Sunday, January 15, 2006

The Corporate Friends of Mr.Harper

Below is the list of Corporate donors to Harpers Leadership campaign. The full document of donors of $200 or more can be found here. A tip o the blog to Politicagrll

I have bolded those I find interesting such as;

The Asper media chain, CanWest which just came out in favour of the Conservatives and Harper this election. David Asper also personally donated $200 to Harpers Leadership campaign. David Asper, Steve Posen endorse Conservatives

Peter Kent, St. Paul's Conservative candidate, announces key supporters at Big Tent event

Key Liberals defect and join others in supporting Peter Kent, highlighting his big tent campaign
 Also joining Peter Kent's Big Tent was the Chairman of the National Post,
David Asper. David Asper and his family have been well-known for their past
support for the Liberal Party. In his statement, Mr. Asper said in a prepared
letter of recommendation that, "the need for a man of Peter's integrity became
even more clear to me after hearing the Prime Minister say during the last
English language debate that 'we've got to have a more intelligent debate.
Enough is enough: this idea of drive-by smears doesn't make it true', and then
the next day launch a series of Liberal advertisements that are some of the
most insulting, base attack ads that I have ever seen. The Prime Minister is
correct. Enough is enough. It's time for a change and Peter Kent is someone
who represents not only change itself, but change for the better."
Bell Canada was another big donor. Ironic since the Blogging Tory's have been denouncing Bell/BCE/Bell Global Media as a Liberal front and which I blogged was no such thing. Much Ado About BCE

Encana is the largest gas distribution company in North America, and out going President Gwyn Morgan has been touted to replace Ralph Klein as CEO of Alberta.

One of the interesting ones of is Rio Can Real Estate Investment Trust. Income Trust. Remember them. They pay no taxes, and Monte Solberg and the Conservatives lobbied for them this past six months. CanWest slams Ottawa over handling of trusts

The Corporate Elite Wants You To Vote Conservative For Change.

2004 Conservative Party Leadership Event
Contribution reporting for donations in excess of $200
Name of Leadership Candidate Stephen Harper
Contributor or Corporate Name
Contribution

Burns West Coporation 2 ,000
Ifco Systems Canada Inc 5 ,000
715502 Alberta Ltd -- David Malwry 2 50
866615 Ontario Inc. 3 00
Alexander Tools Limited 2 0,000
Alkin Corporation 1 ,000
Atkinson & Atkinson 5 00
Axor 1 0,000
Balboa Land Investment Inc 1 ,000
Bell 2 0,000
Bellport Resources Ltd 3 ,000
Bennett Insurance Agency Ltd. 5 00
Bicklette Limited 1 ,000
Canaccord Capital Corp 3 0,000
Canwest Media Inc 2 0,000
Capital Hill Group Ottawa Inc 1 ,000
Capital Sports Properties Inc. 5 00
Caplan Industries 1 ,000
Caplan Industries Inc 1 ,000
Career Essentials Inc 1 ,000
Cement Association of Canada 5 00
Comdel Developments Inc 5 ,000
Copps Buildall 1 ,500
Credit Suisse First Boston 6 ,000
Crystal Glass 5 00
DWPV Management Ltd. 2 ,500
Eastern Hemlock Limited 5 ,000
EF Moon Construction Ltd 5 00
E-L Finacial Corporation Ltd. 1 0,000
EnCana Corporation 2 5,000
Future Electronics Inc 5 ,000
Garwood 1 ,000
George Weston Ltd 8 ,500
Giant Tiger Stores Ltd. 5 ,000
GlaxoSmithKline Inc. 1 ,000
Goodmans LLP 5 ,000
Grant Forest Products Inc 2 5,000
Gunnar Office Furnishings 5 ,000
Haven Manor Inc. 5 00
Heathbridge Graham Inc. 5 00
Hill & Knowlton 5 00
Hill & Knowlton 5 00
IGRG Inc. 5 00
INCO Ltd 5 ,000
Inkan Group 7 50
Internationl Forest Products Ltd 2 ,000
J & S Hokanson Investments Ltd 5 50
Kathnan Investments Limited 5 ,000
Key Maintenance Technologies 2 50
Krakiwsky Consulting Ltd 1 ,000
Lamplighter Inns (London) Limited 1 ,500
Lincoln-McKay Development - 135482 Canada Inc 1 ,000
Lopresti Pharmacy 1988 Ltd. 4 00
Maceachern's Deep Steam 1 ,750
Macleod Dixon LLP 2 ,500
McDowell Brothers Industries Inc 4 00
McMillan Binch LLP 1 ,000
O & Y Properties 1 0,000
Onex Corporation 1 0,000
Orlick Industries Limited 3 0,000
Pfizer Canada Inc 2 ,500
Pfizer Canada Inc. 5 00
PMA Brethour Real Estate Corporation 5 ,000
PMA Brethour Real Estate Corportation 5 ,000
Power Corporation of Canada 2 5,000
Promographix Inc. 5 00
R & D 2 ,000
Rio Can Real Estate Investment Trust 5 ,000
River Oaks Developments Inc 5 ,000
RNH Holding Ltd. 1 ,000
RSW International Inc 1 ,000
Shelter Canadian Properties Limited 1 ,000
Silver Sage Holdings & Development Ltd 1 ,100
SolowayWright SW Management 1 ,000
St Lawrence Starch Ltd 1 ,000
Summit Insurance Brokers Inc 1 ,500
The Logit Group 2 ,000
The Responsive Marketing Group 5 ,000
Torys LLP 5 ,000
Walton Management Inc 3 50
Weatons Holdings Limited 2 0,000
Whippoorwill Holdings Limited 3 0,000

