POLITICS
the rich asshole Calls For The White House Correspondents’ Dinner To Be Put To ‘Rest’
“This year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it.”
President some rich asshole called for the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to be put to “rest” after a controversial roast by comedian Michelle Wolf on Saturday night.
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it,” the rich asshole tweeted late Sunday. “The filthy ‘comedian’ totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance).”
“Put Dinner to rest, or start over!” he concluded.
By Monday morning, the rich asshole declared the dinner “DEAD as we know it.”
“This was a total disaster and an embarrassment to our great Country and all that it stands for,” the rich asshole tweeted. “FAKE NEWS is alive and well and beautifully represented on Saturday night!”
the rich asshole did not attend the event, but sent White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He also boycotted the dinner last year.
Wolf has drawn both condemnation and admiration for her brunt, brutal jokes about Sanders and the rich asshole adviser Kellyanne Conway, who also attended.
“Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited because I’m not really sure what we’re going to get: you know, a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams,” Wolf said of Sanders.
At another point, she said she mused about a tree falling on Conway, “not suggesting she get hurt, just stuck.”
Many media figures at the dinner promptly took to their keyboards to say Wolf had taken things too far, instead praising the the rich asshole officials in the room who faced the onslaught of criticism. Others defended Wolf’s set, saying she equally targeted others in the room, including Democrats and the media.
Regardless, the president of the White House Correspondents Association distanced the group from Wolf amid the furor.
“Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people,” Margaret Talev, the WHCA president, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”
Wolf defended her set against some of the critiques on social media.
This article has been updated to include additional tweets from the rich asshole.
the rich asshole rips correspondents' dinner, 'filthy' Michelle Wolf
BY BRETT SAMUELS - 04/29/18 10:54 PM EDT
President the rich asshole on Sunday joined in on the criticism of comedian Michelle Wolf's performance at this year's White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner, calling her "filthy" and slamming the event as an "embarrassment."
“The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it,” the rich asshole tweeted.
“The filthy ‘comedian’ totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!” he added, referencing Meyers' 2011 headlining performance in which he roasted the rich asshole. That same event also featured former President Obama mocking the rich asshole, who at the time was one of the leading figures in the "birther" movement. Some point to Obama's monologue that night as the moment that led the rich asshole to run for president.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. The filthy “comedian” totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!
the rich asshole did not attend Saturday night's gala. For the second consecutive year, he held a campaign rally outside the nation’s capital that coincided with the event.
In his absence, Wolf gave a 20-minute monologue that took aim at the president, Vice President Pence, Ivanka the rich asshole, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the media and others.
Numerous journalists and conservative commentators expressed disapproval with Wolf's remarks, saying she had gone too far, particularly in her jokes aimed at Sanders.
Some reporters went as far as to suggest the dinner cease to exist in its current form.
WHCA president Margaret Talev said in a statement Sunday night that Wolf's monologue "was not in the spirit" of the organization's mission of promoting journalism and a free press.
Celebrities and a number of other journalists have defended Wolf, arguing that she did what she was hired to do in roasting the current administration. Others pointed out that the president has made vulgar remarks and pushed conspiracy theories without apologizing.
WHCA president throws Michelle Wolf under the bus in statement about ‘dismay’ over jokes
President of the White House Correspondents' Association Margaret Talev on CNN/Screenshot
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The White House Correspondents’ Association has decided to play a little politics in the wake of blowback from Republicans and some journalists who were unhappy with Michelle Wolf’s hilarious no-holds-barred roast at the nation’s political elite.
Tonight, Margaret Talev, who covers the White House for Bloomberg and serves as a CNN Political Analyst, issued a statement via Twitter that said Wolf’s performance “was not in the spirit” of the group’s mission and that she wanted to encourage “civility.”
She said she heard from reporters who were “dismayed” at the jokes about Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other the rich asshole officials. The statement is below, followed by reaction tweets and an interview clip with Talev from this morning.
Wait...you hired a comedian and satirist to do a roast and then act shocked that she used comedy to satirize and roast people? pic.twitter.com/81GuEMOnDq
Wow, great job throwing a comedian you booked under the bus, @whca. twitter.com/whca/status/99…
This is shameful. A comedian labeled a lie as a lie, and a liar as a liar — and the #WHCA condemns her for this? The function of a free press is to hold those in power accountable, not to apologize when someone does so. twitter.com/whca/status/99…
Watch Talev brag about the four hours of programming that preceded the roast and discuss the “spirit of unity” that she was trying to facilitate below.
