The American riots: A vertical trench in process

 By Abir Bassam

January 11, 2021 – 10:28

On Wednesday evening, it was not the first time that Americans poured into the streets in protest. However, a long time has not passed since the world has witnessed that rioters and demonstrators assaulted the symbol of American democracy: The Capitol. 

It is an irony! When the riots filled the Arab streets in several countries, they were identified as the “revolutionaries”. The rioters were assaulting governmental buildings and national symbols of the states, but it was portrayed under the name of democracy and freedom of speech by the Wild West. While the American riots were immediately branded by Europe and Western officials as chaotic anti-democratic behavior. 

During the last 10 years, the rioters have filled the Arab streets and attacked government buildings, stolen documents, and burned them, especially in Syria and Libya. The two countries were initially targeted by the Wild West to change regimes and the system in the name of “democracy” and the West was anticipating the moment to attack like a predator. 

The same irony brings back the role played by the media, in particular Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, and many others. The media has played a major role in advocating for the rioters and demonizing the opponents of radical behaviors. This role was also perfectly executed by the Western media in supporting the riots against the government institutions in the Arab countries. In reverse, the same American media is pushing towards demonizing their incumbent president and its supporters because they attacked the Capitol, the temple of the American democracy. And now they are pushing towards the impeachment of their president for instigating it.

The impeachment of Trump looks as humiliating as the impeachment of president Gaddafi in the same media, with the exception that in the U.S. the riots on the Capitol were a real version of what was going on, whereas the scenes that were transmitted by Al-Jazeera and many others were costume made. 

The American media is now promoting more than 200 bills waiting to be examined by Congress. All of them were set to criminate Trump and isolate him. Trump was always identified as silly, shallow, and arrogant, even though the American media role is best described as an attempt to bully the man and his partisans. Whether we like the man or not, Trump was supported by around 75 million Americans in the elections, who believed that it was about time to make America great again.

 After all, he is just another American president that led the American policy to the best interest of the American lobbies that enabled him to reach his position. Electing Trump in 2016 was the beginning of the end to the American system and democracy as we know it. Accordingly, the attack on the Capitol is a sign that the temple is about to fall down! 

American democracy is proved to be a masquerade beyond doubt.  Our region has been suffering from it, as well as different countries in the world, especially Latin America. The Americans worked excessively on toppling down elected governments that did not match their policies.  

In addition, it seems that the situation is going to be escalated in the coming days. Even though Trump is no longer able to tweet on social media, his partisans are tweeting for another rally during Biden’s inauguration ceremony as the U.S. president. Besides, the U.S. media are promoting the impeachment of the president. 

There is a miscomprehension of the danger of the impeachment on the American society, which is now vertically divided. After the impeachment, the vertical crack will become deeper and weaken America furthermore. For this reason, the Wall Street Journal has accused Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, of planning a coup against the president by demanding the chief of staff to refuse to execute Trump’s orders. The journal was wondering “what if the U.S. was under nuclear attack?”

In addition, the radical right-wing groups are calling for more escalation and plan to attend the demonstrations with their guns. What would this lead to? Actually, to one of two following results: the first one would be intimidating other national groups whether they were the middle or the left wings. Secondly, clashing with the authorities, if they try to stop them or arrest them for disturbing the peace.

In either way, this would mean that the U.S. is on the verge of civil war.

Over the last ten years, there have been several calls for separation from different American states. They have even gone to federal courts, but they have failed. Hence the intent to divide America is present in the Americans’ minds. This cry for division shows how much incohesive the American social tissue is, even before Trump. Add to that that racism is rising within American society but in reverse.

Nowadays, there is a rising sense of unfairness among the White Anglo Saxon Protestants [WASPs], who initially immigrated to America believing that it was the Promised Land, which was once again occupied by the inferior subjects that the WSPs had imported in the first place as their servants and slaves. It seems that the inferior subjects proved to be smart and hard-working and reached the highest positions leaving God’s chosen people behind.

Therefore, the slogans made during Trump’s campaigns that “Let us make America great again”, or in his declaration that he will go national instead of international, were most appealing to Trump’s partisans, amongst them the WASPs that constitute the majority. However, the slogans went against the deep state’s goals, especially the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and transnational corporations, and many others. The latter was highly affected by the economic sanctions applied by Trump. 

It is clear that Trump’s slogans and behavior were an embarrassment for his vice president Mike Pence and the Republican Party. However, they betrayed him. Many of Trump’s partisans, who elected them to the House of Representatives, feel that they were betrayed as well. Accordingly, the Republicans will need to work harder than ever to gain the trust of their voters again. Therefore, the announcement by Donald Trump junior that now they need to reconstruct the Republican Party again, is a serious message to be considered, since the impeachment of Trump will not go without consequences in the American streets. And his partisans are unlikely to slow down.

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Civil War, Medical Discrimination, Spy Satellites and Cyborgs! How 2021 Could Make Us Yearn for 2020

 By Helen Buyniski

Global Research, January 06, 2021

RT Op-Ed 1 January 2021

People everywhere are eager to bid farewell to 2020, a year in which our lives were turned upside down by power-mad elites who seized the Covid-19 pandemic as a chance to go full police state. But be careful what you wish for.

The year 2020 has proven things can always get worse, delivering a worldwide economic depression, a coronavirus pandemic, riots across the US, and unprecedented political division. It’s safe to say most of humanity is eager to close the book on it. But merely putting up a new calendar does nothing to address these issues, which seem certain to reach a breaking point. Humanity has been pushed to the limit with arbitrary rules, enforced poverty, and mandated isolation — it will only take a spark or two for things to explode.

It’s clear from the media establishment’s non-stop fear-porn broadcasts that Covid-19 isn’t going anywhere next year. Even as a growing body of evidence suggests lockdowns and mask-wearing have little if any effect on the spread of the novel coronavirus, governments will maintain these stringent behavioral controls, keeping the public terrified enough to beg for authoritarianism. But as vaccines are rolled out to the general public, the divide between those obeying the rules and the dissidents will only grow.

