Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We will not go back.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

In after Baud. Damn.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment Inquiry / Sunday Evening Sunday Evening Open Thread: Status High, Approaching Severe

Sunday Evening Sunday Evening Open Thread: Status High, Approaching Severe

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(Looks like an overdressed outhouse, doesn’t it? Appropriate!)

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117Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    Red that last Tweet, are we looking at a remake of The Wicker Man? Somehow, I think I’d prefer the original.

  2. 2.

    Jeffro

    Is the Adderrall thing basically an open secret by now?

    I wonder if Republican senators should be asked about that as well.

  4. 4.

    Kay

    Barbara Marshall
    @BBbmarsh
    Trump’s daughter works at the WH
    Her husband works at the WH
    Rudy’s son works at the WH
    Barr’s son in law works at the WH
    Barr’s daughter works at Treasury
    Trumps sons do foreign business
    His daughter is getting Chinese patents and Saudi grants
    But sure let’s talk about Biden

    I knew about Trump’s entire family and Guiliani ‘s son but Barr’s family also works there?

  5. 5.

    cmorenc

    Meanwhile, over at One America News Channel (which makes Fox look like a mamby-pamby RINO outfit by comparison) – it’s Rep. Adam Schiff who’s allegedly in potential criminal trouble for falsifying documents about Trump’s call to Ukraine. If Fox is the GOP propaganda channel, OAN is an Alice-through-the-looking-glass RWNJ conspiracy channel in which Trump’s Red Queen is the upstanding hero and Alice (Schiff, Pelosi) are the the dangerously insane ones..

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Purely coincidentally (//), Barr’s son-in-law moved from, DOJ to the White House immediately upon Barr being made AG, as noted here at the time.

  10. 10.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Nepotism is in full bloom in this regime. Talk about draining the swamp. **rolls eyes**

    And yet we’re supposed to be incensed about Hunter Biden.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    @cmorenc:

    What does it matter who they target at this point? They go after anyone and everyone. The State Department employees they’re interrogating and threatening didn’t do anything wrong, yet they’re investigating them.

    Literally anyone who dissents or is even tangentially connected to one of The Enemies will be targeted.

    By the end of this the only people who won’t have been targeted by the Trump Administration will be Trump family members or current Trump employees.

  13. 13.

    Patricia Kayden

    @cmorenc: Yeah, run with that! There’s nothing that Trump will do that will make them admit that he’s a traitor to this country and unethical to the max. Nothing.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    I knew about Trump’s entire family and Guiliani ‘s son but Barr’s family also works there?

    And let us not forget that Moscow Mitch’s wife is a Cabinet Secretary. As is the late Justice Scalia’s son.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I just think it’s amusing that only Jared and Ivanka are ever mentioned. Let’s just get a number. How many of the low quality Trump hires also hired their own grown children? Is it…all of them? We’re finding nepotism hires all over the place. Let’s get a complete list.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    Up to 130 current and former State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Clinton’s private email address have been contacted by State Department investigators, the Post’s Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe, and Karoun Demirjian reported. The process of contacting these officials began 18 months ago, died down, and was then revived again last month. And it’s not just senior officials who have been affected by this investigation. Low ranking staffers whose emails ended up in Clinton’s inbox have also been contacted as well.

    What did these poor people do to get on the Trump Administration enemies list? We’re all okay with this? These thugs can just go after random employees now, and threaten them with prosecution?

    Which multimillionaire Right wing crook is going to go on Fox and smear these people who are just trying to do their jobs?

    There’s safety in numbers. We need more whistleblowers. Tens of them. Hundreds. 150 Trump loyalists squatting in powerful positions can’t threaten and intimidate all of them if there are enough dissenters.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Rudy’s son works at the WH

    This is a real surprise. I thought Andrew and his sister had disavowed their father years ago.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @Kay: Gosh every single democratic candidate should use that line during the debate. Every single one.
    It’s time to mention Jared’s company was on the verge of bankruptcy until Qatar stepped in.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    Kiddo just returned from meeting her boyfriend, Mayor Pete. Over the moon, you could say, she even shook his hand. Sorry every other Democrat, her first-ever presidential vote has been secured.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: Giuliani’s kid is some sorry of assistant to the President. My understanding is he doesn’t have a degree because he tried to be a professional golfer, but wasn’t good enough.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Looking at Andrew’s bio it looks to me like Andrew couldn’t (and wouldn’t) find a job anywhere else. It’s not like he had a lot of options. I’m not sure two appearances on the Golf Digest tv show over 10 years are sufficient to keep him in the lifestyle he has grown accustomed to. That’s maybe two weeks of work?

