Daily News Roundup

Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

NOTABLE QUOTES

Matthew Continetti contributor to Washington Free Beacon: Lamenting the condition of the world under Joe Biden is not enough. Voters want to hear what Republicans are going to do about it. And they prefer a party with bad answers to a party with none.

Stephen Kruiser senior columnist for PJMedia: Decorum and bipartisanship should be anathema to any Republican in Congress who is serious about kicking the Democrats’ creeping commie threat squarely in the groin and slowing this nonsense down a bit. When you are in a street fight, you don’t worry about what people are going to think afterward. You think about doing whatever you can in the moment to survive. That’s the mentality Republicans should have right now. You can still have a brick thrown at your head while hanging around above the fray. Too many in the GOP still haven’t yet digested that reality.

Doug Casey contributor to LewRockwell.com: Call out BS wherever you see it. Don’t automatically accept the opinions of people just because they’ve been granted a degree or license. Think critically, and demand logical answers to impolite questions. Since this is a psychological war more than anything else, speak out whenever you can. Staying quiet makes you complicit in the crime by subtly agreeing with it.

Michael Morris contributor to The American Mind: These are the choices at hand: One is the gnostic unreality, a path of pagan power worship, Malthusian anti-humanism, appetitive exploitation, and near-guaranteed misery. The other is ordered toward the joy of a well lived life. One orients toward thick desires that manifest true happiness while the other wallows in masturbatory self-indulgence.

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Freedlander: The GOP Is Starting to Plot Against Donald Trump

It is,” he said, “A five-alarm fire. And there is nobody coming to put it out.” “It,” in this case, is the possibility that once again Donald Trump will prevail over a splintered Republican field, getting the same 30-40 percent he received in the early primaries in 2016, enough to win the nomination. “He,” is a Republican donor and bundler, a Wall Street financier who regularly hobnobs with senior Republican officials but who also was, uniquely for his tribe, an early and enthusiastic supporter of Trump. His request for anonymity speaks to the bizarreness of this political moment, where even one time staunch supporters of the former president are reluctant to say out-loud what they and their cohort all say privately: That should the former president win the primary again, he would be very likely to lose again to Joe Biden, even as some polls show him besting his 2020 rival. It is a comment echoed in interviews with dozens of Republican party members, donors, strategists and grassroots leaders, many of whom say it is the conversation they are all having privately among themselves too — how to make sure that Trump doesn’t once again take advantage of a split field and walk away with the Republican nomination, costing the party not just the presidency but a chance to retake the Senate and hold on to the House. Just this week, both the Koch Brothers-affiliated Americans For Prosperity and the anti-tax behemoth Club for Growth signaled that they were looking to rally around a Trump-alternative. And with the Iowa Caucus now just 11 months away, party insiders say that this question — how to stop Trump — is the one they need to find an answer to before too many contenders start piling into the race.

GLOBALISM (GREAT RESET) & TRANSHUMANISM (HUMANS 2.0) ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED

Dr. Mercola: Who Puts Mad Scientist in Charge of Global Health

December 13, 2022, the World Health Organization named Dr. Jeremy Farrar as its new chief scientist for global health.1 As chief scientist, Farrar will oversee the WHO’s science division “to develop and deliver high quality health services” worldwide. […] Farrar was the director of the Wellcome Trust from 2013 until February 2023, and as explained by investigative journalist Whitney Webb in the video above, the Wellcome Trust is part of the technocratic globalist network and the modern eugenics movement.3 Not only is the Wellcome Trust the archivist for the Eugenics Society, now known as the Galton Institute, but it also has a eugenics-directed center of its own. The Wellcome Trust’s Centre for Human Genetics investigates race genetics and susceptibility to diseases and infertility, and co-funds research and development of vaccines and birth control methods with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Wellcome’s board consists of present or former bankers, insurance executives and investment board members. The founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, while still alive, also founded the company that went on to become GlaxoSmithKline, so the Wellcome Trust is essentially the “philanthropic arm” of GSK. The Wellcome Trust is also one of the investors behind Vaccitech, a private company that holds the patents and royalties for the AstraZeneca COVID jab.

U.S. SUPREME COURT

Biskupic: Supreme Court under fresh pressure to adopt code of ethics

For decades, Supreme Court justices have dodged questions related to conflicts of interest by saying essentially “Trust us” or “We’re different.” They’ve refused to be bound by an official ethics code and grievance procedures that cover other federal judges. But mounting public pressure may finally spur changes. Court sources have told CNN that internal discussions, which date back at least to 2019, have been revived. The timing of any public resolution is uncertain, however, and it appears some justices have been more hopeful than others about reaching consensus. This week, in an action that demonstrates the intensifying national concern over the justices’ behavior, the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates approved a resolution urging the high court to adopt a binding code of ethics “comparable” to the code in place for lower-court US judges. {Note:Imagine that, the ABA , a far left organization whose own members have turned into law breakers is making the demand.]

