That cause problems should never be described as ugly or racism- they just are, and without a melting pot culture, we have no way left of rectifying the problem.
In times past, the liars would have been blacklisted, and then asked to prove skills *before* employment.
, but I won't be surprised. For the better part of a year, I've been pointing out the connections between Obama and the Hamilton Project, a group housed at the Brookings Institution and funded by Robert Rubin. Obama gave their the keynote speech at their launch, and has taken on their policy people for his economic team.
That having been said, I have some hope that Obama will act on offshore tax havens. We haven't gotten details about the American businessmen who were caught evading taxes using the Lichtensteiner LandesBank. The IRS has a copy of the DVD that the Germans used to bring in their nationals evading taxes. High profile prosecutions for tax evasions would do a lot to inhibit the outflow, estimated at around $100 billion yearly, from tax revenues, caused by evasion.
Differential pricing, and false corporate registrations in the Bermuda are another matter.
On Social Security, I think that any effort to cut Social Security benefits is going to backfire.
You can see that Dean Barker is boiling that Rubin is getting his money from TARP funds, while we are talking about taking away retirement funds from people who've worked their entire life.
I personally think that the having the US government establish an entity similar to the FDIC, that provides insurance on loans like the CDS market does now, would be a good source of new government revenue. We've been called upon as taxpayers to pick up the bill with TARP funds, to cover these things. Why not just have the government take over the CDS market, regulate it, and use the revenues to reduce deficits. We are already covering the cost of these CDS instruments, why shouldn't we get the benefits?
Thanks for this piece. The Social Security system is the one part of the budget that is completely solvent, and that Medicare spending can be reined in by a single payer health plan, If Obama actually cuts entitlements, it amounts to a stab in the back.
He made a few noises about this a year ago, and then immediately backed off when there was an outcry. People need to understand that this means that billionaires stole the Treasury under Bush, but it is a democrat who is going to make the middle class pay for it from the one part of the budget that centrally benefits them.
Keep in mind that it was only 3 months ago when Obama enthusiastically endorsed transferring $700 Billion of taxpayer money, no strings attached, in the Wall Street bailout/bonus protection plan.
There's always, always so much talking about Social Security & Medicare. It's been many years since Social Security got a raise in benefits, but they finally got one.
Here's what is almost always left out. SSI-Supplemental Security Income & in broke California the added cash payment program called SSP-State Supplemental Program.
There's never ever a discussion about these programs that I ever hear, see or read about. Just Social Security & Medicare.
I was looking at property in Oregon as I'm leaving California for Oregon permenantly real soon. And, I wanted to see if there are as many SSI & SSP people in 'Other' States like there is in California.
What I saw at http://www.policymap.com was deep dark purple Number 5 as soon as I got to the California Oregon border on the map. Meaning there's an extremely higher number of people on the 2 check system of SSI & SSP in California.
I did the US Census in 2000 as my 1st job. I got to do my tiny mountain community of 256. Out of the 256 residents only 16 worked. Many had never worked a single day in their lives. How did they live in such sprawling large acerage and big old homes? Inheritance and SSI/SSP. You CAN own a home of any value whatsoever and still never work and get SSI & SSP that totals for 1 Individual $907 cash per month. They almost ALL pay Proposition 13 property taxes, living in the same properties as Great-Great Grampa on down the line with an average 25 acre 4 bedroom 2 and 1/2 bath home for $360 a year. And even with that they get a 95% State of California end of fiscal year Reimbursment in October for the say $300 of their tiny $360 a year.
They all get low-income heating and air-conditioning assistance. Many also get Food Stamp EBT Dignity card that converts to cash from an ATM or as change from a store.
Many own several properties and use them as rental income but SSI does not seem to care at all. They just keep the properties in their desceased relatives names. Nobody's selling the property and nobody's buying the property, because it's just handed to the next relative upon death.
It is a goal of each young person up here to Apply & Qualify for permenant lifetime SSI & SSP checks. Because their Head of Household is on SSI/SSP, the entire family gets a check too.
They all get free MediCal as well and that includes Dental & Vision, all at no cost to them and completely TAX FREE!
