On a more important note:

 

There was a monumental, historical step taken yesterday in the People's House. There were sooooo many issues involved that we could do three hundred blogs (not that we could not find three hundred blogs on the subject over this calendar year) on the two thousand pages of legislation. And each blog could take a different angle.

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Representative Shadegg:

 

I wish this was my granddaughter," Shadegg said. "This is Maddie. Maddie believes in freedom. Maddie likes America because we have freedom here. And Maddie believes in patient choice health care. She asked to come here today to say she doesn't want the government to take over health care. She wants to keep her plan."

The chamber was either a bit freaked out or slightly humored. It was difficult to say.

"Mr. Speaker that was a remarkable child and a great ventriloquist," responded Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/house-health-care-vote-br_n_349468.html&cp

Shortly thereafter, Representative John Boner brought his raccoon up to the dais:

 

Mr. Speaker, this is somebody's grandson; not my grandson. But this raccoon, sure as I am standing here today in the never ending fight for truth, justice and the American way,  had a mother and a father. The  raccoon's parents had their own parents. And, therefore, this raccoon is somebody's grandson.

 

Now political correctness will not allow me to refer to these critters as 'coons' anymore, but suffice it to say that they are really not the masked bandits as they were once portrayed. I will just refer to him as Rush, the magic raccoon.

 

Now Rush was born free in the forest. Rush was free from government interference and you can see that ole Rush is healthy, as healthy as a raccoon can ever be. Rush is free to see any vet his heart desires.

 

Of course he has to work hard and save up enough acorns--oops wrong word in this context--enough eggs to feed himself and his family.  But Rush is free to visit that vet of choice and they can work out the details of payment. It is up to them. Not you or me or the govement.

 

I am so sick of all of this I could puke. Rush knows that he has to keep up his health, he cannot get too fat, he is not allowed to be come lazy. He cannot feign 'mental' debilitation.

 

Rush here is THE TRUE AMERICAN.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

I watched CSPAN this morning. A caller quoted some repub as saying that the Health Care Bill throws the baby out with the bathwater.

 

Shaking, the caller noted that he was one of the 47 million uninsured in this country and that he did not like to be referred to

 

AS BATHWATER.

Theseus and the Minotaur on 6th-century black-figure pottery F.decorate(_ge('photo_notes'),

History Channel has gone Greek today. Not in the sense of Gay Spartans, but from an ancient religious perspective.

You might recall that King Minos ruled Crete, the great island of the Mediterranean that kind of served as a mediator between ancient Egypt culture and the culture of ancient Greece.  We are talking about twelve or thirteen hundred BCE when we discuss these myths or religious mysteries.

Minos had Daedalus, the chief architect of the age, to build a great maze; a very confusing place much like our current Office of Management and Budget. And the mighty king put a Minotaur inside of the maze in order to eat people and wreck havoc and commit other unsavory acts. Theseus, the great Greek hero finds himself in the maze. His purpose is to slay the monster that is half human and half bull, kind of like what you might see on World Wrestling Tonight.

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Frank awoke. Where...oh god the hospital again.  Fear almost paralyzed him but he could move his fingers and toes. It was just a dream; a dream of previous torture.

He looked around, recognized his situation, and began to rise.

But I cannot rise, he thought. He was chained to the bed.

Reminds me of an overnight I had in Bangkok. Hahahahah.

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Max Blumenthall has me laughing today.

In the wake of defeat, some of Hoffman's enthusiastic backers attempted to spin his loss as a heroic moral victory. They included Erick Erickson, a popular blogger at the heavily trafficked right-wing blog, RedState.com. "This is a huge win for conservatives," Erickson declared. "...we did exactly what we set out to do - crush the establishment backed GOP candidate."

Besides Erickson, only Democrats seemed to be celebrating the news. "A Democrat close to the administration could only say: 'Holy f---ing sh--!' over and over when I called for comment [about Owens' victory]," reported Elizabeth Benjamin of the New York Daily News.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-04/how-the-rights-point-man-went-down/2/

Yesterday's elections had little to do with me. Two gubernatorial elections in NJ and Virginia; and the repubs just trounced the dems.

But there were two congressional seats that were there for the taking and the Dems won.

I have never seen so many close, close elections go to Dems over a three year period. Ever. I mean it is like they cannot lose.

After the 2006 elections, the most fun I had had in decades of election nites, the dems won some off year elections in the House.

Genghis sees cycles in these elections. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/genghis/2009/11/whats-the-matter-with-new-york.php

Remarkable, really.  We just do not get breaks like this. That seat in NYS has been repub for over a hundred years or something. And only 100,000 showed up to vote. And the lib repub took enough votes to give the victory to the Dems to say nothing of the repub's last minute support for the Dem.