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Andy is In Trouble










You know you are in trouble when you have to bring Paul Martin in to support you. The Liberal candidate for Edmonton Strathcona, Andy Hladyshevsky, will be holding a rally this evening with PM.

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Stupid Quote For Sunday










Dear Brothers and Sisters of the faith we are gathered here today to hear the word from on high. Let it never be said that stupidity was not an article of our faith. Peace be on to you. In the name of the most High.

"Abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing                  young people."
                --Archbishop George Pell of Sydney, Australia, speaking                  during World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada. [Agence                  France Press, "Archbishop honored for Australia's most sexist                  remark of the year," September 13, 2002.]









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The Neo Liberal  Canadian State












  A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land is fellow left wing blogger after my own politics I would say, and he recently linked to my article below on Voting for Capitalism on January 23. His analysis of this election is more about how the ruling class operates under capitalism with it's various internecine conflicts between elites. Its an interesting series of articles that folks would do well to read, especially American readers who visit here.

He observes that there is very little real difference between the Parties running for government as they reflect only aspects of opinion of the ruling elites in Canada.

It's a concrete stripping away of bullshit to look at the nature of the Neo-Conservative/Neo-Liberal (these terms are interchangeable*) State in Canada. A state that regardless of who wins on January 23 will not change much. It will only be a matter of degree.

The largest scandals under the Liberals HAVE NOT been addressed by the Conservatives or their syncophantic cheerleaders over at the Blogging Tory's or in the MSM. They can't address them because they are ideologically in agreement with them, that is the contracting out and privatization of state services. 

The result for the last twelve years have been massive rip offs of funds, the failure to regulate third party service providers, and to monitor services they provide while costs have soared. The privatization and contracting out of these services has left the door open for conflict of interest rip offs by government empolyees who set up third party service organizations to sell back to government services they normally would provide as employees. This has been done predominately in the area of computer and IT services.

As I wrote here during the last election about the P3 Boondoggle that is the Firearms Registry, the Liberals under Chretien as PM and Martin as Finance Minister embraced the neo-liberal idea of restructuring the State in the market model of service delivery. They introduced public private partnerships, P3's, and fashioned the restructuring based on the book Reinventing Government that also influenced Blair and Clinton/Gore.

