McCain and his Doc Brown DeLorean

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing



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I hate to keep on McCain and his intellectual gaffes, but the latest about the surge and the Awakening, brings up another thought. Even if McCain tells us he will pick good advisers, but if he can't keep his facts straight and if he can't use a computer, how in the world is he going to whip up the brainpower to pick knowledgeable advisers?

We have gone long enough with a great lack of intelligence in all facets of government, we can't afford more grade school governance.

In all seriousness, I wonder if McCain is exhibiting early signs of Alzheimer's disease? My Great-grandmother suffered from that and the first change I saw in her was a shifting of events in her life - she never seemed to be able to keep the order of events correct.

It makes you wonder what all McCain is hiding in his health records.

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Note to McCain: Obama can read

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You can read, I can read and I am pretty sure Obama can read. We can read all about the Iraq war, we can see it in video form.

McCain keeps pushing the meme that the surge worked. What he doesn't tell you about is the cease fire that the Sunnis and Shias put together last year. And he really doesn't want to tell you the Bush Administration or the US Government didn't have a thing to do with it. The clerics called a cease fire amongst themselves.

Just think of that for a minute. Here we have heaped tens of thousands of dead bodies onto the streets of Iraq, dumped trillions of dollars there and Bush could not control the city of Baghdad. But, ironically the Sunnis and Shias came together and stopped the shooting on their own with no help from us.

So what exactly is Obama going to learn? That is is damn hot? You can't walk down the street without an armed escort of about 100 Marines, snipers and hovering gunships?

Maybe McCain knows something we don't know? Maybe there is a very large secret that has been kept? Maybe Baghdad is full of purple unicorns and prancing forest creatures? If that is the case, how does that account for all the body bags coming back? You know, the ones that we cannot see.

So Obama is going to go to Baghdad and what do you think he will say? What will be the next slew of horseshit McCain will be shoveling when Obama comes back?

Remember, you don't need to go to the sewage treatment plant to know it stinks.

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My View of Mission Accomplished

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SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville.

I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?)

This is not a race between Darren and I, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America.

So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter.

candorcomment@sfchronicle.com

or

David Wiegand
Executive Datebook Editor
The San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

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If Only He Could've Served...

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No Retreat. No Talks. No Negotiations.

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4000

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Meanwhile, in Iraq...

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The Iraqi Border With Africa

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With all the news about the elections and the financial meltdown in the economy and the Strait of Hormuz propaganda and the million other things that get dumped on us, some things have gotten little or no coverage even though they are important news stories. Even Keith Olbermann has a segment on Countdown called "Bushed" - covering the numerous scandals in the Bush Administration that get glossed over.

There is one story that made little or no news here in America and that was the Turkish bombing of Iraq. This whole mess started with Bush, of course, and the Pentagon's lack of control of the Iraqi border. This has allowed Kurdish Guerrillas known as the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) to cross the border into Turkey and bomb populated areas.

Some in the tin foil crowd (they tend to be right on these things lately) think that our slack border security with Turkey is payback because Turkey did not allow US troops to enter Iraq from their border. Either way, the Turks are conducting strikes within Iraq and it seems the Bush Administration is allowing this to occur.

From December 24:

U.S. President George W. Bush promised Monday to continue helping Turkey fight separatist Kurdish rebels, after the third air attack in a week inside Iraq by the U.S.'s NATO ally, a Turkish official said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked with Bush by telephone Monday after Turkey's latest attack on rebel bases in northern Iraq and the two men agreed to continue sharing intelligence about the rebels, said an official from the prime minister's office who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said the leaders discussed the "importance of the United States, Turkey and Iraq working together to confront" the rebels.

I think it is obvious why the US is not mopping up the PKK. We have most of our troops sitting in Baghdad's Green Zone doing the surge thing, and even with heaps of Blackwater mercenaries, we still do not have enough troops to take care of the Kurdish rebels. I might add, there was a ceasefire of sorts until the US invaded Iraq - then it all went to Hell.

But nobody cares in our glossy MSM world. I am sure CBS has a package set to run tonight about a dog that can predict the outcome of the South Carolina primary.

Iraq is quickly sliding to a place with the US populace that is on the same level of Africa. You know Africa? It is right there beside Iraq.

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Open for Business

www.wiredscout.com

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Ron Paul, more of an anti-war leader than Pelosi!

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Ron Paul is the new Six Million Dollar Man:

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, raised an astounding $6 million and change Sunday, his campaign said, almost certainly guaranteeing he'll outraise his rivals for the Republican nomination in the fourth quarter and likely will be able to fund a presence in many of the states that vote Feb. 5.

Paul's campaign spokesman late Sunday announced the campaign had eclipsed the $5.7 million that John Kerry raised the day after he locked up the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination – arguably the largest single-day fundraising haul in U.S. political history.

