Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/23/2017

A Democrat Party official in Nebraska has been fired after saying that he was glad that Rep. Steve Scalise had been shot, and wished that the congressman had died. Rep. Scalise was gravely wounded on June 14 by a Bernie Sanders supporter named James Hodgkinson, who fired his gun at Republican members of Congress practicing for a baseball game.

In other news, the German government acknowledged that 75% of the “refugees” will end up permanently on welfare benefits.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Caroline Glick, Dean, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, Upananda Brahmachari, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Canary in the Coal Mine: Unfunded Liabilities Have Turned Illinois Into a “Banana Republic” On the Brink of Bankruptcy
» Here is the Reality of Our Predicament: “The US System is Going to Move Into the Next Phase of Collapse Under Trump’s Watch”
» Sears Canada Announces Bankruptcy; Fires 2,900
» The Retail Sector Saga Continues With Nike Announcing Shocking News of Laying Off 1400 Employees
 
USA
» “Operation Broken Heart III” — — 238 Arrested in Sweep of Suspected Child Sex Predators
» 30 GOP Congressman Have Been Attacked, Threatened
» Airman Convicted of Federal Crime for Being 6 Minutes Late
» Americans Could be Subjected to Mandatory Facial Recognition Scans
» Cities Across the Country Are Using Street Lights Equipped With Microphones and Surveillance Cameras to Spy on Everyone
» Desperate Globalists Launch New Climate Group With Former Obama Energy Secretary
» It Wasn’t Just the NSA: Germany Spied on the White House for Years
» Johnny Depp: ‘When Was the Last Time an Actor Assassinated a President?’
» Man Stabbed in Neck Area on Grand Ave.; Police Searching for Suspect
» Meat Allergies Triggered by Tick, And They’re Spreading
» Nebraska Dem Official Ousted for Saying He’s Wished Rep. Scalise Dead
» Progressives Moving in on Conservative States in Droves
» Robert Mueller is Stacking the Deck With Clinton Donors for Russia Investigation
» Robert Mueller Adopts Stalinist Tactics
» Sex Offender Allegedly Raped 7-Year-Old Six Weeks After His Release From Prison for Another Rape
» Third Fast & Furious Report Shows Pattern of Obstruction
 
Canada
» Quebec Now More Creditworthy Than Ontario
 
Europe and the EU
» Back in Your Box, Newbie! Raging Row Breaks Out Between Macron and Hungary at EU Summit
» German Authorities Raid Homes of 36 for Social Media ‘Hate Speech’
» It’s the Anniversary of Britain’s Independence Day — But Brexit Has Barely Left the Starting Blocks
» UK Man Sentenced to 20 Months for Anti-Muslim Posts on Facebook
» UK ‘Wants Way Out’ For Julian Assange After Five Years at Embassy
» UK: Five More Men Arrested as Part of Rotherham Sex Abuse Investigation
» UK: School’s Apology for Telling Pupils to Write Suicide Note
» Zeman to Leave Politics if Not Re-Elected Czech President
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Israel, American Jewry and Trump’s GOP
 
Middle East
» Canadian Sniper Killed ISIS Jihadi From Two Miles Away
» Watch: Turkish Man Attacks Woman for ‘Wearing Shorts During Ramadan’
 
South Asia
» Ramadan: Roza, Iftar, Indonesia and India
 
Australia — Pacific
» ‘A Clash is Inevitable’: Australian Leader of Islamist Extremist Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Says There Will be a War With and Compares the West to a Prisoner Who Won’t Reform
» ‘Move to an Arab Dictatorship’: Angry Immigrant Senator Calls for Muslim Activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied to Leave Australia — After She Claimed Our Democracy Didn’t Represent Her ‘Because She’s Black and a Woman’
» Muslim Terrorist Who Plotted to Behead a Police Officer on ANZAC Day and Radicalised Teenager Who Tried to Make a Bomb at Home Have Four Years Added to Their ‘Lenient’ Jail Sentences
» ‘Our Streets Have Become Symbols of Fear’: Sadness in Melbourne as the City Wakes Up to Find Ugly Concrete Bollards Lining the Streets to Stop Terrorists Ramming Civilians
 
Immigration
» 1.4 Million Illegals Work Under Stolen Social Security Numbers
» Austria Tries Paying Migrants to Leave. The Results Are Mixed.
» European Union Admits Massive Rise of Illegal Migrants, But Not Refugees
» IRS Fails to Notify Americans Whose Social Security Number Are Used by Illegal Aliens
» Refugee Reality: Germany Admits 75% Face Long-Term Unemployment and Life on Benefits
 
Culture Wars
» “Feminists” Say: The Solution to White Supremacy is White Abortion
» California Attacks Texas With Travel Ban Over Alleged LGBT Discrimination
» California Court Dismisses Charges Against David Daleiden, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood
 
General
» Consumers Remain in the Dark About Potential Risks of New GMO Techniques
» George Soros on His Open Society
» How Close Are We to Successfully Cloning the First Human?
 

Canary in the Coal Mine: Unfunded Liabilities Have Turned Illinois Into a “Banana Republic” On the Brink of Bankruptcy

Illinois is the perfect example of what happens when your state is run by fiscally irresponsible dunces for decades. The state is buried in debt, and hasn’t passed a budget in over 700 days. 100% of their monthly revenue is being consumed by court ordered payments, and the Illinois Department of Transportation has revealed that they may not be able to pay contractors (who are working on over 700 infrastructure projects) after July 1st if the state doesn’t pass a budget. To top it all off, the state’s credit rating is one step away from junk status, the lowest of any state. Because of these factors, Illinois may become the first state to declare bankruptcy since the Great Depression.

