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Dec. 18, 2015 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:42
December 18, 2015, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Greetings, my friends, and welcome.
It's great to have you here.
Your host is under Savage Attack today from several quarters in the American political sector.
I mean, more audio sound bites today than there were last Monday when I had 11.
It could have been 22.
But you know the difference today is I'm gonna lead with them.
The heck with it.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
And that's why.
It's open line Friday.
And you know what?
I think this is correct to say this is the last open line Friday this year.
Damn.
It is.
So make the most of it.
800-282-2882.
Email address, L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
By the way, a warning.
Obama is again threatening to for the third day in a row.
When this program's on the air, go out and meet the media.
Third day in a row.
Today's going to take questions.
Because I guess he's going to be zipping over to Hawaii.
Start the 70 million family vacation.
70 million dollar family vacation.
I think that's the sum total of what it's cost us for Obama vacations.
70 million, I think everybody.
Anyway, it turns out the reason Obama's doing this, it was a New York Times interview.
In his meeting with the columnist last Friday, says the New York Times, Mr. Obama indicated he did not see enough cable TV to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
And that's why he appeared to be out of touch.
It's why he didn't appear to understand how deeply these attacks affected people.
Because he doesn't watch enough cable news.
So he made clear that he plans to step up his public arguments.
So he's saying he didn't react strongly enough and comfort people and let them know that he understands the gravity of this because he doesn't watch enough cable news.
Well, folks, I have admitted I don't either, but I still understand how deeply this affected people.
What an excuse.
ESPN about the extent of it.
And I just didn't know.
Really?
What an excuse.
I have this New York Times piece here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers in his meeting with the columnists.
Mr. Obama indicated he didn't see enough cable TV to fully appreciate the anxiety after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and he made it clear that he plans to step up his public arguments.
Republicans were telling Americans that Obama's not doing anything when he's doing a lot.
He said.
Well, as I said, I don't watch cable news anymore, and I understood the impact of San Bernardino and Paris.
What?
He shouldn't have to watch television at all.
He's surrounded by people who do all that.
But what does this say?
I mean, he's admitting that his own instincts fail.
130 people killed in Paris, a massacre in San Bernardino, and he said, yeah, you know what?
I really didn't get how deeply this affected people.
I don't watch enough cable news.
What the heck is that?
I've heard it all, folks.
But look, as I said opening the program, I got today's audio soundbite roster.
Let me just count them.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Looks like the first 8...
Yeah.
And Cookie tells me that there could be more.
She just isn't give them all to me.
And a lot of these, your host coming under savage attack because of my interpretation of the budget bill that the House of Representatives passed, that now goes to the Senate.
Oh, I'm sorry, the Senate just passed it.
Well, big big surprise.
The Senate just passed it moments ago.
And I am being categorized as far right, insensitive, out of touch, not quite understanding what I'm talking about.
Let's just hit it.
See what I'm talking about.
And we'll square it all up when I when I get through these things.
We'll start here with CNBC's squawk box this morning.
Joe Kernan speaking with their Washington correspondent, Eamon Javers about the proposed federal budget.
This is how that exchange went.
Depending on how far right you go, I think what Russ Limbaugh said, you might as well just disband the Republican Party after agreeing to this giveaway or something.
So the question is will conservatives give Speaker Ryan a pass on this one.
They've given him a pass on a couple things already early in his tenure.
He came out at a press conference this week and said, Look, I don't like the process.
I don't like doing these big omnibus catch-all bills with everything in them.
Uh, but I was dealt the cards I was dealt with, and we're playing the best hand we can.
Yeah.
I he said that, and this is what we've been hearing.
I addressed this yesterday.
We've been hearing this the best we could do.
You know, it's I'm going to be interested to see if we go through these sound bites if anybody actually, in referring to what I said yesterday, actually refers to the fundamental point that I made.
I mean, they can nibble at me on the on the margins here and on the edges, but the point is that there's no way this could go.
It doesn't matter if Ryan had spent two months on this instead of two weeks.
There was no other way this could go.
And the reason is that the Republicans have said that they will in no way, shape, manner, or form even be associated with a government shutdown.
They won't even publicly think about it, much less talk about it, much less do it.
