks after a lopsided, groundbreaking vote struck down Ireland’s constitutional ban on legal abortion, the country’s Taoiseach signaled the broader moral and legal implications of this sea change in a once deeply Catholic nation.

“It will not … be possible for publicly funded hospitals, no matter who their patron or owner is,” Leo Varadkar told the Dáil, “to opt out of providing these necessary services which will be legal in this state once this legislation is passed by the Dáil [the lower house of the Irish legislature] and Seanad [senate].”

Britain’s Catholic Herald reported today that two large hospitals in Dublin are owned by religious orders: the Sisters of Charity’s St Vincent’s Healthcare Group and the Sisters of Mary’s Mater Hospital. Both, along with other Catholic medical institutions, will soon confront the full reality of abortion on demand.

In a June 14 column for National Review entitled, “In Ireland, What’s Legal Is Now Mandatory,” Michael Brendan Doughterty noted that NRO had “predicted in its editorial on the referendum that victory for Repeal would be swiftly followed by attempts to coerce Catholic institutions to provide abortion. Now Varadkar has promised as much.”

At present, the Irish government is preparing legislation to allow abortion on demand for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy — and in special cases, for up to 24 weeks.

Read the rest here.

114 Years Ago Today

More than 1300 German Lutherans, mostly working class immigrants or first generation Americans boarded an excursion steamer in New York for a long planned church outing and picnic on Long Island. Most were women and children. The men had to work. Within an hour of sailing most, more than a thousand, were dead. They were the victims of the worst disaster in New York history until 9/11.

The PS General Slocum
The New York Tribune's coverage of the disaster

Memory eternal.

Much of bitcoin's 2017 boom was market manipulation

Bitcoin's epic rise last year may have been more than investor fervor. A study published Wednesday says at least half of the jump in bitcoin was due to coordinated price manipulation.

University of Texas finance professor John Griffin, who has a 10-year track record of spotting financial fraud, and graduate student Amin Shams examined millions of transactions on cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. In a 66-page paper, the authors found that tether was used to buy bitcoin at key moments when it was declining, which helped "stabilize and manipulate" the cryptocurrency's price.

"Fraud and manipulation often leave footprints in the data and it's nice to have the blockchain to track things," Griffin told CNBC.

By tracking Bitfinex transactions, which are recorded on a public ledger, Griffin found that another cryptocurrency, tether. was used to buy bitcoin after large price falls. The authors tracked that pattern and found periods of suspicious bitcoin price activity tied to the issuance of tether, which is purportedly pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar.

"It was creating price support for bitcoin, and over the period that we examined, had huge price effects," Griffin said. "Our research would indicate that there are sophisticated people harnessing investor interest for their benefit."

Griffin found that about 87 hours, or about 1 percent, of heavy tether trading could explain 50 percent of the rise of bitcoin, and around 64 percent of the rise of other major cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin rose to almost $20,000 in December after starting last year below $1,000. This year, the world's first and most popular cryptocurrency has lost more than half its value, trading near $6,252 on Wednesday afternoon, according to CoinDesk.

Read the rest here. 

Something a bit out of the ordinary...

The Salve Regina chanted according to the ancient Cistercian Rite by Dom Abbot Thomas and assisted by two subdeacons. From the Western Rite Mission of St. Athanasius in Munster Germany under the omiphorion of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

Met. Kallistos Ware strays way off the reservation

The hitherto highly respected theologian has written the Forward for the new edition of "The Wheel," a pseudo-Orthodox publication that appears dedicated to challenging the traditional Christian understanding of gender and sexual morality. At least one Orthodox site claims, inaccurately, that Ware has endorsed unnatural marriage. He did not, as far as I can tell, cross that line.

But he came damn close.

From my perspective he seems to be spouting the same theological revisionism that has devastated what we once called the Mainline Protestant denominations and which, like a deadly cancer, has now infected and is spreading within the Roman Catholic Church.

