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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

-Lurid Crime Tales-
Nashville Christian school shooting - Where's The Manifesto?
2023-04-10
[ZERO] This has been ineffably sad for the family and friends of the victims, who are victims themselves, their grief often overwhelmed in a city, indeed a country, now so politicized that our common humanity seems some distant memory from a long ago Jimmy Stewart movie one sees only at Christmas.

Lost too in all this is any sense of what really happened that Monday or why it happened.

Distraction reigns.

The last few days have been arguably the mother of all distractions when, as reported here at The Epoch Times and virtually everywhere, riots or protests (depending on how you see them) broke out in front and within the Tennessee State Assembly.

The rioters/protestors were largely high school students, bent on gun control, instigated, at least in part, by three members of the assembly, two of whom have now been expelled for their behavior.

Unfortunately for the local GOP and Republicans everywhere, the two expelled, deservedly or not, happened to be black, naturally providing a propaganda opportunity for our resident White House "civil rights activist" and ally of former Sen. Robert Byrd (D-N.C.) who once informed us "If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black."

Meanwhile, the tragic murders are being used inevitably as a battering ram for gun control that has never been shown to work and for red flag laws that can work, but not in the way intended.

Which brings me to the missing "manifesto."

In the immediate aftermath of the murders the police informed us the obviously emotionally disturbed shooter was transgendered, something that was ratified by the video of the killings at the Christian school showing the female-by-birth Audrey Hale dressed entirely like a macho terrorist.

Further, they told us she had left behind documents and a manifesto, explaining her actions.

Then, as if by magic, we heard no more of the word transgendered in any of its forms, from the media or anywhere, nor, almost simultaneously, anything of the manifesto, except that it had been handed to the FBI for review.

Regarding the media, it isn’t just CBS, widely known to have decreed the word "transgender" should be omitted in coverage of the crime but almost all of the MSM. NPR, recently labeled "state-affiliated" on Twitter, does not mention the word in its recent update on the crime, nor does it apply a pronoun of any sort—male, female, or "they"—when referring to the shooter. This must be a new form of asexual reporting.

As for the FBI, no word so far on when they will release the manifesto, in original or redacted form.

Sound familiar?
Link


Home Front: Politix
Biden Recounts Time He Was Arrested At A Civil Rights Protest For Wearing A White Hood
2022-01-13
[BabylonBee] In a stirring speech in Atlanta this week, Biden recounted the time he was heroically arrested at a civil rights protest simply for wearing a white hood.

"There I was, outside a school protesting against school integration with my best pal KKK member Robert Byrd, and the cops were escorting black kids into the school," said Biden. "And then I said 'You won't turn my school into a racial jungle! I'm gonna wrap this chain around your head!' And then the cops arrested me and escorted me to their police car and bought me Burger King. It was delicious. Build Back Better! Universal mail-in voting! Yay!"

The audience seemed confused until several Democrat leaders instructed the audience to clap and cheer.

"Yay! Build Back Better! Universal mail-in voting!" they all cheered.

Biden's address has been hailed in the media as a "powerful call to America to be on the right side of history" and "a totally not racist speech."

Democrats have instructed black leaders to instruct black people that whatever the 80-year-old white racist said in his speech was a "good thing" and they should fully support it if they want "liberation and equality and all that stuff."

Republicans pounced on the speech, likely because they're racist.
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-Great Cultural Revolution
'Proud' to be American? Students struggle to answer
2021-07-04
[FOXNEWS] Students and other young people walking around the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., struggled to say whether they were "proud" to be American ahead of 4th of July weekend.

Ophelie Jacobson, a news hound with Campus Reform — a conservative news site and higher-education watchdog — walked around Georgetown asking young people in the area whether they were proud to be American and whether the United States is the greatest country in the world.

