Reality, it's a thing

NOTE: Most of you don't need to hear this. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I need to say it and this is my only forum. I beg your indulgence.

I enter into this piece with extreme reluctance. 2016 broke my heart and ten years of raging against the stupidity of my own culture before that left me a bit of a wreck. It's taken a toll, psychologically, psychically and physically. I am now a cardiac patient struggling to stay alive. My medical situation is not dire and I don't want to give that impression - but it ain't what it used to be. I can't swear to it, but I believe that a decade of more-or-less constant fury and frustration arising from the simple act of paying attention to national and global matters has done a number on my heart...and that's just for starters.

profoundly-sick-society

I blogged for a solid decade, wrote my heart out, literally and figuratively, to try and push back against the rising tide of dumb, ignorant, cruel, myopic, shallow, petty and insane bullshit that has engulfed our culture. I tried to point out that the hippies were right back in the 1960s about how badly awry things had gone in this plastic war-loving land of profiteers and racist rightwing bullies, how far we had strayed from anything remotely like what we claim our values to be, how screwed ordinary people are for not having resisted the dumbness and the evil of the greedy, short-sighted and selfish rich. I'm talking about the mega-rich, the ones who have screwed us all. The ones who used their power to teach us to love war and hate the word socialism, because it threatened their grabby little kingdoms of pampered luxury and vice for the few, and pain, sorrow and heartbreak for the many.

say-no-to-socialism

They've also pushed racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and a host of other social ills because screwing over the people and keeping them at each other's throats was good for the 1%.

Sagans-saddest-lesson

At any rate, I have, at the age of 66, been forced to pull back and turn away, to some extent at least, from my horror, rage and dismay at the monumental stupidity of 2016. And the years leading up to it of course. My damage is real. I know I'm not the only one.

So perhaps you can imagine my reluctance to delve back into these matters. Much to my chagrin, there's no avoiding it – not when I keep seeing otherwise intelligent and well-meaning people saying the most idiotic things. And especially not when they relentlessly attack those who are capable of seeing what they are not.

A few bullet points:

No one is fighting for your freedom
Your government is not your friend
Your representatives don't represent you
The media lies to us
The government lies to us
Our TVs lie to us
Our culture lies to us
Both political parties lie to us
You can't believe what you are told
Still, you are responsible for what's inside your own head
Education and Science are real and beneficial (though you might have to parse some words and define some terms)
There IS a class war and it's been going on for decades if not centuries, guess who's winning?
There is a military industrial complex and it's even worse than Eisenhower dared imagine, it's been the ruin of our nation, just as foretold by Ike himself (ironically, one of its architects)
Capitalism and it's demon spawn, mindless consumerism, have devastated the global environment, poisoning the air and the oceans, decimating the rainforests and destabilizing the planetary climate
Fossil fools and the evil billionaires they support have doomed humanity
Republicans are awful, Democrats are marginally less awful
Our political class is deeply and thoroughly corrupted
Greed has been our downfall
The Democratic Party has learned nothing by their cataclysmic mistakes in 2016

I still love the traditional democratic base, to the extent that they are liberal, true progressives, not greedheads, not defenders of the status quo and not supporters of war, but the party itself has lost its way and they don't appear to be coming back.

liberal-defined

Some more bullet points:

Hillary and the DNC's “Pied Piper Strategy” (google it if you don't know it) coupled with the shanking of Bernie Sanders and the ripping off of all his supporters is why we have the putrid reign of the Trump regime
We desperately needed a revolution is 2016 and we had a reasonably good one going before the DNC and HRC (and all their little toadies like the counter-revolutionaries at daily kos) murdered it
There are perfectly good reasons to hate HRC that don't include any falsehoods, conspiracy theories or Russian propaganda
If you hate war, fracking, and shameless self-enrichment, you have reason to at least strongly disapprove of HRC
HRC is objectively a horrible human being and absolutely the worst candidate the democratic party could have attempted to foist on the American people (I wrote a piece titled, 'Bernie Sanders is the only electable candidate we've got' in an attempt to explain this to a democratic audience – some of them got it, many did not)
She was the one person who couldn't beat the worst and most ridiculous candidate to ever run
She was a cheater and we are her victims
Yes, it's worse than tragic that Trump won, but it's not HRC who should be president, it's Bernie
And it's not people who didn't vote for Hillary who are responsible for Trump, it's Hillary herself and all the people so dumb and politically inept as to back her over Bernie Sanders

