Sunday, July 9, 2023

2024?

 Robert F. Kennedy's right-wing campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination is not speaking to me.  I am looking at Marianne Williamson.


Here is a video I enjoyed.



I will add that I can vote for President Joe Biden.  While he is not perfect, he is far better than any Republican or the drama of Cornel West.

This could be the last presidential election I vote in and I am concerned about my grandchildren.  Mr. Biden, as president, has done much that would make me feel safe about voting for him.


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:


Friday, July 7, 2023.  The hate merchants demonstrate that hate is all around,  MEDMIA MATTERS documents RFK Junior's reliance on the hate merchants, MTG gets kicked out of one hate group, Caitlyn Jenner leaves another -- hate, the right-wing is soaking in it, as Madge from Palmolive might say.


Who is Salwan Momika?

A better focus than the government of Sweden.  Or for Iraqi rage, a better focus.  Salwan Momika is an Iraqi who has sought refuge in Iraq.  FMT reports:

The Iraqi prosecutor general’s office has sent an arrest warrant to the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) for Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi-born refugee in Sweden, who burned a Quran in Sweden’s capital Stockholm in late June, Sputnik quoted Iraqi broadcaster Al Sumaria’s report Thursday, citing the country’s Supreme Judicial Council.

The council’s statement said that the prosecutor’s office has sent an information sheet and a special arrest warrant for Momika and requested Interpol to notify Baghdad should he be arrested.

 
Cult leader and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returned to 'political life' as he organized pretests against . . . Sweden.  Sweden did not burn a holy book but Moqtada needed a hobby and masturbation doesn't provide him the umph it used to so this is what he went with.  And he then tried to enrage all of Iraq over Sweden.  Thought his small cult continued to turn out for rage-fests, the rest of Iraq largely ignored it.

But if you were going to take offense, it was never the country of Sweden you should have taken offense to.  It was one of your own, Momika, that burned the holy book.  

Oh, look, here's an idiot.



Death sentence?  You truly are an idiot, Mansuri, and a hateful one at that.  Also Monika doesn't have "the face of a dog."  He's rather photogenic.


Salwan Momika: I have a message to every Muslim and every Islamic clergy calling for me to be killed and to those street protesters: Why did I not hear you shouting like this when the Yazidi women [in Iraq] were taken like war bounty sex slaves?  Or when their children, young men and elderly got killed in front of your eyes?  Why did you not protest aggressively the way you are doing now?  Why did you not protest the same way you protested against me burning the Quran?  All I did was reject this book that endorses hate, reject others and terrorism. Yes, I will say it again, this is a book of terrorism.  It should be banned. And I will work to get it banned in compliance with Swedish law. Therefore you have proven today what I said about the Quran is true because today one million people have called for my murder just because I expressed my opinion about the Quran and stated that the Quran is a book of terrorism.  All I wanted to do, dear Muslims, is wake you from your slumber because you have been deceived.  You are victims of Islam before Yazidis, Christians and atheists become your victims -- [and] Jews and Sabeans.  We are all victims.  That is why I do not have anything against you.  The difference is that I don't have anything against you personally.  My problem is with the ideas -- theology.  The difference is that I fight the ideas but you fight the person of Salwan Momika and you call for the killing of Salwan Momika.  I will continue my journey and I am not afraid of you. 


The rage against Sweden was a political ploy used to increase the profile of certain struggling politicians and to distract from the rot in Iraq's government.  


The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, called on the Swedish government to hand over the person who burned a copy of the Quran in Stockholm to the Iraqi government to appear before an Iraqi court.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry mentioned in a statement that Hussein received a phone call last Friday from his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billstrom, where they discussed the repercussions of the incident.

 
The book may matter to you but it's not a crime to burn it.  I'm opposed to all book burnings and bannings.  But there are no international laws against book banning.  And the Iraqi government knows this but they're trying to distract and they know Interpol from previous engagements.  They were able to make a vice president of Iraq appear guilty to the gullible (and deceitful) US press by filing with them before.  This is no different.  Nothing will come of this.  