"I feel sorry for those young students," Lily Tang Williams, an American citizen who immigrated from China, told "Fox & Friends" on Saturday in response to the video. "They remind me of my past, living in communist China for 23 years, and I was indoctrinated to believe everything the government told me and that Chairman Mao [Zedong] told me."

Williams added that "there are millions of people who would like to switch places with them."

In the Campus Reform video, one woman Jacobson interviewed says she feels "embarrassed to be an American every day" when asked whether she was proud to be an American.

"I think a lot of things about this country are really embarrassing, just like...racist history, colonization, and even currently with what's going on with the cops," she says in the video.

Another woman echoed that sentiment, saying that "a lot of times, it's just embarrassing" to be American because the country claims "to support everyone, but...we continue to support Israel, which [is] dislocating quite a few Paleostinian people."

Another said the U.S. economy "just cares about money" rather than people.
Ummm... Economies are about money, goods, and services, not people.
None of the people interviewed in the video would say the United States is the "greatest country in the world," but none named another "better country than the United States."
I can see why. The United States is the home of the Democratic Party, which has given us things like the spoils system and gerrymandering. John C. Calhoun was a Dem. So was Woodrow "He Kept Us Out of War" Wilson. Dems started the Civil War. They founded and manned the Ku Klux Klan after they lost. Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd, and George Wallace were Dems. Boss Tweed ran Tammany Hall for years until the Republican Thomas Nast finally ridiculed him into jail for awhile, until he "escaped," to die a few years later on the run. He was a Dem. The mayors of Chicago have been uniformly Dem since 1931. Who could be proud of that?
One said a "tiny European country that's thriving" might be better than America while another said, "Europe," and several interviewees said they would be willing to give up their U.S. citizenship.
There's a way to solve the immigration problem: If a potential immigrant from some "tiny European country that's thriving," like maybe Moldova or Luxembourg or Russia, wants to become a citizen, all he has to do is find an American nitwit to trade passports and he's in.
Some of the interviewees also said their college educations influenced how they view the United States.
I am ever so surprised.
"I'm from Georgia, and I never would have learned had I not taken those classes, just about the way the justice system works and zoning laws and I think college really opened my eyes to a lot of these things," one of the women in the video, who told Jacobson she went to American University in D.C., said.

The United States turns 245 years old on Sunday when Americans will celebrate U.S. independence on July 4.
Related:
Campus Reform: 2021-06-16 Two Resignations From Major Medical Journal After Staffers Question 'Systemic Racism'
Campus Reform: 2021-05-31 DC students eagerly sign fake petition to cancel Memorial Day
Campus Reform: 2021-02-25 Academics called breastfeeding 'ethically problematic' because it endorses 'gender roles.' Their view is gaining traction.
Related:
Chairman Mao: 2020-07-17 Christians in China ordered to renounce faith, worship communist government to receive welfare payments
Chairman Mao: 2020-06-01 Maoist ‘Rebellions’ in America Inspired by China?
Chairman Mao: 2020-05-31 Weapons and Ideology: Files Reveal How China Armed and Trained the Palestinians
Link


-War on Police-
‘Biden Is An Idiot’ - Ex kop Blasts Democrats For ‘Riding The Wave Of Dead Black People’
2021-04-26
[ZeroHedge] Former Arizona police officer-turned conservative political commentator Brandon Tatum unloaded on President Biden and the press for politicizing the Derek Chauvin trial, and insists that so-called 'systemic racism' is simply manufactured by politicians and the media to earn votes and make money.

"I think we're living in the twilight zone," Tatum said of the Chauvin trial. "This conviction, in my personal opinion, did nothing for our country. People are living a lie. I mean this is one police officer, one person in the community, they found him guilty, this was the swiftest justice I've ever seen in my life. The day after the film came out he was arrested. He was tried. 10 hours of deliberation, he was convicted. I'm not really sure why people are acting like this is monumental.

