Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Democrats are back in array!

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

T R E 4 5 O N

White supremacy is terrorism.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

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Reader Interactions

117Comments

  1. 1.

    Bey

    So……why does Sen Sheldon Whitehouse have purple hair? He’s on Olbermann right now.

  3. 3.

    Ekim

    Read
    The Twits

    by Roald Dahl. Mr. Twit convinces Mrs. Twit that she has the dreaded shrinks.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    That reminds me of one of my favorite moments in “Homicide,” where Pembleton is forced to share a desk with a complete asshole. His revenge is to crank the chair down almost to the floor.

    I loved “Homicide.”

  5. 5.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    I read excerpts from a memo pointing out that public disclosure of the UK’s intelligence gathering methods would make it harder for the UK/US to get cooperation from other countries in intelligence gathering. Glenn Greenwald read the same excerpts and came away with “Obama administration threatens Britain to keep torture evidence hidden”.

    Greenwald is the type of guy you never lend money to because he would promptly accuse you of blackmail.

  7. 7.

    JenJen

    If you haven’t already watched Jesse Ventura trash Dick Cheney on Larry King, go do yourself a favor:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoqmH49VBC0

    In addition to saying he has no respect for Cheney because of his five deferments while Ventura was serving during the Vietnam War, he says Guantanamo Bay is our own Hanoi Hilton, he urges the prosecution of anybody who took part or ordered war crimes, and he speaks credibly about waterboarding, having gone through it himself during SERE training.

    Money Quote: “You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney, and an hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.”

  8. 8.

    Mr. Stuck

    by one counterclockwise spin per day? It’s true.

    The same works for wingnuts, at least until they fly off the screw.. then you get a K-Low.

  9. 9.

    DougJ

    That reminds me of one of my favorite moments in “Homicide,” where Pembleton is forced to share a desk with a complete asshole. His revenge is to crank the chair down almost to the floor.

    I loved “Homicide.”

    Word.

  12. 12.

    QDC

    I’m not sure if that steak in the ad on the left is supposed to disgust me, but if PETA is trying to scare folks off meat, they might want to work with a meat eater to find an image that is not quite so delicious looking. A thick-cut, bone-in, extra rare, juicy steak is not going to do the trick.

    On the other hand, it did get me to click through, so mission accomplished. Still, I’m not sure it’s having the intended effect.

  14. 14.

    demkat620

    Work has been so weird this week and its only Tuesday.
    Just really wish this week was over. I have a meeting first thing in the morning and a conference call right after lunch guaranteed to give me agida.

    Where’s my Soros money for that gay abortion I had last week? I need a vacation.

  16. 16.

    Laura W

    @John Cole: 3 Words:
    Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
    (Edit: Watch the Alzheimer’s thing on HBO. You’ll like it. Well, not like…be moved by, maybe.)

  19. 19.

    A Ghost To Most

    Since this is an open thread, my cat would like to publicly announce that John Cole is a cat god for convincing me to purchase a Furminator (clicked through to Amazon from here). Her putative owners are also pleased that the masses of fur she is starting to shed (in preparation for the steamy purgatory that is Maryland in summer) is going into the trash can rather than all over the house.

    In other news, Go Caps!

  21. 21.

    InflatableCommenter

    Whooeee dogies! Ten minutes into Rachel Maddow show …

    Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Ret., former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell …

    … delivers THE BEST smackdown of Dick Cheney I have ever heard. Oh, mama.

    Highlights:

    1. Cheney’s claim that our “policies” kept America safe for 8 years is bunk. Putting 200k Americans into harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan gave Al Qaeda every target opportunity for going after Americans they could possibly want. That’s why the attacks stopped here and increased over there.

    2. Cheney’s diss of Powell is a joke. Powell’s record of military service to his country starting in Vietnam while Cheney enjoyed a deferment means that there is no comparison as to who really has been keeping America safe.

    And Wilkerson is a Republican.

    See the rebroadcast at 11 EDT if you can.