Governor Bruce Rauner has gone so far as to call his state a “banana republic.”

The state’s comptroller has admitted that “We are in massive crisis mode.”

And a reporter for the Chicago Tribune thinks Illinois has gone so far past the point of no return, that the state should be broken up. He recently wrote what basically sounds like a suicide note for Illinois…

The root of the problem is Illinois’ unfunded pension liabilities, which amount to $130 billion. The state’s leaders simply promised what could not be delivered. Most of their employees can retire in their ‘50s, and many of them will receive 1-2 million dollars over the course of their retirements. As the debts associated with those pensions reached astronomical levels, the government increased taxes so much that many of the wealthiest and most productive citizens and businesses have moved away, leaving an even smaller tax base to draw from.

In short, Illinois is in a death spiral, but it’s not alone. Illinois is merely the canary in the coal mine.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Here is the Reality of Our Predicament: “The US System is Going to Move Into the Next Phase of Collapse Under Trump’s Watch”

Finally, as America’s decline accelerates, Eastern nations will without a doubt decouple completely from the US dollar as the world reserve currency and begin using the IMF Special Drawing Rights basket structure as a replacement. Russia will most likely lead this charge along with China. Americans will blame Russia in part for the demise of the dollar’s buying power around the world. And, the rest of the world will blame the U.S. for the dollar’s demise due to U.S. “imperialism” and overt sanctions against Russia. They will say we had it coming.

Perhaps you have noticed a particular pattern here? Every piece of the narrative I have outlined has already been initiated, if perhaps only in early-to-mid stages of development. This is an open dialogue common in the mainstream. And in every case, the offered culprit behind the downfall of America is always someone other than the banking elites. Anyone other than the banking elites.

Leftists and socialists around the globe will blame Trump and conservative principles. Conservatives will blame the left and their obstructions of Trump. The West will blame the East. Globalists will blame “populists” and nationalists, and nationalists will be scrambling to protect their ground by any means necessary, including unconstitutional measures, which will only help the globalists in the long run.

A core catalyst for this geopolitical blame game is the Trump presidency and the use of the Russian conspiracy to ensure that the left remains crazy, inspiring the right towards extreme measures. Again, this is not about removing Trump, it is about manipulating the left; it is about using the Left’s cultural Marxism to trigger an iron-fisted reaction from the political right.

[Comment: Recommended reading. Obama put the US train to bankrupty. Globalists are proud of the work Obama did to advance their agenda — to take down America economically. The next step is to force the collapse and put all the blame on Trump and nationalists. And ensure people don;t pout the blame where it belongs — on the banksters and their globalsit puppets.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sears Canada Announces Bankruptcy; Fires 2,900

Update: Sears Canada was authorized to obtain financing of C$450 million. The bankrupt company said it would close 20 full-line locations plus 15 Sears Home stores, 10 Sears Outlets and 14 Sears Hometown locations; it would also cut 2,900 positions across retail network, corporate head office in Toronto.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

It’s official — the US ‘retail apocalypse’ has moved north as Sears Canada (and some of its subsidiaries) have applied to Ontario Superior Court of Justice for protection under the companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), in order to continue to restructure its business.

Sales at Sears Canada have fallen sharply since it was spun off from its equally-troubled US-based parent in 2012; the slump coincides with a broader shift in consumer preferences away from brick and mortar retailers and toward e-commerce.

This shouldn;t come as a surprise to anyone, in an admission last week, Sears Canada said it has “significant doubt” that it can continue to operate for much longer. Meanwhile, its American counterpart announced that it would lay off 400 employees as part of an initiative to produce $1.25 billion in savings after admitting back in March that the future of its business is also in serious jeopardy, as Fortune reported.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Retail Sector Saga Continues With Nike Announcing Shocking News of Laying Off 1400 Employees

Nike has come up with a shocking news for its employees. It has said it will cut its global workforce by 2 percent in a broad restructuring, a move seen as a reflection of the company’s somewhat weakened competitive position and a sagging retail sector. Nike had 70,000 employees at the end of last year, so the announcement would work out to about 1,400 jobs altogether. Its unclear how many of those positions will be eliminated in Oregon.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“Operation Broken Heart III” — — 238 Arrested in Sweep of Suspected Child Sex Predators

A monk from Riverside and an Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California, officials said Monday.

Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, “Operation Broken Heart III” targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Among those arrested during sweeps in April and May were entertainers, community leaders, white-collar professionals and clergy members, said John Reynolds, acting special agent in charge for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

“The incidence of child sexual exploitation has reached staggering proportions,” he said at a news conference.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

30 GOP Congressman Have Been Attacked, Threatened

(FREE BEACON) — A total of 30 Republican members of Congress have either been attacked or revealed that they were the victim of a death threat since the beginning of May.

May 8: Wendi Wright, 35, was arrested after stalking Rep. David Kustoff (Tenn.) and trying to run him off the road. After pulling over, Wright “ began to scream and strike the windows on Kustoff’s car and even reached inside the vehicle.”

May 9: Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett needed heavy security at a town hall after receiving a series of death threats in May that police “deemed to be credible and real.”

“This is how we’re going to kill your wife,” one message said. Others detailed how they would kill his children, and even his dog.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Airman Convicted of Federal Crime for Being 6 Minutes Late

(Star-Ledger) At the end of the week, Mario Manago, 33, will be out of the Air Force after 12 years.

But he’s not just out of a job — he’s now convicted of a federal crime.

His offense? Being six minutes late to a meeting.