  31. 31.

    Leto

    @SiubhanDuinne: Mitch’s wife is not only a cabinet Sec, but she’s actively using her influence to 1) help steer $$$ Mitch’s way and 2) help steer $$$ to her shipping magnate father. Her father gifted them, personally, around $12M a few years into their marriage.

    @Kay: if it’s not triple digits, I’d be shocked. It’s easier to believe the moon landings were faked, than no less than 50% of this administration is made up of failed/grifting family members.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It really is true of Right wingers. When they accuse someone of something IMMEDIATELY look for that same behavior on their part. You will ALWAYS find it.

    The accusation is basically a confession. It’s a road map. Never fails.

  33. 33.

    Leto

    @trollhattan: Just make sure you have her favorite comfort food ready for that eventual broken heart.

    In sunnier news, apparently the season premier of 60 Minutes sees one of it’s hosts interviewing MBS, and asking him, “Did you kill Jamal Kashoggi?” I wonder how much fluff before/after will be done? Ugh.

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: Grassley’s the one pushing this from his perch in the Senate. You couldn’t even prosecute them if you wanted to do as the statute of limitations on what has now been up classified ran out already.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Imagine working in that White House. You can’t swing a cat without running into a nepotism hire who reports back to Daddy.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: The strategic function of this kind of projection is to get their “tu quoque” in first. If you accuse them of the thing, it just seems like you’re the one saying “no, you”, and it plays as a feeble rejoinder. It’s kind of like the way that one of the functions of impeaching Bill Clinton on ridiculous charges was to blunt impeachment itself as a political tool for future use.

    The Ukraine business is particularly choice in that Trump is doing the thing in the attempt to frame Biden for that very same thing.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You couldn’t even prosecute them if you wanted to do as the statute of limitations on what has now been up classified ran out already.

    Great! So it’s just pure thuggery and intimidation efforts. They’re just threatening and harassing people because they can.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @Leto:
    She was objectively pro-Hillary, so has suffered the unkindest of political cuts already. IDK when the Ca primary ballot gets finalized; Lord, I hope the whole 26 haven’t paid to file already.

  39. 39.

    Leto

    @Kay: But, Which Daddy??? /S

    Since we already have anti-nepotism laws in place, or at least I thought we did, how do we go about strengthening those? Because nepotism Barbie and Ken broke right through those, and apparently half the cabinet is nepotism hires. Does it require an actual functioning DoJ to enforce? Senate? Just another project for the next administration to work on ?

    @trollhattan: Aww, yes she has. I think by the time CA is set to vote we’ll be down to about three and probably down to just one afterwards.

  40. 40.

    waratah

    I seem to be blocked at amazon when I go to actually see the book. Safari keeps giving me the message
    Sorry to many redirects occurred is the message that comes up
    Can anyone tell me what is happening? Happens when I use the app or use the search engine on my iPad.

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:
    It’s not like these are the only people that can do the work, maybe it’s that these are the only people who can do the work so badly…..
    Conservatives have been trying to kill the government for a long time. They couldn’t do it with politics, maybe they are trying to use stupidity to just make it unworkable.

  45. 45.

    oldgold

    A series of wild tweets from Trump over the last 30 minutes. I am concerned for the WB and those that shared information with the WB.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    We have strong anti-nepotism laws in the city where I live. Which has a population of …9000 people. We had a municipal court judge investigated for hiring his college-student daughter for what is a (shitty) 9 dollar an hour job that no one else wants. Seems like the federal government could have some too. I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to draft them, since our city council is part time and meets once a month and they somehow managed to get it done, decades ago.

  47. 47.

    satby

    @trollhattan: @Leto: the best thing about Pete is that he’s been very clear all along that obviously only one of the pack of candidates can be the eventual nominee, and when that is decided all the rest (including him) need to wholeheartedly support and promote that candidate. He’ll redirect his followers and work himself for the ticket even if he’s not on it.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @oldgold:

    Strength in numbers. Maybe that contradicts the whole notion of a whistleblower, who must be kind of mavericky people, one would think, but if you had a LOT of whistleblowers they’d all be safer. Even three would be safer than one. First then second then third. The douchebags would be reeling. They wouldn’t have time to come up with a smear campaign.

