Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just proved that he is the stupidest person in the world. He said in an interview that Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, is “the most dangerous person in the world.”
More dangerous than the President of China, Xi Jinping, who is threatening the survival of Taiwan and re-imposing a repressive regime across China.
More dangerous than President Kim, the dictator of North Korea, who is threatening South Korea and the rest of the world, with his intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
More dangerous than Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who is trying to destroy the people of Ukraine by destroying their access to heat, light, and water as winter begins,in addition to raining deadly missiles on them.
No, Pompeo says, Randi is “the most dangerous person in the world.”
Why? Because she leads a teachers’ unions, and unions are evil.
Teachers too are evil, Pompeo believes, because the children of America can’t read, write, or do math.
He said,
“I tell the story often — I get asked ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’ The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten,” Pompeo said.
“It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing,” the former top U.S. diplomat added.
Randi replied:
In a thread on Twitter, Weingarten said she didn’t know if the remarks should be considered “ridiculous or dangerous.”
“At the state department, Pompeo defended Middle East’s tyrants & undermined Ukraine. He was more focused on pleasing Trump than fighting 4 freedom, national security & democracy. To compare us to China means he must not know what his own department says,” she wrote.
“Maybe spend a minute in one of the classrooms with my members and their students and you will get a real lesson in the promise and potential of America.”
Pompeo’s blast is ridiculous and stupid. But it’s also dangerous for Randi. It makes her a target of extremists in search of targets. This country has a surfeit of lunatics with guns. Pompeo should pay the cost of personal security for her.
His uninformed, ignorant remarks are insulting to teachers.
I challenge him to name a non-union state that outperforms unionized states.
Every teacher should belong to the AFT or the NEA. They would have higher salaries, health care, pensions, and job security. They would have state and national organizations to protect them in state legislatures and Congress.
The teaching profession is under fire by ignorant politicians like Pompeo. Consequently, many experienced teachers have resigned, and there is a national teacher shortage.
The best way to support teachers and their noble profession is to improve their stature, their salaries, and their working conditions. The only way that will happen is if there are strong unions to stand up for teachers, who alone are powerless.
Only strong unions will fight for the profession against the hostility of bombastic fools like Pompeo.
Pompeo can’t tolerate strong women or strong unions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
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Haaaaa!
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Wow! Just wow! Ignorance at its finest!
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I am grateful to Pompeo for calling attention to the attacks on educators – vile, untruthful, dangerous for democracy. I taught for 15 years, then worked in business for 30. When asked my profession, I always say “Teacher” in the hope I can in some small way live up to that noble profession. Much love to all who teach children with no thought of reward beyond the children themselves. Peter Castaldi
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Peter, Pompeo is the one attacking teachers.
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Great point on the irony, Peter.
One of the reasons I thought DeVos was such an amazing Education Secretary. So, so bad that she was actually helpful for exposing Education Reform.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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Peter Castaldi,
Pompeii was attacking teachers in his remarks. Why are you grateful to him?
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As he said, for calling attention to the vile, untruthful attacks on teachers, which are an attack on democracy. Pompeo is here contributing to the kind of out-in-left-field extremist crap which took MAGA down a few pegs in the midterm elections.
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The UFT is anything but a strong union. Randi Weinberg gave away the “boat” In the 2005 contract allowing Bloomberg/Klein to attack veteran teachers (expensive) discussed in the past on this thread. Mulgrew is trying to outdo Randi by trying to reduce retiree health benefits and in service health benefits. With retirees the UFT under Mulgrew is trying to force retirees out of traditional Medicare and into Medicare Advantage in order for the city to replenish the “stabilization” fund that was raided to pay for in service raises. The fund is supposed to be used for health insurance.
Mulgrew is sending out emails to all in service members with lies about the healthcare debacle claiming that the court ruling against the city/unions would deny the unions the ability to bargain. I don’t want a bargaining ability for something (Administrative Code 12-126) that guarantees the city must pay for healthcare insurance in place since 1967.
When Randi was asked about the UFT effort she responded with talking points about high costs of medical care.
Spare me the details of an effective union such as the AFT/UFT.
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Fair enough, I am sorry to say, Michael. Thanks for saying so.
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Oops! I spelled Randi last name completely wrong. It is Weingarten, NOT Weinberg!!!
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There’s an adjective that usually attends this depth of stupidity, and now what is it? Oh, yes, abysmal.