Manago, of Willingboro, was convicted at court-martial March 9 of failing to go to his “appointed place of duty.” He was late to a meeting he requested with his commander to discuss his concerns that he was being treated unfairly by his supervisors at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, according to him and his attorney.

“When he said I was guilty, it didn’t hit me until after I sat down and thought about it,” Manago said earlier this month. He realized he was now convicted of a federal crime “for being six minutes late to a meeting I requested, that was about wrongdoing. Something is wrong.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Americans Could be Subjected to Mandatory Facial Recognition Scans

Just when you thought air travel couldn’t get any more invasive, authoritarian and downright miserable, the Department of Homeland Security and two U.S. carriers are determined to prove you wrong.

Yesterday, Harrison Rudolph, a law fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, wrote a very troubling article at Slate titled, DHS Is Starting to Scan Americans’ Faces Before They Get on International Flights. Here’s some of what we learned:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cities Across the Country Are Using Street Lights Equipped With Microphones and Surveillance Cameras to Spy on Everyone

According to an article in the Mercury News, the City of San Jose, California is letting anyCOMM install 300-1,000 street lights equipped with surveillance cameras and microphones on their streets.

“The council ultimately voted 7-4 to allow anyCOMM, a tech company with offices in El Dorado Hills, Gold River and San Jose, to install “nodes” which could have video and audio recording capabilities on 300 to 1,000 streetlights. The “pilot program” — as proposed by Mayor Sam Liccardo — would run for a year and only in pre-agreed upon areas.”

The article goes on to say, that Siemens and anyCOMM will be paid over $34 million to install LED surveillance street lights across the city.

Four months ago, I warned everyone that smart street lights and smart cities were being run by a CIA signature school in New Mexico.

“On November 10th, 2016, CIA Director James O. Brennan met with ten NSSP scholars following his announcement that UNM is to be designated the first IC-CAE Signature School.”

Albuquerque Business First said, “the program will deepen cooperation between the CIA and UNM…”

Earlier this year, Reuters revealed that GE, Intel and AT&T were working together to install spying street lights.

“General Electric will put cameras, microphones and sensors on 3,200 street lights in San Diego this year, marking the first large-scale use of “smart city” tools GE says can help monitor traffic and pinpoint crime.” Los Angeles claims street lights are only listening to traffic Sadly, the story of spying streetlights is being played out across the country and no one seems to be noticing.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Desperate Globalists Launch New Climate Group With Former Obama Energy Secretary

Former Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (shown) announced the formation of a new organization on energy and climate change at a National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker news conference June 21. It is called the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), and Moniz will be serving as its president and CEO.

Do we really need still another lobbying group to join the global warming hysteria choir? Apparently so, even though there are already thousands of organizations to promote the claim that anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming, or AGW, threatens the existence of life on Earth. These government agencies, UN agencies, NGOs, universities, laboratories, and think tanks suck up hundreds of billions of dollars annually from taxpayers and tax-exempt foundations, and then insist that we cough up even more, so that they can conduct more “research” and run more computer models that will convince us we need to let them save us, by giving them carte blanche to run the planet — and our lives.

However, Americans have been catching on to the fact that the climate alarmists have been stupendously wrong on virtually every one of their dire predictions. And they are learning that, in spite of the incessant media propaganda and scaremongering headlines about a steadily heating planet, Earth’s global surface temperatures have been on pause — no measurable increase — for the past 20 years!

Candidate Trump’s pledge to reverse President Obama’s unconstitutional commitment to the UN’s Paris Agreement (which came with a planet-crushing price tag) likely contributed to Trump’s victory at the polls last November. But with trillions of dollars in carbon taxes and carbon credits at stake — not to mention previously undreamt of power to remake society — the AGW alarmists are doubling down.

[Comment: Recommended reading. Climate scam is the globlaist tool to take down western countries economically, loot them, profit from them (green tech that is pathetic at producing eneragy industrial nations need), all at the same time.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

It Wasn’t Just the NSA: Germany Spied on the White House for Years

Germany reacted with outrage when information leaked Snowden revealed in 2013 that US agents were carrying out widespread tapping worldwide, including of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. Ironically, Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany where state spying on citizens was rampant, declared repeatedly that “spying among friends is not on” while acknowledging Germany’s reliance on the US in security matters.

But to the great embarrassment of Germany, it later emerged that the BND helped the NSA spy on European allies. Berlin last June approved new measures, including greater oversight, to rein in the BND following the scandal.

In other words, spying was, is and will remain business as usual in a world where information is commoditized, and espionage is more valuable than ever. Of course, with the US relationship with Europe in general, and Germany in particular in a very sensitive position, we doubt this report will get much airplay in the popular US press.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Johnny Depp: ‘When Was the Last Time an Actor Assassinated a President?’

International movie superstar Johnny Depp may be in hot water over comments he made about President Donald Trump.

When Depp, star of such films as Black Mass and The Rum Diary, introduced a film on Thursday at “Cinemageddon,” a film stage at England’s famous Glastonbury Festival, he turned his attention across the Atlantic to the current occupant of the White House.

According to the Daily Telegraph, he told the crowd, “I think [Donald] Trump needs help. There are a lot of dark places he could go.”

He then added, “I’m not insinuating anything — by the way, this will be in the press and it will be horrible — but when was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”

Depp then added, “I want to clarify, I am not an actor. I lie for a living. However, it has been a while, and maybe it is time.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Man Stabbed in Neck Area on Grand Ave.; Police Searching for Suspect

Syracuse Police are investigating a stabbing that happened on Grand Avenue Friday morning.

Police say they responded to the 200 block of Grand Avenue at 10:14 a.m. There they met with a 34-year-old man who had suffered a stab wound to his neck area.

