RNC Convention

[wdmso]

we had a pardon a speech from Israel a naturalization ceremony..

Not sure if you cant respect the norms of the past. But make excuses why your ingnoring them . how will you protect Americas. In the future what other norms are trumpublicans willing to ingnore . Funny when hyperbole becomes reality

[PaulS]

The Epic Shamelessness of the Republican Convention

Norms are for chumps, not for Trumps.

By Frank Bruni

Conventions lie. Or at least they tell extravagant fibs. That’s how they transform their nominees from mere mortals to near messiahs. That’s how they whip up the faithful and woo the agnostics.

But the Republican convention is going well beyond that. It’s less a feat of pretty storytelling than an act of pure derangement.

To turn Donald Trump into a president worthy of a second term, speakers are conjuring an entirely different person in his place. I can tell that Trump is the man they’re talking about, because he keeps popping up amid all the monumental imagery. (Did Leni Riefenstahl consult via séance?)

But I otherwise don’t recognize their version of Trump. Their Trump brims with empathy. Their Trump burns with passion to improve the lives of ordinary Americans. Their Trump heroically spared the country from the worst ravages of Covid-19, which is surely news to the relatives and friends of more than 175,000 Americans (and counting) who have died from it.

On the convention’s first two nights, you didn’t hear that figure. You didn’t hear any explanation for why the United States has the world’s highest number of recorded deaths related to the coronavirus and the highest number of reported infections.

No one examined why much of the world won’t let Americans in: because we’re too contaminated — by the virus, yes, but also by a faith misplaced in a government that doesn’t deserve it and in a president who doesn’t have the foggiest clue how to govern.

To recast Trump’s record on the coronavirus as a triumph isn’t revisionist history. It’s science fiction. It’s historical erasure: of all the times that he said or suggested that the virus was some hoax; of all the times that he or his enablers charged Democrats with hyping its threat just to hurt him; of “it is what it is”; of his ruminations about the potentially curative ingestion of bleach; of briefing after briefing in which he crowed about his ratings and bellyached about his critics, caroming from self-love to self-pity and back again.

Me, me, me, me. And the speakers at this convention dare to praise his outward focus, generosity of spirit, compassion and tenderness? They are standing — no, grandstanding — at the confluence of audacity and absurdity.

And they are scaring me, because they are demonstrating Trump’s most formidable advantage over Joe Biden, which isn’t incumbency. It’s shamelessness.

He and his loyalists will claim whatever they think they can get away with claiming. They will flout whichever rules don’t suit them. They will stage any stunt.

On Tuesday night President Trump pardoned — on live television — a former bank robber who now works with prison inmates, cheapening a big-hearted gesture by making it MAGA theater.

He emceed a naturalization ceremony — on live television — of five immigrants who belong to the sorts of ethnic groups or come from the kinds of places that he has routinely caricatured and vilified. This didn’t honor them. It reduced them to re-election props.

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, beamed into the convention from Jerusalem to gush over his boss, the kind of flamboyantly partisan act that had become unthinkable in this post. There’s no place for propriety when you’re pumping up this president.

Melania Trump spoke from the Rose Garden, never mind that the White House had never been used as a setting for a presidential nominating convention in modern times. Norms are for chumps, not for Trumps.

“Donald will not rest until he has done all he can to take care of everyone impacted by this terrible pandemic,” she promised Americans, hewing dutifully and without any discernible animation to the laughable Trump-as-big-beating-heart theme. She also praised his candor, saying: “Total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president.”

Agreed. Can she point us toward a president who’s going to give us that?

The convention crystallized and formalized the Republican Party’s journey, under Trump, into a mythical realm of unrestrained idolatry. The tone was set by one of the first speakers on the first night.

“President Trump was elected to defend the American way of life,” said Charlie Kirk, a young Republican activist with a spellbound expression. “The American way of life means you follow the law, you work hard, you honor God, you raise your kids with strong values and you work to create a civil society.”