Palin and teabaggers all supported a conservative party candidate. So it is fun to see them lose. And Overreachthis noted the nice fight this morning between O'Donnell and Steele from TPM'S Video site.

Oh, every time there is a good fight on Morning Joe, you can tell the level of frustration by Joe Scarborough by his laugh. The louder the laugh, the more upset the conservative repub actually is.

And we get two more votes for health care and that vote might come by Friday or Saturday in the House.

Jim Webb won the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Virginia Senate race by defeating Harris Miller in the primary, then won the general election by defeating the Republican incumbent George Allen. Webb's thin margin in the general election (less than 0.5%) kept the outcome uncertain for nearly two days after polls closed on November 7, 2006, and provided the final seat that tilted the Senate to Democratic control.

Al Franken beat Coleman (A man I surely despise as I have stated countless times and I love taking the opportunity to state my dislike whenever I can which is why I am wasting your time right now) by 312 votes and eight months of litigation.

On June 6, 2006, Jon Tester won the Democratic primary by a margin of over 25 points, much larger than expected given the previous polling. Burns easily won the Republican primary. On election day, Tester received 198,302 votes versus 195,455 for Burns. Tester was declared the winner on Nov. 8, 2006.[9][10] His victory, along with that of Jim Webb in Virginia, was one of the two closest and last decided Senate races in the 2006 midterms, which saw the Democrats regain control of the Senate.

So go ahead and spin that you goddamn repubs. Hahahaha

Or as Matt Damon put it in Good Will Hunting:

You like apples?

I mean do you like apples?

WELL HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?

I think the dems have accomplished some very important things over the last three years. For one thing, they stopped George W. Bush in his tracks, making the last two years of his administration useless as far as breaks for the rich, that is.

There has been important legislation that has already been signed sealed and delivered to the American people. SCHIPS, stimulus, and other help has been enacted.

Health insurance reform is coming. Hell a vote could be had in the House this week.

Yeah we are stuck in two wars.

Yeah we are stuck in a recession/depression.

But how would things be going if the repubs were in control?

Things could be worse.

Right now I feel like celebrating.

If nothing else, a lot of repubs are hurting, real bad, even if they do not wish to admit it.

Well here is a new one. I watched Rush Limbaugh during his soft ball interview with baby boy Wallace and heard him accuse our President of being a man-child:

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The room was white; white as a new blanket of South Dakota snow; before the car tracks, before the animal tracks and before the other inevitable pollution by nature or man.  Virgin is the appropriate word here.

And it was padded; the cell that is. But some shadows remain

Sitting alone, without so much as a pencil or a shoe lace, Algie contemplated his fate. What was he doing here?

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I just caught something at the Baltimore Sun. It is kind of a rehash of Rush Limbaugh by two of the reporters from Mediamatters.com. But it is short and hilarious.

The point of the article is that Rush is going to judge the 2010 Miss America Pageant.  After my diatribe against the late Grace Kelly, I just cannot pass up a chance to discuss the intersection of pageant fluff, women's rights and rush.

Some months ago I was laughing because rush was crying on the radio, whining on the radio, and complaining on the radio that women do not seem to like him. Hahahaa

Here is part of the article;

This is the man who famously declared that his cat has "taught" him "more about women than anything my whole life" because his cat is "smart enough to know she can't feed herself" and gets "loved," "adoration," "petted," and "fed," without having "to do anything for it." He has speculated that women "would love to be hired as eye candy" and has claimed that "[w]omen still live longer than men because their lives are easier."

Mr. Limbaugh frequently laments the "chickification" of society, particularly in government and the media. In his world, female media figures (some of whom are former Miss America Pageant winners) are "infobabes" or "anchorettes"; female professors are "professorettes"; the cable network MSNBC is dubbed "PMS- NBC," and female Cabinet secretaries find their title changed to "Sexretary."

He has shared with listeners his "pet name" for the National Organization for Women (NOW): "National Association of Gals" (his acronym: "NAG")....

On Pelosi he says: "Why, she can multitask. She can breastfeed, she can clip her toenails, she can direct the House."

Based on this abysmal record, it's hard to imagine what Miss America Pageant officials were thinking when they selected Mr. Limbaugh as a judge. © 2009, The Baltimore Sun  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.limbaugh30oct30,0,3655374.story

 

I find it hilarious because I think the two deserve each other. When I was a kid and heard that idiot singing:

There she goes, Miss America.....

It was time to go outside and skate, or ride my bike or go over to Dave's house and have a smoke. Those vacuous teenage girls spouting their hope for world peace....