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The perpetually rejuvenated
flatulence of those that
style themselves as the
“solution” is breathtaking.
The “routine description of the
U.S. American political system as
a “democracy.” That is a widely
inaccurate term for the
US-American regime, with its
absurdly powerful and
outrageously malapportioned
Senate, its badly gerrymandered
federal and state legislative
districts, its openly undemocratic
presidential Electoral College,
its absurdly powerful and
lifetime-appointed Supreme Court,
its plutocratic campaign finance
regime, its corporate and
commercial media oligopoly,
and its giant unaccountable
military empire. Beneath and
around all this is the
underlying capitalist class
dictatorship’s death grip
on the nation’s material-
economic base – a command
that is both reflected in
and reinforced by the
nation’s bourgeois political
and ideological superstructure.”
Slamming RW is nothing
more than a distraction.
Until contradictions are
brought to a head, nothing
will change…
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Well said. All of the problems you cite are ours to own, and a lot of them are caused by the rise of the ultra-wealthy and the political power they can buy. Randi is also correct in noting that the attacks from the far right extremists are not just political, they have become more personal like this drivel from Pompeo.
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Your word drivel aptly describes Popeo’s statements. It is somewhat sad coming from someone of his stature. His use of the word ‘most’ leaves us wondering as Ms. Ravitch states if he has done any thinking at all about what he is saying or simply desires to weaken the Union and its leadership.
It is good that this blog takes up his statement and examine sees it for what it is, drivel.
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“It’s not a close call.”
What’s scary is that politicians see bashing teachers as a dependable source for launching their ambitions. Despicable.
(Pompeo was a year ahead of me in law school. Never met him. He appears to be a dangerous man in his own right.)
(But not even close to the most dangerous person in the world. And hopefully never rises to a position where he might be considered.)
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What is scary is that it works. Quite effectively, especially in Ohio.
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First, Pompeo omitted all men from his prospective list. Was there any doubt that an evangelical Christian would select a woman as most dangerous (to the white, male, straight, conservative Christian) power structure?
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Well, it makes complete sense since all evil can be traced back to that harlot, Eve! (Sarcasm, folks.)
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God Herself was worse than Eve.
After all, She created Eve
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And that meant curtains for Ada m and all males who followed.
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..and doilies too
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Jewish men who think Christian nationalists will limit their attacks to Jewish women, should give it further thought. Rich Jews who think Christian nationalists will limit their attacks to Jewish labor leaders, should give it further thought.
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Pompeo is channeling his inner fascist.
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Inner?
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His winner fascist.
If you want to be a winner on the Republican party, that’s what it takes.
Pretty much all itvtakes.
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FightForFreedom
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217403890
Pompeo.
This is what he really meant when he attacked the head of the teachers union.
I and the Republican Party want to change our education system. We want to teach all children our version of American history. We want to teach all children only the good things about our history, none of the bad. We want to control the minds of our children. We do not want them to think out of the box. We do not want them to think for themselves.
We want to teach them this is a christian nation, period. We want to teach them this nation was created by white people only.
We want to teach all the children Columbus discovered America. We do not want to teach them about the greed and genocide.
We want to teach all the children Custer was a hero at Gettysburg. We want to teach all the children Custer and his men died heroes at the Little Bighorn.
We don’t want to teach our children about the massacre at Sand Creek. We don’t want to teach our children Custer was arrogant, he had zero respect for Native Americans and he paid for it. When you see teepee’s that stretch to the horizon, never yell charge.
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You forgot the founding fable: George Washington and the Cherry Tree! 🤓
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That’s right. The founding of the United States had nothing to do with a bunch of wealthy merchants and planters deciding that they didn’t want to pay taxes to England to buy it out of having overspent on its wars and then convincing ordinary people that this tax revolt for the wealthy was somehow in the interests for the common people who would fight and die to put the wigged wealthy in power in a “republican” government where they couldn’t even vote, in most places, unless they were white, male, and propertied.
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That’s right. The founding of the United States had nothing to do with a bunch of wealthy merchants and planters deciding that they didn’t want to pay taxes to England to buy that country out of having overspent on its wars and then convincing ordinary people that this tax revolt to benefit the wealthy was somehow in the interests of the common people who would fight and die to put the wigged wealthy in power in a “republican” government where common people couldn’t even vote, in most places, unless they were white, male, and propertied.