POLITICS
Migrant Caravan Arrives At U.S. Border, Despite the rich asshole’s Threats
The White House mobilized the National Guard, threatened prosecution and likened the asylum-seekers to a national security threat. They’re coming anyway.
SAN DIEGO ― The caravan of Central American asylum-seekers that sent the the rich asshole administration into a frenzy of anger began crossing into the United States on Sunday.
The caravan’s organizers, immigrant rights activists and legal observers marched toward International Friendship Park, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, as the caravan’s participants marched from Tijuana to San Diego on Sunday morning.
On the U.S. side of the border, a group of about 100 people chanted “No borders! No wall! Sanctuary for all!” as they marched along the beach toward the port of entry. Roughly 200 of their counterparts in Mexico gathered in front of the metal fencing that divides the two countries, with more than a dozen people hoisting themselves atop the barrier.
“We have to push back against this administration,” demonstrator Laiken Jordahl, a borderlands campaigner for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told HuffPost. “Its culture of hate, bigotry and fear cannot be accepted. The administration doesn’t even talk to us, we had to come out and march.”
Another demonstrator, Roberto Saravia from Los Angeles, said: “This goes back further than the the rich asshole administration. I find it ridiculous that any time there is an issue in the U.S., immigrants get scapegoated, they get mistreated, they get criminalized just for existing. This border is just a divide that shouldn’t be here and I want to see it gone ― it shouldn’t divide us.”
By the afternoon, a group of about 50 of the caravan’s members had begun crossing into the United States, along with legal advisers, organizers said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection planned to limit the number of asylum-seekers making claims at the San Ysidro port of entry.
“Depending upon port circumstances at the time of arrival, those individuals may need to wait in Mexico as CBP officers work to process those already within our facilities,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a statement.
The the rich asshole administration launched a full-court press in anticipation of the caravan’s arrival. The president dispatched the National Guard to the border shortly after railing against the group of migrants. The secretary of homeland security issued a statement likening the organizers to “smugglers.” And the attorney general threatened to prosecute them.
But for all the noise, it remains to be seen whether the White House’s actions will have much of an impact on the roughly 600 Central Americans who plan to present asylum claims.
the rich asshole’s fulminations against the caravan stem from larger concerns he’s expressed since he first started running for president three years ago. He wants the U.S. to stop releasing unauthorized immigrants caught at the border with notices to appear in immigration court instead of uniformly detaining or deporting them — a practice he and his supporters disparagingly call “catch and release.” Sessions is one of his most enthusiastic partners in that project.
Unfortunately for them, ending the practice is not currently possible under U.S. law. When space in detention centers runs out, there’s simply no place to put people who can’t be quickly deported. Many immigrants from Mexico can be deported quickly. But many of the people crossing the border these days are Central American children and families, who aren’t as easy to deport — and generally can’t be detained for long. Unaccompanied children must be released to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the mothers cannot usually be locked up with their kids for longer than three weeks due to a federal court order. Migrants have a right to apply for asylum, whether or not they get detained in the process. And immigrants who get picked up within the interior of the country often qualify for bond hearings.
None of this matters to the the rich asshole administration, whose actions and statements have likened the arrival of a few hundred Central Americans seeking asylum to a national security crisis. In an attempt to deter them, the rich asshole mobilized the National Guard to help patrol the four Southwest border states, despite the fact that its presence will be purely ornamental — the National Guard can’t make immigration arrests, and the caravan’s members plan to travel through legal ports of entry.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen chipped in with a similarly aggressive but toothless statement Wednesday, saying the department was “monitoring” the caravan’s movements. She encouraged asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico.
“Let me be clear,” Nielsen’s statement says. “We will enforce the immigration laws as set forth by Congress. If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. If you make a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach an individual in making a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution.”
Nielsen’s repeated statements targeting the caravan met with criticism from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
“It’s overkill,” Thompson told HuffPost. “You would have expected [the rich asshole] to have been briefed by intelligence officials exactly who was headed this way. … We know who they are. We know where they are. And we even know why they’re coming. So to try to elevate this into some heightened sense of threat, it just didn’t measure up.”
Sessions had his own response to the caravan, issuing a statement Monday saying he’d “directed our U.S. Attorneys at the border to take whatever immediate action to ensure that we have sufficient prosecutors available.”
It’s unclear what practical consequences any of these threats will have. The people whom Nielsen accuses of “coaching” the caravan’s members are lawyers and immigrant rights advocates counseling migrants about the process for claiming asylum. And crossing through a legal port of entry to ask for asylum, as the caravan’s members plan to do, doesn’t expose them to prosecution, as Sessions contends.