As for their efforts to get Sweden to turn him over to Iraq?  He's in Sweden as a refugee.  Any country that turned a refugee back over to its country of origin in a matter like this would be a joke on the world stage.
 
While everyone's talking about this -- and really gabbing about the non-story that we noted at the top of yesterday's snapshot -- is anyone paying attention to the governmental reordering that's taking place?  Suadad al-Salhy (MIDDLE EAST EYE) reports:

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has announced a major shakeup of the country’s security and intelligence services, appointing an influential spymaster ostracised by his predecessor as the head of national security.

Officials in Baghdad told Middle East Eye that the changes unveiled on Wednesday were intended to consolidate Sudani’s grip on power and to exclude a number of officials and employees suspected of involvement in corruption under the previous government.

One of the main – and most prominent - beneficiaries of the reshuffle is Abdul Karim Abd Fadhil, also known as Abu Ali al-Basri, who was named by Sudani to lead the Iraqi National Security Service (INSS).

Basri replaces Hamid al-Shatri, who was appointed by Sudani’s predecessor as prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi.


And dig deep into the report and you'll find this:

Another senior appointee, Ali Shamran Khazal, the new director general of the INSS’s Governorates Security Department, is seen as an ally of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, sources said.

[. . .]

Security officials told MEE that most of the appointees were chosen on the basis of "partisan quotas".

"Some of those assigned are qualified and have been promoted. This cannot be denied, but the selection of all was subject to political quotas," a senior INSS official told MEE.

“Most of the appointees are either close to Maliki, Halbousi, or the prime minister. No one in Iraq is named to occupy these positions solely for his competence or for career progression.”


But instead of focusing on that, the hate merchants -- hatriots -- scapegoat and rage to distract the American people.  And, no, defending those being scapegoated is never a distraction, it's a required stance in any functioning democracy.







Hate merchants like Marjorie Taylor Greene need to be confronted -- you need to stand up to them and to their hate.  Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other conservatives are falsely claiming that a recent mass shooter was transgender. Like Greene, the shooter supported gun rights and former President Donald Trump.

On the evening of Monday, July 3, a shooter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killed five people. The gunman also shot two boys and injured two others who survived. Police arrested a 40-year-old male suspect named Kimbrady Carriker and charged him with murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, and weapons charges.

[. . .]

In a statement condemning right-wing claims about the suspect’s gender identity, Asa Khalif of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s LGBTQIA advisory committee said Carricker identified only as male.

“The language that is spewed out by the conservative press is violent and is dangerous and is targeting trans women of color,” Khalif said, according to The Daily Beast. “It’s rallying the community to be violent and we’re better than that.”

Khalif noted that trans women and men “are the most vulnerable to violence,” adding, “They want to live their lives and they have every right to do so, and we will not allow conservative bigots to use that type of language to attack trans people. This is about someone who used violence to hurt and harm our city and our community, and I’m sure they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law but we will not allow trans women, and particularly trans women of color, to be the scapegoats of bigots.”

However, right-wing figures like Greene and other conservative media outlets have repeatedly claimed that trans people are dangerous. Shortly after a late March school shooting by a possibly trans individual, Greene blamed the shooting on hormone medications that the shooter may have been taking. However, there’s no indication that the shooter was actually taking hormones, that such medications contribute to violent behavior, or that the shooter’s gender identity in any way motivated their behavior.

In late March, Greene claimed that a trans-affiliated “antifa” group in Washington, D.C. was organizing a violent protest event called the “Trans Day of Vengeance.” There was no public evidence that anti-fascist activists were in any way involved in the event. The event’s organizer said the event’s name was merely a play on the Trans Day of Visibility, the day upon which the subsequently-cancelled protest was scheduled to occur.

At the time, Greene wrote, “A day after a mass murder of children by a trans shooter? The people need to know about the threat they face from Antifa & trans-terrorism!!!”

In April, Greene’s colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) said that affirming trans people’s identities will lead to school shootings. She said that being transgender and learning about societal oppression “radicalize” students and make them mentally ill, causing them to shoot up schools.

