Monday, March 31, 2025

THE NEW CASH COMMENTARY FOR APRIL 3, 2025

                                                            

                                                                    CASH MICHAELS  


MAKE AMERICA WHITE SUPREMACIST AGAIN

by Cash Michaels


No, I have no hatred of, or for, white people. Anyone who really knows me knows that to be true, and always has been.

What I do have though, is a profound hatred for white supremacy! And most sensible, knowledgeable people I know, hate it too for what it’s done, and is doing, to our country!

Growing up as a kid in Brooklyn, NY, I watched a lot of television during the 1960’s. Virtually everything I saw were white TV and movie heroes - Superman, Batman, John Wayne, James Bond. Even my favorite comedies, be they Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges or Jerry Lewis, were all lily white too.

And little did I realize then that I saw no positive representations of me or mine on television or in the movies because of white supremacy. If a black person showed up on any of these shows (which was extremely rare), it was because they were the butt of some racist joke. Especially the cartoons. A caricature of a human being. That was the dictate of American culture then. The best place to accurately take this country’s racial tolerance temperature was, and still is, the TV screen.

Amos ’n Andy? Don’t forget, on radio, the popular show about two dimwitted black buddies actually starred two white actors in “Black” voice. When it came to TV with Black actors, the portrayals were so racist, the NAACP forced the show off the air.

Tarzan? A virtually naked white guy, always struggling to hold his stomach in, ruled the natives with a white woman named Jane by his side. And when he grew older, the same white actor, Johnny Weissmuller, put on some clothes and changed his name to “Jungle Jim” for the same shtick.

So for me, when it came to positive representation of my color on either the big or little screen during that period, it rarely appeared, and when it did, it was through the unsavory and mocking prism of white supremacy.

I and other little Black kids were being told by the country we were growing up in, that we could never be heroes, never be worthy of respect or adulation by anyone.

Probably why I went crazy when Bruce Lee, a TV hero of color (though not mine), came along. Sure other Asian heroes like Charlie Chan were on the screen (Charlie was always portrayed by a white actor, by the way), but none had the action and precision of Lee’s “Kato” in “The Green Hornet.”

What I didn’t know then was that he was also a victim of white supremacy, so much so that Lee - born in America - and his family, would later have to leave this country to find the international stardom he always dreamed of, and deserved.

And even when the infamous blaxploitation movies of the 1970’s, like Shaft and Superfly, came to the 42nd Street movie theaters in double feature, though my friends and I piled into the seats to see badass “brothas” stick it to “the man,” that was white supremacy too. White producers fed us poorly made crap they thought we would pay to see. Hollywood’s movie industry was in serious trouble in the 1970’s, and used over-sexed, foul and ultra-violent “black” films about pimps, pushers and crime bosses to juice up the box office.

  We were kids, and had never, ever seen characters who looked like us, do the things we normally saw our white heroes do, so we spent our money going to see these cheap, insulting  and racist “black” flicks with R ratings, produced by greedy white movie producers to get our money. 

But even that didn’t make us hate white people, though obviously someone thought we did, and made tons of money behind it. 

However, our parents raised us to understand that all white people weren’t bad.

There was nary a black home during those days that didn’t have framed pictures of President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, hanging up right there on the wall right next to civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..

These were three brave slain heroes we should love and trust, we were told, because they believed in freedom and justice for all people, and died for that cause.

And, most importantly, we were taught NOT to hate the sinner, but hate the sin. In other words, you don’t hate all white people, because all white people don’t hate you.

Instead, we were taught, hate the disease that certain troubled white people possess, and can’t seem to shake - white supremacy, the feeling they apparently have that God put them on this Earth to rule over others and control everything. Especially if those “others” are people of color, who God obviously, according to them and their "bibles," placed on this Earth for white supremacists to have dominion over like the beasts of the land or fish in the sea.

White supremacy, as I said, is a disease, because of the self-righteous, and misguided entitlement some people, who happen to be white, feel in their rancid, racist souls. Instead of recognizing the intent, beauty and power of Almighty God in creating men and women in a colorful array of humanity and cultures, the sickness that is white supremacy sees anything but God’s grace in His creation.

