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  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Rare Earth minerals deposit could end Chinese dominance

So what are the new areas where America and its allies are blind to global trends but the Communists are already preparing. Do we have a plan or are we just going to let Wall Street bungle this one also as they did with Rare Earths?
We weren't blind to the National security issue with China and their rare earths. We knew about this since 2010, on their first embargo. The media has done a good job distracting us from the real issues facing both left and right Americans. Our politicians didn't have the political will to make themselves look bad for the good of the country in 2010, and China is playing the same shenanigans today.

If we were to get into a hot war with Russia or China, we wouldn't be able to keep up with armament production and would be heavily reliant on the other NATO members.
Rare earth metals are not that rare but the isolation of them is difficult. It causes a lot of pollution. China was willing to take that on, as perhaps the most polluted and polluting country on the planet. Maybe we can do it better, now that prices are high, but maybe not.
Political will to do what's right. I think climate change had something to do with Obama not taking action.
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Catholic advocates petition New York foundation to fund pensions, church preservation

Advocates in New York state are petitioning a Catholic foundation there to help fund major pension shortages and church preservation efforts as well as to help support victims of clergy sex abuse.

In a Nov. 13 letter to the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation in New York City, representatives of the group Save Our Buffalo Churches, sexual abuse victims, and pensioners of the former St. Clare’s Hospital asked the foundation to help the three communities with the “profound hardship” they are experiencing.

Numerous parishes in Buffalo have been fighting diocesan-mandated closures and mergers over the past year. Hundreds of former workers of St. Clare’s, meanwhile, saw their pensions reduced or eliminated starting in 2018 due to major shortfalls. The hospital itself closed about a decade before.

Abuse victims, meanwhile, have “been locked in a legal morass, denied the long-term healing resources and institutional acknowledgment of the harm they endured,” the letter said.

Continued below.

No One Is Above The Law

This is happening are you sure this is what you want?
Yes. Epstein and Maxwell were involved with Democratic campaigns, etc. He met with a senior aide of Clinton. When Clinton started his foundation, having been bankrupted by rapacious Republican attack dogs, he (or his team) used Epstein's private plane when setting up charitable projects in Asia and Africa. He never visited "the island." No wonder why he sleeps well at night.

This was posted by Max Brantley, retired editor in chief of Arkansas Times, very knowledgeable about Bill Clinton.

