Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Everybody saw this coming.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

This really is a full service blog.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Come on, man.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Hiking / Hiking Report (Open Thread)

Hiking Report (Open Thread)

by | 98 Comments

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We found this little guy or gal sunning him or herself on a rock beside a mountain stream:

  

Even the yellow-bellied sliders are polite around here. 

Saw this lovely sight yesterday:

  

Notice the moon? The weather couldn’t be more perfect. 

Today we’re going into town in search of mass quantities of fresh cider, some of which I plan to transform into hard cider when I get back home.

I’ve not followed the news closely. But Trump is a punch-line even in darkest red Carolina:

 
 Open thread!

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Look at those clean rain-washed skies and streets.

    Enjoy, Betty. What’s community with the bigfoot Trump? Looks vaguely familiar.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    Robert CostaVerified account ‏@costareports 13m13 minutes ago
    Rep. Peter King tells me that members are crying in cloakroom, unable to handle the unrest and confusion. “A banana republic,” he says.

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAH

  5. 5.

    sharl

    Wow, things sound perfect for your vacation! Keep enjoying. {…jealous…}

    Glad you mentioned cider, since I keep forgetting your/Betsy’s recipe for the soft-to-hard cider conversion. From here (comment #47):

    Buy a glass jug of Martinelli’s unpasteurized cider or apple juice at the grocery store, loosen the cap, pour in some champagne yeast, replace the cap LOOSELY and store in a dark place, and voila, hard cider in a few days. (It’s a good idea to put paper towels under the jug to catch any overflow while it’s fermenting.)

    The ratio is about a teaspoon of yeast to the gallon, and the Martinelli’s jugs are less than a gallon, so I eyeball it. The longer it sits, the stronger it gets. I like it when it’s still somewhat fizzy and sweet after three or four days, but you can taste it daily and decide what level you like. Just refrigerate it to stop/slow the fermentation. If you leave it for much longer, it tastes more like apple wine — quite a bit stronger and drier, but also still good.

  6. 6.

    redshirt

    Wow, I find it really surprising the leaf color change is only a bit behind where I am – and I am in northwestern Maine which is a long ways from NC.

  8. 8.

    Punchy

    @rikyrah: Who the hell still uses the term “cloakroom” in 2015? And crying over something they knew was a strong possibility for days? Strong leaders of men these are not.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    GOP Candidate wants to drug test MEDICARE recipients. The ads write themselves.

    …Conway asked Bevin about his statement from April that recipients of Medicaid and Medicare should be drug-tested.

    In April, Bevin said during a Louisville Tea Party forum that he supports random drug testing for recipients of both programs. “I firmly believe we frankly should drug test people that are on Medicaid and Medicare,” Bevin said at the time. “We just should.”

    During Tuesday night’s debate, Bevin didn’t back away from that call, saying “there should be expectation of you as somebody who is a recipient, or, as it’s often referred to in this state, on the draw.”

    After the debate, Bevin said he was referring to Medicaid beneficiaries, suggesting the GOP candidate is more comfortable going after low-income families than seniors. I’ll concede that I did not see the debate, but the Lexington Herald-Leader’s article added that Conway “interrupted Bevin to make clear that he was asking about Medicare and not Medicaid.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/drug-tests-medicare-recipients

  12. 12.

    Cervantes

    @Punchy:

    Who the hell still uses the term “cloakroom” in 2015?

    Both the House and the Senate have them.

    They are not what you probably think they are!

  13. 13.

    Malaclypse

    You’ll need unpasteurized cider if you want to ferment it, and that, alas, is illegal in many states.

  16. 16.

    sharl

    @rikyrah: Wow, I wonder if he meant to say Medicaid instead. Even the dumbest and craziest Repubs know better than to rile up old people (i.e., their Base). And in Kentucky to boot! I expect a quick walk-back on that one, although he may be even crazier than anyone realized. We have a few Bluegrass State denizens here, they’d know better…

    ETA, I just read more carefully. He used both Medicaid and Medicare in the same sentence! I guess he means it.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @Malaclypse: Yep — unpasteurized, and no preservatives. There’s a cider press nearby, and the proprietor and I have already discussed it; he makes cider too, and we swapped recipes. Back home in Florida, I buy Martinelli’s unpasteurized cider at my local grocery store, and it makes a fine hard cider.

    ETA: The cider I buy at home is pasteurized but has no preservatives.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker: I knew it! Just where I thought it was!

    Enjoy Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. I stayed at Riverside Campground for several weeks and hiked a lot. Loved it. Rutherfordton. And there’s a wonderful motel with an antiques store on property (very close to a pumpkin patch) that was excellent too.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

    Tell it, Luvvie.