stealing-is-not-winning

I swore to never vote for HRC years ago, and I didn't. I voted for Jill Stein, the only peace candidate, not because I was especially enamored of her or thought she'd win or anything like that, but because that was the choice I was left with. I do have a conscience after all. I'm not saying I feel great about that choice. I'm troubled by it. Good God, look what happened! But I won't vote for war mongers – never again. I also have sworn off lesser evil voting. Give me something to vote FOR or fuck you. I'm sick and tired of electing people who immediately betray me and that's what the dems (the pols not the rank and file) have been doing for decades. They pander to the people, claiming to represent them, then once in office they busy themselves feathering their own nests, happily serve the 1% and connive with the republicans to push war and thievery and all we get are their bullshit excuses. The lesser evil is still evil. If that's the best choice you can give me, democrats, somebody slightly less evil than republican swine, then fuck you.

Lesser-evil-in-black-and-white-NEW

People have accused me of falling for smears, conspiracy theories or Russian propaganda because apparently there are no other possible reasons not to have voted for HRC.

No, I'm sorry, there are plenty of good true, objective reasons to have distrusted, hated or not voted for HRC, you know, Henry Fucking Kissinger's BFF, the queen of the Neolibs, the person who cheated us all out of the renewal of a Bernie Sanders presidency.

remember-kissinger-II-without-peaceout

Yeah, Bernie was imperfect and not political Jesus or anything, but out of all of them only Bernie was on the right track, and only Bernie had a smidgen of integrity – that's why he's the most popular politician in America now – by a wide margin – listen up democrats. HRC was the champion of global fracking and fossil fools everywhere, and a proud member of the ruling class who bragged about having both a private and public position on things, one for the banksters and Wall Street, and one for the rubes, those silly little voters. She was also one of the architects of the disasters in Libya, Honduras, Syria, etc, etc. You don't have to believe a single lie to hate this person. You have to believe a ton of them to like her.

Here she is on single payer health care, you know, that thing we all deserve and should have had long ago:

we-would-lose

Hillary has blood on her hands and doesn't seem to mind. This is how she talked about Qaddafi (a human being) being anally raped to death with a butcher knife, as a consequence of her imperial actions against Libya:

None of what I'm saying about her is a lie. None, zip, nada. It's all a matter of historical record. She voted for the Iraq War. Bernie voted against it. Here they are. You decide.

Whoever stole the DNC emails, they didn't write them. What they reveal is what they reveal. Please forgive the loathsome Trumpery in this video but here's Hillary trying to squirm out of her statement to Goldman Sachs, et al about being two-faced, how it's cool to lie to the rubes:

So if you blame Trump on people who didn't vote for HRC, or if you blame Trump on anyone other than Bill and/or Hillary Clinton and the DNC, then you are information challenged, to put it kindly. If you're a person who still loves HRC or wants to swallow a pack of lies or cling to some bogus version of reality because it feels better than the real thing (which is admittedly messy and awful), don't expect me to argue with you or try to explain anything further to you. I have lost all desire to engage with such ignorance and lack of respect for truth or reality. You are responsible for what's in your own head. That's on you. I'm done.

MLK-democratic-socialism-II-bw-CROPPED

Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent - a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice - that struggle continues. ~ Bernie Sanders

Bernie-fuck-me

For many, the American dream has become a nightmare. ~ Bernie Sanders

hippies-peace-out

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@WaterLily Nice to see you too, Eagles92. I haven't gone anywhere, and will try to drop in now and then to say hello. Be well.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

smiley7's picture

@Dallasdoc

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@smiley7 Howdy Smiley!

I hope you're thriving and happy. Nice to run into you again.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

Citizen Of Earth's picture

You reminded me of the old happy hippy days (60s/70s) when the counter culture actually had an effect contributing to ending the Vietnam war nightmare. Changing public opinion seems to be a proven way to go. But back then, much of the music scene and musicians were politically oriented. And the 'message' got out via music. Minds got changed starting with the youth. I don't see that these days.

With Neoliberal and Fascists running the country you think there would be urgency about the American Dream turning to Nightmare. Bernie kinda lit the campfire with his campaign but the bastards expertly pissed on the flames to extinguish it. My new philosophy is 'Hey it could be worse'. And at this rate it probably will be.

I'm hoping today's youth will rise again and crush the fuckers. We'll see.