Since the House Oversight Committee dropped over 20,000 files from the Epstein estate this week, there have not only been renewed suspicions about Donald Trump - Bill Clinton has also re-entered the chat. Even though I’ve seen a lot of Dems say they don’t care if Clinton gets taken down with Trump, (including me), after digging around all afternoon, I don’t think it’s very likely to happen.
The Clinton-Epstein connection looks damning at first glance.
White House visitor logs show Epstein visited 17 times between 1993 and 1995. Clinton flew on Epstein’s plane 26 times. There’s photos of them together. But when you dig into the actual documents instead of the viral claims, a different picture emerges. One where Clinton’s real connection was to Ghislaine Maxwell through social circles, and Epstein was just the rich guy with the plane.
Here’s what actually happened. Maxwell arrived in New York in the early 1990s as the daughter of British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell. She already had connections to elite social circles from her father’s world. She met Jeffrey Epstein shortly after her father’s mysterious death in 1991, when she was reportedly looking for a fresh start and Epstein provided the money she needed to maintain her lifestyle. She introduced Epstein to wealthy and powerful people. That was the transaction.
So, let’s talk about those 17 White House visits that get cited as proof Clinton and Epstein were best friends. Visitor logs show Epstein wasn’t there to see Clinton. He was meeting with Mark Middleton, a Clinton aide whose job was literally maintaining contact with the president’s donors. Middleton authorized at least seven of those visits. This wasn’t two buddies hanging out. This was a fundraiser meeting with the fundraising guy. Epstein had donated to Clinton’s campaign and to the White House Historical Association.
That bought him access to an aide, not to the Oval Office.
The connection between Clinton and Epstein’s social circle came later, after Clinton left office in 2001. Here’s the part people forget about early 2000s political reality. Most politicians weren’t millionaires yet. Clinton left office with legal debt from impeachment proceedings. When he started the Clinton Foundation and needed to do international humanitarian work, he didn’t have a private jet budget.
Doug Band, Clinton’s chief counselor and the architect of the Clinton Global Initiative, arranged for Epstein’s plane to be used for foundation trips in 2002 and 2003. The 26 flights that show up in the logs were actually four trips: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa for AIDS relief and economic development. Multiple staff members and Secret Service agents were on every leg of every trip. The work was documented by the foundation. This isn’t disputed.
What’s also documented is that Maxwell was on those flights. She was listed in the logs as “GM.” She attended Clinton Foundation events. She eventually became friendly enough with the Clintons to attend Chelsea’s wedding in 2010 - after Epstein had already pleaded guilty in Florida to procuring sex from a minor. That’s the judgment call that’s actually worth criticizing. But I assume no one knew yet the depth of Epstein’s crimes or her involvement.
The flight logs show Clinton stopped using Epstein’s plane in 2003, two years before Epstein’s first arrest. According to Doug Band in a 2020 Vanity Fair interview, he got bad vibes from Epstein during the Africa trip and advised Clinton to cut ties. Band said Epstein made ridiculous claims, like that he’d invented the derivatives market, and Band didn’t want Clinton associated with him. Whether Clinton listened immediately or not, the documented flights ended in 2003.
Now let’s talk about what makes the Clinton connection different from others in these files. Trump has been directly accused in documents im]n this week’s data dump. Emails show Epstein writing about Trump: “Of course he knew about the girls” and referencing incidents at Mar-a-Lago. Prince Andrew was accused by Virginia Giuffre in detailed testimony, settled a lawsuit, and lost his royal duties. Alan Dershowitz was named in victim statements. These are allegations with specifics: dates, locations, circumstances, victims naming them directly.
With Clinton, there’s proximity to evil but no accusation of evil.
Not one victim in five years of document releases has accused Clinton of anything. Multiple people under oath - including Epstein himself in a 2010 deposition and the pilot who flew the plane - said Clinton never visited the private island. The Secret Service found no records of Clinton visiting Little St. James.
The “28 island visits” claim exists nowhere in any official document. No flight log. No victim testimony. No deposition. It just started circulating online because it sounded plausible, and Trump repeated it.
That’s how modern conspiracy theories work. Someone says something inflammatory, it gets repeated enough times, and suddenly it becomes “everybody knows” when nobody actually has proof.
The real scandal here is simpler and more boring than the conspiracy version. Clinton had terrible judgment about his associates. He accepted help from a billionaire who turned out to be a monster because his foundation needed resources. He maintained a social connection to Maxwell longer than he should have because she was connected to his daughter and his foundation work. His aide Doug Band eventually tried to bar Maxwell from Clinton events in 2011 when the allegations became public, but by then she’d already attended Chelsea’s wedding.
By the time Clinton stepped on Epstein’s plane - he had already been through an impeachment for an inappropriate relationship. It’s highly unlikely that he used one of his foundation’s trips to let it all hang loose with his staff and other people he did not know very well. The actual question is why this particular rumor has so much staying power when the documents don’t support it. Maybe it’s because Clinton is already associated with sexual misconduct from his own actions with Monica Lewinsky and others. Maybe it’s because people don’t trust powerful men to tell the truth about powerful men. Maybe it’s because the Epstein case is so horrifying we want to believe everyone connected to him must have been part of it.
Or maybe it’s because people, like me, don’t do any research before they post photos like the one in the post right before this one.
That photo is real and it does look bad. But here’s the important context: Chauntae Davies herself, the Epstein victim in the photo, said Clinton was “a perfect gentleman” and she “saw absolutely no foul play involving him.” The massage happened during a refueling stop in Portugal during that documented 2002 Africa humanitarian trip. Maxwell suggested it as a joke when Clinton complained about stiffness from sleeping in his chair, and Davies said everyone laughed but Maxwell insisted.
Davies has been very clear in multiple interviews that while Epstein raped and abused her repeatedly for four years, nothing happened with Clinton on that trip. She actually said it was “the single most amazing moment of my life” and she had a “false belief that the abuse had stopped” during the Africa trip because Epstein didn’t assault her while Clinton and the others were there.
This is exactly the kind of thing that looks terrible in a photo but the actual victim says wasn’t misconduct. It’s awkward, it shows terrible judgment about who Clinton was traveling with, but it’s not evidence of Clinton participating in Epstein’s crimes. The victim herself has never accused Clinton of anything.
So - yeah - my bad.
#ratcepsteinfiles


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Polish, German bishops sign new declaration 60 years after historic reconciliation

In 1965, Polish bishops sent a letter of reconciliation to their German counterparts. “We grant forgiveness and ask for forgiveness,” they wrote on Nov. 18. The German episcopate responded on Dec. 5, 1965, expressing the hope that “the evil spirit of hatred may never again separate our hands.”