This needs to be addressed quickly and decisively. The Holy Synod must demand a formal affirmation of his adherence to the Orthodox Christian Faith which I believe would necessitate recanting a great deal of what he wrote. This is not a time or place for "dialogue," one of the favorite words employed by modernists which can be generally understood to mean "let's talk until you realize how wrong Christianity has been for its first two thousand years." This is a time for a firm defense of Holy Orthodoxy in the face of liberal Protestant heresy.

HT: Bill Tighe

Memory Eternal

Ireland's Apostasy

In the space of a generation, Ireland has gone from one of Europe's most Catholic countries to essentially a pagan state that has replaced the Sacrifice of the Altar with the sacrifice of its children.

Traveling

Little or no blogging for the next couple of weeks.

Yer Out! 1924

A great image from the golden age of baseball, the "sultan of swat" knocked cold after crashing into a concrete wall chasing a foul ball. The original caption to the photo from the Washington Star...

"This shows how completely Ruth was knocked out when he crashed into the concrete barrier of the right field pavilion chasing Judge's foul in the fourth inning of the opening contest. After being revived by trainers Al Woods and Mike Martin of the Yanks and Nationals respectively, shown administering to him, the Babe hobbled back to his post and carried on."

The full sized image can be seen here.

Goldman Sachs: The fiscal outlook for the US 'is not good'

The fiscal outlook for the United States "is not good," according to Goldman Sachs, and could pose a threat to the country's economic security during the next recession.

According to forecasts from bank's chief economist, the federal deficit will increase from $825 billion (or 4.1 percent of gross domestic product) to $1,250 (5.5 percent of GDP) by 2021. And by 2028, the bank expects the number to balloon to $2.05 trillion (7 percent of GDP).

"An expanding deficit and debt level is likely to put upward pressure on interest rates, expanding the deficit further," Jan Hatzius – Goldman's top economist – wrote Sunday. "While we do not believe that the U.S. faces a risk to its ability to borrow or repay, the rising debt level could nevertheless have three consequences long before debt sustainability becomes a major obstacle."

Legislators passed a package of corporate and individual tax cuts in December, a two-year budget deal in February and a massive spending bill in March that boosted government spending on both domestic and military programs.

In light of the big spending and easier tax burden, the Congressional Budget Office – Capitol Hill's nonpartisan financial scorekeeper – in April projected that debt could equal GDP within a decade if Congress extends the tax cuts, a level not seen since World War II.

Read the rest here.

Pit bull roulette

“Pit bull roulette” cost the lives of 38 humans,  plus nearly 13,000 dogs,  5,000 cats,  and more than 20,000 farmed animals in 2017––and,  only two weeks into 2018,  has already killed Happy Hound Hotel boarding kennel worker Laura Williams Ray,  of Ouachita Parish,  Louisiana,  and three-year-old Rylee Marie Dodge,  of Duncan,  Oklahoma,  along with many dozens of animals.

Ray and Dodge were respectively the 10th and 11th humans to die in dog attacks in the 51 days between November 24,  2017 and January 14,  2018,  and were the 9th and 10th humans to be killed by pit bulls.
Overall,  pit bulls accounted for 68% of the human dog attack deaths in 2017,  88% of the human disfigurements,  92% of the dogs killed by other dogs,  94% of the dogs seriously injured by other dogs,  96% of the cats killed by dogs,  and 74% of the farmed animals killed by dogs.

“Pit bull roulette” is the gamble that a pit bull can be safely introduced into proximity to other living beings.

Read the rest here.

One of my mom's standard poodles (she had two at the time) was mauled in an unprovoked attack by a pit bull in a dog park about six years ago. He survived but his injuries were pretty ugly and it took him a while to recover. One of the vets she used to employ when up north would not take pit bulls as regular patients and routinely warned people that they are high risk as pets because they have been bread for aggression and violence.

All of Chile's Catholic Bishops Resign (Updated)

All 34 bishops tendered letters of resignation in response to the ongoing sexual abuse scandal. Pope Francis will decide whether or not to accept some, all or none of the resignations.