    I will never understand why people can’t work together. It’s so much easier.

  52. 52.

    patrick II

    @cmorenc:

    I had not heard of the “One America News Channel” before, so I thought I would follow your link and check it out. One commentator tried to lay out a few facts, and here is one of a multitude of responses for his effort:

    your intentions are are paved to your own eternal demise. You are loosing your soul. What do you say we have a bible study and we can compare Trumps soul to the Demokkkrat Parties. Then we will see which party is soulless and Godless. Based on my analysis of bible scripture the Demokkkrat Party appears to be on the side of Satan.

    Tough to argue with that.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    Kellyanne Conway said Trump is laughing at this whole impeachment deal because the Dems overreached and it’s good for him politically. Doesn’t sound like it:

    Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called “Whistleblower,” represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way. Then Schiff made up what I actually said by lying to Congress……

    His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber. He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason…..

    …In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the “Whistleblower.” Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!

    These Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, are doing great harm to our Country. They are lying & cheating like never before in our Country’s history in order to destabilize the United States of America & it’s upcoming 2020 Election. They & the Fake News Media are Dangerous & Bad!

    A raving crackpot holds the nuclear codes.

  56. 56.

    Starfish

    @waratah: Some mobile apps will only deal with a certain number of links redirecting you to other links before they give up. Does Safari have plugins that may be causing this behavior? Do you have an ad blocker plugin or something like that? (Is something inserting itself between you and Amazon?) It could be someone is sending you to one place before sending you on to Amazon. You can try another browser like Chrome or Photon to see if another browser has the same problems or not.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @patrick II:

    I read Trumpy Twitter sometimes and based on my exhaustive analysis from my kitchen the religious Trumpsters are the most delusional by far. By a mile. It makes sense to me. They have the most to deny. They have created an entirely different person who they call President Trump. Has no relationship at all to the actual person. For example: they think Trump and Mueller were actually in cahoots to catch child molesters. That’s how they explain that whole thing. It’s all Top Secret. Trump does bad thing, they explain it by Secret Plan by Trump to do Good Thing.

    It’s bullet-proof. It can never be disproved. It’s a secret! Duh.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    @Betty Cracker: Has anyone told him yet that the conversation-memo that he ordered released corroborates the whistleblower report, and that’s a big part of why well over half the country believes it?

    Probably not. I mean, first, they’d have to explain to him what ‘corroborate’ means.

  61. 61.

    Ruckus

    @Starfish:
    I recommend Opera. Have used it but have also found Safari to work well on mac if I have a blocker. I use AdLock. Haven’t found it to be a problem.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I can’r believe KellyAnne Conways…assertion that they are “laughing” was reported like real news.

    Yeah, that’s what that is. Just the facts.

    Why bother asking these people questions outside a deposition? What is the point of this game? So they can rebut them? Why ask them at all then? Couldn’t we just save time and not ask them and go right to the facts of the thing they will lie about?

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    @dmsilev:
    They’d have to teach him the words used to explain corroborate first.
    It’s a sorted path, this teaching trump anything. So sorted that most just never even try. Those that have know that it’s a waste of everyone’s time.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    @waratah

    Try this:

    1) Go directly to amazon.com. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Whether you sign in to Amazon or not is up to you; either way will work for what follows.

    2) Type what you’re looking for into Amazon’s search box and use that to find the item.

  68. 68.

    dmsilev

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Advance copy of Adam Schiff’s opening statement:

    Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you: he really is an idiot. I implore you, send him back to his father and brothers, who are waiting for him with open arms in the penitentiary. I suggest that we give him ten years in Leavenworth, or eleven years in Twelveworth.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I saw the Jake Tapper clip with Jordan and it’s all just such a waste of time. Jake Tapper knew every single thing he “found out” by interviewing Jordan before Jordan showed up. The facts on Ukraine are X. Tapper had X. He then added Jordan, Y, who told a pack of lies and Tapper rebutted those. Okay so we’re back at X, but now everyone who watched wasted an hour. He’s actually going backward, Jake Tapper. The story was more truthful before he held the interview than after. They’re making the lying worse.

