Feb 132026
 
 February 13, 2026  Posted by at 10:18 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,


Paul Cézanne Forest 1902-04


When Did It Become OK for Half the Country to Disregard Federal Law? (Thorne)
There Is No Future For White People (Paul Craig Roberts)
CNN Thinks Black Voters Are ‘Too Dumb’, Scott Jennings Torches Them (Margolis)
Homan Announces End Of Illegal Immigration Crackdown In Minnesota (JTN)
A Good Way To Destroy Your Country: Rogan Blasts Dems’ Open Border Insanity (MN)
Are The Ukrainian Peace Talks A Hoax? (Paul Craig Roberts)
What the Heck Happened in El Paso? (Sarah Anderson)
NYC Mayor Urges State Lawmakers to Pass Tax Hikes on Wealthy, Corporations (ET)
US Negotiating Updated New START Treaty With Russia – Vance (RT)
US Attorney In New York Appointed By Judges Quickly Fired By White House (JTN)
What’s Behind Von Der Leyen’s Two-Tier EU Plan? (RT)
The Collapse of American Education (Paul Craig Roberts)
‘Snow White’ Lost [GULP] How Much Money? (Stephen Green)

 


 

https://twitter.com/latestincosmos/status/2021848499844002071?s=20 https://twitter.com/AndrewBolis/status/2021920991161856428?s=20

 


 


I often wonder that too.

When Did It Become OK for Half the Country to Disregard Federal Law? (Thorne)

When did it become commonplace — celebrated, even — for half the country to simply disregard federal law? When did half the country conclude that it could just go ahead and subvert the will of the people, as expressed through the laws duly passed by their elected representatives, to its own preferences — even when these are in direct contradiction to federal statute? By “half the country,” I mean Democrats, of course. But seriously — how is this even a thing? It’s been going on for a long time, and it’s not just immigration law that these insurgents actively countermand. How many states have “legalized” recreational marijuana? Why do these people imagine they can “legalize” something that is a federal crime? (And no, I am not here to argue whether weed should be legal. If you don’t like the law, change it. You don’t get to ignore it in the meantime.)


Whatever happened to “No one is above the law?” Perhaps elitist leftists imagine that the lowly “brown” human beings they traffic and patronize are beneath the law. Or that foreign nationals present in the country illegally can simply override federal immigration law because they have already done so for such a long time. What other laws do officials, judges, and AGs routinely allow to be broken simply because the perpetrator has successfully done so for years? If I break into the museum and steal a Rembrandt, then I hang it on my living room wall and enjoy it for a certain number of years, does it then become mine to keep? What manner of incoherent lunacy is this?

Democrat activists don’t just ignore the law: They actively countermand it. On the municipal level, they create so-called sanctuaries, dedicated to impeding federal law enforcement wherever they can while aiding and abetting lawbreakers. On the state level, they afford benefits, licensure, voting rights, and more to illegal aliens who have no claim on such things. And on the national level, they invent things like DACA and the CBP1 app, using taxpayer money to facilitate the mass influx of illegal immigrants and “amnesty” scammers who have no business entering the country. But wherever the left has control, it subverts laws it dislikes.

The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution is pretty clear on the matter: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

So what does the law say about immigration? Check out the list of reasons why immigrant wannabes must be refused entry into the country that is found in the Immigration and Nationality Act at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(4) (Section 212(a)(4)). They cannot be admitted if they are likely to become a public charge, have a history of mental illness, are unable to document vaccinations, have previous criminal convictions, and much more. But Democrats just wave them through. WT actual F? Thus, while I know it is vitally important that the SAVE Act passes, I also don’t imagine it will fix the problem of widespread Democrat election cheating right away. Democrat officials won’t submit to that law any more than they do the other federal laws they don’t like.

The tactic for getting away with this seems to be based on the fact that the insurgency is so widespread, so entwined into the culture, that half of Americans feel they are justified when they break or abet others who break federal law. With this lawlessness infecting so many, it becomes nigh unto impossible to rein it in. You certainly can’t arrest, try, convict, and penalize some 100 million people. You can’t even find a judge or a jury that reliably comes down on the side of the law. Resistance. Insurrection. Sedition. Insurgency. Rebellion. Treason. Mutiny. Insubordination. This behavior has many names, but it all comes down to the same problem: placing one’s own will above the will of the people who pass the laws, thereby breaking down the societal compact.

I hold out faith that the Trump administration is doing its part to break the cycle. It is not only enforcing immigration laws, but it is also hunting down the funding and organization behind the insurgency, hopefully resulting in arrests and decapitation of the movement. It is not only urging the passage of election integrity laws, but it is actively investigating past fraud and abuse, ideally in order to arrest and prosecute the ringleaders. Culturally, though, we have a long way to go to re-instill the concepts of civic duty, lawfulness, fairness, and shame in half the country.

Read more …

“As I have previously predicted, by 2050, 24 years from now, the only white people who will exist will be in zoos displayed as the oppressors of “sun people.”

There Is No Future For White People (Paul Craig Roberts)

For decades, the white European ethnicities that comprise Western civilization have been under deadly attack. But the attack does not come from external enemies. It comes from internal enemies–the white gentile and Jewish educators who control the universities and historical narratives. mThe Western universities have defined Western civilization as racist, misogynist, antisemitic, and exploitative of people of color. The New York Times sponsors the 1619 Project that asserts that the United States was founded on racism. A sense of guilt has been implanted in the educated portion of the population living in Western civilization, and the guilt leaves them incapable of racial defense. A society whose enemies control its education and information has no chance of survival.


