An examination of what it means to lose faith, or to keep it, when, at the end of the day, none of us know God directly, but only through information we have received from other people and our experiences of lived religious belief. Free for all to read, at The Skojec File: Maybe We Don't Know Nearly as Much About God as We Think We Do, by @SteveSkojec open.substack.com/pub/steves…

OK, I wrote a post on this yesterday, but it's time for a New Jersey drones thread with some of the evidence I've been collecting from afar. If you want to know what's going on, start here. 🧵👇

Fathers of daughters, just remember: men like this exist, and they are trying to get having sex with your little girl with no commitment down to a science.

🚨 IMPORTANT: Sarah Adams (@sarahadams) was an Intelligence Analyst & Targeter at CIA & writes on national security issues & terrorism. Last month, she warned @ShawnRyan762's audience about impending US homeland attacks. Here are 5 key clips from that interview. Buckle up! 🧵👇

Sorry, @elonmusk, but this is the only way to travel through the stars

Whoever is behind this, they seem totally unconcerned about being photographed and filmed, which makes it highly unlikely that they are secret military or defense industry tech.

This isn’t as clever as you thought

So a funny thing has been happening with the drone story. None of the official stories make sense. Local elected officials and law enforcement are saying it’s a real, serious problem. Police say the drones don’t emit heat signatures & easily evade them. 🧵👇

BIG VIDEO THREAD OF RECENT UAP/DRONE SIGHTINGS: 🛸👾📽️ New Jersey is the biggest hot spot, but sightings of anomalous objects in the sky are happening all over. The following is a thread of videos or images of those other recent sightings. Buckle up! 👇🧵

For weeks, UFO sightings have been increasing. The strangest, most persistent manifestation of this phenomenon is happening in New Jersey, where hundreds of sightings of strange, large “drones” disguised to look like commercial aircraft are flying around every night.

It's weird how @elonmusk comments on every current thing except the one everyone is talking about - the New Jersey drone fiasco. It falls not just under public interest but government incompetence. And it's unknown advanced tech - his wheelhouse. So why not a single word?

They fly low and slow, over residential neighborhoods and sensitive installations and even military bases. Drones that broadcast no flight information as required by law. Drones that stay in the air for hours, which typical drones cannot do.

Lest you think this is just a big misunderstanding, Law Enforcement in New Jersey is concerned - and stumped:

I'm supposed to be leaving to finish Christmas shopping for the kids, but I can't stop thinking about what is going on in our skies. At 4:41AM, my 15yo son woke up to a drone hovering in our yard, level with his window. He said it "looked at him." Let me explain:🧵👇

Look how quickly a private drone is taken down when it attempts to fly over Area 51. Do we really think the US military can't take down privately-owned drones?

While many of these look like larger versions of conventional drones or fixed wing aircraft, some appear to be orbs:

Maybe I've just been too busy and missed it, but why, exactly, do we suddenly want Greenland?

People have tried to fly their own private drones to get a better look, only to experience weird battery failures:

Another. This one looks very much like a plane - but it isn't.

More video:

Let me put this another way: I have this rising feeling in me that the sudden urgency by the incoming admin to do rapid land acquisitions that weren't even discussed in the campaign means they know something pressing we don't. Does that seem reasonable? I'm concerned.

NJ Assemblyman @votebergen -- a former Apache helicopter pilot for the military -- says his DHS briefing was a total waste of time. "Amateur hour."

No, the drones are not looking for nuclear materials. No, they’re not just planes. Here’s why:

Another drone pilot with an unexplained dead battery when he tried to approach:

Sometimes they appear to be...something else entirely.

Most of us who have ever had a personal relationship with a Catholic priest know that they're weighed down with administrative burdens and meetings and councils and endless minutiae most of them never thought would be the main part of the job when they were in seminary. But when you start to realize how much really heavy stuff they also carry -- visits to gruesome accident and crime scenes for possible last rites, dealing with suicides, informing family members of deaths, being with countless folks as they take their final breaths, talking down veterans going through a PTSD episode, dealing with substance and domestic abuse among parishioners, trying to keep folks out of the jaws of despair -- it's a LOT. The kind of stuff that can really get to a man. Every time his phone rings, every time he gets a text or an email, it's almost always because someone wants something from him -- often something hard. And after all that, he has to be really careful about who he allows to offer the simple kindness of giving him a reassuring hug, unless he wants to risk a possible allegation of impropriety. A priest friend who eventually left the priesthood once told me that it's not just the loneliness, but the isolation that's so crushing. They are left alone with almost every burden. There is so much duty and so little help - especially from the chancery. And then, they have to come home to a quiet, empty rectory to sit alone with all of it. Anything you can do to make your priest feel loved, supported, appreciated, and cared for -- not in a clericalist way with excessive deference and doting, but just as a man and a human being -- would probably be appreciated more than you know. The simple act of checking on him once in a while to see how he's doing without asking for anything in return might just mean the world to him.