Details

Update: Wow! According to the AP, this was basically a mass sacking. Pope Francis demanded, and got the resignations after accusing the bishops of collective culpability in the child sex abuse scandals that have roiled the Roman Church in Chile (and elsewhere). Purely on a side note this means the Pope can also appoint anyone he wants as replacements. I don't think it requires much imagination to figure out what ideological bent they are likely to demonstrate.

Quote of the day...

As an attorney for 35 years, some advice for young attorneys:

Watch how Mr. Giuliani represents his client and, under similar circumstances, do the opposite.

Do not try your case in the court of public opinion.

Do not reveal confidential discussions with your client.

Do not reveal confidential discussions with your adversary's lawyer.

Do not place your interests above your client's interests.

Do not speak publicly about your case unless necessary to correct a prejudicially false statement by your adversary.

Do not make any public statements unless and until you thoroughly understand all of the salient facts.

Do not make truthful statements that inculpate your client.

Do not make untruthful statements that exonerate your client and will undermine your credibility with your adversary and the tribunal.

Be modest, humble, and truthful, not brash, egotistical, and untruthful.

Limit your role to the legal issues and leave public relations and political implications to others.

Be someone of whom it is said, "There goes a fine lawyer whom I would trust with my life and livelihood."

In other words, young attorneys, emulate Mr. Mueller and his colleagues and reject those like Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Cohn, and most of the attorneys surrounding our President.

Your reputations will remain intact and, more importantly, your clients will be better served, and the public's confidence in our great system of justice will be strengthened and not diminished.

 - Mr. Didier of Charleston WV from here.

My highly negative opinions about Mr. Trump notwithstanding, I think it very important that he have good legal representation for the sake of our legal system and more broadly, the country. Unfortunately this has far too often not been the case. There are a number of factors that have contributed to this reality, his reputation as a difficult client who routinely ignores sound legal advice being high on that list. But the other big problem is that he tends to gravitate towards people with similar personality traits to his own. Which is to say that he likes blowhards and television talking heads. Especially those who appear on FOX News. Whether the individual actually has a clue, or is spouting silly conspiracy theories, or simply inventing facts are not terribly important to the Client in Chief. What matters to Trump are unwavering loyalty and a willingness to loudly defend him on television.

This is not to say that Mr. Giuliani is a clueless talking head. But his legal background has been on the other side of the aisle, i.e. as a prosecutor. The rules of the game are very different for criminal defense lawyers. And his behavior has been astonishing to say the least. Trump needs to shut up, and hire the best criminal defense lawyer that his substantial fortune can buy and then follow their advice, to the letter.

Since none of this is even remotely likely to happen, I will go out on a limb and predict that Mr. Trump's eventual collision with reality, when it happens, is going to be spectacularly ugly. But it will probably be must watch TV.

Bulgarian Church to LGBTBBQ 'instead of marching, repent and go to church'

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has expressed its attitude towards the upcoming LGBT parade in Sofia, calling on the members of the LGBT community to renounce their sins. 

The parade is scheduled for June 9.

In its statement, posted on the Bulgarian Church’s official site, the Synod declares that its position towards sin remains unchanged. 

Rather than engaging in pride parades, the hierarchs have called for piety and a renunciation of sin and its demonstrations. 

“Taking into account free will, the Holy Orthodox Church again appeals to its children, brothers, and sisters, and lovingly reminds them that freedom is responsibility, and that the truly free man, if he so desires, can free himself from sin with God’s help in the bosom of the Holy Orthodox Church,” the Synod’s statement reads. 

“Every human soul is more valuable than the entire world,” the Synod’s message concludes, “therefore, the Synod recalls that God does not desire the death of a sinner, but that the wicked turn from his way and live (Ezek. 33:11).” 

The entire Orthodox Church, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has consistently stood against sexual deviancy manifested outside the bounds of the marriage between one man and one woman. In response to the 2016 LGBT parade, His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria wrote that, while showing “a pastor's care, responsibility, and love” for homosexual people, the Church is determined to oppose “attempts to show a sinful tendency as a norm in our society, as an occasion for pride and an example to follow.” 