Take care of your health. I've developed high blood pressure in the past couple years too. Gee what could have caused that. Wink
I just went on Medicare. It costs about one fifth the cost of POS Obamacare. I have real healthcare again. Things are looking up in that respect.

Peace Out.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

@Citizen Of Earth TYVM, CoE. Great to see you.

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Lily O Lady's picture

the better of you.

My reasons for voting Stein align with yours. I wanted to write in Sanders in the general, but Georgia’s “sore loser” law would have made it a completely symbolic gesture. I wanted to try and send the message that threats and cheating were no way to get my vote. The DNC has made it abundantly clear that they don’t care what I think. That goes both ways.

Take care OPOL! You are a treasure of truth and reality.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady Right on, Lily O. Nice to see you, dear.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

Kudos!

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews Thank you very much.

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NonnyO's picture

I've tried to post something to this thread for two days and haven't been able to do so. Will this go through?

~~~~~~~~~~

Well, this went through, but I tried to post the longer message and it won't go through..., nor will the same message go through in a PM to OPOL.

I give up.

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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

@NonnyO Don't give up, NonnyO. I'd so like to hear what you have to say. But if it's just too frustrating, I do understand.

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@NonnyO
I checked the logs and the reason your comment wouldn't post is because of the little yellow smiley face images that were embedded in it. Those little images are called unicode characters and our database doesn't recognize them and will give an error when you try to post them. Remove those images from your comment and then it will post.

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NonnyO's picture

@JtC
I was totally flummoxed about why I couldn't post. I appreciate the info and won't be adding any more emojis.

I've now been able to post the comment to OPOL, thanks to you.

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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

Bruddah.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

The Angry Architect's picture

Thanks, brother. Nice to hear from you.
You work at GOS was always an inspiration to me - your passionate posts helped kindle in me a level of active engagement which I had not before embodied.

I believe what you have given has been magnified many times over and I thank you for the sacrifices you have made to our struggle.

AA

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The Angry Architect
"There is nothing more dangerous than the right answer to the wrong question."

NonnyO's picture

Nice to hear/read your voice again!

Empathies about your heart; I hope your medical issues can be managed nicely. Since last I saw you back at TOP, I've had both knees replaced, atrial fibrillation that led to an ablation (it had to be re-done eight and a half months later when it failed) and I'm now pacemaker dependent for my heartbeat, among other health issues. I also have a great-grandson nearly four years old, so everything political that I want for the future is about him, his generation, my granddaughter and her generation (Medicare for All, tuition-free education pre-K through college, decent jobs with livable wages, decent affordable housing, increasing Social Security to a livable income, etc.), as well as for disabled people and my own Baby Boomer generation since so many of us are on Medicare and Social Security now. My next big hurdle is finding a suitable senior living arrangement that accommodates my various health issues because I suspect my back is going to have to be operated on again (if my heart/pacemaker can deal with it); degenerative arthritis has once again taken its toll since my triple lumbar fusion in 2000 and I keep pinching my sciatic nerve.

I agree about the political situation taking a toll on one's heart. "Maybe next time" isn't going to work as long as we still have pre-programmable and/or hackable e-voting machines and difficult voter registration processes (often in the same states). We need PAPER BALLOTS and EASY voter registration (NOT listing political party affiliation which makes it easy to purge voter lists by political party), and open primaries that don't disenfranchise the non D&R voters for one thing, which also means it's less difficult to purge voter registration databases by political parties like they did in NY and elsewhere for Bernie voters; eliminating "provisional ballots" that don't get counted elsewhere also need to be accomplished. (See MN for easy voter registration, and we also have paper ballots.) We desperately need those changes BEFORE the 2020 election cycle..., because without those simple changes, the DNC WILL, AGAIN, take away Bernie's candidacy with their loyalty oath, if nothing else (like a second, third, fourth ballot for superdelegates, even if superdelegates can't do so with a first ballot), and we will be left with no one to vote for - AGAIN - except the candidates chosen for us. If they do that at the convention, it will likely be too late to register as an independent or a write-in candidate in most states, and voters will again lose a champion for the people as president.