And its not any better today. That fascist winner last year (ex winner I guess) with the boob job whom Trump finally fired, is regularly seen giving speeches at RNC functions.

What about a national Ms. Chemistry Pageant? Or a Ms. Pre-Med Pageant? Or a Ms. Applied Mathematics Pageant?

No friggin bathing suits allowed; unless there is a swimming competition of course.

Push rush up on the podium, that is what I say!!! The repubs are in charge of vacuous contests for vacuous broads anyway.

 

THEY DESERVE EACH OTHER.

In order to decide whether or not you are part of a community, part of a culture, part of a nation; you must examine your values. I mean if all those around you worship something that you despise, you are the odd man out.

I have decided that I am not a very good American. It has to do with my likes and dislikes. So I figure it is a genetic disorder. I must admit all my disagreements with American Culture. Supposedly, if we first admit our faults we may have an opportunity to take more steps in the healing process and I might become a good American after all.

 

GRACE KELLY

I despised Grace Kelly (Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco") when I was ten. Do you realize that The American Film Institute ranked her #13 amongst the Greatest Female Stars of All Time?

I would have no problems at all rating her one of the thirteen worst actresses I have ever seen on the screen. Her affectations in speech and in her walk did nothing for a young boy or an old slob like me. Phony, phony, phony. She died drunk driving an automobile.

She had grown up as the daughter of a millionaire in Philly, went to the finest schools while living in the finest neighborhoods. She did not apply herself in school and got theatrical parts due to the American love for Cinderella. And she was one of those two faced traitors who chose 'duel citizenship' when our country absolutely bans such things.

I remember watching High Noon and thinking...this is the dumbest movie I ever saw.

HIGH NOON

Plot: This stupid film is supposed to be number 27 on the 'all time list'. I mean, we are supposed to believe that a little 22 year old aristocratic cream puff just falls in love with a 51 year old alcoholic in some dirt town in what is supposed to become New Mexico. Just after the wedding, we find out that,  them liberal and corrupt politicians up north let loose some killer the sheriff had brung down a few years earlier.

And one by one the local citizens demur as Cooper begs for a posse to stop black bart or whatever the frick he is from comin to destroy the town. I have to admit that the last demurer gives the all time dumbest line ever given in a western; a line that would be repeated in thousands of films and TV Westerns:

But I have a wife and children Sheriff.

As if only gay caballeros can ever take up the challenge to rid this earth of Black Barts.

Even his own deputy demurs and sits in a bar getting drunk all day. Lloyd Bridges (whom I have always idolized) plays the spiteful coward who had somehow inherited Cooper's old lady friend. He is mad because he does not get to be the new sheriff in town after Cooper leaves. The showdown between Cooper and Black Bart's men is so badly shot that it  DEFIES credulity. I mean the film does not flow,

Rather, it continues in fits and starts, badly choreographed. And the stunt man for Cooper performs feats that no 51 year old alcoholic could achieve.

Needless to say, I never liked Cooper either. His aw shucks persona just pisses me off. I must admit, having sat through the film recently,  it was fun to see actors like Elam who would go on to appear in some of the greatest westerns ever made, like Once Upon a Time in The West.

 

JULIA ROBERTS

 

I just got through watching buttlips (the first buttlips that I can remember) in the Pelican Brief. Her feigning of fear and such is sooooooooooooooo aggravating; I suddenly remembered why I could never sit through the damn movie. I just cannot stand looking at this pretense of thespianism.

I have never hit a woman or a child in my life, but I swear to god almighty (blesses himself) I have the strongest urge to just slap her silly in this film if only to wake her up and challenge her affectations.

Just take a minute and think of someone like Susan Sarandon. She would not stand for some director telling her to curl up her 90 lb body in some chair wearing some oversized undershirt panting and sobbing and such.

The plot is terrible anyway. I mean I could see the conservative oligarchy plotting to kill some liberal Supreme Court Justices in order to solidify the fascist America in which we now reside, but one billionaire oil guy would never do this alone.

I mean I like pelicans and all, but we are facing the economic torture of millions of Americans everyday due to the fascists who sit on our present court together with our fascist legislators.  Instead of pelicans, why not choose asthmatic children as the victims of fascism; those who die in Emergency rooms all over this country every year.

 

JOHN WAYNE

 

I hate John Wayne and I do not think I need to lay out my reasons here. He was a bad actor, a bad husband, a bad father and a bad fascist repub.

 

JIMMY STEWART

 

I hate Jimmy Stewart. I mean I hate Rear Window, It's a Wonderful Life, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I despise all his films except for Harvey. Psychosis is charming to me in a way which may explain my unamericanism.