They all like to get their free Electric Wheelchairs and sell them on craigslist for several thousand. Some get cut Oak wood for their wood stoves delivered to them thru the generous Low Income Heat Assistance program as well. They get lifeline for their phone. And Medi-Trans must come up and pick them up for free and take them to the nearest city 25 miles away and bring them back, FREE.
So, most of these people live complete free of any payments or debts at all. Only a tiny amount of money from their property taxes that they don't get back or 5% of the property tax reimbursment.
It is like a Club, a special secret club up here.
I'm not included! I work while they enjoy their checks and perks.
Most of my life until I moved up here I thought all those overweight toothless people on the 1st of the month were early retirees or disabled real early in life. What with almost every other car on the 1st having either a hanging placard or disabled plate on their car.
NOT! Having friends in most of the retail stores, casino & movie theaters, restaurants I can tell you frankly that MOST of them are on the SSI & SSP.
I would like to add here I did 4 years in the service for my college money. But, the girl across the street goes for free and has over $6,000 left over outside tuition and books for fun money. It's because her father is on SSI/SSP and took to much LSD in the 60's so he is classified Disabled by SSI/SSP but not entitled to SSDI. SSDI is for those who worked, paid into SS and have a certain amount of work Credits, around 40 is average.
And, Social Security Disability Income pays taxes as does Social Security retiree, but never SSI or SSP, Tax Free on that Entitlement.
Since the illegals love living in California I was speaking to a man who's wife and children are on on CalWorks & MediCal.
He works under-the-table. He said as soon as Obama legalizes all of his Compadres, they are going to Social Security Office and Apply & Qualify for SSI & SSP and quit working as it will bring alot more than working and paying taxes, so why work when he can get a nice check with benefits.
When my employer if closed for a Holiday I must wait until the next open working business day to get my paycheck.
But, SSI/SSP never waits, they send out their checks days early many times, no waiting.
If you look at Graphs and percentages and dollar amount spending, without legalizing these people, SSI/SSP is way up in 3rd or 4th place along with but passing up Mommy/Baby Welfare.
This is where the problem especially for California lies.
SSI just got a COLA raise, they get a raise pretty much every year from the Congress.
Imagine $907 a month for several people in your household, it would pay a Mortgage!
But, I never hear any specifics about SSI/SSP included with anyone in Government, ever, only Social Security & Medicare, never Supplemental Security Income and MediCal MediCaid.
The largest growth in specific Disabilities *Blue Book is used from Social Security to determine type of Disability for SSI/SSP* is 'Mental OTHER'. That's like, Depression, Anxiety.
So, if your Depressed, by all means get SSI/SSP it pays tax free and increases every year.
And nobody seems to care or notice it Ballooning/Growing/Swelling into an Emplosive program.
When massive amounts of Boomers retire and newly legalized Illegals know everything about SSI/SSP and plan to swoop down on this Program, who will pay the taxes to keep funding this growing program?
They never discuss it!
is nasty on purpose because automated spam machines can't read it and they can read easier ones. If you want to bypass all of that, simply register and log on. It all goes away and a whole series of features then appear. Most sites don't allow anonymous comments who are community blogs, and the reason is all security.
Our government has gotten out of control. There is literally zero accountability within the federal government right now.
If we don't stop printing money, we will make the German's Weimar Republic look like the roaring twenties. Our nation is playing a dangerous game with inflation.
Ultimately, even the most powerful nations cannot continue to devalue their money and still remain a free and prosperous nation.
P.S. Your captcha test is very hard to read. I had to try it several times before getting it right. You might wat to consider fewer letters or less distortion. Anyway, great post!
I saw this and almost posted it but thought, nah....
but hey, this is a huge economic booster to the LA area.
Exploiting runaways, young kids, turning them into sex workers....oh yeah, huge industrial sector, why even AT&T is into the game.
I'll bet they have friends in high places and get some money.
Which is another question, why is it legal to do it on film but not in person?
In my opinion, how many photos, video tapes does one really need? I guess billions!
Oh yes, we just cherish the porno industry. While during the Thanksgiving dinner, Mom & Dad reminisce about the good ole days of betamax and how it make their life so much more meaningful.
I believe the statistics back you up, at least on the number of forged resumes and credentials and in other countries it's really difficult to verify resumes.
that said, I believe the statistics on American resumes also shows huge lies too.