Reinventing Government, How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector, by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler published in 1993. It became the bible for the reduction in government services in order to reduce deficits by using contracting out, outsourcing and public private partnerships. It was the bible of the ‘new ‘ way for governments to do ‘business’. It was a liberal version of the harsher conservative view that all government services could and should be privatized.  
It became the rallying cry of governments under siege from business and the right wing. In the United States it was embraced enthusiastically by the Democrats and Vice President Gore. In Canada it became the Chretien Liberals alternative to the Klein Revolution in Alberta. And it is the reason that Canadian Firearms Program ended up being a billion-dollar boondoggle. 
  
Facing a massive deficit and debt crisis that was world wide, governments began to end their Keynesian approaches to social spending and embrace the new neo-conservative agenda. Reduce spending, outsource government contracts and increase tax cuts to business. The Liberals were no different, and Reinventing Government became an internal bible within the various departments. It was read by Cabinet Ministers, deputy ministers, and most importantly its ideas of contracting out and outsourcing was embraced in every department as a way of supposedly saving money.
 


It is important to understand that in the Ninties the provincial governments and the Federal government was besieged by the business lobby and its right wing political parties to change the way it delivered services due to the Debt and Deficit Hysteria. The current attacks on Martin for having cut back funding to provinces is hypocritical in the extreme, since this is exactly what was demanded of the right wing in Canada. The cut backs in funding to provinces dovetailed with the cut backs in funding that the Provinces were engaging in in delivery of services and funding to Health Care, Education, Post Seconday Education and Cities.

The whole MUSH sector was being restructured by financial cut backs preparing it for alternative delivery models of service, that is contracting out and privatization. Therefore the agenda which had been planed and promoted by the right wing think tanks since the 1970's; the end of Keyensian social welfare and its replacement with private sector delivery of public services, was coming to fruition. The Debt and Deficit hysteria was all that was needed to allow governments, provincially, federally and municipally, to end union contracts, and look to private sector servicing.

If the Debt and Deficit was so important then one has to ask why it is dismissed today as the United States enters into a record Trillion dollar debt and deficit regime. It was not important, even at the time few voices on the left could challenge the right on this issue, they dominated the debate. And the left and cosil democratic left failed to mobilize an effective counter attack.

Ralph Klein explained it best when he said that Alberta had to renovate its house, used mortgage payments and personal debt to get the average person to understand this complex issue of Government bonds and high finance.  What he forgot to mention was that Alberta's debt was incurred because his government had given a tax holiday to the oil industry for a decade after the collapse of the oil market in the crash of the eighties. That the deficit was a temporary phenomena, for 1993 only after that the govenment has run surpluses ever since.

The fact was that Government has always incurred debt, its called bonds, and bond financing. Governments borrow money and also issue bonds and debentures for investments, thus they are always in debt, either to the market place or their own citizens. It was the deficits though that allowed them to combine the immediate financial shortfalls with the long term debt that created the image of a government on the edge of economic collapse.

Of course what was not talked about but is apparent even again today, is that business operates on debt financing as well. While it hopes for quarterly gains, thus avoiding a deficit, in the eighties and ninties most business was in debt financing, thus allowing it vulnerablity to take over in the market. The rise of mergers and aquistions, the use of hedge funds and junk bonds reflected this economic vunerability. Since then buisnesses that restructered, reduced workers, sold off assests, and relabled themselves have been successful. They also now sit on piles of cash. Which is why you see them buying back their debt, their shares. Not all though as the collapse of America's number one business; GM shows.

What the right did was create a sturm and drang about Debt and Deficit around the world, the Big Lie. The reality was that it was an excuse to implement their plans to reinvent government.

As I wrote in 2004 about the Firearms registry, this reinvention of government in Canada focused not so much on government services in general but a specific service sector; computers and IT. The Firearms registry is the very example of why P3's are a failure.

The Liberals began the promotion of private-public partnerships (P3’s) and contracting out not based on any real economic analysis but based on popular business ideology. One of the areas the government saw, as perfect for outsourcing was its IT needs. The computer and information technology boom meant that the government could easily contract out these services rather than developing them in-house. Various departments began wholesale contracting out of IT services, including hardware purchasing and installation, computer programming and data base construction, as well as data inputting. 
 
Unfortunately in their rush to privatize and outsource, they failed to develop a business plan that would allow for project oversight, and worse they failed to tender specific contracts for services. The government became a slush fund for private sector IT companies which were not the small computer companies of struggling entrepreneurs of the Wired generation, but large-scale corporate monopolies. 
 
