eclipsenow said:

A poster on the wall does not great writing make

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Not saying it was great writing.

RileyG said:

May he rest in peace and rise to glory!

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Amen!

Clare73 said:

The events occurred outside the boundaries of U.S. jurisdiction.

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That doesn't matter. From here: Can the US Prosecute Crimes Committed Abroad?

'While U.S. law is presumed to apply only domestically, Congress has enacted specific statutes that extend their reach. This authority is based on several established principles of international law that create a connection between the U.S. and a crime committed abroad.

• The “nationality principle,” which allows the U.S. to prosecute its own nationals for crimes committed anywhere in the world.
• The “passive personality principle,” which grants jurisdiction when the victim of a crime is a U.S. national, regardless of the offender’s nationality.

The U.S. also prosecutes its citizens for engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in foreign countries.'

Notwithstanding that Epstein's island in in the United States Virgin Islands. It's a US territory.

essentialsaltes said:

Now for Q2​

Tesla stock dips as second-quarter earnings reduce investor confidence​

Tesla shares tumbled Thursday after its latest earning results knocked the wind out of investors’ confidence in Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker.

The company has been facing intense competition, cooling consumer interest and a reduction of the government incentives that made buying EVs more affordable.

Tesla announced Wednesday that its automotive sales totaled $16.6 billion in the second quarter, a 16% drop from last year. Total revenues declined 12% from last year to $22.5 billion.

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Any Tesla owners who want to ditch their otherwise working car, I can do that for a dollar. You pay me or I pay you, I don’t care. I am not offering to pick up your monthly payments though.

If you have Tesla stock, same offer, a dollar a share, you pay me or I pay you. But I have a limit of a few hundred shares so act fast.

I look at unrestricted immigration the same way I look at shipwreck survivors. You have a 15-man life raft, with provisions for 15 persons for 60 days, if allotted correctly. So your ship sinks, and you end up with 15 people in the life raft. So far, so good. But! There are 40 more people in the water, swimming around the life raft. What do you do?

If you try to put 40 extra people in a life raft meant for 15, it will sink, and then you'll *ALL* be in the water, and you will all die. If you try to parcel out food for 15 people to 40 people, everybody will get a mouthful a day, and eventually, you will all starve. There are sharks in the water. If you leave 40 people in the drink, they will die. Is it inhumane to refuse them space on the life raft? But if you take them aboard, the raft goes down, and you will all die. So what do you do?

We have a lot of room in the United States. We could probably find space for possibly millions of aliens here, in places that nobody else is occupying. However, like it or not, most of those places are empty for a reason: there's nothing there to support large numbers of people. You can't set up a town of 150,000 immigrants in the center of Nevada and say, "There you: be well, and prosper." There's no water, no food, and no way to produce any. It would have to be supplied for them from other places inside the country, and again, like it or not, we only have so much surplus that we can dole out before it just isn't there any more. If you go so far as to empty the stores and warehouses and water aquifers in the country supplying millions of freeloaders, eventually the system collapses. Then what have you got?

What you have is a situation where *EVERYBODY* goes down the tubes: aliens, citizens, legals and illegals alike. You cannot sustain 55 people on supplies in a life raft meant for 15. The infrastructure gets overwhelmed, and the country collapses. It ceases to exist. That's what happened when uncounted thousands of Germanic barbarians poured into the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Rome, which had stood for 500 years, ceased to exist. In its place, you had approximately 1,000 years of chaos, anarchy, famine, bloodshed, incessant war, and economic and social stagnation.

