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The propaganda is so overwhelmingly intense that I fear the brainwashed majority have been incapacitated to question authority, and the heartless decision-makers believe their own lies.

Mark Twain said that it's easier to brainwash the population than to convince them that they have been brainwashed. It pains me to see the entire European population is as brainwashed as the US population. Unless a remedy can be found, civilization as we know it may be doomed.

How's that for some pessimism!

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read " a russian journal" by john steinbeck with photographs of robert capa( edition pinguin recent reprint). Steinbeck went in 1948 to russia " to see for himself" what kind of people russians were and how they lived. There was already a anti russian sentiment in the usa.

Very nice little book with no pretention. It shows how universal the wish for peace is among ordinary people. How every culture is great. Culture dictated by climate and environment.

It is politicians and bankers that poison the mind of people, helped in their nefarious work by main steam media

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Poison? The Corporation, Inc. Legally human - how's that for a big lie? Next to unregulated, free market, non tax paying Corporation, Inc., Covid is barely a head cold. Isn't it astonishing, the citizenry though constantly gypped by Corporate, Inc will bust their neighbor in the nose for damaging their tulips, but not raise a peep of a protest over Corporate, Inc. literally destroying habitable life (our children's future?) as we know it on earth.

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Many ethnic groups coming to America were defined as less then, not even white, like the Poles, the Jews, the Italians. America preferred ethnic groups from western or northern Europe. Poles and Russians, those from eastern Europe, were considered less then animals, and treated as such. Also there are many people who still view Russia as a communist country, and think of them as Godless people. Children after WWII were taught in school to fear Russia and indoctrinated with the possibility of a Russian nuclear attack. A generation, or more, were diving under their desks, or standing in hallways, and had dog tags strung around their necks. Of course mobilizing people's fear toward a particular group can be used as a unifying force. I was 8 when I stopped buying Russia hate, and my fear of the boogeyman. Also, countries in general do not encourage children to adopt a global perspective, so anyone can become the enemy and it's an easy sell. 

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the USA government always seems to need " an ennemy".

Ruled for many year by white anglo saxon protestants who think they are the " salt of the earth". You have seen what they have done in the USA, but also in Ireland, South Africa etc. WASP have only contempt for other cultures and religions , religion very formative in our perception of the world. But in the USA, the ultra zionists, also war mongers have come into power. And war mongers are always bad news .

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It’s always doomed! Because it’s always made up of lazy, make my life easy for me, dimwits. But it only takes about 10% of the population to start the evolution towards a new paradigm. We will bypass the pessimists and whiners by simply going ahead—as Greta is doing. Pick a thing that you want to fix and start. It’s not hard and you don’t need a horde of people in the street to help you along. The Montgomery Boycott is a prime example. Read history!!!!

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Jean it's been going on so long, since the late forties, I doubt things are going to change in regard to our attitude toward Russia, since hate for the country is always stirred up. I was talking to my sister-in-law who is half Russian, and whose great grandparents came from there, and she interrupted by take on this war which was not anti-Russia and said with great contempt, "You like Russia?" She said it slow, and drawn out. Good grief.

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I know. I worked with a teacher who had married her way out of the USSR who utterly hated Russia. But who else she hated? The little Mexican immigrants that we had a lot of in our school because they could get into the country but she couldn’t get her sister into the country from Russia. Go figure. All nations have cruel and selfish people in them. It is to my everlasting horror that during the last 40 years they have come to dominate our culture and politics. But it will change— it always does and we are RIPE for it! 😈

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I think each new immigrant group faces the same prejudicial contempt that came before, and those that engage in it should know their own ancestors no doubt faced it as well, then maybe there would be a greater sense of understanding and compassion. I don't have the faith you do. It doesn't matter what you thought of Trump, but his base was so vilified, and spoken of with such contempt it was very revealing as to who we are as a people. A meme was circulating on Facebook that defined them as an uneducated, ignorant, amoral lot and a second cousin and her son posted it and she said, "Sad, but so true." She considers herself a big time liberal. I was happy to inform her that no one with a liberal mindset agrees with the sentiment in that meme.