“It’s typical anti-immigrant fear-mongering,” said Alex Mensing, a project coordinator for the caravan’s main organizing group, Pueblos Sin Fronteras. “The right-wing media and the administration have been trying really hard to make it look like there are no legitimate asylum-seekers, and that’s just not true. And it’s not for them to decide anyway.”
Good news for people who want to do good: Week 66
By
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News you actually want to know, and what you can do to make a difference.
Welcome to your weekly roundup of good news about good people, how you can help make a difference — and a picture of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to make you smile.
Sen. Sherrod Brown demands Mick Mulvaney’s resignation after latest scandal
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney is yet another the rich asshole administration member embroiled in scandal. As reported by The New York Times, Mulvaney recently told banking industry executives that while he was in Congress, he would only meet with lobbyists if they contributed to his campaign.
“If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you,” he said.
And since taking his current job, Mulvaney has continued to meet with those lobbyists and others who donated to his campaigns, according to the Daily Beast.
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown made it very clear: Mulvaney must resign his position.
California lawmakers advance bill to ban “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ people
The practice of so-called “conversion therapy” for gay or transgender people is widely rejected by all areas of the medical establishment. And California lawmakers are poised to ban the harmful practice in their state.
Assemblymember Evan Low (D-San Jose) authored the bill to ensure “accountability for those who claim to provide therapy but are in fact peddling an unfounded and destructive practice.”
The law, which would be the first of its kind in the nation, would label conversion therapy as a fraudulent business practice that swindles consumers and commits psychological abuse against its victims.
“Once again, California legislators sent a clear, bipartisan message to the LGBTQ community across our state and around the world: ‘You belong,'” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, which cosponsored the bill alongside the Trevor Project.
ACTION ALERT: #BlockHaspel
Gina Haspel personally helped torture detainees in secret CIA-run prisons during the George W. Bush administration. She has no business serving anywhere in government, let alone running that agency. But that’s where the rich asshole wants her.
Indivisible has all the information you need on Haspel’s horrific record, and how you can join the fight and encourage your senators to block her dangerous nomination.
Flint activist hailed as environmental hero with major award
The lead-poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan, began in Spring 2014, and was only declared fixed this month, though that doesn’t mean everything is right.
And it was the work of local citizens who helped make this inhumane crisis a national news story. One of those activists, LeeAnne Walters, just won a major environmental prize for her crucial work.
Walters was awarded the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize for bringing this horrific situation into the light, after she and her children began experiencing frightening health issues shortly after their tap water turned brown.
She brought samples of the water to city officials and demanded action. When they balked, she educated herself and continued to spread the truth and raise the alarm. Her work eventually shamed the city into reverting the water supply back to safer sources.
“[Walters’] communal spirit and powerful moral compass proved equally critical to her ability to reach and organize Flint residents and experts alike,” the prize committee noted.
ACTION ALERT: Demand McConnell hold a vote to protect Mueller
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must allow a floor vote on the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, to protect Robert Mueller from the rich asshole’s petulance.
Sign the petition from MoveOn to demand that McConnell stop covering for the rich asshole’s lawlessness.
Hoboken mayor pushes for gender neutral bathrooms in public and private facilities
Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Ravinder S. Bhalla is preparing for Pride Month by pushing for gender neutral bathrooms across his city.
Bhalla’s executive order requires signs on all city-owned, single-occupancy bathrooms to reflect the change. And he will ask the city council to vote on an ordinance applying the same rule to bathrooms in private establishments.
The new rule will “further protect the civil rights and dignity of our transgender, gender non-binary, and queer residents and visitors,” said Bhalla.
Rhode Island governor orders state agencies to honor net neutrality rules
Bucking the regressive actions of the rich asshole’s FCC, Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo has ordered all state agencies to use internet service providers that abide by net neutrality rules.
This directive will help ensure “the free exchange of information on the internet including the ability to access the content of [Rhode Islanders’] choosing,” Raimondo noted.
Rhode Island is the latest state to make its own push to save net neutrality protections, after FCC head Ajit Pai began working to dismantle them at the federal level.
ACTION ALERT: Protect net neutrality!
You can do your own part to defend the crucial protections of net neutrality from the rich asshole administration.
Visit Indivisible’s guide to what net neutrality is and how you can help save it, by calling your members of Congress and asking them to co-sponsor a resolution of disapproval from Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA).
National Memorial for Peace and Justice opens in Alabama
Rather than monuments to the Confederate-era perpetrators of white supremacy, a new museum has just opened dedicated to honoring that ideology’s victims.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, pulls no punches when it comes to the hard truths about the nation’s racial history.