I'm not heartless. I know these people are suffering bad times in their own countries. I know the bishops want to follow the injunctions of be good to your neighbor. I know the United States is a rich country with a lot of surplus goods and services and money. I know all this. But the simple fact is, the well, even for a country as rich as the United States, is not bottomless. There is absolutely no possible way we can continue to take in unlimited immigrants month after month, year after year. We don't have supplies for them all. And, just like Rome, we have our own problems: our infrastructure is shaky. Our political system is a corrupt mess. Our economy is exquisitely fragile. If we drive those systems to the point of collapse, they will go down in flames, and then nobody has anything: the aliens will be living in circumstances just like the extreme poverty and hardship that they fled their own countries to avoid, and so will our own citizens. How many is too many? When is it time to say enough? Do the bishops and the leftists want to collapse America until it evaporates and ceases to exist, to be replaced with God knows what, perhaps for millennia? Because that's what's going to happen if we don't send these people back where they came from to solve their own problems in their own countries.

RDKirk said:

Like one does not lead to the other.

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Right. But asking people to take a huge financial hit for society, is not a very effective way of getting them to change behavior. Fix the problem, and the problem is gone. Bottom line? If corner offices grab too much of the income for themselves, the people actually producing that wealth are going to tighten belts. That means fewer or no kids to keep the system going.

Just economic reality.

Evangelization doesn’t always mean avoiding the noise. Sometimes it means listening for what’s beneath it.

Ozzy Osbourne has died. The voice of Black Sabbath — a band that leaned into scary-movie aesthetics by naming itself after a 1963 Boris Karloff film — has gone silent at 76, just weeks after the band’s final show. While most headlines focus on the mayhem, debauchery and decades of chaos, I find myself thinking back to something quieter … relatively speaking.

The Opening Riff​

I was a teenager when I first heard Sabbath’s thunder. I played bass in a garage band in high school — exactly as glorious and awkward as it sounds. We’d cover their songs (usually not very well), but there was something in those riffs that felt bigger than the music. I couldn’t have named it at the time, but I know now what it was: longing.

They didn’t just sound heavy; they sounded like they were searching for something. That became especially clear the first time I went to Ozzfest in Camden, New Jersey, in 2000 — with my dad. He was far from being a “metalhead,” but he was a good sport and came with me. That day was a lot to take in. The volume, the imagery, the intensity. I didn’t quite know what to make of it all — but it stayed with me.

Continued below.

essentialsaltes said:

Our long national nightmare is over!​

AOC's on the hook for $2,983.28 after the House Ethics panel closed its probe into her Met Gala appearance​

In a 31-page report, the panel said that Ocasio-Cortez had "impermissibly accepted gifts" and said that in order for the matter to be closed, she would need to pay nearly $3,000 in personal funds.

That includes $250 to cover the attendance of her fiancé, Riley Roberts, and an additional [emphasis added] $2,733.28 payment to Brother Vellies, the business that designed her dress.

Her chief of staff, Mike Casca, told BI in a statement that she would make those payments.

The committee said that Ocasio-Cortez had taken proactive steps to comply with House Ethics rules

The report said that the congresswoman's attempts to comply with the gift rules included arranging to rent the dress and accessories that she was provided with and to pay for other services out of pocket, which are usually provided to Met Gala guests for free.

However, the committee said that her fiancé's attendance was an impermissible gift because he is not yet her spouse, and that she initially failed to pay the full fair market value for some of the items she wore.

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They should’ve gifted her a 747 instead.

Kiev has ordered the pro-Russian UOC to sever all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate by 18 August. It currently has around 10,000 parishes, a number now equivalent to that of the autocephalous Orthodox Church. Defending Metropolitan Onufryj – who has always maintained a balance between rejecting war and maintaining ties with the Russian Church – is Larisa Brodetskaja, a veteran of the Ukrainian armed forces in the resistance against Moscow’s troops.

Rozanskij (ZENIT News – Asia News / Kiev, 07.24.2025).- Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnic Policy has ordered the pro-Russian Orthodox Church (UPZ) to sever all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate within a month. It is giving it until 18 August before being dissolved by the authorities for ‘violating the law on freedom of conscience and religious associations’ due to its affiliation with the Russian Church, whose activities are prohibited on Ukrainian territory as they are linked to the aggression of the Muscovite enemy.Pope Francis merchandise According to the latest checks, the state services have again found ‘clear signs’ of this link between the Kiev Metropolis of the UPZ Church and the ‘banned’ Patriarchate, and the month’s notice is the last chance allowed by Ukrainian law, with a maximum extension of one month.