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Yes, it was about freedom, certainly. It was about the freedom of the wealthy not to have their profits compromised in the slightest.
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But as those who fight to free minds of the manacles of religion know well, people don’t like to have their foundational mythologies attacked. They draw comfort from those falsehoods, no matter how perniciously damaging the falsehoods are overall, damaging, for example, in that they prevent clear thought about important matters.
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damaging in that they preempt thought about important matters, providing a fuzzy substitute for it.
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Well said, Kathy!!!
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Chivington, the guy who led the Sand Creek massacre, was a Methodist preacher before going into the business of slaughtering Indian women and children while wearing a U.S. Army Uniform.
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Butchering Indian women and children who were peacefully encamped and under the protection of the U.S. government.
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I you saying there was Methodist to his madness?
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Are , not I
Arr
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ACuster was arrogant, he had zero respect for Native Americans and he paid for it. When you see teepee’s that stretch to the horizon, never yell charge.
I think that proves that Custer was not just arrogant, but a dsmned idiot.
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Custer’s Lieutenant: But Sir, we’re outnumbered 15 to 1. We don’t have a chance in Hell.
Custer: Charge!
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Pomoeo was educated at the same place as Custer, by the way.(West Point)
Coincidence?
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Given the crazy climate of hate and armed right wing loonies roaming the countryside, Pompeo’s wild charges against Randi could lead to death threats and worse against her. We’ve had another mass shooting at a Virginia Walmart. In what other wealthy democratic country does this daily carnage occur? And nothing ever gets done because of the wall of hate and ignorance on the right.
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The GOP claims to be the pro-life party. You can’t be both pro-gun and pro-life.
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exactly. The Greying Old Party is the party of pro-death.
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Sure you can. The pro- in life has many, many caveats. It’s not at all about the whole of humanity.
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I really AGREE on Pompeo’s hate speech spiraling into violence or death for someone.
Pompeo knows exactly what he is doing in this “Crazy Climate”.
His is a very deliberate invocation.
A for-hire hit on Randi or a stand-in.
Pompeo simply spews his poison and then sits back and waits for it to happen.
Worthy of an inquiry by law enforcement.
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Ms. Irwin, you nail this by calling it “hate speech.” It’s truly despicable, evil.
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Of course, by saying this, Pompeo sounds like the world’s stupidest man, but he isn’t. He’s just another in the long, long list of ambitious, amoral creeps in the Repugnican Party who have learned the Art of the Con from King Con himself, Donald McDoofus, who really IS the stupidest man in the world. The con that’s playing well with the Trumpanzee base is that public schools are the instruments of Satanic forces that are teaching children to be tolerant and justice-loving.
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So, we are in a race
Will the Trumpanzees and the Trumpian Extreme Court enable the now utterly Fascist Repugnican Party to seize power and change the election rules and establish the Fourth Reich right here in the good ole U.S.A (They put the SA in USA)
before
The young people coming up and the demographic changes in America sweep these morons and authoritarians away, so that they go the way of the No Nothing Party?
Much depends, here and for the world, on the outcome of this struggle–for example, whether the US lives through a period of the world conceivable state-sponsored violence right here at home, directed at sections of the population.
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cx: of the worst conceivable
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Being stupid and being a con artist are not mutually exclusive.
When the people you are conning are dumber than a bag of focks, you don’t have to be particularly smart to con them.
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Rocks.
Autocorrect and the person who programmed it are dumber than a bag of rocks.
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The older I get, the more my internal auto-incorrect kicks in. And I have a tendency to hit that post button before proofing. After many decades of working as an editor, you would think I would have learned better.
–Bob “The Slow Learner” Shepherd
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“…It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, …” Ridiculous or dangerous? I definitely lean toward dangerous. This is rhetoric straight out of Germany, 1934. No?
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It is indeed. What a surprise, huh?
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Union leaders and Democrats should issue a statement condemning Pompeo’s remarks as inaccurate, reckless and inflammatory.
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Jewish leaders should come to her defense. Women’s rights groups should come to her defense.
The Democratic Party politicians in D.C. should come to her defense. But, with the charter school profiteers’ darling, Hakeem Jeffries, taking Nancy’s Pelosi’s place, don’t count on that 3rd group.