In the fifties he would wear a rug that I would not put on my dog and in his fifties he always had some 22 year old like Novak or Kelly fawning over him.

And compare his movies and his 'acting ability' to someone like Henry Fonda. Come on!!!!

He was a life long repub and fascist.

 

BOB HOPE

 

I hate Bob Hope. I hate Bob Hope's movies. Can you imagine, the idiot could not understand why he never received an Oscar nomination?

Patty cake patty cake baker's man.  Fine, five year olds might enjoy Hope/Crosby slap stick.

Oh I know, he would take half naked girls overseas and 'celebrate' our troops. But I just know he did it for the money. He died a billionaire when a billion dollars was a lot of money.

RONALD REAGAN

Bedtime for Bonzo.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwIOEN6XamA

Do not even get me started. I hope he and Wayne are stuck in some hell hole in hell; forced to watch their own movies.

So there you have it. Oh I idolized and still do idolize Douglas Fairbanks & Son, the Barrymores, Henry Fonda,  Errol Flynn, Carol Lumbard, Cary Grant (30's & 40's anyway), along with hundreds of others on the so called 'Silver Screen'.  But I was taught somewhere or other that if you can't stand Grace Kelly, Gary Cooper, Julia Roberts, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Bob Hope or Ronald Rayguns....well you just aint a real American.

 

p.s.:  I am out of sorts and cigs for twelve more hours, so please forgive my callousness today. And I pick a day where I will stay up 25 instead of 24 hours. Go figure.

Sean got to the Castle Bar with the full intent of making the shuttle a designated driver. The word was that Frank was awake, like nothing had happened. But they were keeping him in the hospital for observation.

He looked for his favorite table and there was Bernice from accounting with a pitcher and two mugs. She had not even taken a sip out of general courtesy along with the personal protocol never to drink alone.

Oh Bernice, you made it.

Hi Sean. We are all set. How is Frank?

Sean quickly grabbed a mug, which Bernice had filled, and drank it down like it was a canteen full of water and he was in the desert.

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On April 13, 1919 there was a massacre at a place known as the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in the northern Indian city of Amritsar. 

Thousands of people gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, on Baisakhi, both a harvest festival and the Sikh religious new year. There were speakers present to discuss a number of issues.

British Indian Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted for 10 to 15 minutes, until they ran out of ammunition.[1] Official British Raj sources placed the fatalities at 379, and with 1100 wounded.[2] Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties.[3]  For more see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_massacre

I was introduced to this modern day example of human sacrifice when I first saw the movie Gandhi.

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Sean got to work that morning early. More than an hour early; which was strange for the man who never wished to give more than one minute extra to the slave owners, as he mentally referred to them. It was late October which meant it was still dark. He immediately went to his computer to check something out.

Armadillos are small placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. The Dasypodidae are the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one".

There are approximately 10 extant genera and around 20 extant species of armadillo, some of which are distinguished by the number of bands on their armor. Their average length is about 75 centimeters (30 in), including tail; the Giant Armadillo grows up to 1.5 m (5 ft) and weighs 59 kg (130 lbs), while the Pink Fairy Armadillos are diminutive species with an overall length of 12-15 cm (4-5 in). All species are native to the Americas, where they inhabit a variety of environments.

In the United States, the sole resident armadillo is the Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), which is most common in the central southernmost states, particularly Texas. Their range is as far east as South Carolina and Florida and as far north as Nebraska; they have been consistently expanding their range over the last century due to a lack of natural predators and have been found as far north as Illinois and Indiana.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As Los Angeles housing advocates launched a campaign warning of mortgage rescue scams, a couple hit by foreclosure are charged with torturing two loan-modification agents they suspected of fraud, authorities said on Monday.

The couple, Daniel Weston and Mary Ann Parmelee, and three other people are accused of luring their two victims to an office where the men were tied up, held for hours and beaten, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney said.

Police were called after one of the victims managed to escape, said the spokeswoman, Shiara Davila-Morales. The incident occurred on Wednesday in the town of Glendale, just north of Los Angeles.

Weston, Parmelee and the three other defendants each were charged with two counts of torture, two counts of false imprisonment by violence and two counts of second-degree robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed against them.

Weston, 52, and Parmelee, 51, both arrested last week and jailed on $1 million bond, shared a house in the suburb of La Canada-Flintridge that is in foreclosure, authorities said.

"The two allegedly sought loan modification assistance from the victims but believed that nothing was being done and wanted their money back," a statement from the district attorney's office said.

