Quote of the day...

"Steal a man's wallet and he will be poor for a week. Teach a man to day-trade and he will be poor for life." 

-A popular saying on Wall Street

Cancelling the hecklers

Now an emeritus professor at George Washington University Law School, Banzhaf, 82, is among the most accomplished and aggressive public interest lawyers in the United States. His first legal jihad, waged in the 1960s against Big Tobacco, resulted in strict advertising restrictions on cigarettes as well as a ban on smoking in airplanes. Since then, Banzhaf has led litigious crusades against fast food chains, religious universities, and private clubs, using legal action—or the mere threat of it—to effect social change.

He’s hardly a right-wing zealot. It was Banzhaf who proposed and popularized the idea of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate former president Richard Nixon, setting in motion the legal drama that would ultimately end his presidency. A half century later, he filed a complaint with Georgia election officials over former president Donald Trump’s 2021 call to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger—in which the former president pressured Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results—leading to a multi-year investigation and several subpoenas.

Now, though, this self-proclaimed "legal terrorist" has set his sights on an unlikely target: the Stanford Law School students who shouted down Fifth Circuit appellate judge Kyle Duncan.

Banzhaf told Stanford earlier this month that he will file a character and fitness complaint against the students with the California state bar.

"It appears that you have not taken any steps to discipline or otherwise sanction the student violators," Banzhaf said in a letter to Jenny Martinez, the law school’s dean, who has since ruled out punishing the hecklers. As such, the complaint "will have links to video recordings of the disruption so that bar officials can judge the students’ conduct for themselves."

The California bar requires applicants to demonstrate "respect for the rights of others and for the judicial process." That means the students who disrupted Duncan—in part by telling him "we hope your daughters get raped"—could be in for a rude awakening if Banzhaf makes good on his threat.

This incident "seriously calls into question whether these students have proper temperament to practice law," Banzhaf told the Washington Free Beacon. "It is completely unacceptable to shout down any speaker—much less a federal judge—and then face no consequences."

Such statements have made Banzhaf the strange bedfellow of Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who this month urged the Texas bar to "take particular care" with graduates of Stanford Law School. The horseshoe suggests that outrage about Duncan’s treatment crosses partisan divides—and offers a blueprint to fill the disciplinary void left by other elite law schools, which have refused to punish blatant violations of their free speech policies.

Read the rest here.

The Devastating Consequences of Russia's Miscalculations

Last June – on the day the UN gave a Ukrainian civilian casualty count of 9,931 so far in Russia’s war – I sat at the UN Human Rights Council as the Russian ambassador excoriated Israel over its latest defensive operations in Gaza. Such unjust condemnation of Israel is common fare at the Human Rights Council and we are all used to the Kremlin’s hypocrisy, but how could the Russian Federation use the council as an international platform for its anti-Western bile, despite being suspended in April last year?

In the parody of international order that is the UN, that is no more surprising than Russia’s assumption yesterday of chair of the Security Council, despite its president being indicted for war crimes. It epitomises the failure of the UN, formed to bring world powers together to maintain international peace and security. There have been more wars in the 78 years since its founding than in the equivalent period beforehand. The Security Council has failed to put any kind of brake on nuclear proliferation, with Russia’s accomplice Iran now on the cusp of becoming a nuclear state. Its impact on the war in Ukraine, the most deadly in Europe since 1945, has been zero.

The danger of the Russian Security Council presidency is more in optics than reality. Foreign Minister Lavrov can use his temporary platform to grandstand, but the inbuilt impotence of the Security Council means he can do nothing to advance Russia’s cause. With the exception of China, the other permanent members are likely to show their contempt by downgrading diplomatic representation while Russia is in the chair. Lavrov’s lack of authority in the council reflects his country’s marginalisation. The successor to a superpower – albeit a malign one – is no longer even a great power.