“It demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror,” The New York Times notes.
A walkway is hung with 800 steel columns bearing the names of American counties and lynching victims, as well as descriptions of the victims supposed “crimes.”
The museum was inspired by the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany, and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Bryan Stevenson — the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, which backed the museum — made it clear what he hopes the heart-wrenching exhibit will do.
“I’m not interested in talking about America’s history because I want to punish America,” he said. “I want to liberate America.”
ACTION ALERT: It’s town hall time!
Use Town Hall Project’s guide to see if your elected official is holding one — or if you need to hold their feet to the fire because they’re hiding out.
Federal judge halts the rich asshole’s cuts to Planned Parenthood teen pregnancy programs
Another federal judge has delivered a smackdown to the rich asshole’s anti-choice garbage. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice in Spokane, Washington, issued a permanent injunction preventing the rich asshole administration from cutting off grants that fund teen pregnancy prevention programs.
In his ruling, Rice slammed the Department of Health and Human Services for “arbitrarily and capriciously” terminating the grants. He added that the “public interest weighs in favor” of Planned Parenthood.
As Carrie Flaxman, a staff attorney for Planned Parenthood Federation of American noted, “The the rich asshole administration is clearly trying to push their abstinence-only agenda” with moves like this.
But judges like Rice aren’t having it.
Figure skating star Adam Rippon says “No” to the White House, “Yes” to GLAAD and Planned Parenthood
Figure skating star Adam Rippon made it clear months ago that he is no fan of this administration, particularly the extremely anti-LGBTQ Mike Pence.
Rippon, who is gay, said he wouldn’t meet with Pence during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in South Korea last January. And he later declared he had no interest in the traditional White House visit for Olympic champions.
Rippon made good on that promise in the absolute best way:
Olympians from the 2018 Games have been invited to go to the White House today. I will not be going. I will not stand with people who discriminate against those that they perceive as different. In lieu of going to DC, I have donated to a few of my favorite causestwitter.com/usatodaysports…
Those causes include the LGBTQ rights organization GLAAD, Planned Parenthood, and the Red Cross. And Rippon urged others to join him.
“I think when we’re able to help each other out and do what we can to lift each other up, that’s when we’re truly making America great.”
ACTION ALERT: Speak up for #DreamActNow!
Immigrants are fighting for their lives and livelihoods, and to stay in the only country they know as home. MoveOn wants to hear from you about why you support the Dream Act and what you’re doing to fight alongside your fellow Americans.
Call 888-872-5316 to share your story!
It’s time to go “Beyond I Do”
The fight for same-sex marriage rights was a hard-fought and crucial victory. But it wasn’t the end of the story.
Beyond I Do wants everyone to understand the very real obstacles that LGBTQ Americans still face. In 31 states, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is still legal in areas like housing, employment, and medical treatment.
Someone could get married on Sunday, fired on Monday, and evicted on Tuesday. That is not right, and it is not American.
Beyond I Do is telling real life stories of this repugnant discrimination to raise awareness that marriage rights were an important milestone, but that the journey to true equality isn’t over.
Pete Souza provides a master class in trolling the rich asshole
Obama White House photographer Pete Souza is truly a national treasure. His Instagram feed is required viewing for anyone feeling the stress of the rich asshole era and longing for the days when we had an actual competent and compassionate adult in the White House.
Oh, and he throws shade at the rich asshole like nobody’s business.
The latest delicious example came after the rich asshole admitted he hadn’t bought his wife, Melania, a birthday present. He laughably claimed he was too busy to do so.
Souza was ready for it.
the rich asshole brags of winning North Korea negotiations that have not happened yet while bashing ‘Failing New York Times’ headline on Twitter
some rich asshole yelling during the 2016 Republican National Convention/Screenshot
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President some rich asshole appears to consider his upcoming negotiations with North Korea to be a success.
The president tweeted about a New York Times headline Sunday night, which said that North Korea would give up its weapons if the U.S. promised not to invade, and then added on that the hermit kingdom will “shut down Nuclear Test Site in May.”
“Headline: “Kim Prepared to Cede Nuclear Weapons if U.S. Pledges Not to Invade” – from the Failing New York Times. Also, will shut down Nuclear Test Site in May,” he tweeted.
This follows up on the rich asshole’s supporters chanting “No-bel, No-bel” at his Michigan rally on Saturday night, referencing the Peace prize that they believe is owed the rich asshole for denuclearizing “Little Rocket Man.”