Excuse me? Trump doesn’t bow to the law, not to go by the tax returns that journalists have gotten their hands on, by the hush money paid to a porn star, by his rescue of Roger Stone. The examples abound.

His godliness is confined to photo ops, his work ethic is impressive only if the units of measurement are hours of Fox News watched and the values he imparted to his kids are reflected in an Instagram post by Donald Jr. in May that suggested — with zero backing — that Biden was a pedophile.

As for creating a civil society, I direct you to Trump’s tweets.

Kirk at least gets credit for the phrase of the event so far. He called Trump “the bodyguard of Western civilization.” Sounds like a movie starring Kevin Costner and a bust of Aristotle.

Last week the Democrats certainly framed Biden in the most flattering light possible and Trump in the direst terms. They definitely edited the world to their liking. But they didn’t cut the cord to reality completely. There were parameters to what they would say and do.

Republicans aren’t hemming themselves in like that, and Tuesday night was a special showcase for their shamelessness.

Tiffany Trump delivers remarks during a pre-live recording session of the Republican National Convention.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Shameless: Tiffany Trump, the president’s younger daughter, accused his opponents of suppressing truth and pressing falsehoods. “This misinformation system keeps people mentally enslaved,” she said. Apparently she’s unacquainted with that adage about the pot and the kettle.

Shameless: Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, charged Biden’s family with rank nepotism and opportunism, focusing on Ukraine. Apparently she’s unacquainted with Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric and Jared, and she somehow missed that sordid chapter of Trump’s presidency in which he tried to extort the president of Ukraine and was rightly impeached for it.

Bondi went further, praising Trump for donating his presidential salary to charity. She left out the part where he had to shut down the Donald J. Trump Foundation because of various legal and ethical violations and was ordered to pay a $2 million settlement for misusing its funds for his own benefit.

That’s how this convention rolls. Speakers keep talking about Biden as some self-dealing, greedy insider when it’s Trump and his brood who are using the White House as a billboard for their various enterprises, their amorality a magnet for other hucksters.

In this convention’s upside-down vision, Trump’s big tax cut was for the middle class, not the rich. He loves Black people and they love him back.

He’s also a champion of women — the first lady floated that screamer. It’s as if the “Access Hollywood” tape was apocryphal. It’s as if his put-downs of Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris don’t have the barest hint of sexism in them.

It’s as if one of the world’s greatest egoists is one of its greatest altruists. Which only confirms that he’s perhaps its greatest fantasist.

[Pete F.]

Ok, we’ve had a pardon, Jerusalem for the evangelicals and a naturalization ceremony on Tweety's Celebrity President Show. Coming soon, a tour of the White House Situation Room?
And then stay tuned for the healing of the sick, the restoration of sight to the blind, facetime with Putin and his other lover....and for a grand finale...maybe an execution to show how strong Tweety is on crime.

So keep in mind that Tweety has turned the White House into the set for his cynical game show with official acts as prizes, with a difference: this time, it’s the host who’s going all-out to win.

[Pete F.]

Why have we heard more about cancel culture during this convention than coronavirus?

That is weird because coronavirus has, actually, canceled our culture.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by wdmso

we had a pardon a speech from Israel a naturalization ceremony..

Not sure if you cant respect the norms of the past. But make excuses why your ingnoring them . how will you protect Americas. In the future what other norms are trumpublicans willing to ingnore . Funny when hyperbole becomes reality

Trump did a great job protecting us from ISIS, didn't he?

Kind of funny that a progressive is sad that Trump doesn't cling to norms of the past.

Some good speeches, some bad ones. I didn't like the Florida former going on and on and on about Biden and his family.

As to the pardon, and that whole story (Trump had the guy to the White House, he went to a graduation ceremony for a class of his released convicts, stayed longer than scheduled), and the pardon. How does that whole segment (as well as speeches by Herschel Walker, Tim Scott, and the KY attorney general, who is a rising star in the GOP) fit the accusation that Trump is a racist?