For the hatriots, there's never enough hate.  Which is why, see Elaine's "Marjorie gets kicked out and learns about it from the press," Marjorie just got kicked out of her fanatic caucus -- and, as Elaine points out, learned of her expulsion from the press reports.  

A drive-by e-mail from a hatriot wants to explain that Andrew Tate is right about transgender people.  I'm sorry?  Andrew Tate.  Isn't that one of Glenneth Greenwald's buddies?  And didn't he just get arrested for human trafficking?  Don't invite me to that party, I won't show.  But you can pass your e-mail along to Katie Halper.  A human trafficker?  She platforms registered sex offenders like Scott Ritter.  A stupid [your swear of choice] like that should love a human trafficker -- she and Aaron Matty can probably do two weeks giggling and playing footsie with Andrew Tate.

But those of us with standards?  We'll take a pass on the supposed insights of a hate merchant.

Hate merchants don't have insights -- they just incite violent behavior.  Curtis Brodner (AUDACY) reports:

A man threw hot coffee on another man at a Port Washington Starbucks while shouting an anti-gay slur on Saturday, according to the Port Washington Police Department.

The victim is a member of the LGBTQ community, and police are investigating the attack as a hate crime. 



NEWSDAY says residents are shocked by the anti-LGBTQ+ violence.  It is shocking and it's also true that it steps forward when people don't call the hate out.  Various individuals -- including Glenneth Greenwald -- have stoked hate against the LGBTQ+ community.  We are seeing the effects of that hate.

We have to stand up to this and we have to call out. Shaanth Kodialam (SACRAMENTO BEE) reports:


Bonita A. experienced a flood of emotions as she headed back from a walk to her front porch: anger, worry, confusion and frustration. The East Sacramento resident, who requested her full name be withheld due to fear for her safety, was one of many in the city who who found flyers with anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic messaging on her doorstop. Packaged in plastic sandwich bags with gravel and other material as weights, authorities and residents found them in multiple Sacramento neighborhoods and other California cities in mid-June. Some employed the phrase “White Lives Matter,” while others featured a conspiracy demonizing LGBTQ+ people and Jews, specifically targeting those who hold both identities.
 “It totally messes with my sense of justice,” Bonita A. said. She soon alerted her fellow neighbors to the incident, and now wants to support anti-hate activities in her own neighborhood, recognizing that it’s also on folks like her who aren’t Jewish or LGBTQ to speak out. “When you’re the one being targeted ... it must be scarier for them.” “I do want to show the support, I want to show them they’re not alone, and that they have more than just their own community supporting,” she said.



Ads from major companies that claim to support LGBTQ rights are appearing on Rumble videos that spread extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, including on videos that spew anti-LGBTQ slurs and on one that alleges that the LGBTQ movement’s “end game is to sterilize humanity.” 

Rumble is an extreme right-wing video-sharing platform that is backed by various high-profile right-wing figures and dominated by QAnon content. Marketing itself as a defender of “free speech”, the platform has big ambitions to compete with a range of other tech companies and provide the infrastructure to make figures that have been banned elsewhere “immune” from so-called “cancel culture.” Rumble has also partnered with the Republican National Committee to host the official livestream for the first Republican presidential primary debate on August 23.

The platform technically has a policy against “Content or material that is grossly offensive to the online community, including but not limited to, racism, anti-semitism and hatred” — but it doesn’t mention anything specifically about sexuality- or gender identity-based hate speech, and has previously failed to elaborate on its evidently limited enforcement practices. Rumble also has a documented history of profiting from homophobic, white nationalist, and antisemitic content on its site. In March, Netflix pulled advertisements from the website after Media Matters reported that they were appearing alongside videos espousing Holocaust denial.

