2590 Comments

Damn it's strongly thundering with tons o vivid lightning here in Beantown. And pouring buckets too.

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Good news- my new roof is on, done, finished. Hope to be up and around to go out and look at it, eventually.

There WILL be a second season of Extraordinary Attorney Woo!!!!!!!!!!! I adore her to pieces, don't you?

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My home State, Wisconsin, has a lengthy track record when it comes to school vouchers. I have always maintained that the advocates for them are not so much motivated by their claimed altruistic desire to give the kids from poor families a shot at a private school education as the more selfish (and truthful) wish to get access to public school tax funds to keep their private schools financially afloat. In other words, they were happy to take a few poor kids as long as they brought tax payer financing along with them.

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"what would have been the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school." FFS they're already tax free now we have to pay them too?

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we can never do enough to satisfy their greed

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...and here you have stumbled upon what is the actual reason for the so-called "school choice movement", which is as accurately named as the "parental rights movement". It's all a cash grab. Well, and a power grab, too.

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Jesus H Christ in a sidecar! Tax the goddamn churches already, and shut down the ones even remotely involved in political campaigns!

You know what would make a bigger difference in this country than "bringing back God?"

Lessening the suffering of the poorest of us by taxing the richest and making our social safety net more robust. Y'know, like Jesus said.

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Heavens! You can't go around trying to make loud mouth jerks who call themselves "Christians" ACT like followers of the eponymous founder of their "faith". It has historically been an inalienable right of all Americans to be hypocrites first and foremost, with whatever self-flattering self descriptions they profess being balloon juice, a fiction that it is impolite to question.

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well. i CAN be pretty rude...

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WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

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There is a lot of work being done to make digital media traceable and verifiable. This is required for anyone to trust what they see and hear. (traceable: signed and attested in a verifiable way; verifiable: digital digest of the media to detect tampering)

𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗳𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗔𝗜

Study from Google's DeepMind lays out nefarious ways AI is being used.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/06/political-deepfakes-are-the-most-popular-way-to-misuse-ai/

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So there might be an actual use for blockchain after all...

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Either the actress playing older Rhaenyra in House of the dragon is very tall, or the actress playing younger Rhaenyra is very short.

https://x.com/midgelnny/status/1805697158735446285?t=Zhs37BnOeIa0pFXIEH-vLg&s=19

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Other than that they look very much alike (thought a legally-blind casting director.)

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One is standing further away :)

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I think it's both.

Also, there is way too much sapphic energy in that clip for this early in the day.

ETA: of course, I was lying. There's never enough sapphic energy.

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Good morning!

#Worldle #887 (26.06.2024) 2/6 (100%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨⬆️

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉

🧭⭐🚩🗣️

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

Nice to be inland for a change.

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I didn't want it to be on that continent. Still working it...

#Worldle #887 (26.06.2024) 3/6 (100%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜⬇️

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨⬆️

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉

🧭

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

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Well, I got ANOTHER email from my dad about how I don't love him enough. This time, "Why do you want nothing to do with me?" and I fucking handled it like a champ. I told him, again, that I love him, that I have made efforts, and that HE is the one who is constantly refusing to share and who hasn't been at all interested in either of my careers or my personal life.

More important, I told him that I am fucking done talking about our relationship and that when he is ready to share his life with me again, I will stop ignoring his emails and engage with him.

My dad is one fucked up dude. He was born that way, has undressed trauma, and drinks too much which makes him worse.

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blood, genetic family seems to me to be excessively destructive road testing of human beings.

"Does this hurt? Does THIS hurt? DOES THIS hurt? DOES THIS HURT?" and so on.

Sounds like you are, indeed, handling this as well as it can be. And you seem to get that IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. Good on you.

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Christ, he's been pushing your buttons this year harder than a 10 year old with their first game controller. Sorry, this shit is hard to deal with - but you're nailing it down.

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truer words were never spoken

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Give your kids mental blocks for Christmas. Some of us turn out happy because of our parents, and some despite them.

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I’m proud of you.

I suspect he’s chasing the “high” of trying to get reactions from you. I know I have had to realize that my own self. I think “I’m going to get this person and then I’m done “ but then it’s not the rush you wanted so you want to come back for another try…I don’t know—it’s early so I’m not expressing myself well!

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Been thinking about you! Hope you will join us on zoom some time!

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I had the day wrong!

Husband is out of town and I was all excited for last night until MorganX set me straight. Some evening!

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I think we decided Sundays!

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:hugs:

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Well at least you didn't poop into a jiffy bag and send that.