Curious how the trump haters will respond to that whole segment involving the incredible story of the felon who obviously turned his life around. Just dismiss it as a token gesture? Why would a racist champion criminal justice reform? That wasn't a great, moving, story?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by PaulS

Their Trump burns with passion to improve the lives of ordinary Americans. .

So all the ordinary Americans who say that (pre-covid) their lives are better because of things Trump has done, are lying?

If liberals care more about helping ordinary Americans than conservatives, tell that to Nick Sandman.

[Pete F.]

Feels like the whole using the White House as a backdrop for a political campaign has been completely normalized already. It’s never been done before for a reason. It’s a violation of the Hatch Act, it’s a misuse of government resources & an abuse of power.

"You followed the rules, you obeyed the laws" is a hell of a thing to say as you brazenly violate the Hatch Act.

[PaulS]

At least they didn't have any Quackanon believes on stage.

[Got Stripers]

Hey Trump said HE moved the Capitol of Israel to Jerusalem and that Evangelicals were more happy with the move than the Jews, nothing wrong with that narrative is there boys. First he moved an embassy not a capital and the comments on which religion liked the move best is wrong on many levels, but Trump does wrong on many levels better than anyone.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

Hey Trump said HE moved the Capitol of Israel to Jerusalem and that Evangelicals were more happy with the move than the Jews, nothing wrong with that narrative is there boys. First he moved an embassy not a capital and the comments on which religion liked the move best is wrong on many levels, but Trump does wrong on many levels better than anyone.

if Trumps incorrect use of "capital" when he meant "embassy" is problematic for you...will you hold Biden to the same level of mandated accuracy? Or do all of his mis-speaks get dismissed as Joe being Joe?

Again, just a little bit of consistency would be very helpful.

Like when Biden said hundreds of millions had died in the US from covid, which would be all of us, that was OK, right?

[spence]

Originally Posted by PaulS

At least they didn't have any Quackanon believes on stage.

I think it's highly likely some of the speakers are Q. Most of the RNC sh!tshow appears tuned to plug right into their crazy.

Will be interesting to see how many Repubs won't sign off on the bi-partisan bill to denounce it.

[Got Stripers]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

if Trumps incorrect use of "capital" when he meant "embassy" is problematic for you...will you hold Biden to the same level of mandated accuracy? Or do all of his mis-speaks get dismissed as Joe being Joe?

Again, just a little bit of consistency would be very helpful.

Like when Biden said hundreds of millions had died in the US from covid, which would be all of us, that was OK, right?

See the difference is while Biden may have meant to say something else and got his math wrong, I think Trump knew exactly what he said and he did it for political reasons. Just like Pompeo using the same stage for the same political reasons, which goes against all past norms and potentially violates the Hatch Act.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

I think it's highly likely some of the speakers are Q. Most of the RNC sh!tshow appears tuned to plug right into their crazy.

Will be interesting to see how many Repubs won't sign off on the bi-partisan bill to denounce it.

Was the story of the pardoned bank robber, who started a program to help convicts re-enter society, a sh*t show?

Or the Maine lobsterman, or immigrant business owner, who say Trumps policies helped their businesses?

Nick Sandman talking about his experiences with the dangers of a media that cares about politics more than facts? That had no validity?

Or all the blacks taking abiut Trumps agenda, like Herscel alker, Tim Scott, or the young AG from KY? They're just a means to tap into crazy?

The lady telling Mike Pence what school choice meant to her and her son, nothing there worth seeing? What exactly, is the argument against that anyway? Don't liberals like to say they are in favor of choice? Pretty sure I heard that somewhere.

And Julia Louis Dreyfuss at the DNC, making fun of Mike Pence's name, that was Churchill-level discourse?

I still think Trump gets creamed. And there were horrible speakers (at both conventions), I hated listening to the former FL AG talk about Biden's family.

But the DNC was a "lets hate Trump"-pallooza which was very light on policy and the expected effects of said policy. AT the RNC, I hear a lot about actual policy, and people explaining how that policy impacted them. Instead of sociology professors theorizing about how policies impact us.