Well, all spending originates in the House of Representatives.
This country cannot spend a dime until it's authorized in the House of Representatives.
And if the Republican Party, the recipient of two midterm landslide election victories in 2010 and 2014, which saw the Democrats lose 1,000 seats down the ballot from the federal ballot all the way down to state governor,
local, you name it, if the Republican Party is going to throw away its power of the purse, if it is going to react in abject fear whenever the media comes along and accuses them of thinking about shutting down the government, then it doesn't matter how much time you have to work the deal out.
It doesn't matter how much time the Democrats are never going to cave on anything because they're not going to have to.
Because the Dem the Republicans are throwing away every bit of leverage they have.
They've already said that they are not going to impeach Obama about anything ever.
So he has no obstacles.
They will keep the government open and put this in caps at all costs.
They have determined, folks, that there is less political damage to them doing budget deals like this than there is being accused of shutting down the government.
They believe, and you can listen to any of the inside the uh beltway establishment Republicans in the media and out talk about it.
They literally panic and break out in sweats the very idea of a government shutdown.
They are convinced that the people of this country have become so dependent on the government operating every day and giving things away that if the Republicans come along and are said to be thinking about it or even make a move towards shutting it down, that the entire country is going to hate them and never vote for them.
And so we can get no other budget deal than the kind we got.
The GOP throws away all its leverage.
The GOP throws away every bit of constitutional power it has.
Not to mention it throws away its principles.
Not to mention it throws away it, but this is not a far right view.
This is a pretty simplistic, if you want to know the truth, political analysis of the situation.
That are shaping my thinking here.
This is just straight up and down political analysis.
The Republican Party's made a political calculation.
They're in total defense mode, and as such, there's less damage by doing deals like this than being accused of or associated with a government shutdown.
So the government remains open at all costs.
When you have committed political players like the Democrats, they are going to take advantage of that every damn minute of every day.
And they have.
To the point now that in this budget, you can't tell the difference in the Democrats and the Republicans.
There is no difference.
The Democrats wrote this, the Democrats got whatever they want.
And the excuse is, well, he was dealt the cards he was dealt with.
He uh was left a mess by Boehner.
There wasn't enough time to deal with it, and you just gotta bite the bullet here, Rush.
I mean, this is really this is the best we can get, we're gonna put this behind us and move on.
Which I think last count, we've been doing that for about six years.
We kick every can down the road.
After promising voters we're gonna deal with it, we're gonna stop this.
We're gonna do I can't do it right now.
Too much potential here for really bad negative fallout.
You know what?
We're gonna let them have it.
We'll kick it down the road here.
We'll get them next.
We'll we'll get them the next time the continuing resolution comes up.
That's we'll get them.
We'll get you watch, we'll get them.
And it comes up, and they kick that can down the road again.
So my point yesterday was there's really nothing you could expect other than this.
Tell me where I'm wrong.
I mean, if you're if if you're gonna squander the power you have, power to purse, if you're gonna throw your principles away and down the drain, not defend them, if keeping the government open is defined by giving the Democrats what they want, how can it be anything other than what it was?
Next.
Sound by Bill Crystal Weekly Standard on C-SPAN this morning, the Washington Journal.
The uh host there, Peter Slyn, read what I had said yesterday about the budget deal, and then got Crystal's reaction first.
He reads from my transcript.
This is a transcript from Russ Limbaugh.com.
And now the Republicans have the largest number of seats in the House they've had in Congress since the Civil War.
And it hasn't made any difference at all.
It's as though Nancy Pelosi is still running the House, Harry Reid's still running the Senate.
Betrayed is not even the word here.
What has happened here is worse than betrayal.
Betrayal is pretty bad, but it's worse than that.
We don't even need a Republican Party, he said, if they're going to do this.
You know, just elect Democrats, disband the Republican Party, and let the Democrats run it because that's what's happening anyway.
Now, it wasn't that long ago that Bill Crystal would applaud this, in fact, would not have needed to wait for me to say it because Bill Crystal would have been leading the pack saying it some years ago.
But it's a different Bill Crystal today.
I don't like the omnibus spending bill.
I probably would vote against it if I uh were a member of Congress.