"Also, he did not get a fair trial in my personal opinion. There was a lot of obstruction that happened. They paid the family out $27 million before the jury could be selected. I mean, they're going to have a case in appeal. I don't know why people are celebrating and I don't know why this is such a big focal point other than - people are making money off of the pain of people in our country."

The BBC host then asked Tatum if he was upset over this "landmark" case?

"This is not a landmark case, this is a political agenda," Tatum shot back. They're pushing laws in our country. Policing in America is not inherently racist. We don't live in a racist country. This was an interaction between a police officer that I thought did the wrong thing, and a black man who was on drugs high, resisting arrest, and ended up being killed by that police officer. That's as simple as it can be. The President of the United States got out and made a fool of himself trying to promote racism in a simple police encounter that the officer got convicted on.

"So you reject President Biden's comment about systemic racism and it being a stain on the whole nation?" the host replied.

"Yes, President Biden is an idiot in my personal opinion, and he's just talkin' because he's a politician. Systemic racism - I mean if you look at Joe Biden himself, he spoke at a Klu Klux Klan-member's funeral and did the eulogy of Robert Byrd ... We don't have a problem with racism in our country, we have a problem with people not following the law. We also have a problem with politicians making up things so they can get re-elected. And that's exactly what has been happening. That's why you never see anything change. They're lying to us.

The host then tried using woke racial statistics, arguing: "So the rate of people being killed by police - the rate is higher amongst black people than amongst the rest of the population. How do you account for that if that isn't a systemic racism problem?"

Tatum shut that down with force, replying: "First of all that's not true, twice as many white people are killed by police every year. Twice as many white people are killed unarmed by police every year - you just don't see it. There's a gentleman named Tony Timpa. I bet nobody has any idea who Tony Timpa is. Tony Timpa was murdered in the same fashion as George Floyd was killed, but because he was white, we don't hear about it and nobody cares about it. Nobody's talking about police reform when he was suffocated and killed. But they only talk about it because George Floyd is black.

"Black people commit over half of violent crimes in this country, and only make up 13 percent of the population. They commit over half of the murders in this country, but only make up 13 percent of the population - and we can agree that 13 percent of the population aren't the criminals. There's only a small fraction of the black community that's doing this. So that explains why police are in the black communities more, and that explains why black people are incarcerated more. They are making up lies saying that it has anything to do with racism.

"Do you understand that there's black police officers too that patrol many of these majority-black cities? Are they racist? No, that's not the case. They're just making things up in my personal opinion, and they're riding a wave of dead black people in order to make money and get political leverage."
Related:
Chauvin: 2021-04-25 CBC Chair Beatty: 'Can't Say' the Person Bryant Was Trying to Stab Would Have Died
Chauvin: 2021-04-25 MSNBC's Joy Reid: Gov. DeSantis Is the 'Modern-Day George Wallace'
Chauvin: 2021-04-24 Oklahoma drivers now have immunity from hitting rioters in streets under new law signed by Gov. Stitt
Link


Home Front: Politix
Happy Constitution Day!
2015-09-17
Moved to Opinion



[Wikipedia] mConstitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is normally observed on September 17, the day in 1787 that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia.[2]

When Constitution Day falls on a weekend or on another holiday, schools and other institutions observe the holiday on an adjacent weekday.[3]

The law establishing the present holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004.[4] Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as "Citizenship Day". In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions, and all federal agencies, provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.[5] In May 2005, the United States Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind.[3] This holiday is not observed by granting time off work for federal employees.