Spence, when you can't refute the message, you cam dismiss it as a sh*t show very easily. you have a long established habit of lobbing baseless insults.

[Pete F.]

Ahh hypocrisy

Trump’s DHS:
GAO found that acting director Chad Wolf was illegally appointed, but Trump is promoting him.

Trump rails against Latino immigrants as criminals, but told DHS officers not to worry about illegally blocking entry because he would pardon them.
Melania wearing her official UDBA uniform says Donald Trump is an ‘Authentic person’ except for the fake hair, fake tan, fake height, weight and bank account or you could just say Racist Birther Takes Center Stage At Ongoing Partisan Crime Spree At Taxpayer Funded Venue.

The RNC featured a police officer who credited Trump for overdose deaths declining in 2018 for the first time in 30 years.

They did decline in 2018 for the first time in 28 years...but then rose to a record high in 2019

Flashback: August 2016.
Trump said his wife would hold a news conference "over the next couple of weeks" to address reports she violated immigration laws when first coming to the U.S. Trump said it would prove "she came in totally legally."

She never held that news conference.

Just last month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told State Department employees that “they should not be engaging in ‘any partisan political activity’ tied to a campaign, political party or political group and should refrain from partaking in ‘partisan political activity’ while abroad.”
Guess he forgot
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[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Ahh hypocrisy

Trump’s DHS:
GAO found that acting director Chad Wolf was illegally appointed, but Trump is promoting him.

Trump rails against Latino immigrants as criminals, but told DHS officers not to worry about illegally blocking entry because he would pardon them.
Melania wearing her official UDBA uniform says Donald Trump is an ‘Authentic person’ except for the fake hair, fake tan, fake height, weight and bank account or you could just say Racist Birther Takes Center Stage At Ongoing Partisan Crime Spree At Taxpayer Funded Venue.

The RNC featured a police officer who credited Trump for overdose deaths declining in 2018 for the first time in 30 years.

They did decline in 2018 for the first time in 28 years...but then rose to a record high in 2019

Flashback: August 2016.
Trump said his wife would hold a news conference "over the next couple of weeks" to address reports she violated immigration laws when first coming to the U.S. Trump said it would prove "she came in totally legally."

She never held that news conference.

Just last month Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told State Department employees that “they should not be engaging in ‘any partisan political activity’ tied to a campaign, political party or political group and should refrain from partaking in ‘partisan political activity’ while abroad.”
Guess he forgot
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Pete, here's is the difference between you and I. I can, and have on many occasions, freely admitted to hypocrisy and dishonesty on my side. I don't like it, but I can't deny it, because it obviously exists.

Can you admit that your side also has dishonesty and hypocrisy?

When Bill CLinton was president, for 8 years, liberals chimed that results were what mattered, not character. You're singing a very different tune now.

[Pete F.]

You’ve convinced me. I promise I won't vote for Hunter Biden.

Meanwhile, Did Eric Trump just admit he was a criminal by pleading the Fifth? Are Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. also proud members of the criminal 5th Amendment club? Sure looks that way.
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[Pete F.]

Don’t forget that Pam Bondi quashed the prosecution of trump university despite the fact that her entire team recommended it because of its utter corruption, and then took a $25,000 illegal contribution from Donald Trump. She is corrupt to the core, an utter disgrace.
While Pam Bondi, the ethically challenged and corrupt former Florida Attorney General is lying about the Biden Family and repeating the talking points of Russian Intelligence Services it’s important to remember the Trumps are barred from runnning a charity because they are crooks.
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[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

You’ve convinced me. I promise I won't vote for Hunter Biden.

Meanwhile, Did Eric Trump just admit he was a criminal by pleading the Fifth? Are Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. also proud members of the criminal 5th Amendment club? Sure looks that way.
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you completely dodged the question, naturally, because you aren't capable of admitting that democrats exhibit the same moral failings as republicans. The facts couldn't make that more clear or obvious, but you can't admit it. You can literally only admit what serves the liberal agenda.

