This Week in the New Normal #85
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Michael Gove’s Definition of Extremism
UK Michael Gove MP made the news this week when he formally announced the UK government’s official definition of “extremism”, which goes as follows:
The promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to:
1. negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or
2. undermine, overturn or replace…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/17/this-week-in-the-new-normal-85/
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Michael Gove’s Definition of Extremism
UK Michael Gove MP made the news this week when he formally announced the UK government’s official definition of “extremism”, which goes as follows:
The promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to:
1. negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or
2. undermine, overturn or replace…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/17/this-week-in-the-new-normal-85/
OffGuardian
This Week in the New Normal – OffGuardian
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The State of Our Nation No One’s Talking About: Tyranny Is Rising as Freedom Falls
John & Nisha Whitehead
Day by day, tyranny is rising as freedom falls.
The U.S. military is being used to patrol subway stations and police the U.S.-Mexico border, supposedly in the name of national security.
The financial sector is being used to carry…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/18/the-state-of-our-nation-no-ones-talking-about-tyranny-is-rising-as-freedom-falls/
John & Nisha Whitehead
“Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.”
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
Day by day, tyranny is rising as freedom falls.
The U.S. military is being used to patrol subway stations and police the U.S.-Mexico border, supposedly in the name of national security.
The financial sector is being used to carry…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/18/the-state-of-our-nation-no-ones-talking-about-tyranny-is-rising-as-freedom-falls/
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“The World As It Was”: A Masterly Documentary Film
Edward Curtin
`
Here’s a film about the 1950s – “The World As It Was” – that will tell you a great deal about life in the U.S.A. today, while disabusing anyone of the notion that nostalgia for that mephitic decade is in order, for it was a time when “democracy” tended toward totalitarianism.
In doing so, it sowed the bitter fruit that is poisoning us today. Without understanding the long-standing effects of those years, it is impossible to grasp the deepest dimensions of our current nightmare. Chapter One of the documentary series, Four Died Trying,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/18/the-world-as-it-was-a-masterly-documentary-film/
Edward Curtin
`
Here’s a film about the 1950s – “The World As It Was” – that will tell you a great deal about life in the U.S.A. today, while disabusing anyone of the notion that nostalgia for that mephitic decade is in order, for it was a time when “democracy” tended toward totalitarianism.
In doing so, it sowed the bitter fruit that is poisoning us today. Without understanding the long-standing effects of those years, it is impossible to grasp the deepest dimensions of our current nightmare. Chapter One of the documentary series, Four Died Trying,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/18/the-world-as-it-was-a-masterly-documentary-film/
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Mistakes Were Made
CJ Hopkins
Make fun of the Germans all you want, and I’ve certainly done that a bit during these past few years, but, if there’s one thing they’re exceptionally good at, it’s taking responsibility for their mistakes.
Seriously, when it comes to acknowledging one’s mistakes, and not rationalizing, or minimizing, or attempting to deny them, and any discomfort they may have allegedly caused, no one does it quite like the Germans.
Take this Covid mess, for example. Just last week, the German authorities confessed that they made a few minor mistakes during their management of the “Covid pandemic.” According…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/19/mistakes-were-made/
CJ Hopkins
Make fun of the Germans all you want, and I’ve certainly done that a bit during these past few years, but, if there’s one thing they’re exceptionally good at, it’s taking responsibility for their mistakes.
Seriously, when it comes to acknowledging one’s mistakes, and not rationalizing, or minimizing, or attempting to deny them, and any discomfort they may have allegedly caused, no one does it quite like the Germans.
Take this Covid mess, for example. Just last week, the German authorities confessed that they made a few minor mistakes during their management of the “Covid pandemic.” According…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/19/mistakes-were-made/
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Genetic vaccines & PCR tests: Russia is ready for Disease X
Riley Waggaman
Is Russia prepared for the most anticipated public health crisis in WHO-history?
Yes, according to Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor).