More orb activity in NJ:

One more:

I love your usual stuff, but this doesn't work for me. The corruption and overspending and bloat and waste are out of control. The federal government is supposed to serve the people, but it has become a leviathan that burdens them instead.

The Governor of New Jersey had a small press briefing earlier this week, wherein he said these drones pose no danger to the public, before admitting he knows nothing about them and that they go dark any time a pilot approaches them. You don't know, but sure they're safe??

"You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension."

Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey related to Congress this week how a US Coast Guard Boat was followed by dozens of these things, with no idea what they were and no authorization to engage:

The fact that Protestants are so invested in denying the perpetual virginity of Mary is bizarre to me. Christianity is full of accepted miracles and other seemingly impossible beliefs - the incarnation itself is far more improbable than any Marian belief - and yet they try to find ways to make it more boring and less inspiring. If you’re going to have a religion, it should be full of wonders. You should find yourself delighted and surprised by all the incredible things it contains. The iconoclastic whitewashing of the reformers is so tedious I can’t imagine how any of them stand it.

The FBI is investigating, but they have no idea what they're dealing with:

Wow. @DonaldJTrumpJr asked @rosscoulthart what the new administration should do about the UAP issue (after Ross told him literal MURDER has been used to keep this secret) and this is what Ross fired back with:

So many responses like this still coming in from people who have no idea the Bible wasn't written in English, and that the Greek word adelphoi (ἀδελφοί) doesn't necessarily imply literal siblings, and is the same word St. Paul uses when addressing Christians as "brothers." The worst thing about Protestant exegesis is that it's so often dumb. They'll be overly literal about this, and then look like a fish out of water when Jesus says 1700 times in John 6 that his "flesh is real food" and his "blood is real drink"

I’m really not doing well. As much as I’ve already lost, I’m about to lose even more. Could really use any prayers or positive energy you can send my way. Every day right now just feels like trying to survive one more day.

I know some of you will disagree, but I find this profound. The experience @jakebarber2025 describes here isn't just truly anomalous, it's strangely believable. He can't even recount the story without becoming emotional again. This was a real experience.

In fact, the Pentagon said that these are a) not US military drones and b) not the drones of any known foreign entity or adversary. Which doesn't leave many options.

And some are turning up at military bases, uncontested:

The Mayor of Belleville, NJ, says there was a briefing for 500 mayors in which they were told...we have no idea what they are and are having trouble tracking or approaching them.

This is the one thing Musk is just wrong about. People who work primarily with computer-based information waste so much time commuting to and from offices and sitting in meetings that could have been an email. Fairness has nothing to do with it. Efficiency does. When you’re NOT building a physical product, it is NOT efficient to commute 4 hours a day, every day, like many people in DC Metro have to do.

CRAZY. Listening to the "emergency episode" of @ShawnRyan762's show with @samosaur. Sam runs a big Instagram account and he starts getting messages from Matthew Livelsberger, the future "Cybertruck bomber," with news that will "change the course of humanity." Sam explains:

🚨 BIG DRONE/UAP THREAD WITH LATEST BREAKING UPDATES/VIDEO: A month into the drone debacle, the geographic area and significance of the sightings has only increased. Let's break it down so you can be up to date on all the latest! 🧵👇

Wow, she comes across as an entitled, condescending creep. How can someone become so out of touch that they don't understand not being able to account for nearly A TRILLION FREAKING DOLLARS of taxpayer money might be a bit of a problem for said taxpayers?!

Congressman Jeff Van Drew of NJ went on Fox news and said highly placed sources told him that these are Chinese made drones being used by Iran, which is launching them from a "mothership" off the east coast. The Pentagon quickly said this was wrong:

As a father to many, I'm so relieved to hear they're all ok. And let's be fair: every teenage boy is retarded. We were, too.

Fuck you, Harry.

And if you enjoyed this thread, please give me a follow!