Continued below.
Ukraine’s ultimatum to Russian Orthodox Christians | ZENIT - English

https://zenit.org/

Venezuelan team denied entry into U.S. for Little League's senior tournament​

The Cacique Mara team from Maracaibo, Venezuela, was denied visas into the United States and will be forced to miss the Senior League World Series for players between 13 and 16 years old,

The Senior League World Series is held each year in Easley, with six teams from the United States and six international teams. A different team from Maracaibo won the tournament last year.

Hm... they are sending us their best.

Texas GOP Rep. Giovanni Capriglione admits affair, denies abortion allegations​

A conservative news site published an interview with a woman who alleges a 17-year affair with the Southlake representative, who said this week he wouldn’t seek reelection.

Three days after state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione announced he was dropping his reelection bid, the conservative news site Current Revolt published an interview with a former exotic dancer who alleges she had a 17-year affair with the Southlake Republican.

The woman, Alex Grace, alleges that Capriglione paid her for “meetups” and “funded several abortions for his own personal gain.” She declined to provide additional details on the alleged abortions in the interview, saying, “you’re just going to have to go with my word.”

Capriglione said he was “not above scrutiny,” but threatened legal action, seemingly against Current Revolt as well as Grace, for what he characterized as “lying and defaming me.”

Wolseley said:

I forgot to mention that I also have a complete collection of Currier and Ives engravings, as well!

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Not surprising now that I know!

A Long Island man who authorities say made at least seven homemade bombs and threw at least one of them onto the subway tracks of the Williamsburg Bridge after expressing antisemitic comments and frustration about immigration in New York City was indicted on Tuesday.

Michael Gann, 55, of Inwood in Nassau County, was charged with one count of attempted destruction of property by means of explosives, one count of transportation of explosive materials and one count of unlawful possession of destructive devices.

Collectively, the charges could result in a maximum prison sentence of 40 years if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Court documents reviewed by The Christian Post say Gann, who was arrested by authorities on June 5, was previously arrested 30 times, including 12 felony arrests. He was also convicted a total of 27 times, including three times for felonies.

He is accused of storing precursor chemicals, at least five of his homemade bombs, and shotgun shells on the rooftops of residential apartment buildings in SoHo, Manhattan.

Two witnesses, including a U.S. Military veteran who reported Gann to police, allegedly witnessed him testing his bomb materials and making antisemitic references.

Continued below.

wing2000 said:

More evidence the trump administration could care less about our judicial system.

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No, they care but they are trying to make it subservient to the presidency. They want it to work fist in glove for the goals of the Donald.

wing2000 said:

....the good people of New Jersey better hope they don't need the services of a professional U.S. Attorney.

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For sure.

essentialsaltes said:

So-called “active clubs” have proliferated across the US and are a combination of fitness and mixed martial arts groups that often espouse neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies, openly taking their historical cues from the Third Reich’s obsession with machismo and European soccer hooliganism.

Active clubs have emerged as perhaps the most dangerous form of far-right political organizing today. With links to other militant organizations, including Patriot Front, they encourage a seemingly mainstream version of masculinity, layered with ideologies promoting a US race war and using the popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as a gateway to recruiting.

Earlier this month, their main Telegram account, endorsed “youth clubs”, which are chapters beginning to spring up online across the country, showing pictures of 18-year-olds and under engaging in mixed martial arts, racist meme-ing, and posts referencing genocidal and bigoted literature.

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Warning Issued Over 'Explosion' of Neo Nazi Clubs in US​

According to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), there has been an "explosion" in the number of active chapters of neo-Nazi Active Clubs (ACs) in the U.S. and other countries. The group is raising alarm about this trend, calling it a "growing transnational threat."