It was a significant two-sided gesture of reconciliation after World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, killing many people and establishing concentration camps on Polish soil. Sixty years later, a commemoration took place in Wrocław on Tuesday, Nov. 18, with delegates of both episcopates including their chairs, German Bishop Georg Bätzing and Polish Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda. Polish Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś and German Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki were also present.

They gathered at the monument to Archbishop Bolesław Kominek — later cardinal — who had been behind the idea of the Polish letter and served as archbishop in Wrocław.

Continued below.

"What’s the one Bible command that wrecked you—in the best possible way?"

I would say it's commandments also. It's not like we're just here living a Christian life casually and reading the Bible, no, we're supposed to have a mission. Christianity is all about a mission and the mission is to get souls saved.

Judaism`s mission is to bring light into the world.

Psalms 49 tells that a man cannot redeem his brother, nor pay his ransom to God.

The redemption of their soul is too costly, and forever unattainable.
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Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at Museum of the Bible invites nonbelievers to witness 'power' of biblical texts

WASHINGTON — The Museum of the Bible's latest exhibit, “Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition,” features the oldest copies of biblical fragments, and Matthias Walther, the museum’s chief marketing officer, hopes it will invite nonbelievers to reconsider their assumptions about the Bible.

“When you come here, you see the actual documents. You go back to the source,” Walther told The Christian Post during a preview of the exhibit on Wednesday ahead of its weekend opening.

“And all the theories that you have about ‘Is this true,' 'Is this not true,' and ‘Can I trust the Bible or not?’ I hope this will be a step to say, ‘Man, there's something there that I need to discover,’” Walther added. “‘Maybe I need to do my homework and identify all the preconceived notions that I had about this book. Maybe they're not true?’”

Continued below.

Proposed 400-acre development by Texas EPIC mosque scrubs website, rebrands as 'The Meadow'

A proposed Islamic-focused development in North Texas may be eyeing approval under a new name after developers scrubbed their original website and revised marketing materials amid a storm of state investigations and legislative crackdowns.

The controversial 400-acre project, originally branded as EPIC City — an initiative from the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) — was initially planned for unincorporated areas of Collin and Hunt counties, just north of Josephine, located about 40 miles northeast of Dallas. With a stated vision of 1,000 homes, a mosque and community center, a school, and other facilities tailored to Muslim families, the project stalled earlier this year following a series of legal challenges.

On Nov. 8, Collin County Judge Chris Hill updated residents on Facebook, signaling that developers at Community Capital Partners, LLC (CCP) are gearing up for formal submissions, starting with a name change for the project. "According to a diagram of the planned neighborhood, the developers have changed the name of the project to The Meadow," Hill wrote.

He added that there are “reports that CCP have filed or soon intend to file an application” with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to form its own municipal utility district for The Meadow.

Continued below.

UK Supreme Court rules Northern Ireland's religious education requirement unlawful: Tantamount to 'indoctrination'

The U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that the current approach to religious education (RE) and collective worship in Northern Ireland schools breaches human rights and is unlawful.

The court reached its verdict based on the view that the present curriculum doesn't approach the subject in an "objective, critical and pluralist manner."

The judgment was handed down on Wednesday after a father and daughter — who cannot be named for legal reasons — challenged how RE is being taught in Northern Ireland schools.

The family became concerned after the girl, named only as JR87 in court documents, started praying before meals at home. When asked about it by her non-religious parents, she told them she had been taught to do this at her primary school, which she attended between the ages of 4 and 7. Her parents then approached the school because they didn't want their daughter to be taught that Christianity was an absolute truth. The school told them they were following the core syllabus for RE.