This Pride Month, Media Matters identified ads from over 50 major companies that appeared alongside Rumble videos that spread extreme anti-LGBTQ hate. These companies include:

1-800 Flowers, ABC Mouse, Aleve, Alibaba, Allianz, Amazon, Ancestry, Apartments.com, Aussie, Capital One, Chevrolet, Crate&Barrel, CVS, Dave’s Killer Bread, eBay, Fiverr, Fortnite, Genesis, GoDaddy, Grainger, GrubHub, Intel, LG, Maybelline, Mazda, McDonalds, National University, Norton, Office Depot, PBS Kids, PlutoTV, Pods Moving & Storage, Ruggable, Salomon, Shopify, SimpliSafe, Spinbrush, Street Fighter 6, Target, Tempur-pedic, Temu, Toyota, Trint, UNICEF, Uniqlo, UPS, Viator, Welch Allyn, Western Union, and Wyndham.

Despite this, several of these companies, including Capital One, Maybelline, eBay, Uniqlo, UPS, and Amazon, have celebrated Pride Month on social media — seemingly expressing support for the LGBTQ community.


My money doesn't support hate.  I won't be using the above.  I may even bring a lawsuit agaisnt eBay which is offering for sale various autographed photos of me -- photos I didn't autograph, it's not even a good fake of my signature.  As the signee -- the supposed signee -- the one whose name is being used to sell this fake merchandise, I believe I have standing in court to sue eBay.  Let's see if I calm down as the morning goes on or tell my attorney to send eBay a cease-and-desist letter.


My money doesn't support hate or hate merchants.  Brandon Hovek (DELAWARE NEWS JOURNAL) reports:


Oddity Bar has received fervent backlash after a doorman used an anti-gay slur in an argument with customers during a concert by Delaware metal acts ABYDOS, Bastion's Wake and Candlewax. A short video clip from the June 23 show posted on Facebook by ABYDOS bassist Zach Schroeder shows an argument ongoing about moshing. ABYDOS had stopped performing.

"Then don't invite metal bands to play," one man is heard saying before the doorman says, "F----t."

A woman immediately responds, "Whoa. You can't use that slur. Hold on, hold on. Using that slur is not OK."

Hernandez, who has owned Oddity Bar for the past year with his brother Manny, was nearby as the doorman said the slur. Members of the bands and patrons have criticized Hernandez for a lack of an immediate response.

"[Hernandez] seemed very indifferent towards everything and was not apologetic at all. He just kind of took the doorman's side the whole time," Candlewax bassist and vocalist Josh Deckman said. "I literally told him, 'Look at me: I have nail polish on and I'm flamboyant. As a member of the [queer] community, what am I supposed to think? That I'm not welcome here.' They were dismissive of that."


Let's turn to the illegitimate Supreme Court. For an overview, here's Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) recapping:

In another setback for equal rights, the Supreme Court also ruled Friday in favor of a Christian Colorado web designer who refused to create websites for same-sex couples even though the state bans such discrimination. The justices were again divided 6 to 3 along ideological lines. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissent that the decision was “heartbreaking” and a “reactionary exclusion.”

Following Friday’s rulings, California Congressmember Ro Khanna and other Democrats reintroduced a bill imposing 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices and giving presidents two appointments during a White House term. President Biden last week said the current Supreme Court is “not a normal court,” but rejected calls to expand it. We’ll have more on the latest Supreme Court rulings later in the broadcast.




The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to allow a homophobic website designer to discriminate against gay couples because it violated her faith was hardly a surprise. The conservative majority on the Court has made it loud and clear that its role is to fulfill the fantasies of the right. It may draw the line at some of the wilder dreams, like the idea that legislatures can overturn popular votes, but on core beliefs it has been extraordinarily consistent. The decision last year to overturn five decades of precedent allowing abortion removed any doubt.

Still, the decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis is shocking for its unalloyed willingness to discount LGBTQ+ protections and even mock the Court’s minority’s vigorous defense of them. In his majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch has picked up some of Justice Samuel Alito’s sneer as he chastises fellow Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the author of the dissent, for engaging in “an unfortunate tendency by some to defend First Amendment values only when they find the speaker’s message sympathetic.”

While the full impact of the decision will take a while to unfold, some things are already clear. Here are five takeaways from the decision.