News outlets around the world have been pushing the narrative that ‘health passports’ outfitted with the bearer’s Covid-19 vaccination status will be required to travel, enter public spaces, and even get a job in the near future. These certificates are already being presented as the only possible route out of lockdown, even as the heads of both Pfizer and Moderna have admitted their vaccines probably won’t stop the spread of the coronavirus. Accordingly, those who decline to get the jab will be treated as pariahs, banned from some public spaces and told it’s their fault life hasn’t gone back to normal, just as so-called “anti-maskers” have been.

The same army of Karens that scream and point at anyone who dares leave home without their face covered will gleefully rise to the occasion of doxxing, outing, and tormenting vaccine skeptics. Anyone who isn’t thrilled by the idea of ingesting an experimental compound whose makers have been indemnified from any lawsuits will be deemed an enemy of the state, even separated from their children or removed from their home as a “health risk.” Neighbors will gleefully rat each other out for the equivalent of an extra chocolate ration, meaning even the most slavishly obedient individuals could end up in “quarncentration camps” for upsetting the wrong person.

Even those who’ve remained silent about masks and lockdowns, afraid of “making waves,” are unlikely to take involuntary inoculation lying down. Almost two thirds of Americans aren’t interested in taking the vaccine, meaning the Karens and the kapos may run into unexpected resistance.

In the US, the increasingly certain reality of a Biden presidency is also likely to push some people over the edge, though the president-elect seems to have realized that shoving his whole program down American throats at once will make the country choke. Even so, Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris have made enough statements on gutting the First and Second Amendments, turning the suburbs into mini-cities packed with government-subsidized housing, and adopting Green New Deal carbon controls that half the electorate sees their inauguration as a threat to their way of life.

Rumors of militia groups, veterans, and even active-duty military rising up against the supposed communist takeover may seem far-fetched, given such groups’ willingness over the last year to allow government to trample over such fundamental freedoms as the right to earn a living or even leave one’s house, but seeing Trump leave the White House could be the straw that broke the camel’s back. These groups are well-armed and will easily wipe out whatever Antifa cannon-fodder the neoliberal centrists can throw at them. Nor can the establishment necessarily count on police to save them, having spent the last several months calling for defunding law enforcement. Trump’s call for “wild protests” in January, coupled with his former national security adviser Mike Flynn cheering for martial law, have been interpreted as a green light to do whatever it takes to keep the White House out of Democrat hands.

The centrist establishment isn’t helping matters by declaring Trump supporters to be essentially subhuman and not worth conversing with. Worse, by promoting doxxing anyone who’s ever expressed the “wrong” ideas on social media, they’re only stirring up conservative resentment. The longer economic shutdowns last, the more likely disaffected Americans are to decide they have nothing left to lose and attempt to take a few establishment types out with them.

Not that all in opposition to Biden believe the sundowning centrist plans to install a dictatorship of the proletariat, of course. Many fear his use of the “Build Back Better” slogan popularized by proponents of humanity’s soulless “new normal” suggests his administration will be responsible for the US implementation of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset, a much more terrifying prospect than some milquetoast Marxism. This disturbing plan, devised by WEF CEO Klaus Schwab and a coterie of wealthy financiers and businessmen, aims to do away with private property, bodily integrity, familial bonds, and other pillars of western civilization, while shifting the world’s finances to blockchain-based Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and doing away with cash.

Coming off like a Bond villain straight out of central casting, Schwab has enthused about the coming merger of humans with technology, which will enable whole new spheres of individual and social control. From Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ plan to blanket the earth with spy satellites, to DARPA’s efforts to bring surveillance under the skin with “hydrogel” sensors that monitor vital signs and transmit the data to the cloud, the global technocracy these oligarchs seek will change what it means to be human – a feature, not a bug, in their eyes. And while the vast majority of western society seems utterly supine now, it’s unlikely they’ll sit idly by while the rich and powerful strip them of their humanity. The WEF’s smiley-faced propaganda (“Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, I have no privacy, and I couldn’t be happier”) may well be its epitaph.COVID-19 Lockdowns Are in Lockstep with the ‘Great Reset’

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Biden, the Road Map … and the Potential Trump Adventure? بايدن وخريطة الطريق… ومغامرة ترامب المحتملة؟

Biden, the Road Map … and the Potential Trump Adventure?

Nasser Qandil

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Until January, when President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House, a complex and open judicial process on several hypotheses, during which Republicans line up behind President Donald Trump until the judicial process reaches a clear end in Biden’s favor, at which point republican and institutional climates are likely to escalate and pave the way for Biden to the White House, if Trump does not present On a military adventure aimed at turning the tables and imposing fait accompli paths restructuring the transition path before the end of his term, as you say his dismissal to the minister of defense under serious warnings of military adventures, or the dangers of dismantling and installing the security, military and judicial administration in a way that weakens the climate of presidential transition in a smooth way, in which institutions play a crucialrole.

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When we say what’s not surprising and what’s about Trump is likely to happen, then if Biden gets into the White House next January, things will be more like a miracle, especially since the election showed a wild, organized, armed white bloc lining up behind Trump’s confrontational project to make it to the Civil War, and to sacrifice the unity of the state. In contrast, the presence of organized and armed groups on the bank of an interview also facilitates the adventure of open armed conflict, some of which build calculations to spread chaos, especially in border areas, and in a number of states that live under racial tensions, and above all there is a vertical division in the business class between the oil camp and the anti-enterprise weapons openly espoused by Biden, and openly pro-Trump. The stated talk of some of the symbols of this class about the independence of states that make up these sectors is vital sources of income, in exchange for the bets of the technology, housing, alternative energy and pharmaceutical sectors on Biden’s projects and their stated grumbling about the savageness of Trump’s economic project, despite the surge in Trump’s customs protections, began to wither isolation on U.S. interests, such as the auto industry recession, despite a temporary surge that followed the steel and steel protection policy that Washington’s allies did notsurvive.