Having said that, it would be a lot worse if Nancy Pelosi controlled the House and Harry Ree control of the Senate.
Let's not kid ourselves.
This does not make the case for Democratic control of Congress.
It doesn't make the case that Republican control doesn't matter.
But I do think this is the case.
Paul Ryan sort of said this, that he sort of was stuck with where things were.
The clock was running out.
He felt he had to go with the way business has gone in the last few years.
I mean, that's rallying time and I mean that that really wants to rally you to the cause.
That makes you want to run around and defend all these Republicans, right?
Mr. Snerdley, does that fire up?
You you never change your mind.
You want to run around out there now, and anybody who criticizes deal, you want to defend the Republicans now because of that striking and sterling defense of their behavior.
Really, that doesn't want to make you go out and correct everybody that's criticizing the Republicans.
I don't like the omnibus spending bill.
I probably would vote against it.
Were I a member of Congress?
Having said that, or but it would be a lot worse if Pelosi carried the House and Reed controlled the Senate.
Somebody show me where.
Somebody show me the Democrats didn't get what they're two things the Democrats didn't want.
And even these they benefit from.
There were a couple of delays on the implementation of certain aspects of Obamacare.
Those are the two things.
Those are the two things that we can say we planted the flag on.
And in reality, the delay of those two things actually helps Obamacare.
Because those two think Cadillac tax number of other things would serve to illustrate the atrociousness of Obamacare.
But since they're not going to be an implemented, the atrociousness will not display, if you will, and the atrociousness remains hidden while the tentacles of Obamacare weave themselves more deeply into the fabric of our society, which means it becomes even more difficult to pull those tentacles out and repeal it.
So even the things the Democrats are crying some fake tears over are actually beneficial.
And I know the Democrats led the fight in the Cadillac tax, but the the Democrats, do you hear any Democrats complaining?
They're gloating from Obama on down.
They're gloating.
They're clapping their hands, they're celebrating.
It doesn't sound like they think there's much more they could have gotten.
Oh man, I'll tell you, and people say that I somehow I haven't changed.
I am right here in the mainstream of conservatism where I have always been.
What's next?
Oh, here we go.
CNN's new day.
This fill-in host John Berman speaking with their political correspondent, Nia Malika Henderson about the disagreement over immigration reform between Cruz and Rubio.
You know, that starts a new train of thought and subject line here.
So let's take a break and come back and get that all done in one solid sit tight, we'll be right back.
I have a question on a budget deal.
Has somebody explained to me how is it the clock runs out all the time?
The need for a budget deal has been known for months.
It wasn't and isn't as though on December 10th, the House realized there wasn't a budget done and they needed to get one done.
I mean, everybody knows every December we have one of these omnibus things every year.
How in the world can the clock run out on something that everybody knows months in advance is on the schedule?
And the second question I have, how come the clock never runs out on the Democrats?
Could somebody explain either of these?
I mean, this is the primary excuse, I'm sorry, reason that is offered for why we have to do these deals.
Well, you know, we just had to resort to the way things have always been done, the clock was running out.
I wouldn't vote for it if I was there, but this is the best we could do.
We don't have any standards anymore.
We certainly don't have any lofty expectations.
This is the best we could do because the clock was we run the place, folks.
How in the world is it the clock is always running out on the people who have the stopwatch in their hands?
Why is it the clock never runs out on the Democrats?
They are in the minority.
Speaking of which, how is it that after two midterm elections with more members of the Republican Party since the Civil War in the House?
How is it the Democrats win this?
What is the point of the majority?
When the Republicans were running in both 2010 and 2014.
Remember, they said, Well, you know, Obama's in the White House and he's got kinds.
There's nothing we can do.
Okay, so we gave him the House.
Then after that, they said, well, you know, Harry Reed's still over there in the Senate.
We can't really do much.
Okay, so we elected Republicans to run the Senate.
And now the excuse is, well, you know, not much we can do.
Obama's over there in the White House and he'll veto everything.
I don't remember a single Republican campaign in 2010 or 2014, which said, elect me because we're not going to be able to do Jack Excrement.
Do you?
I remember campaigns filled with lofty objectives and goals and promises that were rooted in stopping this kind of thing.
And so now, the day after it's all done, who is the objective enity?