    ……………….

    About the Cocaine Apartment and the Tender Reporting of a White Victim

    Awesomely Luvvie — October 7, 2015

    The media doesn’t even TRY to ACT like it isn’t engaging in shady ass biased practices anymore. We are all clear that press has never been objective, and outlets lean one way or another, based on who is behind them and the people they hire. They have set agendas and what they cover and how they cover are strategic decisions. Unfortunately, when most of the people in media are white, it means that their biases are going to affect the reporting of stories based on color more often than not.

    The Daily Beast reported on the story of a white woman (Kiersten Rickenbach Cerveny) who was found dead at a place known to be a “cocaine apartment” in New York City.

    Below is a screenshot of the top of the article

    http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/10/about-cocaine-apartment-reporting-white-victim.html

  21. 21.

    RK

    @redshirt: Saw Fury Road and it does glorify violence in my view. Maybe you saw my post about it a day or so ago. Looks nice there Ms. Cracker.

  23. 23.

    JustRuss

    As a resident of the PNW I should protest your East Coasterly appropriation of Bigfoot, but in this context I’m OK with it.

  25. 25.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Mrs. Shoemangler lately has taken up wine-making. One day she just decided to do it.

    She buys organic grapes, mashes them up, then puts them in a glass container, adds some yeast. She takes a latex glove and puts it over the top, then stores the containers in a corner of her sewing room. The glove swells up real fat. After a few days it collapses, and she takes it out and strains the stuff. It’s actually delicious and intoxicating.

    She tried the same thing with a pineapple that she sliced up. It’s still fermenting; not sure how it’ll taste yet.

    She’s a Maker, but she’d never heard of the term. She makes her clothes, grows food, brews her own wine…

    Twenty years ago she watched patiently while I got into a beer brewing hobby. Giant glass carboy, hops, bubble locks filled with vodka, tubes and bottles and bottle caps. I grew tired of the hobby after a few years and gave it up for store-bought beer.

    Her method is simpler, and the results have been pretty good so far.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Malaclypse:

    You’ll need unpasteurized cider if you want to ferment it

    Not at all true. If you have unpasteurized cider, it will start fermenting by itself, but you can always add yeast to pasteurized cider to start it fermenting. In fact, most alcoholic beverages are made by deliberately killing any naturally occurring microorganisms, either by pasteurization or some chemical process like adding sulfur dioxide, and then fermented with cultured yeast.

  29. 29.

    redshirt

    @Gian:

    Unforgiven with Clint. Seriously.

    Absolutely agreed. I think there’s plenty of action movies that don’t glorify violence (though most do, of course). I don’t know what RK thinks about it, so I asked.

  31. 31.

    Germy Shoemangler

    headline:
    Rachel Maddow Chosen To Moderate Democratic Candidates’ Forum In South Carolina

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @Roger Moore: You are right — the kind I buy at the store IS pasteurized. But it has no preservatives.

    @redshirt: Right now, I’m more than 100 miles away, I think. But I was on it earlier.

  33. 33.

    redshirt

    @RK:

    I believe you told me it didn’t when I surmised it did and told me to report back and I have.

    Indeed. So I asked if you consider any movie with action or violence to not glorify that violence. Is it even possible?

    Unforgiven is another great example, for me (like Fury Road), of a violent movie that does not glorify its violence. But you might disagree.

  34. 34.

    Germy Shoemangler

    WASHINGTON – US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday will unveil a sweeping plan to curb what she has said are the abuses of Wall Street, proposing everything from raising the fines that can be levied by regulators to requiring executives to bear some of those costs.

    The outline of Clinton’s plan also includes strengthening the “Volcker rule” in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and imposing a new tax on high-frequency trading.

    CrooksAndLiars.com

  41. 41.

    redshirt

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yep. That too. There’s plenty of violent movies that don’t glorify violence.

    There’s plenty that do too. Any Arnold movie from the 80’s, for example. Commando being first among them.

  42. 42.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @redshirt: The Sanders Effect. And the comments on the CrooksAndLiars article! Oh my God, they hate her! “It’s all talk, she’s beholden to wall street, she’s bullshitting” etc.

    tough crowd.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    Gotta go out for a while.

    Peace out. Except you GOP congresscritters. You keep up the shock by awl bludgeon.

  44. 44.

    RK

    @redshirt: I said before I thought most violent films glorify violence which is why I thought Fury Road would. You thought Fury Road didn’t. There are exceptions and Saving Private Ryan comes to mind right now.