Paul's single driving position behind the fundraising, including the November 5th, $4.2 million haul is his stance on the Iraq war and his rallying against the Bush civil liberty destruction machine. His supporters see themselves as true patriots and many of them are. Paul has the highest number of active military as donors than any other candidate. Go figure. Should we be surprised others in the GOP are fed up with BushCo and the war?

For instance, he said 24,940 new donors contributed during the Dec. 16 haul.

It was timed for the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a day meant to resonant with the Libertarian sensibilities of his supporters.

What is terminally sad is he is doing more to get us out of Iraq than Nancy Pelosi. The mind boggles.

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The True Statements of George W. Bush

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Any credibility left for Bush?

The intelligence community released the NIE on Iran to avoid the cherry picking that went on for the Iraq war. In other words, they didn't want anyone lying about it. A long sorry line of evidence exists showing BushCo has lied to the American people, our allies and the world constantly since he was appointed President. Just look at the whole debacle of the illegal wire-taps. At first, Bush claimed there were no wire-tapping going on, then we discovered an enormous amount of it. Then Bush claimed it was only for "terrorists" only later do we find the wire-tapping was for everyone - every man, woman and child. BushCo had initiated a huge vacuum cleaning operation to grab all digital communication traffic in the US. Remember when Bush claimed the wire-taps were in response to a "post 9-11 world?" Now it turns out the illegal wire-taps started BEFORE 9-11-2001.

Lie.

Lie.

Lie.

Lie.

Every word from the Bush Administration concerning wire-tapping has been a lie, including the explanations.

But illegal wire-tapping is not the only thing BushCo has lied about. The Bush lies include EVERYTHING dealing with Iraq. He lied about 9-11. He lied about the economy. He told whoppers about outed CIA agent Valarie Plame. Essentially he has lied about everything and I find it impossible to list it all. So I thought I would start with listing the things Bush has told the truth about. Here it is, in it's entirety...

1. "My name is George W. Bush."

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It is Happy Surge Day!

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Every so often, as appropriate, we list the recent fallen American soldiers that have died in Bush's war. From the list, we can see the surge didn't work.

Sgt. 1st Class John J. Tobiason, 42, of Bloomington, Minn., died Nov. 28 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from an incident that is currently under investigation. He was assigned to the 847th Adjutant General Battalion, 89th Regional Readiness Command, Wichita, Kan.

Cpl. Allen C. Roberts, 21, of Arcola, Ill., died Nov. 28 from a vehicle accident near Al Asad, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 214, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz.

Pvt. Isaac T. Cortes, 26, of Bronx, N.Y. died Nov. 27 in Amerli, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

Spc. Benjamin J. Garrison, 25, of Houston, Texas. died Nov. 27 in Amerli, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

Staff Sgt. Jonathon L. Martin, 33, of Bellevue, Ohio, died Nov. 22 in Regensburg, Germany, of wounds suffered on Nov. 9 in Jisr Naft, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Spc. Melvin L. Henley Jr., 26, of Jackson, Miss., died at Camp Striker in Baghdad on Nov. 21 of injuries suffered from non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Sgt. Alfred G. Paredez Jr., 32, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Nov. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero, 23, of Miami, Fla. died Nov. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol in Baquabah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Cpl. Jason T. Lee, 26, of Fruitport, Mich. died Nov. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol in Baquabah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Cpl. Christopher J. Nelson, 22, Rochester, Wash. died Nov. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol in Baquabah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

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At the Pottery Barn

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Why the troops will stay.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing



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We have heard it a million times, once the surge is successful, Bush tells us he will bring the troops home, "when the job is finished."

So why are they still there?

The Right Wing press has been suffering seizures over the lull in violence in Iraq, exclaiming how "liburls are hand-wringing" over "Bush's success." But why aren't they asking the NEXT question? (they never ask the next smart question) Why did the violence slow down?

There are a multitude of answers. The first being the fact that Moqtada al-Sadr's Madhi Army has declared a cease fire.

The recent "pact of honor" made by two of Iraq's most influential Shiite clerics, Moqtada al-Sadr and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim—aimed at preventing violence and helping to maintain the "Islamic and national interest" of Iraq—appears to signal a significant shift toward stability in Iraq.

The second reason violence is down is due to the fact that there is hardly anyone else left to ethnically cleanse. Much of the work of the Sunni/Shia Death Squads has been completed. The "unpure" Muslims were either executed or they have fled.

Fewer people to shoot at. Bush's war has created a silent disaster that is rarely reported on - the existence of over 5 million refugees, half of which have fled the nation entirely. There are over 1.2 million in Syria, there are 750,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, 100,000 in Egypt, 54,000 in Iran, 40,000 in Lebanon, 10,000 in Turkey and 200,000 in various Persian Gulf countries, according to the UNHCR.