The victim was taken to Upstate University Hospital in serious condition, but police say his injury is not believed to be life-threatening.

Police say the suspect was described as a black man in his 30’s, 5’ 11” tall wit ha large build, possibly wearing red shorts.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Meat Allergies Triggered by Tick, And They’re Spreading

(WIRED) — First comes the unscratchable itching, and the angry blossoming of hives. Then stomach cramping, and-for the unluckiest few-difficulty breathing, passing out, and even death. In the last decade and a half, thousands of previously protein-loving Americans have developed a dangerous allergy to meat. And they all have one thing in common: the lone star tick.

Red meat, you might be surprised to know, isn’t totally sugar-free. It contains a few protein-linked saccharides, including one called galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, or alpha-gal, for short. More and more people are learning this the hard way, when they suddenly develop a life-threatening allergy to that pesky sugar molecule after a tick bite.

Yep, one bite from the lone star tick-which gets its name from the Texas-shaped splash of white on its back-is enough to reprogram your immune system to forever reject even the smallest nibble of perfectly crisped bacon. For years, physicians and researchers only reported the allergy in places the lone star tick calls home, namely the southeastern United States. But recently it’s started to spread. The newest hot spots? Duluth, Minnesota, Hanover, New Hampshire, and the eastern tip of Long Island, where at least 100 cases have been reported in the last year. Scientists are racing to trace its spread, to understand if the lone star tick is expanding into new territories, or if other species of ticks are now causing the allergy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Nebraska Dem Official Ousted for Saying He’s Wished Rep. Scalise Dead

The Nebraska Democratic Party ousted an official Thursday after a recording surfaced of him saying he wished House Majority Whip Steve Scalise had died in the Alexandria, Virginia, shooting that left him critically wounded.

Phil Montag, a volunteer co-chairman of the party’s technology committee, unloaded a series of expletives in describing his disdain for Rep. Scalise, who is still recovering from an attempted assassination of Republican members of Congress at a June 14 baseball practice.

“This motherf—-r, his whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to f—ing kick people off f—ing health care. I hate this motherf—-r,” Mr. Montag said in the audio recording.

“I’m glad he got shot,” he added. “I wish he was f—ing dead.”

Mr. Montag made the comments during a private meeting with the party’s Black Caucus chairwoman, Chelsey Gentry-Tipton, who is also under fire for making light of the shooting.

In Wednesday’s recording, a friend of Ms. Gentry-Tipton, Destin Madison, informed Mr. Montag that he had been recording the conversation and planned to go public with it.

Mr. Montag later told the Omaha World-Herald that the recording had been edited to take his words out of context.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Progressives Moving in on Conservative States in Droves

Liberals from California and smaller blue states are exerting their influence on the electoral process in red states, determined to flip them to blue, and, by and large, are succeeding with the exception of the most recent election in Georgia’s 6th district where Democrats spent over $23 million, the most in the history of the House of Representative elections ever.

I’m still scratching my head trying to understand the insanity of 144,000 low information Americans from Georgia who voted for the Democrat candidate Jon Ossoff, a French President Macron look-alike, even though he did not reside in their district and did not have much of a platform. No amount of cash, air time, dishonest claims, speeches, and other shenanigans Hollywood and progressives around the country engaged in, convinced the rest of the well-informed Georgia voters to elect Jon Ossoff.

[Comment: Economically help to destroy the Sate they’re in, then move to a better economic State and try to implement the same insane policies that cause their home State to suffer economically. ]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Robert Mueller is Stacking the Deck With Clinton Donors for Russia Investigation

Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of investigating the extent of Russia’s intervention into U.S. elections — and whether President Donald Trump had anything to do with it, as Democrats allege — has now hired yet another far-left, Hillary Clinton donor to his team of investigators.

Robert Mueller is supposed to be unbiased — but his team of investigators sure do give a lot of money to Democrats, including to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

In fact, Mueller’s team of investigators are pretty much heavy on the Democratic donor lists — light on the Republican donor side.

Here’s more, from the Daily Caller:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Robert Mueller Adopts Stalinist Tactics

We may be thankful to Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School, for reminding us of the delicious irony of an investigation which began with “reports” of collusion with the Russians by Team Trump and charges of Russian hacking of our elections, now reverting to the tactics of Russia’s most murderous tyrant, Josef Stalin. As Dershowitz writes in the Washington Examiner:

Special counsel Robert Mueller was commissioned to investigate not only crime but the entire Russian “matter.” That is an ominous development that endangers the civil liberties of all Americans.

Federal prosecutors generally begin by identifying specific crimes that may have been committed — in this case, violation of federal statutes. But no one has yet identified the specific statute or statutes that constrain Mueller’s investigation of the Russian matter. It is not a violation of any federal law for a campaign to have collaborated with a foreign government to help elect their candidate…

One does not have to go back to the Soviet Union and Lavrentiy Beria’s infamous boast to Stalin, “Show me the man and I will show you the crime,” in order to be concerned about the expansion of elastic criminal statutes. There are enough examples of abuse in our own history.

From McCarthyism to the failed prosecutions of Sen. Ted Stevens, Rep. Thomas DeLay, Gov. Rick Perry and others, we have seen vague criminal statutes stretched in an effort to criminalize political differences.

Indeed, now we here reports that Mueller’s investigation will range anywhere from Jared Kutchner’s finances to perhaps any unpaid parking tickets Sean Spicer may have. To paraphrase the boast of head of Stalin’s secret police, show Mueller the man, and he will find a crime, just as Mueller’s best friend, James Comey, found with Martha Stewart.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sex Offender Allegedly Raped 7-Year-Old Six Weeks After His Release From Prison for Another Rape

A registered sex offender who was released from prison six weeks ago is back in jail after he allegedly broke into a stranger’s Kansas apartment and raped a seven-year-old girl.