It was in the 1960s, six or more decades ago, that left-wing students mentored by their professors marched on university campuses demanding “Western civ has to go.” By 2026 several generations have been inculcated with a negative view of the civilization in which they live. This leaves them as putty in the hands of the leftwing and the Zionists who have begun the erasure of the very concept of white ethnicity. A few years ago, A Scandinavian intellectual and documentary filmmaker gave us the story that the original Swedes were black people. We next heard that the first woman in Britain was black. And then we heard that William Shakespeare was a black Jewish feminist from Venice. This unfounded allegation has the silver lining of allowing Shakespeare to again be read and even taught.

But the elimination of white people from history proceeds rapidly. Shakespeare, the master of the British language, is not even British but a Venetian. In its update of its curriculum, Cambridge University has concluded that there is no such thing as an Anglo-Saxon. Nor are there English, Scottish or Irish. Cambridge University indoctrinates its students that white ethnicities are merely constructs. The department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies at the University of Cambridge teaches that ethnic nationalism is a myth. There never was a British, English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish people with a coherent ethnic identity. White ethnicities are mere constructs. They are nothing real. Thus is identity, stripped from white ethnicities.

Tell me, please, University of Cambridge, if Beowulf is not an Anglo-Saxon piece of literature, what is it?Little doubt, the answer from Cambridge will be that Beowulf was a racist, anti-semite, misogynist, oppressor who killed the innocent Grendel because he/she was a person of color and a transgendered something, but certainly not the monster in the non-ethnic poem written by a black Jewish transgendered poet. In the new world being created, only Jews will have an ethnic reality. All gentile white ethnicities are constructs.

A French politician has said that the replacement of the French in France is nothing unusual. The French replaced the Romans just as the Romans replaced the Gauls. It is just normal for Arabs and Africans to replace the French.nIn Spain Spanish people led by a young Spanish woman welcome and encourage the replacement of the Spanish ethnicity by darker skinned boat people from Africa. She says that Spanish people are all horrible and need to be replaced. All over Western Europe, Western governments welcome the replacement of white ethnic nationalities by black immigrant-invaders. Yet the Western European governments want to go to war with Russia. Why? To preserve Europe for black immigrant-invaders?

Yes. The white Western elites are fighting for the conquest of Western civilization by black immigrant-invaders. In Scandinavia black immigrant-invaders largely escape charges for raping white women because mixed-race births help to replace white people. Rape of white women by black men is permitted as a white replacement tool. The way things are shaping up in Scandinavia it is permissible for an ethnic Swedish woman, which Cambridge University says does not exist, to abort a white baby, but it will be a hate crime for a white ethnic Swedish female to abort a baby of color. As I have previously predicted, by 2050, 24 years from now, the only white people who will exist will be in zoos displayed as the oppressors of “sun people.”

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“These ideas are popular with everyone but Democrats in Congress and the Democrats’ consultant class.”

CNN Thinks Black Voters Are ‘Too Dumb’, Scott Jennings Torches Them (Margolis)

Scott Jennings wasn’t about to let Democratic operative Alencia Johnson get away with wild accusations about voter ID requirements, and the resulting exchange on CNN was a master class in dismantling talking points with simple, direct questions. Johnson kicked things off by claiming President Trump was “championing a bill that actually would take voting rights away from a lot of black people in this country.” But her argument immediately started to crumble when Jennings asked the most obvious question: “What voting rights is he taking away from black voters?” “The SAVE Act,” Johnson, a former advisor to Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign, insisted. “That is actually going to continue to disenfranchise overwhelmingly a lot of people of color.”


“How?” Jennings asked, justifiably perplexed. This is when Johnson tried to deflect, distancing herself from her own position. She claimed “There are so many civil rights organizations that have run the data” and invoked Chuck Schumer’s “Jim Crow 2.0” rhetoric. But Jennings wouldn’t let her off the hook. “How? You haven’t said how yet,” he pointed out. “I am talking about it. It’s the way that you’re putting new poll taxes on us.” Poll taxes? The SAVE Act does two things: It requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID to vote. That’s it. These ideas are popular with everyone but Democrats in Congress and the Democrats’ consultant class.

After multiple attempts to dodge, Johnson finally offered an answer: “It’s the way that we’re putting new poll taxes on this when you’re making people have to prove that they are citizens, that they have to prove with a voter ID.” Jennings couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Poll taxes?” he repeated incredulously. Johnson doubled down, calling it “kind of an idiom” and arguing that requiring people to prove citizenship makes it “harder for people to vote in this country.” That’s when Jennings lowered the boom.

He noted that 76% of black voters support requiring an ID to vote, along with 80% of Hispanic voters and 83% of Americans overall. “Are you saying that black voters are too dumb to know what’s good for them?” Jennings asked. “I mean, it sounds pretty condescending.”

The exchange perfectly illustrated how easily leftist claims about voter ID laws collapse under the slightest scrutiny. Johnson came loaded with buzzwords — Jim Crow 2.0, poll taxes, disenfranchisement — but couldn’t articulate a single concrete way the SAVE Act would actually prevent eligible voters from casting ballots, and even more particularly, why it would disproportionately affect minority voters. We all know what this opposition to basic election integrity reforms is really about. Democrats don’t want basic, commonsense election integrity reforms because they rely on a rigged system where it’s easy to steal elections. They invoke Jim Crow to try to scare Democrats, particularly black Democrats, into thinking that these basic safeguards are racist, but, as Jennings pointed out, the polling shows that not even minorities buy this argument.

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“.. it’s less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”

Homan Announces End Of Illegal Immigration Crackdown In Minnesota (JTN)

White House border czar Tom Homan on Thursday announced the end of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in Minnesota. “As a result of our efforts here, Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference, The Associated Press reported. “I have proposed and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched the crackdown, called Operation Metro Surge, on Dec. 1.


According to federal authorities, the crackdown focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, and led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people. “The surge is leaving Minneapolis safer,” Homan said. “I’ll say it again, it’s less of a sanctuary state for criminals.”