This is a bullshit cover story. @realDonaldTrump this is not what we asked for. The FAA prohibited drone flights over New Jersey for weeks because of these. Wright Patterson AFB closed their airspace. Picatinny Arsenal had 11 unknown sightings. Naval Weapons Station Earle deployed anti-drone tech. Multiple nuclear plants reported unauthorized incursions. The list of reasons why this explanation makes no sense is longer than I want to type up here. This is not an acceptable answer.

I have a son named Jude. Return payment for big favor. If anyone is open to asking St. Jude’s intercession for my marriage and family situation, I’d be grateful.

At first I didn’t get it. “It’s just a plane,” I thought. Then I noticed three odd things. I don’t want to ruin it for you, so see if you see it and I’ll put my take in the replies.

New Jersey Medevac had to issue a warning to their lifeflight pilots about drone activity posing a flight safety risk: nitter.app/i/bookmarks/1599136851…

If you'd like to read more about the drone situation, check out my Substack on the topic. It's free, and it includes links to many more sightings around the country: skojecfile.steveskojec.com/p…

I know I’m not the only Trump voter who finds this disturbing. If he was here illegally, he should be deported, not sent to a prison for hardened criminals without so much as any evidence that he deserves to be there.

LOL no it has not. You know nothing about the actual capabilities of this fighter, its weapons range, whether China can produce the advanced chips it needs without stealing them from America, etc. You also don't know what 6th gen capabilities WE have, because we don't advertise them in an attempt to intimidate. We actually intentionally scale down enemy perception of our force projection capacity because we're not compensating for small dick energy.

Who are you trying to convince? Does every 8 year old you meet make you wonder? I spent my day with this guy, who I wasn't excited to learn we had conceived. I was wrong. He's amazing.

Still processing the overwhelmingly negative feedback on the @rosscoulthart/@NewsNation interview of @jakebarber2025 last night, with associated "egg" footage. Trying to make sense out of the social aspect. Hear me out: There's something here that gets at our fundamentally broken epistemology as a society here. And it highlights the challenges in presenting any information about non-prosaic experiences that doesn't somehow overwhelm the audience with awe. Maybe it's because we've been fed a steady diet of visual effects-heavy movies and shows and video games for so many years, maybe it's all the disinfo and psyops that have been used to confuse the issue, maybe it's something else. But just imagine for a moment that Barber’s experiences are authentic, and the footage, however unlikely you may think it is, is of an actual UAP. A UAP that for whatever reason looks like a freaking EGG. If Ross and the producers of the show did their due diligence and came to the conclusion the story and footage were legitimate, that the witness was who he said he was and was considered credible by colleagues and peers, should they NOT have run the story in anticipation of the obvious critical reception? The thing LOOKS prosaic. Barber has wild eyes, and is telling a difficult-to-believe story. The "psionic" interaction with the crafts sounds so far-fetched, people roll their eyes. They're being accused of damaging the cause by running this story. But if the story is TRUE, then think about the implications: "Don't run real stories that make this topic look stupid" is a dangerous approach. Because again, what if, against our feelings and expectations and the rest, it really is true? I can't say that I know it is. I'm only suggesting a perspective shift here. If objectively we're not being lied to, if we're not being punked, if this just looks absurd but actually isn't, how should journalists and experiencers and whistleblowers deal with the subjective perception that it's all fake? Just keep quiet? Or put it out there and hope the public will give it a fair shake? I try not to dismiss claims a priori. Project Stargate was not just real, it produced actionable and accurate intelligence on multiple occasions. Remote viewing has proven real, if inconsistently reliable. I watched @ufoofgod summon orbs on television while hooked up to an EEG that showed he was in a meditative state while fully conscious and alert. The neurologist they brought in couldn’t explain it, and the orbs were caught on camera moving in ways that aircraft do not. The @TelepathyTapes shattered my understanding of what the human mind can do. And it got me to also consider just how impossible savant skills — a real, scientifically accepted phenomenon — really should be. But aren’t. I have loved ones who are not at all crazy, but claim to see spirits. Including one person who didn’t even believe in that kind of thing until it happened to him. We don’t know what we don’t know. But we've learned to dismiss things we believe are impossible because they challenge our perception of normalcy. If we ASSUME we know because something doesn't fit with our priors, and we penalize people for coming forward with their stories, we're only going to get LESS good information, not more.

Today was the day that Vice President-Elect Vance learned that the denizens of the Internet often do not grasp the subtle nuances of text-based sarcasm.

Forget the titles. Forget anything else. This is her. Humble, maternal, loving, nearly forgotten, always there, waiting for you to come home safely.