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In an article published today by President-elect Joe Biden, published in The Foreign Affairs Magazine in the March issue, in which he outlines his responsibilities as president if elected, it is possible to deduce what Biden, the yeast of American institutional political life, will do by accumulating his experience and presence during half a century of his position in Congress and his role as semi-permanent chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee before he became vice president under Barack Obama, and Biden, the son of George W. Bush, the son of the American foundation other than Trump, is aware of the fact that he is aware of the state of affairs. His first task is at least a long-term internal and external restoration, the essence of which is at home and needs to be breath-taking abroad, where a return to agreements and understandings is the basis, not the language of animosity that is presented in Biden’s review of policy platforms and not the road map; nuclear, despite the hostile language about Iran’s regional policies. All of this is an entry point for restoring alliance cohesion with Europe and restoring life to NATO, to reconfigure the U.S. economy and rebuild what Biden calls the Americanmodel.

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Biden lays down three pillars of foreign policy, all of which suggest the need to consume his first term in domestic construction, and the pillars are, the power of the model, namely, rebuilding a bright image of America after the wild image of Trump, and the second pillar is the rehabilitation of alliances, whether with its economic dimension with Europe, Japan, South Korea and others, or its political dimension under the title of the Free Democratic Bloc, or its military dimension by revitalizing NATO, and the third pillar it calls sitting at the top of the table. The essence of the reintroduction of the agreements that Trump withdrew from, from the strategic arms control agreement with Russia, the pollution control agreement known as the Paris Climate Agreement, the free trade agreements with China, and the nuclear understanding with Iran, and on these pillars Trump builds what he considers a reconsideration of diplomacy under the slogan “Be strong but smart”, where resorting to military force must be the last option, and within very narrow limits associated with a direct threat to U.S.security.

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Commitment to Israel’s security and superiority is part of Biden’s plan, but from a 4,000-word article that received only 4 words on conflict issues in the region, this brief sentence on commitment.

بايدن وخريطة الطريق… ومغامرة ترامب المحتملة؟

ناصر قنديل

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حتى كانون الثاني موعد دخول الرئيس المنتخب جو بايدن الى البيت الأبيض، مسار قضائيّ معقد ومفتوح على فرضيّات عدّة، يصطف خلالها الجمهوريون وراء الرئيس الأميركي دونالد ترامب لحين بلوغ المسار القضائيّ نهاية واضحة لصالح بايدن، يرجّح عندها تصاعد مناخات جمهورية ومؤسسيّة تمهّد لبايدن الطريق نحو البيت الأبيض، هذا إذا لم يقدم ترامب على مغامرة عسكريّة تهدف لقلب الطاولة وفرض مسارات أمر واقع تعيد هيكلة مسار المرحلة الانتقالية قبل نهاية ولايته، كما تقول إقالته لوزير الدفاع في ظل تحذيرات جدية من مغامرات عسكرية، أو مخاطر فك وتركيب الإدارة الأمنية والعسكرية والقضائيّة بصورة تضعف مناخ الانتقال الرئاسيّ بصورة سلسة تلعب المؤسسات دوراً حاسماً فيه.

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عندما نقول ما لم يحدث ما هو مفاجئ ويكون المعني هو ترامب، يصير الأرجح هو حدوث هذا المفاجئ، وبالتالي إذا قيّض لبايدن دخول البيت الأبيض في كانون الثاني المقبل، فستكون الأمور أقرب الى معجزة، خصوصاً أن الانتخابات أظهرت وجود كتلة بيضاء عنصرية متوحّشة منظمة ومسلّحة تصطف وراء مشروع ترامب التصادميّ وصولاً لاستسهالها للحرب الأهلية، وللتضحية بوحدة الدولة الفدرالية، وبالمقابل وجود جماعات منظمة ومسلّحة على ضفة مقابلة تستسهل المغامرة أيضاً بنزاع مسلح مفتوح، وبعضها يبني حسابات على تعميم الفوضى خصوصاً في المناطق الحدودية، وفي عدد من الولايات التي تعيش تحت وطأة الاحتقانات العنصرية، وفوق كل ذلك هناك انقسام عمودي في طبقة رجال الأعمال بين معسكر النفط والسلاح المعادي لمشاريع يتبناها بايدن علناً، والمؤيد لترامب علناً. والكلام المعلن من بعض رموز هذه الطبقة عن استقلال ولايات تشكل هذه القطاعات مصادر الدخل الحيوي فيها، مقابل رهانات قطاعات التكنولوجيا والإسكان والطاقة البديلة والأدوية على مشاريع بايدن وتذمّرها المعلن من توحش المشروع الاقتصادي لترامب، رغم الطفرة التي أحدثتها إجراءات الحماية الجمركية التي اعتمدها ترامب، وبدأت تذبل بارتداد العزلة على المصالح الأميركية كحال كساد صناعة السيارات رغم فورة مؤقتة أعقبت سياسة الحماية لصناعة الصلب والحديد التي لم ينج حلفاء واشنطن من تبعاتها.