Its economy is flatlining and its leader, through incompetence, is systematically dismantling an army that was once so powerful that half a million US troops were permanently stationed in Europe to counter it. Russia’s demographic turmoil has long been a nightmare for Putin and all he has done is exacerbate it, as thousands of young Russians are slaughtered in Bakhmut and, according to Moscow’s media, upwards of 700,000 young men have fled the country to avoid mobilisation.

To many countries Russia is a pariah, with even its status as an armed gas station in ruins. It will probably never be able to recover from any of this and will struggle to be taken seriously – except by other rogue states who scent the opportunity to buy oil and gas at a discount, or perhaps a few fighter jets.

Yes, Moscow has nuclear weapons, and Putin never misses an opportunity to threaten to bring them into play, but he knows that China is unlikely to allow their use. That encapsulates the parlous depths that Putin has dragged his country down to. For the foreseeable future, Russia will be nothing more than a Chinese vassal. During his recent visit to Moscow, Xi Jinping’s barely-concealed disdain contrasted humiliatingly with his host’s lavish hospitality and knee-bending aggrandisement.

Read the rest here. (paywalled)

150 Years Ago: The wreck of the SS Atlantic

The Mouse that Roared

It looks like in the long running feud between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney, that the mouse may have just pulled a fast one right out of the GOP's playbook. For those unfamiliar with the whole thing, the unpleasantness began when Disney had the temerity to publicly criticize DeSantis for his legislation that restricts discussion of mature subjects, like sex and sexual orientation among very young children in schools. FTR I strongly support it. There is no justification for discussing that kind of stuff with third graders or younger, which is what was in the bill. Disney, long a close ally of the Alphabet People, publicly criticized the bill. And that was enough to put the mouse in the crosshairs of Florida's notoriously thin-skinned governor who has a reputation for holding grudges and wielding the power of the state against those who dare to cross him. Personally, I think Disney is dead wrong here. But I tend to take that view of most liberals on most political issues. 

What disturbs me, and quite a few others, was the absolutely naked use of state power to retaliate against a business for daring to publicly disagree with him on a matter of public policy. DeSantis and his allies in the GOP dominated state legislature quickly rammed through a bill that stripped Disney, Florida's by far largest private sector employer, of special considerations it had long enjoyed including relative autonomy over its land and parks for the purposes of municipal governance. A special board that handled those things was to be dissolved and replaced by a new one, that would be composed of appointees of the governor with his allies crowing that this was going to be the end of Disney's ability to promote left of center practices in its parks, employment practices and corporate culture. 

During all of this Disney remained relatively quiet. But behind the scenes, they were plotting. 

Shortly before the old board's official date of expiration arrived, they formally ceded most of their powers and authority to Disney. The new board, hand picked by DeSantis, effectively has been stripped of any actual power over Disney, its land and parks. And boy are people ticked. The governor's allies in Tallahassee are questioning the legality of the move and vowing to overturn it. But FWIW sources at Disney, both on and off the record, are sounding pretty confident that they dotted all the legal eyes and crossed the tees. They even put in a special clause to prevent a court challenge on the basis of "perpetuity" issues. Technically, the cession of governing authority is not perpetual. In order to avoid that trap, Disney inserted a clause frequently used in British contracts by setting the expiration at "21 years following the death of the last currently living descendent of King Charles III." If any of Charles' grandchildren live into their 80s this could be in force for at least the next 100 years. 

Where did Disney come up with this idea? Oddly, the GOP has been doing it for years. In a number of states, North Carolina being a prominent example, when the Republicans have lost an election for statewide office that they cared about, but they currently still controlled the legislature and the governor's mansion, they would rush through bills in the lame duck sessions vastly curtailing the powers of the office that the Democrats were about to gain. Predictably this has almost always ended up in court battles with mixed results. 

My guess is that this too will end up in court. It's possible the GOP may try to pass a special bill nullifying the transfer of powers. But I don't see anything definitive happening soon. Even if it gets overturned, and that's a big "if," this fight could easily drag on for years. At least for the moment, Disney has thwarted DeSantis in a state that he virtually owns. And that is no small accomplishment.