That’s why I call it a sickness, a disease.

All of which now brings me to my weekly subject.

Donald Trump.

It has never been a secret that this son of a Ku Klux Klansman who, with his father, once denied Black people the lawful opportunity to rent apartments on Trump properties in New York City back in the 1970s, has it in for people of color he can’t control.

And that’s the rub. Control. If Trump can’t control you, he wants to destroy you.

That sick mindset was dangerous when he was a prominent real estate mogul in New York. But it’s even more dangerous now that he’s a convicted criminal president of the United States, out to settle scores and reshape the country.

We’re very well aware of Trump’s disdain for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and so-called critical race theory. And part of the reason why he has such an obscene obsession with it is because of his hunger for power and control.

The “America” Donald Trump wants to control isn’t allowed to believe in the equality of all men and women. Indeed, it can’t believe in equality at all. There can only be one authority on who is equal and who is not, and that authority must be one of corrupted strength through power.

That corrupt power is manifested in the acquisition of wealth and territories, and cultural and racial superiority.

It’s a God complex on steroids.

What was that Trump said last week when he signed the executive order promising to gut the Smithsonian Institution’s museum network of “improper anti-American ideology?” Something about restoring “… truth and sanity to American history.”

Translation - he specifically wants the world famous National Museum of African-American History and Culture, a source of immense pride for this nation, not just black people, to be defunded by the federal government if it doesn’t change its tune.

         That's white supremacy talking!

The same with the forthcoming Women’s History Museum.

In his order, Trump has directed VP J.D. Vance, who sits on the Smithsonian board, to “remove improper ideology” from not just the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, but the education, research centers and even the National Zoo.

This outrage follows Trump’s Dept. of Defense recently scrubbing Arlington National Cemetery’s website of anything honoring heroic figures of color like Gen. Colin Powell and  the Tuskegee Airmen. Heroic women of the military were also eliminated. All because, in Trump’s twisted mind, these heroes smacked of DEI. How sick!

My esteemed NC Spin colleague, columnist Lib Campbell - who is white -  wrote an excellent piece a few weeks ago about “The whitewashing of America” under Trump.

Racism and misogyny have bubbled among us since our country’s founding. The number of hate groups is up, and people feel license to be cruel, pushy and demeaning. The fish rots from the head down. In America, there is no question that the head is rotten.”

That insightful paragraph from Lib’s superb commentary is the essence of describing what “Make America Great Again” really is.

         In the twisted minds of Trump’s MAGA followers, America was “great” BEFORE the 1960’s civil rights movement, and before people who looked like me began to attain our rights as lawful citizens. If that hadn’t happened, MAGA folks believe, the floodgates for other subjugated groups of people would have never opened.

No U.S. Supreme Court rulings for civil rights; no President Kennedy or LBJ standing up for civil rights; no Martin Luther King, Jr. marching for civil rights. America’s toxic whiteness and false belief that all that was white was good, would have been upheld and maintained the way “God” wanted it, MAGA believes.

And this is why Trump is so popular with the MAGA nation. He’s literally turning the clock back to a “better time” with his asinine executive orders. 

Turning the clock back to a time when, as a nation, we weren’t required to respect the rights, let alone the citizenship or humanity, of people who were not white, unless they first acknowledge who’s boss.

And one of the many ways you do that is lie about history. Bury the truth like a bone to a dog so that future generations have no idea about this nation’s true racial background.

That’s going to take a while, but the effort has actually been underway for years before Trump. I remember back in the ‘90s when the Republican Party desperately wanted to recruit new members who had no first-hand knowledge of the ’60’s civil rights movement. The hope was that blacks born after the movement would not be so resistant to the GOP message.

When that didn’t work, Republicans then corralled conservative members of Dr. King’s family to “reinterpret” his famous “…not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" mantra.

Republicans have been rolling with that “combatting reverse racism" ruse ever since, especially when combatting DEI.

        In fact, NC Senate Majority Leader Phil "Head Ham" Berger has now sponsored a bill (SB 558) not only outlawing DEI in all North Carolina public colleges and universities, but even prohibiting any official investigations into claims of racial or gender bias.