  45. 45.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Saving Private Ryan was violent as hell, but it made violence disgusting and heartbreaking.

  48. 48.

    redshirt

    @RK:

    I said before I thought most violent films glorify violence which is why I thought Fury Road would. You thought Fury Road didn’t. There are exceptions and Saving Private Ryan comes to mind right now.

    Cool. I disagree entirely that Fury Road glorifies violence. Both in action and in dialogue. The War Boys – who do glorify violence – are shown to be brainwashed people who if given a chance could renounce their ways, but they aren’t given many chances to do so, being born and raised in a death cult. There’s a line in the movie which says (paraphrase) that all the men are used as war fodder and the women as breeding stock.

    Certainly doesn’t seem to be glorifying violence to me. YMMV.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    @Germy Shoemangler: I’m getting concerned with all the “tear Hillary apart” stuff. Not sure it’s entirely Sanders supporters.

    Hoping Dems can unite to elect a Dem; don’t want the disaffected to take their votes and go home. Concerned they might be kind of radicalizing themselves through the rhetoric in online comments. To be seen.

  51. 51.

    RK

    @redshirt: As I said originally, even if a violent movie has an anti-violence message or subtext they still usually glorify violence through the cinematographic splendor of it all. Fury Road’s message may be that violence is wrong but the beauty and grandeur with which it’s shot tells us different.

  52. 52.

    ruemara

    @redshirt: have to agree here. It’s old men with money, power & the women, sending the young men to die for them. It’s very anti-war, establishment and propaganda. To be taken otherwise may mean you’re not paying attention to the whole movie.

  53. 53.

    Mandalay

    Trump is dangling some rancid bait for his rivals…

    “They basically want to start World War III over Syria,” he said. “If we’re going to have World War III, it’s not going to be over Syria. . . . I won’t even call them hawks. I call them the fools.”

    Not a nibble so far. Even GOP presidential candidates are capable of learning basic survival techniques.

  54. 54.

    redshirt

    @RK:

    As I said originally, even if a violent movie has an anti-violence message or subtext they still usually glorify violence through the cinematographic splendor of it all. Fury Road’s message may be that violence is wrong but the beauty and grandeur with which it’s shot tells us different.

    That’s a strange argument. So if it was shot and edited in a poor or visually inferior manner it would then not be glorifying violence, even with the exact same story?

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    Since is open thread, here’s one for the books: dude who nearly lost his thumb overpowering the TGV gunman was stabbed multiple times last night in what’s sounding like a barfight. Welcome home, son.

    (note to self, complete any and all drinking at that part of midtown, early.)

  57. 57.

    Paul in KY

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think that one is more about the crappy decision making at General/Field Marshal level.

    Edit: I guess it can also not glorify violence too.

  58. 58.

    redshirt

    @trollhattan:

    Since is open thread, here’s one for the books: dude who nearly lost his thumb overpowering the TGV gunman was stabbed multiple times last night in what’s sounding like a barfight. Welcome home, son.

    (note to self, complete any and all drinking at that part of midtown, early.)

    He’s lucky it was a knife. A real American would have been packing heat.

  60. 60.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Boehner, who planned to leave Oct. 30, said in a statement that he would stay on “until the House votes to elect a new speaker.”

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @redshirt:

    So if it was shot and edited in a poor or visually inferior manner it would then not be glorifying violence, even with the exact same story?

    The story is the final product, which includes not just the script but also the acting, cinematography, special effects, art direction, etc. If you make a movie where the violence is the most compelling, exciting part of the story, you’re most likely glorifying it, even if the script is full of dialogue that’s supposed to make violence seem awful.

  62. 62.

    RK

    @redshirt: Any movie could be very different if shot in another way; that’s pretty much the essence of film making, no? As far as glorification, it’s also the case that most violent movies are about Good vs. Evil so when Evil is ultimately defeated with violence it becomes good, to be championed.

  64. 64.

    RK

    Just want to say that while I can’t say I really liked Fury Road it’s fantastically shot, moves at a great pace and has some absolutely wild and hysterical touches. On the big screen it must be really impressive.

  65. 65.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I went off to B&N to write and came back to find the House Republicans in even more disarray than usual. I don’t even know what to say to this one.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    Racial Profiling Via Nextdoor.com

    White Oakland residents are increasingly using the popular social networking site to report “suspicious activity” about their Black neighbors — and families of color fear the consequences could be fatal.

    By Sam Levin

    The strange glances are starting to become more frequent. James Fisher, a fourteen-year-old freshman at Oakland Charter High School, has noticed that as he gets older, more people on the street eye him with suspicious or fearful stares. “Some of them just look at me, and then they’ll look away,” he said. “Or sometimes, I go into stores, and they look at me like they think I’m going to do something bad.”