So, while maybe you are honest or maybe honesty and ethics is supposed to be an engineering trait, don't assume that applies to your neighbor! One thing seems certain, ethics in the Scientific and Technical fields is declining, but then very obviously ethics in business management seems to be non-existent!
There's another weird problem here -- what if the company is owned by the government? And the government-owned business just happens to buy all of their stuff from the country the government controls? It may be that the WTO couldn't do anything, because, after all, it's the sacred "management's right" of decision-making. But I'm just speculating, although if a government-owned entity could "decide" to only buy within the country, it would be a strong argument for government-ownership, ironically enough -- and assuming we shouldn't just eliminate the WTO altogether.
The best defense of the WTO seems to be that they ensure that countries don't discriminate against a specific country. That is, if you're going to apply a regulation on some country's imports, you have to apply it to all country's imports. But it does seem that the WTO extends itself past discriminatory behavior.
See Time at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878265,00.html
Any American educator who feels harried by student protests might consider the state of learning at some schools in India. When a proctor at Satna College in Madhya Pradesh complained that students were copying examination answers from their textbooks, the students staged a minor riot. At Mainpuri a proctor who caught students cribbing was hacked to death with knives. In Gorakhpur, a high school student brought his homicidal Alsatian dog to bare his fangs at any teacher who tried to interfere with his right to cheat.
Or consider this at http://numen.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/you-americans-are-too-honest/
“You Americans are too honest”
I was chatting with “Slim” a few desks down from me yesterday. A few months ago there were 90 of us contract programmers and analysts here in one room, and now there are only ten, and we will all soon be gone. The guestworkers from India are all calling around looking for new jobs.
My friend Slim was helping “Rajiv”, the guy who sits in the row in front of us, when Raj got a call from a recruiter, and Raj was claiming all sorts of skillsets that Slim knew he couldn’t do. So Slim asked Raj, “Why are you telling them that?” And Raj said, “You Americans are too honest. We lie to get the job, and when we get there, we help each other out. And if none of us there know how to do it, then we just move on to the next job.”
When I got to this gig, 90 of us came here in the course of a few weeks, and only two of us were Americans. Now, of the few who are left, most are Americans, because we didn’t lie about what we could do. But the “Powers That Be” had to try to hire at least two guestworkers who couldn’t do the job before they would break down and hire an American who could.
I link to the CBO report in my post on Obama talking about reducing "entitlements" to "balance the budget" and it's worth a blog post.
I just scanned it but it's beyond scary. So, surprise, surprise, we're not all nuts and yes spending to save CEO bonuses and Paulson's pals and keep this Ponzi scheme economy going magically is costing the U.S. it's financial ass.
I was wondering for a moment if I had entered an alternative economic reality called Paulson's twilight zone.
They seem to rule against the U.S. at every turn. How does that compare to EU's Airbus, heavily subsidized, domestic production. I can think of hundreds of similar examples.
I don't have all of the cases or rulings but it seems the rules only apply to the United States and when the U.S. does bring up a case, which with Bush II was rare, we lose.
FDR's change in US society made a true middle class, more just and then.....corporate/special interests started really eroding many of the key pillars starting with Nixon.
So, wala, we're back where our great/grand parents come from.
If there is anything that disturbs me the most is how as I've aged, I've watched that sense of fairness, of a job, of a sense of lifestyle for working America erode and along with it the society of America.
I can remember when layoffs were horrific, when corporations didn't fire people at random and fire people routinely because they were over the age of 40. A host of things I feel is directly attributable to the attack on FDR restructuring done in the 1930's.
Should be renamed the World Traitor's Organization. Such an opinion, to me, is outright treason against a country's taxpayers, and is nothing more than theft of tax receipts directly by the corporate members of the WTO.
But in my experience, and I've had quite a bit in the unemployment realm unfortunately, *any* employer-initiated unpaid period counts for unemployment benefits.
It might *NOT* count for severance, that's depending on the individual or union contract (most of my previous jobs did not pay severance unless under threat of discrimination lawsuit, even with a union backing me).
But unemployment benefits? They've got to explain to the state at that point why the person isn't working. And that puts the ballgame into an entirely different realm.
That cause problems should never be described as ugly or racism- they just are, and without a melting pot culture, we have no way left of rectifying the problem.
In times past, the liars would have been blacklisted, and then asked to prove skills *before* employment.
