Bondi was confirmed in a 54-46 vote with support from all 53 Senate Republicans and a lone Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA. The swing-state senator has recently made headlines for breaking with his party on multiple issues, including border security.
All other members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted against Bondi.
Attorney General Bondi will head the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Religious Leaders Experiment with A.I. in Sermons– www.nytimes.com Source Link Excerpt:
To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler’s.
In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Rabbi Fixler took to the bimah himself.
“The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words,” he said. “But they weren’t.”
The recording was created by what Rabbi Fixler called “Rabbi Bot,” an A.I. chatbot trained on his old sermons. The chatbot, created with the help of a data scientist, wrote the sermon, even delivering it in an A.I. version of his voice. During the rest of the service, Rabbi Fixler intermittently asked Rabbi Bot questions aloud, which it would promptly answer.
Wilson Fauber, 70, of Virginia, was cited by the National Association of Realtors for being in violation of the Code of ethics prohibiting realtors from using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs” related to “race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The reason for the ruling stems from posts Fauber shared in 2020 reflecting his Christian views on marriage, that is between a man and woman. According to this Realtor Association, holding Christian views and sharing them publicly should result in your reputation being tarnished by incendiary charges stemming from a hatred of Christianity, nothing more.
Christian minister, realtor found guilty of ‘hate speech’ for posting Bible verses on social media – The Christian Post Source Link Excerpt:
A Virginia realtor and Christian minister has been found guilty by an ethics panel after he quoted Bible verses on social media.
Wilson Fauber, 70, a longtime realtor with over four decades in the industry, was found in violation of National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Code of Ethics, which prohibits realtors from using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs” related to “race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The posts in question, which were made years before the NAR’s adoption of the rule in 2020, included Fauber’s views on marriage and human sexuality according to traditional Christian teachings, attorneys said.
If you hold to orthodox Christian views regarding sexuality and gender, California will not allow you to become a foster parent after the passage of SB 407. Now that the law is in effect, Christians are already being pushed out of the foster care system, meaning California will have less foster care parents, and none of them will be true believers.
The law canonizes LGBTQ belief and assumes it is now “the new normal,” and any view to the contrary is now considered borderline criminal, but certainly abusive. The law requires that “Each resource family must have the capacity, ability, and willingness to safeguard a child’s or non-minor dependent’s personal rights and respect and honor the child’s identities regardless of their own values and beliefs.”
California Begins Purge of Christian Foster Parents Who Won’t Force Woke Agenda on Kids– www.lifenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Christian foster parents with traditional, biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality are being systematically excluded from California’s foster care system due to the enforcement of SB 407. This new law, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), mandates that foster parents, irrespective of whether they have an LGBTQ-identified child in their care, must affirm a child’s chosen gender identity or sexual orientation. Neutrality is no longer acceptable under the updated guidelines issued by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). (Read guidelines here: https://www.cdss.ca.gov/Portals/9/Additional-Resources/Letters-and-Notices/ACLs/2024/24-69.pdf?ver=2024-11-19-154231-617)
According to a letter distributed to all county and state-licensed foster care agencies last month, “Each resource family must have the capacity, ability, and willingness to safeguard a child’s or non-minor dependent’s personal rights and respect and honor the child’s identities regardless of their own values and beliefs.” The letter further asserts that any failure to affirm a child’s self-determined identity constitutes a “risk or threat” to the child’s health and safety. Consequently, this would result in the denial of foster care applications or the revocation of existing approvals.
With the overwhelming hope of the anti-British Labour Party, Britain has now passed a law that would legalize so-called “assisted dying,” which is an Orwellian phrase intended to sanitize the true evil of this law. Lawmakers voted 330 to 275, meaning soon a lot of elderly Brits in senior homes are sure to be “encouraged” to save their families money by killing themselves.
Labour urged to take immediate action on palliative care after MPs back assisted dying – UK politics live | Politics– www.theguardian.com Source Link Excerpt:
Labour must take immediate action on palliative care, says senior Lib Dem
Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, chair of the health and social care select committee, voted for the assisted dying bill in the House of Commons yesterday.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said she has “long believed, especially in the cases of terminally ill adults, that they should have that choice at the end of life”.