I left Catholicism a few years ago when my life began imploding. There were lots of reasons. I've written about some, I've posted about some here, and lots of people have called me an apostate, like that's a winning argument. I've spent a lot of time over the past month living with two different Catholic priests, who have given me shelter and care when I'd lost everything. One wishes to remain anonymous. The other is @Joeinblack. I'm the sinner. I'm the tax collector. These men have not shrunk from me in any way. They have not pushed me either. They've shown me love and friendship in my time of need. That alone doesn't restore my faith, but it does open a door to it. I wish more religious people understood that this admonition is not just a parable. I know the phrase, "preach the Gospel, if necessary, use words" is apocryphal, but I don't care. I've seen it in action, and it's more powerful than any argument I've ever seen.

Iran is a borderline failed state. They couldn't even defend against Israeli air strikes. They did not cross an ocean and launch a fleet of high-tech drones. Yes, the Pentagon lies, but the Iran story was always BS.

My struggles with faith & God being what they are, there's still a part of me that knows I may be wrong. And with that in mind, I ask for your prayers for the 13-month-old daughter of a friend who is in the ICU with unexplained liver failure. It sounds grim.

To those of you who have prayed, thank you. There has been an unexpected shift in the area of my life that has been causing the most pain and difficulty, and I cannot ignore this as a potential indicator of the efficacy of prayer. I even told God (for a guy who doesn't know if he believes God exists, I send him a lot of messages) that if this one area of my life could get back on track, I would have no choice but to take that as a miracle. I'm not jumping the gun. There's a long road ahead. But the change that has happened in the last 24 hours is notable and was highly unlikely to have taken place at all. I'm annoyingly empirical about things, but evidence is evidence. I'll take it and keep seeking. Thanks again.

Just don’t let any of them get on a boat for God’s sake

I was suspicious, and asked for some numbers from @grok. In the 2008–2024 period, the USCCB got as much as 50-60% of its revenue from immigration services funds from the federal government. From 2014–2023 total intake was about $800 million (though more than this was spent). Per Grok: "Without these grants, the USCCB's budget would shrink dramatically, as migration programs employ staff, fund advocacy, and represent ~60% of expenses." I asked how much this represents compared to collections. "Federal migration grants outpace church collections by 90% in 2024 ($180M vs. $95M)." (This is, in my opinion, why you withholding your tithe money has a lot let influence than you think.) But here's the thing: this year, under the new admin, the funding collapsed. "The Trump administration halted refugee admissions and terminated USCCB contracts in January 2025 (State Dept. cited misalignment with "agency priorities"), leading to $15M+ in lost revenue and program phase-outs by April." Which leads me to ask: is the USCCB’s vocal support for immigration after losing their funding helping the Democratic Party, which, if it wins more elections may restore that funding?

People need their employer's permission for jokes now?

30 billion ton space rock that might be an alien craft sending out pulses of light in the Finbonacci sequence on the Fatima anniversary is a better conspiracy theory than I could have cooked up in a million years and I kind of love it

“Neil Degrasse Tyson is the imitation crab of science” is my new favorite phrase in the English language and I must find a way to work it into conversation.

I'm still in a place where I can't find a way to believe in the Christian salvation narrative for a number of reasons. I will not lie and profess a creed without conviction. But I always thought Bathazar's “ineffable poverty of the divine, incarnate, crucified love” was quite the turn of phrase. "Happy" Good Friday to all my Catholic/Christian friends out there. I solicit your prayers during the Triduum that if God is really there, and really loves us, that I can clear the obstacles to belief and find my way home.

I realized the New Jersey medevac link didn't work above, so I'm reposting:

Police in New Jersey say the drones give off no heat signature and go stealth when they try to get near them. One officer said he saw 50 of the drones coming off the water. Those comments can be seen in this excellent news report by @RichMcHugh

Happy birthday to me. 48 years old. Exiled from home, from my wife and children, no clear purpose, no idea what the mission is. Everything is fog of war. I stopped into the chapel tonight on my way up to bed. If Jesus is really there, he was the first one with me on this day. I asked him to help me figure it out. I hope he does. Here's to the next birthday being a celebration of all the unforeseen accomplishments of the previous year.

Wright-Patterson is the latest to report overflights (which has its own special significance in UAP lore). Last night, they had to close their airspace because of the amount of “UAS activity” (UAS = “unmanned aerial system”) over the base. Listen:

I had coffee with Jesus this morning. He's still not talking to me, as far as I can tell, but it's not because I'm not asking.