This was always going to be the outcome. The right wing of the Court has been looking for an excuse to elevate the rights of conservative Christians at the expense of LGBTQ+ people for a while. This case was the perfect vehicle. So what that Lorie Smith, the owner of the firm in question, never made a wedding website in her life. So what if no one actually asked her to make one. So what if the case included a fake request from someone who turned out to be a straight man. None of that mattered.

A normal Court would not be ruling in the case of someone who is asking hypothetical questions. Smith hasn’t suffered any harm, a basic threshold for seeking redress. Instead, this Court plowed ahead because it has been heading in this direction for years. From its ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, granting a corporation the right to withhold contraception access in employee health care plans because the owners are Christian, to its rulings allowing a public school football coach to pray on the field and allowing anti-gay Christian schools to get public funds, the Court has been elevating the rights of conservative Christians. The most recent ruling is just the logical, if reprehensible, next step in that progression. 



The Supreme Court’s decision represents a huge setback for equal protections for LGBTQ people and our rights across the nation.

Although the precise question presented before the Supreme Court was whether a website designer would be required to prepare a wedding website for a hypothetical LGBTQ couple despite her religious objections to same-sex marriage, the impacts of this decision will reverberate throughout the American economy as businesses may feel emboldened to more freely discriminate against LGBTQ people on the basis of the private religious beliefs of their owners or employees.

In other words, the impacts will extend to more than just wedding websites.

To LGBTQ Pennsylvanians, the latest ruling may feel like simply an extension of the recent backlash we’ve been experiencing.

In Pennsylvania, we have seen campaigns against transgender kids come to our local school boards, most prominently in Bucks County, where some districts have launched a crusade against all things LGBTQ-related. Whether banning Pride flags in classrooms, removing books containing LGBTQ content from school libraries, or censoring teachers for acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ people, opponents of equality have recently found new life in the commonwealth and will certainly be invigorated with new ideas spurred by this Supreme Court.



Meanwhile the hate merchants turn on one another.  We see it with MTG's expulsion and we see it in reaction to Ron DeSantis' homoerotic but anti-LGBTQ+ ad.  Ari Drennen breaks it down in this Tweet.



She is so right and it is really hard to feel sympathy for Caitlyn Jenner who may very well be the dumbest woman alive today (unless Casey DeSantis holds that title).  Chelsea Steiner (THE MARY SUE) notes:

As Ron DeSantis fumbles his way toward the Republican nomination for president, he’s made headlines for his inability to resemble a human being while running for office. And after pissing off white women and displaying less charisma than Jeb(!) Bush, DeSantis has alienated yet another potential group of voters: LGBTQ Republicans. Thanks to his bizarre homophobic campaign ad, the Florida governor now finds himself at odds with the Log Cabin Republicans, New York Rep. George Santos, and even Caitlyn Jenner.

Of course, it’s absurd that these Republicans were considering supporting DeSantis in the first place, given his deeply homophobic and transphobic track record. But that rarely stops gay Republicans from voting against their own self-interest. I mean, you have to be aggressively homophobic to turn off these voters. After all, they’re fine with Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, but they draw the line at supercuts of Patrick Bateman, GigaChad, and drag queens!



LGBTQ Republicans say they feel misled by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) after the GOP presidential hopeful’s “war room” shared a bizarre video widely seen as inflammatory.

The video bashed former President Donald Trump’s (R) support for the LGBTQ community and leaned into conservative state policies passed under DeSantis this year that were criticized as anti-LGBTQ.

LGBTQ conservatives, reacting to the video, said DeSantis had shown his true colors as an “anti-LGBT champion,” undermining his arguments that his support for the policies were about protecting children and parents’ rights.

“It’s like he’s going mask off,” said Brad Polumbo, a Michigan-based libertarian journalist. “The cat’s out of the bag.”

Polumbo said he’d have considered voting for DeSantis at one time.

“I’m somebody who has my fair share of policy disagreements with DeSantis, but I was considering voting for him in the primary before he entered the race officially,” he said. “Since then, he’s done thing after thing that really makes me increasingly write off that possibility.”