“Modern society, torn from its Christian roots, in its effort to be tolerant and humane, substitutes the understanding of core values like love and freedom and calls homosexuality by morally neutral expressions such as ‘sexual minority’ or ‘different sexual orientation,’” the patriarch wrote, “But to love a person, to appreciate and respect them, does not mean to be indifferent to what path they are treading: true or false, a path to salvation or destruction, to life or death.” 

The Georgian Patriarchate recently announced that it will hold a procession in honor of family purity and mass weddings throughout Tbilisi on May 17, the day named “The Day of Family Holiness and Honor for Parents” by His Holiness Patriarch-Catholicos Ilia II, as a counter to the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on the same day. 

The Moldovan Orthodox Church also recently called upon the government to ban an LGBT march in the capital city of Chișinău. 

From here.

Ecumenical Patriarchate postpones consideration of Ukrainian autocephaly

This could trigger something very serious. The EP needs to tread carefully here. Details.

Quote of the day...

(Paraphrasing from memory...)

If it's something you really enjoy, it's probably bad for you. All the good things in life... soda, fried chicken, steak and cigars... pretty much are designed to kill you. I think it's God's approach to population control.

-Dr. C (My dentist)

The far left is winning the Democratic civil war

THE BIG IDEA: Tuesday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Democratic moderates.

The success of very liberal candidates in primaries across four states is causing a new bout of heartburn among party strategists in Washington, who worry about unelectable activists thwarting their drive for the House majority. But it also reflects a broader leftward lurch among Democrats across the country since President Trump took office.

-- In Nebraska, a liberal social worker and political neophyte who built her campaign around “Medicare for All” scored a shocking upset in a Democratic primary to take on Rep. Don Bacon (R). Kara Eastman, 45, beat former congressman Brad Ashford, 68, in an Omaha-area district that national Democrats believed they could pick up in November.

Eastman advocated for universal background checks to buy guns, raising taxes and decriminalizing marijuana. “I’m tired of hearing Democrats don’t have a backbone, that we don’t stand for anything,” she said in a commercial that touted her support for universal health care. “That changes now!”

Read the rest here.

Irish Catholic Priests Statement on the Forthcoming Referendum on Legalizing Abortion

Friday 4thMay 2018

In the midst of the debate and discussion in our country about the forthcoming referendum to repeal the 8thAmendment of the Constitution, we, the leadership of the Association of Catholic Priests, issue the following statement.

As an association representing Catholic priests we fully endorse the Catholic teaching that all human life, from beginning to end, is sacred, and that every human person shares in the fundamental right to life.

We are also aware, and are constantly reminded in our ministry, that human life is complex, throwing up situations that are more often grey than black and white and that demand from us a sensitive, non-judgemental, pastoral approach. Also, as leadership of an association made up of men who are unmarried and without children of our own, we are not best placed to be in any way dogmatic on this issue.

We do not wish to tell anyone how they should vote. But we encourage both ourselves and any citizens who may be interested in our viewpoint, to do the best we can to acquaint ourselves with exactly what we are being asked to vote for, and what the possible consequences of our vote may be. Having done that to the best of our ability, and following it with the, often painful and difficult, task of consulting our conscience, let us cast our vote.

A vote cast in accordance with each person’s conscience, whatever the result, deserves the respect of all.

There is undoubtedly a moral content to this referendum, but as with many other issues, there are also social, political and pastoral dimensions. For that reason we are concerned that some Catholic parishes are allowing their pulpits to be used by campaigners during Mass. As there are, among faithful, Church-going Catholics, a great variety of opinions on this vote, we believe this is inappropriate and insensitive and will be regarded by some as an abuse of the Eucharist.

We believe it would be better if this practice ceased for the rest of the campaign.

We wish the Irish people well in this immensely important decision awaiting all of us. The leadership of the Association of Catholic Priests will have no further engagement in this debate.