Were charges filed? Are you planning on sending anyone involved in a domestic abuse incident to a foreign Supermax prison without the benefit of a trial? Do you plan to produce actual evidence that he’s a member of MS 13? This is just post hoc rationalization of sending a man to life in prison without ever having been convicted of a crime. This is not what I voted for.

But I think this "searching for nukes" narrative is fake news. A distraction. Possibly even an intelligence community misdirection from what's really going on. Read more about why in today's free post at my Substack: skojecfile.steveskojec.com/p…

Because that is not a fun place to go for a walk when you need to eat hundreds of pounds of food and drink many gallons of water per day

Money’s tight. Been doing writing/content by day, Uber Eats second shift. Wound up in a KFC tonight. I try to avoid fast food places, because they’re always a problem. Tonight it was the only thing coming in. I was waiting forever. Only white guy in the place….

If the drones aren't ours, and aren't any foreign nation's, then what could they be? Well, this Congressional hearing from last month might give you a clue:

The @TelepathyTapes is real. I don’t care what the skeptics say. There’s some kind of convergence brewing and I can’t make sense of it yet.

Can we stop with all the teasing on this? I do believe, but I'm tired of people trying to give each other blue balls with comments like this.

And then came this guy: John Ferguson, CEO of Saxon Aerospace in Wichita Kansas. Saxon makes “military grade unmanned aircraft.” And he put forward his own version of that same theory

Multiple sensitive military sights have gotten overflights. Picatinny Arsenal has confirmed at least 11 sightings. Naval Weapons Station Earle had to activate their de-droning equipment. But that's not all. An even bigger event happened last night...

Feel free to show him this. I really think conservatives need to reach out an olive branch to these folks. We aren’t the ones playing “eat the rich” while they mourn their losses.

And now I get why you were trying to find the photographer. What a badass thing to have happen with your photo!

A guy making 7 figures has an endless supply of better options than whatever that thing is

Firefly.

Laeticia Casta. When I was in college, I thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

I often think some of the best things about being alive involve not knowing a bunch of stuff that would ruin everything

And yet people don’t get why Latin was used for theology and liturgy

Please do the same for a special intention for @Joeinblack. Guys like him suffer in silence while looking out for everyone else. He’s dealing with some heavy stuff and could use backup.

This is crazy. A former advisor to several US presidents decided to talk about what he knew about UFOs before his death and now they’re trying to delete his Wikipedia page?

I’ve had the privilege of getting to know @EduardHabsburg over the past decade, and though we’ve never met in person, I consider him a true friend. Today he graciously accepted my request to help out a family member trying to make the most of his visit to Rome. Zero hesitation. If more Catholics had the kindness, humor, and decency of the good Archduke, it would be difficult not to wish to be counted among their number. You may say that nobody should leave or join a religion because of its members, but the people in a religion are all we ever really encounter, and they reflect the practical virtue that religion tends to impart. Your witness matters.

I really hate being lied to.

First, we heard from @RepVanDrewStaff that these were Iranian Drones from an Iranian Mothership on Fox News. The Pentagon shot that narrative down in exactly the way they have NOT shot down any drones -- decisively:

Those don't look like drones. They DO look like the UFOs I saw a couple years ago.

Errbody talking about IVF today. People don't talk enough about how many embryos are frozen or destroyed. Which reminds me of a thing. There was an embryonic custody case (divorcing couple fighting over frozen embryos) in Tennessee back in 1989. They brought in world-renowned French geneticist Dr. Jerome Lejeune to testify. This is how that went: Q.: … I will ask you directly, Dr. Lejeune: You have referred to the zygote and the embryo as quote early human beings.’ A.: Yeah. Q.: Do you regard an early human being as having the same moral rights as a later human being such as myself? A.: You have to excuse me, I’m very, very direct. As far as your nature is concerned, I cannot see any difference between the early human being you were and the late human being you are, because in both case, you were and you are a member of our species. What defines a human being is: He belongs to our species. So an early one or a late one has not changed from its species to another species. It belongs to our kin. That is a definition. And I would say very precisely that I have the same respect, no matter the amount of kilograms and no matter the amount of differentiation of tissues. Q.: Dr. Lejeune, let me make sure I understand what you are telling us, that the zygote should be treated with the same respect as an adult human being? A.: I’m not telling you that because I’m not in a position of knowing that. I’m telling you, he is a human being, and then it is a Justice who will tell whether this human being has the same rights as the others. If you make difference between human beings, that is, on your own to prove the reasons why you make that difference. But as a geneticist you ask me whether this human being is a human, and I would tell you that because he is a being and being human, he is a human being.