  75. 75.

    debbie

    @dmsilev:

    Or that there were more than six witnesses who reported the same thing to the whistleblower? Or that his very own staff knew it was bad enough it needed to be hidden?

  77. 77.

    banditqueen

    @Betty Cracker:

    …In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser

    If the *Resident wants to confront his accuser, he needs to have a criminal trial–he can talk to Barr about waiving the “policy” that a sitting president ‘can’t be indicted’–there are so many criminal acts he can be charged with, after all.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Trump believes that but the rest of these people? Nah. They’re just bad people. Not delusional- bad. They lack character. Which is how they ended up working for him.

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    @oldgold: He’s totally melting down. I think his supply of Mis-Capitalized Adjectives could run out at any moment.

    Get used to it, Shitler – the coming week is going to be vastly worse for you than last week. Fucking un-American scumbag.

  84. 84.

    dmsilev

    If anyone wants a mordant chuckle, I can recommend Hugh Hewitt’s latest op-ed for the Washington Post. Capsule summary: “Impeachment is a bad idea because …look, a Sasquatch!”

    (he claims it’s a distraction from the vital need to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)

  85. 85.

    patrick II

    @Kay:

    It’s all Top Secret. Trump does bad thing, they explain it by Secret Plan by Trump to do Good Thing.

    Thanks. That’s a way of looking at it I hadn’t considered before.

  86. 86.

    oldgold

    Scott Pelley:

    “Tonight, “60 Minutes” has obtained a letter that indicates the government whistleblower who set off the impeachment inquiry of President Trump is under federal protection, because he or she fears for their safety.”

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    @dmsilev:
    He partnering with Bolton? Trump has me forgetting neocons much of the time, but they still walk among us, abusing our oxygen supply.

  88. 88.

    japa21

    According to Mrs. Japa, Sixty Minutes is doing a great job on this. First Schiff, who was great as usual. Then they interviewed McCarthy and didn’t let him get away with anything. Then they talked about all the lead up to the phone call, including not even having Pence attend the inauguration and withholding all the support.

  89. 89.

    MisterForkbeard

    @patrick II: Isn’t this literally everything in QAnon? “It totally looks like Trump is incredibly corrupt and constantly stealing from everyone, but this is just because he’s SO GOOD at his secret plan to secretly unmask all Democrats and get them all jailed.”

  91. 91.

    waratah

    @Starfish: thank you I am beginning to think Apple and amazon are squabbling. Lol. I will keep trying things including another browser. I have not put plugins on as I am very low computer illiterate.
    @NotMax: thank you I will try.

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    @patrick II:

    It’s all Top Secret. Trump does bad thing, they explain it by Secret Plan by Trump to do Good Thing.

    Which of course he never gets around to before he does the next bad thing, probably because he can’t remember what the Good Thing was.

  98. 98.

    tokyokie

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    No. They also believe there is proof in the emails somewhere that Hillary conspired with Russia to frame him.

    I thought the right wing’s current cover story was that Hillary worked with Ukraine to frame Russia by making it look as though Russia conspired with der Trumpenführer to steal the election, but in reality, it was HRC conspiring with those dastardly Ukrainians all along, and by the way, Hillary’s e-mail server is stashed in a secret location near Mykolaiv. Or something. Not that any of the stories make the slightest bit of sense. It’s like trying to ascribe logic to Lewis Carroll’s works.

  101. 101.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ruckus:

    (ETA: This was actually meant for Kay at #37, sorry.)

    Um, I’m afraid it’s much worse than that. They’re basically saying, Turn over everything & we’ll wipe your hard drives – if you keep copies of anything, we’ll prosecute you for unlawful possession of classified information. And once all the copies are in their hands, they’ll frame HRC & any other Democrat in reach by fucking with those e-mails. You think they wouldn’t?

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @tokyokie: Say, what is BiP doing these days? Remember when every thread on this blog would eventually turn into everyone arguing with him over the Ukraine conspiracy theories he got off Russia Today?

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    @Uncle Cosmo:
    No.
    I’m sure they will. Or at least try to. They are stuck in the past. And I see nothing that will fix that.
    ETA just saw your ETA and while I answered you, your answer can apply to both of us.