Me.
A guy on the radio.
I'm the problem.
Holy smokes, folks.
Open line Friday, Rush Limbaugh back at it.
I'm sorry, folks.
I have even yet another question.
How come the Democrats never have to deal with the cards they're dealt?
How come the clock never runs out on the Democrats?
How come all of this only happens to the Republicans who are running the place?
The Republicans run the place by a wide margin.
More seats than the Republicans have held since the Civil War.
Well, the clock was running out.
There was not much to do but do it the way we've always been doing it.
Hands were tied, had to play the cards over dealt.
Who runs this place?
Who has the majority of seats in this place?
Did it over in the Senate?
What is this?
Why does the clock always run out on an end of the year budget deal when everybody knows months in advance the end of the year budget deals coming up?
How in the world does any of this happen?
Well, these are rhetorical questions.
It happens because this is what the Republicans wanted the end result to be.
The proof of that is the excuses they're offering.
They don't have the temerity to come out and say, hey, we love this.
This is what we want.
This is great for the country.
We have bipartisan agreement here.
I mean, why aren't they doing that?
Why aren't they?
Is bipartisan agreement is what voters want?
If voters want Republicans who cross the aisle to work with Democrats to cooperate to make Washington work, why aren't the Republicans saying they did all that and taking all the creed credit for it and getting all the praise?
Seems to me that what just happened here is what the Republicans think they have to do in order to keep winning elections.
Got to show they can cross the aisle, gotta put together bipartisan legislation, gotta be cooperative with the Democrats, gotta make Washington work, i.e., make sure it doesn't shut down, gotta make sure that the two sides get together and cooperate and send something up to the president to prove it to everybody that the government's working.
Where are the Republicans out taking credit for it instead of making excuses?
And then how is it that I am the problem here?
How in the world can it be that I am the problem or any other critic?
Stop and think how your intelligence is being insulted here on this.
Well, clock was running out.
Clock was every year we know that in December there's gonna be an end of the year omnibus every year, because they're not doing their job through the previous months of the year.
Every year they wait for the deadline.
They wait for the deadline so they can use the excuse.
Time was running out.
We had no choice.
Except they're running the show.
They run the place.
The Republicans are the vast majority of members.
I'm sorry to be repetitive here, folks, but it this needs to be drilled home.
The clock never runs out of the Democrats.
The Democrats never have to play the cards they're dealt.
The Democrats never have to play the cards.
But why aren't the Republican leaders out taking credit for what they've done here?
Why are they making excuses For it.
Flimsy, even though they are.
I mean, we've got bipartisanship here.
The Republicans eagerly worked with the Democrats.
We've got agreement.
We kept the government open.
We've got cooperation.
We have demonstrated the government works.
We've demonstrated we get a big budget deal done on time.
The Republicans say this is the exact kind of thing they've got to do.
Let me answer this for you.
They don't really care if they lose the support of the current Republican base.
That can be the only real political answer here, because none of this makes sense otherwise.
Because what they've done here is exactly what they say they have to do in order to broaden their coalition.
They have to agree with amnesty.
They have to let Obamacare go ahead and happen.
They have to work with the Democrats.
They have to get the government spending things on expectations that people have because of entitlements, can't take anything back, can't get government smaller, can't they are actually out there trying to appeal to people that at present don't vote for them.
While they are purposely, in my estimation, trying to disenfranchise those who do vote for them.
So if you look carefully, they're doing exactly what they claim they have to do in order to win the presidency.
You couple this with everything else we know, such as Jeb Bush starting out his primary campaign by saying he intended to win the nomination without the base.
It was going to be a marvel of modern American politics, first ever candidate to win his party's nomination without the support of his party's base.
They don't want it.
Perfectly clear what's happening here.
And of course, when they're called on it, naturally those of us who criticize it are going to be pointed to as the problem.
Why is the only Republican in all of Congress who's complaining about this, Jeff Sessions?
Well, yeah, and Cruz is Rubio did somewhat, but why Jeff's Jeff Sessions is the really the only guy standing up and complaining about it, warning about it before it happens, trying to alert people what's on the verge of happening.
Is Sessions the only conservative left in Congress?