In a March 9 press release (archived version here for those who can’t access Russian government websites due to Internet Sanctions), the agency announced that Russia’s “preparedness for new viruses” was at “a high level”. Let’s deconstruct this wall of public health word salad together:
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/20/genetic-vaccines-pcr-tests-russia-is-ready-for-disease-x/
Riley Waggaman
Is Russia prepared for the most anticipated public health crisis in WHO-history?
Yes, according to Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor).
In a March 9 press release (archived version here for those who can’t access Russian government websites due to Internet Sanctions), the agency announced that Russia’s “preparedness for new viruses” was at “a high level”. Let’s deconstruct this wall of public health word salad together:
Russian specialists are developing new vaccines and testing systems. Rospotrebnadzor employees work with representatives of other countries to quickly…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/20/genetic-vaccines-pcr-tests-russia-is-ready-for-disease-x/
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Gaza: The End of the Jewish Joy Ride?
Michael Lesher
You almost want to feel sorry for Israel’s professional apologists in mainstream media these days. Their job, a fetid one at best, has been especially trying lately.
First they assure us that Israel has no intention of committing a genocide – and right away they’re refuted by Israel’s own prime minister, who loudly demands the extermination of every man, woman and child in Gaza, not to mention its president’s equally public insistence that Palestinian civilians are legitimate military targets.
Then they struggle to excuse Israel’sbloody attack on one Gaza hospital, only to…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/21/gaza-the-end-of-the-jewish-joy-ride/
Michael Lesher
You almost want to feel sorry for Israel’s professional apologists in mainstream media these days. Their job, a fetid one at best, has been especially trying lately.
First they assure us that Israel has no intention of committing a genocide – and right away they’re refuted by Israel’s own prime minister, who loudly demands the extermination of every man, woman and child in Gaza, not to mention its president’s equally public insistence that Palestinian civilians are legitimate military targets.
Then they struggle to excuse Israel’sbloody attack on one Gaza hospital, only to…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/21/gaza-the-end-of-the-jewish-joy-ride/
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Turns out we DO have a Deep State…and it’s “awesome”
Kit Knightly
After years of denials, the mainstream media has decided to admit the Deep State does exist…and apparently it’s “awesome”.
At least, according to this new video from the New York Times:
The video itself is a six-minute strawman, presenting interviews with rocket scientists – as if they genuinely think that’s what people mean when they refer to the deep state – then piling on insanely manipulative attempts to “humanise” the concept of the Deep State by talking about these guys’ hobbies and interests.…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/21/turns-out-we-do-have-a-deep-state-and-its-awesome/
Kit Knightly
After years of denials, the mainstream media has decided to admit the Deep State does exist…and apparently it’s “awesome”.
At least, according to this new video from the New York Times:
It Turns Out the ‘Deep State’ Is Actually Kind of Awesome
The video itself is a six-minute strawman, presenting interviews with rocket scientists – as if they genuinely think that’s what people mean when they refer to the deep state – then piling on insanely manipulative attempts to “humanise” the concept of the Deep State by talking about these guys’ hobbies and interests.…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/21/turns-out-we-do-have-a-deep-state-and-its-awesome/
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Out of the Box
Sylvia Shawcross
With the end of winter comes a death rattle deep from the throat of the cold. It has sputtered snow in between the rain and left the spring grasses white wet waiting. We dreamed and prayed for the warmth but it still does not want to stay. It flirts with us then disappears again.
By the time it will have moved in we will be weary with the game and simply want to be left to linger where we find the warmth. We will no longer pretend to know what day to plant the seedlings or what…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/22/out-of-the-box/
Sylvia Shawcross
With the end of winter comes a death rattle deep from the throat of the cold. It has sputtered snow in between the rain and left the spring grasses white wet waiting. We dreamed and prayed for the warmth but it still does not want to stay. It flirts with us then disappears again.