  22. 22.

    Tim F.

    Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

    Damn. Bullseye in one try. Their pinot noir is pretty good but pricy even for the variety.

  23. 23.

    robertdsc

    Can’t. Too close too home. Lost my grandma to that fucker last June.
    Horrible, horrible disease.

    I lost mine in 2001. Absolutely brutal.

  25. 25.

    Laura W

    @demkat620: I’m so sorry. “Like” was the wrong word. I posted a bunch about it already in the thread where they are making fun of what people look like so didn’t really feel like going into detail here, which is where I should’ve posted it had I waited for an Open Thread.

    They are doing a truly beautiful job with the whole series. Lots of personal stories, science, support for children with family who are ill, and tonight for the long-suffering caregivers. I still say the first segment, “The Lost Tapes”, is the best. Powerful. Such extraordinary stories told in a really complete arc, even though you maybe get only 15 min/life story? Gonna watch it again. Planned to do it tonight, but didn’t think I could go through it again so soon, and my energy/mood is low enough tonight as is.

  26. 26.

    Mr. Stuck

    Reds are playing Arizona tonight and I am blacked out on MLB.TV. We are also blacked out when they play Colorado which is 600 freakin miles away. And Az is about 250. Another example why Fox and Murdoch and their exclusive contracts are a cancer in media in this country. But did get two movies from netflix. Both foreign, Dresden, and The Tunnel, which both have 4+ stars.

  27. 27.

    MikeJ

    I bought a 4 pack of Guiness in the can and it is swill.

    If you’re getting beer in the toilet, chances are it isn’t really beer.

  28. 28.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @demkat620:

    I have very little to do this week and the day starts to drag around noon. My day will be spent listening to Stephanie Miller, Ed Shultz and Randi Rhodes, occasionally interrupted by eating.

    Anybody play Marvel Ultimate Alliance? I got a copy from eBay for around $10 and I’m enjoying it immensely. Hulk is kinda fun, too. Ultimate Spider-Man is ok. Vista64 doesn’t seem to like Spider-Man: The Movie. X-Men Legends II should arrive by the weekend.

  29. 29.

    DougJ

    I bought a 4 pack of Guiness in the can and it is swill.

    You have got to be kidding me. That stuff is great. If it were cheaper, it would be all I drink.

  30. 30.

    kay

    @InflatableCommenter:

    Someone has to ask why the torture didn’t stop terror attacks overseas during Cheney’s term.

    Was he limiting his questions to attacks on the US? Do people being tortured really make those distinctions? You’d have think we’d be attack-free, world-wide, with all the torturing they were doing.

    Are international jihadists all that country-specific?

  33. 33.

    DougJ

    I love Guiness, but for some reason these cans are terribad.

    Most of the cans are great. I drink that stuff all the time. It’s pretty much the only beer I drink anymore.

  34. 34.

    kay

    @InflatableCommenter:

    Maybe Cheney didn’t pass on the intelligence garnered from torture to other countries.

    Because….who cares, right?

    Is that what happened? We carefully culled information that would have prevented the attacks that occurred overseas, and just sort of sat on it?

    Just New York and Chicago and LA. That’s weird.

  36. 36.

    John Cole

    BTW, all the years of PJ Media ads and I have received more hostile email over that meat ad than anything else.

    They paid 300 bucks for it to be there. How can I say no to that?

  37. 37.

    John Cole

    Since this is an open thread, I will throw this out there. I am recruiting another front page poster. I’ve already asked someone, and they should start in a couple weeks.

    Not telling you who until they make their debut, though.

    Suspense!

  41. 41.

    Mr. Stuck

    @kay:

    Cheney is full of shit. They are all full of shit. There is no evidence AQ was operational for any second wave of attacks. Zubyda gave up Ksm before he was tortured, and after gave up oodles of phantum attacks that had the CIA and FBI running around in circles for months or years. The only mass attack planned with any validity, and that is questionable, were the airline attacks on planes coming out of the UK with liquid bombs. And we didn’t have a clue about that, though the brits did, .