Surprise, surprise, you weren't really welcomed by the haters.  David Brock made that mistake in the 90s.  MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA is one way he tries to help others avoid making the same mistake he did.

That said, I beg to differ with this paragraph:


While Trump’s first run for president featured what seemed like signs of a thaw in the right-wing war on LGBTQ equality, his time in office was marked by policies that enabled discrimination against queer and trans people. The Trump administration banned trans people from serving in the military, advanced an interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would allow employers to fire people for being gay, and at one point threatened to define “transgender” out of existence.


A Fordham class reunion at the White House didn't see the occupant welcoming a trans woman.  No, kids, that was Bully Boy Bush and his Yale class reunion at the White House.



Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his organization Children's Health Defense are fans and promoters of James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that “Hitler was a Rothschild” and “Hitler and the Nazis were one hundred percent completely and utterly set up … by the international banking community and the international crony capitalists.” 

Kennedy has thanked Corbett for his supposedly “extraordinary work for keeping the public informed,” and Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group has featured Corbett in numerous videos and at a recent symposium. 

Trump and several associates have been praising Kennedy’s presidential campaign, with longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone stating that the Democrat’s candidacy will help “soften Joe Biden up for his defeat by Donald Trump.” Right-wing media figures, including former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have also been propping up his candidacy. 

Kennedy’s connections to Corbett add to a growing list of the Democratic presidential candidate’s right-wing media associations, including but not limited to:

Corbett is a fringe online host whose website describes him as providing “breaking news and important issues from 9/11 Truth and false flag terror to the Big Brother police state, eugenics, geopolitics, the central banking fraud and more.” In a 2009 interview, Corbett said he was inspired to become a media figure in large part by the work of 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. 


Junior's destroying his own campaign with all the heavy petting he's been doing with these hate merchants.  Expect John Stauber's head to explode this morning as he rants about George Soros while attacking MM for their Junior report and bemoaning the fate of his MTG and the implosion of the group Caitlyn has just left -- a group that John Stauber approves of and has been promoting for months -- again, Rebecca called it months ago "john stauber is the 21st century david horowitz."

Again, the hate merchants need to be called out.



While Katie Halper has yet again made nice this week with convicted pedophile Scott Ritter, actual leftists on YOUTUBE have tackled real issues -- that's Olay above, that's THE VANGUARD, that's Kyle, that's Sam Seder and THE MAJORITY REPORT, Nina Turner, that's a lot of programs.  It's only Katie Halper that sticks her head in the sand and prefers to platform and promote convicted pedophiles.  


I thought that was the wind down, but something on two of my favorite people, two friends, was just drawn to my attention:


Grammy Winning Singer-Songwriter and Style Icon Jody Watley welcomes the fabulous Vanessa Williams as a guest to “The Jody Watley Show,” on SiriusXM’s The Groove, Channel 50 for Episode 5.

Tune in on July 9th and catch the Vanessa Williams interview on The Jody Watley Show. 3 P.M. PST, 6 P.M. EST.

Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in the entertainment industry today. 

[. . .]

Jody Watley, an iconic figure in her own right, is excited to welcome VanessaWilliams to “The Jody Watley Show” and engage in an enlightening conversation about Vanessa’s illustrious career and enduring impact on the entertainment industry.

The Jody Watley Show, a 2-hour monthly show airs every second Sunday exclusively on SiriusXM’s The Groove at 6 PM (EST) / 3 PM (PST) and on the SiriusXM app on smartphones and other connected devices, as well as online.

SiriusXM reaches nearly 34 million subscribers monthly.

The Jody Watley Show is packed with the best of classic to contemporary R&B music and engaging conversations with surprise guests.

Watley is a celebrated singer, songwriter, producer, businesswoman, and one of the architects of 21st century pop, affectionately referred to as “The Queen of Cool.’

Renowned as one of the defining artists of the 80s with an influence on style, music and pop culture, Jody Watley forged the template that is now everybody’s playbook.


I will be listening, I hope you will be as well.


The following sites updated:

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