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في مقال تنشره البناء اليوم للرئيس المنتخَب جو بايدن، سبق نشره في مجلة الفورين أفيرز في عدد آذار نيسان، يقدّم فيه مقاربته لمسؤولياته كرئيس في حال انتخابه، يمكن استخلاص ما سيفعله بايدن، الذي يشكل خميرة الحياة السياسية المؤسسيّة الأميركية بتراكم خبرته وحضوره خلال نصف قرن من موقعه في الكونغرس ودوره كرئيس شبه دائم للجنة الشؤون الخارجية قبل أن يصبح نائباً للرئيس في عهد باراك اوباما، وبايدن الشبيه بجورج بوش الأب إبن المؤسسة الأميركيّة بخلاف ترامب الطارئ عليها، يدرك كما تقول مقالته التفصيليّة إن مهمة ولايته الأولى على الأقل هي إعادة ترميم داخلي وخارجي طويلة النفس، جوهرها في الداخل وتحتاج التقاط الأنفاس في الخارج، حيث العودة للاتفاقات والتفاهمات هي الأساس، وليس لغة العداوات التي تحضر في استعراض بايدن لمنطلقات السياسات وليس لخريطة الطريق؛ فمع روسيا عودة لاتفاقيات الحد من التسلح، رغم تصويرها مصدراً رئيسياً للخطر، ومع الصين عودة للتنافس الاقتصادي تحت سقف اتفاقية المناخ واتفاقيات التجارة الحرة، رغم اللغة التحذيرية من خطر صعود الصين وخطتها للتوسع عالمياً، ومع إيران عودة للاتفاق النووي، رغم اللغة العدائية حول سياسات إيران الإقليمية. وكل هذا مدخل لاستعادة تماسك الحلف مع أوروبا وإعادة الحياة لحلف الناتو، للتفرغ لإعادة تكوين الاقتصاد الأميركي وإعادة بناء ما يسميه بايدن بالنموذج الأميركي.

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يضع بايدن ثلاث ركائز للسياسة الخارجية توحي جميعها بالحاجة لاستهلاك ولايته الأولى في البناء الداخلي، والركائز هي، قوة النموذج، أي اعادة بناء صورة مشرقة لأميركا بعد الصورة المتوحشة التي رسمها ترامب، والركيزة الثانية هي رد الاعتبار للتحالفات، سواء ببعدها الاقتصادي مع أوروبا واليابان وكوريا الجنوبية وسواها، أو ببعدها السياسي تحت عنوان الكتلة الديمقراطية الحرة، أو ببعدها العسكري عبر تنشيط حلف الناتو، والركيزة الثالثة يسميها الجلوس على رأس الطاولة، وجوهرها إعادة العمل بالاتفاقيات التي انسحب منها ترامب، من اتفاقية الحد من التسلح الاستراتيجي مع روسيا، واتفاقية الحد من التلوث المعروفة باتفاقية باريس للمناخ، واتفاقيات التجارة الحرة مع الصين، والتفاهم النووي مع إيران، وعلى هذه الركائز يبني ترامب ما يعتبره رد الاعتبار للدبلوماسية تحت شعار «كن قوياً ولكن كن ذكياً»، حيث اللجوء للقوة العسكرية يجب ان يكون آخر الخيارات، وفي حدود ضيقة جداً ترتبط بتهديد مباشر للأمن الأميركي.

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الالتزام بأمن «إسرائيل» وتفوقها جزء من خطة بايدن، لكن من مقال بـ 4000 كلمة وردت 4 كلمات فقط عن قضايا الصراع في المنطقة هي هذه الجملة المقتضبة حول الالتزام.

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

سقوط الإمبراطوريّة الأميركيّة والبحث عن مخلص!

ناصر قنديل

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في الدولة الإمبراطورية الأعظم في العالم التي تمثلها أميركا انتخابات، هي واحدة من عشرات الانتخابات المماثلة التي شهدتها وقدمت خلالها نموذجاً للانتقال السلمي للسلطة، بصورة جعلت منها النموذج الأعرق للديمقراطية في العالم، وفي الدولة الإمبراطورية العظمى، والنموذج الديمقراطي الأعرق، يتفق المرشحان المتنافسان على شيء واحد هو أن الانتخابات هذه المرّة قد لا تشهد انتقالاً سلمياً للسلطة، فالرئيس الحالي دونالد ترامب هو أول رئيس أميركي يهدّد بعدم التسليم بنتائج الانتخابات وعدم تسليم السلطة، والمرشح الديمقراطي جو بايدن يحذر من أعمال شغب وفوضى، ومحللون وسياسيون وخبراء كثر من النخب الوازنة في الوسطين السياسي والإعلامي يتحدّثون علناً عن خطر حرب أهلية تنتظر أميركا، والتقارير المجمع عليها من مناصري الفريقين المتنافسين تتحدّث عن حمى تسلح وعن تمرّد ولايات على الدولة الفدرالية إذا فاز المرشح المنافس للمرشح الذي يتملك غالبية كاسحة في هذه الولايات. والحديث يدور هنا عن أكثر من عشر ولايات تدين بولائها للديمقراطيين بصورة كاسحة ومثلها تدين بالولاء للجمهوريين بصورة كاسحة.

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للمرة الأولى في التاريخ الأميركي لا تملك السياسة الأميركية في الحزبين فرصة لحل أزمتها الداخلية بالتوجّه نحو الخارج، ولا يملك كل من الحزبين حلولاً سحرية لأزمات الداخل، والتغيير الجوهري الذي يراهن عليه كل من المرشحين يعني مساساً بثوابت قيمية وجودية للفريق الآخر، بصورة تجعل خسارته الانتخابات أكبر من خسارة مؤقتة بما تعنيه من فتح الطريق لمجتمع من نوع آخر، وقيم حاكمة أخرى، ما يضع وحدة الدولة والمجتمع على المحك، وفي عمق المأزق الأميركي يشترك الحزبان الواقفان وراء المرشحين في بلوغ الطريق المسدود في خوض الحروب، بعد ولايتين لجورج بوش أشد الرؤساء الجمهوريين رهاناً على الحرب الخشنة، وولايتين لباراك أوباما أشد الرؤساء الديمقراطيين رهاناً على الحرب الناعمة، والحصيلة فشل مكثف في الولايات الرئاسية الأربع، وصولاً للحرب التي شهدتها الولاية الخامسة التي كان عنوانها دونالد ترامب، وعنوانها العقوبات وحروب الحصار المالي، التي أضافت للفشل مزيداً من الفشل، لتجد أميركا نفسها أمام طريق مسدود بين حرب تعجز عن خوضها وتسوية لا تجرؤ على الخوض فيها.