  42. 42.

    MikeJ

    Not telling you who until they make their debut, though.

    What if I say no, Mr. smart guy?

  43. 43.

    Martin

    Not telling you who until they make their debut, though.

    Woohoo! Daily posts on tractors and nefarious plots to control our thermostats! I can’t wait!

    And to the meat ad haters, I eat meat along with the best of them, but there’s no point hiding from where it comes from. Hiding torture photos doesn’t make the torture go away, either.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    Library Grape’s post hadn’t hit when I started mine – two ‘nefarious’ usages at once. Freaky.

  47. 47.

    Mr. Stuck

    Not telling you who until they make their debut, though.

    Laura W, = Wine and Cat blogger extraordinaire.

  52. 52.

    kay

    @Mr. Stuck:

    I’m frustrated. I don’t know as much as you about this, for example, but I know the next question.

    Why aren’t they asking him the obvious next question? He says over and over that there were no attacks in the US. Okay. What about all the rest of the world? Torture failed in just those instances?

  53. 53.

    Tim F.

    @John Cole:

    Guinness bottles have CO2 carbonation, the cans are ‘carbonated’ with nitrogen. CO2 gives an acidic bite to beer whereas N2 tastes smooth, creamy and inert. Although Guiness thinks a ‘perfect’ version of their stout is kegged with nitrogen, you clearly prefer CO2. Me, I’ll take the Edmund Fitzgerald from Great Lakes.

  54. 54.

    Laura W

    @Mr. Stuck: Ha!
    I’ve been sitting here listening to his funk-o-rama music link wondering if I want to ask for clarification on his use of the phrase “pressure getting to me” and decided that a man who blogs about wingnuts and nose hair trimming 24/7 is right. That would fucking kill me.

  55. 55.

    Gus

    @DougJ: The only beer you drink? With all the sweet sweet beers out there? Don’t get me wrong, if you’re going to choose just one, that’s not a bad one, but we live in a brewing golden age. Seems like a shame to limit yourself.

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    Oh, Tim F, it gets better than that.

    There was some study done where a worker in a vest and hard hat stopped a random passerby and asked some innocuous questions.

    In the middle of the exchange, some workers came between them with a big sheet of plywood; and when they got together again, Hard Hat was a different person.

    And an astounding number of people didn’t notice.

  57. 57.

    Mr. Stuck

    @kay:

    Simple fact of life, Kay. Americans care more about Americans than other peoples. And the same is likely true for the people in any other country on the planet. In the political realm, not having an attack here carries more weight/ Though the election and every poll for the last three years profoundly states, that in general, the public believes Mr. Cheney and the neocons are full of it- Whatever their reasons are. It is the only card he has left to play coming off an utterly failed presidency, and the press is milking the circus for all it’s worth, which is what they do.

  58. 58.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Gus:

    Here in Chicago I’ve been going with the Goose Island Summer brew.

    I went to Barcelona a few years ago and was introduced to beer mixed with Lemon Fanta. Sadly, they don’t sell Lemon Fanta in the U.S.

    Rusty+4

  59. 59.

    Xanthippas

    BTW, all the years of PJ Media ads and I have received more hostile email over that meat ad than anything else.
    They paid 300 bucks for it to be there. How can I say no to that?

    Damn. Pay me $300, and I’ll run an ad on my blog of a Texas secessionist taking a dump on the American flag.

  62. 62.

    DougJ

    The only beer you drink? With all the sweet sweet beers out there? Don’t get me wrong, if you’re going to choose just one, that’s not a bad one, but we live in a brewing golden age. Seems like a shame to limit yourself.

    I’m a wine person. The only beer-drinking I do is at a bar I have to drive to and Guinness is low alcohol.

    I realize that some of the Dogfish Head and Victory stuff is great and so on and I drink it sometimes. I like wine better and when I have to drive, I want something without too much alcohol.

