Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The willow is too close to the house.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

No one could have predicted…

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: Judge Orders Trump Foundation to Dissolve

Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: Judge Orders Trump Foundation to Dissolve

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(More) major props to Dave Fahrenthold!

Someday there will be a best-seller on the Trump presidency subtitled “Two Overpriced Portraits and a Tim Tebow-Signed Helmet”.

May this be the start of many, many painful and embarrassing decisions against Donald Trump, his offspring, his underlings, and his GOP enablers…


Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    randy khan

    I actually suspect that the portraits could fetch a fair amount of money from some MAGAheads, if the foundation were inclined to auction them.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this detail from Farenthold’s story…

    The largest donation in the charity’s history — a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989 — appeared to benefit Trump’s business: It paid to restore a fountain outside Trump’s Plaza Hotel. The smallest, a $7 foundation gift to the Boy Scouts that same year, appeared to benefit Trump’s family. It matched the amount required to enroll a boy in the Scouts the year that his son Donald Trump Jr. was 11.

    That detail come out a while ago, I think in Farenthold’s original story about trump’s charitable giving, but what a cheap fuck.

  4. 4.

    Mike J

    It’s sort of voluntary. NYS wouldn’t allow them to dissolve so Trump couldn’t burn all the records before they got a look. The fact that they are now saying go ahead and dissolve means they’ve got all the info they need.

  5. 5.

    zhena gogolia

    Okay, I didn’t want to post this violent story in the Lily thread, but Daniil Kharms’s story “Vindication” is the perfect expression of the Trump-Giuliani-Flynn mindset (I think this is George Gibian’s translation):

    Vindication

    I don’t want to boast. But when Volodya hit me in the ear and spat in my eyes, I let him have it in a way he will never forget. It was then that I beat him with the little gas stove; yesterday I beat him with a flatiron. So he did not die right away. And where is the proof that I cut off his leg that day? He was still alive. And I beat Andryusha to death only because I was carried away by my momentum. I am not at all responsible for that. Why did Andryusha and Liza Antonovna come in there? Who was forcing them to come in that door?
    I’ve been accused of being bloodthirsty. It’s been said I drank the blood. That is a lie. I only lapped up the puddles and the spots. It’s natural to want to wipe off the traces of even the most innocent transgression. And I did not rape Liza Antonovna. First of all, she wasn’t a virgin any more.
    Secondly I was dealing with a corpse. So the accusation is beside the point. So what if she was about to have a baby! I took the child out of her. And if it wasn’t capable of living, that’s not my fault. I did not tear off its head. It’s the fault of the thin neck. It was simply unfit for life. It’s true I stomped on the dog. But its simply cynical to accuse me of murdering a dog, when right alongside it three human lives had been lost. I’m not counting the baby. Let us say, and I might even agree, that there was certain amount of cruelty on my part. But to try me because I defecated on those victims is, if you pardon me, absurd. Defecation is a natural human need. So how can it be something indecent?
    I do understand certain fears my defense attorney has, but I believe I shall be completely vindicated.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    One of those portraits has got to be the one he made an initial bid of ten grand on to try to get the price up, and no one else bid on it.

    Linked to the story some time back, too lazy to look it up again.

  8. 8.

    different-church-lady

    [PHOTO OF GENE WILDER AS WILLY WONKA]

    “Now, tell me again about the Clinton Foundation being corrupt?”

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I won’t hold my breath that this will force Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins to stop pretending they don’t believe their lyin’ eyes, but… drip, drip, drip….

    Josh Marshall @ joshtpm
    Chris Cuomo has the Trump Tower Moscow letter of intent with Trump’s signature.

    Also, too, it sounds like someone leaked on trump.

  14. 14.

    zhena gogolia

    @Mart:

    It’s a story from 1941 by one of Russia’s greatest writers, that I think suits our present-day situation.

  16. 16.

    zhena gogolia

    @different-church-lady:

    Oh, yeah, he was seriously strange. But a wonderful writer. I recommend Today I Wrote Nothing, trans. Matvei Yankelevich. I posted the only version I could find on the internet, but the Yankelevich edition is the best.

  18. 18.

    Mart

    Got a line or two in and had to stop. I breezed over “violent story” description. Maybe a better trigger warning for this old snowflake.

  19. 19.

    Bess

    Perhaps it’s time for a go fund me to raise money and purchase the Trump portraits.

    Sell the opportunity to pee on them for $1 per pee and make a fortune to support unfortunate kitties and puppies.

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax:

    Should I ask to have it removed? I thought it was so absurd that it’s just funny, but I guess it’s upsetting people.