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أمام الأميركيين أميركيتان مختلفتان جذرياً مع فوز كل من المرشحين المتنافسين، واحدة تلغي الأخرى، داخلياً وخارجياً، في مشاريع التنمية الاقتصادية، والتوجهات الضريبية والبيئية، وفرص العمل والأجور، والتأمينات الصحية والتعامل مع كورونا، والعلاقة بين الأعراق والإطار القانوني للمواطنة الأميركية، فأميركا ترامب بيضاء للأثرياء لا تعترف بضوابط البيئة والصحة، تسود فيها شركات النفط والسلاح والعقارات وتحصر صناعة السياسة بها، وهي أميركا التي تقع في صلب مخاطر المواجهات غير المعروفة النتائج، مع سلبيات عدائية تطال كل العالم من روسيا والصين وصولاً الى اوروبا مروراً بإيران سورية وكوريا الشمالية؛ بينما أميركا بايدن هي اميركا مختلفة جذرياً، حيث لم يعد ممكناً الكلام عن رفض العنصرية بالنسبة للسود واللاتينيين من دون تغييرات تشريعية جذرية، ولم يعد ممكناً للطبقات الوسطى وما دونها قبول الإصلاح الاجتماعي والطبي من دون نظام ضرائبي جديد، ولا يمكن الحفاظ على دعم الجماعات البيئية من دون إجراءات حاسمة ستصيب شركات النفط والسلاح في الصميم، وتنظم القطاع العقاري بمعايير يرفضها اصحاب الرأسمال العقاري. وخارجياً هي أميركا العائدة الى محاولة ترميم الجسور التي نسفها ترامب، على قاعدة الاختلاف والندية، لكن ايضاً على قاعدة التعاون والبحث عن الحلول السياسية للنزاعات، في ملف اتفاقية المناخ وملف منظمة الصحة العالمية والملف النووي الإيراني، وملف التفاوض على حلّ يستند لصيغة الدولتين للقضية الفلسطينية.

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في أميركا يكثر أنصار المرشحين من استعمال صفة المخلص في توصيف مشروعه وترشيحه، فيما خيار ترامب يعني إصابة وجودية لنصف الأميركيين، وخيار بايدن يعني إصابة وجودياً للنصف الآخر، والأهم من اسم الرابح في الانتخابات هو أن نهاية الانتخابات تعني بداية مسار مصيري خطير للإمبراطورية التي تترنح وتفقد توازنها، ليست الحرب الأهلية مجرد شائعة فيه، بعد قرنين من الصعود المستقر، يصير الشحوب والتراجع خطاً بيانياً مستداماً، والقفزة الى المجهول قاب ساعات أو أكثر، ويصير تفادي الساعة السوداء للسقوط المدوّي للإمبراطورية العظمى بذاته إنجاز غير قابل للتحقق إلا بفوز كاسح لأحد المرشحين، حيث يبدو بايدن هو الأوفر حظاً لتحقيقه، حيث فوزه الضئيل يشكل صاعق التفجير الداخلي للإمبراطورية، وفوزه الكاسح ربما يكون بوليصة تأمينها من التصدع، وربما يكون هذا حافزاً لتصويت غير متوقع لصالحه لتفادي الأسوأ، بحيث يبدو بايدن مشروع مخلص بنظر دعاة وحدة «الأمة الأميركية» من الحزبين لرد الاعتبار للسياسة ولو من موقع أضعف.

فيديوات متعلقة

مقالات متعلقة

• أميركا 2020: الإمبراطورية كما لم تُرَ من قبل!
• الفائز بِكُرة من لهب
• العرس في أميركا والتطبيل في بلاد العرب..
• فريدمان: ترامب سيواصل تغيير الشرق الأوسط
• تفاصيل تصويت الناخبين الأميركيين المبكر (حتى الأحد 1-11-2020)
• ما كُسر مع إيران يصعب إصلاحه
• أميركا ــ الصين: المواجهة حتماً

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

3 weeks to election: No 2nd household stimulus? No mass protests? No pulse?

October 14, 2020

By Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog

If you had said back in May that the CARES Act would be the only fiscal stimulus in the world’s richest country surely you would have responded, “But then by October America will certainly be in pandemonium?”

Well… where’s the pandemonium?

I can best explain this American exceptionalism – that they go postal only when they should not, instead of when they should – via this October 3rd report I did for PressTV.

For those of you who don’t want to deal with the “inexplicable” glitches and stops which somehow “magically” afflict every PressTV report I try to watch from inside the US, here’s the recap: in Chicago, which is just a half-million people short of being a megacity, only about 150 people showed up for an anti-unemployment demonstration even though half the country is affected by either joblessness or under-employment.

In urban areas like San Francisco, with a metro area half the size of Chicago’s, you have 11 jobless for every one job opening, and yet… 150 people here?

As a reporter I just give the facts… and then, as I refuse to be a “useful idiot”, I also openly interpret the facts: the fact is, Americans have no idea what they are doing when it comes to politics. If you ask them whether the problem is either ignorance or apathy, they respond, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

The problem, as I am a staunch believer in (non-Obama-related types of) hope, is not with the average Joe but with the Washington elite, who even if they came from an average Joe quite obviously do not care about the average Joe anymore.

Of course, as the currently-under-confirmation-proceedings Supreme Court Justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett proves, those tapped for the most truly elite spots are rarely from average Joe areas: Barrett would be, incredibly, the first justice who did not spend most of her life on the East Coast. To give an objective point to those in favor of the “Americans are ignorant” theory: mention “East Coast bias” to an American and they will think you are talking about how ESPN keeps talking about the Patriots and Yankees.