Police charged Corbin Breitenbach, 23, with attempted capital murder, aggravated burglary, and aggravated criminal sodomy, WUSA reported.

Breitenbach asked the judge during his first court appearance about his bond amount. After the judge had responded that it would be $1 million, Breitenbach shook his head.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Breitenbach served a five-year, eight-month-long prison sentence starting in 2012 for raping and choking a 22-year-old woman.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Third Fast & Furious Report Shows Pattern of Obstruction

Obama administration allowed guns to fall into the hands of criminals * Justice Department lied about it just to further their anti-gun agenda

The third report on the House Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal strongly suggests that the Department of Justice under then-Attorney General Eric Holder engaged in obstruction of Congress, the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“We took our time examining the 262-page report,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and we are appalled. It has taken six years since hearings were held in 2011 on that Obama administration scandal for this report to be released, and what this document shows is a pattern of deliberate stonewalling by an administration that claimed to be the most transparent in history.

“The report notes how Holder withheld thousands of documents and reached out to President Barack Obama to provide cover with executive privilege,” he continued. “It took two years before a federal judge ordered the DOJ to produce some of those documents, and by then, public interest had waned, almost as if by design.

“Fast and Furious,” Gottlieb observed, “had all the earmarks of a rogue operation that was best described by one federal agent as ‘the perfect storm of idiocy.’ The most disappointing thing of all is that nobody in any government agency was ever held accountable. While some people retired or resigned their positions or were reassigned, and Holder was held in contempt of Congress, that just doesn’t seem like enough.

“Information was withheld from Congress,” he added, “and from the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The report even acknowledges that officials closest to the operation thwarted efforts to provide complete and accurate responses to congressional inquiries. Who does that unless they have something to hide?

“If anything,” Gottlieb concluded, “this report is a disturbing look at how government operated under Barack Obama and how the Obama-Holder Justice Department tried to keep Congress and the public in the dark about a scandal of monumental proportions. The Obama administration allowed guns to fall into the hands of criminals, and then the Justice Department lied about it just to further their anti-gun agenda.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Quebec Now More Creditworthy Than Ontario

Standard & Poor’s decision to boost Quebec’s credit rating last week has an important symbolic consequence for neighbouring Ontario. The move, which raised Quebec’s credit rating from A+ to AA-, means that for the first time ever, Quebec’s credit rating ranks higher than Ontario’s.

For decades, Quebec held a dubious reputation for poor fiscal management, while until the early 1990s Ontario held a reputation for successful fiscal management. So again, the recent upgrade of Quebec’s credit rating — above that held by Ontario — is a remarkable development.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Back in Your Box, Newbie! Raging Row Breaks Out Between Macron and Hungary at EU Summit

THE EUROPEAN Union’s ‘solidarity summit’ over Brexit was marred in spectacular style this morning as a blazing row broke out between the leaders of France and Hungary.

Budapest’s firebrand chief Viktor Orban brought the veneer of EU unity crashing down to earth as he tore into his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and accused him of being naive about how Europe works.

In an excoriating attack the right-wing populist said 39-year-old Mr Macron would “soon get to know his way around” Brussels and said his debut appearance at an EU summit had “not been too encouraging”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

German Authorities Raid Homes of 36 for Social Media ‘Hate Speech’

The Federal Criminal Police Office said police across the country searched homes of suspects, questioned them and took unspecified “further measures” early Tuesday. There was no word of any arrests.

The so-called “day of action against hate postings” followed a similar exercise last year. The police office said most of the postings targeted Tuesday had a far-right motivation, but authorities also targeted a suspected anti-government extremist, two far-left suspects and one case where the victim’s sexual orientation was attacked.

In April, the Cabinet approved a bill to punish social networking sites if they fail to swiftly remove illegal content such as hate speech. Parliament has yet to approve it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

It’s the Anniversary of Britain’s Independence Day — But Brexit Has Barely Left the Starting Blocks

One year on from the public’s historic vote to Leave the European Union, negotiations have only just begun and MPs are still arguing over whether to actually go ahead with Brexit.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK Man Sentenced to 20 Months for Anti-Muslim Posts on Facebook

“This man used Facebook to express his hatred for muslims & has gone to prison”

Nigel Pelham of Sussex, England, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison after being found guilty on “eight counts of publishing threatening written material intending to stir up religious hatred against Muslims,” according to the Sussex police.

Hate Crimes Sergeant Peter Allen said, “Nigel Pelham used Facebook to express some truly offensive views, with no understanding of how serious his actions were. Many people see social media as a harmless and sometimes faceless place to air their opinions, however I hope this shows we will not tolerate this type of behaviour and will act when someone reports their concern about what someone is posting.”

[Comment: Jail time!? Seems overboard…]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK ‘Wants Way Out’ For Julian Assange After Five Years at Embassy

JULIAN Assange moved one step closer to freedom with the UK now “looking for a way out” for the controversial Wikileaks founder.

The whistleblower has spent five years holed up in London’s Ecuadorian embassy after originally moving in to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape charges.

These charges have since been dropped but Julian Assange still fears he will be seized if he leaves the embassy and taken to America to face punishment for releasing secret information.