THE CORRUPT U.S. INTELLIGENCE/ADMINISTRATIVE STATE APPARATUS

Fox News: FBI has found a gateway to declare Christians as criminals: Kyle Seraphin

Watch the 3:30 minute interview: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6320056402112

Solomon: FBI suffers fresh bias episode, retracts intel memo portraying Catholics as extremist threats

The FBI on Thursday retracted an intelligence product from its Richmond field office that suggested some Roman Catholics be viewed as radical extremist threats and urged agents to infiltrate certain groups from the world’s largest Christian faith. The episode is the latest to sully the FBI’s reputation, raising fresh concerns about political bias and civil liberties. […] In a statement to Just the News, the FBI said the product made public by a former FBI agent and whistleblower, Kyle Seraphin, was circulated only inside the bureau and did not meet the agency’s investigative requirements, . . . […] The abrupt reversal by the FBI comes as the House and majority Republicans announced plan to investigate concerns that pro-life Catholics have been targeted by law enforcement for unfair investigations, an allegation the FBI denies.

Evans: State Department Helped Fund ‘Disinformation’ Research Group That Reportedly Blacklists Conservative News Sites

The U.S. State Department, through its Global Engagement Center (GEC), helped facilitate funding for a group that reportedly works to demonetize sites it claims are disseminating “disinformation,” including conservative news outlets, according to its website. The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a United Kingdom-based nonprofit that styles itself as a “non-political” monitor working to “disrupt the business model of disinformation,” lists as a funder the Disinfo Cloud, a now-shuttered GEC project. However, GDI has worked to demonetize conservative news sites by collaborating with ad exchanges to flag alleged purveyors of disinformation, the Washington Examiner reported Thursday.

Whedon: Mike Pence subpoenaed by DOJ special counsel investigating Trump

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in November 2022 following Trump’s announcement that he would seek the presidency in 2024. Smith has taken on the DOJ’s investigations pertaining to Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified materials and any alleged unlawful interference in the 2020 election by the former president or his associates. Pence may be of direct relevance to the documents matter as the former vice president announced in late January that he had discovered classified materials at his Indiana home.

REPUBLICAN U.S. HOUSE MAJORITY: SELECT SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WEPONIZATION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Sundance: First Hearing – House Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of Federal Government, Full Hearing Video

In an unusual twist Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson gave testimony to the House subcommittee to include their own experience with investigations of how the DOJ and FBI have weaponized their institutions against the American people and even against congressional oversight.

Linebarger: MUST WATCH: Matt Gaetz Leaves Democrat Witness Squirming And Stuttering When Gaetz Exposes He’s A Partner At A Lobbying Firm That Represents Pfizer, Google, And George Soros’ Open Society

Matt Gaetz (R-FL) left Williams stammering when he questioned him. Williams was trying to squirm away from acknowledging that his lobbying firm represents Google, George Soros’s Open Society, and Pfizer. In the process, Gaetz exposed the unholy union between the DC Swamp and the private institutions targeting sacred rights of Americans.

REPUBLICAN U.S. HOUSE MAJORITY: THE COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Givas: Oversight chair issues sweeping document demands to Biden ‘gatekeeper’ in secret records probe

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has issued a detailed request to a former Joe Biden “gatekeeper” for documents and communications from her time working at the Penn-Biden center, specifically anything related to her involvement in the handling and removal of “highly classified” materials. […] The Committee has obtained evidence showing that you had keycard access to Penn Biden Center. Recent reporting indicates in January 2017 you — while serving as then-Vice President Biden’s executive assistant — helped pack up the departing Vice President’s office.

“Documents on file with the committee reveal that President Biden’s son — Robert Hunter Biden — initially proposed a job in Vice President Biden’s office to you in May 2012. Hunter described your potential responsibilities as replacing the ‘primary gatekeeper for the VP’ and ‘conduit everyone goes through to get to [Vice President Biden].’ Additionally, Hunter explained that you would replace the person who ‘handles all personal stuff’ for Vice President Biden.

War Room: Rep. Luna: Twitter Execs Perjured Themselves In Congressional Hearing On Government Collusion.