But the bewildering lack of any 2nd stimulus for households so emphatically proves that the Democratic leadership does not care about the average Joe (Republicans only care about an average Joe if said Joe is willing to reject all government assistance in every form) that even CNN had to hold Nancy Pelosi’s feet to the fire for the first time since Trump won the Republican primaries in 2016. Pelosi accused Wolf Blitzer and CNN of – now get ready to laugh – being “apologists for Republicans” simply because he pressed her on the bewildering and poverty-fuelling lack of a 2nd household stimulus.

LOL – maybe the Russians have flipped Wolf, eh Nancy? Putin’s power is limitless!

No, it’s just bewildering to even the CNN journalists as to why Democratic leadership refuses to alleviate massive economic suffering. I explained it here: No 2nd stimulus? Time to admit both parties want to destroy the average American, for those in the inexperienced youth class who can’t believe that Democrats could be as merciless and self-interested as those aren’t-they-just-ghastly conservatives.

Is this another boring article of me complaining about the super-failures of the super-capitalist imperialist US in 2020?

No, it’s to point out how wrong I am. Way back on May 28, in an article titled August 1: when the unemployment runs out and a new era of US labor battles begin I correctly opined, “I think there is no chance that the US 1% authorises an extension of the $600 per week extra past August 1 – it was totally out of keeping with US ideology to begin with, and yet another indicator of the hysteria which swept the US regarding coronavirus.” But – as I often can’t keep my mouth shut – I foolishly added, “Buy some popcorn and watch the show – August 1 is going to see public labor-related rage for the first time since the 1930s.”

So it’s less than three weeks until the election – where’s the labor-related rage?

I was in Kenosha, Wisconsin, again yesterday – the place is still totally boarded up, which seems rather much to me: There hasn’t been any widespread social rebellion since the end of August, anywhere. This article asks why that is?

The answer is the super-failures of the super-capitalist imperialist US that the US system produces tremendous political apathy, which has a side effect of increasing political ignorance.

As proof: I cannot express how pleas to “get out and vote” amazingly outnumber the advertisements for McDonalds, Coke and Beyonce combined – that seems like an impossibility, no? But such is the enormous political inertia here.

This apathy results in cases such as the nation’s third-largest city mustering only 150 people, 95% of whom were under 30, as the youth class has not relinquished that unique American optimism which eventually buckles under the reality encountered outside of school of the super-failures of the super-capitalist imperialist US.

If the trend of calm continues, the 2020 record will have to state that it was only Black-related issues which caused public protest despite the massive, massive societal chaos.

We can perhaps explain this by noting that the only truly successful protests in the US since nearly 1917 (the first year of socialist success) have been for Black-related issues. Stick with what works, I guess?

Indeed, the last grassroots, from-the-streets victory by White Americans was in 1920 – the year that anti-alcohol Prohibition was passed, as was women’s suffrage. Ever since socialism became a real thing it should be clear that White Americans are not about to march under anything resembling that successful banner, as it obviously opposes US domination.

Don’t tell me that Baby Boomers stopped Vietnam – the Vietnamese resistance booted out the invaders in 1975, not Western hippies. Americans didn’t flee until 8 full years after the “Summer of Love”.

2020 proves what we have known since those fun, marijuana-fuelled protests of the 1960s: White Americans simply don’t protest.

Republicans don’t protest, period. After all, they are status quo-lovers, and they aren’t about to muck up the system which they believe is the best in the world and always will be.

Democrats aren’t protesting because their elite leadership in 2020 has kept them overflowing with fear (corona), anger (Trump), identity politics (Black Lives Matter (which is not nonsense to Black people, of course, but which is inherently a minority-based movement as opposed to a broad, class-based, majority movement), and – above all – the rabid, competitive, evangelical fervor to win short-term growth via any means necessary in November’s elections.

But the bottom line is: for decades Americans have insisted on the status quo and violently rejected the call for any sort of revolutionary change in the economic and political structures upon which several centuries of Western culture has been based (bourgeois, aristocratic liberalism (for those who can afford it)). They have said to any nation or person – if you are not totally with us in maintaining these structures which preserve the status quo then we are totally against you.

Indeed, this is why I have always thought that “Civil War II is coming” worries are rather nonsense and impossible: Americans, for myriad reasons – ranging from fear of each other to smug complacency to apocalyptic apathy – simply don’t upset the apple cart. They are propagandised to always be selling apples, no matter how rotten they obviously are.

So there are no protests and I am proved wrong. But it is my job to opine, and thus to look foolish because – as a journalist – my learning is done in public.

But hope springs eternal – perhaps in the coming days Americans will indeed harness their widespread inner pandemonium against a leadership class which can’t even suggest that they eat cake amid massive hunger and shortages.

Ramin Mazaheri is currently covering the US elections. He is the chief correspondent in Paris for PressTV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’, which is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese.

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Trump Says November Election ‘Out of Control’

 

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump again raised the alarm about possible voter fraud in the November election, saying the situation is “out of control” and the vote is “rigged.”

“Breaking News: 50,000 OHIO VOTERS getting WRONG ABSENTEE BALLOTS. Out of control. A Rigged Election!!!” Trump tweeted on Friday, days after he refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the reelection bid to Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee.

Last week, Trump tweeted “Rigged election!” and also posted a video purportedly showing a man caught on camera while paying cash for ballot exchange.

The video showed a man buying a registration form for an absentee ballot for a voter, giving him “pocket money” of $200 and expecting to collect his ballot when the voter receives it.

Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on mail voting, claiming that mail-in ballots lead to mass voter fraud.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic however millions of people prefer not to vote in person.

At least in nine states, every registered voter will automatically be mailed an application to request an absentee ballot.