I guess if I was a diehard liberal, I'd do anything I could to avoid talking honesty about policies and results too. It's funny how liberals will do anything to avoid that conversation, isn't it?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

Don’t forget that Pam Bondi quashed the prosecution of trump university despite the fact that her entire team recommended it because of its utter corruption, and then took a $25,000 illegal contribution from Donald Trump. She is corrupt to the core, an utter disgrace.
While Pam Bondi, the ethically challenged and corrupt former Florida Attorney General is lying about the Biden Family and repeating the talking points of Russian Intelligence Services it’s important to remember the Trumps are barred from runnning a charity because they are crooks.
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Already said I have no use for her. She's a thoughtless hack.

[RIROCKHOUND]

So... whats the verdict, did Pompeo break the law?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

So... whats the verdict, did Pompeo break the law?

Beats me, but if so, arrest him.

Bry, you're one of the very few reasonable liberals here. Let me ask you this. Put all of Trumps MANY MANY moral failings aside for a moment (like democrats did when Bill Clinton was president), all of them. Focus just on his policy, and the effect of those policies.

Have his policies been an abject disaster?

lowest unemployment in 50 years (not all his doing obviously, but somewhat related to his tax cuts and decreased regs)

lowest minority unemployment ever
stock market records
gave ISIS some serious bloody noses
lowered taxes for 60% of us (I have 3 kids, so made out like a bandit as he expanded childcare tax credits)
criminal justice reform, which disproportionately helps blacks (something Obama/Biden had 8 years to do, and chose not to)
last night at the RNC, the was a lobster fisherman from Maine, a dairy farmer form the Midwest, a Honduran immigrant business owner, a mother with a special needs son...who all told stories of how Trumps policies specifically helped them. Are they all lying? And this is just the nonpartisan stuff. I like the judges he's picking, I like the way he stands up for the faithful and the unborn, but we can out that aside. Just focus on the stuff that's more or less bipartisan.

Of course there's more to Trump. I give him a big fat F for allowing these dangerous riots to continue (I'm sure he's doing it for political reasons, which is disgusting). He didn't build a wall. If you care about the environment as I know you and I both do, he doesn't get good grades there. And of course we could fill the Internet with accurate lists of his character flaws.

But on policy? Before covid, how could you refute my conviction that most people were better off thanks to his first 3 years?

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Trump did a great job protecting us from ISIS, didn't he? Isis was already being addressed prior to trump he did nothing new

Kind of funny that a progressive is sad that Trump doesn't cling to norms of the past.

Some good speeches, some bad ones. I didn't like the Florida former going on and on and on about Biden and his family.

As to the pardon, and that whole story (Trump had the guy to the White House, he went to a graduation ceremony for a class of his released convicts, stayed longer than scheduled), and the pardon. How does that whole segment (as well as speeches by Herschel Walker, Tim Scott, and the KY attorney general, who is a rising star in the GOP) fit the accusation that Trump is a racist?

3 blacks saying your not a racist probably means your a racist

Curious how the trump haters will respond to that whole segment involving the incredible story of the felon who obviously turned his life around. Just dismiss it as a token gesture? Why would a racist champion criminal justice reform? That wasn't a great, moving, story?

the issue has nothing to do with the story and has everything to do with Trump using the pardon and the naturalization ceremony. in his convention AKA a partisan event

your being played by the biggest player but keep it up

[Got Stripers]

Originally Posted by RIROCKHOUND

So... whats the verdict, did Pompeo break the law?

When you have a GOP senate and AG watching your back, you can pretty much do whatever you want. It was a perfect example of either how far behind they feel they are or how far they feel they can go without repercussions, I suspect a little of both.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

See the difference is while Biden may have meant to say something else and got his math wrong, I think Trump knew exactly what he said and he did it for political reasons. Just like Pompeo using the same stage for the same political reasons, which goes against all past norms and potentially violates the Hatch Act.