Look, if he cuts Medicare, he's a one-term president, and he knows it.
, but I won't be surprised. For the better part of a year, I've been pointing out the connections between Obama and the Hamilton Project, a group housed at the Brookings Institution and funded by Robert Rubin. Obama gave their the keynote speech at their launch, and has taken on their policy people for his economic team.
That having been said, I have some hope that Obama will act on offshore tax havens. We haven't gotten details about the American businessmen who were caught evading taxes using the Lichtensteiner LandesBank. The IRS has a copy of the DVD that the Germans used to bring in their nationals evading taxes. High profile prosecutions for tax evasions would do a lot to inhibit the outflow, estimated at around $100 billion yearly, from tax revenues, caused by evasion.
Differential pricing, and false corporate registrations in the Bermuda are another matter.
On Social Security, I think that any effort to cut Social Security benefits is going to backfire.
You can see that Dean Barker is boiling that Rubin is getting his money from TARP funds, while we are talking about taking away retirement funds from people who've worked their entire life.
I personally think that the having the US government establish an entity similar to the FDIC, that provides insurance on loans like the CDS market does now, would be a good source of new government revenue. We've been called upon as taxpayers to pick up the bill with TARP funds, to cover these things. Why not just have the government take over the CDS market, regulate it, and use the revenues to reduce deficits. We are already covering the cost of these CDS instruments, why shouldn't we get the benefits?
Thanks for this piece. The Social Security system is the one part of the budget that is completely solvent, and that Medicare spending can be reined in by a single payer health plan, If Obama actually cuts entitlements, it amounts to a stab in the back.
He made a few noises about this a year ago, and then immediately backed off when there was an outcry. People need to understand that this means that billionaires stole the Treasury under Bush, but it is a democrat who is going to make the middle class pay for it from the one part of the budget that centrally benefits them.
Keep in mind that it was only 3 months ago when Obama enthusiastically endorsed transferring $700 Billion of taxpayer money, no strings attached, in the Wall Street bailout/bonus protection plan.
This is obscene.
I got the internet!
Why do I get the feeling that the Feds are leeching all the money? We can't really blame banks if they behave like that.
There's always, always so much talking about Social Security & Medicare. It's been many years since Social Security got a raise in benefits, but they finally got one.
Here's what is almost always left out. SSI-Supplemental Security Income & in broke California the added cash payment program called SSP-State Supplemental Program.
There's never ever a discussion about these programs that I ever hear, see or read about. Just Social Security & Medicare.
I was looking at property in Oregon as I'm leaving California for Oregon permenantly real soon. And, I wanted to see if there are as many SSI & SSP people in 'Other' States like there is in California.
What I saw at http://www.policymap.com was deep dark purple Number 5 as soon as I got to the California Oregon border on the map. Meaning there's an extremely higher number of people on the 2 check system of SSI & SSP in California.
I did the US Census in 2000 as my 1st job. I got to do my tiny mountain community of 256. Out of the 256 residents only 16 worked. Many had never worked a single day in their lives. How did they live in such sprawling large acerage and big old homes? Inheritance and SSI/SSP. You CAN own a home of any value whatsoever and still never work and get SSI & SSP that totals for 1 Individual $907 cash per month. They almost ALL pay Proposition 13 property taxes, living in the same properties as Great-Great Grampa on down the line with an average 25 acre 4 bedroom 2 and 1/2 bath home for $360 a year. And even with that they get a 95% State of California end of fiscal year Reimbursment in October for the say $300 of their tiny $360 a year.
They all get low-income heating and air-conditioning assistance. Many also get Food Stamp EBT Dignity card that converts to cash from an ATM or as change from a store.
Many own several properties and use them as rental income but SSI does not seem to care at all. They just keep the properties in their desceased relatives names. Nobody's selling the property and nobody's buying the property, because it's just handed to the next relative upon death.
It is a goal of each young person up here to Apply & Qualify for permenant lifetime SSI & SSP checks. Because their Head of Household is on SSI/SSP, the entire family gets a check too.
They all get free MediCal as well and that includes Dental & Vision, all at no cost to them and completely TAX FREE!