  23. 23.

    SFAW

    @different-church-lady:

    “Now, tell me again about the Clinton Foundation being corrupt?”

    Well, of course, silly.

    Selling access to … umm … Bill Clinton? (or perhaps Harold Stassen) is SO much more corrupt than using a “non-profit” as one’s personal piggy bank.

    What I’m trying to figure out is how Fuckhead pocketed the 40-plus thousand $$$ that he “paid” for the portraits. I doubt the “artist” got more than $500, so was there a middleman involved? Probably, I’m a-guessing.

    In a just/sane world, these revelations would shove Fuckhead’s approval below 25 percent. But in certain parts of America, I’m guessing his approval has probably bumped up.

  28. 28.

    Mart

    @zhena gogolia: It’s alright. I remember my family making fun of me when I bolted out of the TV room when the flying monkey’s attacked in Wizard of Oz. Never recovered!

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SFAW: He pocketed the money, or made money if you will, because he gave no money to his own charity. It was all collected from other people and/or other people’s charitable foundations. So when the money sat in the charity’s account, he made interest off of it. And, because he did actually use his money to fund the charity, the charities money that he did use to pay for the two portraits and Tebow’s helmet, were someone else’s. And, I suspect, he then wrote the purchases off his taxes as a charitable deduction.

  32. 32.

    Platonailedit

    Fahrenthold in particular must be feeling vindicated and happy. He has been chronicling the traitor thug’s corruption for a long time.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mart: When I was a kid, I used to puke when August Gloop would go up the chocolate shoot in Willy Wonka. It just did something really weird to me. Same thing with the flying monkeys in Wizard of Oz. Eventually I grew out of it.

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    It really is all crashing down around him, isn’t it? He’s running around trying to prop up this piece while ten other pieces fall down. It’s not going to work, Donald.

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: “Old news. Fake news. I told everyone in 2016 that I had no business in Russia. I never said that I didn’t try everything in my power to get business in Russia. The bastards never let me – they kept stringing me on, telling me they were thinking about it but just needed a little more help and evidence of my good intentions! That’s why I was so nice to Putin and all of his oligarchs!! That’s why we sold them so many overpriced condos!!11 It’s just business!!1! I was working on the greatest deal in history!!!111ONE!! …”

    Just wait.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    K488

    @NotMax: I remember wondering that as well, until I realized that depictions of monkeys (usually associated with organ grinders) were often wearing such little uniforms. So, I think the film was picking up on something preexisting.

  46. 46.

    Mart

    @NotMax: Instead of the guards singing “All we owe, we owe to her”, I heard “Oreo, Nabisco”. Now, realizing the true horror of those fucking monkey uniforms, I will have to leave the lights on to get to sleep.

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, my (attempted) point was that he was triple- or quadruple-dipping: not only did he use Foundation money to pay for the portraits, but most of the $42K ended up (as cash) right back in his own pocket, as opposed to being paid to the “artist” who drew the portraits. Not sure what the actual mechanism would be — I am/was an engineer, not a bean-counter or a forensic accountant — but I would be surprised if he actually parted with that much of “his” money.

    Maybe you’re saying the same thing, but it looked like you were talking about all the “standard” grifts.

  49. 49.

    zhena gogolia

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I said “okay,” but maybe that wasn’t clear enough. But now another commenter said they think it should stay. What do you think?

    I realize this is getting ridiculous. I was just inspired by Giuliani’s constant reinterpretation of what is and isn’t a crime.

    OKAY REMOVE IT

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    During the off season, the Wicked Witch was running a B&B out of her castle that was a favorite of the Winkies.

    Trying to figure out how I can work “Winkie Defense” into the conservation, but it ain’t coming. Damn.

  51. 51.

    Yarrow

    According to the NYT, although Facebook was supposed to stop this type of access by 2014:

    As of 2017, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and others could obtain users’ email addresses through their friends.

    Facebook also allowed Spotify, Netflix and the Royal Bank of Canada to read, write and delete users’ private messages, and to see all participants on a thread — privileges that appeared to go beyond what the companies needed to integrate Facebook into their systems, the records show.

    TreasonBook:

    Facebook even recategorized one company, the Russian search giant Yandex, as an integration partner.

    Facebook records show Yandex had access in 2017 to Facebook’s unique user IDs even after the social network stopped sharing them with other applications, citing privacy risks.

    Taking Russian money, partnering with Russian search company and allowing them significant access. Totally not undermining our security.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @zhena gogolia: I’m just going to start posting youtube embeds of horrific violence. In comparison to that, your story excerpt will be fine.//

    I think it is perfectly fine to leave it up. Mart himself said he was okay with it staying up.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @K488

    Yeah, the organ grinders’ monkeys were trained to hold out the little hat for coins.