British police have refused to confirm whether they received an extradition request from America.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Five More Men Arrested as Part of Rotherham Sex Abuse Investigation

Five more men have been arrested as part of a huge investigation into historical child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

The National Crime Agency said three of the men, aged 32, 36 and 37, were arrested in Sheffield and Rotherham on Wednesday on suspicion of indecent assault and conspiracy to rape three girls under the age of 16 between 1998 and 2003.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: School’s Apology for Telling Pupils to Write Suicide Note

Parents are furious after pupils at the 1,700-pupil Thomas Tallis School in Kidbrooke, south east London, were asked to write suicide notes in an English class after studying Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Zeman to Leave Politics if Not Re-Elected Czech President

Prague, June 22 (CTK) — Czech President Milos Zeman, 72, will leave politics if he loses the direct presidential election to be held next year, he said, answering a question from the audience at the Zofin Forum on the Czech National Interest today.

He said he would “definitely” not stay in politics if he lost the election. He said he would read books in a rocking chair in his countryside house.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Israel, American Jewry and Trump’s GOP

Earlier this month Norway, Denmark and Switzerland did something surprising.

Norway announced that it was demanding the return of its money from the Palestinian Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Secretariat, for the latter’s funding of a Palestinian women’s group that built a youth center near Nablus named for PLO mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi.

Denmark followed, announcing it was cutting off all funding to the group.

And last week, the Swiss parliament passed a resolution directing the government to amend Swiss law to block funding of NGOs “involved in racist, antisemitic or hate incitement actions.”

For years, the Israeli government has been urging these and other European governments to stop funding such groups, to no avail. What explains their abrupt change of heart?

In two words: Donald Trump.

For years, the Obama administration quietly encouraged the Europeans to fund these groups and to ratchet up their anti-Israel positions. Doing so, the former administration believed, would coerce Israel to make concessions to the PLO.

But now, Trump and his advisers are delivering the opposite message. And, as the actions by Denmark, Norway and Switzerland show, the new message is beginning to be received.

If the US administration keeps moving forward on this trajectory, it can do far more than suspend funding for one terrorism-supporting Palestinian NGO. It can shut down the entire BDS industry before Trump finishes his current term in office…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Sniper Killed ISIS Jihadi From Two Miles Away

A sniper has earned a place in military history by killing an Islamic State jihadi from more than two miles away.

The elite Canadian soldier took out the fanatic from a high-rise building during an operation in Iraq last month, it emerged yesterday.

He was so far away that the bullet took almost ten seconds to reach its target. A military source said the shot was taken during an IS attack on Iraqi forces.

The soldier was 2.1 miles, or 11,614ft, away from the jihadi, beating the previous British-held record of 1.5 miles.

The sniper, who cannot be named for security reasons, is part of Canada’s Special Forces, assisting Iraqi forces in the war against IS.

‘The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh attack on Iraqi security forces,’ a military source told Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper. The source added: ‘Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force — and because it was so far away, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening.’

The source described the difficulty of the shot, explaining that the sniper had to account for wind, ballistics and even the Earth’s curvature.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Watch: Turkish Man Attacks Woman for ‘Wearing Shorts During Ramadan’

Authorities in Istanbul briefly detained a man who attacked a female university student for “wearing shorts” during the ongoing Islamic holy month of Ramadan, claiming he had been “provoked” by the woman.

The incident, which took place in broad daylight while people stood by, was captured on a video that has gone viral.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ramadan: Roza, Iftar, Indonesia and India

Govts in India or the Judiciary must not join or favour any Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid-ul-Adha celebrations as these are against non-Muslims and humanity.

Upananda Brahmachari | HENB | Haridwar | June 22, 2017:: It is said that Justice should be equal for all. If it is right, Indian Jails must be almost free now from Muslim accused, under trails and convicts in this Ramadan.

As Madras High Court yesterday exempted+ a Tamil Nadu Muslim leader, sentenced to a year in jail in FCRA violation case, from surrendering till June 29 to serve the term on the ground that he was keeping ‘Ramzan’ fast, this justice must be conferred to other Muslims fasting during Ramadan in Indian jails.

Justice N Sathish Kumar exempted Tamil Nadu Munnetra Kazhagam state president M H Jawahirulla from surrendering before jail authorities after a lower court sentenced him and four others to one year imprisonment for violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulations) Act,(FCRA) 1976.

Jawahirulla had moved the high court challenging his conviction and sentence in the FCRA breach case. The judge posted his plea for further hearing on June 29 after granting him the relief for the Ramzan (Ramadan) period.

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

‘A Clash is Inevitable’: Australian Leader of Islamist Extremist Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Says There Will be a War With and Compares the West to a Prisoner Who Won’t Reform

An Islamist extremist group the Australian government is refusing to ban has declared there will be a war between Islam and the West. Hizb-ut Tahrir leader Wassim Doureihi made the call.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Move to an Arab Dictatorship’: Angry Immigrant Senator Calls for Muslim Activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied to Leave Australia — After She Claimed Our Democracy Didn’t Represent Her ‘Because She’s Black and a Woman’

A senator is so incensed with controversial Muslim youth activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied that he wants her to move to an Arab dictatorship, following her Canberra remarks on democracy.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Terrorist Who Plotted to Behead a Police Officer on ANZAC Day and Radicalised Teenager Who Tried to Make a Bomb at Home Have Four Years Added to Their ‘Lenient’ Jail Sentences

A Melbourne terrorist and teenager who planned on making a bomb to be detonated on Mother’s Day have four years added to their jail sentences because the initial time was too lenient.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Our Streets Have Become Symbols of Fear’: Sadness in Melbourne as the City Wakes Up to Find Ugly Concrete Bollards Lining the Streets to Stop Terrorists Ramming Civilians

New concrete bollards have been installed in central Melbourne. The 140 concrete blocks were placed on busy streets overnight, five months after a car allegedly plowed into crowds.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

1.4 Million Illegals Work Under Stolen Social Security Numbers

(Washington Times) Most illegal immigrants who pay taxes have stolen someone else’s legal identity, and the IRS doesn’t do a very good job of letting those American citizens and legal immigrants know they’re being impersonated, the tax agency’s inspector general said in a new report released Thursday.