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“… letting in unvetted masses isn’t mercy; it’s a calculated move to entrench power, sidelining American workers and safety.”

A Good Way To Destroy Your Country: Rogan Blasts Dems’ Open Border Insanity (MN)

Joe Rogan has zeroed in on the Democrats’ border fiasco, calling it a direct path to America’s downfall by inviting criminals and chaos across the line. The podcast powerhouse argues that while the U.S. was built by immigrants, unchecked entry under Democratic policies is flooding the nation with murderers and cartel thugs, all in an effort to populate cities with voters loyal to the left—pure political gamesmanship at the expense of public safety. Rogan laid out the stark reality of America’s immigration roots clashing with today’s border free-for-all. “The whole thing is tough now because we’re a country that’s established by immigrants, but you can’t have an open border. You can’t just have anybody come through because there’s going to be a bunch of criminals that come through, and you don’t want that. You don’t want your country to be more crime infested,” Rogan said.


“You don’t want your country to have murderers and cartel members just coming into the country and now getting citizenship and being able to vote and organizing, and that’s crazy. That’s a good way to destroy your country,” Rogan urged. He further accused Democrats of turning illegal immigration into a cynical tool for power grabs, overwhelming sanctuary cities and stacking the deck in swing states. “When you just let everybody in, and you let in 10 million people, and how do you — unless they get arrested while they’re here — what do you do? And even then, like a lot of them during the Biden administration, they were getting let go. In sanctuary cities [they would let] people go. It’s just crazy,” Rogan said.

He added, “Because they just want a bunch of people in these swing states for the census. So they get more congressional seats, and if they get these people and give them the ability to vote, now you have a built-in voter base. You can just rig the election.” This critique comes amid the fallout from Biden-era policies like the CHNV migrant parole program, which fast-tracked over 530,000 nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela into the U.S. with legal status and work permits—straining resources and enforcement to the breaking point. Contrast that with President Trump’s 2025 crackdown, where executive actions on border security prompted over two million illegal migrants to self-deport, slashing southern border encounters to historic lows.

It’s a clear win for America First priorities, proving that strong enforcement works when leaders actually prioritize citizens over political stunts. Rogan’s takedown highlights the danger in Democratic compassion claims: preaching open arms while cities buckle under crime waves and resource drains. These policies erode the very fabric of fair elections and national sovereignty. As Rogan points out, letting in unvetted masses isn’t mercy; it’s a calculated move to entrench power, sidelining American workers and safety. Democrats’ border negligence is a betrayal of the American people, paving the way for more crime, division, and electoral manipulation.

Read more …

According to PCR, there should have been more Ukrainian victims, earlier. To prevent more later.

“Putin made an extraordinary strategic error when he refused early in the game to put down a strong Russian foot.”

Are The Ukrainian Peace Talks A Hoax? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The so-called Ukrainian peace talks have puzzled me for sometime. For the conflict to be resolved requires Trump and Putin to work out an agreement between themselves, but this necessary meeting has not occurred. Trump has said repeatedly that he wants the issue resolved, but his terms have never been clear other than demanding a cease fire before the terms of the agreement are known. It is not clear that Trump has taken trouble to understand what Putin means by the root cause of the problem or that the real problem is the absence of a mutual security agreement between Russia and the West.

Perplexingly, the “peace process” has been characterized by Trump blaming Putin for not accepting a cease-fire in place of a negotiated agreement and adding more Russian sanctions as a punishment. This has never struck me as indicating any seriousness on Trump’s part toward finding a solution, and it has puzzled me that Putin continues to see hope in such an unpromising process. Russian foreign minister Lavrov has come around to my point of view. He says the negotiations continue in words, but not in deeds, which is a polite way of saying that the negotiations have lost their purpose.mLavrov has noticed what I have been pointing out for sometime, and that is that there is dialogue on paper but pressure in practice.

I called attention to the fact that it is inconsistent for Washington to allegedly pursue peace in Ukraine while it foments regime change in former provinces of the Soviet Union that border the Russian Federation. Washington seeks to win the allegiance of these provinces away from Russia as is currently underway in Armenia. These efforts follow Washington’s recent attempt at color revolution in former Soviet Georgia. To allegedly negotiate peace in Ukraine, while stirring up trouble elsewhere on Russia’s border gives the lie to the Ukrainian “peace process.” Just last Monday American vice president Vance was in Armenia on a high profile visit chipping away with American offers Armenia’s economic engagement with Russia.

Another peculiar aspect of this so-called “peace negotiations” is the two people who are conducting them. One, representing Trump, is Witkoff an American real estate developer. The other, representing Putin, is the American– Russian Kirill Dmitriev, an Atlanticist Integrationist in charge of the small $10 billion Russian sovereign investment fund. Both are trying to negotiate money deals, not the elimination of armed conflict. The Kremlin’s line is that it is a double-track policy to see if economic deals can be made, regardless of whether the Ukrainian situation can be resolved.

This strikes me as utter nonsense, and it seems to strike Lavrov the same way. Lavrov notes that Washington is interfering with Russian oil exports by illegally seizing Russian-flagged tankers at sea in international waters, and by applying sanctions to India for its oil and weapons deals with Russia. Clearly, Washington is increasing pressures on Russia. What basis does Putin have for continuing to pretend and to deceive the Russian people that Ukrainian peace negotiations are almost concluded? Why is a popular leader destroying his own credibility, or allowing Dmitriev and Witcoff to destroy his credibility?

Putin made an extraordinary strategic error when he refused early in the game to put down a strong Russian foot. It remains to be seen what consequences the world will pay for this extraordinary strategic blunder by the president of Russia..

