The latest crypto-con

SEC sues entrepreneur, alleging $1 billion in unregistered crypto sales and multimillion-dollar fraud

The so-called crypto industry is a high-tech scam with a history that reads like a catalog of financial criminality. Stay away from it.

New bishop responds to charge of reciting the Creed with the filioque

Bishop Stephan of Philomelion published an explanatory declaration and clarification as a response to the official comment made by the Orthodox Churh of Albania, according to which he said to have “recited the Symbol of Faith (Credo) with the filioque”.

“Inasmuch as these accusations this time touch upon the integrity of my Orthodox phronema and do not merely concert my personal journey, I feel the need and obligation to respond both explicitly and categorically in order to prevent any potential scandal,” the Bishop said in his declaration.

Then, he expressed his wonder: “Does my oversight in reciting part of the English version of the text of the Hierarchal Confession, caused by my emotional intensity and great personal anxiety at that sacred moment, perhaps constitute proof of my ‘deficient’ Orthodoxy?”

Finally, he concluded: “In order to placate even the most sensitive conscience that might have been influenced by the aforementioned prejudicial comment, I declare to everyone everywhere that I believe absolutely and unwaveringly everything proper that I signed with my own hand in the attached text of my Hierarchal Confession.”

Read the rest here. 

HT: Dr. Tighe

A book recommendation

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud
If you own crypto, or are thinking of dabbling in it; I strongly reccomend reading this book.

The Return of Paganism

Cracking down on eco-vandals

In recent years, museums have become easy targets for eco-extremists and vandals who think that disrupting exhibits and attacking priceless works of art are legitimate forms of protest for their cause. Now fed up, the museums and authorities are starting to push back. Suits are being filed for damages and serious criminal charges, long overdue, are finally being brought.

Story here.

Francis names 21 new cardinals

July 9 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday announced that he would elevate 21 churchmen to the high rank of cardinal, again putting his mark on the group that will one day choose his successor after his death or resignation.

Archbishop of York: Our Father is problematic

The archbishop of York has suggested that opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be “problematic” because of their patriarchal association.

In his opening address to a meeting of the Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, Stephen Cottrell dwelt on the words “Our Father”, the start of the prayer based on Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the New Testament.

“I know the word ‘father’ is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us who have laboured rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life,” he said.

His comment – a brief aside in a speech that focused on the need for unity – will divide members of the C of E, a body whose differences on issues of sexuality, identity and equality have been highly visible for years.

Read the rest here.

Pope Francis (again)

Pope Francis picks notorious pro-LGBT clerics to participate in October Synod on Synodality
HT: Dr. Tighe

One in five United Methodist congregations in the US have left the denomination

More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.

Those figures emerge following the close of regular meetings in June for the denomination’s regional bodies, known as annual conferences. The departures began with a trickle in 2019 — when the church created a four-year window of opportunity for U.S. congregations to depart over LGBTQ-related issues — and cascaded to its highest level this year.

Church law forbids the marriage or ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” but many conservatives have chosen to leave amid a growing defiance of those bans in many U.S. churches and conferences.

Many of the departing congregations are joining the Global Methodist Church, a denomination created last year by conservatives breaking from the UMC, while others are going independent or joining different denominations.

Read the rest here.

Pope Francis Appoints a Liberal Protestant as Guardian of Doctrine

The Catholic blogosphere is in an uproar over the appointment of Archbishop Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernandez to be the new head of the Vatican office responsible for defending doctrinal orthodoxy. To say that the man represents a direct attack on anything resembling Catholicism would be a huge understatement. I can only assume that V Gene Robinson didn't get the job because he was deemed too conservative.

Trivia

On this date in 1921 William H. Taft became Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. He was the first, and to date, only former president to hold the top job in both the executive and judicial branches of government. 

News from the Roman Church

Notre Dame Cathedral’s New Interior Design Unveiled

German Catholics left Church in record numbers last year

HT: Dr. Tighe

Life in a state legislature’s superminority

‘I get my butt kicked every 20 minutes.'

What if...