Active Clubs are a transnational network of sports clubs that were founded by the white supremacist Robert Rundo and the Russian neo-Nazi Denis Kapustin in 2020. Rundo is one of the founders of a U.S. far-right organization called the Rise Above Movement (RAM) and was sentenced to jail in 2024 for conspiracy to riot at Californian political rallies in 2017. Kapustin is a far-right figure who runs the Russian Volunteer Corps and has reportedly espoused Adolf Hitler's views.

The decentralised groups engage in physical training with the purpose of being able to attack political opponents and also spread propaganda about white nationalism.

Stephen Volz, the assistant administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, and Jeff Dillen, a deputy general counsel at NOAA, were placed on leave Thursday morning, Volz told NBC News.

“The letter itself gave no information about the cause. It said, ‘You are on administrative leave pending an investigation into your recent public conduct,’” Volz said Friday, adding that he had “no idea” what was being investigated.

Volz and Dillen were figures in the controversy during the first Trump presidency that came to be known as “Sharpiegate,” in which forecasters were rebuked for contradicting the president over a crude alteration to a hurricane map.

NOAA confirmed Friday that the two men had been placed on leave.

“Mr. Dillen was placed on administrative leave by the department’s senior career attorney pending a review of performance issues over the past several weeks,” Kim Doster, NOAA communications director, said in an emailed statement. “Separately, Dr. Volz was placed on administrative leave on an unrelated matter.”

The agency is without a leader as Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump’s nominee, awaits Senate confirmation. NOAA’s spending is also under close review. The Trump administration has proposed deep cuts to the agency’s budget

[After Sharpiegate,] NOAA hired the National Academy of Public Administration to perform an independent assessment into allegations of scientific misconduct during the incident. The investigation found that Jacobs [acting administrator during Trump 1.0] violated NOAA’s ethics policies.

Volz wrote a final decision about the report for NOAA, which agreed with NAPA’s findings. [Dillen served as legal counsel.]

Who is he? Does he even have a job?

lifepsyop said:

Do you think it's worth investigating, or nah, nothing suspicious at all?

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What's the point? Trump made sure presidents are immune to any and all actions during their presidency. Let us reason. Please.
Thanks for engaging!
Be blessed.

Fossils unearthed in Grand Canyon reveal new details of evolutionary explosion of life

CNN - Paleontologists have discovered remarkable fossils in the Grand Canyon that reveal fresh details about the emergence of complex life half a billion years ago.

The newfound remains of fauna from the region suggest that it offered ideal conditions for life to flourish and diversify, in a “Goldilocks zone” between harsh extremes elsewhere. This evolutionary opportunity produced a multitude of early animals, including oddballs with peculiar adaptations for survival, according to new research.

The study team expected to recover mostly the fossilized remains of hard-shelled invertebrates typical of the region. Instead, the team unearthed something unusual: rocks containing well-preserved internal fragments of tiny soft-bodied mollusks, crustaceans, and priapulids (...).

“With these kinds of fossils, we can better study their morphology, their appearance, and their lifestyle in much greater resolution, which is not possible with the shelly parts,” said Giovanni Mussini, the first author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. “It’s a new kind of window on Cambrian life in the Grand Canyon.”

Using high-powered microscopes, the team was able to investigate innovations such as miniature chains of teeth from rock-scraping mollusks and the hairy limbs and molars of filter-feeding crustaceans, providing a rare look into the biologically complex ways Cambrian animals adapted to capture and eat prey.

The Trump administration has located more than 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children who were previously unaccounted for amid concerns about human trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor.

At least 13,061 migrant children, who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied by an adult, have been located, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official confirmed to NewsNation. At least 422 sponsors who cared for unaccompanied minor children upon their arrival in the U.S. had been arrested on charges of abusing the minors in their custody or other crimes, the source said.