They all like to get their free Electric Wheelchairs and sell them on craigslist for several thousand. Some get cut Oak wood for their wood stoves delivered to them thru the generous Low Income Heat Assistance program as well. They get lifeline for their phone. And Medi-Trans must come up and pick them up for free and take them to the nearest city 25 miles away and bring them back, FREE.
So, most of these people live complete free of any payments or debts at all. Only a tiny amount of money from their property taxes that they don't get back or 5% of the property tax reimbursment.
It is like a Club, a special secret club up here.
I'm not included! I work while they enjoy their checks and perks.
Most of my life until I moved up here I thought all those overweight toothless people on the 1st of the month were early retirees or disabled real early in life. What with almost every other car on the 1st having either a hanging placard or disabled plate on their car.
NOT! Having friends in most of the retail stores, casino & movie theaters, restaurants I can tell you frankly that MOST of them are on the SSI & SSP.
I would like to add here I did 4 years in the service for my college money. But, the girl across the street goes for free and has over $6,000 left over outside tuition and books for fun money. It's because her father is on SSI/SSP and took to much LSD in the 60's so he is classified Disabled by SSI/SSP but not entitled to SSDI. SSDI is for those who worked, paid into SS and have a certain amount of work Credits, around 40 is average.
And, Social Security Disability Income pays taxes as does Social Security retiree, but never SSI or SSP, Tax Free on that Entitlement.
Since the illegals love living in California I was speaking to a man who's wife and children are on on CalWorks & MediCal.
He works under-the-table. He said as soon as Obama legalizes all of his Compadres, they are going to Social Security Office and Apply & Qualify for SSI & SSP and quit working as it will bring alot more than working and paying taxes, so why work when he can get a nice check with benefits.
When my employer if closed for a Holiday I must wait until the next open working business day to get my paycheck.
But, SSI/SSP never waits, they send out their checks days early many times, no waiting.
If you look at Graphs and percentages and dollar amount spending, without legalizing these people, SSI/SSP is way up in 3rd or 4th place along with but passing up Mommy/Baby Welfare.
This is where the problem especially for California lies.
SSI just got a COLA raise, they get a raise pretty much every year from the Congress.
Imagine $907 a month for several people in your household, it would pay a Mortgage!
But, I never hear any specifics about SSI/SSP included with anyone in Government, ever, only Social Security & Medicare, never Supplemental Security Income and MediCal MediCaid.
The largest growth in specific Disabilities *Blue Book is used from Social Security to determine type of Disability for SSI/SSP* is 'Mental OTHER'. That's like, Depression, Anxiety.
So, if your Depressed, by all means get SSI/SSP it pays tax free and increases every year.
And nobody seems to care or notice it Ballooning/Growing/Swelling into an Emplosive program.
When massive amounts of Boomers retire and newly legalized Illegals know everything about SSI/SSP and plan to swoop down on this Program, who will pay the taxes to keep funding this growing program?
They never discuss it!
is nasty on purpose because automated spam machines can't read it and they can read easier ones. If you want to bypass all of that, simply register and log on. It all goes away and a whole series of features then appear. Most sites don't allow anonymous comments who are community blogs, and the reason is all security.
Our government has gotten out of control. There is literally zero accountability within the federal government right now.
If we don't stop printing money, we will make the German's Weimar Republic look like the roaring twenties. Our nation is playing a dangerous game with inflation.
Ultimately, even the most powerful nations cannot continue to devalue their money and still remain a free and prosperous nation.
P.S. Your captcha test is very hard to read. I had to try it several times before getting it right. You might wat to consider fewer letters or less distortion. Anyway, great post!
I saw this and almost posted it but thought, nah....
but hey, this is a huge economic booster to the LA area.
Exploiting runaways, young kids, turning them into sex workers....oh yeah, huge industrial sector, why even AT&T is into the game.
I'll bet they have friends in high places and get some money.
Which is another question, why is it legal to do it on film but not in person?
In my opinion, how many photos, video tapes does one really need? I guess billions!
Oh yes, we just cherish the porno industry. While during the Thanksgiving dinner, Mom & Dad reminisce about the good ole days of betamax and how it make their life so much more meaningful.
I believe the statistics back you up, at least on the number of forged resumes and credentials and in other countries it's really difficult to verify resumes.
that said, I believe the statistics on American resumes also shows huge lies too.