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“Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who doesn’t have the sense God gave a goose..”:

What the Heck Happened in El Paso? (Sarah Anderson)

On Tuesday night, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a NOTAM that imposed a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) over El Paso, Texas, and nearby southern New Mexico, including El Paso International Airport and Doña Ana County International Jetport in Santa Teresa, N.M. It cited “special security reasons,” and it banned all types of flights, including, in some cases, medevacs, up to 18,000 feet for the next 10 days (until February 20). Early Wednesday morning, the FAA suddenly announced that “the temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted” and “there is no threat to commercial aviation,” allowing all flights to resume as normal.


So, what happened? The Donald Trump administration says that Mexican cartel drones breached the U.S. border. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted on X:

“The FA and [Department of War] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region. The restrictions have been lifted and normal flights are resuming.” This sounds reasonable. El Paso sits right on the United States-Mexico border, and cartel drones are a rapidly growing threat. They’re used to smuggle in drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, and they’re used to scout areas, looking for law enforcement. They’re also used in human trafficking coordination.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters of the border in the last six months of 2024. But others aren’t buying it, and by “others” I mean Democrats, Mexico’s Narco-President Claudia Sheinbaum, and the MSM. Rep Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes El Paso, complained that she wasn’t notified, and urged the FAA to reverse the decision, stating that she felt there was no threat to the community. “The highly consequential decision by FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and has resulted in significant concern within the community,” she said.

“From what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas.” Sheinbaum, during her morning press conference, stated that she had no information about any of this either but would like the U.S. to share it with her. The Associated Press, however, claims it has the real scoop… from anonymous sources. It claims that the shutdown “stemmed from the Pentagon’s plans to test a laser to shoot down drones used by Mexican drug cartels” and that it “caused friction with the Federal Aviation Administration, which wanted to ensure commercial air safety, and the two agencies sought to coordinate.”

It also claims that a meeting between the Department of War (DOW) and the FAA was scheduled for later in February, but the DOW was eager to test the laser, so the FAA responded with the shutdown. It goes on to explain that some people missed their Valentine’s Day weekend flights. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who doesn’t have the sense God gave a goose, piled on by saying it’s “the lack of coordination that’s endemic in this Trump administration.” And then, yet another story came out, which has been published by various outlets, like CBS and Fox News, stating that what actually happened was that the military thought it was taking out a drone, but it turned out to be a mylar party balloon. This led to concerns from the FAA, and that’s why the airspace was eventually closed. This was confirmed by, again, anonymous sources and has been mocked online by both sides of the political aisle.

So, which was it? Catel drones, a misidentified balloon, or a little spat between two government agencies — maybe some combination of all three? No one seems to know for sure. Given the players involved, I’m not one to blindly trust the federal government, but I am more inclined to trust Duffy over Duckworth and “anonymous sources.”

Read more …

Socialism in America is like snow in the desert.

NYC Mayor Urges State Lawmakers to Pass Tax Hikes on Wealthy, Corporations (ET)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on state lawmakers Wednesday to approve a 2 percent personal income tax increase on the city’s wealthiest residents as well as a hike in the corporate tax rate in a bid to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap. The mayor testified in a New York State Senate 2026 budget hearing about how the city’s projected deficit had decreased from $12 billion to $7 billion. He attributed the improvement to “assuming an aggressive posture on savings without compromising city services, incorporating updated revenue and bonus estimates, and using in-year reserves.”


Mamdani said nonetheless that New York remains “placed on a ledge,” and needs more revenue from high earners and businesses. “I believe the wealthiest individuals and most profitable corporations should contribute a little more so that everyone can live lives of dignity,” Mamdani, a democratic socialist, said in prepared remarks. “That’s why—along with raising the corporate tax—I’m asking for a 2 percent personal income tax increase on the most affluent New Yorkers.”

The mayor will release the city’s preliminary budget next Tuesday. He conjectured the personal tax surcharge, proposed to affect those earning more than $1 million annually, would close the remaining deficit by nearly half of what’s remaining. Mamdani also underscored his campaign pledge to increase the state’s corporate tax rate from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent. Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature must approve any tax changes.

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Putin and Trump trust each other to get it done?!

US Negotiating Updated New START Treaty With Russia – Vance (RT)

The US is continuing negotiations with Russia on an updated version of the New START treaty, Vice President J.D. Vance has confirmed. The strategic arms control agreement officially expired on February 5 after no formal extension was reached. Speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Azerbaijan, Vance stated that nuclear non-proliferation talks are ongoing and that the treaty will be different from its previous iteration. “It’s going to change compared to where it was, and that’s part of the negotiation that we’re engaging in with the Russians,” he said.


Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons remains a core priority for the administration of US President Donald Trump, Vance said, and that “more regimes across the world getting nuclear weapons” is the “worst thing that can happen” for the American people. Vance’s confirmation comes after Axios reported last week that US and Russian officials discussed the treaty on the sidelines of Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi. A US official told the outlet that the sides had agreed to “operate in good faith” and begin discussions on updating the agreement, with some sources indicating a provisional six-month observance of the treaty’s terms.

Signed in 2010, New START puts caps on the number of strategic nuclear warheads and launchers that can be deployed and establishes monitoring mechanisms for both Russian and American arsenals. It was initially set to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years at the time. However, Moscow suspended the verification mechanisms of the treaty in 2023, citing Ukrainian strikes on elements of Russia’s nuclear deterrence and accusing the West of being actively involved.

Last September, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed extending the treaty for one more year, provided that Washington reciprocated. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the initiative “remained unanswered.” Moscow has repeatedly warned of the dangers of allowing the treaty to lapse. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who signed the original treaty, stated that “the world could enter a dangerous new phase of uncertainty” if the agreement expired, predicting that the global nuclear club will likely expand.

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Weird. They’re not sure who appoints who?