From here.

"The fort is betrayed, even by those who should have defended it." -Bishop John Fisher (canonized martyr in the Roman Catholic Church)

Post Posting Note: It has been brought to my attention that the group that drafted this un-Christian drivel is decidedly left leaning (by which I suspect is meant "heretical"). In any case I think it irrelevant. These priests have disgraced themselves and their church. And their bishops are even worse because they don't have the stones to suppress this heretical organization and suspend every cleric who supports this abomination.

Priests Urge Rupture: Strong Russian Movement to Break Relations With State

St. Petersburg April 1- The move to sever the traditional bonds between church and state and give to the Holy Orthodox Church independence and self rule, in order to increase its influence among the people of Russia, has found favor with an important group of clergy at the capital. A noteworthy document, setting forth these views, which was presented to Metropolitan Antonius of St. Petersburg, has been received with sufficient consideration to insure its publication in "The Church Messenger" the semi-official organ of the diocese of St. Petersburg, and one of the most important religious papers in the country.

The document, after arguing that the church should free itself from obligations to the state in order to lend all its energies to the prosecution of its own special work and eliminate the suspicion that its ministrations may be inclined to worldly ends and interests, demands the summoning of a general council of the church to consider means of attaining the greater freedom required...

Read the rest here.

California to require solar panels on all new dwellings

California has a major housing crisis and people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale are leaving in droves because of the high cost of living in the Golden State. A large part of that is the result of high taxes on just about everything and one of the most unfriendly environments for business in the Union. Adding around $10k to the price of a new house doesn't strike me as likely to help with that.

The Intellectual Dark Web: A home for heretics of all stripes

Here are some things that you will hear when you sit down to dinner with the vanguard of the Intellectual Dark Web: There are fundamental biological differences between men and women. Free speech is under siege. Identity politics is a toxic ideology that is tearing American society apart. And we’re in a dangerous place if these ideas are considered “dark.”

I was meeting with Sam Harris, a neuroscientist; Eric Weinstein, a mathematician and managing director of Thiel Capital; the commentator and comedian Dave Rubin; and their spouses in a Los Angeles restaurant to talk about how they were turned into heretics. A decade ago, they argued, when Donald Trump was still hosting “The Apprentice,” none of these observations would have been considered taboo.

Today, people like them who dare venture into this “There Be Dragons” territory on the intellectual map have met with outrage and derision — even, or perhaps especially, from people who pride themselves on openness.

It’s a pattern that has become common in our new era of That Which Cannot Be Said. And it is the reason the Intellectual Dark Web, a term coined half-jokingly by Mr. Weinstein, came to exist.

...But as the members of the Intellectual Dark Web become genuinely popular, they are also coming under more scrutiny. On April 21, Kanye West crystallized this problem when he tweeted seven words that set Twitter on fire: “I love the way Candace Owens thinks.”

Candace Owens, the communications director for Turning Point USA, is a sharp, young, black conservative — a telegenic speaker with killer instincts who makes videos with titles like “How to Escape the Democrat Plantation” and “The Left Thinks Black People Are Stupid.” Mr. West’s praise for her was sandwiched inside a longer thread that referenced many of the markers of the Intellectual Dark Web, like the tyranny of thought policing and the importance of independent thinking. He was photographed watching a Jordan Peterson video.

...A year ago, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying were respected tenured professors at Evergreen State College, where their Occupy Wall Street-sympathetic politics were well in tune with the school’s progressive ethos. Today they have left their jobs, lost many of their friends and endangered their reputations.

All this because they opposed a “Day of Absence,” in which white students were asked to leave campus for the day. For questioning a day of racial segregation cloaked in progressivism, the pair was smeared as racist. Following threats, they left town for a time with their children and ultimately resigned their jobs.

“Nobody else reacted. That’s what shocked me,” Mr. Weinstein said. “It told me that a culture that told itself it was radically open-minded was actually a culture cowed by fear.”