Such was the case with the Canadian Firearms Program, as is clearly shown by all the audit reports. In the case of the creation of the CFC, not only was the IT contracted out but also so was all the staff who did data intake, customer service and data input. The entire Centre is one large venture in private delivery of government services. Cost overruns occurred because of having “ multiple headquarters deployments (Edmonton and Ottawa) and processing sites (Montreal and Miramichi).�? These were staffed not by public sector workers, but by contracted out workers. 
 
Management was the only area that was not contracted out, but in this case the management also did not have the knowledge or experience to oversee the IT component of creating a brand new data base for registering Canada’s gun owners.
In the years following that more and more contracting out was done for computer technology, software and hardware purchases. It was the mystique of the dot.com boom, of the Wired world, that somehow all this computer stuff was specialized knowledge, was too difficult and too costly for Government to procure and operate in the old model. A new model had to be adopted to deal with the risky business of high tech transformation of information.

The result was theft by monopolies providing services ,second rate equipment, purchasing over priced computers, creating outdated software, updating that same software, holding proprietary ownership over the software. It was bait and switch, the largest swindle in history, and it was all wrapped up in the great Dot.Com boom of here comes the future. The government of Canada bought it hook line and stinker. And it has cost taxpayers billions not only in the failure of the Firearms registry, but in other sectors as well, where ever government bought computers or software, they contracted this out, earning third parties enormous profits at taxpayer expense. Some of those third parties turned out to be their own managers!

Such was the case with the Department of Defense scandal in 2004.

Ex-DND employee being sued over billing scandal
 
Updated Thu. Aug. 12 2004 7:03 AM ET
   
   CTV.ca News Staff
     
Paul Champagne, an Ottawa man who claims his wealth comes from the stock market, is being sued by the federal government and Hewlett-Packard.
 
They allege the former Department of National Defence employee stole over $100 million of taxpayers' money and they want to recover some of it.
But the fact remains that Champagne's signature appears on cheques he personally received from military computer sub-contractors. CTV saw one such cheque that was for $95,000.
 
"He was telling people the contracts were all top secret military work so no one really knew what was going on except Paul Champagne," said investigative journalist Andrew McIntosh of the National Post.
 
In court documents, the government and Hewlett-Packard allege that over a 10-year period, Champagne stole over $100 million using a phony invoice scheme.

Ex-DND employee's signing authority questioned
By Scott Foster, Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Mon, Aug 30, 2004 12:00 AM EST
                                           
 Gordon O'Connor, defence critic for the Conservative Party, has said the Champagne case brings into question the system of checks and balances within DND. 
   
 But Howard Grant, founding partner and president of Ottawa-based Partnering and Procurement Inc., said the Champagne case is an isolated event and should not colour the public's opinion of public servants. 
   
 "The majority of public servants work hard and do their best to provide a good service to the public. We have tarred all public servants with the same brush and, in essence, told them we don't trust them." 
   
 Public servants must deal with a lot of rules designed to protect them from appearing to favour particular private sector vendors, said Mr. Grant. 
   
 However, some of those rules actually hinder public servants from making sensible business decisions, he added.  
   
 For example, if the government needs a small piece of business done quickly, public servants still have to tender to at least three companies, which is a "prolonged and expensive process for both the government and the vendors", Mr. Grant said. 
   
 "Vendors are unwilling to spend, for example, $3,000 to have a hope of winning a $20,000 contract. Approval processes leave projects hopelessly delayed before they even get started," said Mr. Grant. 
   
 Another example is when the government has selected a private sector vendor to do the first part of a project and then is unable to contract with that same vendor to do the next stage without again going out to at least three companies, he said. 
   
 "Assuming the private sector company has done a good job on the first phase, switching companies mid-project just doesn't make sense." 
   
 Currently, the system causes procurement officers to use "work-arounds" to achieve the outcome that was "the sensible decision" in the first place, said Mr. Grant. 
   
 "We see procurement officers having to split a large contract into several small ones because the approval processes to select one vendor are just so cumbersome. 
   