By the time it will have moved in we will be weary with the game and simply want to be left to linger where we find the warmth. We will no longer pretend to know what day to plant the seedlings or what…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/22/out-of-the-box/
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WATCH: Guerrilla Marketing – #SolutionsWatch
Between fighting the online censors and fighting to break through the wall of noise distracting the average smartphone zombie, it’s getting harder and harder for activists and infowarriors to reach people online with real news and information.
So, what can people do in the real world to gain attention and get the word out about important events? From postcards to trash can fliers to good old fashioned homemade signs, join James for this week’s Solutions Watch as he explores the exciting world of guerrilla marketing.
Sources, shownotes and links – as well as audio versions and download options –…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/22/watch-guerrilla-marketing-solutionswatch/
Between fighting the online censors and fighting to break through the wall of noise distracting the average smartphone zombie, it’s getting harder and harder for activists and infowarriors to reach people online with real news and information.
So, what can people do in the real world to gain attention and get the word out about important events? From postcards to trash can fliers to good old fashioned homemade signs, join James for this week’s Solutions Watch as he explores the exciting world of guerrilla marketing.
Sources, shownotes and links – as well as audio versions and download options –…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/22/watch-guerrilla-marketing-solutionswatch/
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Oppositional Defiance
Todd Hayen
Remember the bad kids in high school? The ones who didn’t make it onto the honour roll or the dean’s list? In my day they were the long-haired kids (the boys) who wore James Dean-style denim jackets and smoked in the bathrooms. I doubt if those kids in the ’70s even knew who James Dean was, but he wasn’t yet too old-fashioned.
Today a kid like that would be labelled having ODD—Oppositional Defiance Disorder—and would probably be put on some sort of medication to “calm him (or her) down.” I’m not sure if kids like that even…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/23/oppositional-defiance/
Todd Hayen
Remember the bad kids in high school? The ones who didn’t make it onto the honour roll or the dean’s list? In my day they were the long-haired kids (the boys) who wore James Dean-style denim jackets and smoked in the bathrooms. I doubt if those kids in the ’70s even knew who James Dean was, but he wasn’t yet too old-fashioned.
Today a kid like that would be labelled having ODD—Oppositional Defiance Disorder—and would probably be put on some sort of medication to “calm him (or her) down.” I’m not sure if kids like that even…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/23/oppositional-defiance/
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Lockdown’s Fourth Birthday
Kit Knightly
Today marks four years to the day since the UK went into “lockdown” for the first time.
What an exciting time that was, right? With the pan-banging and the curve-flattening and the Spirit of the Blitz living on. Good times.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s team decided to honour the occasion by slapping themselves on the back:
Needless to say, this is revisionism of the highest order. To quote my favourite…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/23/lockdowns-fourth-birthday/
Kit Knightly
Today marks four years to the day since the UK went into “lockdown” for the first time.
What an exciting time that was, right? With the pan-banging and the curve-flattening and the Spirit of the Blitz living on. Good times.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s team decided to honour the occasion by slapping themselves on the back:
4 years ago today, @RishiSunak saved our economy. pic.twitter.com/mzmLTmD8ca
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) March 20, 2024
Needless to say, this is revisionism of the highest order. To quote my favourite…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/23/lockdowns-fourth-birthday/
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This Week in the New Normal #86
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Neuralink “Telepathy”
Elon Musk’s Neuralink AI company released a video this week of their first patient playing chess on a computer using an implant in his brain.
Livestreaming on X, quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh compared his new ability to move a mouse cursor by “imagining it moving” as “like using the force”.
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/24/this-week-in-the-new-normal-86/
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Neuralink “Telepathy”
Elon Musk’s Neuralink AI company released a video this week of their first patient playing chess on a computer using an implant in his brain.
Livestreaming on X, quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh compared his new ability to move a mouse cursor by “imagining it moving” as “like using the force”.
…...