Continued below.

Americans vs. Canadians: Who's more religious? Survey reveals

44% of Canadians say they never feel God’s presence

New research reveals the religious views of Americans and Canadians and who's more supportive of politicians talking about their faith in public, and which country's population is more engaged in acts of service.

The non-partisan think tanks Cardus and the Angus Reid Institute released a reportWednesday contrasting the religious views of Americans and Canadians. The research, based on responses collected from 5,001 Americans and 5,001 Canadians in March and first published earlier this month, found that Americans are significantly more religious than their Canadian counterparts.

When asked if they agreed that religion was “very important” in their “day-to-day life,” 33% of Americans indicated that they “strongly agree” compared to just 17% of Canadians. Conversely, nearly half of Canadians (45%) told pollsters they “strongly disagree” that religion is “very important” in their “day-to-day life,” while just over a quarter (26%) of Americans said the same.

Continued below.

Eve and the Fallacy of Moral Choices

Adam was God's son. A PART of God Himself.

Your attempt starts right out the gate trying to "divide" that fact from Adam and everyone else.

People really are God's children, when all is said and done. A generally accepted fact within larger orthodoxy.

So notions that God has children that fail and He is then forced to burn them alive forever is not only bizarre, but patent nonsense. Just another lie of the devils in the carriers. I don't think the people who get sucked into that kind of vortex have given it much thought myself. IF they did they'd have a better opinion of God and His Capabilities to actually be their SAVIOR.
I do believe in a place of torment, but eventually every person in hell is annihilated, but that takes lots of scripture and words to explain.

Yes! We are all God’s children, but some of God’s children continue to reject God’s help (Love/charity/grace/mercy/forgiveness) to the point they would never of their own free will humbly accept God’s charity as charity. So, what can be done with them? They would be very unhappy in heaven where there is no carnal type of love and only Godly type Love (Which they do not want or like).

These refusers of God’s help, can take on the lesser objective of helping those who still can choose to accept God’s Love, by the refusers being examples of what they do not want to be or become.
I would suggest that is where the interesting parts reside. The classic theodicy realm.

You have to admit that the scriptures DO present a world of invisible actors overlaid upon people. It's pretty much beyond denial for a legitimate believer is it not?

An "antiChrist" spirit is, let's say, a unique but temporary thing kind of beyond our definite grasp other than the disclosures we have in scripture and what we can "see and perceive" in reality, even within our own minds.

Haven't you ever been blindsided by a "bad thought" seemingly out of nowhere? I'd dare say it's a "universal" experience to people. Take it from there.
You are not addressing the question: “Why is satan wondering around and/or in people?

bling said:
iirc Jesus IS The Savior of the world. I actually believe He gets the job done. My bad?
Just because some people refuse God’s Love/charity/salvation does not mean Jesus is not their savior. The gift can be refused.
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41% of young adults support giving AI broad gov't powers

36% support handing over rights pertaining to speech, religious practices and property

A little over four in 10 young voting-age adults are in favor of giving artificial intelligence broad government powers, according to a recently released survey.

The Heartland Institute’s Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center and Rasmussen Reports announced on Wednesday the findings of a poll taken of 1,496 likely voters aged 18-39 with a margin of sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

According to the study’s findings, 41% of respondents said they support giving “an advanced AI system authority to control public policymaking decisions.”

This sizable minority in favor of AI controlling policy decisions included 55% who self-identified as conservatives and 54% of respondents between the ages of 25-29.

Additionally, according to researchers, 36% of respondents supported a proposal that gives AI control over “rights that belong to individuals and families, including rights related to speech, religious practices, government authority, and property.”

Continued below.

RFK jr.

Note the asterisk.

Vaccines do not cause Autism*​


Pursuant to the Data Quality Act (DQA), which requires federal agencies to ensure the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information they disseminate to the public, this webpage has been updated because the statement "Vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim. Scientific studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines contribute to the development of autism. However, this statement has historically been disseminated by the CDC and other federal health agencies within HHS to prevent vaccine hesitancy.​
* The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.​
What petulant child is "Junior".
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Clinton's avoiding deposition

Framing in ones own words and being able to articulate things in a certain "convincing" style are/were the bread & butter of the likes of Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and the late Charlie Kirk.