  64. 64.

    John Cole

    I often wonder what kind of psycho-analysis someone would do if they went through my musical tastes.

    Probably just decide “weird, offbeat, but pedestrian.”

  66. 66.

    grumpy realist

    DougJ, have you tried Imperial Stout? I’m a Guiness gal myself, but god that stuff is good. Discovered *Rasputin* Imperial Stout from Whole Foods. Don’t try to drink more than one bottle of it, however…and get someone else to drive home. (Russian Imperial Stout was originally created as a stout for shipping to Russia, with a higher alcohol content than ordinary stouts so it would survive the trip.)

  67. 67.

    Anne Laurie

    I love Guiness, but for some reason these cans are terribad.

    I’ve heard people complain that benadryl makes food taste weird. Mostly these people have been under the age of 21, so I don’t know whether ‘food’ includes beer. But cottonmouth (decreased saliva production) is among the most common side effects, so…

  68. 68.

    DougJ

    I don’t even watch a beer commercial before driving. If I have one sip of beer I take a cab.

    I’m Irish, John. Guinness is a perfect biochemical replica of the blood that normally flows through my veins.

  69. 69.

    Tim F.

    DougJ, have you tried Imperial Stout? I

    Seriously now. DougJ just said that he wants a tasty beer with low alcohol and you’re recommending Wild Turkey.

  70. 70.

    DougJ

    DougJ, have you tried Imperial Stout?

    Yeah, I love that stuff — Storm King, the Stone kind, all the kinds I’ve had. But you have to be careful with it.

  71. 71.

    Shibby

    @Tim F.:

    You sir, have excellent taste in beer. Although I prefer Eliot Ness from Great Lakes Brewery, all their stuff is quite good. Their Christmas Ale and Dortmunder are really popular around the holidays.

  72. 72.

    Tim F.

    @Shibby:

    Thanks, Shibby. As a diehard Pittsburgher it kills me inside that Great Lakes is made in Cleveland and we get Iron City. The wife and I look for Eliot Ness on the few occasions when we don’t drink something I made.

  74. 74.

    John Cole

    @Michael D.: We went through this in another thread already.

    The difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans win, and shit on Democrats. Democrats win, and shit on Democrats.

  79. 79.

    LD50

    Since this is an open thread, I will throw this out there. I am recruiting another front page poster. I’ve already asked someone, and they should start in a couple weeks. Not telling you who until they make their debut, though.

    John Yoo?

  80. 80.

    Shibby

    @Tim F.:

    What kind of brew do you make in house? I’ve tried a few times to make my own with mixed results. I’ve been using the kits (not terribly adventurous I know). Any tips/recipes you’d be willing to share?

  81. 81.

    Laura W

    @John Cole: OK, let’s interpret your dreams from last night to spice it up!
    When you open up a Dream Blogging category, then you can look me up.
    For a price.

  82. 82.

    Laura W

    I forgot that I do have a legit open thread question.
    Anyone ever try Mozy Online Backup?

    I never back anything up, and having lost all my shit on an iMac, and then an iBook, I now live in terror of losing two years’ worth of Very Important Shit from the MacBook Pro.

  85. 85.

    Tim F.

    Any tips/recipes you’d be willing to share?

    I have posted some fave recipes over the years under the category beer blogging. If you’re still using hops-infused extracts, throw them out and seriously consider dumping whatever you’re brewing in the bathtub. It’s awful. At the very least you need to separately add in hops, flavoring malt and extract before it comes out ok. The best advice that I can offer is to find a local homebrew supply store and pick up some recipes from them.

  86. 86.

    Tim F.

    I never back anything up, and having lost all my shit on an iMac, and then an iBook, I now live in terror of losing two years’ worth of Very Important Shit from the MacBook Pro.

    Spend $150 on an external drive and use Time Machine. Apple makes backing up so easy that you don’t even have to think about it.

  87. 87.