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I don’t consider myself a liberal but I do see myself as a Radical. Since the Viet Nam war when the Liberals were all for Johnson and MacNamara, I have not trusted them one inch. So much so that I think that the so-called Trump base is touted and financed by the elites to keep the people divided, just like I believe that 911 was an inside job and that Poppy Bush’s CIA killed Kennedy. As you can see, my notions are pretty far out there but once I started to see things this way, events began to line up in my mind. So I never believed that Russia interfered in our elections, nor that the “insurrection” was anything other than kabuki theater, plus, I believe that Bill Clinton urged Trump to run back in the day, in order to triangulate from the Reptile Party, and— just for good measure so that I can be a complete political crazy—I’m pretty sure Epstein has lots and lots of vile sex vids on Bill and his buddies that are just waiting for him to step out of line. THATS how crazy I am.

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I don't see you as that far out, well, just a bit. I also have an innate mistrust of our government and those that control it, that is the corporate world and the very rich who finance our elected official's campaigns, and whose agenda is first on their to do list. God only knows I don't trust the CIA. What a group! Toppled whole governments, killed off leaders, etc, etc. Iran had a democrat elected into office back in the 50's, Mosaddegh. Too bad he wanted a part of the oil profits drilled from Iran's soil. He had to go. As far as Kennedy is concerned, or his brother, I am not comfortable with the narrative they want to push either, especially since John Kennedy wanted to get along with Russia and cool the tensions between the two countries. I think 9/11 is still a question mark. In the Project for a New American Century, neocons all, pushed the idea of world wide hegemony, and Cheney and Rumsfeld, and Bush and a whole lot more were primary signatories. You can watch general Wesley Clark on you-tube discussing how he found out that before we went into Afghanistan after 9/11 we had seven countries on our hit list which accounts for our Middle Eastern wars. When you said Epstein had lots of vile sex vids, I read it as Einstein, and then I thought well, that's a bit far out. Well, hope to meet you at the asylum.

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March 4, 2023
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Except there is no evil they. “We have met the enemy and it is us.” We’re a free country that willingly went down this road. Now that chicken is coming home to roost and all we can do is fingerprint and say they. And it’s not a Phoenix, it’s just a mighty big chicken.

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Fingerpoint not print. 😛

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March 5, 2023
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Omygod, you’re citing the Bible as evidence???? Hahahahahahahaha

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Absolutely brilliant assessment .... never really took you, Scott, for a cultural expert too along with your political and international relations acumen. Congratulations on a great piece, which should be (sp)read widely, but sadly will only be appreciated by the few smart people still out there.

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Scott... A wonderful piece. Thanks for posting this... Actually had the honor to hear Van Cliburn play in the 60's... An unbelievable talent. The power of the Mighty Wurlitzer in its control of all discourse in this Failed State is quite amazing. The sooner it is broken into tiny fragments and tossed to the wind, the better... It is distressing to pass 70 and discover that your own gummint is the biggest terrorist org on the planet. No other way to pitch this fact... Makes me depressed I put on Army green in the day...

Thanks for your voice and bravery!

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As a college freshman the Lit class I wanted to sign up for was full, so I ended up enrolling in the only class that was still open -- "Russian Literature." It's not an exaggeration to say that that accident changed my life. The Russians I was introduced to that semester -- and all through the decades since -- came from all classes and locales. But almost uniformly they were boisterous, warm-hearted, intensely sentimental and passionate, and frequently highly educated and thoughtful. Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoi, Puskhin -- they wrote about their fellow countrymen (and often about Europeans as well) but their portraits of humanity were often, it seems to me, universal. How else to explain their enduring popularity, in books and on the stage, throughout the world, including the U.S and Canada -- until the recent insanity whipped up by the most unscrupulous politicians on the face of the earth.