    Sadly, there was a dearth of organ grinders in the neighborhood in which I was a wee one, so had no experience of that at the time.

    @Adam L. Silverman

    With plans to franchise throughout Oz as Worst Western hotels.

  55. 55.

    Yarrow

    @zhena gogolia: Just leave it up. You explain what it is. People can skip right over it. It’s not nearly as horrible as encountering Trump’s ugly mug in the middle of the comments when some frontpager embeds a tweet with a picture or still video of him.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia:

    I was just inspired by Giuliani’s constant reinterpretation of what is and isn’t a crime.

    I don’t know. I think the narrator has the same sociopathic/psychopathic personality of Shitgibbon, but with the “technique” Rudy learned at his Daddy’s knee. [Shitgibbon is too fucking cowardly and weak to do any of the stuff the narrator did.]

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SFAW: I’m Jewish. I’m not Ben Shapiro. You know how you can tell? 1) I’ve actually gone through puberty, 2) I actually have lean muscle mass, 3) I’m not a self righteous, disingenuous, smug douche.

  67. 67.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mart:

    Instead of the guards singing “All we owe, we owe to her”

    What??? They’re saying words??? All I have ever heard was something like “Oh-ee-oh, ee-yo-oh!”

  68. 68.

    Mike in NC

    If there are about 17 separate investigations of the Trump properties in progress, can we hope for consecutive sentences as the verdicts come in?

  70. 70.

    Yarrow

    @Mike in NC: Yep! Both federal and state charges. And don’t forget the Traitor Tots. They’re in it up to their eyeballs. Treason Barbie is the worst.

  72. 72.

    B.B.A.

    Crack legal theory: “But corporations are people, and New York has abolished the death penalty!”

    Um, I meant to say, that’s a legal theory on crack.

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    @Platonailedit: I still chortle at Fahrenthold’s crowd strategy of having his readers go out and look for the portraits and the Tebow helmet, sort of a “Where’s Waldo” of charity scams. I think a reader did track down a portrait at Trump Doral for him.

    I am also heartened that the new NY AG, Barbara Underwood, says that this isn’t a settlement – she still wants to fine him $2.8 million. Kay is right that these kinds of crimes often go completely unpunished, or if they are punished it’s a slap on the wrist. I am sure the government could bring in quite a bit of money by doing more of this.

  78. 78.

    Mart

    @FlipYrWhig: The Oz monkey words changed about 20 years ago. It changed my life. So glad I am not the only one.

    I am such a movie wimp, when the Alien popped out that guys gut I bolted for the popcorn. After ten minutes I started back down the aisle, but had to turn back. Finally made it back to my seat (with no popcorn) and my fear of the movie was eased by my wife and two teenage girls laughing at me, and shouting that I was a wuss, but much much worse verbiage. I had it coming.

  80. 80.

    dww44

    Thanks to today’s 2 big Trump stories there were lots of replays of Trump and others talking about “Clinton lied to the FBI several times” and” the Clinton Foundation is under investigation”. I get so tired and frustrated of hearing the unchallenged false equivalencies between Trump’s misdeeds versus the Clinton’s.

    I’d like to see someone push back, or better yet, make the rounds of cable news and directly refute that HRC lied repeatedly to the FBI and the Clinton Foundation committed these inferred egregious acts. Heck, I’d like to know the answers to these questions myself.

  82. 82.

    Ken

    There are some very serious tax implications here as well

    Does he mean that if it’s determined that the Trump Foundation was not a charity, all those donations to it suddenly become taxable income?

  83. 83.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Mart: Dude, you’re not alone. I watched Aliens (II) without trepidation. But when it came to Alien III (the one on the prison colony), and early in the movie Ripley’s right there and the xenomorph is about to get her with jaws-within-the-jaws, only to back off [not gonna give spoilers] , I had to bolt for the lobby, b/c geez, I really identified with her and it was too stressful.

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m Jewish.

    Yeah, I’m stunned to read that. But I am not sure how you get there from “libtard.” [I assume the Ben Shapiro comment is relevant, but I don’t necessarily associate the use of “libtard” with him.]

  86. 86.

    Emma

    @Mart: My best friend had just found out she was pregnant when we saw that movie — I mean, literally. That morning. When the thing popped out she grabbed my arm and towed me out to the bathroom, making heaving noises all the way. I couldn’t laugh, because she would have belted me one, so I nearly sprained a rib holding the cackles in.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    OK.