Watch the 4:47 minute interview: https://rumble.com/v28we0i-rep.-luna-twitter-execs-perjured-themselves-in-congressional-hearing-on-gov.html

War Room: We Have Evidence MORE Social Media Platforms Were Secretly Communicating With Federal Government.

Watch the 2:38 minute clip: https://rumble.com/v28wdjq-we-have-evidence-more-social-media-platforms-were-secretly-communicating-wi.html

REPUBLICAN U.S. HOUSE MAJORITY: JOINT OVERSIGHT & INVESTIGATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE AND HEALTH SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING ON COVID-19 RESPONSE

Baletti: House Republicans Grill Top U.S. Health Officials Over ‘Mishandling’ of COVID Response

Top Biden officials from federal health agencies faced tough questioning about their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday in a joint congressional hearing of the Oversight and Investigations and Health subcommittees. Republican lawmakers indicated this will be the first of many hearings into the administration’s handling of the pandemic. A separate committee will investigate questions around the potentially fraudulent mishandling of $5 trillion in COVID-19 relief funds. “President Biden’s public health leaders are here today because they have broken the American people’s trust,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said in her opening remarks. […] Dr. Lawrence Tabak, acting director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) responded to four hours of questioning. Committee Republicans pressed the officials on their failed oversight of gain-of-function research, challenged the agencies’ rationale for vaccine mandates, mask mandates and school closures, and interrogated them on their role in suppressing information on social media, all of which they said have caused a loss of faith in public institutions during the pandemic. Committee Democrats largely praised the officials.

Read more/Watch the two clips and the 4 hour meeting: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/health-officials-hearing-covid-response/

Fleetwood: Top 10 Questions A Covid Commission Should Probe About The United States’ Pandemic Response

Now, nearly three years later, a coalition of medical professionals is demanding government officials answer for their actions. In a new 80-page report, the Norfolk Group, which is comprised of figures such as Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, lays out a blueprint “containing key public health questions” for a possible congressional “COVID-19 commission.” Throughout the document, the authors raise valid concerns and queries about the U.S. government’s and the medical industry’s handling of the Covid pandemic, in an effort to make sure that such destructive maladministration never happens again. 1. What Could Have Been Done to Better Protect Older, High-Risk Americans? As noted in the report, age is the “single most important risk factor in predicting hospitalization or death” for Covid patients. Take for example the fact that from the beginning of the outbreak until June 2020, residents of long-term care facilities comprised 40 percent of Covid-related deaths in the country. Given such information, it remains completely implausible why Democrat governors such as former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would order infectious, Covid-positive patients into nursing homes, placing other vulnerable seniors at risk of infection. What would justify such a decision? And how many lives were lost because of it? 2. Why Was Natural Immunity to Covid Ignored? Immunity to viruses acquired through prior infection (otherwise known as natural immunity) has been a globally recognized concept for centuries. So, why was it so outwardly dismissed by health agencies when it came to Covid?

REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATE MINORITY

The Center Square Staff: Legislation introduced in Senate bans banks from making financial decisions based on politics

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., reintroduced the Fair Access to Bank Act to combat what he called the “weaponization of the financial system.” According to the bill, banks and credit unions with assets over $10 billion would face penalties of up to $10,000 per violation for refusing to do business with legally-compliant businesses. The financial institution could also lose its status as an insured depository institution or insured credit union. […] Thirty-six senators from 22 states have signed on to the bill.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: TRANSFORMING AMERICA

Marshall: If Biden’s Federal Elections Takeover Is ‘Free And Fair,’ Why Are The Plans Completely Redacted?

After several executive agencies in the Biden administration were sued for refusing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests from conservative advocacy group Citizens United over the White House’s attempt to federalize elections, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs finally turned over its first batch of requested documents. There’s one problem: More than half of the 54-page document is completely redacted. “The Biden administration is the least transparent in history, and these absurd redactions are just the latest example. What are they trying to hide from the American people?” Citizens United President David Bossie told The Federalist. As The Federalist previously reported, in March 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing hundreds of federal agencies to engage in a federal takeover of election administration. It also permitted federal agencies to work with “nonpartisan” third-party entities to get voters registered, yet left-wing dark money group Demos publicly admitted it’s worked with federal agencies, “in close partnership with the ACLU and other allies,” to advance the aims of Biden’s directive.