Livestream of @Neuralink demonstrating “Telepathy” – controlling a computer and
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/24/this-week-in-the-new-normal-86/
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The Language of Force
John & Nisha Whitehead
Tyrants don’t like people who speak truth to power. Cue the rise of protest laws, which…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/25/the-language-of-force/
John & Nisha Whitehead
“If the state could use [criminal] laws not for their intended purposes but to silence those who voice unpopular ideas, little would be left of our First Amendment liberties, and little would separate us from the tyrannies of the past or the malignant fiefdoms of our own age. The freedom to speak without risking arrest is ‘one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation.’”
Justice Neil Gorsuch, dissenting,Nieves v. Bartlett (2019)
Tyrants don’t like people who speak truth to power. Cue the rise of protest laws, which…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/25/the-language-of-force/
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Global CBDC Rollout Continues Apace
Kit Knightly
Terror attacks in Moscow, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and cancer in the Royal family are dominating the headlines.
Meanwhile, on the financial back pages, all over the world the implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies draws nearer.
China, whose digital Yuan was the major flagship CBDC, is in the middle of an immense trial covering over 25 million people. This week they released new guidelinesfor tourists using CBDCs for the first time.
A journalist for the crypto-focused DLNews wrote of her experience using it, and while functionality might seem limited right now we…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/26/global-cbdc-rollout-continues-apace/
Kit Knightly
Terror attacks in Moscow, ongoing genocide in Gaza, and cancer in the Royal family are dominating the headlines.
Meanwhile, on the financial back pages, all over the world the implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies draws nearer.
China, whose digital Yuan was the major flagship CBDC, is in the middle of an immense trial covering over 25 million people. This week they released new guidelinesfor tourists using CBDCs for the first time.
A journalist for the crypto-focused DLNews wrote of her experience using it, and while functionality might seem limited right now we…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/26/global-cbdc-rollout-continues-apace/
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Degenerate Art in New Normal Germany
CJ Hopkins
One of the first things totalitarians do when they set about transforming a democratic society into whatever type of strictly-regulated, utterly soul-deadening totalitarian dystopia they are trying to transform it into is radically overhaul and remake its culture.
You can’t impose your new official ideology on a formerly democratic society with a bunch of artists running around loose, making fun of you and your propaganda. No, you need to get the culture business under control, and dictate what is and isn’t “art,” and what types of art are “harmful to society,” and demonize them, and the artists…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/26/degenerate-art-in-new-normal-germany/
CJ Hopkins
One of the first things totalitarians do when they set about transforming a democratic society into whatever type of strictly-regulated, utterly soul-deadening totalitarian dystopia they are trying to transform it into is radically overhaul and remake its culture.
You can’t impose your new official ideology on a formerly democratic society with a bunch of artists running around loose, making fun of you and your propaganda. No, you need to get the culture business under control, and dictate what is and isn’t “art,” and what types of art are “harmful to society,” and demonize them, and the artists…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/26/degenerate-art-in-new-normal-germany/
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Why Do People Claim They Own “The Science™”?
Iain Davis
In a truly remarkable article, seemingly packed with anti-scientific claims masquerading as scientific rigour, Dr Jonathan N. Stea asks why people fall for “Fake Science News.”
It isn’t entirely clear what Dr Stea is talking about because he doesn’t give any examples, just some vague generalities about people having the gall to question “the Science™.”
For example, he wrote:
OK, but before we can take Dr Stea seriously we first need to establish what…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/27/why-do-people-claim-they-own-the-science/
Iain Davis
In a truly remarkable article, seemingly packed with anti-scientific claims masquerading as scientific rigour, Dr Jonathan N. Stea asks why people fall for “Fake Science News.”
It isn’t entirely clear what Dr Stea is talking about because he doesn’t give any examples, just some vague generalities about people having the gall to question “the Science™.”
For example, he wrote:
[. . .] health-related misinformation and fake news related to a myriad of scientific topics persist and spread…
OK, but before we can take Dr Stea seriously we first need to establish what…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/27/why-do-people-claim-they-own-the-science/
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A very curious Crocus video
Riley Waggaman
On Monday I had the privilege of speaking with Steve and Chris from AM WakeUp. Our 90-minute conversation focused on the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.