Ahh. So you justify your double standard, based on your ability to read minds. And Biden saying you aren't black unless you vote for him, that was also not a problem?

[Pete F.]

Oops
The Trump campaign has halted its television advertising campaign, pulling down all broadcast ads on Tuesday with no new ads scheduled to start until Sept. 8, a two-week dark period with less than 70 days to go until the election.
Must be the Deathstar plan
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[PaulS]

Originally Posted by PaulS

At least they didn't have any Quackanon believes on stage.

Can't make this stuff up:

An activist who was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night was abruptly yanked off the program after it was reported that she had shared an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on social media hours ahead of her scheduled appearance.

"Do yourself a favor and read this thread," the woman, Mary Ann Mendoza, wrote on Twitter, linking to a string of tweets about a bogus 100-year-old Jewish plot to run the world that managed to add some QAnon conspiracies and touched on everything from the Titanic to Hillary Clinton.

[Pete F.]

"Here's what bishops, priests, deacons, and men in women in religious orders, are allowed to do in elections: pray and educate. Here's what they're not allowed to do: endorse. That goes for both parties. As the Pope says, the church is meant to form consciences, not replace them.

A reminder when a politician is called "pro life":

Pro life means reverencing not just the unborn child, but the Black person whose life is endangered, the inmate on death row, the starving homeless person, the migrant family.

Pro life means pro all lives, not pro some lives"

James Martin, SJ

[Jim in CT]

comparing the rnc speakers to the dnc speakers, is like the cartoon i used to watch on saturday mornings, comparing the superheroes to those in the legion of doom. the comparison is that stark.

hershel walker, NY congressman Zelden of the 82 airborne, jack brewer an nfl alumni who dedicates his life to helping the poor, a catholic nun who is a doctor and a retired colonel in the air force, senator tim
scott was amazing, the young (rising star) black AG from KY, the bank robber or dimes by trump who turned his life around, senator Jodi Wrnst who is a military vet, the kidnin the wheelchair who stood up for the flag at the end, Nick Sandman to talk about media bias ( who better on that issue?), tonight senator tim cotton who graduated from harvard and harvard law, them enlisted in the army and opted for the infantry. Sean Parnell ( congressional candidate who served a brutal tour with the rangers in afghanistan), dan crenshaw, the chinese dissident who was jailed for speaking about chinese injustices.

there’s no shortage of jerks in the gop for sure. there’s a real shortage of inspiring heroes on the other side.
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[Jim in CT]

i watched michelle obamas speech. she’s still a victim? graduated from an elite university, had many high paying jobs, first lady, now has a $15m vacation home on the vineyard. how
much success does she have to accumulate, before she stops playing the victim card? i thought she was going to announce a gofundme page for herself.
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[wdmso]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

comparing the rnc speakers to the dnc speakers, is like the cartoon i used to watch on saturday mornings, comparing the superheroes to those in the legion of doom. the comparison is that stark.

hershel walker, NY congressman Zelden of the 82 airborne, jack brewer an nfl alumni who dedicates his life to helping the poor, a catholic nun who is a doctor and a retired colonel in the air force, senator tim
scott was amazing, the young (rising star) black AG from KY, the bank robber or dimes by trump who turned his life around, senator Jodi Wrnst who is a military vet, the kidnin the wheelchair who stood up for the flag at the end, Nick Sandman to talk about media bias ( who better on that issue?), tonight senator tim cotton who graduated from harvard and harvard law, them enlisted in the army and opted for the infantry. Sean Parnell ( congressional candidate who served a brutal tour with the rangers in afghanistan), dan crenshaw, the chinese dissident who was jailed for speaking about chinese injustices.

there’s no shortage of jerks in the gop for sure. there’s a real shortage of inspiring heroes on the other side.
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thats the Republicans problem their all hero worshipers and flag wavers . Your all to impressed with titles OMG he was a Ranger its not special.

But please take time to look at your conservative heros of the past Powell and what they have to say about Trump and his party. They must have TDS is not an answer
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