Experts believe that by escalating his ongoing attack on mail-in ballots, Trump is preparing the ground to contest the election as” rigged or fraudulent” in the event of losing the election, and push the US into chaos.

Last month, Trump refused to commit to leave office peacefully if he loses the election.

Asked if he loses this year’s election to Biden, will he accept the results and commit to a peaceful transition, Trump said, “We’re going to have to see what happens.”

“We’ll want to have — get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very — we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation,’ he said.

American political commentator and journalist Thomas Friedman has warned that the United States could be headed towards a second civil war after Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and relinquish his office should he lose in the election.

“You know, I began my career as a journalist covering Lebanon’s second civil war in its history, and I’m terrified to find myself ending my career as a journalist covering America’s potential second civil war in its history,” Friedman told Anderson Cooper in an interview with CNN.

“You really believe that?” Cooper asked.

“I think what happened in the last few days is a six-alarm fire,” said Friedman, later adding, “The President of the United States has told us ‘Either I win the election or I delegitimize the election.’ Those are your choices, folks.”

The New York Times columnist also criticized Republicans for not standing up to Trump.

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Is America Worth Saving? Trump’s 1776 Commission and the True Cause of the American Revolution

 September 21, 2020

By Matthew Ehret for the Saker Blog

Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission announced on in Constitution Hall on September 17 has ruffled more than a few feathers across the radical left who have been clearly exposed as nothing more than ideological post-truth mobs who are driven by impulses that threaten to tear America down into Civil War. While I am not saying that everything about America’s past is as peachy clean as many Americans, including the President, wish to believe, the fact is that this commission represents an extremely important defense of history and the Constitution itself at a time when it is most needed.

In honor of this effort to fight off the cultural Marxists that have infused twisted narratives into the psyches of citizens for too many decades that profess a view that nothing but hypocrisy and slavery gave rise to America, I would like to do something a bit different. In this short essay, I will shed light on some of the positive traditions of the too-often forgotten America whose Father of Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, shaped not merely a revolution of 13 independent-minded colonies against the British Empire, but rather a global movement stretching from France, Russia, Poland, Ireland, Prussia, India and Africa!

Without this global perspective and an appreciation for the international array of global patriots who risked their lives for the American cause, then the true heritage of America as a kindred spirit with Russia and China would remain forgotten when it is needed most sitting as we are on the cusp of a new world war.

America’s Revolution as an International Affair

As I laid out in a recent paper “Why Canada Failed the Ben Franklin Challenge of 1776”, Franklin’s sad return to the Continental Congress in New York from Quebec in May, 1776 was one of the few defeats suffered by the statesman. Franklin’s decades of work to bring the French Colony of Quebec into the independence movement was sabotaged by 1) the slavish illiteracy rampant among the peasants of the feudal system inherited from France, and 2) the rampant corruption of the Catholic clergy elite which signed a devil’s pact with the British Empire to keep the peasants locked into the empire. These factors would play into the collapse of the French Revolution in 1789 as we will see shortly.

One month after this failed effort, a four-man committee led by Franklin drafted the Declaration of Independence on July 2^nd and made public on July 4^th proclaiming:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Although a slave owning degenerate named Thomas Jefferson is sadly given sole credit for this document (fueling the argument of those proclaiming America to be a nation built on hypocrisy), the fact is that the great abolitionist Ben Franklin guided the writing of this document from start to finish. Over 40 corrections to Jefferson’s drafts were made by the old statesman including the erasure of Jefferson’s desired wording of “property” derived from his love of John Locke for the higher Leibnizian idea of “happiness” preferred by Franklin.

Franklin had already fought to unite the colonies for over twenty years beginning with his 1754 Plan of Union at the outset of the French-Indian War adopted by the Albany Congress, but rejected by the individual colonies who were always kept divided amongst themselves. Franklin’s “Join or Die” cartoon had its origins not in 1776, but actually during the battle of 1754 and it was an open secret that the British Elite of the 18^th century collaborated closely with French oligarchical families to keep the troublesome colonialists subjugated, and underdeveloped as part of the “balance of power” game of empire.

After Franklin’s July 4, 1776 success, he knew that America’s fate hinged upon his ability to engage the international network of statesmen, and scientists whom he had organized over the course of 40 years and especially since his 1752 discovery of electricity made him an international sensation earning him the title “Prometheus of America”.

This post-1776 phase of his plan took him to France where he was made America’s ambassador in Paris. It was here, that Franklin arranged the French-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778 that turned the tide of the revolution towards the American cause which had zero chance of success before this moment.

Franklin had already organized his allies in Prussia where Friedrich the Great voiced open support for the cause and the great military strategist Wilhelm von Steuben became the Inspector General of the Continental Army providing military drills and modern military techniques to the undisciplined “citizen soldiers” of the USA. The republican Polish military engineer and colonel Tadeusz Kosciuszko served as Brigadier-General in the Continental Army and the young Marquis Lafayette who arrived illegally in America along with other French troops before the 1778 alliance treaty, made invaluable contributions to the cause. Over twenty generals of the Continental Congress were Irishmen, and many led the later efforts to create an Irish revolution in 1798-99.

In his ambassadorial station in France, Franklin met many members of the European intelligentsia- including key Russian figures. Among them included a young woman named Ekaterina Dashkova– the younger sister of Catherine the Great and president of the Russian Academy of Sciences who became friends with the elder scientist and was soon inducted into Franklin’s Philosophical Society (becoming the society’s first woman and first Russian). In turn, Dashkova made Franklin the first American member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1781. It was through these connections that Franklin played a leading role in organizing the League of Armed Neutrality under the helm of Catherine the Great which ensured that vital supplies and arms would make their way from Europe to America without being blocked by British ships. Within the first 12 months, this League grew to include the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and Prussia. To this day, Russia’s league created the foundations of Maritime law.