She said:
I’ve been moved by personal experiences, my best friend’s mother contracted cancer about 20 years ago and we lived in Belgium at the time.
She started the process but in fact died before she was able to complete the legal part of the process because the cancer was so aggressive. I saw how taking back that little bit of control in her life was important to her.
Parliament needs to take the arguments against the bill “seriously” though, she added, while saying that health secretary Wes Streeting should be taking a more proactive approach to the issue of palliative care.
She said:
I was disappointed. I was expecting an announcement from Wes Streeting yesterday to say ‘look, we’ve heard and we are going to do something’ … immediate funding commitments and a view to making sure this is dealt with in the next year or two.
I would argue that, whether this passes or not, that is one of the key messages that came out of the debate.
Key events
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Front pages in the UK on Saturday were dominated by the step taken by MPs toward legalising assisted dying in England and Wales by backing a bill that would give some terminally ill people the right to end their own lives.
Here is a round-up of how the news has been reported this morning:
Vulnerable people should not see ‘supported suicide’ as only options, says Abbott
Labour’s Diane Abbott, mother of the house, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she voted against the bill due to concerns that vulnerable people will “get swept up in the assisted dying route”.
She said that a quarter of people who want to place family members into hospices are unable to, adding:
If we are thinking about choice, we also have to think about the choice of people who if they could get support, could end their lives peacefully and happily but might find themselves either because they don’t want to be a burden or they are worried about their family’s finances being drained by the cost of care or even a few people who think they shouldn’t be taking up a hospital bed.
I think they should have a genuine choice and not see supported suicide as the only option.
She said she thought “very hard about it” but voted for “vulnerable people who, perhaps for all the wrong reasons, were going to opt for assisted suicide”.
Meanwhile, Abbott said that tweaks to the bill at committee stage were unlikely to sway her and other MPs who voted against it further down the line.
Labour must take immediate action on palliative care, says senior Lib Dem
Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, chair of the health and social care select committee, voted for the assisted dying bill in the House of Commons yesterday.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said she has “long believed, especially in the cases of terminally ill adults, that they should have that choice at the end of life”.
She said:
I’ve been moved by personal experiences, my best friend’s mother contracted cancer about 20 years ago and we lived in Belgium at the time.
She started the process but in fact died before she was able to complete the legal part of the process because the cancer was so aggressive. I saw how taking back that little bit of control in her life was important to her.
Parliament needs to take the arguments against the bill “seriously” though, she added, while saying that health secretary Wes Streeting should be taking a more proactive approach to the issue of palliative care.
She said:
I was disappointed. I was expecting an announcement from Wes Streeting yesterday to say ‘look, we’ve heard and we are going to do something’ … immediate funding commitments and a view to making sure this is dealt with in the next year or two.
I would argue that, whether this passes or not, that is one of the key messages that came out of the debate.
MPs back landmark assisted dying bill to give some terminally ill people the right to end their lives
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and views from Westminster over the next few hours.
MPs have taken a historic step toward legalising assisted dying in England and Wales by backing a bill that would give some terminally ill people the right to end their own lives.
Brought by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the bill would give terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the right to die once the request has been signed off by two doctors and a high court judge.
It still has further steps to go through before becoming law, and supporters believe assisted dying will not be an option for those with a terminal diagnosis for at least three years.
The vote, which is the first on the issue for almost a decade, split the political parties and the cabinet. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves voted in favour alongside prominent opposition MPs such as Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt. Those voting against included Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister; Wes Streeting, the health secretary; Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader; and Nigel Farage, the Reform leader.
During the five-hour debate, the Commons heard impassioned pleas on both sides. MPs recounted personal experiences of illness and death, and appeals they had heard from their constituents on assisted dying.
Those who don’t want an assisted death and don’t want to take part in providing assisted dying can opt out of it, don’t have to do it, don’t choose to end their lives that way. So it offers everyone equal choice, whatever their religion.
Kit Malthouse, who made an impassioned speech in favour of the legislation, said parliament had taken a “significant first step” and called for the government to now dedicate more parliamentary time to consideration to the bill.
According to recent polling, three-quarters of the public back a change in the law.