The negotiations have not yet happened, but the rich asshole has said he is not shy about declaring “Mission Accomplished.”
GOP Idiot Gets Smacked Around For Claiming Michelle Wolf Called Sarah Sanders A ‘Fat Lesbian’
Republicans are stupid. How stupid are they? Well, in this case, it can be summed up in two words: Liz Mair.
The GOP’s irrational meltdown over Michelle Wolf’s jokes about Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ shameless lying continued Sunday during a MSNBC panel that included the rich asshole strategist Mair, who took things much farther than the ridiculous notion that Wolf was attacking Sanders’ appearance. Apparently, she was calling the White House Propaganda Minister a “fat lesbian softball coach” now. Yes, seriously.
Wolf paid Sanders a backhanded compliment during her performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, saying that she uses the ashes of the facts she burns to create a “perfect smokey eye” — a reference to a makeup technique many women strive to achieve. She also referenced the authoritarian nature of Aunt Lydia, a character in The Handmaid’s Tale.
“It’s not just the smokey eye comment, she also made an allusion to a fictional character in a book who is a lesbian softball coach,” Mair said. “In order for comedy to be funny… there has to be dose of truth, or a kernel that sort of rings true in what’s said… very clearly that is a comment about Sarah Huckabee Sanders looks and it’s not a compliment.”
Mair accused Wolf of making a “fat lesbian joke” and said that “supposedly we’re not supposed to be making those.”
“What was the fat lesbian joke?” asked panelist Atima Omara, clearly as confused as the rest of us who are aware that Aunt Lydia is anything but a “fat lesbian.”
Nevertheless, Mair suggested that Omara read the book, which Mair herself clearly has not done. We’ll let you just watch it unfold and have a laugh at the monumental stupidity demonstrated by Mair:
Now that you’ve spat your coffee or whatever you’re drinking all over your keyboard or mobile device, let’s watch the Internet mock her because that’s always delicious:
Things are bad when we have to defend or the character of Aunt Lydia. Not a "fat lesbian" as if that is the worst character flaw one could have! I believe we are more worried about facist than fat.
So men who watch or read the Handmaiden's Tale believe that Atwood's Aunt Lydia character is a lesbian, softball coach? Wow! twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/…
I’ve never watched the show so my assumption is that it is something they made up for television.
Which begs the question why she is making a claim that 50% of readers took a joke the same way when she didn’t even read the book herself
We just started watching season 2 last night. Zero references to Aunt Lydia as a lesbian, or a softball coach.
I'm so confused. @michelleisawolf said Sanders burns "facts" and uses them to create a perfect smokey eye. Rebuplicans are mad because they think Wolf said burns "fat" and they think Aunt Lydia is a fat, lesbian, softball coach? twitter.com/Shlik__/status…
Interesting: Already received some fan mail from a liberal @msnbc watcher who majored in English lit who agrees it was a “fat lesbian” knock
Aunt Lydia was not a lesbian in Handmaid's Tale, the book or TV series. She is an enforcer of a regime. Michelle Wolf did refer to Sanders' "school marm" manner in a joke about choosing up a softball team - maybe you're conflating that and your stereotype of women gym teachers.
Thanks to those who tuned into my @msnbc segment there. For the record I ran a SuperPAC that tried to take Trump down in the primary...
I’m honestly confused about your Aunt Lydia reference. I’ve read the novel and watched the show, and I don’t recall her ever being a lesbian softball coach.
She was called a lesbian and Aunt Lydi from Handmaiden Tale. If you're missing these obvious insults then you're part of the problem. This gaslighting about how only her eye make up was referenced is absurd.
Here’s my big problem w/ @michelleisawolf & her defenders. They won’t even admit the jokes mocked @PressSec’s looks (calling her Aunt Lydia from Handmaid’s Tale, a lesbian softball coach reference, mocking her makeup, etc.). Defend the jokes — but don’t be a coward & gaslight me. pic.twitter.com/NPHFn0AS2V
The character Aunt Lydia will be ruthless to move her bosses agenda. Will hurt anyone in Her way and has no moral compass. Its a show of Sanders character. She complimented her Smokey eye. Did you even watch??? What are you talking about with a lesbian softball coach??
Regardless of what reality has to say about it, Mair stuck to her guns, announcing on Twitter that she knows an English major who is just as stupid as she is:
Interesting: Already received some fan mail from a liberal @msnbc watcher who majored in English lit who agrees it was a “fat lesbian” knock
Holy fucking shit these people are stupid. Nothing more needs to be said.
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