The Central Powers had won the First World War?

Russian Orthodox Church labels pacifism as "heresy"

While the Russian Orthodox Church already supported the invasion of Ukraine, it now also opposes pacifism. The defence of that is heresy, according to them.

Pacifism is a heretic tradition and goes directly against the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is contained in documents sent in by the Church in preparation for a church court case against a priest who condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian medium RBC had access to this documentation.

In this case, the church court is considering statements by priest John Burdin, who is banned from presiding over services. Last year, Burdin had to appear before a civil court for allegedly discriminating against the Russian army. In that case, the priest was fined.

According to the Church’s documents, Burdin’s statements “clearly denigrate the activities of the highest church authorities” of the Russian Orthodox Church, “undermine the trust of believers”, and cause “harm to church unity.”

Read the rest here.

Lock Him Up

For many years, but especially the past three, conservatives have warned of the dangers of a criminal justice system that is overly reluctant to put and keep dangerous people in prison. The law is the law. Violations of it should be prosecuted. We are, and must remain, the land of equal justice, not social justice dictated by the ideological fixations of angry Americans.

These same conservatives should try being consistent when it comes to the federal indictment of Donald Trump.

It is stunning to read the grand jury’s 37-count indictment, with its depictions of a former president treating the law with the contemptuous disdain of a mafia don — but with none of a don’s concern for covering his tracks. It is even more stunning to hear what some of those in the legal community who have been defenders of Trump have to say about it.

Alan Dershowitz: “It is the kind of evidence every defense lawyer dreads and every prosecutor dreams about,” the retired Harvard law professor wrote of Trump’s recorded admission of unlawfully possessing highly classified documents.

Jonathan Turley: “Some of the evidence is coming from his former counsel, and these are very damaging statements made against him,” the Fox News legal analyst said, referring to notes made by one of Trump’s lawyers, in which the former president plots to obstruct a government subpoena. “All the government has to do is stick the landing on one count, and he could have a terminal sentence.”

Bill Barr: “It’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning,” Trump’s former attorney general told “Fox News Sunday.” As for the suggestion that Trump is the victim of a witch hunt, Barr noted that the Justice Department had “acted in a very patient way” in trying to obtain documents from Trump, only to be met with “very egregious obstruction.”

Barr added that the way in which Trump held on to and possibly shared vital national secrets — including, reportedly, the Pentagon’s planning documents for an attack on Iran — was done in a way that “anyone who really cares about national security, your stomach would churn at.”

Read the rest here.

This is it

After seven years, I finally feel confident that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Donald Trump. Absent severe mental illness, no prosecutor would even think about bringing this kind of indictment against a former president of the United States unless they were 300% certain that they would win in court. And this had to be bottom lined by the AG. No AG, no matter their political prejudices, would ever allow the Federal prosecution of a former president, unless they were convinced the rule of law and or national security required it. This indictment is simply damning. It alleges misconduct more serious by several orders of magnitude, than anything Hillary Clinton was accused of. Conduct that back in 2016, Trump wanted prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

To be clear, Donald Trump is an American citizen and entitled to his day in court. I don't have any competence as a matter of law to pronounce him guilty. But as a matter of private opinion, I think he is going down hard and will be very lucky if doesn't die in prison.

The indictment in full.

Trump likely facing Federal indictment

The Feds don't typically say that you are a target unless they have the charge sheet already typed up. Unlike the nickel dime case in New York, which I expect Trump to either beat, or at worst go down for a misdemeanor, the Feds have a serious and very solid case. Trump had about a dozen opportunities to diffuse this bomb, but at every turn he has behaved with manifest bad faith. If he is in fact indicted for documentgate, he is going to be in really deep trouble. The evidence is pretty close to what prosecutors sometimes call a "slam dunk." I think his only hope is that the AG will decide for political reasons not to indict him. Pretty much anyone other than a former US president would probably have already been charged.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I am totally stealing this title because, well, I can't top it. Story here. 

New drug dramatically improves survival rates for lung cancer

This is definitely good news of the sort we could use more of.