US Attorney In New York Appointed By Judges Quickly Fired By White House (JTN)

A U.S. attorney who was appointed by federal judges in New York was quickly fired by the White House. On Wednesday, Donald T. Kinsella, 79, was appointed as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York in a private ceremony, The New York Times reported. Then, Kinsella said, he received an email from a White House official hours later, telling him that he was being removed from the post. Kinsella told The Times that he did not yet know whether the White House email carried the force of law, and that he would discuss it with the district judges in the morning and go from there.


Before Kinsella’s appointment, the Trump administration had suggested it would fire any prosecutor chosen by district judges. It is unclear whether there is any recourse for the Northern District judges. “Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does. See Article II of our Constitution. You are fired, Donald Kinsella,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X on Wednesday.mKinsella is a former criminal chief of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York, which prosecutes crime in cities such as Albany, Syracuse, and Utica.

He was to replace John A. Sarcone III, whom a judge found last month to be serving in the position unlawfully. Sarcone dropped the title of acting U.S. attorney this week, as his 210-day term had expired, and his office’s website now lists him as first assistant, typically the title of a U.S. attorney’s top deputy. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Kinsella’s firing. “Everyone knows Trump only cares about one quality in a U.S. attorney: complete political subservience,” Schumer said. “The people of upstate New York deserve a qualified, independent prosecutor, not another political loyalist.”

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The European Commission president won’t let individual member states stand in the way of her maximalist goals…

She’ll blow up the union yet.

What’s Behind Von Der Leyen’s Two-Tier EU Plan? (RT)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants groups of EU countries to pass ambitious economic reforms without the consent of the entire bloc. The move is about trade, regulations, and – of course – Ukraine.nEU leaders will meet in Belgium’s Alden Biesen castle on Thursday to discuss the bloc’s moribund economy. The meeting comes two years after former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi released a report calling on Brussels to slash regulations and invest up to €800 billion annually, or face “slow agony” as the economies of China and the US pull ahead.


Von der Leyen immediately opposed borrowing Draghi’s recommended €800 billion, given that her EU member underlings have yet to come up with the €90 billion to be borrowed for Ukraine that was announced last December. However, in a letter to the bloc’s leaders on Monday, she proposed a “deep house cleaning” of red tape and regulations, new trade deals along the lines of the one signed with India this month, and the elimination of remaining trade barriers between member states.

One paragraph in the letter stands out: “Our ambition should always be to reach agreement among all 27 Member States. However, where a lack of progress or ambition risks undermining Europe’s competitiveness or capacity to act, we should not shy away from using the possibilities foreseen in the treaties on enhanced cooperation.” In a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, von der Leyen made her position even more clear. The commission, she said, will “crack down” on “unnecessary” national laws standing in the way of her reforms.

The EU’s Amsterdam and Nice treaties allow a minimum of nine member states to cooperate on certain policy initiatives without the consent of the rest of the bloc. According to the EU’s legal database, “the procedure is designed to overcome stalemate where a particular proposal is blocked by one or more Member States who do not want to take part. It does not, however, allow for an extension of powers outside those permitted by the EU Treaties.” Member states cannot veto the establishment of enhanced cooperation groups, except on matters of defense and the bloc’s common foreign policy.

What is the letter really about?
According to von der Leyen, her proposed reforms are so important that they risk delay or dilution if subjected to the bloc’s normal unanimity requirement. However, her letter neglects to mention a key European industry that would benefit from “enhanced cooperation”: the weapons industry. Last month, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil proposed creating “a Europe of two speeds,” in which Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands – the so-called ‘E6’ – would collaborate on defense spending, lobby for increased military expenditure in the EU’s next multiannual budget, and raise money to turn “defense into an engine for growth.”

“Europe has to become stronger and more resilient,” Klingbeil said in a letter to his French counterpart, Roland Lescure. “Work towards this goal needs to be sped up in all dimensions. Continuing as before is not an option.” Klingbeil’s proposal would likely face staunch opposition from Europe’s dissident center. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis have all spoken out against the EU’s increased militarization. By recruiting three more countries and using the mechanisms of enhanced cooperation, the E6 could bypass this opposition and form an ideologically-aligned bloc within the bloc.

Why is this important for Germany?
Strengthening the European arms industry is an existential matter for Germany. Berlin’s decision to abandon Russian gas imports has left the country reeling, with its economy contracting in 2023 and 2024, and flatlining last year. Industrial giants such as BASF, Bosch, and Volkswagen have closed factories in Germany, but the weapons sector is booming. Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest defense contractor, has seen its stock rise more than 1,750% since January 2022, largely on the back of massive orders of 155mm ammunition and Leopard tank components for Ukraine. Airbus and Thyssenkrupp, both of which have substantial defense divisions, are up around 200%. Rheinmetall is now Germany’s sixth-largest company by market capitalization, outranking Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW.

According to some estimates, defense spending has accounted for as much as 20% of total EU economic growth since 2022. nUkraine benefits in material terms from every Rheinmetall shell it fires and tank it repairs at the company’s facility near Lviv. Kiev also benefits from any political decision that lets its most fervent supporters in Europe – namely the European Commission, France, Germany, and Poland – act without interference from the rest of the bloc. For example, when the European Commission proposed a €90 billion debt-funded loan to Ukraine last year, it was opposed by Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The EU Council used enhanced cooperation to issue the loan last month, with the first payment to Kiev expected in April.

Von der Leyen has used the Ukraine conflict to dramatically centralize power in the EU. Aside from using enhanced cooperation to issue a loan that Kiev will never be able to repay, the EC president has proposed an end to the unanimity requirement for foreign policy and defense decisions, and until this week planned to create a dedicated intelligence unit under her control, citing the supposed threat of Russian “hybrid warfare. Now that the EU economy is buckling under the weight of the commission’s decisions, namely its abandonment of cheap Russian oil and gas, von der Leyen is yet again tearing up the rulebook to achieve her goals. Ahead of Thursday’s meeting in Belgium, it seems that the much-vaunted unity of the bloc is of little concern to her if it stands in the way of her ambitions.