The Liberal Maverick Fighting Race-Based Affirmative Action

Old school American liberalism had little to do with the balkanization of America into varying, and often competing groups of victims based on race, ethnicity and gender/orientation. It was all about making sure that the working man got a fair wage, a safe place to work, decent schools for his kids and the reasonable hope that they might grow up to enjoy a better life than he had. And if perchance some misfortune should befall the family beyond the means of extended family or charity to take care of them, the government would make sufficient provision to help keep body and soul together until things stabilized and the family was able to again become self-sufficient. In other words, it was bread and butter issues. Today's wokery would be completely alien to FDR and Harry Truman. I found this to be...

Well worth a read.

Reparations for Black Californians could top $800 billion

SAN FRANCISCO -- It could cost California more than $800 billion to compensate Black residents for generations of over-policing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination, economists have told a state panel considering reparations.

The preliminary estimate is more than 2.5 times California's $300 billion annual budget, and does not include a recommended $1 million per older Black resident for health disparities that have shortened their average life span. Nor does the figure count compensating people for property unjustly taken by the government or devaluing Black businesses, two other harms the task force says the state perpetuated.

Black residents may not receive cash payments anytime soon, if ever, because the state may never adopt the economists' calculations. The reparations task force is scheduled to discuss the numbers Wednesday and can vote to adopt the suggestions or come up with its own figures. The proposed number comes from a consulting team of five economists and policy experts.

Read the rest here.

California; the world's largest lunatic asylum masquerading as a state. 

Rare Film Documentary of the Opening of Vatican II

I think most readers of this blog will agree that Vatican II, based on its fruits, was a near unmitigated catastrophe for the Roman Church. But this film footage, most of which I have never seen, is quite extraordinary and shows some of the ceremonial of the pre-conciliar papacy. On a side note John XXIII looks exhausted and unwell as he is being carried about on the sedia gestatoria.

The decline of Great Britain as a serious military power

Arrest Warrant Issued for Vladimir Putin for War Crimes

THE HAGUE (AP) — The International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.

The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

It also issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.”

On Thursday, a U.N.-backed inquiry cited Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, among potential issues that amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

Read the rest here.

The Roman Catholic Church is going mad

What the hell is going on?

‘Several’ French Bishops Ask Pope to Reformulate Catholic Doctrine on Homosexuality| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com)

Women’s Ordination, Transgender Ideology Move Forward at German Synodal Way| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com)

Germany’s synodal way: How delegates voted and what’s next (pillarcatholic.com)

Catholic Church of Germany Goes Reform-Mad ━ The European Conservative

(HT Dr. Tighe)

Are there really no small 'o' orthodox Catholic bishops left? Is there not a single Catholic bishop who grasps the danger and is prepared to call this out for what it is, heresy and schism? It's obvious to a convention of the blind, that Francis is not going to do his job. Why aren't the bishops organizing an emergency synod to deal with this? Gather a large number of pointy hats and issue a joint declaration stating point blank that the German church is a micro inch from full schism and if they actually follow up on any of their heretical proclamations, that the signers of the declaration will break communion with them and anyone who supports them. 

Russia says it does not recognise Hague court amid reports of arrest warrants

Moscow has said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in The Hague, after reports that the court is expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals over the war in Ukraine.

“We do not recognise this court; we do not recognise its jurisdiction,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday morning.

The New York Times and Reuters news agency reported on Monday that the prosecutor at the international criminal court (ICC) would formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

Read the rest here.

And now for some (rare) good news from Washington

There are signs of a thaw in the ice-cold relationship between the leadership of the two parties in the House of Representatives. The relationship, to the extent there was one, between Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi, his predecessor as Speaker of the House, was notoriously chilly and at times downright acrimonious. Since taking the Speaker's gavel, and despite being ideological opposites, McCarthy has been working with Pelosi's successor Hakeem Jeffries to try and repair lines of communication between the leadership of the two parties. This has included reviving old school courtesies like actually giving the minority party a heads up on upcoming legislation and consulting them on important items involving the House as a whole. It's early days but people on both sides of the aisle are noting the signs of a detente with cautious optimism.