The theft creates major problems for the American citizens and legal foreign workers whose identities are stolen, and who have to deal with explaining money they never earned.

But the IRS only manages to identify half of the potentially 1.4 million people likely affected by the fraud in 2015, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in its report.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Tries Paying Migrants to Leave. The Results Are Mixed.

Austria hasn’t been a nation which has been particularly welcoming to the flood of largely Muslim refugees and migrants who have been streaming into Europe. A couple of years ago when the crisis was really kicking into high gear (thanks to ISIS for the most part), Austrians responded in droves by purchasing every shotgun for sale in the country. Earlier this year, faced with camps full of people who had failed to qualify for refugee status, the government moved to give them a bit stronger hint by refusing to provide any food to them. Then, when the EU was setting up “mandatory” quotas for migrants to be accepted by member nations, Austria told them that they weren’t interested in participating.

But even for all of those efforts, Austria still has a fair number of migrants camped out on their turf. In a rather unusual bit of strategy, they tried something new. The government offered to pay them cash if they would pack up and leave. Some took them up on the offer, but thus far the numbers have been far lower than what the government would have liked to see.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

European Union Admits Massive Rise of Illegal Migrants, But Not Refugees

European Union officials, including EU Council President Donald Tusk, have admitted most of the migrants coming from Africa into Italy are not legitimate refugees or asylum seekers, but illegal migrants.

Mr. Tusk wrote a letter earlier this week to the various heads of state in the political bloc saying that illegal migration had gone up 26 per cent in Italy compared to last year. Tusk said the current EU policy was “not enough” and that the Mediterranean route needed to be controlled proposing the EU support the Libyan coastguard, Salzburger Nachrichten reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

IRS Fails to Notify Americans Whose Social Security Number Are Used by Illegal Aliens

A report issued on June 22 by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) stated that IRS processes are not sufficient to identify all employment identity theft victims. Many of these identify thefts result from illegal aliens stealing other taxpayers’ Social Security numbers.

However, the IRS said that federal law prevents it from notifying taxpayers whose identities were stolen, and that, furthermore, its job is to collect taxes, not enforce immigration laws.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Refugee Reality: Germany Admits 75% Face Long-Term Unemployment and Life on Benefits

THREE quarters of Germany’s refugees will be long-term unemployed and claiming benefits for years, it was admitted today.

Aydan Özoguz, commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration, told the Financial Times that only a quarter to a third of the newcomers would enter the labour market over the next five years, and “for many others we will need up to 10”.

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) found only 45 per cent of Syrian refugees in Germany have a school-leaving certificate and 23 per cent a college degree.

Statistics from the Federal Labour Agency show the employment rate among refugees stands at just 17 per cent.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

“Feminists” Say: The Solution to White Supremacy is White Abortion

In a progressive society, it is often white families that stand in the way of equality and justice. Systemic white supremacy depends, first and foremost, on the white family unit. When white conquerors forcefully penetrated the indigenous, egalitarian homeland of the Native peoples of America, they were quick to replicate their white societies, initiating their parasitism by establishing white plantations, headed by white fathers, submissive white mothers, and, most critically, white children, with full dominion over the enslaved and oppressed people of color that were forced to uphold these micro-fiefdoms.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

California Attacks Texas With Travel Ban Over Alleged LGBT Discrimination

The California Attorney General added Texas to the State’s travel ban over the passage of a new law allowing child welfare organizations to deny services and adoptions based upon religious beliefs. The California AG claims Texas, along with Alabama, Kentucky, and South Dakota, have recently passed laws “that are discriminatory toward sexual orientation and gender identification.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

California Court Dismisses Charges Against David Daleiden, Who Exposed Planned Parenthood

Judge Christopher Hite of the San Francisco Superior Court on June 21 dismissed 14 of 15 criminal counts filed against Center for Medical Progress (CMP) founder David Daleiden and his associate Sandra Merritt by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra back on March 28.

Becerra alleged that Daleiden and Merritt had invaded the privacy of staff personnel at Planned Parenthood by filming undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from the abortion provider. He said in a statement released with the charges:

The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society. We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations.

Hite ruled that counts 1-14 — pertaining to 14 separate interviews that Daleiden and Merritt conducted — were legally insufficient. However, the court dismissed the charges with “leave to amend,” which means Becerra could present new or more specific evidence and simply refile his accusations.

The court will still consider the remaining 15th charge, against Merritt alone, for conspiring to invade privacy.

In a statement to LifeNews, attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, representing Merritt, said, “This is a huge victory to have 14 criminal counts dismissed.”

“We will now turn our attention to dismissing the final count. Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. The complaint by the California Attorney General is unprecedented and frankly will threaten every journalist who provides valuable information to the public. This final count will also fall,” said Staver.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Consumers Remain in the Dark About Potential Risks of New GMO Techniques

It is hard to detect these unintended effects, scientists say

The changes we make to the DNA of plants, animals, and humans can be passed on ad infinitum, fundamentally altering the flora and fauna of the Earth. The use of genetic modification on food crops and in medicine also raises questions about health risks.

