Fantine said:

What an unusual comment. Weren't you just criticizing people with no initiative sitting around doing nothing?

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Sorry that makes no sense. Yes I do criticize people who sit around doing nothing and just taking from others when they could be being productive. Its tge same with climate change. There is NOTHING we can do to stop it. So instead of wasting our time, energy and resources on trying to stop it, we should be spending our time, money and resources on mitigating its impact on people. So as it changes we change with it and lessen its impact on us.

rjs330 said:

And who pays for those Climate scientists? You tgey dont get paid if they disagree. And whole all agree is just bogus. The Cilmate scientists find what they want find and what they have to find or they won't get their funding.

No the whole made made catastrophic warming thing is a hoax. Yes the climate is changing, but it natural and not man made. Instead of spending so much money on trying to stop something we can't, we should be taking all those dollars and spending them on things to mitigate its impact.

You are obviously a person who wants to make a difference. Who feels driven to make a difference in the world around you. That is admirable.

I just believe you are hitching your wagon to the wrong horses. Are you influencing your friends and neighbors to give as much as you do? Are they participating in the same charity programs as you are on a personal level? Whats your impact on them?

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Stop with this canard

Exxon Knew about Climate Change Almost 40 Years Ago​

Who do you think were paying for Exxon's scientists?

No.

Abstract​

While major organizations representing Native Americans (e.g., National Congress of American Indians, n.d.) contend that Native mascots are stereotypical and dehumanizing, sports teams with Native mascots cite polls claiming their mascots are not offensive to Native people (Vargas, 2019). We conducted a large-scale, empirical study to provide a valid and generalizable understanding of Native Americans’ (N=1021) attitudes toward Native mascots. Building on the identity centrality literature, we examined how multiple aspects of Native identification uniquely shaped attitudes towards mascots. While Native Americans in our sample generally opposed Native mascots, especially the Redskins, attitudes varied according to demographic characteristics (e.g., age, political orientation, education) and the strength of participants’ racial-ethnic identification. Specifically, stronger Native identification (behavioral engagement and identity centrality) predicted greater opposition. Results highlight the importance of considering the unique and multifaceted aspects of identity, particularly when seeking to understand Native people’s attitudes and experiences.

About 49% of Native Americans thought that "Redskins" was offensive as a team name.

Fantine said:

95% of climate scientists disagree. The ones who agree with your position are salaried employees of oil companies paid to tell lies to the General Public

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And who pays for those Climate scientists? You tgey dont get paid if they disagree. And whole all agree is just bogus. The Cilmate scientists find what they want find and what they have to find or they won't get their funding.

No the whole made made catastrophic warming thing is a hoax. Yes the climate is changing, but it natural and not man made. Instead of spending so much money on trying to stop something we can't, we should be taking all those dollars and spending them on things to mitigate its impact.

You are obviously a person who wants to make a difference. Who feels driven to make a difference in the world around you. That is admirable.

I just believe you are hitching your wagon to the wrong horses. Are you influencing your friends and neighbors to give as much as you do? Are they participating in the same charity programs as you are on a personal level? Whats your impact on them?

Welcome to CF! Nice to have you join us.

ThatRobGuy said:

However, if you look at the transcripts of the questions these three different individuals were being asked, they didn't seem to fit that mold - and were fairly straightforward, hence...some of these invocations of the 5th can't help but look a tad suspicious.

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Don't pretend these are inocent questions or "straightforward". It's obvious James Comer, backed by a completely compromised DOJ, is out to prosecute aids of the former POTUS.

Its hard to say with limited info on the situation and dynamics. But generally theres a few reasons I think that happen in most situations from my experience.

First I think it could be theres not a lot to read and its just life taking its course. I am not sure how old you and your brother are. But sometimes maybe around later teens into early 20s and really from then on men can be unpredictable and go off on their own tangent for all sorts of reasons in finding themselves. Or meeting a partner or a change or opportunity. Could be a number of reasons.

Another alternative is that true feelings are never communicated. I know growing up and it depends on the situation. But it seems especially nowadays that families don't communicate their true feelings usually because of some issue. Things can be assumed and never really said. Sometimes sibling rivalry over some past issue that one or the other is not aware of.

Dropping out of the church sounds like a big change and people can become focused on themselves about whats going on in their life and not see whats going on with others. Just on a different wavelength so to speak.

Or it could be some undealt with issue between you and your brother. Maybe one that one sibling feels stronger about than the other. You obviously are concerned and want to work it out with your brother. It seems you have somethng in common in that you both have dropped out of church around the same time.