  105. 105.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Frankensteinbeck: Again, no. Once they’ve frightened the people who held the e-mails into giving them up & deleting all their copies, once they have the only copies, they’ll doctor them in order to frame HRC, Biden, & any other Democrat in range.

    Our only hope may be that the IC has squirreled away copies of the e-mails in question & will dump them out to the public at the optimum moment to demonstrate the massive fraud afoot. But I am very nervous about that – you can trust the IC to do exactly what’s good for the IC, and by & large they are not yooooge fans of democracy & the rule of law.

  107. 107.

    StringOnAStick

    @Jay: tRump ‘s best buddies the Saudi’s? Oh my, how can it be true! /s.

    That we continue to have a good relationship with these murderous thugs is to our eternal shame. I recall thinking decades ago that if the world would kick our oil habit that these guys would lose their power and we’d stave off global warming. We talked about global warming in my geology classes in 1978, we’ve known for far too long but oil money has way to much power.

  108. 108.

    Jay

    Mr. President, your request is appropriate but premature. Not that you would know this but the 6th Amendment gives you a right to confront your accuser, but not until you’re in court being prosecuted. So once you’re removed from office you’ll meet all your accusers. We promise. pic.twitter.com/abWnKxH7bV— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) September 30, 2019

  109. 109.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Ruckus:

    Worse, there will always be those on the bottom rungs of the ladder who see government falling into absolutism not as tyranny, but as opportunity.

    And they will cheerfully throw in with the powerful, hoping for a few scraps from the table, hoping to save themselves at the expense of their fellows. Hoping for that moment, finally, when they can shoot down their despised neighbors in an orgy of blood and rage. They’ll willingly sell their souls, hoping that they themselves will be given some measure of power and privilege over those they – there on the bottom rung of the ladder – see as inferior, if only by a fraction, to themselves.

    That’s an excellent piece. Thanks for that, Ruckus.

    And Shanah Tova to those celebrating Rosh Hashanah!

  110. 110.

    Jay

    @StringOnAStick:

    On twitter, a CJW noted that the science of Global Warming was noted in textbooks in the 1960’s.

    The Disaffected Lib found references to it in 1890’s Royal Academy of Science papers.

    Piece I found today is that contrary to what has been testified to in the UK Parliament, the SANGCOM program where the UK Department of Defence “provides communication and training support” for the Sawdi National Guard,

    – doesn’t employ 50-60 people, it’s over 798 and growing,

    – it’s not a £8 million pound program, it’s £2 billion,

    Some people you should never get in bed with.

  111. 111.

    J R in WV

    @RAVEN:

    @joel hanes: fuck lbj

    Glad to see you’re still doing well down there in Georgia!!

    And Fuck LBJ!!!

    All of ’em. Fuck ’em!!! All of ’em!!

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @debbie:

    Jeez, that’s [40 hours!] a long time! Glad it’s back.

    We’ve had our grid power out for a couple of weeks at a time in our rural neighborhood. After the derecho was the worst, had crews from states like AL, MS, LA, NC, SC, Arkansas, TN, and people loved them. We bought pecan rolls for them, neighbor gave them some collectible homemade whiskey, told them to do that at the motel, and to be careful… they were awed by the gratitude. We were awed by the hard work.

    There are lots of places where they had to carry tools and equipment up and down mountains to fix stuff where there was no road at all. HARD work!

    I finally gave up and had a whole-house generator installed, runs off the natural gas utility. Won’t run the whole house A/C, nor the well pump which is several hundred feet away from the house, but everything else is fine. It kicks on automatically about 15 seconds after the grid drops out.

    We have a 300 gallon reserve tank of water and a tiny pump under the basement, haven’t had to use it so far…

  114. 114.

    StringOnAStick

    @Jay: The Saudis have always been a corrupt and violent regime. When Dubya got all the Saudi Nationals out of the U.S. after 9/11 and there was no concerted effort to squeeze their government over it was truly my first dawning realization that oligarchy was their goal, here and there.

  115. 115.

    Groucho48

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Aren’t these copies of emails sent to Clinton’s private server? we already have copies of virtually all of them already, so, the only thing deleting the sender’s copies would be to intimidate the senders.

  116. 116.

    James E Powell

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Worse, there will always be those on the bottom rungs of the ladder who see government falling into absolutism not as tyranny, but as opportunity.

    Or as Lord Baelish put it, chaos is a ladder.

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