As the technology used for genetic modification evolves rapidly, so does the conversation on acceptable risk. New techniques, broadly known as “gene editing,” are poised to take hold of America’s food and agricultural industry. About 5 percent of U.S. canola on the market is already made using these techniques. And scientists in China, the United Kingdom, and Sweden are testing them on human embryos, something never done with the older techniques.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

George Soros on His Open Society

There is something to sympathise with when it comes to George Soros’ position on what he calls “the open society”. However, judging him by his political deeds, there are many reasons to be sceptical. Therefore, in loyalty to the ad hominem fallacy, can his words can stand despite his deeds? Having said that, many of his words (though taken at different times) are also self-contradictory.

Soros’s understanding of Karl Popper — from whom he got the idea of an open society — seems to be broadly correct in its largely unspecified and vague details. (As primarily expressed in Popper’s well-known book The Open Society and its Enemies.) It is that Popperian vision which people can have some sympathy with; not Soros’s own ill-defined take on it.

Here’s George Soros on the — or his — open society. He says:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How Close Are We to Successfully Cloning the First Human?

Human cloning may endure as one of the go-to science fiction tropes, but in reality we may be much closer to achieving it than our fictional heroes might imply. At least in terms of the science required. On of the most prominent hurdles facing us may have less to do with the process and more to do with its potential consequences, and our collective struggle to reconcile the ethics involved. That being said, while science has come a long way in the last century when it comes to cloning a menagerie of animals, cloning humans and other primates has actually proven to be incredibly difficult. While we might not be on the brink of cloning entire human beings, we’re already capable of cloning human cells — the question is, should we be?

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

10 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/23/2017

  1. ~snip~
    An Islamist extremist group the Australian government is refusing to ban has declared there will be a war between Islam and the West.

    LOL, that’s a good one. This war has been underway. The problem is that the West refuses to acknowledge it. Meanwhile, we are “still looking for a motive” on these daily attacks.

  2. On Macron and Orban accusing him of being naive: But naivety would be the least of Macron’s rise to the French Presidency, courtesy of course from the Globalists, specifically his most instructive tutor, Lord Victor Rothschild and his megalomania inherited from such a long line of [ please insert expletives here] whose money in other more charitable hands, could have cured the worlds ills several times over.

    There are no words within the English language that can adequately describe the inhumanity, greed, and insatiable lust for power of such people and those they buy to do their bidding.

  3. AP: Big cases, retirement rumors as Supreme Court nears finish
    Another Supreme Court justice pick would be icing on the cake given the rapid increase in migration being demanded on the EU continent…

    Recall this quote from a report from the ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America):

    “The American mosque is a remarkably young institution: over three-fourths *76% of all existing mosques were established since 1980.”

    Since 1980. . .so why choose the set point 1980? Puzzle pieces may begin to fall into place when considering the following incident and resolution:

    1979′s Seige of Mecca”, via book by Yaroslav Trofimov

    “On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morning—the first of a new Muslim century—hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam’s holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times. Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. “

    Further discussion:
    PBS Frontline: “House of Saud” documentary discusses the deal made by the Saudi King to retain control over Mecca and Medina after the Siege of Mecca in 1979 as told in this leading Arab photo magazine spread for Majalla, The End of Jihad (2009), 30 Years After the Siege of Mecca.
    *****
    With the recent announcement of the switch of heir to Saudi throne from the elder son to the youngest son – it’s not a surprise that old grievances arise …
    Reuters: Bomber planning to attack Mecca’s Grand Mosque blows himself up: ministry
    ****
    AND…it’s also clear why the invasion is well underway in Europe…
    German Security Authorities: 6.6 Million North African “Migrants” Are Waiting To Enter Europe From

  4. 75% of refugees to be on welfare forever, basically, in Germany. Tell me again, Merkel, how “We can do this!”

  5. If Trump is unable to “advance” his agenda, he simply “retweets.” Wight you wascally democwats?

    • Funny. And the left offers “Wesistance”. As in, us vs. them.

  6. …the German government acknowledged that 75% of the “refugees” will end up permanently on welfare benefits.

    This isn’t just a frank admission of abject failure, it is a declaration of outright financial (if not cultural) war on indigenous Germans.

    To expect that a native population should meekly accept how some million or more non-assimilating, sexually violent, and criminally-inclined newcomers will be given an ultimate free ride on the dime of hard-working taxpayers goes beyond mere insult and into the realm of treasonous betrayal of all that generations of post-WWII Germans have worked for.

    The bureaucratic elite (including its entire willkommenskultur crowd), with their smug attitude of, “It’s for your own good!”, may face a rather ugly wake up call.

    The only unpredictable aspect is upon which side an emerging (Teutonic) Robespierre will land. There can be no doubt that a (non-Islamic) reign-of-terror is coming. It will be something that, in traditional European style, dwarfs the puny efforts of recent Muslim invaders.

    All which remains to be seen is whether—in an outrageous usurpation of civil rights—this “cleansing” will be directed against a restive indigenous population or used to sweep away the newly arrived legions of jihadists and their fellow travelers (of all ilks).

    Either way, this latest news about how, “75% of the “refugees” will end up permanently on welfare benefits”, guarantees that the process will be neither pretty nor sedate.

  7. Re: 75% of illegals on permanent benefits

    That prospect is scary enough.

    What is truly scary are all the brainwashed/mentally-ill inhabitants of the West that genuinely believe government tax income versus government spending on handouts for these parasites is of no relevance.

    These people honestly believe there is limitless money to fund full benefits for everyone that is not a citizen.

    This level of innumeracy and illogic will be the undoing of the West.

    The other issue is that these people do not understand that handouts simply create dependency, and that people have ZERO appreciation for things they don’t earn via their own efforts.

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