    Wini

    @Tim F.: I agree. I have something called a Verbatim, and I think it cost less than $100 (it was continuously plugged into my laptop during exams… I’ve had too many friends with finals-related computer crashes).

  88. 88.

    C Nelson Reilly

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Re: Your recent Furminator purchase

    I don’t have a cat so I just ordered the Goatee Saver. Chuck Todd gets a dollar for every one sold. I have an idea for an invention called “The Mullet Magician” that would help sculpt and shape your mullet (not your personal mullet but mullets in general) to complement the goatee but it involves manufacturing problems I can’t overcome without engineering expertise and some sort of government stimulus package. I might get in touch with Brick Oven for some schematics. I think if they sold the Goatee Saver and Mullet Magician as a combo they could throw in a Furminator for free. Just sayin’.

  90. 90.

    Indylib

    One gripe about Maddow, whom I usually like. On her show tonight she asked whether we should question Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan when Kharzid and Petraus have both said that Al Qaida are no longer in Afghanistan.

    Now it’s reasonable to debate about the efficacy of sending more troops into Afghanistan and have a debate about whether we should get out for the same reasons we need to get the hell out of Iraq. But I do not think you can argue in an honest way that we can justify pulling out of Afghanistan because Al Qaida is all gone. It’s accepted fact that a Al Qaida are camped across the border in Pakistan and that if we pull out of the country they would be scrambling their skinny little terrorist asses back across the border to set up an AQ Afghan branch in about 2 seconds.

    This was only a tiny part of a relatively good piece she did on the Afghan/Pakistan area. I just hate to see her making a such a disingenuous argument.

  91. 91.

    ImJohnGalt

    DougJ, next time you’re in Toronto, try the Mill St. Cobblestone Stout, or the Mill St. Coffee Porter. I think you’ll like ’em.

  92. 92.

    asiangrrlMN

    Hm. I don’t drink for the most part. I don’t watch Hollywood movies. I don’t have cable or an iPod. Just why the fuck am I here? Oh, yeah, for the music and the snark.

    @Michael D.: I’m fucking pissed off about it, but I don’t know what the best solution is. Obviously, DADT needs to be repealed. I think only Congress can do that. I would like Obama to put a stay on the law until Congress deals with it. I am disappointed that he hasn’t.

  94. 94.

    Martin

    Obama is still going to allow the firing of an essential Arab linguist, totally accepted by his subordinates, for no other reason than that he is gay.

    He’s not fired yet, and keep an eye on this one. Nobody has done what Choi is doing, and he’s precisely the right person to do this (West Point, arabic linguist), and he’s doing it precisely the right way – up front and very publicly.

    It’s easy to allow stupid fucking policies to continue when there is no face on them. There’s a face on DADT now and it’s been set before it’s too late – that will make it MUCH harder for Obama to not act. Choi needs to get coverage outside of Maddow. He needs to get on Stewart or Larry King or some other outlets. Sully needs to keep him on his blog every day, and any other sympathetic outlets [cough] need to do the same. He needs to be everywhere – and he wants that to happen. Help him.

  95. 95.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Martin: He’s not fired yet? Good. You’re right. We need to keep the pressure on. Choi is a perfect face for this fight.

  96. 96.

    Martin

    He’s not fired yet?

    No. He received his letter which says that if he walks away they’ll give him an honorable discharge, or he can fight it out. He’s chosen to fight it out – and publicly, it would appear.

    He’s forcing Obama’s hand, and I’m cheering him on.

  98. 98.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Martin: That’s right! I heard him say that on Rachel. Good for him. I read his letter. Damn. We are honored to have him serving our country.

    @AhabTRuler: Momo is ridiculously cute. I have a friend who has a Momo cat, too. Wait! You don’t live in SF, do you?

  101. 101.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Breaking news Britty just discovered the wonders of WiFi. I am in a motel room right now typing on DH’s laptop, whereas in the past I would be laying here watching re-runs of law and order. (We are here BTW because DH has a heart cathertization tomorrow, something we are both concerned about seeing as he has a very bad allergy to Iodine, they have convinced us that the measures they are taking will keep him safe but I am still concerned) Anyhoo, all these years I have been watching law and order reruns when I could have been playing on the puter, who’da thunk it!