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(Pringles)

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#TeamStuckWithPieceOfShitParents

*swig*

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My mother tried last year to guilt-trip me with "it's been really hard on him" and all I could think was that, clearly, it hasn't been hard *enough*, or else he would've stopped doing the shit that makes me not want him in my life.

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I don't know where parents get off talking about how hard WEare on them. THEY are the ones that dragged our assessment into this shitty plane.

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Why do I suspect that you've already told him, more than once, why you make the decisions you make? https://www.issendai.com/psychology/estrangement/missing-missing-reasons.html

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You demonstrate enormous wisdom and strength at not allowing him to manipulate you or your life by virtue of genetics. You do NOT owe him a damned thing.

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It never stops being g shocking when he pulls this shit. NEVER. The words are less painful, but the shock is really shocking.

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That part sucks.

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I had a rough relationship with my father so I think I understand what kind of words you're referencing. They're brutal.

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Jun 26
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The key part of that is the “to do”. Getting so fucked up is a certainty. Keeping it to yourself is the variable.

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Jun 26
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If you have a therapist, you ain’t that fucked up anymore.

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IF you are doing the work. My brother has gone from therapist to therapist for decades and never gets any better, because he tries to amuse, to entertain, his therapists so they won't make him bear down and be real. Quite a talent that, picking therapists you can fool.

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I have given up on trying to sleep again. It's become absolutely hopeless. It's too warm in here and I can't get comfortable.

I have been awake now for SO damned long. I am getting sick to damned death of listening to myself think.

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The tower fan in my room is wonderful. Moving air and white noise.

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I aimed a fan directly at me hoping it would both cool me off and drone me into the sleep zone, but no such luck.

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I wish I could drag you to the doctor with me and Speak on your behalf. I would tell them you need my antidepressant. It gives me crazy dreams but I get good sleep.

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I had crazy vivid dreams on an antidepressant and doc took me off it. Said it wasn't restful.

They were way entertaining.

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Remembering dreams is a sign your memory isn't going to sleep, so your doctor is definitely right on that, but for me, less restful sleep has been WAY better than no sleep. It can be a mixed blessing. The dreams some people have on Cymbalta are documented for being upsetting and evoking emotions, but I muscle through that for the rest.

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𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀, 𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻, 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗨𝘁𝗮𝗵’𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆

Mr. Curtis has portrayed himself as a centrist workhorse in the image of the senator whose seat he is vying to fill: Mitt Romney.

Representative John Curtis, a centrist Republican, won his party’s primary for U.S. Senate in Utah on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, beating a more conservative candidate endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Curtis, 64, is perhaps not the fresh-faced successor Mr. Romney, 77, had imagined. But Mr. Curtis, a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and a leader of Republican efforts to address climate change in Congress, is a clear heir apparent to Mr. Romney’s centrist style of politics...

While Mr. Curtis declined to support Mr. Trump in the 2016 election, he largely backed his agenda once he was elected to Congress. But he refused to support Mr. Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. In the midst of this year’s Senate primary race, and seeking to polish his conservative bona fides, Mr. Curtis defended the former president’s vow to prosecute his political enemies if elected president.

“I think it’s just human nature to feel the way that President Trump has expressed himself,” Mr. Curtis said during a debate ahead of the primary.

Still, he faced attacks from his main primary opponent, Trent Staggs, the mayor of Riverton, Utah, for not being sufficiently supportive of the former president. Mr. Trump had endorsed Mr. Staggs, describing him in a video last weekend as “a little bit of a long shot” but “MAGA all the way.” For months, polls showed Mr. Curtis leading the race by a wide margin.

Mr. Curtis began his political career as a Democrat. He unsuccessfully ran for the Utah State Senate in 2000, and then served for a year as the chair of the Democratic Party in Utah County. He ran for mayor of Provo as a Republican in 2009, and served in that position until 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/us/politics/john-curtis-utah-senate.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&module=&state=default&region=footer&context=breakout_link_back_to_briefing

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"...bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus..."

Oh dear lord.

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Yeah, sure, letting little Donnie Shitpants conduct a Night of the Long Knives on his political opponents to sooth his WATB hurt feelings is what counts for a "centrist" Republican theses days, and "bipartisan"? Here and I was hoping to get through a whole day without puking. Funny old world, innit?

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Yeah, as long as the human is a toddler who got dropped on his head too many times.

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I think it’s just human nature to feel the way that President Trump has expressed himself,” Mr. Curtis said during a debate ahead of the primary.

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The guy is a fickle SOB who can't be trusted.