No, there’s little doubt. Trump has tapped into a national vein that is as white supremacist as the day is long.

And now I read that some silly MAGA Randolph County state representatives have filed a bill, HB 557, to designate the 65-year-old “Andy Griffith Show” as North Carolina’s “official television show.” Apparently these folks long for the days when white people of “positive character values and awareness” could live in a happy-go-lucky Southern town (Mayberry) where folks strolled to the nearest pond with their fishing pole and "youngun" in hand, whistling their fool heads off, with not a care in the world.

        Well as I recall, the show featured no black people living or working there, even though it was on during the height of the civil rights movement - 1960-68 (only in the background occasionally, but you had to look very hard to see them).

Hate to break it to those NC MAGA lawmakers that the television “Mayberry” was created by three city slicker producers - Sheldon Leonard ("Dick van Dyke Show, "I Spy"), Aaron Ruben ("Gomer Pyle USMC," "Sanford and Son") and Danny Thomas ("Danny Thomas Show," "Mod Squad"), who apparently didn’t have the guts to portray the real Mayberry (Mt. Airy, NC) as a place where black people were actually born, lived and worked, even today (8.48% of the population).

In fact, every inch of the fictional "Mayberry" was filmed in ultra-liberal Los Angeles, California, NOT good ole' North Carolina (watch Ted Koppel’s take here ).

        And why not just honor Mt. Airy native Andy Griffith, Republicans? Can't do that. Andy was a dyed -in-the-wool staunch Democrat until the day he died. Better to honor the fake Mt. Airy, with Aunt Bee, Opie and the rest of the fine, fake white folks. Tsk, tsk..that’s what happens when you want to make America white supremacist again. You get stuck with facts you can't control!

        While the cost of living is blowing up beyond the average NC citizen’s reach, our lawmakers want to waste our time and tax dollars trying to distract us from reality with old segregated TV sitcoms that they hope have us dreaming of a better, idyllic whiter world.

Got news for Trump and his MAGA minions. We’re too far down the road in this multi-cultural society today for that to successfully happen.

Even Barney Fife knows that! Ain't that right, Andy?!!!

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Saturday, March 29, 2025

THE CASH STUFF FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 3RD, 2025

 STATE AUDIT FINDS NCCU

HAD OVER $45 MILLION IN

FINANCIAL REPORTING ERRORS

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer


Despite its recent enrollment success, North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in Durham has reportedly had some financial reporting problems over the past few years, according to a new report issued by the NC State Auditor’s Office.

Beyond chronicling over $45 million in financial statement errors for the fiscal year ending in June 2024, NCCU’s financial reporting problems have been growing, the audit found.

Some of those issues included:

- Supplies and services expense was overstated by $8.3 million because losses from the disposal of capital assets were misclassified, which also understated other nonoperating expenses by the same amount.

  - Scholarships and fellowships expense was understated by $1.2 million because revenues related to the UNC System’s Project Kitty Hawk partnership were not recorded correctly, which also understated state and local grants and contracts revenue by the same amount.

           - Cash was overstated by $4.9 million because of inaccurate journal entries, which also overstated beginning net position by the same amount.

  - Noncapital contributions were overstated by $4.8 million because donated capital assets were misclassified, which also understated capital contributions by the same amount.

    - Federal grants and contracts were overstated by $3.7 million because of inaccurate journal entries, which also understated nongovernmental grants and contracts by the same amount.

    - Restricted nonexpendable net position was overstated by $2.6 million, restricted expendable net position was overstated by $3.6 million, and unrestricted net position was understated by $6.2 million because of errors in the calculations.

  "Part of what makes our university system so great is we hold the institutions to high standards and strive to bring the very best out of our public universities," said State Auditor Dave Boliek. "NCCU’s financial reporting fell far short of the standards expected of our high education institutions, but I’ve had productive meetings with university and UNC system leadership and have confidence NCCU is on a better path."

  Despite the significant total of the NCCU financial statement errors, Auditor Boliek maintains that the HBCU is not in any financial trouble. NCCU’s new chancellor, Karrie G. Dixon, has vowed to put new fiscal controls in place to ensure that that the audit reporting error do not reoccur.