    I stopped reading him, oh, about … wait a minute — I never STARTED reading the Virgin Ben.

    ETA: Although with so many people saying “Fuck you” to him (or “Fuck HIM” about him), one woulda thought he wouldn’t have retained his virginity for so long.

  90. 90.

    Anne Laurie

    @K488:

    I remember wondering that as well, until I realized that depictions of monkeys (usually associated with organ grinders) were often wearing such little uniforms. So, I think the film was picking up on something preexisting.

    Bingo! See also: Aladdin’s monkey sidekick in the Disney movie.

    (I may be one of the last Americans alive to have seen an actual working organ grinder monkey perform. Some kind of Greenwich-Village performance art sideshow, when I was very young — around 1960 or so. He seemed more into the gig than the musician on the other end of his chain, but then, what does a preschooler know about the dignity of work?)

  91. 91.

    different-church-lady

    I had no trouble with Alien. But when the ear-cutting scene started up in “All The Money In The World” I ‘decided’ it was a very good time to check out the cinema’s rest rooms.

  92. 92.

    Burnspbesq

    Can’t wait to see what the IRS tax-exempt organization exam group does to the Trump Foundation. At a minimum, it should lose its exemption, and have to pay taxes, interest, and penalties. It also seems likely that there are prohibited acts of self-dealing that haven’t been corrected. The excise tax could be more than the income tax.

  93. 93.

    SFAW

    @Burnspbesq:

    Can’t wait to see what the IRS tax-exempt organization exam group does to the Trump Foundation.

    Maybe I’m jaded, but since the Lois Lerner bullshit, I am not optimistic that the IRS will check into any non-liberal/left-side organization, because of the insane howler monkeys that the RWMFs will unleash.

    [Not to be confused with the Winkies, of course.]

    ETA: I mean, I hope you’re right, but this corrupt regime has dismantled a lot of stuff, so …

  96. 96.

    Anne Laurie

    @Emma: When Alien was still fresh and surprising, some of my college friends decided it would be a good idea to reenact the ‘birth’ scene in their dorm’s dining hall. During dinner, of course. Only *some* of the witnesses knew what they were witnessing…

    I’m still in touch with the guy who played the John Hurt character, and now he’s a very successful tech-hi finance businessman. Which probably follows a predictable character arc…

  97. 97.

    oldgold

    Flynn’s attorneys have been universally criticized for their role in today’s sentencing debacle. Criticism they richly deserve.

    Very little has been said about the prosecutors. In my opinion their performance was less than above reproach.
    They seemed to lack clarity of purpose and appeared not to be paying appropriate attention to timing.

  98. 98.

    lgerard

    The most interesting aspect of the foundations crookedness has not really been brought to light yet. The disbursement of charitable contributions at campaign events being directed by the campaign.

    I am looking forward to Allen Weisselberg’s explanation how he, the treasurer, took direction from Corey Lewandowski, who has no role in the foundation. Should be interesting.

  100. 100.

    Kelly

    @Mart: My brother and I went to Alien together. He’d been chatting up a couple ladies our age sitting next to us before the show started. He maintains to this day we’d of had drinks with them if only I hadn’t screamed when the chest burster popped out.

  101. 101.

    Schlemazel

    @oldgold:
    Honesty I think they were not expecting what happened. An easy day, we go in the judge asks if he still wants to plead Flynn says yes judge gives him 0 to 6 months and I have the rest of the day free.

    So, yeah, unprepared.

  102. 102.

    Platonailedit

    On the same day:

    Sarah Sanders: “President is using all of his efforts to fulfill his constitutional mandate to protect the American people.”

    NY AG: “Trump and his family criminally used the assets gifted to the Trump Foundation like their own piggy bank”.

    — Rogue Ivanka Trump (@MarALagoPoolBoy) December 18, 2018

  105. 105.

    Platonailedit

    Hackers successfully targeted the European Union’s diplomatic communications over a period of several years, The New York Times reports.

    Thousands of messages were intercepted in which diplomats referenced a range of subjects from US President Donald Trump to global trade.

    The breach was reportedly discovered by the cyber-security company Area 1.

    European officials say that information marked as confidential and secret was not affected by the three-year hack.

    One expert told the New York Times that the methods used by the hackers were similar to those previously used by the Chinese military.

    “After over a decade of experience countering Chinese cyber-operations… there is no doubt this campaign is connected to the Chinese government,” he said.

    The intercepted messages, known as diplomatic cables, reveal one exchange in which diplomats describe July’s meeting between Mr Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as “successful (at least for Putin)”.

  106. 106.