These are just possibilities from my experience and knowledge that may apply. None of them necessarily apply but are options to consider.

I know families are so complicated today and I really think generally we have broken down that family fabric of bloods thicker than water. I had drifted away from my family when young due to divorce and me and my brothers and sisters ended up living in seperate States and over the years have drifted apart.

Though we still have contact thanks to social media. But generally I think its harder sometimes to have relations with family and siblings than friends in todays society.

But I wonder if we did not split what sort of family life that would have been. Nevertheless I have my own family now and I can tell you we have had our problems as well lol.

Its good that you talk and ask advice as this is really the answer. Its communicating and finding out. Or getting options and advice that helps get a better perspective. Ultimately the aim is to reconcile with your brother and get on a level where you can talk about whatever.

I think just being interested in him and what he;s up to over a beer if you drink. Otherwise a cuppa tea. The more you do it the more familiar people become. If it doesn't happen at first then it is not the time as sometimes people move on and then come back. A bit like the prodigal son. I was a prodigal son lol.

But I think just being interested and concerned out of love never does any harm.

White House Leads Push to Block Watchdog’s Inquiries Into Spending Cuts​

Accountability is for suckers.

ozso said:

I see left leaning media pushing that narrative.

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I see Trump calling his own supporters 'weaklings' for having the audacity to question his administration's handling of the Epstein files.

Donald Trump has lashed out against his own supporters, calling them gullible “weaklings” for questioning the transparency of a secretive government inquiry into the late high-profile socialite and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Dollar Has Its Worst Start to a Year Since 1973

"The United States’ currency has weakened more than 10 percent over the past six months when compared with a basket of currencies from the country’s major trading partners. The last time the dollar weakened so much at the start of the year was 1973, after the United States had made a seismic shift that had ended the linking of the dollar to the price of gold."

Fantine said:

I'm sure Jesus would not prefer weak ineffective measures to bold and visionary action. I'm sure he is embarrassed at the religious right's distortion of his message.

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Calling your actions weak and ineffective minimizes the impact you are having. If every believer acted the way you do we would make a difference in the world around us because YOU are personally affecting people's lives on a personal level. THAT'S exactly what Christ wants.

Making his commands to his followers to apply to government actions was never his message. We cannot and should not just parse out only the parts if his message we want and ignore the others. If we arr going to use scripture to compel every citizen to give around the world then we should use scripture to compel every citizen to work in order to eat. Or use the government to outlaw adultery and same sex marriage or divorce. We can't just take the things we want and apply them to government action and ignore the things we don't want. Because thats the real distortion of his message.

Which was to show how we all fall short, and are all sinners and the only way to truly change is to repent of our sin and accept his sacrifice as the salvation of our souls. THEN our actions mean something. Until then we can give all we have to the poor and it is nothing more than self-righteousness and filthy rags.

What YOU are doing in your personal life is for the glory of Christ and in the name of Christ. You are making a personal difference for Christ. Thats what really matters.

ralliann said:

in the country from where they came.

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Often the spouses and children and other loved ones we are talking about are native born Americans.

chevyontheriver said:

What would Saul Alinsky do?

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More like, what would Roy Cohn do?

dogs4thewin said:

I guess this would go here.

What changes if any should we make to the justice system?

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No bail for violent crimes, no plea deals.

fli said:

We do not do the law to be righteous.

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I didn't say we did. In fact, no rightouesness will come by mere observance of the law: 'By the law no one will be justifed', IOW (Rom 3:20). But that doesn't mean that we don't need to be righteous, with a righteousness that is apart from the law (Rom 3:21). IOW, we need a righteousness that doesn't even need to be heard (Rom 2:13) in order to live and practice and fulfill it, a righteousness that 'comes from God through and on the basis of faith' (Phil 3:9), from the inside as His Spirit dwells within us.

fli said:

You seem not to grasp the fact that if I do them out of love, that I am obedient. You believe that if I do them out of love I am lawless.

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Well, we're approaching agreement here, then. Love is that righteousness, apart from the law, that fulfills the law by its nature. It opposes and overcomes sin (lawlessness). It would've inherently produced the obedience that Adam lacked in Eden. Faith is the doorway to that love as faith is the doorway to it's Source, to God.
In fact: "Anyone who does not love remains in death." 1 John 3:14

Michie said:

The Scriptures offer us a sobering reality: our perception of ourselves can be completely out of sync with how God sees us. Nowhere is this more evident than in Revelation 3:17, where Jesus rebukes the church of Laodicea and said, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

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Needs to be said. I was really surprised, after repenting of my obvious sins as an adolescent, to recognize how little of my Christianity was full-blown authentic Christianity. For example, I was surprised when I read Watchman Nee's book, "The Normal Christian Life." I had *not* been living the "normal Christian life," but only "following the 10 Commandments" and going to church every Sunday (and then some).