  “Our team is confident in the new leadership team’s ability to put the University on a positive trajectory,” said Auditor Boliek in the report. “With the right people in the right positions, NCCU’s financial reporting should improve.”

  In a statement, the university concurred.

  “Under Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon’s leadership, NCCU is making significant strides to resolve the audit’s concerns. Dixon has a proven track record of strengthening internal controls and improving financial oversight, having achieved clean audits every year at her previous institution. This experience has been instrumental in hiring new leadership and implementing stronger financial practices at NCCU.”

       “Since Chancellor Dixon’s appointment, NCCU has taken immediate and proactive steps to bring in new leadership within the Division of Administration and Finance. The team, with decades of combined experience, is committed to the highest standards of financial stewardship. Key appointments include a new chief financial officer and a new controller; ongoing recruiting efforts include new leadership in other key areas in the Division of Administration and Finance to support the new direction.”

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DEMOCRATIC BILLS SEEK 

TO RAISE MINIMUM WAGE TO $22/hr

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer


It’s been 15 years since North Carolina’s minimum wage has been raised for the state’s grassroots workers, even though the cost of living has steadily gone up. If House Democrats have their way, North Carolina’s minimum wage will rise from $7.25 per hour to $22.00/hr.

Democratic House members Pricey Harrison (D- Guilford), Carolyn Logan (D-Mecklenburg), Marcia Morey (D-Durham), and Aisha Dew (D-Mecklenburg) are the primary sponsors of House Bill 339, the Economic Security Act.

According to the bill’s language, HB 339 is “An act advancing economic security for all in North Carolina by increasing the state minimum wage to twenty-two dollars per hour, adjusted for inflation annually; mandating equal pay for equal work; requiring paid sick leave, paid family medical leave, and workplace safety…”

If passed, the bill would become effective Jan. 1, 2026.

HB 339 was introduced March 11th, and has been referred to the Rules, Calendar and Operations of House Committee. 

In the state Senate, SB 326, also titled the Economic Security Act, and sponsored by Democratic Senators Natalie Murdock (Chatham, Durham), Julie Mayfield (Buncombe) and Lisa Grafstein (Wake), filed March 19th, would, is passed, also raise North Carolina to $22.00/hr, effective Jan. 1, 2026.

Past that date, the NC Commissioner of Labor would determine how much the minimum wage would be raised annually.

SB 326 has similar language to HB 339, except that it also would require “…the fair assessment persons with criminal histories by “banning the box”” and “…repealing public employee collective bargaining restrictions."

The Senate bill has also been referred to the Rules and Operations of the Senate Committee for further debate.  

With Republicans in the majority in both houses, it seems unlikely that either measure will be ultimately ratified, especially given Republican opposition to raising the minimum wage on both the state and federal levels.

Republicans say having to pay  workers a high minimum wage increases the cost of doing business, and does not give workers with little skills the incentive to work harder to earn more.

“Raising the minimum wage hurts the poor…” The Joint Economic Committee of Republicans said in it’s 1996 The Case Against a Higher Minimum Wage. 

It takes away jobs, keeps people on welfare, and encourages high school students to drop out. Policymakers should be clear on the consequence of higher minimum wages.”

Democrats and supporters of raising the minimum wage counter that grassroots workers need a living wage that they can feed their families with, keep pace with inflation, and argue that too many have to work two and three jobs in order just to pay rising rents and put food on the table. 

We know these Americans.  We depend on them,” said Pres. Barack Obama in 2014. “The workers who’d benefit from a minimum wage increase often work full-time, often in physically demanding jobs.  They average 35 years of age.  Most low-paying jobs are held by women.”  

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Monday, March 24, 2025

THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR MARCH 27, 2025


                                                                     CASH MICHAELS

                              AT OUR LOWEST, AND GETTING LOWER

by Cash Michaels


Last week, I, among others, lamented the impending destruction of the U.S. Department of Education by the Trump Administration, and the harm such a completely ass-backwards act will do to the future of our country.

In my commentary, I shared how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged that education be the beacon light of freedom for African-Americans during the hard fought 60’s civil rights movement. That visionary hope and wisdom was what my community sorely needed then, and vitally needs even now.