Klein: Biden’s Sellout to China

President Joe Biden is selling out the United States of America to the Chinese Communist regime. During his long rambling State of the Union address, Biden wasted a rare opportunity before an audience of millions of Americans to stand up to America’s number one adversary and the enemy of freedom everywhere. He ignored China’s serial acts of aggression, while lashing out at Republicans and at American corporations. President Biden is under the illusion that the United States is merely in “competition with China.” China is not just a competitor, a label that could also be used to describe our close allies in Western Europe and Asia who compete with the United States in global markets. First and foremost, China is our enemy. China’s leaders have exploited President Biden’s weakness, which they observed when he recklessly withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 and left Americans, Afghan allies, and a trove of sophisticated military equipment behind. The Chinese are also reaping the benefits from the huge payments that Chinese individuals and businesses have made to the Biden family enterprise.

Smith: Closing In on the Classified Cover-up

At the center of the Biden document cover-up is the question of who blocked the National Archives and Records Administration from informing the U.S. public about the classified records found in the president’s office in early November. The archives’ general counsel told members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that he couldn’t divulge that information, but GOP House leadership concluded that only Attorney General Merrick Garland or Biden himself could have given those orders. But there’s a third powerful name in play, this one from outside of the government: David Rubenstein. Co-founder of the Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm the Carlyle Group, Rubenstein is one of the archives’ most generous patrons. In 2013, the David M. Rubenstein Gallery at the National Archives was completed at a cost of $13.5 million. Rubenstein is also a major Biden ally. He has regularly hosted the Biden family at his Nantucket estate for Thanksgiving—in 2022, 2021, and 2014. According to the chairman of the GOP-led House Oversight Committee James Comer, the archives’ “inconsistent treatment of recovering classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency.” And, indeed, under recently retired chief archivist David Ferreiro, the archives gladly joined forces with the Department of Justice-led anti-Trump campaign.

PENCE/FAUCI/BIRX COVID-19 TASK FORCE

Burdick, PhD: Scientist Tells RFK, Jr.: ‘Militaristic’ Medicine Linked to Excess Deaths, Especially Among Poor and Disabled

The narrative that the COVID-19 virus was largely responsible for excess deaths during the pandemic isn’t supported by statistical analyses, according to Denis Rancourt, Ph.D., all-cause mortality researcher and former physics professor and lead scientist for 23 years at the University of Ottawa in Canada.

During an episode of “RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast,” Rancourt told Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman and chief litigation counsel for Children’s Health Defense, that the numbers suggest COVID-19 countermeasures — such as lockdowns and social distancing — imposed by governments and public health officials were key contributors to the rise in excess deaths since 2020 when the pandemic began.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: WOKE IDENTITY POLITICS

Thornett: Identity Alchemy

It would be easy for French actress and author Rachel Khan to embrace the identity that wokeism ascribes to people based on race, gender, and ethnicity. Her mother was a white Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor living in France. Her father was a black Gambian university teacher who grew up under British colonial rule. According to woke identity politics, this makes her systematically oppressed in at least four different ways. But Khan rejects identity politics and intersectionality, the woke scheme of mapping the intersection of multiple forms of systematic oppression in a single person. In the October 2021 Tocqueville Conversations panel “The Volcano of Identity,” she said intersectionality reduces everyone to a “slave to a color,” such that “the color of the skin erases everything—everything underlying, removes your signature. Your signature is much more human than your ‘identity.’ Your signature is your hallmark: the way you speak, the way you think, the way you laugh—particularly the way you laugh—and the way you move. It tells you more about yourself. Thanks to the signature, you’re in contact with the subjectivity of the individual, and not in contact with this nebulous [identity] group.” In the French newspaper Le Figaro, Khan argued that identity politics and intersectionality are “a colonization of the spirit,” “a way of removing recognition of [one’s] individual distinguished history.”

EDUCATION INDOCTRINATION

Peterson: The Downfall of the Ivy League | Victor Davis Hanson | EP 325

Dr Jordan B Peterson and Victor Davis Hanson discuss the state of Ivy League universities, the rise of administrative exploitation, and the cost of our institutions losing credibility.

Watch the 1:45:02 hour interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUC2Xk2YW9M

AMERICAN HISTORY 101

Bray: Ordered Disobedience

In October of 1944, US troops landing on Leyte Island in the Philippines were menaced from the sea by an enormous Japanese naval fleet that was divided into three separate attack forces. Summarizing aggressively, the American ground forces were protected against an attack from the sea by the US Navy’s Third Fleet, commanded by Bull Halsey. But Halsey suddenly wasn’t there anymore, taking the bait of a decoy attack force and chasing it out into the sea. The Third Fleet’s departure uncovered Leyte Gulf, and the largest of the Japanese attack forces sailed in. Disaster became likely. There were two American naval task forces in the path of the Japanese attack force, Taffy 2 and Taffy 3, but neither were meant for serious naval combat. They were supporting forces, designed to help the troops on the ground: a few escort carriers, a few lightly armed destroyer escorts, a very few destroyers. Aircraft on the American escort carriers were armed with 100-pound bombs to provide close air support to the infantry. The Japanese First Task Force had four battleships, eight cruisers, and eleven destroyers. One of the Japanese battleships was the Yamato, armed with 18-inch guns. The Japanese attack force sailed directly into contact with Taffy 3, which didn’t realize they were about to face the main Japanese attack force until they were already within range of its guns. The commander of Taffy 3, Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague, saw immediately that his task force couldn’t survive the engagement, so he tried to salvage what he could: . . .