This early alliance sewed the seeds of a larger tradition of U.S.-Russia friendship which saved both nations and which were covered in a recent conference titled The Historic Clash Between Open vs Closed Systems on August 15.

Franklin’s French networks had deep connections into India as well, which made themselves felt in the French-Indian alliance of 1780 that saw pro-American Muslim leader Hydar Ali lead thousands of Indian soldiers on a march across Western Ghats where they attacked the strategic British Base of Fort St. George near the Port town of Madras. Ali was supported by French troops on land and sea under the command of Admiral Suffren. Hydar Ali had already defeated the British in 1760 and represented a powerful independence force in India that kept British oligarchs up at night (It would still be many years before Britain would gain control of this “Crown Jewel” of the empire).

During this conflict, Hydar Ali’s forces innovated rockets which decimated British troops, and forced Britain to re-direct over 20% of their naval fleet from fighting in the Americas- this was a vital boon to the French and American forces a world away. Hydar Ali’s son Tipu Sultan even wrote a message to the Continental Congress in 1781 saying: “every blow that is struck in the cause of American liberty throughout the world, in France, India, and elsewhere and so long as a single insolent savage tyrant remains the struggle shall continue.”

America’s flagship of the Continental fleet was named the Hydar Ali in his honor.

In Morocco, the French were able to arrange an important dialogue between Emperor Sidi Mohammed and American officials which saved American shipping from the ravages of Barbary pirates who ruled the coasts of Africa and the Straits of Gibraltar. During the opening of the war, the British made sure to inform these Barbary pirates of American shipping and used these forces against American ships bound for Europe. Sidi Mohammed agreed to supply protection for America’s ships and guaranteed them safe harbor from the Tunisian and Algerian pirates. Soon the Continental Congress had passed an act which called for Franklin to lead a team of negotiators to work out a deal with Morocco and other North African countries.

Although international political chaos and the constant treachery and intrigue within America during its early years resulted in very little progress on this front, it is noteworthy that Morocco was the first nation in the world to recognize America’s independence on December 20, 1777.

Even though Franklin didn’t appear to have any direct contact with the Chinese during this period (who were busy fending off the British Empire’s lusting dogs of the East India Company who were preparing a new phase of Asiatic expansion), Chinese thought did figure prominently in the thinking of Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine. Franklin had published many writings on Confucius from 1737-1757, which shaped many points of wisdom in the Poor Richards Almanac. Writing to a friend in 1747, Franklin stated “Confucius was my example. I followed Confucius”. As Professor David Wang points out, many of his insights into civil administration and law derived from his studies of China. On Franklin’s over arching Confucian world view, Dr. Wang stated:

“Benjamin Franklin’s interest in Chinese civilization was so wide that it included all substances from Confucius philosophy to industrial technologies. Then the question is why Franklin spent so much time and energy on studying Chinese civilization. Franklin believed that “what assurance of the Future can be better founded than that which is built on Experience of the Past?”. Franklin’s strive to draw wisdom from Chinese civilization was based on his belief that China was “the most ancient, and from long Experience the wisest of Nations”. For Franklin, obtaining positive elements from Chinese civilization was important for developing the American way of life.”

While there are many more chapters to this international story, the lesson I wanted readers to come away with is that America was both more than you thought it was and also less than it was meant to be.

According to the intentions of such renaissance men as Franklin, the American cause was never meant to be a “local issue” defined by 13 rebelling colonies, but rather a new age of reason for all mankind.

Kindred spirits across Europe watched in horror as the first European nation to attempt revolution led by Lafayette and other leaders of Franklin’s network (who made the American cause a success) was overthrown by a Jacobin “color revolution”. The noble origins of the June 20, 1789 Tennis Court Oath which kick started the French Revolution were soon lost as a bloodbath (directed by British assets from the Foreign Office) channelled the rage of France’s peasant population against ALL of the elite, corrupt and noble alike, proclaiming “the revolution has no need of scientists”. The sound of the guillotine lopping off the heads of the great revolutionary astronomer/mayor of Paris Jean-Sylvain Bailey and chemist Antoine Lavoisier still resonates as a shame of France. Lafayette only saved his head long enough to end up in an Austrian dungeon for 5 years as punishment for fighting to overthrow hereditary systems and was immortalized in Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio in 1805.

The pro-humanist forces of Europe slowly came undone during the Napoleonic wars which culminated in the 1815 Congress of Vienna and Holy Alliance which re-established “peace” by banning dangerous books, teaching, and art that might awaken revolutionary feelings in the minds and hearts of Europeans. These Orwellian laws were outlined in the Carlsbad decrees of 1819 and ruined more than a few lives of great statesmen and teachers. This story was told in my paper “Kissinger’s Adoration of the 1815 Congress of Vienna”.

During this time, the British Empire came out again as a force of evil preparing a new phase of its global conquest with a crushing of the Hydar Ali spirit in India and a new age of opium wars against China.

In spite of this growing darkness, great poets who dreamed of that better age of reason produced some of the greatest and under-appreciated poetry with Percy Shelley and John Keats leading that movement in Britain, Robbie Burns in Scotland and such figures as Schubert, Heine, Schumann and Beethoven representing this spark in Vienna and Germany. Palmerston-Mazzini’s “Young Europe” anarchist mobs were periodically deployed to disrupt constructive nationalist tendencies throughout this period- laying the groundwork for “color revolutions” of the 20-21^st centuries.

Beethoven’s 1824 Ninth Symphony setting Schiller’s great poem an “Ode to Joy” to music was a celebration of that dreamed-of age of brotherhood and creative reason which Franklin devoted his life to accomplishing and which today’s multipolar alliance has again awoken as a potential alternative to an age of darkness, war and collapse facing humanity in the 21st century.

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The author delivered a lecture on July 1, 2020 on this topic viewable here:

Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review , a BRI Expert on Tactical talk, and has authored 3 volumes of ‘Untold History of Canada’ book series. In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation

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