Sam Harris says his moment came in 2006, at a conference at the Salk Institute with Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson and other prominent scientists. Mr. Harris said something that he thought was obvious on its face: Not all cultures are equally conducive to human flourishing. Some are superior to others.

“Until that time I had been criticizing religion, so the people who hated what I had to say were mostly on the right,” Mr. Harris said. “This was the first time I fully understood that I had an equivalent problem with the secular left.”

Read the rest here.

Catholic Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Corpus Christi Calls on College of Cardinals to Depose Francis and Elect a New Pope

..."Even though Francis has made heretical statements, he has cleverly also made orthodox statements on the same subject thereby making it virtually impossible to define him as a heretic.  On the other hand, the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution ​UNIVERSI DOMINICI GREGIS (edit: you can read it HERE) promulgated by Saint John Paul II are clear, and Francis and friends have confirmed their violations of those provisions in the conclave of 2013.   Saint John Paul II provided for the penalty of AUTOMATIC EXCOMMUNICATION for any cardinal violating those provisions.  Reasonable people should have no problem agreeing that an excommunicated person cannot be elected pope."

From here.

See also this

Happy Anniversary

On the 5th of May AD 553 the Fifth Ecumenical Council opened.

It's Satire [but only barely]

How bankruptcy law could keep money — and the truth — from Weinstein’s victims

On Monday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wrote an open letter urging anyone who might bid on the Weinstein Co., the now-bankrupt studio founded by Harvey Weinstein, to include money to compensate the Hollywood mogul’s accusers. On Tuesday, a proposal surfaced that would do just that, from Broadway producer Howard Kagan.

But by Tuesday afternoon, the Weinstein Co. had rejected that proposal and announced that its preferred buyer, a Texas private-equity company with no experience in the entertainment industry, was the only entity it would allow to bid for its valuable film library and other assets.

Which means the 80-plus women (and at least one man) who say Weinstein assaulted or abused them are likely to find that there’s little or no money left on the company’s books to compensate them by the time the bankruptcy process is finished. I studied rapid bankruptcy sales, like the kind the Weinstein Co. is using, while on a fellowship at Harvard. They can be a taxpayer-supported path for companies to arrange insider sales while ditching corporate responsibilities — to workers, to the environment and, as in the Weinstein case, to alleged victims of corporate misbehavior and sexual abuse. The set-up also could make it harder for law enforcement to determine who facilitated Weinstein’s predations.

Until now, from the outside, the Weinstein Co. bankruptcy looked fair. On the same day the company filed for bankruptcy in March , it publicly released employees who say they were victims of or witnesses to Weinstein’s actions from nondisclosure agreements they’d been pressured to sign. And it gave two of the women who accused him of wrongdoing a seat at the table for the bankruptcy negotiations. At the time, Bob Weinstein, Harvey’s brother and the studio’s co-founder, said the company was pleased to have a plan for “pursuing justice for any victims.”

But in bankruptcy, as in the movies, appearances can be misleading.

Read the rest here.

NY farm submits to hosting same sex marriages with a big "But..."

SCHAGHTICOKE -- Even with a state ruling and a court decision against them, the operators of Liberty Ridge Farm may have found a way to avoid having same-sex weddings there after all.

The Schaghticoke tourist farm and wedding venue was in the headlines in 2014 when the state Division of Human Rights ruled that operators Robert and Cynthia Gifford couldn't discriminate against same-sex couples who wanted to get married there.

Now, though, the farm notes on its website that it donates a portion of its profits to the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group that opposes same-sex marriage and believes that homosexual conduct is wrong.

"At Liberty Ridge Farm, our deeply held religious belief is that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and the Farm is operated with the purpose of strengthening and promoting marriage. In furtherance of this purpose and to honor and promote our moral and religious beliefs, we donate a portion of our business proceeds to organizations that promote strong marriages such as the Family Research Council," its online statement reads.