    Mandalay

    A RWNJ has set up a gofundme account for donations to be used solely for building Trump’s wall. So far it has raised $371,944 in two days, with a target of one billion dollars.

    The person who started the fund claims:

    I’m not a “conservative.” I’m not a “liberal.” I’m an American, with deep beliefs in what our country stands for. I proved this by vowing to protect and fighting for America’s greatest tenet: free speech.

    The snag is that the same RWNJ has created another gofundme grift going for himself because Facebook closed his accounts for being a RWNJ.

    I’m no fan of Facebook myself, but they did have this to say about the grifter:

    A Facebook spokesperson provided the following statement to Breitbart News: “Facebook has been in touch with Mr. Kolfage repeatedly and provided him a warning months ago that if he continued to engage in behavior that violated our policies that we would take action on his account, which is what we did last Thursday. ”

    RWNJ is now crying that his free speech rights have been violated.

    p.s. If the grifter raises a billion dollars for the wall, gofundme’s commission will be $29 million.

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    @Platonailedit

    Constitutional mandate?

    I defy SHS to point out anywhere in the Constitution’s description of the office of President any mention of or allusion to “protecting the American people.” The oath of office does mention protection – of the Constitution.

  108. 108.

    James E Powell

    My sisters ran and hid when the flying monkeys appeared, but I thought they were wicked cool. I wanted a couple for my own.

  109. 109.

    Anne Laurie

    @Emma:

    Now that would have had me screaming my head off. And then punching the closest actor in the goolies.

    Since that was notoriously a ‘jock dorm’ (apart from the insurgent cell of Tolkienerds / D&Ders), I was sincerely surprised none of the participants ended up beaten in a dumpster. Although, IIRC, they *were* banned from the dining hall for some time — not a small punishment for dead-broke college students…

    P.S. I lived in a different dorm, so I didn’t actually witness the incident. Blessed!

  112. 112.

    Yarrow

    @Mandalay: I wonder if GoFundMe has any policies about pages that are political in nature. Also wondering if they screen for interference by foreign governments.

    Seems like this sort of page would be ripe for a foreign government to use to stir up trouble in the US. Like convince someone to set up a page, dump a bunch of foreign money into it, and, in this case, Trump gets to say, “See! The American people want the wall! They funded it themselves.” Chaos ensues.

  113. 113.

    NobodySpecial

    I wonder how much of Judge Sullivan’s ire was directed towards the right wing punditry assuming he’d toss the case? Judges don’t like to be perceived as easy marks.

  114. 114.

    Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “what a cheap fuck.”

    Decades ago, Spy magazine sent checks for some comically small amount (IIRC $1.07) from a fake business to various notorious New Yorkers to see who’d actually cash them.

    Donald Trump and Woody Allen cashed theirs; Christopher Reeve showed up at their office, and said “nice try, guys.”

  115. 115.

    Aleta

    Today Ivanka worked harder than she ever has, tweeting 4-5 times about crim justice reform, and on top of that, a silhouette of Jared holding a phone to his ear. Big win for women who work!

  117. 117.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl: They are not to be trusted. It’s worse than just selling users’ data and so forth. They took Russian money and actively worked to undermine our democracy. They are traitors.

  119. 119.

    sigyn

    @zhena gogolia: It’s fine. It’s art. Sometimes art is pretty stuff; sometimes it isn’t. I read a short story by Kathe Koja decades ago that was a two page punch in the gut. The final sentence still runs through my mind once in a while…

    I think it should stay.

  121. 121.

    prostratedragon

    The flying monkeys in the aisles at the Goodman nearly sent me packing when I was about 9. I had an aisle seat, and one of them got right in my face for a moment!

    Something snapped somewhere in the long interregnum though, and I must admit that “Vindication” got a horror belly laugh out of me. Especially when I checked the title again after having read it.

  127. 127.

    BretH

    Of course, if you get your news from Fox you would have no knowledge of the Trump Foundation because there simply isn’t any mention of it there.

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    @Yarrow:

    The weird thing is that when it’s in context in a book of Kharms’s strange tales, it doesn’t come across as realism! But there’s a psychological truth to it that I keep feeling as I hear what Giuliani (and all Trumpanzees) have been saying about these crimes.

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @Aleta:

    a silhouette of Jared holding a phone to his ear

    All I can think of are those TV shows where someone in a witness protection program is anonymously testifying about the capo’s crimes. I take it that wasn’t her intent?

  130. 130.

    J R in WV

    @Schlemazel:

    Regarding the “paintings” – I think all that paint has permanently ruined that nice canvas for any profitable uses. A Real Shame!!

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