Chick-fil-A alienates its right-wing Christian supporters

Some of you may recall the big Chick-fil-A controversy that emerged some years ago. The owners of this fast-food franchise are evangelical Christians who disapprove of homosexuality and opposed the efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. This made them the target of boycotts by the LGBT+ community but also the darling of right-wing evangelical Christians in the US who campaigned to have people eat there to show their support.

So I was surprised to read that the company has just stopped funding the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, two organizations that were prominent in also opposing giving equal rights to the LGBT+ community. The company has also contributed to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group that strongly supports LGBT+ rights and is a group that right-wingers hate.
[Read more…]

But what are they going to do about it?

Yesterday I posted about my impatience with Republican congresspeople who seem quite willing to criticize Donald Trump’s words and actions in private while loudly praising him in public. Now come reports that top military personnel are also disturbed by his reckless interference into its workings and also saying so privately.

Tensions that have been mounting for months between some of the nation’s most senior military officers and President Donald Trump are boiling over after his decision to intervene in the cases of three service members accused of war crimes.

A long-serving military officer put it bluntly, telling CNN “there is a morale problem,” and senior Pentagon officials have privately said they are disturbed by the President’s behavior.
[Read more…]

Ohio leads again, and not in a good way

When it comes to placing restrictions on abortion, Ohio has the dubious honor of proposing the wildest ideas to the point of even demanding the impossible. Take the latest bill introduced in the state legislature.

A bill to ban abortion introduced in the Ohio state legislature requires doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.

This is the second time practising obstetricians and gynecologists have tried to tell the Ohio legislators that the idea is currently medically impossible.

Ohio’s move on ectopic pregnancies – where an embryo implants on the mother’s fallopian tube rather than her uterus rendering the pregnancy unviable – is one of the most extreme bills to date.

“I don’t believe I’m typing this again but, that’s impossible,” wrote Ohio obstetrician and gynecologist Dr David Hackney on Twitter. “We’ll all be going to jail,” he said.

But that is not the only dangerously idiotic idea in the bill.

In addition to ordering doctors to do the impossible or face criminal charges, House Bill 413 bans abortion outright and defines a fertilized egg as an “unborn child”.

It also appears to punish doctors, women and children as young as 13 with “abortion murder” if they “perform or have an abortion”. This crime is punishable by life in prison. Another new crime, “aggravated abortion murder”, is punishable by death, according to the bill.

Ohio: Leading the way in legislative callousness and stupidity.

Cry me a river

I am frankly sick and tired of Republican politicians quietly spreading the word that they are disgusted with Donald Trump’s words and actions while publicly supporting him to the hilt.

A former GOP lawmaker on Thursday spilled the beans on what his ex-colleagues in Congress are saying about President Donald Trump in private.

Ex-Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) acknowledged in an interview on “CNN Newsroom” that Republicans are in public “standing with the president for the moment,” despite the impeachment inquiry prompted by the Ukraine scandal.

A former GOP lawmaker on Thursday spilled the beans on what his ex-colleagues in Congress are saying about President Donald Trump in private.

Ex-Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) acknowledged in an interview on “CNN Newsroom” that Republicans are in public “standing with the president for the moment,” despite the impeachment inquiry prompted by the Ukraine scandal.

Earlier in the interview, Dent said he would have certainly “voted for the impeachment inquiry based on the facts as I understand them now” and “would probably support” the impeachment of Trump.

If there was ever a bunch of unprincipled politicians, it is the current Republican members of Congress. They are political cowards on the grandest scale and they should not be allowed to get away with their attempt to have it both ways.

The missing cryptocurrency queen

Some people have made a lot of money in the tech world. Some have done it by creating companies, others by investing in them. But there are others who wish that they had invested in successful companies early on and made a lot of money but didn’t and now feel that they missed out. These people who are on the lookout for the next big thing so that they can get is early and cash in too. Such people are easy prey for con artists who know that the sales pitch of ‘buy now before it is too late’ can drive people to rash decisions and invest in something they may know little about for fear of missing out again.

We have seen this scenario play out so many times before and blog reader Jason Wessel sent me a link to this extraordinary story about someone who managed to scam people out of millions of dollars by promising them great rewards with a new cryptocurrency called OneCoin that she claimed would put Bitcoin out of business. The scam was based on the multi-level marketing scheme used by companies like Amway whereby people are recruited to sell both a product and also recruit new people to sell the product. Part of the sales proceeds of the new recruits goes to the person who recruited them, all the way up the chain. This is a version of a pyramid scheme and, like all such schemes, the few people who get in early make the most money while those lower down the chain can lose whatever they invest.
[Read more…]

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving day in the US where family and friends get together to set aside differences and share food in a spirit of harmony. So what could be more appropriate than to hear Donald Trump rant in an unhinged manner about a non-existent war on Thanksgiving?

Seth Meyers walks us through this latest nonsense as well as update us on the impeachment process.

Jonathan Miller (1934-2019)

The multi-talented Miller died yesterday at the age of 85. His obituary describes the wide range of activities that he was involved with in his life, including being a doctor, writer, and theatre and opera director.

I first came across him as one of the four people (along with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and Alan Bennett) that made up the sketch comedy team whose performance of Beyond the Fringe broke with traditional British comedy and set the stage for later acts like Monty Python.
[Read more…]

Jeremy Corbyn accuses Boris Johnson of secret deal to sell the NHS

The rumors that the Conservative party will seek to use the National Health Service as a bargaining chip in getting a trade deal with the US after they leave the EU has been around for a long time. The Conservatives and Boris Johnson have vigorously denied it because for all the grumbling about its shortcomings (mainly caused by insufficient government finding) people are fond of the NHS and would fiercely resent giving it up and letting the poisonous American private health system be foisted on them.

But Corbyn says that they have received a leaked dossier that shows that Johnson has already been in negotiations with the US to put the NHS up for sale.
[Read more…]