So why are we still there? The answer is obvious, Iraq is not stable, it is far from stable and I doubt will be stable in the next decade. Why is it far from stable? Why will Bush keep troops there?

The cease fire from the Madhi Army is only for six months, it expires in January, 2008.

Refugees are returning home because they are out of money to support themselves and their families. Which means the ethnic cleansing is far from over once these "cleansed" neighborhoods begin to fill back up with the original inhabitants.

Oh yeah, they still have oil.

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What happened to Al Qaeda in Baghdad?

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Go read this full bore, 100% Bingo article by Kossack, Brandon Friedman. From the diary...

As U.S. casualties have continued to drop, many people on the anti-Bush side of the aisle have begun to quietly panic in recent days over this question: "Could George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan have possibly been right about the surge?"

Simply put, the answer is no. The surge is not working and George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan were not right. Despite what right-wing blogs are saying, and despite what conservative observers are noting, the plunge in violence is actually the result of an Iraqi political decision made by and implemented by Iraqis—and the drop has little to do with the "surge"—an infusion of 30,000 troops (which wouldn’t fill a Major League stadium) into Baghdad, a city of six million people.

What’s happening is really simple—and it’s happening in plain sight, in the traditional media. But it just so happens that, as far as I can tell, no one is connecting the dots.

As Friedman points out, The Madhi Army went into a state of cease fire and the violence greatly retracted.

Here is my question, where is Al Qaeda? We have been told for months about Al Qaeda being in Iraq and Bush Administration has been trumpeting Al Qaeda as a reason for extending the war in Iraq.

Following that line of questioning, where are the Iranian elements? You know, the Iranians that have flooded Baghdad over the years with the sole purposes to kill Americans? What happened to them?

Maybe the Iranians and Al Qaeda weren't there to begin with? Maybe this really was a civil war?

It isn't the first time Bush claimed something was in Iraq and it turned out it wasn't there. Anyone remember the weapons of mass destruction?

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My Disappointment of Hillary

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I do not get it.

Back during the first go-around with the Iraq war, it is clear Congress was lied to - we all were. They should have known better than to let Bush commit us to preemptive war, but they didn't. So you would think when the drum beat starts up for Iran, Congress would be a lot wiser.

I thought they would be too until I saw the disappointing support of Kyl-Lieberman. Been there and done that but still Congress, a Democratically led Congress, can't get enough war. And the worst part was Hillary Clinton's support of it. What The Fuck?

For me, that was the last straw.

If we invade Iran, we will occupy a swath of Earth that ranges from Europe to China - from Saudi Arabia to the Former Soviet Union. That my friends is nation-building on a Roman scale. I have had enough of that. Honestly.

Support for an Iranian war is beyond excusable, it should be seen as treasonous. I don't want to get on that "Bill Clinton is a traitor" line of bullshit left over from the 90's, but a war with Iran is wrong on a multitude of fronts, firstly being it is un-American.

I'll take UFO's over war any day.

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The Goracle of Memphis and his stealth campaign.

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On May 20th, 2007 in the New York Times, Gore remarked...

Having spent 30 years as part of the political dialogue, I don’t know why a 600-day campaign is taken as a given, and why people who aren’t in it 600 days out for the convenience of whatever brokers want to close the door and narrow the field and say, ‘This is it, now let’s place your bets’ — If they want to do that, fine. I don’t have to play that game.

With recent Current TV video uploads, I must wonder what kind of campaign is he running?

In marketing/advertising terms, this is a stealth product release. The candidate is running, but the paperwork hasn't been filed. The Current clips are strong. In the link above, some of thecommenters suggest Gore may be trying to frame the debate. I doubt this. First of all, with the exception of Edwards and Kucinich , none of the other Dem candidates really have an environmental platform that does anything about global climate change. If they aren't listening to Gore now, they never will.

Gore has been successful in moving the issue to the front of the news, and the melting icecaps, crop failures and record drought have all backed him up with common sense observation - just ask the average family farmer.

I have no idea what the game plan is for Gore but he has been successful in keeping himself and more importantly the issues he cares about, at the forefront of the news since he stepped in front of theMoveOn.org microphone and blasted the Bush administration over Iraq.

Everything he claimed in his "In The Balance" book, his 2000 campaign and everything else since has proven to be right. Whereas everythingBushCo has said since then has turned out to be a lie.