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It is interesting though that MAGA hasn't managed to get much a foothold in Utah

Wonder if the Mormons are wise to the fact that the evangelicals aren't really their friends

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They ain't ceding any territory to a competing grift.

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like

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I am inclined to believe that they do.

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lol

He is Centrist because he did not back the coup.

Hey, the press:

"he largely backed his agenda once he was elected to Congress."

That makes him NOT actually centrist goddamn it

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Wait ... there's a "Centrist Republican" party now?

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mostly imaginary friends and boyfriends in Canada.

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No, for all that David Brooks wishes on every falling star he sees from the 1st class compartment of the Acela Corridor train.

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They'd like you to believe so.

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MAGA without the flags and hats.

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No. They just call themselves that. See my non comment.

I mean, they had it right there. It does not matter if they work on a bipartisan whatever for climate change- it is what you DO with it that counts.

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RINO: republican in name only

MINO: MAGA in name only

ASS-O: both of the above

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Easy enough, one would think, to just not teach religion in the regular classes. That's why "Sunday School" was invented, way back when religious people weren't such goddamned assholes.

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We had 2 hours of Catholic (1 hr of Catechism followed by 1hr Mass) beat into our heads on Saturday mornings, while the non-Catholic kids got to have a normal Saturday mornings. Being cheated out of Saturday morning cartoons at an early age is not a winning formula for introduction to religion.

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As public school students in the 1950's, we Catholics were dismissed early every Monday and transported in the school's buses to three different parish schools for religious instruction. Protestants, Jews, and Greek Orthodox got no such consideration (there were no Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus).

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For us, it was Wednesday afternoons. After years of parochial school, I did not feel the need for such instruction in seventh grade.

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I went to catholic school, and religion was actually a class, like spelling or math. A graded one.

We had josies though so sometimes we'd learn about other religions and muse about beginnings and what not. So a tinge more progressive than these fucks up there.

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TIL what a josie is. lol.

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nun order XD I forget their exact name, something something Joseph

We called em Josies

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Sisters of St. Joseph. Teaching is their thing.

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That's cute!

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IHMs were I hate Mens

Landshark mentioned what the Mercies got XD

They all had nicknames

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edit: they were the progressive nuns and wore plain clothes and everything

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We had the Sisters of (no) Mercy. They were smart and capable teachers. Religion was a class, but mostly about studying the messages that Jesus was delivering in the new testament. Church was separate from school.

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Like, Galilean Cryptography?

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sneaking love notes to Mary Magdalene under the last supper table.

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"Holy Ghost says u fit- u like back?"

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We had some mercies in HS, but mostly IHMs which are much more conservative than any of em.

Of the three, I preferred the Josies

plus, obvious pussycat jokes

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The churches want the money. Forget the students.

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The innocent and the cynic alike would say they want the students.

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"We're going to indoctrinate all the kids and taxpayers are going to pay for it!"

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they must feel a need to widen their search for children to molest. It just isn't fair that the Evangelical Prods get such great deals on the chickens.

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This is one take. If you listen to music and write a song are you in violation of copyright? (Same would go for reading a news article and writing a blog post) What's fair use? Anyway, I have a visceral reaction to the RIAA ... they litigate, never innovate.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗔'𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝘂𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 — Like many AI companies, Udio and Suno relied on large-scale theft to create their generative AI models.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/25/the-riaas-lawsuit-against-generative-music-startups-will-be-the-bloodbath-ai-needs/

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Here is an old story about violating influences.

_Unaccompanied Sonata_, 1979, from Orson Scott Card (I know.), published in Omni Magazine, 1979

https://www.sindark.com/LaTeX/unaccompanied-sonata.pdf

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I don't think it goes anywhere. I think the courts really opened the door by allowing some lyric websites to scrape and aggregate song lyrics and place ads on them.

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Three major record labels have an interest in this. It's got legs.

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Can I root for both of them to be destroyed?

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It's definitely a stretch of copyright law. The basic concept is that you, as a creator or performer, are entitled to be paid by somebody who reads, listens to, or sees the thing you created, and is legally presumed to have benefited from it.

That's a bit different from loading your work into a database that an AI "reads" and uses to inform a new creation. We'll probably get legislation that brings it under copyright law, but you'd be lucky to get two cents in royalties, since the databases contain many millions of works and can't pay a buck apiece every time the AI scans through them.

Some sort of one-time fee would be reasonable, but "reasonable" and "billion-dollar corporations lobbying legislators of dubious intelligence" don't always go hand-in-hand.

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"tips" for favorable laws and rulings- the oligarchy continues to grab new territory and entrench to defend it.

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like

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