I'd far rather see Bernie take over the Movement for a People's Party (started by Nick Brana who was involved with Bernie's campaign in 2016, currently not headed by anyone). I think Bernie is now well-known enough he could easily win the 2020 election with a third party (or no party, merely his name on a ballot) - IF the e-voting machines are replaced with paper ballots and states adopt some kind of common sense voter registration laws, forms (no asking for political party affiliation), and open primaries. Bernie has We the People behind him; he doesn't need a political party behind him.

For 2016 I decided I'd no longer vote "for" the "lesser of two evils" since that is still voting "for" evil and I've done that too many times. I left the prez section of my paper ballot blank and voted for acceptable down-ticket candidates.

My added personal restriction for 2018 and 2020 is that I will no longer vote "for" people of based on political party, but only FOR individual candidates whose stated political platforms conform with my political ideals; if none are acceptable, I'll leave the section blank as a "none of the above" protest. That means my current senators who are right of center DINOs won't get my vote in 2018 or 2020 . Klobuchar, who was on a Medicare for All forum with Bernie can't even say the words "Medicare for All." She uses the euphemisms like "universal health care" or "free market-based health care systems." Amy's FOR corporate control of our health insurance and health care, in other words, which might include "fixing ACA" if they get around to it (which will mean more profits for insurance, medical, and pharmaceutical corporations). The woman who took Franken's place, Tina Smith, former Lt Gov, helped arrange the corporate welfare to get a third stadium built in MN at taxpayer expense (one for the U of M, the other two for pro-sports teams), so she also does not get my vote. I've got my eye on a Green candidate running for Klobuchar's seat who lists Medicare for All on her platform, among other Berniecrat points (oh, and she's an openly trans-gender woman, but I can't honestly say I care about that, altho I wish her personal happiness; I'm only interested in her political platform because if we can get her elected her job will be to serve the people of this state).

I'll give new candidates with a Berniecrat political platform a chance over the corporate candidates who change their platform and stump speech at the last minute when I know darn good and well it's a pack of lies to get votes and they won't change anything if they are elected.

I can't discuss the whole "Russia, Russia, Russia" nonsense. The DNC hard drive was downloaded to a jump drive; it was not hacked, but media insists on not reading or reporting the disclaimers for both "security assessments" that came with the news that Russia may have somehow influenced or rigged our elections, but the assessments were "as is, there was no evidence to prove Russia meddled" (to paraphrase). No. The DNC, HRC, DWS, DB, JP, Superdelegates, and Moronic Media (who ignored Bernie by giving him seconds of attention while they gave Drumpf two or three billion in free advertising) are the ones who rigged the primaries and then the general election (which she lost in the electoral college anyway). I suspect the sometimes double-digit exit poll numbers that were drastically low compared to poll numbers for Her that were so high were all from states with e-voting machines that had been pre-programmed which is how she got "three million extra popular votes." In a country with monitored elections any numbers between exit polls and vote counts that exceed two percent is evidence of election fraud (not voter fraud), the results are thrown out, and a new election is called immediately. Interestingly, those same exit polls had matching numbers for Idiot Orange.

Russia had nothing to do with our elections. False "security assessments" based on lies and wishful thinking by the DNC and HRC to explain one of the alleged reasons why she lost the 2016 election is nothing but sour grapes; that she was the worst DNC corporate candidate hand-in-hand with the worst RNC corporate candidate The Donald has never been acknowledged. It's no wonder so many people stayed home. It's the equivalent of repetition of lies after 9/11 that convinced so many people Iraq had something to do with 9/11 when the one country who did was Saudi Arabia, but no one mentioned them. Someone forgot to tell them the fucking cold war ended decades ago and we don't need to have idiotic politicians like HRC or DJT or any of our more moronic legislators and political pundits threaten nuclear war over her falsehood about Russia hacking the elections. That the DNC computers are not connected to the e-voting machines doesn't seem to occur to anyone, nor the fact that good hackers could lay a false trail back to Russia (or anywhere else) and no one but a smarter forensic computer expert could detect it, and the DNC won't let any forensic experts near their hard drive.

Russia Hacking Absolutely NOT Confirmed By Intelligence Agencies [Jimmy Dore, Jan 11, 2017]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpG97mGZhY

Proof That "Russia Hacked DNC Server" Is Bullsh*t Posted By The Nation Magazine [Jimmy Dore, August 12, 2017]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWYPmHJ3WeU

FBI Implicates Obama & Clinton In Russia Bribery Plot [Jimmy Dore, Oct 17, 2017]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iU715uplok

Part 1: NSA Whistleblower Tells How NSA Tracks You! w/Bill Binney [Jimmy Dore, Dec 14, 2017]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoeJeWfoSpQ

Part 2: NSA Genius Debunks Russiagate Once & For All [Jimmy Dore, Dec 14, 2017]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv0-Lnv0d0k