 "So sometimes when procurement officers are seen to be breaking the rules, they are actually doing so to get their projects underway and are improving the service to the public by saving time and money." 
   
 Mr. Grant believes the system needs an overhaul but said the government needs to move away from task forces that discuss the issues and move toward making "tangible changes that will support those public servants who want to be both accountable and do a good job for their departments and the public".
 
I am not the only one that has raised this issue of the Gun Registry Boondoogle being a failure of contracting out Computer and IT services. After I published my article this appeared at Baselinemag.com
July 1, 2004
Canada Firearms: Armed Robbery
By Mel Duvall


Nor am I the only one who is concerned that the increasing use of P3 models for government delivery of services, now including the sell off and lease back of Federal Buildings done under the Martin government, with barely a peep out of the Conservatives when in opposition (kind of hard to oppose an ideological position you promote).

Oracle of Ottawa has an interesting take on Department of Defense Contracting Out, the Bomarck Missile and P3's. 

Part 6 - Outsourcing          - Public Sector
 My main concern about outsourcing in Public Sector IT is that it relinquishes    much of any advantage and control IT provides the Public Sector. Once you    outsource any Public Service activity you relinquish control to the Private    sector which does not have the same focus as the Public Sector. 
   
 It's not in the Private Sector's interest to debate the merits of IT requirements with a Government client. The Private Sector ideal is to please it's Public Sector client by accepting whatever modifications may occur whether they be practical or not. The Bomarc is the best example of how we lose control of our Sovereignty once the Government outsources Public Services to another entity Corporate or otherwise. 
   
 Corporate entities do not have the same overall objectives or controls as the Public Sector. The trend in Government to outsource is very disconcerting as it's an abdication of the role of Government to Private interests. I don't know about you, but I have read so many news items of Government records and personal information landing up in open waste containers. I just shudder to think what would happen should a Government IT network be compromised. 
   
   I have deep concerns of what type of controls would be given to Private    Sector employees having access to confidential Government information.
   
   I don't know about you, but I have read so many news items of paper tax    records and personal information landing up in open waste containers. I just    shudder to think what would happen should an Government IT network be compromised    containing millions of sensitive files. 
   
   I have deep concerns of what kind of controls would be given to a Private    Sector employee have in access to Government confidential information. 
   
   Who does the Private sector employee report to, his Private sector Corporate    employer or the Government ?
   
   Unlike the Bomarc scenario, Government still controls IT in the Public Sector. 
   
   Do we really want a repeat performance of relinquishing control in such a    sensitive area ?
   
   The few dollars we save will cost us much more sometime down the road.
         
Where is the Internet          Going ?
            
       
                           Part 5  - Outsourcing - Private Sector       
     
                          


*Footnote:
In the United States the term used is Neo-Conservative, as if this new form of State Capitalism stripped of it's Keyensianism is somehow a return to pre-FDR Republicanism. In Europe they use the term Neo-Liberalism, which is far more descriptive, but because Amercians literally go apoplectic over the term liberal, the term they use is neo-con to describe themselves. What it is simply is the reduction of state delivered services in favour of the state paying for private delivery of services, and the reduction of government regulation (bueracrcy) in the market place.




Also see Privatization


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Saturday, January 14, 2006


          

        










Don't Count Out Alberta










I don't normally look at the polling for Alberta cause its a given right. Wrong! In this election the winds of change are sweeping everywhere. Here is the latest Ipsos Reid numbers which for the first time in memory, mine as fading as it is, the NDP are ahead of the Liberals!

DATE
 
CON
 
NDP
 
LIB
 
GRN
 
MOE
 
LINK
 
 
 
01/12/06
 
59
 
17
 
16
 
7
 
-
 


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Liberals Put On Notice










Note to Liberal Candidates, please pack up your offices, put away your signs, go for a vacation, the Globe and Mail has announced that it is endorsing the Conservative Party in this election.  Editorial: Three reasons why it's time for a change

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Voting for Capitalism On January 23










As Marx said the State is the Executive Branch of Capitalism. Even so called workers parties, are merely the window dressing to ameliorate the worst excesses of capitalism. So lets look at the reality of our Canadian Executive Branch.