"The patronage of all potential clients for all services offered is welcome regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, disability or marital status. ... All couples legally permitted to marry in the state of New York are welcome to hold their wedding at Liberty Ridge Farm. We serve everyone equally."

Liberty Ridge also has a number of agritourism attractions ranging from animals to corn mazes and pumpkin patches, and hosts field trips for local schools.

Read the rest here.

Abortion

So a video dealing with late term abortion has been brought to my attention. You may watch it here. Caution: I found it to be extremely disturbing.

Abortion is the great moral issue of our age, in the same way that slavery was in the 19th century. And the similarities are stark. In both instances you have one group of people trying to strip another group of people of their basic identity as human beings in order to reduce them to the status of property, that can then be disposed of in whatever manner is convenient to the owner. I believe that with the general acceptance of prenatal infanticide on an industrial scale, even to the point of elevating it to the status of a "human right," that we have crossed over into a new Dark Age. An era of barbarism that would make the ancient Roman's with their fondness for blood sports seem quite civilized by comparison. I know there are a lot of folks who don't believe in God. And at times I almost hope they are right. Because if there is a God, one has to wonder how much more of this He is going to put up with before dropping the hammer. I note that in Britain today there is a hospital that together with the courts are trying desperately to kill a small boy against the wishes of his parents. It's as if the entire world has gone mad, or alternatively been given over to demonic possession.

The world desperately needs a moral reawakening, and a revived abolitionist movement. I don't know how much time we have left.

It's a boy! Michigan couple with 13 sons add another to the clan

Many years!
HT:The Deacons Bench

Socialism is once again in vogue. Why?

Socialism is extremely in vogue. Opinion pieces which tell us to stop obsessing over socialism’s past failures, and start to get excited about its future potential, have almost become a genre in its own right.

For example, Bhaskhar Sunkara, the founder of Jacobin magazine, recently wrote a New York Times article, in which he claimed that the next attempt to build a socialist society will be completely different:

This time, people get to vote. Well, debate and deliberate and then vote—and have faith that people can organize together to chart new destinations for humanity. Stripped down to its essence, and returned to its roots, socialism is an ideology of radical democracy. […] [I]t seeks to empower civil society to allow participation in the decisions that affect our lives.

Nathan Robinson, the editor of Current Affairs, wrote in that magazine that socialism has not “failed." It has just never been done properly:

It’s incredibly easy to be both in favor of socialism and against the crimes committed by 20th-century communist regimes."

When anyone points me to the Soviet Union or Castro’s Cuba and says “Well, there’s your socialism,” my answer […] [is] that these regimes bear absolutely no relationship to the principle for which I am fighting. […] The history of the Soviet Union doesn’t really tell us much about “communism” […]

I can draw distinctions between the positive and negative aspects of a political program. I like the bit about allowing workers to reap greater benefits from their labor. I don’t like the bit about putting dissidents in front of firing squads.”

Closer to home, Owen Jones wrote that Cuba’s current version of socialism was not “real” socialism—but that it could yet become the real thing:

“Socialism without democracy […] isn’t socialism. […] Socialism means socializing wealth and power. […]

Cuba could democratize and grant political freedoms currently denied as well as defending […] the gains of the revolution. […] The only future for socialism […] is through democracy. That […] means organizing a movement rooted in people’s communities and workplaces. It means arguing for a system that extends democracy to the workplace and the economy.

And Washington Post columnist Elizabeth Bruenig wrote an article with the self-explanatory title It’s time to give socialism a try:

Not to be confused for a totalitarian nostalgist, I would support a kind of socialism that would be democratic and aimed primarily at decommodifying labor, reducing the vast inequality brought about by capitalism, and breaking capital’s stranglehold over politics and culture.

Despite differences in style and emphasis, articles in this genre share a number of common flaws.

Read the rest here.

John Kasich is Testing the Waters for Possible 2020 run against Trump

John Kasich's political allies are reaching out to GOP mega donors, seeing if they’d back him in a run against Trump in 2020.

I haven't gotten any calls, but where do I send my non-mega check?