Needless to say, my invoking Dr. King elicited the following interesting response from a smug, self-described MAGA follower who wrote, “ Dr. King would be horrfied (sic) by the desentigration (sic) of  black culture into single motherhood, crime, and criminal worship. And you'll never convince a thinking person otherwise.”

Hopefully, this MAGA person is not referring to him or herself as a “thinking person,” otherwise they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to misspell two simple words in one sentence. It’s been my experience that “thinking” people don’t do that while criticizing someone else in writing.

And as for Dr. King being “horrified” by the “disintegration” of black culture into “single motherhood, crime, and criminal worship,” then imagine how truly shocked the civil rights leader would be that the nation he fought so hard to free from racial tyranny, and gave his young life to put on the proper and moral path, would instead TWICE elect a extraordinarily morally decrepit and racist president who stands indicted in two federal and two state criminal cases; was convicted of 34 felonies; later pardoned hundreds of convicted white supremacist insurrectionists who tried to overthrow the US government, which led to the deaths of four brave police officers, while he cowardly watched it all on TV from the White House drinking a Diet Coke; has separated immigrant children from their mothers; has imprisoned innocent people without due process because he didn’t like what they were saying; has lambasted our brave, deceased U.S. military personnel as “suckers and losers”; falsely accused black people from another country of coming here and “eating our cats and our dogs”; and has had four children by three wives.

Think Dr. King would be proud to stand anywhere near a proven criminal and degenerate president of the United States like that who is currently presiding over the wonton destruction of our nation and culture? 

In the illustrious words of my illiterate MAGA commenter, “You'll never convince a thinking person otherwise.”

Now, the reason for my skewering this MAGA person isn’t just to hang him/her out to dry, but to make the following point: amazingly, it’s only taken a little over two months since the inauguration of Donald Trump to bring this nation down to its intellectual knees.

When your nationally elected leader is corrupt, and has surrounded himself with people who actively seek ways for him to be even more corrupt, your country is in serious trouble.

CORRECTION - make that …OUR country is in serious trouble!

We’re at our lowest point, and getting even lower literally every day with Trump in the White House.

How can I tell?

Because of what now passes for “intelligence” around here these days.

You see, my MAGA follower was Exhibit A in the case against Trump’s governance.

Believe it or not, I’m not troubled by MAGA follower's disparaging words about my community. He or she is not the first to try to erroneously brand my entire community as a bunch of lazy criminals who are not inclined towards a proper two-parent household.

Problem with MAGA follower's racist analysis is that it’s demonstrably false.

Sure, there are far too many African-Americans who lean towards crime. But that axiom goes for a lot of communities beyond my own - Italians, Chinese, Hispanic, etc. And that’s what happens when you dump generation after generation of human beings into poverty-stricken urban centers with no jobs, no opportunities and no hope, and then legislate against them so they have little opportunity to overcome social and legal barriers.

I know. I grew up in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NY. What is never said is that the majority of Black, white and Hispanic people living under those conditions are good people, just trying to make it the best way they know how. And many have. I did. My family did.

But that’s the culture of Trump’s MAGA movement - browbeat and lie about people in order to gain some perceived psychological and political advantage over them, especially if you’re really afraid of them.

        And when you need to act like you're superior to someone, you're really afraid of them.

Ask the New York Times, CNN or CBS News. How many times has Trump called those organizations names, falsely claimed their readership or viewership had disappeared, and that they were about to go out of business? It’s for the same reason why that ignorant MAGA follower spewed bullpucky about Black people.

Trump’s perceived enemies have power that neither he nor his MAGA movement ever intend to publicly respect.

With the news media, in Trump’s MAGA world, we’re all liars and dishonest bastards, the lowest of the low never to be trusted or believed if we say anything negative about him.

With Black people, in Trump’s MAGA  world, unless we’re confirmed true believers, we’re not white, and are too self aware. We know more about this country's racial history than our white counterparts. That’s why, Trump says, so-called “radical leftist” history, which is really just unvarnished American history he and the MAGA movement would prefer people don't pay attention to, should be discounted, diminished, and in fact, literally outlawed.