The Liberals are State Capitalists, firm believers in the nanny state and giving grants to friends and supporters. They are a centralist party which stands anarchist (Proudhonian)  federalism on its head thanks to good old philosopher King PET. Socially they believe in liberalism, allowing the individual social freedoms. The would be considered Libertarian by American standards, if American politicos had standards. They believe the state should fund programs, and business and that with that folks who get their money from the Liberals should be grateful next election.  

The Conservatives are Corporate Monopoly State Capitalists, they save their biggest cash handouts to the corporate elites, the Bay St. Boys and the Fraser Institute Board of Directors. While crying for Freedom, they neither believe in a truly free market nor a free society. They believe that the bigger the business the better. They believe the state should fund private capitalism. And they have Reformed over the last ten years, with a strong base of social conservativism which denies liberty. While proclaiming the mantel of Libertarianism, when it comes to gun ownership, they deny choice and liberty on issues like marijuana, sex and abortion. They believe that you should keep all you earn, I'm alright Jack, and please give a tithe to the church of your choice. They are the party of  shop keeper's and the self employed like their hero; Ebenezer Scrooge.  

The New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois are Social Capitalists, not quite socialist, nor even democratic socialists, these classic liberals are Social Democrats. They believe the State should level the playing field for individuals and business. That a market economy is a mixed economy. That rules and regulations are required for Order and Good Government. They can be liberal on social and personal issues or be intrusive, they support a woman's right to choose, but want to ban guns and smoking. They see the role of the state as making capitalism work as an investment in society, they believe in real shareholder democracy, at the parliamentary level and in the financial sector. They believe in taxation as a way of spreading social wealth around as a social investment.  


The Green Party is a liberal party that also believes in Social Capitalism, promoting business that is green to make green. They would tax big business as polluters and regulate social change in the business community to get them to realize that they are wasteful in production, distribution and consumption. They hate smoke stack industries as wasteful, and Newfies as seal killers. They would again promote a shareholder democracy and would be open to more democratic workplaces. They admire faux fur and believe bicycles should be mass transit.  

So on January 23 vote for the party that you believe will best act as the executive branch of capitalism.

But have no illusions that any of these will ever change essential nature of capitalist society. That would take a social revolution.

You may think you are voting for Change, but all you are doing is changing managers.  

This has been brought to you courtesy of the letter @ for anarchy.

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Imagine A Bloc Canadien










Yep if only it weren't that little item in their platform the BQ could become the Bloc Canadien (BC) and be a second Left/Social Democratic party in Canada. And one that could still champion Quebec and Francophone rights. If only for that one little item in their platform.

National Post | Save separation, many Canadians approve of Bloc platform
MONTREAL  -- It will probably never happen, but if Gilles Duceppe would just forget about independence, the Bloc Quebecois might well find itself enjoying support in the unlikeliest of places: the rest of Canada.
 
And folks like Canada's Lenin cause he has charisma in both official languages.

Loyda Arneson, of Richmond, B.C., also said she finds the separatist leader appealing. "Mr. Duceppe says what he wants to say, he always has intelligent answers or he has facts to prove what he's saying; I just like that," Arneson said.


A tip o the blog to Jacks News Watch for this.

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Greens May Win A Seat










Conservative Life goes out on a limb and predicts; Green Party poised for major break through this election with a glorious win of ONE seat, probably in B.C. I will join him on that limb and second his prediction.

Of course his crew of partisan Conservative readers all think that this will take votes away from the NDP. But as I have blogged here, and commented on the Conservative Life site, Jim Harris and his inner circle are Red Tory's and will have an impact on the Conservatives and Liberals more than the NDP.

The NDP national colours are Orange and Green remember, and whose environmental policies are supported by the establishment Green NGO's. While the Liberals and Tories are failures when it comes to the environment since they believe in Sustainable Capitalism, which isn't.


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Canada Conversation Down










This just in... 
                CanConv          
    
   
        

  Sorry!  CanConv is down for maintenance.   

Check back: Sunday January 15, 10pm EST









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