Read more …

“As the current generation being educated is content to ask AI for answers, they will never be able to answer a question themselves..”

The Collapse of American Education (Paul Craig Roberts)

Forty percent of US fourth graders cannot read. Even fewer can read at their grade level. One teacher responsible for 110 eighth graders reports that only two can read at grade level. Teachers report that kids are not capable of comprehending the content of written material, and that thinking and working out the answer to a problem is beyond their ability.


https://www.bitchute.com/video/M8fPk94kCupI

The 15 minute video in the URL above is worth your time. It shows us that we are raising a generation that is incapable of functioning in any job, or understanding domestic and foreign concerns that require public input in a democracy. In effect, without an educated and thinking public, there can be no democracy. Therefore, the failure of education means the replacement of our political system with something else. The information in the video blames technology, especially artificial intelligence, which is beginning to undermine the comprehension powers of adults as well. The latter part of the video might strike some as a case for better teacher pay, but as the video makes clear pay is not the reason teachers are leaving education.

The adverse impact of artificial intelligence on learning is just the latest stage in the collapse of education. In previous articles, I have dated the decline in education from the destruction of neighborhood schools. People of the same socio-economic class fit together in more manageable ranges of ability. This makes it possible to hold all students in class to the same standard. Some do better than others, but there are not large differences that result in many who cannot fit within the standard range.

The neighborhood schools were destroyed by social engineering or the integration of different socio-economic classes under the same standard. The result was there were too many who could not meet the standard. Instead of questioning the policy, the blame was placed on racism. To avoid racism the educational standards were lowered. This let the Genie out of the bottle. Other deterioration followed, and the classroom degenerated into chaos and loss of teacher control. Today teachers say they are behavioral managers, not teachers.

Another adverse development was the creation of education departments in universities. In my early schooling years, education degrees were new on the scene. Those who taught my generation had degrees in the subjects that they taught. The math teacher had a math degree.The history teacher had a degree in history. The English teacher had an English degree, and so on. Most of the teachers were teaching because they love their subject, and their appreciation of the subject often passed on to the students and gave them an interest in math, history, language. Teachers had competence in the subject matter instead of in educational theory.

Today we already experience the decline in competence of graduates. Checkout clerks are not permitted to exchange for customers the equivalent in smaller bills for a larger one, because they don’t know how to do it. Customer service representatives are very limited in the help that they can provide. A real problem has to be moved up a level or two to a supervisor. To get an issue resolved today can require 30 minutes or one hour or half a day. I remember when issues were resolved in three minutes and that whoever answered the phone had the authority to resolve the issue. Today the time it takes to resolve the simplest issue is extraordinary.

As the current generation being educated is content to ask AI for answers, they will never be able to answer a question themselves. Everyone will think the same, which will be whatever AI answers. Therefore, those who control the database for AI will control understanding. Moreover, there will be no one capable of challenging the narrative in the AI database. The consequences of this is extraordinary. Everyone will think the same. Diversity will not exist. Those who control the database will have total control. Humanity simply ceases to exist.These are the real problems that we face, not whether we should destroy Iran for Israel, or whether Gaza should be turned into a resort. Does the fact that the real issues are unaddressed mean that the educational collapse has already gone so far that we can no longer think clearly and comprehend the real threats that we face?

Read more …

“:Nobody can say for sure because nobody actually knows, not even the people who signed the checks.”

‘Snow White’ Lost [GULP] How Much Money? (Stephen Green)

You had to figure that Disney’s live(ish)-action Snow White reboot would lose money, but even my eyes watered when I read this morning that the oft-derided musical lost about $170 million. But get this, had Disney not produced the movie in the U.K. — and received a reported $65 million (!!!) in tax credits — then Snow White would have lost the Mouse House a jaw-dropping $235 million……and entered the Hollywood Hall of Shame as one of the 10 biggest money-losing movie of all time, somewhere between Disney’s 2012 stinker, John Carter, and Peter Berg’s Battleship from the same year.
I could go over all the reasons with you again — bad concept, Rachel Zegler, bad script, Rachel Zegler, bad casting, Rachel Zegler, bad new songs, Rachel Zegler, budget-busting reshoots, Rachel Zegler, budget-busting (and unnecessary) CGI dwarves, and also Rachel Zegler — but we’ve been over all this before. Instead, let me ask one vital question that nobody at Disney seems to have asked themselves or one another: How is it even possible to lose that much money on a picture that could have been shot for probably $100 million, with another $50 million in marketing costs? That’s an easy one: Disney spent a well-reported $336 million to produce a frickin family musical, and another estimated $100 million to market it.

Factor in those U.K. tax credits and the movie theater’s take, Snow White needed to sell around $740 million in tickets for Disney to break even. That’s almost Star Wars money. For a family musical. Absurd! At a more reasonable budget — back when studios still cared about that kind of thing — Disney would have started making money at something closer to $260 million. Had there been any grownups in charge at Disney able to enforce some cost-discipline, a $100 million Snow White would have been a much better movie than the one they made for more than three times that much. Budgets — real budgets — force everyone involved to deliver value. Disney’s reckless corporate bosses just sign the checks and pray for the best, it seems.

But there’s a bigger story to tell. Let’s look at another big loser, John McTiernan’s The 13th Warrior. It’s impossible to say exactly where it places on the list of All-Time Box Office Bombs, thanks to Hollywood’s notorious accounting gimmickry. It might have lost as “little” as $130 million (adjusted for inflation), or as much as $243 million (ditto). John Carter might be the biggest flop of all time at $274 million in today’s dollars, or maybe in 11th place at $153 million. Nobody can say for sure because nobody actually knows, not even the people who signed the checks. That’s Hollywood for you, but Snow White wasn’t shot in Hollywood. In order to qualify for the U.K.’s lavish film-production tax credits, studios like Disney must follow the U.K.’s accounting rules — and the Brits don’t put up with the tricks that we do. So you can pretty much take it to the bank that Snow White did indeed lose $170 million.