Universities and colleges nationwide have created "U.S. Constitution and Citizenship Weeks" in order to meet the requirements of the law. For example, the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) has created a celebration week that includes "Constitution Trivia Contests", distribution of free copies of the U.S. Constitution, a campus & community fair (in which volunteer and community groups can share information with students), a web page with facts and links related to the Constitution and history of the United States. MSOE has also distributed thousands of free "Presidential quote" T-shirts to all students on campus.[6]

Heavener schoosl first recognized Constitution Day in 1911.[7] In 1917, the Sons of the American Revolution formed a committee to promote Constitution Day. The committee would include members such as Calvin Coolidge, John D. Rockefeller, and General John Pershing.[7]

I am an American Day[edit]
This day was inspired by Arthur Pine, the head of a publicity-public relations firm in New York City bearing his name. At the New York World's Fair, the writers of a new song called "I am an American" brought their manuscript to the attention of Arthur Pine who handled publicity for the band leader, Gary Gordon, and a music publisher. Arthur Pine had the song introduced on NBC, Mutual, and ABC by the orchestra leader, arranged for an "I am an American Day" at the World's Fair and had a local New York newspaper tie-in with "I am an American Day" in the city. The promotion proved so successful that a newspaper chain promoted "I am an American Day" on a nationwide basis and had President Roosevelt name it as an official day.[8]

In 1939, William Randolph Hearst advocated, through his chain of daily newspapers, the creation of a holiday to celebrate citizenship.[citation needed] In 1940, Congress designated the third Sunday in May as "I am an American Day." In 1944 "I am an American Day" was promoted through the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service.[9] A 16-minute film, I Am an American, was featured in American theaters as a short feature.[10] In 1947 Hearst Newsreels featured the event on News of the Day.[11] By 1949, governors of all 48 states had issued Constitution Day proclamations.[7] On February 29, 1952, Congress moved the "I am an American Day" observation to September 17 and renamed it "Citizenship Day".[12][13]

Louisville, Ohio -- the Constitution Town[edit]
Louisville, Ohio, calls itself "Constitution Town", and credits one of its own for getting the holiday national recognition. In 1952, resident Olga T. Weber petitioned municipal officials to establish Constitution Day, in honor of the creation of the US Constitution in 1787. Mayor Gerald A. Romary proclaimed September 17, 1952, as Constitution Day in the city. The following April, Weber requested that the Ohio General Assembly proclaim September 17 as state-wide Constitution Day. Her request was signed into law by Governor Frank J. Lausche. In August 1953, she took her case to the United States Senate, which passed a resolution designating September 17--23 as Constitution Week. The Senate and House approved her request and it was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. On April 15, 1957, the City Council of Louisville declared the city Constitution Town. The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society later donated four historical markers, located at the four main entrances to the city, explaining Louisville's role as originator of Constitution Day.[14]
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Home Front: Politix
The Audacity of Whitewashing History & the Democratic Party Website
2014-09-14
Being a Democrat not only means never having to say you're sorry, but also means getting to pretend that history never happened. The Democrats' official party website is proof of that, as its section on "Our History" declares, with all the chutzpah of the proverbial defendant who murders his parents and begs the court's mercy on grounds of being an orphan, that:
It would be hard to offer a more tendentious reading of American history than this.

Look: if you read American history, and the history of the major political parties, you will find much that is both good and bad in their histories on the issues of race and civil rights. No serious, honest adult would claim that either party has had a historic monopoly on virtue or vice on race. I would argue that, if the Republican Party's history since its founding in the 1850s is compared to that of the Democratic Party over the same period, the GOP's history on issues of equal rights before the law stands up favorably against that of the opposing party -- and that the GOP is at worst roughly equivalent with the Democrats over any period of a decade or more that you might choose to examine. But I do not deny that Republicans have not always been in the right on every related issue over the years.