From what I observe and read now, it doesn't seem to me the Russian people are fundamentally different from the 19th Century Russians. Those who have taken the time to read or listen to Vladimir Putin's public speeches, or Oliver Stone's lengthy interviews with him, cannot help but note what a literate, educated mind he has, how often his views are underpinned with reference to philosophy and history. As an American, it's embarrassing to compare the quality of the man's thinking with that of any our our presidents of the last 40 years, including Obama, who unfortunately turned out to be an eloquent poseur. The very fact that so much of the West has now been so easily propagandized to hate an entire and storied poeples is itself an indictment of just how widespread Western ignorance is.

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i agree with you that mr putine is intelligent, educated and articulate. Very interesting man. Shame he is so vilified in usa and europe. I personnally think he is a great state man. And no, i am not a " russian agent", as i have been called so many time. It is not a crime to have a different opinion. Or is it ??

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It's not, necessarily, a crime yet .. . but with respect to Russia, it's definitely still a faux pas.

*I notice that's changing

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Very well stated. I also saw the Oliver Stone interviews and have listened to V. Putin’s speeches(some) and came away with the same conclusions. I saw the Munich speech from 2007 and one can see the scoffing look on then Senator John McCain’s face. I think McCain must really disliked V. Putin. That speech was really good.

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Putin gave those two important speeches right at the beginning of the war. The US immediately banned Russian media and then mischaracterized the speeches.

I knew instantly that we were gonna get nothing but propanaganda out of all of this, but didn't realize how stupid it would be.

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I always include Nabokov at the end of the streak of incredible lit that began with Pushkin because he was part of the same hyper-educated gentry that produced it.

And since he fled Russia when the Bolsheviks came to power and eventually made his super fame in the US, I figured he would be held up, but of course he wrote "Lolita" which is "problematic" (although misunderstood).

What with the push to rewrite authors now in the name of cultural sensitivity, I'm starting to fear for US culture altogether.

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re- writing authors is a rare stupidity and a sign of troubled times. It might be the beginning of political " interventions" in how people should think or express themselves. Censors throughthe centuries have always been at work.

Literarure is not only entertainment ; It is also in a way filosophical and represents the time at which it was written . So also an historical " print" as it is. Should not be touched. But there is a lot of puritanism among anglo saxon culture.

I will note that censors also have covered the genitals of anciens statues, or have" clothed" beautiful female in paintings. It was then churches at work. But it is the same mentality.

It is an insidious process at work, as also Amazon re-prints old books ( no copyrights) but also changes the written content by erasing parts of it, .

Now, i have heard that editors want to change the words in the children s books of roald dahl ..... MAD

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Russian culture is so ancient, vast and deep-rooted that it will perfectly resist the vile attack of ignorance. As the Russian ambassador rightly says: "... the time will come for the US cultural elite to sober up and be embarrassed of its doings."

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Whew ! The nearly incredible ‘re-naming’ of Degas’ ‘Russian Dancer’ is just one more heaping tablespoon of stupidity added to an olympic-sized pool of stagnating national ignorance !

Together w/ Biden & Blinken’s vast & tragically clueless naiveté about the reality of war… ( in Joe’s case , war being something about a Hollywood prop department’s cavalry scarf wrapped around John Wayne’s neck in a fuzzily recalled B&W movie … ) we are depending now on articulate, smart people like Ritter & ambassador Antonov to toss us lifelines in time.

-JJ ( electrician @ Detroit near Canada…)

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I also lived and worked in the USSR as a young adult. That experience was pivotal and shaped my life. Russophobia has always been present in the US. But never so hyperbolic as it is now. It seems to be everywhere. One time, I had a conversation with a man who worked for the CIA. He said he had never met a Russian he liked. I asked him if he ever met any Russian children. They are human beings just like us. But they have been dehumanized in the west the same way Jews were dehumanized in Germany during WW2.

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It’s not an exaggeration that the majority of CIA and FBI agents are state-sanctioned mafias paid by our hefty taxes. I would also add those who work in DHS. Their work prove themselves as a collective human garbage dump.

Of course, there are a few great exceptions.

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Most of those exceptions seem to be former members of those organizations these days. John Kiriakou, Ray McGovern, Graham Fuller. Former NSA, too... William Binney, Edward Snowden...