  102. 102.

    Indylib

    @asiangrrlMN: It is the reason we’re there. And if we leave Al Qaida will be back across the border into Afghanistan in short order. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the tribal area is in name only. For all intensive purposes they are still have safe haven in area.

    Afghanistan is different from Iraq in the fact that AQ been buddies with the Taliban for years and I don’t see any local groups being willing to stand up to them the way the Sunni tribes in Iraq did.

  103. 103.

    asiangrrlMN

    I gotta say, I’m watching Spitzer on Maddow, and I want him to be enforcing banking regulation. Seriously, he would be great at it. He’s so passionate about holding the banks accountable. If Vitter can continue serving, can’t Spitzer get back in the saddle? Ok, bad way of putting it, but still. I want him on the economic team.

    Indylib, so we need to be in Afghanistan to keep an eye on Pakistan?. Hm.

  104. 104.

    gwangung

    Spend $150 on an external drive and use Time Machine. Apple makes backing up so easy that you don’t even have to think about it.

    I’m REALLY lazy and did it through Time Capsule, since I needed a new router…

  105. 105.

    AhabTRuler

    I’m watching Spitzer

    The goddamn jackass. What a waste! Is there a better example of someone being hoist by their own petard?

    No. No there isn’t!

  106. 106.

    Dulcie

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I have an iodine allergy myself. As long as I take my pre meds before any procedure requiring dye, i’m okay. I’ve had several CT Scans over the past three months (surgery in February w/complications). When I do my pre meds (prednisone and benadryl), i’ve yet to have any issues. The one time I forgot, I was sick for a week. Not a good feeling, especially since I was already in pain from the surgery. I won’t do THAT again!

    Good luck to your DH tomorrow. I know he’ll be fine. Are you in Durham at Duke?

  107. 107.

    DougJ

    DougJ, next time you’re in Toronto, try the Mill St. Cobblestone Stout, or the Mill St. Coffee Porter. I think you’ll like ‘em.

    Thanks.

    Will do.

  108. 108.

    asiangrrlMN

    @AhabTRuler: I know, I know, but he was taking on AIG and the other ‘too big to fail’ banks five years ago for doing the same shit they’re doing today. He would have had the balls to crucify them. Why, oh, why…

  112. 112.

    AhabTRuler

    If man could only learn to control his desires

    @asiangrrlMN: Nah. I don’t care who humps whom and how much, I just wish society could leave people and their sex lives alone. Even famous people (although seeing Tommy Lee honk the boat’s horn with his pecker was pretty funny!).

  115. 115.

    Chuck Butcher

    @AhabTRuler:

    I just wish society could leave people and their sex lives alone.

    It would be nice if it were that simple regarding Spitzer, the problem is that he put on a display of several character issues of some signifigance having little to do with screwing.

    He behaved as though he was Mr Bulletproof while committing several criminal offenses and that speaks some volumes about him. Yes Mr Spitzer, the rules do apply to you as well and you had good reason to know that large money transfers alert the Feds as well as how bad this shit could get.

  116. 116.

    AhabTRuler

    Too late to clarify, but the issues of Spitzer and “man as slave to wang” are separate. Spitzer got what he deserved in so many ways, I am not arguing with that. He was a politician breaking the law, and doing so in a way that invited his fate.
    That being said, I would love it if our society could reject our prurient interest in what people do with wangs and other bits. I am more interested in this than in making men learn to control their wangs, per se.

  117. 117.

    AhabTRuler

    Besides which, also don’t have any problem with the banking laws that were his undoing, at least in a criminal sense. It was the prostitution (and moral hypocrisy) that ended his political ambitions, but, IMHO, it was the funny money moves (especially to commit a crime) that were the more serious criminally.

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