An August 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General stated that "ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Custody."

Continued below.

Please pray for a 65-year-old pastor in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, who has recently been sentenced to three years in prison.

Pavel Shreider, who lives in the country’s capital, Bishkek, was arrested last November by members of the country’s secret police. Earlier this month he was convicted on charges of ‘inciting racial, ethnic, national, religious or regional hatred.’ He denies all charges and is preparing to appeal.

The indictment against the pastor stated that Shreider and other unidentified accomplices had ‘conceived of inciting religious hatred in order to undermine the integrity and security of the state.’ It went on to say he had ‘illegally organised a religious cell, based on the principles of Protestant Christianity, in which he exerted a manipulative influence on church members, as well as through religious literature that is negatively aggressive in nature towards other religions.’

Kyrgyzstan is one of a cluster of Central Asian countries that gained its independence in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The country’s constitution provides for freedom of religion.

Release International’s partner said, ‘For many years now it has been impossible to register a single new church in Kyrgyzstan; and as for previously registered communities, their legal legitimacy is currently under great threat, due to the adoption of new legislative acts.’ He added, ‘I sincerely ask all caring Christians to pray diligently for brother Pavel Shreider, as well as for the church in Kyrgyzstan.’

Pray:

• for Pastor Pavel Shreider: in particular for a successful appeal against his sentencing;
• for his congregation and other Christian churches who may feel under pressure in Kyrgyzstan at this time;
• for God to continue building his kingdom in Kyrgyzstan.

The FBI spied extensively on a Roman Catholic priest who declined to disclose private conversations he had with a parishioner, according to a report released earlier this week from the House Judiciary Committee that has raised religious liberty concerns.

“This new information demonstrates that the FBI not only used its federal law enforcement resources to surveil certain Catholic Americans, but it also used these resources to investigate a clergy member,” the committee said, according to the July 22 report that Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, shared with the Catholic News Agency.

After he expressed reluctance to comply with a January 2023 inquiry regarding a parishioner who had been arrested, the FBI’s Richmond office probed the unnamed priest’s ordination history, examined his finances and coordinated with the FBI’s London office to track his international travel.

Continued below.

When we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, we enter into a personal relationship with the Lord, which is a close intimate relationship with God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is now our husband, and we are his bride, and we are to be faithful to our Lord just as anyone who is married should be faithful to his or to her spouse. And we are now to follow the Lord with our lives in obedience to his commands, and in surrender to his will and purpose for our lives, for the glory of God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

But following Jesus Christ with our lives is not an easy road, and he never promised that it would be. It will be filled with trials and tribulations to test our faith and to strengthen us in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, and to mature us in Christ. And we are going to come up against “brick walls” and “high waters” and all sorts of obstacles which God intends to use for good in our lives, but which Satan intends for evil in our lives as a means to try to get us to give up on God and on faith and on service to our Lord.

And these difficult situations, which we will encounter from time to time, may tend to distress us and to make us afraid, in our natural human emotions. But this is where we need to look to the Lord and trust him to work it all out according to his plan and purpose for our lives, as he continues to mold us and to make us into his likeness. For if we are on God’s side, obeying his commands, and doing his will, he is for us, and he will watch over us, and he will give us victory over the enemy of our souls.

So, rather than respond to life’s difficulties with fear and distress, and/or with retreating and escaping and running away from our circumstances, we are to be even more dedicated and serious about our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord in surrender to his will and purpose for our lives. And we must continue in the work of the Lord, to which he has called us, despite all the obstacles in our way. And we must keep on in serving the Lord and in living holy lives, pleasing to God, living out the salvation he provided for us.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-39; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

I Need Thee Every Hour

Hymn lyrics by Annie S. Hawks, 1872
Ref. by Robert Lowry, 1872
Music by Robert Lowry, 1872

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour; stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

I need Thee, O I need Thee; every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.

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From My Distress I Called
An Original Work / July 25, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love