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His using the word “filth” to describe what’s taught in school is just – breathtaking. Hysterical. Stupid. Unreal. Disingenuous. Coming just weeks after yet another school shooting, in which yet another modestly paid, beloved teacher took a bullet trying to protect students. And – not that it matters really, in this sea of bombast, but just to remind ourselves – TEACHERS DO NOT CREATE THE CURRICULUM. Society does. So take it up with the people of the United States, Pompeo.
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Thanks, Ms. Murphy. Pompeo has no clue what he is talking about. He just thinks it will score him some points with the Trumpanzees that now make up so much of the Repugnican Party.
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When I first heard that demented asininity, I thought Pompeo must be hanging out with Greene and Boebert, maybe a threesome, better known as ménage à trois.
Disgusting!
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ewwwwwww
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I suspect they all meet regularly in secret… Perhaps in the basement, or back room of pizza parlor…
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Menage a twit
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Incredible. The constant hatred being spewed, demonizing good people, while claiming to be victims The Trump playbook.
Make Americans poor — take away all those people and politics that allow folks to have a decent life.
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If Pomoeo bad a brain, he’d be dangerous.
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I would say that his comment was quite dangerous.
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Hello there Diane Ravitch,
I saw your article reprinted on Common Dreams and agree with the argument regarding Pompeo’s stupidity.
I believe you went overboard with going along with Pompeo by claiming President Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim are the dangerous ones.
Russia, China, Iran and Korea are all subject to unprovoked attacks by the number one purveyor of violence on Earth— the USA. Yes, all those countries when backed into a corner by liberal US progressives funding war and containment become dangerous. Rattlesnakes are also dangerous, with almost 90% of their strikes against humans being on the backs of young boys hands.
The US has provoked the world into violence for a very long time. It has now reached the point where the world is uniting against its barbaric unending violence against completely innocent moms, dads, children and family pets.
This acronym of expanding BRICS to include Argentina, Iran and Mexico explains it more briefly than I can; AIMBRICS.
And they won’t be aimed at Randi Weingarten.
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Even the OECD through PISA results has told the USA that you are number 17, not in the top10 nations in reading, math or science because of the percentage of American children in poverty and the fact that American poverty is highly concentrated.
Child poverty in USA about 18%, Canada 8%, Finland 5%.
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Exactly right, Doug. The scores are a measure of income.
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He look, the gotcha trolls are here. They think they have scored a big point with their little nauseating supposed gotchas. They must be taking lessons from Dienne.
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The last thing that fascists want is young people being taught how to think–along with reading, writing, and technology. Mr. Pompeo is much closer to that “most dangerous” category than any teacher. Good teachers are America’s heroes!
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You’re absolutely right about Pompeo. But after the first paragraph you lost me. The rest is a laundry list of neocon platitudes.
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What is “neoconservative” about praising the importance of unions?
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Evidently, opposing murderous dictators is, to some “minds,” a neoconservative stance. Bizarre, I know, but that seems to be what this person is saying.
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Ms. Weingarten needs to get a judge to rule that Pompeo has to pay for a security detail for her now that he has endangered her in this manner.
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I don’t even know how to spell his name. Is it Pompous or Pompeii oat!?
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“The best way to support teachers and their noble profession is to improve their stature, their salaries, and their working conditions. The only way that will happen is if there are strong unions to stand up for teachers, who alone are powerless.” The quote from Ms. Ravitch’s post is something we need to work towards. Every time I hear somebody attack the union, I feel that they want control of teachers and to leave them without any job protection: sending the message that they wish to have nearly total control over the Nation’s education, economy and direction. It is an attack which needs to be responded to by more and more teachers, politicians, and institutions, that the rich may realize that we do not wish the rich to govern us.
Mr. Pompeo’s statement, which Ms. Ravitch points out is nonsensical, does cause us to wonder about the extent of their training, and good sense. Perhaps money’s influence does that to a person. As we move forward, we should remember that there are too many without a proper education, and that we should continue to improve on public education and ensure that those in poorer localities are fed the same high education diet that the rich school districts are given.
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I’m sorry The Hill doesn’t do comments anymore. I would have loved to offer my 2cts [grrr]. Also would have been interested to see what their readership had to say. I have found them to be generally conservative, sprinkled with some liberals & a fair # of non-MAGA Reps.
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Boys are boys and Girls are girls. Why do schools want to change that? Teachers were trusted, now they are not. Please “Teachers, leave those kids alone”
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Huh?
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