    ……………………………………

    But he and his parents are not just worried about hurtful stares from neighbors or passersby. Over the last two years, their neighborhood has become overrun with racial profiling — but not by police, rather by mostly white residents incorrectly assuming that people of color who are walking, driving, hanging out, or living in the neighborhood are criminal suspects. These residents often don’t recognize that they may have long held racial prejudices or unconscious biases, but recently, they’ve been able to instantly broadcast their unsubstantiated suspicions to thousands of their neighbors with the click of a mouse.

    Nextdoor.com, a website that bills itself as the “private social network for neighborhoods,” offers a free web platform on which members can blast a wide variety of messages to people who live in their immediate neighborhood. A San Francisco-based company founded in 2010, Nextdoor’s user-friendly site has exploded in popularity over the last two years in Oakland. As of this fall, a total of 176 Oakland neighborhoods have Nextdoor groups — and 20 percent of all households in the city use the site, according to the company.

    http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/racial-profiling-via-nextdoorcom/Content?oid=4526919&showFullText=true

  69. 69.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Elizabelle: not to be paranoid, but a small minority of them are Republicans pretending to be purity trolls and stirring up shit. The real Democrats will come home despite the efforts of wolves in PUMA clothing.

  70. 70.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Roger Moore: it’s like the news segment on how Reagan used patriotic symbolism to sugar coat policies that hurt the working class. His people called CBS to thank them for all the free flag visuals.

  71. 71.

    JPL

    According to Dave Weigel, Marsha Blackburn is thinking about running for speaker.

    Raise the debt ceiling now…

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

    PROBLEM OF THE PAST?

    what da phuq?

    it was the REPEAL of Glass-Steagall, DURING BILL CLINTON ‘S ADMINISTRATION, which set into place, the conditions that brought about the greatest econonmic collapse this country has seen since The Great Depression.

    I say again..

    what da phuq?

    BuzzFeed News Verified account 
    ‏@BuzzFeedNews Targeting Shadow Banking, Clinton Casts Glass-Steagall As “Problem Of The Past” http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/targeting-shadow-banking-clinton-casts-glass-steagall-as-pro?bftwnews&utm_term=4ldqpgc#4ldqpgc …

  74. 74.

    Mandalay

    A number of cruise missiles launched from a Russian ship and aimed at targets in Syria have crashed in Iran, two U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

    Monitoring by U.S. military and intelligence assets has concluded that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran. One official said there may be casualties, but another official said this is not yet known.

    Russia is saying it’s all bullshit, Jeb! says stuff happens, and Perry says oops.

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @JPL:

    Raise Eliminate the debt ceiling now…

    FTFY. The whole concept of the debt ceiling is a terrible idea, and it should be done away with. When Congress authorizes a level of spending that results in a deficit, they’re implicitly authorizing enough debt to cover the deficit. There should be no need for a separate, explicit instruction to the Treasury that they’re allowed to sell bonds to cover it. Other countries manage just fine without.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: Perhaps whenever there is a Democratic President, we should just look forward to stupid debt ceiling fights and shutdowns. Republicans have nothing to offer Americans but chaos.

  78. 78.

    RSA

    @Elizabelle:

    Enjoy Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.

    My wife and I stayed at the Gaestehaus Salzburg near Lake Lure a few years ago. Nice place, and if you’re a fan of Austrian/Bavarian cooking, including Biergarten-style food, it’s a worthwhile stop.

  80. 80.

    ? Martin

    The establishment Republicans better get it through their head that they are chasing the wrong goal. They’re seeking policy reconciliation with the Tea Party but the bigger problem is that the Tea Party does not believe in governing where (arguably) the establishment GOP does. The Tea Party wins simply by shutting everything down, which they have the power to do, and that by default becomes the establishment GOP top policy position.

    If the GOP has an interesting in governing at all, they would be far better off negotiating with Nancy for a Speaker. The Dems care more about a functional government than they do about specific policies, believing that the long arc bends in their favor so long as the government operates, so Dems would be willing to find common ground – either with a moderate Republican as speaker or with an agreement that would give the Dems some influence on what comes up for votes and so on. There is no such common ground to be had with a secessionist party. They need to kick those guys out of their caucus, find some sort of common ground with the Dems which will get them at least some policy victories, and move on. This is going to destroy them – particularly with the exact same dynamic playing out in their Presidential nominating race.

  81. 81.