NO critical race theory, no diversity, equity and inclusion should ever be allowed.

And get this…make sure you erase whatever history you have on Black or female national heroes like Colin Powell and Jackie Robinson, or brave military women like Susan Ahn Cuddy, the first Asian American female officer in the U.S. Navy and first female gunnery officer in the U.S. armed forces. They weren't white, so they all must have been subversives. Telling our white children about their stories only awakens them to America’s true racial history.

You know…that dreaded left-wing word - "woke."

We don’t want that, Trump’s MAGA America says. We want to keep our population ignorant so that our billionaire buddies can pay no taxes and get away with it. We want to keep everybody ignorant so we can hold onto power. We want to attack those who oppose us. Threaten our critics with prison or ruin.

In order to take and maintain control of America, Trump says, we have to redefine it so that up and down literally mean the opposite of what they should mean.

Trump now has us hating the very things that made us strong - our diversity of people, talent and ideas. Our welcome to the rest of the world to come here and learn from the most noted scholars and accomplished professionals, now is only extended as long as they bring wealth with them.

Trump wants us all to be asleep and unaware. He wants a proliferation of the MAGA mentality - talk first, think later, if at all. 

And he’s not finished. We’re only seeing the beginning of his Project 2025 lunacy. Trust me, this madman has plenty of Sharpies, and plenty of blank Executive Order forms to last for the next four years, if not longer.

So yes, America, right now we are at our lowest point.

And the worst of it is, there’s no question that Trump plans to take us even lower.

All because Einsteins like my MAGA follower voted Trump into office, suckered by the false promise of a better, greater America…and cheaper eggs.

        Hey, got a timely riddle for you:

        Besides Pete Hegseth, who's dumb, careless, and so dangerous, he has no damn business in the Trump Administration job he was never qualified for?

        The national news media reported the perfect answer this week:

        "Mike Waltz, President Trump’s national security advisor, inadvertently included the top editor of The Atlantic Magazine in a Signal app text chat group revealing the U.S. attack plans on Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month."

        The crime here isn't so much that a journalist was accidentally included during a group text chat of top administration officials right before an impending military attack - that was certainly bad enough without question -  but that those top Trump Administration officials, including the chief of staff, vice president, defense secretary, national security adviser, CIA chief, secretary of state and other Cabinet officers, held that group text classified military attack chat on a commercial public app on unsecured phones in unsecured places, where any of our enemies could intercept the classified info with little or no effort.

       Amazingly, one of those Trump officials was actually in Moscow during the unsecured pre-bombing group text chat. Think the Ruskies had a difficult time tuning into his iPhone?

        Gee, wonder how many times these MAGA morons have pulled this idiotic crap before?

       California Democratic Rep Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, tweeted, "Everyone on the public WAR PLANS group text should immediately lose their security clearances and be fired. Their idiocy just put a giant target on America. We are not safe."

        By the way, true to form, Trump's people tried to smear Atlantic Magazine journalist Jonah Goldberg - the reporter accidentally included in the supposed-to-be top secret group text chat - after their major screwup was revealed, just to cover their ignorant, arrogant rear ends.

        So how low have we fallen? Simple, there will be NO accountability for what national security experts say was one of the most egregious national security failures in our history. I don't care how much Fox News tries to soft soap this!

        In Trump's world, no one did anything wrong, except the press for accurately reporting it. No contrition, no honesty. Only weaselly, slithery con jobbing!

        Gee, think DEI hires could have done a better job?

        Hey, MAGA follower, please share your "superior thinking" about that!!!

Let’s be clear…..Donald Trump is literally destroying the better, greater America we had. No it wasn’t a perfect America. We certainly still had some pervasive problems we needed to deal with. And I suspect that as long as we have breath in our bodies, we will always have problems of some sort. But this despot is actually creating more problems just to remake our country in his sick and depraved image. Anytime you have a president who won’t even obey the federal courts, except when it suits his purpose, you have someone who can’t be trusted to honor or respect the one thing that keeps us all from tearing each other apart.

The rule of law.

We’re at our lowest, steadily headed for lower, folks.

MAGA follower, aren’t we lucky to have millions of “thinking” people like you, to help us get there!!!

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