But here’s the biggest part of the story. Adjusted for inflation, and applying a bit of Kentucky windage to account for Hollywood accounting witchery, eight or maybe nine of the biggest box-office losers of all time were released in just the last 15 years.Probably seven of the next 10 did, too. In fact, out of the 139 biggest box office bombs listed on Wikipedia (for losing about $100 million or more in today’s dollars), 123 of them were made since 2000. Folks, Hollywood as we know it was born in the 1920s, and those studios basically printed money for 80 years.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle February 13 2026

Viewing 29 posts - 41 through 69 (of 69 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #230820
    tboc
    Participant

    the pronouncements by Elon Musk and Mustafa Suleyman concerning jobs are doing quite a public service by aiding in the clarification of the definition of “Useless Eaters”.

    “we can count over 93 million professionals working in the U.S. in 2023, making up 57.8 percent of the total workforce.” – https://www.dpeaflcio.org/factsheets/the-professional-and-technical-workforce-by-the-numbers
    Management occupations (20,906,000);
    Business and financial operations occupations (9,638,000);
    Computer and mathematical occupations (6,502,000);
    Architecture and engineering occupations (3,602,000);
    Life, physical, and social science occupations (1,870,000);
    Community and social service occupations (2,879,000);
    Legal occupations (1,897,000);
    Education, training, and library occupations (9,403,000);
    Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (3,478,000); and
    Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations (10,099,000).[1]

    this fact sheet counts employees in all occupation groups as professionals if they have at least an associate’s degree in an academic program. Thus, professional employment outside of the professional occupation groups in 2023 totaled 22,816,000, including:
    Healthcare support occupations (1,468,000);
    Protective service occupations (1,340,000);
    Food preparation and serving related occupations (1,264,000);
    Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (758,000);
    Personal care and service occupations (1,281,000);
    Sales and related occupations (5,890,000);
    Office and administrative support occupations (6,163,000);
    Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (151,000);
    Construction and extraction occupations (1,139,000);
    Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (895,000);
    Production occupations (1,510,000); and
    Transportation and material moving occupations (2,096,000).[2]

    October 8, 2024
    “he average duration of a job search for Americans in September was 22.6 weeks,” – https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2024/10/08/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-current-state-of-the-white-collar-job-market/

    let’s be optimistic and say only 1/3 of professional jobs are going to replaced by Ai. My calculator tells me that would be 19.37% of the workforce.
    Once again let us be optimistic that only 10% of non-professional job will be lost, 4.22% of the workforce.
    Now convince me that the loss of 23.59% of the workforce can be absorbed in the current economy.
    There will be quite a number of USELESS whether or not they will be eating is another question.

    #230821
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230822
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230823
    Topcat
    Participant

    While it’s still somewhat relevant:

    #230824
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Russia China Defy US;
    China Offers Iran J20 Fighter
    Spy Ship Tracks US Fleet; Russia Sends Cuba Oil

    #230825
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230826
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230827
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230828
    WES
    Participant

    Da Moon:

    Hey, Elon Musk!

    I am not quite sure how to break this to you, but nobody seems very interested in going to da moon!

    Da moon, just doesn’ have the sex appeal of going to a certain death on Mars!

    #230829
    WES
    Participant

    US silver Refineries:

    There is no shortage of silver in the US!

    US silver Refineries are so busy making good delivery bars 99.999% for the CME, that they will only accept 99% and higher silver scrap.

    So if you want to sell grandma’s silver set, you won’t get a very good price, because silver buyers can’t sell this low grade silver to their silver wholesalers who are only buying 99% and higher scrap silver that the refineries currently want.

    Then add in the lack of timely free market price discovery confusion.
    Nobody believes in the paper silver prices anymore.
    So physical silver gridlock!
    Buyers aren’t buying and sellers aren’t selling, because they don’t want to be cheated by the current cheap paper prices!

    #230830
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    It has been known for a long time and that is what has been considered by Russia’s strategic planners since 2013 at least, in reality since 2008.

    Former Texas Representative Ron Paul said the U.S. economic order rests on “fraud” rooted in the 1971 break from gold and warned that the current system is nearing its end, in a wide-ranging 90th-birthday interview on The Tucker Carlson Podcast released Thursday. Paul, a Republican-turned-Libertarian-turned-Republican, tied his warning to the end of dollar convertibility into gold under President Richard Nixon, calling it the nation’s “first declaration of bankruptcy,” and argued that persistent money printing and deficits have created a brittle order primed for a severe correction.
    The US has been into FIRE economy transition since 1980s, but it was in 1990s when the process of deindustrialization and Wall Streetization of the economy went into the overdrive. Today we have economy of this type:

    With a bunch of morons who continue to believe in gimmicks and the idea that you can “make money” which are not supported by anything other than zeros in computers. As long as “growth” was provided by inflating the capitalization of some pseudo-techno mambo-jumbo they thought they should be fine. Well, no. Ponzi schemes do not last long. For a country such as the US 50 years is a short time. So, the chickens are coming home to roost. That also has been demonstrated by SMO.
    Meanwhile, 404 is now “drafting” … midgets, FFS.

    Meanwhile:
    A majority of Germans support direct talks between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the Ukraine conflict, the DPA news agency reported on Thursday, citing a recent YouGov poll. Some 58% of respondents said they would somewhat or strongly support such negotiations, according to the survey. Just over a quarter of respondents opposed the idea. Support for direct talks was especially high among Merz’ conservative voters, with 64% responding positively. The YouGov survey was conducted online over four days last week among more than 2,000 Germans.
    There is one, well–two problems with that. There cannot be a “dialogue” anymore, only reading of the articles of capitulation. But most important one–majority of Russians do not want this “dialogue”, they didn’t forget German Leopards in Kursk Oblast. It is all too little, too late. This doesn’t mean that normal Germans will not be met in Russia with open arms when immigrating, but Germany as an entity and as a nation is Russia’s existential enemy, as is most of Europe.
    http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/02/this-is-not-news.html

    #230831
    tboc
    Participant

    Dr. D your piece on labor at the time of the transcontinental railroad was one of the most obtuse you have penned. Ayahuasca delivers a state closer to reality.