At the end of the Part 2 video, Jimmy mentions the documentary A Good American. It is about Bill Binney and his cohorts who developed ThinThread (mentioned in both videos of the hour interview Jimmy Dore made into two videos). NSA shut down Thin Thread a couple of weeks before 9/11, and they are saying ThinThread could have prevented 9/11.

Bill Binney, Kirk Wiebe, Edward Loomis, Tom Drake, Diane Roark, John Kiriakou, and Ray McGovern ARE geniuses. Binney, et alia, using ThinThread, had figured out how to spy on the bad guys, leave ordinary people alone and protect our privacy all at the same time; the program was discontinued the month before 9/11, a new, much less efficient program, was put online, and failed to catch the hijackers.

The bungling on the part of NSA and the government is... mind-boggling beyond imagination. [? Or else it was deliberate?]

A Good American: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=666wsDcoNrU
"The story of a terrorist monitoring system that was discontinued just weeks before 9/11. Featuring a former NSA analyst [Bill Binney] who was a leading expert on metadata responsible for the world's most sophisticated global monitoring effort."

FBI Russian Indictments Used To Silence The Left [Jimmy Dore, Feb 19, 2018]
.... Rosenstein said..., "there is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnPAxdII5PU

Bill Binney and the rest of the VIPS are some of my favorite modern heroes, along with Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

Her Heinousness is on my permanent shit list and my opinions about Her and Her Criminal Cohorts mirrors yours. I could die deliriously happy having never heard her name or seen her or heard her voice again for the rest of my life. I do, however, have a song I dedicate to Her every time the ear worm enters my head. I didn't think it was possible to loathe a political figure as much as I loathe Her (and her DNC criminal cohorts), but every time She opens her maw I loathe Her more. This song is for Her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxGYSyZ8VkM

Wishing you and yours happiness and as much health as you and they can muster! Take care!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two unicode figures are gone....

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I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960

@NonnyO Thank you for persisting. I'm glad I got to read your comment. You wrote a book! It's all very well stated and, sadly, all true. I wish you all the best with your health and living situation. I empathize with all the pain, frustration and difficulty it must entail. People have often told me that getting old wasn't easy. What an outrageous understatement, eh?

I too worry about what kind of world our grandchildren will inherit. If we don't make big changes soon it's likely to end very badly. I know I'm not telling you anything. Here's to hope for the future and getting off our asses to finally fix those things that have gone so badly wrong. A political revolution couldn't hurt.

Thanks again for your wonderful comment. It is so nice to see you again. Best wishes and be well.

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I've missed your righteous and eloquent postings.

Sending my best vibes for your health. Been going through some health issues myself, though not as serious, and lost my brother from sudden heart failure. Sent me into a kind of existential/dark night of the soul crisis. Coming out the other side, more awake than ever now, thanks in no small part to listening to endless hours of Terrance McKenna and Alan Watts on youtube along with some other wise travelers.

We're similarly aged bro. The end of this part of the great mystery is staring us in the face, ain't it!

I've been hanging over at the Orange site still but venturing over here more and more. It's getting a bit ridiculous with many over there touting a two dimensional perspective of good guys vs bad guys regarding 2016, the "Rusher" thing, Bernie and Hillary etc. I'm a Bernie guy and for what he represents through and through and am right with you on the awfulness of Hillary and the corporate/militarist Dems. But I hold that more than one thing can be true at the same time.

Yes, no doubt Bernie was cheated out of the nomination - he was the best candidate and would have won and all you say so eloquently of the corporate neoliberal Democrats is true. But at the same time it can also be true that the Russians did electronically burglarize the DNC and Podesta and ran a large scale strategic targeted campaign based on the stolen data to help tRump win the electoral college. Both can be true and I believe there's incontrovertible evidence of that.

I did not vote for Hillary but would have if I was in a swing state. I look at it like this. tRump is not a rational actor. He's an existential threat to life on earth and I didn't want his stubby little fingers near the proverbial nuclear button. As god awful as Hillary is I do not believe she would start a nuclear war. Even the worst neocon war mongers have a rational sense of self preservation.

It's like this - the house is in fire and we need to put it out before it burns it all down. After we do that, we then need we to get rid of those complicit in making the house fire prone and complicit in starting it. And that is the Republican Party and the neocon/militarist Democratic establishment.

What do ya think?

Peace bro.

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@mkor7 Thanks for the interesting comment. You make many fine points and I basically agree with them all. Cheers, brother.

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