Details here.

Pope Francis describes gender politics as "ideological colonization"

Pope Francis has said that gender ideology is “one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations” today.

In an interview with journalist Elisabetta Piqué for the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación, Pope Francis explained the reasoning behind his strong statement.

“Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations,” Francis said in the interview published on the evening of March 10.

“Why is it dangerous? Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women,” he added.

“All humanity is the tension of differences. It is to grow through the tension of differences. The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation.”

Pope Francis has frequently used the term “ideological colonization” throughout the 10 years of his pontificate, particularly to describe instances when aid money for developing countries has been tied to contraceptives, abortion, sterilization, and gender ideologies.

Read the rest here.

Proof that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC

As president, Donald Trump made some of his most thoroughly dishonest speeches at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

As he embarks on another campaign for the presidency, Trump delivered another CPAC doozy Saturday night.

Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.

Here is a fact check of 23 of the false claims Trump made. (And that’s far from the total.)

Read it all here.

Trump reminds me of a famous line about another robber baron from a different era, Jay Gould. "If he is speaking, he is lying. And if he is silent, he is stealing."

Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem is Supplying the Chrism for Charles III Coronation

Interesting to say the least. 

Details

Are Left Wing Campuses Pushing Some Students to the Right?

In the not-so-distant past, the Typical College Republican idolized Ronald Reagan, fretted about the national debt and read Edmund Burke. Political sophistication, to that person, implied belief in the status quo.

For that bygone breed, an education at an elite institution was a moderating finishing school. Even then American universities skewed liberal, but the conservatives of old had real opportunities to make their case — and have their ideas respectfully challenged — in the public square. At my own school, Princeton, I’ve been told, politics were mostly separable from personal relationships.

How things have changed.

Today’s campus conservatives embrace a less moderate, complacent and institutional approach to politics. Instead of belief in the status quo, many tend toward scorched-earth politics. But these changes aren’t solely the consequence of a fractured national politics.

They’re also the result of puritanically progressive campuses that alienate conservative students from their liberal peers and college as a whole. The distrust of authority, the protest and the disobedience that have characterized the left’s activism over the past half-century or so have arrived on the right. The American universities that once served as moderating finishing schools have become breeding grounds for conservative firebrands.

The story of this transformation, according to the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, starts around 2014, when Gen Z arrived on campus. The new progressive students were less tolerant of heterodox ideas and individuals. Demands to rescind invitations to speakers seemed to spike. The terms “microaggression” and “trigger warning” made it into everyday campus parlance. At Yale, for instance, a lecturer’s suggestion that students should determine which Halloween costumes are acceptable for themselves ignited a firestorm.

These changes were felt on my campus, too. “Princeton has become a much more politicized place over the last 10 years,” said Thomas Kelly, a philosophy professor. It’s also become more progressive. Diversity training sessions blatantly endorse progressive ideas: Espousing a colorblind ideal, for example, is deemed a “microinvalidation.” Bureaucrats police conduct and speech. Many programs cater to left-wing causes.

For those on the right, the experience is alienating. The typical American’s views on gender ideology or American history are often irrelevant to his or her day-to-day life. But for the conservative college student, life is punctuated by political checkpoints. Classes may begin with requests for “preferred pronouns” or “land acknowledgments.” A student who jokes about the wrong subject might face social punishment. All students should welcome challenges to their most cherished beliefs, but from what I’ve seen on campus, students are not invited to debate; they are expected to conform.

Read the rest here.

Imagining a Heretical Cardinal

Imagine if a cardinal of the Catholic Church were to publish an article in which he condemned “a theology of eucharistic coherence that multiplies barriers to the grace and gift of the eucharist” and stated that “unworthiness cannot be the prism of accompaniment for disciples of the God of grace and mercy.” Or what if a cardinal of the Catholic Church were to state publicly that homosexual acts are not sinful and same-sex unions should be blessed by the Church? 