Sometimes it's just how we were raised, being raised by parents that had not received a full Christian education themselves. In my case, both my parents had attended Christian universities and were every week at church Christians. Somehow the message just gets lost. It is just a "spiritual" thing that language does not easily convey what is being said about "fulness."

But a lot of time and words were spent by God on this in the early phase of Israel's history under the Law. For example, in the opening chapters of Deuteronomy God spent a lot of time emphasizing the importance of Israel remaining distinct from the pagan nations around them. We may begin with an "on fire" connection with God, but slowly fizzle out if we spend too much time with "the world."

We don't want to cut ourselves off from them, because we are salt and light and need to influence them. But if we spend too much time with them in lounges and living rooms we become like them and our spiritual experience is diluted and possibly fades away.

Phil G said:

What?? How do you know that?? You don’t know how many hours I’ve poured over claims and how many hours I checked and investigated. You don’t even know me.

You’re making assumptions and accusations beyond your scope of knowledge, which you do a lot, again by your own admission. If science and maths are gobbledygook to you, then how do you know they are not true?

At least some of that "gobbledygook" is responsible for giving you a life-saving operation, and providing you with medicine in order to continue your life (again I'm going by what you have posted elsewhere on CF for that information). It's also responsible for you being able to post your opinions here on the internet. But it's all gobbledygook that you can't get your head around. Yet here you are.

No, as I’ve already said and which you chose to imply was a lie, the reason why no flat earth claims stand up to scrutiny to me is because I’ve spent the time to investigate. And because I have a naturally inquiring mind and have a grasp of basic physics, I can see where the claims don’t add up, not by a long shot.

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OK - Fair enough, keep yer hair on.

BCP1928 said:

I wonder if the administration will have the guts to bring him to trial. If I were Obama I would demand it.

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He should invoke his right to a speedy trial, too, so the world can see how pathetic Trump's accusations are.

rjs330 said:

Bottom line is neither Trump nor any if his people were convicted of it.

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Over 20 of Trump's criminal operatives were convicted of it, or crimes related to it. Trump Jr attempted it, but was too stupid. I guess that's a defense.

rjs330 said:

And Obama knew there wasn't anything there, but he told his agencies to alter their assessments

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Never happened.

rjs330 said:

and keep pushing the narrative. Now we find out the Russia thing was a hoax perpetrated by the Obama administration itself.

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It's not a hoax when they got 20+ convictions, all admitted to.

This Epstein thing is just another Trump MAGA self inflicted gun shot wound fueled by their cult like use of conspiracy theories to rev up that MAGA base. Except this time they are being "hoisted by their own petard." You can bet Trump's name is just riddled throughout the Epstein investigation. In what manner, we don't know. Trump does not want this released in any form. Which is kind of why Pam Bondi apparently had 1,000 FBI personnel to comb through tens of thousands of pages of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and flag any mention of President Trump. So no different than defaming sexual assault victims; deflated real estate values for tax purposes and inflating them for loan values; than scheming to steal an election; than obstructing the DOJ in retrieval of classified documents, it's Trump being his own worse enemy. Eventually, I predict you're going to see a pardon or something to that effect from Trump to Ghislaine Maxwell. Yes the party who's all about pedophile ring conspiracies ran by Dems and the powerful out of Pizza shops will have to just eat the pardon of Trump to protect the powerful. Including his self protection. Shame.

I wonder if the administration will have the guts to bring him to trial. If I were Obama I would demand it.

iluvatar5150 said:

Your link to the "20 others" is broken.

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Whoops, fixed.

iluvatar5150 said:

Regarding Flynn, what he admitted to was lying about his contacts. His supposed "collusion" had nothing to do with the election. He was, essentially, conducting diplomacy between Russia and the incoming Trump administration that had different opinions on sanctions.

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Sounds like you're nitpicking the timing of the collusion while admitting it happened.

ozso said:

A lot of political analysts at the time warned that the Democrats were setting a new precedent for attacking a president, that would become a repeated trend. The Democrats are the ones who put these types of tactics into play.

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By "tactics", you mean prosecuting criminal acts?