Bush may be the guy Middle America wanted to have a beer with, but once in office, Middle America learned Bush just stiffed them for the bar tab. As I speak with people across the country, they tell me they can't help but look at Gore and wonder "what if?" Since the Clinton/Gore administration was all over AlQaeda and the Taleban before Middle America knew they existed, would 9-11 have happened at all? Would all of America have their phones bugged and emails read? Would China have eaten our lunch? Would Summer at the North Pole feel like a spring day in Myrtle Beach? Would we be bogged down in a Vietnam style war in Iraq while ogling the oil underneath Iran?

If Bush invades Iran, the US will control everything in the Middle East from Saudi Arabia to the former Soviet Union - from Europe to China. There hasn't been a land grab like that since (yes, I am going to say it so get over it already) the Nazi's controlled everything from Paris to with 15 miles of the Kremlin.

Where Gore takes us from here is anyone's guess, except maybe Karl Rove. I think he might be sweating.

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Going Up River with Al Gore

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I cannot escape Vietnam... and I was never there.

My first memory was the assassination of JFK and the memories following dealt with adventures in the backyard, a fist fight over a teddy bear (don't ask) and Cronkite signing off every night with the dead and wounded tallies of the Vietnam War.

We all went "up river" and more than 50,000 dead came down river. This nation is still up river - the Mekong Delta is very much ingrained in our culture and our actions. It is a hinge on which our society swings - served vs. deferment is still a gold standard to many Americans, a standard in which Republicans scoff at.

Al Gore went up river, he went to Vietnam - he VOLUNTEERED to go even when his family reserved him a spot in the National Guard. Others fled service or took spots reserved for them by their families. Gore went up river.

Time is becoming short for Al Gore to run for the Presidency. From Daily Kos:

This is what so many of us have waited so many long - and I mean long! - months for. It is very likely that within three weeks, we will know whether Al Gore will enter the 2008 fold and seek the presidency again. Many of us have been trying to read the tea leaves and keep up enthusiasm and hope. If you're still waiting and hoping and haven't given up, thank you. I'm confident that I can speak for everyone within the Draft Gore movement when I say that - we have worked tirelessly for months, some of us years, to get Gore to run; that there are still thousands of people here, and millions of people nationwide that are still receptive and hoping for a Gore run means a lot to us and our work.

We are in another American misadventure in a far-off land and we can't find our way out. The Republicans want to continue the war in a direction that will not lead to a solution. The current crop of front-runners in the Democratic Party seem unable to commit to an action of quick withdrawal.

We are still under the spell of the Nine Dragons and the claws of the beasts hold us still.

Al Gore met the Dragons head-on and he came back.

This country needs someone who has gone up river. Only they can show us the way out.

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How to avert a war

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The Sulfur Smell of John McCain

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Meet The Press is hard enough to watch with Tim Russert asking pointless questions, but yesterday's show was brutally painful, mostly due to the appearance of John "Baghdad Walkabout" McCain.

From the transcript:

SEN. McCAIN: ...I hope that we will have the patience and the understanding on the part of the American people that they’ve made great sacrifice and all of us are saddened by it. But I hope we can also point out the consequences of failure, which is what the Democrats are proposing now.

SEN. KERRY: Listen to that. You just said the Democrats are proposing failure. We’ve had...

SEN. McCAIN: Yeah. (Unintelligible)...failure.

SEN. KERRY: ...four and a half years of failure. The Republicans stood up and cheered for Rumsfeld, who had a policy of not enough troops. To his credit, John at least said he needs more troops. But the fact is they’ve supported every step of this president, misleading America about the course of this war. Last January the president stood up to Americans. You know what he said, Tim? He said, “We will hold them accountable to their benchmarks.” They’re not holding them accountable. They have no means of holding them accountable because they’ve said we’re going to stay there with 130,000 troops into next summer. They have no leverage.

We are not proposing failure, as John loves to assert and Republicans loves to assert. We are proposing a way to strengthen America in the region. We’re proposing a way to, in fact, make Iraq successful to the degree that it can be by playing to the real undercurrents of their, of their cultural and historical divisions. Nothing in the surge addresses the question of Shia, Sunni divide. Nothing in the surge is going to resolve the fundamental reluctance of Iraqi politicians to make a decision, Tim.

Now, we’re not talking about abandoning the place. Why do the Republicans have a complete inability to envision a foreign policy, as we used to have, Republican and Democrat alike, which plays to our strengths and builds alliances with other countries? Bring the United Nations back in. Bring the neighbors into this. Have a standing summit in a standing conference where we resolve these differences as best as can be. The United States can’t do it alone. And we have to change the equation so we regain leverage and initiative. That’s not walking away, that’s walking forward and putting us in a stronger posture.

No where in the show does McCain offer any hint, solution, idea or Divine Jesus-Speak of a way for us to get out of Iraq. McCain and the GOP are constipated and can't think of any other idea other than to stay on the pot and hope everything comes out OK.

You know, like Saigon.

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