During our chat, Steve shared a video with me that was published by Zvezda, a TV network run by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The clip purportedly captured the moment when gunmen entered the building:
https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/crocus-video.mp4
Let’s review the video together, for Science.
At the 0:00 mark, we see a man in blue camo with a dog standing near the entrance of the building. This is…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/28/a-very-curious-crocus-video/
Riley Waggaman
On Monday I had the privilege of speaking with Steve and Chris from AM WakeUp. Our 90-minute conversation focused on the terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.
During our chat, Steve shared a video with me that was published by Zvezda, a TV network run by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The clip purportedly captured the moment when gunmen entered the building:
https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/crocus-video.mp4
Let’s review the video together, for Science.
At the 0:00 mark, we see a man in blue camo with a dog standing near the entrance of the building. This is…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/28/a-very-curious-crocus-video/
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People do not want war
Sylvia Shawcross
Hatred is born of fear and raised by ignorance. And that ignorance sprouts its tender leaves long before it develops its thorns. We accepted the greenery bursting from the soil of indifference, exhaustion and spite because we didn’t know their names then and once we knew it was too late.
The indifferent, caught unawares by the passing pleasures and pain of worldly things; the exhausted, weary and hungry and broken by worldly demands; and the spiteful who lived for the days of greed and vengeance to extract their needs from the world—all ending up where they ended…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/29/people-do-not-want-war/
Sylvia Shawcross
Hatred is born of fear and raised by ignorance. And that ignorance sprouts its tender leaves long before it develops its thorns. We accepted the greenery bursting from the soil of indifference, exhaustion and spite because we didn’t know their names then and once we knew it was too late.
The indifferent, caught unawares by the passing pleasures and pain of worldly things; the exhausted, weary and hungry and broken by worldly demands; and the spiteful who lived for the days of greed and vengeance to extract their needs from the world—all ending up where they ended…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/29/people-do-not-want-war/
OffGuardian
People do not want war
Hatred is born of fear and raised by ignorance. And that ignorance sprouts its tender leaves long before it develops its thorns. We accepted the greenery bursting from the soil of indifference, exh…
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Unlocking the Black Box
Karen Hunt
The first month of human embryo development is often referred to as a “black box” because it is the most mysterious and unexplored period of development of the human being.
So far, it’s been impossible for researchers to probe those first magical moments, when a spark ignites the transition of a single cell into a complex human being. If only scientists could figure…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/29/unlocking-the-black-box/
Karen Hunt
“…there is no sound for we all live underground… now every mother can choose the color of her child, that’s not nature’s way, there’s nothing left to do but pray…”
Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity”
The first month of human embryo development is often referred to as a “black box” because it is the most mysterious and unexplored period of development of the human being.
So far, it’s been impossible for researchers to probe those first magical moments, when a spark ignites the transition of a single cell into a complex human being. If only scientists could figure…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/29/unlocking-the-black-box/
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The CIA Does “Soulful Work”
Edward Curtin
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a spate of books and articles extolling the word “soul” became the rage in the United States. Soul became the chic word. It popped up everywhere. Everything seemed to acquire soul – cars, toasters, underwear, cats’ pajamas, assorted crap, kitsch, etc. Soul sold styles from boots to bras to bibelots from The New York Times to O Magazine.
The vogue in soul talk spread to every domain as everyone was commodified and capital was financialized. While political, economic, and ecological reality spun out of regular…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/30/the-cia-does-soulful-work/
Edward Curtin
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a spate of books and articles extolling the word “soul” became the rage in the United States. Soul became the chic word. It popped up everywhere. Everything seemed to acquire soul – cars, toasters, underwear, cats’ pajamas, assorted crap, kitsch, etc. Soul sold styles from boots to bras to bibelots from The New York Times to O Magazine.
The vogue in soul talk spread to every domain as everyone was commodified and capital was financialized. While political, economic, and ecological reality spun out of regular…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/03/30/the-cia-does-soulful-work/
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