Until recently, it would be hard to imagine any successor of the apostles making such heterodox statements. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon today to hear Catholic leaders affirm unorthodox views that, not too long ago, would have been espoused only by heretics. “Heretic” and “heresy” are strong words, which contemporary ecclesiastical politeness has softened to gentler expressions such as “our separated brethren” or “the Christian faithful who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church.” But the reality is that those who are “separated” and “not in full communion” are separated and not in full communion because they reject essential truths of “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Thus, it is deeply troubling to consider the possibility that prelates holding the office of diocesan bishop in the Catholic Church may be separated or not in full communion because of heresy. 

Yet both the cases mentioned above would in fact involve heresy, since heresy is defined as “the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith” (canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law). What, then, constitutes “some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith”? 

Read the rest here.

HT: Blog reader John L.

The Latest Crypto-con (UK)

A cryptocurrency investment firm with links to two all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) appears to have disappeared, leaving some investors fearing they have lost tens of thousands of pounds and raising the prospect of further questions being asked about the role of APPGs in parliament.

Phoenix Community Capital established itself last year as a cryptocurrency project and investment scheme, which it said at one point was valued at $800m (£665m). It was a sponsor of one APPG, and its co-founder, Luke Sullivan, spoke at an event for a second APPG , as well as appearing as a panellist for events hosted by peers in parliament.

However, the company appears to have vanished in September last year, with its website going offline and the investment portfolios, known as “nests”, becoming inaccessible to an estimated 8,000 investors after that date.

Some investors, including a former Premier League footballer, claim to have lost tens of thousands of pounds each.

Some of the firm’s assets and its name appear to have been sold to a new company run by an individual called “Dan”, who has told investors it has no obligation towards them, but that it would still try to make them some returns.

Asked what had happened to the company and its investments, Sullivan said he would respond if the Guardian flew to the Philippines to discuss it further. He criticised the Guardian for making “a number of factual errors” and said he was not being allowed an opportunity to “clarify the real facts”, and then said he could not respond to a further request for comment.

Read the rest here.

Report: Pope Francis preparing further attack on Tridentine Mass

VATICAN CITY, February 18, 2023—The Remnant has learned that a Vatican document is currently under review by Pope Francis that would expand and reinforce his 2021 Motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, affirm that the only official liturgy of the Latin Rite is the Novus Ordo, and stringently regulate the ex-Ecclesia Dei communities.

Well-informed Vatican sources have confirmed to the Remnant, which accurately warned of Traditionis Custodes before it was published in 2021, that the draft document, in the form of an apostolic constitution, was presented to Pope Francis at the end of January by superiors of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments headed by Cardinal Arthur Roche.

The document is said to have been written by dicastery officials, under the guidance of its secretary, Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, OFM, in collaboration with at least one consultor of the Vatican’s office for papal liturgical celebrations.

While Traditionis Custodes is aimed chiefly at thwarting the growth of the traditional Latin Mass and sacraments among diocesan clergy, this new document would deal a particularly heavy blow to ex-Ecclesia Dei communities, by banning diaconal and priestly ordinations in the Vetus Ordo, prohibiting the administration of the other sacraments to the faithful, and requiring concelebration of all priests, including members of these institutes.

A prohibition of Sunday Masses in the Vetus Ordo is also said to be on the table.

Read the rest here.

How can any Orthodox Christian even contemplate entering into communion with a church whose leader apparently claims the authority to suppress ancient liturgical rites at will? If he can outlaw his own church's liturgical patrimony, why would he not be able to do that to the churches of the East? 

Between this and the heretical drivel coming out of the crazier corners of the Roman Church (hello Germany) the farther the Orthodox Church remains from Rome, the better. Maybe things will improve after the next conclave. But I am not optimistic.