Davila-Morales added that the couple, according to investigators, believed they had been swindled.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59Q03Q20091027

Weston and Parmelee held a press conference following their arrest that was only covered by  our ACTION NEWS TEAM:

At no time have we perpetrated torture. We were simply using enhanced interrogation techniques on members of a group of people who hate America and all it stands for. A group may I add, that threatens and has threatened the American Dream for tens of millions of people.

This year alone has produced almost two million forclosures in this country:

The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that a record 1 in 7.6 homeowners with a mortgage were either late making a payment or in foreclosure from April to June while delinquencies have expanded to prime loans.The trade group's quarterly National Delinquency Survey reviews 45 million loans that represent 80-85 percent of all outstanding first mortgages. It found that 9.24 percent of all mortgage holders were at least one month late making a payment and 4.3 percent of loans were in foreclosure.

"Florida continues to establish itself as the worst state in the union for mortgage performance, closely followed only by Nevada," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist at the trade association. In a sign that has troubled many economists, an increasing number of mortgage holders with prime loans - those provided to people with good credit who made down payments - were delinquent.

5.23 percent of prime fixed rate mortgages were delinquent making payments compared with 3.07 percent a year ago.   http://abcnews.go.com/Business/mortgage-delinquencies-foreclosures-surge/story?id=8373550

The amount of pain and suffering caused by members of the banking Jihad keeps mounting and it is time to fight back. Fight them here before they run away with their billions to some other country, snickering as they get away with their ill gotten gain.

The economic crisis started with home foreclosures, and the numbers are getting worse: 6,600 new foreclosures a day; one every 13 seconds. (See foreclosures in your state.) Washington needs to understand that helping homeowners is key to helping the entire economy.

To stop the downward spiral, policymakers must stop relying on voluntary actions by lenders. TARP funds should be used to reduce home losses and encourage more loan modifications. There's also another effective, tax-free way to stop foreclosures: Congress could allow homeowners to get loan modifications through the courts. http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/tools-resources/national-foreclosure-ticker.html?gclid=CL3j3u6V3p0CFRPyDAodXFK_OA

We have now been arrested on the charge of torture.

But in point of fact we abided by the standards for enhanced interrogation techniques as laid out by George W Bush, Dick Cheney and by his legal staff. As Mr. Bybee put it:

We further conclude that certain acts may be cruel, inhuman, or degrading, but still not produce pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to fall within Section 2340A's proscription against torture. We conclude by examining possible defenses that would negate any claim that certain interrogation methods violate the statute.  http://www.tomjoad.org/bybeememo.htm

Did we degrade this enemy of the people? Yes we did and we did it for the greater good.

Were we cruel to a member of the Banking Jihad who threatens this country? Yes we were and we were so for the greater good.

Were we inhumane to this felon who stole everything we have? Yes we were inhumane but not as inhumane as he and his like have been to us and to people like us.

But we did not produce the type of pain and suffering of the requisite intensity to make us torturers under present statutes.

The Banking Jihad must be confronted in this country.  It has produced more pain and suffering than any other terrorist group in the world.

Our Action News Team will follow this story closely and provide updates on these arrests as they are disclosed.

                                                   

Yesterday morning when I went out to feed the rabbits I noticed some blood on the straw in several places and also up the ramp to the feeder hutch. The blood seemed diluted, not bright red and thick and sticky but kind of like blood in urine, only too colorful for that. It was also on the three senior does, in a stream, almost as if they'd been peed on. I picked them each up and gave them a good look but didn't see anything amiss. I also checked out the senior buck, and he looked fine. The kits are hard to catch without a treat to distract them, so I just observed them all for a while. Everyone seemed fine.

It snowed all day yesterday. This morning there was lots of color on the snow in the rabbit colony. It's orange, though, not red. Clearly not blood. We can't figure out what it is. We didn't notice it when we fed the rabbits yesterday evening, because the snow was still falling and covering everything up. It isn't seeping up from the earth, because we dug down a bit and the snow gets white underneath. It isn't dripping from trees because it's in places incongruent with that theory. http://gardenplotter.com/rospo/blog/2007/01/mystery-in-rabbit-colony.html

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I found this little tid bit of comedy from theonion.com dated 2/01/06:

"Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion," Bush said.

The centerpiece of Bush's plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, and Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.

The Scandal Secretary will log all wiretaps and complaints of prisoner abuse, coordinate paid-propaganda efforts, eliminate redundant payoffs and bribes, oversee the appointment of unqualified political donors to head watchdog agencies, control all leaks and other high-level security breaches, and oversee the disappearance of Iraq reconstruction funds. He will also be responsible for issuing all official denials that laws have been broken.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44892

 

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