So, while maybe you are honest or maybe honesty and ethics is supposed to be an engineering trait, don't assume that applies to your neighbor! One thing seems certain, ethics in the Scientific and Technical fields is declining, but then very obviously ethics in business management seems to be non-existent!
There's another weird problem here -- what if the company is owned by the government? And the government-owned business just happens to buy all of their stuff from the country the government controls? It may be that the WTO couldn't do anything, because, after all, it's the sacred "management's right" of decision-making. But I'm just speculating, although if a government-owned entity could "decide" to only buy within the country, it would be a strong argument for government-ownership, ironically enough -- and assuming we shouldn't just eliminate the WTO altogether.
The best defense of the WTO seems to be that they ensure that countries don't discriminate against a specific country. That is, if you're going to apply a regulation on some country's imports, you have to apply it to all country's imports. But it does seem that the WTO extends itself past discriminatory behavior.
JR on Grist
See Time at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878265,00.html
Any American educator who feels harried by student protests might consider the state of learning at some schools in India. When a proctor at Satna College in Madhya Pradesh complained that students were copying examination answers from their textbooks, the students staged a minor riot. At Mainpuri a proctor who caught students cribbing was hacked to death with knives. In Gorakhpur, a high school student brought his homicidal Alsatian dog to bare his fangs at any teacher who tried to interfere with his right to cheat.
Or consider this at http://numen.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/you-americans-are-too-honest/
“You Americans are too honest”
I was chatting with “Slim” a few desks down from me yesterday. A few months ago there were 90 of us contract programmers and analysts here in one room, and now there are only ten, and we will all soon be gone. The guestworkers from India are all calling around looking for new jobs.
My friend Slim was helping “Rajiv”, the guy who sits in the row in front of us, when Raj got a call from a recruiter, and Raj was claiming all sorts of skillsets that Slim knew he couldn’t do. So Slim asked Raj, “Why are you telling them that?” And Raj said, “You Americans are too honest. We lie to get the job, and when we get there, we help each other out. And if none of us there know how to do it, then we just move on to the next job.”
When I got to this gig, 90 of us came here in the course of a few weeks, and only two of us were Americans. Now, of the few who are left, most are Americans, because we didn’t lie about what we could do. But the “Powers That Be” had to try to hire at least two guestworkers who couldn’t do the job before they would break down and hire an American who could.
And that’s how the game works.
I link to the CBO report in my post on Obama talking about reducing "entitlements" to "balance the budget" and it's worth a blog post.
I just scanned it but it's beyond scary. So, surprise, surprise, we're not all nuts and yes spending to save CEO bonuses and Paulson's pals and keep this Ponzi scheme economy going magically is costing the U.S. it's financial ass.
I was wondering for a moment if I had entered an alternative economic reality called Paulson's twilight zone.
They seem to rule against the U.S. at every turn. How does that compare to EU's Airbus, heavily subsidized, domestic production. I can think of hundreds of similar examples.
I don't have all of the cases or rulings but it seems the rules only apply to the United States and when the U.S. does bring up a case, which with Bush II was rare, we lose.
JR on Grist
FDR's change in US society made a true middle class, more just and then.....corporate/special interests started really eroding many of the key pillars starting with Nixon.
So, wala, we're back where our great/grand parents come from.
If there is anything that disturbs me the most is how as I've aged, I've watched that sense of fairness, of a job, of a sense of lifestyle for working America erode and along with it the society of America.
I can remember when layoffs were horrific, when corporations didn't fire people at random and fire people routinely because they were over the age of 40. A host of things I feel is directly attributable to the attack on FDR restructuring done in the 1930's.
Should be renamed the World Traitor's Organization. Such an opinion, to me, is outright treason against a country's taxpayers, and is nothing more than theft of tax receipts directly by the corporate members of the WTO.
But in my experience, and I've had quite a bit in the unemployment realm unfortunately, *any* employer-initiated unpaid period counts for unemployment benefits.
It might *NOT* count for severance, that's depending on the individual or union contract (most of my previous jobs did not pay severance unless under threat of discrimination lawsuit, even with a union backing me).
But unemployment benefits? They've got to explain to the state at that point why the person isn't working. And that puts the ballgame into an entirely different realm.
As soon as this March, I'm going to be looking at 15-year mortgages. The reason? I'm against rolling over debt forever, I'm for paying it off.
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