    Cervantes

    @? Martin:

    They need to kick those guys out of their caucus, find some sort of common ground with the Dems which will get them at least some policy victories, and move on.

    One common explanation for why they don’t do this is that they are afraid of being “primaried” by the Tea Party and its backers. What do you make of this explanation?

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: More of the story might be helpful:

    “The big banks are not the only things you have to worry about. When you think about what happened to us in 2008 — Lehman Brothers, AIG, the big insurance companies — they were as big a problem as any of the big banks,” Clinton said in Davenport this week. “So if you only reinstate Glass-Steagall, you don’t go after all these other institutions in what is called the shadow banking system — hedge funds and other big financial entities that have too much power in our economy.”

  85. 85.

    ? Martin

    @Cervantes: I don’t disagree. But that’s a product of primaries having such low voter turnouts. That’s how Christine O’Donnell won. The GOP has the power to change how they run their primaries to address this.

    @Iowa Old Lady: Gerrymandering is a contributor as well, but the GOP has the power to change that as well. State legislatures can redraw districts at their discretion in most states.

  86. 86.

    Calouste

    @Mandalay: A rocket launched from a ship aimed at Syria crashes in Iran? Does Russia have cruise missile launching warships in the Caspian Sea? Or are there cruise missiles and/or personal so crappy that they have at least a 20 degree divergence from the intended course? Just look at the map.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @rikyrah:

    I bet I can guess the other reason for the soft-pedaling of the story and it’s spelled L-A-W-S-U-I-T. It’s true that you can’t libel the dead, but it sounds like the people who were with her that night are more than rich enough to sue that paper for everything they’ve got. And as we already know, no one is going to go to jail in that woman’s death no matter what happened, because rich people don’t go to jail anymore.

  89. 89.

    catclub

    @Calouste:

    Does Russia have cruise missile launching warships in the Caspian Sea?

    Yes.

    The missiles passed over Iran and Iraq, but apparently not Turkey.

  90. 90.

    Tommy

    I got a three ring binder to my left, of the entire trail. Where I’d have food sent ahead of time to pick up as I walked from South to North. Never walked the entire thing as I had thought I would. But I still love the place. Saw this sign a few years ago:

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/8183827161/in/datetaken/

    If that isn’t one of the coolest signs you’ve ever seen in a national park, well I don’t know what to say.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @? Martin:

    If the GOP has an interesting in governing at all, they would be far better off negotiating with Nancy for a Speaker. The Dems care more about a functional government than they do about specific policies, believing that the long arc bends in their favor so long as the government operates, so Dems would be willing to find common ground – either with a moderate Republican as speaker or with an agreement that would give the Dems some influence on what comes up for votes and so on. There is no such common ground to be had with a secessionist party. They need to kick those guys out of their caucus, find some sort of common ground with the Dems which will get them at least some policy victories, and move on.

    Finding common ground is becoming less acceptable to either party, and is totally unacceptable to conservative fundamentalists.

    The other problem is that the Tea Party and dogmatic conservatives have been pushing GOP moderates out of the party, and conservative Democrats are finding more reasons to side with the GOP. This undercuts the idea of the Democrats as pragmatists happy with anything that leaves a functional government. The cost is the absence of coherent policy and alienation of more liberal voters.

    Perhaps a side effect of this is the twin storms of Bernie Sanders pushing the Democratic Party to the left, and Donald Trump pushing the Republican Party towards chaos, uh, I mean, to the left.

  93. 93.

    catclub

    I am surprised no one has mentioned this (or did I miss it here).

    The Slatest
    Your News Companion
    Oct. 8 2015 2:31 PM
    Dick Cheney Midas Touch Strikes Again as McCarthy Endorsement Precedes McCarthy Failure

  94. 94.

    Corner Stone

    @Brachiator:

    and conservative Democrats are finding more reasons to side with the GOP. This undercuts the idea of the Democrats as pragmatists happy with anything that leaves a functional government.

    Anything specific you are referring to?

  95. 95.

    redshirt

    @RK:

    Just want to say that while I can’t say I really liked Fury Road it’s fantastically shot, moves at a great pace and has some absolutely wild and hysterical touches. On the big screen it must be really impressive.

    I last saw it in IMAX 3D with re-mastered sound and it was awe-inspiring.

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @RK:

    Just want to say that while I can’t say I really liked Fury Road it’s fantastically shot, moves at a great pace and has some absolutely wild and hysterical touches. On the big screen it must be really impressive.

    Have not seen it yet, but I hear that The Walk, on a huge screen and in IMAX, is visually stunning.

    In some theaters, there is the use of laser projection.

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