For the full report on yesterday’s historic vote, see here:
Data Shows Biden Targeted Mostly Christian Colleges, Trade Schools with Education Enforcement– lidblog.com Source Link Excerpt:
Showing once again how corrupt the leftist Biden administration is, a report has emerged to show that Biden’s anti-American Dept. of Education focused almost all its rules enforcement actions against Christian colleges and trade schools.
According to a review of the policing actions the DoEd perpetrated over the last 4 years, it turns out seventy percent of those actions were against Christian colleges and trade schools.
This shows a concerted targeting of conservative-leaning institutions.
[American Principles Project] Policy Director Jon Schweppe said the Democrats have been ‘busy weaponizing every part of the federal government to target their opponents” for the past four years.
‘While major assaults from agencies like the Department of Justice have taken most of the headlines, we should not ignore similarly corrupt efforts in other agencies as well,’ Schweppe said.
‘As our report details, the Biden-Harris Department of Education has been engaged in a long-running scheme to punish Christian colleges that are ideologically opposed to the left’s agenda. The unfair targeting of these institutions has been egregious, and it needs to stop immediately.’
Babies murdered in Planned Parenthood Clinics whose bodies manage to survive the slaughter intact are being sold to a University that is conducting “experiments” on the murdered child’s body. The report came from The Center for Medical Progress (CMP).
They learned of this program through emails obtained through a FOIA request that reveals a “Research Plan” to find and harvest the babies needed for these experiments. The plan was formally approved in 2018 by the University of California San Diego, who would purchase the dead children from Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood Sold ‘Viable’ Fetuses For Experiments– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Planned Parenthood has been providing “viable nonanomalous” babies killed in “elective abortions” to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) for experimentation, according to a new report.
Published by The Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the emails detail a “Research Plan” that documents the harvesting of babies for experimentation on their bodies. The plan was submitted to and approved by UCSD’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) in 2018. The heavily redacted communications were obtained by the group via open records request.
According to the records reported by CMP, researchers unveiled plans in their submission to “collect tissues from fetuses ranging from 4 to 23 weeks gestational age from subjects undergoing elective surgical pregnancy termination at Planned Parenthood in San Diego.” The researchers further noted that patients with “viable nonanomalous … fetuses” would partake in the analysis.
Planned Parenthood will gather “evidence of fetal heart activity by ultrasound immediately prior to the dilation and evacuation procedure,” the submitted plan reads. The abortion provider aimed to harvest babies from “up to 2,500 patients,” according to the plan.
As noted by CMP, the “majority of healthy infants born at 23 weeks can survive with modern medical care.”
Target apologizes after employee says she was fired for writing ‘trust in Jesus’ on her nametag – WWNY Source Link Excerpt:
Target is apologizing after they said an employee was wrongfully terminated over a dress code issue.
Denise Kendrick, an employee of a Target store in Fargo, North Dakota, said she was fired over the weekend after she wrote “trust in Jesus” on her nametag at work.
Kendrick said she was approached by a manager who told her she “can’t wear that nametag.”
“I replied, ‘Well, I’ve seen people with rainbows on theirs. I’m going to continue to wear this nametag,’ and then they said, ‘Well, you can’t work here anymore,’” Kendrick said.
US Vetoes Gaza Ceasefire Resolution At UN Security Council – rttnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Despite having secured 14 votes in favor, the draft resolution put forward by the 10 elected members of the Security Council on Wednesday failed to pass owing to the negative vote by a permanent member, the U.S.
The text also reiterated the Council’s demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, but the U.S. vetoed it saying it doesn’t guarantee the release of hostages.
For a resolution to be adopted, it must secure at least nine votes in favor, and no negative votes – or vetoes – by any of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
The US representative Ambassador Robert Wood said in his statement that the U.S. could not support an unconditional ceasefire unless it was tied to releasing the hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas and other militants.
Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, has come out in support of an investigation into the fabricated allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The Pope said in a released published post ““According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
Pope Francis calls for investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute ‘genocide’ – AP
It’s the first time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. In September, he said Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war.
The book, by Hernán Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world.” It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee. Francis’ yearlong jubilee is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate the Holy Year.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.
“We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.
Last year, Francis met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and set off a firestorm by using words that Vatican diplomats usually avoid: “terrorism” and, according to the Palestinians, “genocide.”