I would presume that you'd agree that just because they all can "beat" a random 22 year old college liberal in a debate, that doesn't mean they actually have the right answer, correct?

AI levels that playing field. (Leveling the playing field is a liberal virtue, is it not?)
You arent even on the playing field when you just do an AI dump. Thats more like sending in an autonomous drone you bought off the shelf.

As for public intellectuals (real or pretend), I find zero inherent value in leveling the playing field by any other method than study and practice. It should be human mind vs human mind. Study could well include AI help. But on "the playing field" I want a sense you are there, and not some surrogate whos methods you may not even grasp.

If I had to debate Ben Shapiro on the topic of the Gaza conflict in a public setting, strictly based on the facts that we both had committed to memory and could rattle off quickly, he'd own me. (A - Because he has something of an identic memory, and B - because he has more practice at public speaking in front of large crowds -- less nervous, able to project confidence, etc...)

If he and I had a text-based debate where I could leverage AI as a tool for retrieving valid, cited information, I can beat him, because on the Gaza conflict topic, the actual facts are on my side.

That should really be the goal of any debate that's substantive (and not purely performative), right? Finding the right answer.
Im fine with you using AI as a study tool to direct you to various sources you can examine and assimilate.

But just a dump of AI generated text has no interest for me. Theres no sense Im arguing with you there.
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FBI intercepted communications of Newsom admin. officials in criminal investigation of former employee; Governor's office notes it as 'expected'

FBI intercepted communications of Newsom administration officials, California political players

Current and former members of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration were among the dozens of Sacramento insiders who received FBI letters in recent days notifying them that their phone calls, texts or other electronic communications had been intercepted as part of the federal corruption case tied to Dana Williamson and two additional longtime Democratic operatives.

Williamson, known as one of California’s toughest political insiders who previously worked as chief of staff to Newsom, was arrested last week on federal charges that allege she siphoned $225,000 out of 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Xavier Becerra’s dormant state campaign account. She also was accused of spending $1 million on luxury handbags and highflying travel and illegally declaring them as business expenses on her tax returns.

The notifications are routine in wiretap investigations once surveillance ends, but the letters set off a wave of panic across California’s political power structure. The letters are signed by Sacramento Field Office Special Agent in Charge Siddhartha Patel and began arriving in mailboxes from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., last week, according to copies of the communications shared with The Times.

The legal notifications, under the terms of the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act, are sent out routinely to people whose private communications have been captured on federal wiretaps.

A Newsom spokesperson said the governor's office is aware that a limited number of the letters were sent to current and former members of the administration. The spokesperson said that the letters were expected given federal law requires parties to be notified. Newsom's office said the governor did not receive a letter.
  • Informative
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The Trump DOJ goes "woke" and will target free speech.

FBI fires longtime employee and agent trainee who displayed Pride flag, sources say

In a previous non-agent role with the FBI, the employee, who received multiple awards for service during his career, had also been a field office diversity program coordinator and displayed a Pride flag at his workstation, sources said.

FBI veteran alleges he was fired for displaying Pride flag

A 16-year FBI employee has filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired last month because he had a Pride flag draped near his desk.

David Maltinsky, who was weeks away from being elevated to the position of agent, claims the firing was unlawful and sent a ripple of fear through the LGBT employees at the FBI.

The suit makes several allegations, including an argument that the FBI has violated Maltinsky's First Amendment rights and retaliated against him for protected expression.

Maltinsky said the federal government approved the display of Pride flags at federal office complexes in June 2021. His lawsuit alleges that a colleague filed a complaint with a supervisor about Maltinsky's flag on Jan. 20, 2025, the day of President Trump's second Inaugural.

The lawsuit states that Maltinsky was fired in a letter signed by FBI Director Kash Patel in October. A copy of the letter was provided by Maltinsky to CBS News. In it, Patel writes: "I have determined that you exercised poor judgment with an inappropriate display of political signage in your work area during your previous assignment at the Los Angeles Field Office. Pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, your employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is hereby terminated."

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"The only actions we take, generally speaking, for personnel at the FBI, are ones based on merit and qualification and your ability to uphold your constitutional duty," Patel said [to senators in a Congressional hearing].
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