If today's Democrats had a shred of integrity and intellectual honesty, they would have some humility about their own history, rather than offering up the egregiously false claim that they have been on the side of the angels continuously for 200 years. 200 years ago, in 1814, our president was James Madison -- a Democrat, a great man in other ways, but a slaveowner. At least four other Democratic presidents between then and the Civil War owned slaves, and the Democrats were the locus of national political support for slavery throughout that period. The Civil War was launched by Democrats who refused to accept the election in 1860 of an anti-slavery Republican president, for a variety of reasons but mainly due to slavery. Democrats reasserted control of Southern politics at the end of Reconstruction through a heavy application of terrorism by the Klu Klux Klan (in Mississippi in the 1870s, they basically murdered anyone suspected of voting Republican). For nearly a century after that, the supporters of Jim Crow were uniformly lockstep Democrats, many of them progressives -- Woodrow Wilson, the only former citizen of the Confederacy to serve as President and the first progressive Democrat, introduced segregation throughout the federal government, and Franklin Roosevelt regularly received as high as 95% of the vote in Southern states. The 1924 Democratic Convention, in the race against the arch-conservative, pro-civil-rights reform Calvin Coolidge, was popularly known as the "Klanbake" for the heavy and vocal KKK presence; their nominee that year would go on to argue the losing, pro-segregation side in Brown v. Board of Education. And that's before we discuss the federal role in housing discrimination, instituted by a New Deal agency in the 1930s and finally undone by Republican Richard Nixon and his HUD secretary George Romney in the late 60s. Or the Davis-Bacon Act... The politicians who fought for segregation in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s were uniformly Democrats like George Wallace (who won his last election in 1982, as a Democrat), Orval Faubus and Strom Thurmond (who left the Democrats when he gave up supporting segregation). Former KKK members in national life included Democratic Senator and Supreme Court Justice (appointed by FDR) Hugo Black, who sat on the Court until the 1970s, and Senator Robert Byrd, who was still in the Senate until his death in Barack Obama's second year in office.

If you want to put these facts in some historical context, of course, we can talk about history and context. But the Democrats' official campaign website doesn't do that -- it never apologizes to African-Americans for the party's history of supporting slavery and segregation, and actively celebrates the last 200 years of the Party's history as an unbroken record of virtue in which "our party has led the fight for civil rights." The only possible justification for this is the Democrats' confidence that their own voters are completely ignorant of history.

Which is a sad comment on their good faith in dealing with these issues. If this history is leadership on civil rights, what would resistance look like? If they won't tell the truth about their own past, why should we trust them to tell the truth about any issue regarding the past and present of race in America?

Luminaries of the Democratic Party such as Ted Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, and William Clinton were not mentioned.
Link


Home Front: Politix
Dingell Breaks Record After 57 Years in House
2013-06-08
[BLOGS.WSJ] Rep. John Dingell
...Octogenarian Dem representative-for-life from Michigan, first elected sometime in the Lower Paleolithic...
(D., Mich.) became the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history Friday, and in an interview reflected on major legislative achievements and the changes in Washington over his nearly six decades in the House.

Mr. Dingell, 86 years old, has held his position for 57 years, five months and 26 days. He broke the record held by the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

Mr. Dingell has been involved in some of Congress's most celebrated achievements. "The single most important vote I cast" was for the 1964 Voting Rights Act, he said in an interview Friday.

He has since helped push through Medicare, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and most recently, President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
's health-care overhaul, the Affordable Care Act. From 1981 to 1994, and then from 2006 to 2008, Mr. Dingell was chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

He faced a stiff primary challenge in 2002, when redistricting had thrown him into a fight with another Democrat incumbent, Rep. Lynn Rivers, a more liberal member.