    The percentage of the workforce in agriculture declined from 74% in 1800 to roughly 50% by 1880. The combine harvester and mechanization played a role as did the rapid increase in population in the US.
    The transcontinental was finished in 1868, WTF do factory workers in 1900 have to do with the discussion?

    Necessity may be the mother of invention but necessity IS the father of risk. You are a rare breed of capitalist that advises against risk. Did you ever read about sweat shops and the struggle of labor?

    what was your occupation from age 20 to 40? Tell me that before you speak against those “who never worked a day in their sorry lives”.

    sometimes it i best to remain silent………….than to speak up………

    #230832
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230833
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230834
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    2+ years of genocide. 5+ years of jewjab sickness and death. Epstein. 109 countries over 1000 times. Wake up, before it’s too late..

    #230835
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Bradley Madden
    https://www.youtube.com/@BradleyMadden-l5b
    This channel has many videos
    starting 2 weeks ago
    With the oldest video about president trump not wanting to stand in court when the judge entered and legal issues he and his wife are having
    And videos about Canada carney and trump actions

    Here’s the oldest

    #230836
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230837
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230838
    those darned kids
    Participant

    the people who’ve gotten rich because we purchase a certain lifestyle from them now want to remove us from the planet because we live a certain lifestyle we’ve purchased from them.

    #230839
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230840
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    US Canada electricity

    #230841
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Canada kicked out of NORAD control

    Where is the proof?

    All of these posts may be just narratives

    Starting to resemble matrix

    New character/ last time it was a girl with the same message

    #230842
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    TDK:

    Why indeed? Such failure of leadership

    #230843
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Every day brings new sordid and reprehensible details about the practices of Jeffrey Epstein and his collaborators and “guests.” Some speculate that the point of his operation was to compile incriminating documentation of high-powered individuals to be used to control them through blackmail. But this hypothesis misses the broader cultural point of sadistic depravity: the formation of a cadre of “elite” individuals willing to advocate and implement policies that ordinary human conscience would reject.

    Although these hidden facts are now seeing the light, we can look at what has not been hidden, and ask: How did we get here? How does the world come to a point where a gruesome genocide is televised? Where the threat of nuclear devastation is treated cavalierly? Where economic despair is waved away by pointing to charts of the stock market?

    Epstein’s circle did not arise in a vacuum; elite imperial cultures have long trained their successors to separate power from empathy.

    The British elite are infamous for the abuse and torment characteristic of the “public schools” that have prepared scions of high rank for their future roles as administrators of the brutish empire. What image of man must be beaten into children to prepare them to treat their fellow human beings with the disdain required to maintain a hegemonic system? Has this abuse been tolerated for centuries precisely because it is an integral part of the pupils’ “education”?

    The Epstein affair, far from being simply a scandal, is a verdict on culture. It forces the question: What image of humanity is shaping our institutions? If power is divorced from moral and intellectual development, strategic recklessness and social decay follow naturally. No reform limited to prosecutions or policy tweaks can address that root problem. A civilization survives only when its leadership orients toward the advancement of human creativity and dignity.

    What would such a leadership do today?

    The collapse of the trans-Atlantic financial economic system—the elephant still in the room—forces a choice: either cling to a fading, anti-human system, or reorganize society around real production, science, and culture.

    The United States Centennial Exposition of 1876 represented a very different kind of culture than that prevailing today. The exposition was a grand world’s fair that drew millions of visitors to Philadelphia, showcasing breakthroughs in technology, manufacturing, and global cooperation as a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of American independence. Exhibits of industrial engines, productive machinery, communication innovations, and artistic pavilions from dozens of nations glorified human ingenuity and shared advancement on a truly universal stage. The celebration assumed that progress was the purpose of civilization.

    This year marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Look forward to the 300th anniversary: What should it showcase?

    Imagine a Tricentennial Celebration of the future: fusion energy projects providing power around the world, and in space; human settlements on the Moon and reaching toward Mars; advanced infrastructure and scientific education initiatives that uplift the lives of billions and make poverty a museum exhibit rather than a daily experience. Such a celebration would declare the success of a new renaissance—where human potential is the central measure of civilization’s success.

    This is the culture we should choose: one that elevates the human spirit through creation and discovery, that seizes the vast promise of scientific and economic progress rather than the undignified search for domination. Culture becomes strategy: an engine of development that shapes policy, fuels diplomacy, and inspires every generation to expand what is possible for all mankind.

    https://eir.news/2026/02/daily-brief/eir-daily-news-friday-february-13-2026/

    #230844
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230845
    zerosum
    Participant

    The collapse of the trans-Atlantic financial economic system—the elephant still in the room—forces a choice: either cling to a fading, anti-human system, or reorganize society around real production, science, and culture.

    OLD story
    – reorganize society

    This effort has existed and failed, since and before recorded history. — religions, and failures of empires and vanished societies.

    #230846

    6-7
    a meme that is meant to drive teachers crazy. It is dada (though those who use it have no clue that it is). It’s so cool that dictionary.com chose it as the “word” of the year for 2025.
    It is used to indicate brain rot. (I take that to mean “boring”).

    A generation of kids who function only in a stimulus/response existence will (I think) produce some pretty ugly mob behavior.

    6-7 is new to me.

    #230847
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    #230869
    John Day
    Participant

    @Tboc: You are welcome.

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