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What's new about it: It has been done to Serbs and Arabs before. Approved racism to paraphrase Chomsky.

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Russia has been a capitalist country for 3+ decades -- nothing “red” there to be “scarred”.

But the US bipartisan War party (McCain, Hillary, Biden, McConnell, Schiff ghouls) planned Russia destruction for 20+ years.

The immense Russia-gate hoax was an overture

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Dear Scott, BRAVO !!

Thank you for another deeply humane and so timely article. Our country is proud of you while we are all ashamed of current madness spread from the top by our ruling, deeply corrupt, criminal “elite”

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Once upon a time, not so long ago, any development that the establishment of the day did not like could automatically be blamed on Jews.

Crops failed? Jews did it. King's son and heir is a homosexual? Because Jews. Army lost a battle? Jews.

Today, the establishment is far more enlightened. They do not blame Jews, having evolved beyond such silly things. Instead, they blame Russia.

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Sorry to have to point out something everyone here knows already.

The largest genocide in the world today is happening in Israel.

The coming destruction of Israel, like the coming failure of the US empire, is brought upon us by ourselves.

How do we allow such hateful people to rise to lead our nations?

Why do we believe them?

How do we explain this to our children?

How do we even explain it to ourselves?

Scott often writes (speaks) about the "odious" Banderas.

What is the USA? Why do we allow the "odious" to rule here? (And in Israel)

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And AIPAC is right there doing it!!!!!

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spread this youTube around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lSjXhMUVKE

It is a 4 part documentary on AIPAC in the USA

There's another series on AIPAC in the UK

Maybe it is just really good propaganda, but it fits in well with the reports of genocide coming out of Israel.

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Jews were not the only one's vilified especially in the US. As I previously said the country preferred Europeans coming from the north or west, but definitely not south or east. I do Ancestry and I've read about the coal mines in PA and my ancestors treated so badly many died young. They died from TB, or in mining accidents, or falls, and if they died on the job their bodies were dumped to the side till the end of the day when they were brought home to their widow's porch. I'm also half Italian and experienced prejudice first hand. Russia after WWII became our boogeyman, not only because they were communists, "godless people", they were also involved in the production of a nuclear weapons since the 30's. A big country, an oil rich country, and therefore perceived as a threat to US. 25 million Russian lives lost in WWII and although Roosevelt appreciated it, his successors did not, since they were perceived as a threat to our hegemonic mindset which existed even back then.

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yes , the russians saved europe from the nazis. But many seems to have forgotten about it. And at the last ceremonial remembrance, mr putine was not invited. The germans were. Shame on europe who now support the " bandera" clique in kiev !!

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Well, Europe in terms of it's long term history has been exploitive of many countries, even barbaric, so it's no surprise they don't feel they owe a debt of gratitude to Russia. Although I might be wrong. Of course the alienation of Europe and Russia was abetted and nurtured by the US, the worlds sole super power, and it was going to stay that way, peace be damned. European countries are making some very stupid choices.

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not european countries. The head of the EU, ms von der Leyen, not elected and a US lackey. As for european " leaders" ? gutless most of them

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Agreed!

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In my older years now, the scales have been falling off my eyes like a tsunami....and in looking at my country, the leader group, and the citizens, (museum decision makers), I'm in a state of wonder. How could I not have registered how absolutely shallow and foolish so many are in my country? Embarrassingly so! Have we always been this way?

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My answer to this brand of patent insanity has been to finally read The Brothers Karamazov (I read Crime and Punishment as a teenager many decades ago), Solzhenitsyn's memoirs of his family's time in Vermont, and recently to start a Lenten study of Vladimir Soloviev's Russia and the Universal Church. This last mentioned volume is very challenging but anytime I find my dedication to it flagging, I conjure up a mental picture of the odious warmonger Vickie Nuland and thus reenergize myself.