What happened to all those that were elected in 2010, 2014?
I mean, they're there.
But clearly the leadership's running the show here.
Okay, moving on.
I've made my points there.
I I I feel somewhat like going through it again because it's actually profound, but I'll do it later in the program.
Let's move back to the audio sound bites, and here we have the media reacting to me again, reacting to the fight between Rubio and Cruz on the gang of eight bill.
This is more obfuscation, and this is yet more efforts being made to somehow change the focus of all this to me, a mere commentator and secret private advisor, I guess.
So CNN's new day, the fill-in uh host is John Berman, talking with a political correspondent Nia Malika Henderson about the disagreement over immigration reform between Cruz and Rubio.
Here's the question from Berman.
Says even if Rubio is right, and Cruz is fudging things with this, doesn't Cruz win the war in a Republican primary campaign, particularly in Iowa, by discussing immigration at all.
I mean, again, with the Republican primary elected, isn't this the biggest vulnerability for Marco Rubio?
You've got people like Rush Limbaugh, like Jeff Sessions, like Steve King, uh, and these are kind of lions uh to conservatives.
They're coming out and backing Cruz and saying that the real important issue here is that Rubio stood next to Chuck Schumer and backed Amnesty, and Cruz was on the other side of it.
They're gonna try to make it as black and white as possible because they know that to a lot of conservatives, particularly in Iowa, and then in those southern states as well, uh, that the idea of what they call amnesty uh is just a non starter for a lot of those voters.
Well, okay, so her analysis is that uh uh people like me, and then she mentions members of the House and Senate.
Jeff Sessions in the Senate, Steve King from Iowa.
These are kind of lions to conservatives, and they're coming out in their backing crews, saying the real important issue here is that Rubio stood next to you.
Well, yeah, I mean, that's undeniable.
Okay, but that's anyway.
The play the soundbite for you because that's how CNN's audience thimble size, though it is, learns of the issue, moving on to CNN's new day, different uh guest, Ryan Liza, the Washington correspondent for the New Yorker magazine.
And this was his comment.
Everyone who is against that bill is on Cruz's side, Rush Limbaugh, all the conservatives who are anti-immigration reform are with Cruz, and it allows Cruz to go out and have this conversation.
In the long run, despite the fact that Rubio has helped muddy the waters on who is pro-amnesty, in the long run, this is a conversation that does not benefit Marco Rubio.
Right.
In with voters, he is saying that this is muddying the waters.
Is it it it actually it's clarifying them in in a sense because Nia Malika Henderson, you know, clocks right twice a day.
She she got it right.
I mean, as I said yesterday, when all of this is over, I mean the arguments over when all the points have been made, there's still a picture.
It's Chuck Schumer and the gang of seven with Marco Rubio in the picture, and nowhere is Ted Cruz.
By the way, folks, again, this is why I do not endorse in primaries.
And I I need to say something.
I am not I do not consider myself opposed to any of these Republicans.
Because any of these people, if they were to get the nomination are going to get my vote over Hillary Clinton.
I am not in any way, shape, manner, or form trying to damage any of them.
But in the process of a campaign, there are going to be arguments coming up, intra-party arguments, and they're going to have, as all arguments do, people that are right and people that are wrong.
People more right than they are more wrong.
We honestly analyze and proclaim what we find on this program.
Let the chips fall where they do, but there's no effort here to damage anybody.
And there's no effort to support anybody because at the end of the day, whoever survives this Republican primary is going to get my vote over the pantsuit and is hands down.
It is not even there is nobody, unlike Jeb Bush, and unlike some of these other Republicans.
There's no way I'm voting for Hillary Clinton over any of these Republicans.
I don't care what no way.
What about you, Snerdly?
You're looking at me like you can't believe I'm saying this.
I you let me ask you, who's doing more damage to this primary?
Somebody like me, saying I don't care who survives, I'm voting for them, or a bunch of different Republicans saying, if Trump's in, you can count me out, I'm voting Hillary.
Hell yes.
A Republican claiming that he would vote for Hillary Clinton.
Turn your sound bite focus on those people.
Not trying to destroy or damage anybody here, except to the extent we're repeating what they say.
If that helps or hurts, I mean, who's that on anyway?