2022 ARIZONA MIDTERM ELECTION UPDATE

Alexander: Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee Reveals Thousands of Misdemeanors Allegedly Committed by Maricopa County in 2022 Election

The Arizona Senate’s Election Committee continued the second part of a hearing on Monday that began last week, featuring testimony from election integrity proponents. Shelby Busch, the co-founder of We the People AZ, and Heather Honey of Verify Vote, went over five areas where their team found apparent law violations by Maricopa County in the 2022 election. Busch said during her presentation, “We want safe elections, not convenient ones,” sparking applause from the audience. State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), the committee chair, kept a tight rein over the proceedings, often calling out the Democratic senators on the committee when they were out of line. One used the phrase “election denier,” and Rogers told her it was inappropriate.

OTHER NEWS, COMMENTARY, OPINION

War Room: Laura Loomer: RICO Lawsuit Against Big Tech

Watch the 3:56 minute interview: https://rumble.com/v28xuru-laura-loomer-rico-lawsuit-against-big-tech.html

Reyner: Town Leaders in NJ Town Switch From Dem to GOP

Town leaders in East Hanover, N.J., including longtime Mayor Joseph Pannullo, have switched party affiliations from Democrat to Republican, according to the Daily Record. The entire township council joined Pannullo in making the switch. “Municipal leaders have a responsibility to best represent their constituents, and it is our belief this change of party is in the best interest of the community,” Pannullo, who has served as mayor since 2007, said in a statement.

Hostile Takeover of Project Veritas Seeking to Remove James O’Keefe – DeSantis Aligned Operatives Spearheading Effort for Removal

Word first broke on the Twitter last night about a board coup inside the Project Veritas organization led by Matt Tyrmand, a rabid advocate for Ron DeSantis and part of the 2024 influence operation. [TWITTER Source] According to the leaked information, Matt Tyrmand organized a six-hour confrontation session against Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, culminating in a decision to put O’Keefe on leave. “The board held a six-and-a-half-hour struggle session vs James where they subjected him to constant derision and insults. At the insistence of Tyrmand, O’Hara, and Hinckley; “about ten employees aired their grievances about James, which essentially boiled down to him being a tough boss to work for. At the end of this six-hour struggle session, Tyrmand and fellow board member John Garvey put him on leave and stripped him of all authority.” (source) New York Mag is essentially confirming the original sourcing [SEE HERE]. […] If the Project Veritas board decides to take out James O’Keefe, that entire organization is dead to me.

Burrow: FBI Has Recovered ‘Extremely Limited’ Portion Of Downed Chinese Spy Balloon

Recovery efforts began hours after the balloon’s debris, including the aerodynamic portion as well as surveillance and transmission equipment, splashed into roughly 47-foot deep waters. While the U.S. hopes to analyze the surveillance apparatus to learn more about China’s spying operations, FBI officials said the “extremely limited” amount of equipment that has undergone analysis so far does little to shed light on China’s intent to deploy the balloon in the first place, ABC News reported. “Much of the evidence remains underwater,” a senior FBI official speaking on condition of anonymity told ABC News. Since beginning operations on Feb. 6, the FBI has retrieved only the evidence “present at the surface” and brought it to the lab at Quantico for further analysis.

Spencer: What Could Have Led a New York Stockbroker to Become a Terrorist?

Here’s a career trajectory that is, as Bob Uecker might say, juuuust a bit outside of the ordinary: Ruslan Maratovich Asainov was a New York stockbroker and a happily married man with a toddler daughter upon whom he lavished affection. But something was missing. A Kazakh native and naturalized American citizen, Ruslan Maratovich Asainov was on a spiritual search that ultimately led him to embrace the religion of most of the people in his native land, Islam. Asainov dived into his new faith with all the zeal of a new convert and then some. Ultimately, his new religion led him to forsake the world of bulls and bears and travel to Iraq and Syria during the heyday of the Islamic State (ISIS). Ruslan Maratovich Asainov is likely the only New York stockbroker to become an ISIS sniper.

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

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