His home-state auto interests increasingly put him at odds with the Democratic caucus's commitment to tougher anti-pollution standards. That gap contributed to his ouster as chairman of Energy and Commerce in 2008, when he was successfully challenged by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D., Calif.).
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Home Front: Culture Wars
Byrd flys the bounds of earth at 92.
2011-06-27
Robert Byrd dead at 92.
While he vexed me to no end, I wish his family sympathy for their grief.
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Home Front: Politix
Gone, Wisconsin
2011-02-21
Think of “public service” for what it really is, a secondary form of welfare, in which “workers” pretend to work and the government pretends to “pay” them — just like in the old Soviet Union! I mean, if it weren’t for government jobs, all of these “non-essential” personnel would be lounging around on their porches, drinking beer and firing unregulated handguns into the air or at each other — or, even worse, at us — unable to deal with the vicissitudes of life and therefore deserving of our public charity. Without public service, politicians such as Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd would have been just another couple of Irish barroom horndogs; Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown, another Buddhist moonbat; and Robert Byrd a humble white-sheeted follower of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Public service gave these men jobs — real jobs — and meaning to their lives. And you malevolent capitalists want to take it all away.
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Home Front: Politix
Illinois SOS Won't Seat Senator Kirk In Time For Most Lame Duck Session
2010-11-08
Illinois Republican Mark Kirk won't be seated in the U.S. Senate in time for the start of the lame duck session of Congress this month - unlike two other newly elected Democrat senators.

The session begins Nov. 15. But state officials say the paperwork officially declaring Kirk the winner of the Senate race won't be delivered until Nov. 29.
Because? Ohhhh...lessee. What party runs the Secretary of State in Illinois? Democrat Jesse White
That should still allow Kirk to participate in two weeks of the session in December. He argued strongly during the campaign that voters needed to send him to the Senate quickly so he could help block spending and tax increases.
And the Dem Machine can't certify Kirk, because he's White, Republican, and embarrassed the machine by winning Zero's old seat.
Two Democrats are expected to be sworn in at the start of the lame duck session. Chris Coons of Delaware will fill the remainder of Vice President Joe Biden's term, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia replaces the late Robert Byrd.
That's how THEY play the game. Without shame. Time to play it their way too. Redistricting by the majority of state legislatures, captured by the Republican sweep. Do it smartly and crush the democrats
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Home Front: Politix
Clinton Defends Byrd's KKK Ties: "He Was Trying To Get Elected"
2010-07-03
"He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected," former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd.
And you once had a fleeting relationship with an intern.
"And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians," he added.
Amen.
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Home Front: Culture Wars
Robert C. Byrd: "a powerful man who abandoned his bigoted principles in order to keep power"
2010-07-02
Jonah Goldberg, National Review

It is a good rule of thumb not to speak ill of the dead. But what to do when a man is celebrated beyond the limits of decorum or common sense? Must we stay silent as others celebrate the beauty and splendor of the emperor’s invisible clothes?

You probably know why I ask the question. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate in American history, died Monday. It was truly a remarkable career. But what’s more remarkable is how he has been lionized by the champions of liberalism.

...The common interpretation is that Byrd’s is a story of redemption. A one-time Exalted Cyclops of the KKK, Byrd recruited some 150 members to the chapter he led — that’s led, not “joined,” by the way. (If you doubt his commitment to the cause, try to recruit 150 people to do anything, never mind have them pay a hefty fee up front.)

Byrd filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As Bruce Bartlett notes in his book Wrong on Race, Byrd knew he would fail, but he stood on bedrock principle that integration was evil. His individual filibuster, the second longest in American history, fills 86 pages of fine print in the Congressional Record. “Only a true believer,” writes Bartlett, “would ever undertake such a futile effort.”

Unlike some segregationists’, Byrd’s arguments rested less on the principle of states’ rights than on his conviction that black people were simply biologically inferior. Sure, he lied for years about his repudiation of the Klan. Sure, he was still referring to “white niggers” as recently as 2001. But everyone agrees his change of heart is sincere. And for all I know, it was.

What’s odd is what passes for proof of his sincerity. Yes, he voted to make Martin Luther King Day a holiday. But to listen to some eulogizers, the real proof came in the fact that he supported ever more lavish government programs — and opposed the Iraq War. Am I alone in taking offense at the idea that supporting big government and opposing the Iraq War somehow count as proof of racial enlightenment?

Robert Byrd was a complicated man, but the explanation for the outsized celebration of his career strikes me as far more simple. He was a powerful man who abandoned his bigoted principles in order to keep power. And his party loved him for it.
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