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nuland and cie have visited Nepal recently. And clinton ( h) went to india. It augurs of nothing good

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Dear Goat,

While you still remain my fav weapons inspector, of course, always, your cork-screw scribblings, with a little spit and polish, may turn out to be your best foot forward. Your pen is mightier than your sword. (note. tbh your rather animated in-person military analysis has had a tendency, in the past, to scare the [crap out of] the more timid, weak-minded among your audience - in some circles, resulting in a certain unreasonable hysteria I call 'Ritterphobia'.)

>"“Russian culture,” Ambassador Antonov concludes, “does not belong only to Russia. It is the world’s treasure. We know the Americans as appreciative connoisseurs of true art. Not so long ago tours of the troupes of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres as well as our renowned musicians drew packed houses and were always greeted with a storm of applause. The local audience is apparently longing for Russian performers and art exhibitions.”"

Oh, that's good. That's very good. I'll take all of Russian art and literature and trade them my well-worn copy of Huckleberry Finn and an old Martin guitar. What goes around, comes around.

*Do me a favor, I don't ask for much ffs. On your travels to Russia, stop by the Moscow School of Music and say Hi for me. ok. Freaking little geniuses. Where Julliard or Manhattan School of Music require mastery of one (1) instrument, Moscow School requires mastery of three (3).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxh8iaqxjA4

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It's interesting to see some of the small ways some TV writers and producers in UK are trying to fight back. In the internationally popular TV drama series "Downton Abbey", we have an episode in which the Dowager Duchess recalls her time in St. Petersberg when she accompanied her husband - then part of the English Royal Family entourage - and her lovely romantic memories of a beautiful, gracious place. She has an old, illicit romance with a Russian Count, resurrected slightly in a later episode. The much loved English police murder drama series "Endeavour" in it's latest episode, had a classical orchestral conductor and composer named "Lermontov". In small ways, there are tiny fight backs, but at the moment, only in England, and all too few I'm afraid.

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England is incredibly hateful towards the peoples revolution of Russia. Because the people overthrew the digusting and brutal and utterly corrupt Russian aristocracy. And the Brits LOOOVE their aristocracy. The only reason Dumbtown Abbey praised Russia was because D.A. was a revisionist history of English aristocrats. Get a grip.

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As for "the Brits love thier aristocracy" can I suggest you do some reading? The "Brits" as you so rudely called Britons, are made up of three peoples, the English, AngloSaxons, the Gaels, or Scots, and the Celts, the Welsh. And few Gaels and even fewer Celts have any time for the English Royalty and Norman Plantagenet Aristocrats. We all suffered too much at their hands, although you clearly know nothing about that. The shit being piled on Russia now comes from the Aristocrats, the politicians and their ghastly media. Most normal people actually have a lot of time for Russia and the Russian people.

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@Jean Wyman I am startled by your comments. People’s revolution? So you embrace the most brutal and oppressive Communist regime in Russia which enslaved and killed millions of innocent Russians? I can’t fathom what’s in your mind. The same brutal and oppressive Communist regime is still fully in charge over the Chinese people.

Are you also endorsing Lenin, Mao Tse-Tung and Stalin? They represented nobody but their demonic fanaticism as Marxists.

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No, clearly you cannot fathom what is in my mind, as your bitter opinion seems to blind you to what I have clearly stated. At no time have I said I “embrace” any government regime in any patriarchal country, mine or theirs. My goal, like most honest people is to hold my country to a decent set of standards instead of letting it charge all over the world killing wantonly and stealing resources while meatheads like you nod in nasty agreement and spout the propaganda you cannot see thru. You’re an actual shame to the Republic. Any republic.

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Just a diatribe of insults, with no substantiation or meaning. Grow up.

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My my. Touched a nerve?

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I mean, You cited Dumbtown and BBC as “ fighting back”, I was pointing out the phalacy of your statement. As to your pointless history lesson— who cares? All these disparate groups have stayed in Great Britain and benefited from that association so they are as “Brit” as anybody on the island.

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Moreover, if, as you argue, my criticism does not apply to you or your group because you are not Brits, then why do you take such umbrage and effectively defend (maybe reflexively defend) the people that I am actually criticizing?

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Great thoughtful piece.

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