It's open line Friday.
That means that we always make a serious effort to get phone calls in in the first hour, and we're gonna do it.
Start in Seattle with David.
Hello, sir.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hey, thanks, Rush.
I I I've had it with my Republican Party um position over the last ten years.
I've watched everything change.
And the beautiful thing about our Constitution is it doesn't require legal analysts or pundits to explain to us the power of the purse and appropriate appropriation of funds, starts with the legislative branch.
And they're they're they're just the establishment.
As far as I can tell, something happened between 2000 and 2004.
I was I was sitting right on the edge of the quote establishment.
I was King County Chair for Bush Cheney in 2004, and I could see the uncoupling between the establishment um Beltway Republicans and the grassroots.
That was over immigration, by the way.
Immigration might have been the uh it was but it was also this this really uh there was a certain amount of fear surrounding the WMGs, oh no, if we don't find them, we're done.
And and and I watched these people become tepid.
I'm talking about the established party folks.
Um and and uh uh things have kind of evolved over the last 10 12 years here.
I've seen us absolutely unwilling to ever back words or make philosophical arguments on substantive things.
They just let the administrative state that is DC be run by democratic operatives, and they're willing to stand back and blame it on that system and not try to change anything.
And I believe their days of helping bring America back to any kind of semblance of constitutional republic.
I I'm giving up.
I'm there and if guys like me are giving up.
Guys who fight the fight and want to go out and do this stuff, and I'm done because there's no effective means.
I know.
Look, I I got a I got an email today from somebody you would all know.
Uh he's a good friend of mine.
I'm not going to divulge the name because uh it was private email.
But it was sent to me and a bunch of this guy's friends, and the subject line was it's over.
The budget deal, there's the I mean, it's the in his in his mind, this represents the end of an era where reasonable, responsible people led our government.
And then he goes into detail about what the passage of the budget deal means for the country and not the Republican Party.
I mean, that's obvious, but what it means for the country and what it signals about the entire leadership class in uh in Washington.
So you're you're right.
There are all kinds of guys like you out there.
You say you've given up.
I don't I don't really believe that you've given up, but you you are you're fed up.
And I can explain this to people, and it's not complicated if if you just accept a couple of things.
But before I do that again, it would just be repetitive.
Let's go to the audio soundbites, because then Bill Cristo out there saying, well, hey, hey, you know what?
This is not like Hillary or uh Pelosi and Reed running the place.
No, no, no, we did the clock ran out.
We didn't know much time.
We doubt the cards are done.
We had to get the deal done as soon as we could.
It's the best we had to work with.
Right.
I want you to listen to Democrats.
Listen to Chuck Schumer.
Today, in Washington, on Capitol Hill, they had a Democrat leaders held a press conference to gloat about the passage of the budget deal.
Number two.
When you would have told me this year that we'd be standing here celebrating the passage of an omnibus bill with no poison pill riders at higher levels above sequester than even the president requested.
I wouldn't have believed it.
But here we are.
This bill is a great victory for the principles Democrats stand for.
I'm telling you, he's being truthful.
They can't believe this.
If you'd have told me that we'd be standing here and that we got more than we asked for, this bill is a great victory for the principals of the Democrat Party.
And we've got Republican establishment types who want to try to tell me that I am misreading this.
Here's Patty Murray, the old mom in tennis shoes.
She She was part of this deal to me.
We rolled back the automatic budget cuts equally across defense and non-defense.
And we kept out poison pill riders even after the Republicans spent months talking about defunding Planned Parenthood and attacking workers.
It was a big victory for middle class families in our economy.
And finally, Steve Israel in the House runs the or did the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee.
We ended up with a bill today that has all the good stuff in and most of the bad stuff out.
That's the definition of victory.
That's a definite of victory.
They are the minority.
You've got to understand there are fewer Democrats in the House than at any time since the Civil War.
And the clock ran out on Republicans.
And it was the Republicans who had to deal with the cards they were dealt.
The Democrats are gloating, and they can't believe their good fortune.
I can explain it if anybody wants to hear it again, but I gotta take a break.
It's open line Friday.
Rush Limbaugh, the last open line Friday of the year, means whatever you want to bring up and talk about, you can.
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