MADD - Iowa's Greatest Garage Band of the 1960's

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MADD
Iowa's Greatest Garage Band of the 1960's

 

The Band history

 

 

Mick Sexton - Barry Monohon

Brian David Bernstein

Michael Schomers - Casey Foutz

 

Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Association

 

Hall of Fame Nomination

 

 

submitted by

 

Jim Putnam

 

 

Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Association

Hall of Fame Nomination

 

 

MADD Band History

 

Ottumwa, Iowa was a small town with a huge craving for good music thus it was a place where Swing Bands and the Grand Ole' Opry toured constantly when in Iowa.  It was in the shadow of this rich musical legacy that a group of young lads growing up in the 1950's and 1960's fired their interest in music, and became caught up in the early evolution of the rock and roll movement in America.

 

What a time to be involved as they were in the first generation of Baby Boomers and were exposed to the most turbulent times in terms of world and national events while the music industry was going through the greatest changes since the radio revolutionized the music scene.

 

Television brought America into the far reaches of the nation's deep music legacy from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to Dick Clark's American Bandstand in Philadelphia.  Popular music was on the Hit Parade and musicals dominated the Broadway scene in NYC.

 

 

There was a proliferation of genre friendly radio stations across the land and with the advent of rock and roll and the soaring popularity of country music suddenly tours with a cavalcade of stars were making their way throughout the land.

A young kid in the 1950's was torn between the country sounds of Hank Williams, the rock and roll of Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis and Buddy Holly, the soul of Louis Armstrong, the blues by the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed, the doo wop of the Platters, Coasters and Del Vikings, the pop songs of Teresa Brewer, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como and Doris Day and the folk songs of Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio and others to mention a few.

With the commercial success of Fender and then Gibson electric guitars in the early 1950's the revolution in music styles was matched by the revolution in instruments with technical innovations often driving the emerging rock and roll era.

Ottumwa was one of the first tour sites for the Grand Ole Opry road shows and was in the middle of the cultural revolution taking place in music.  Changes intensified in the 1960's with the Beach Boys, the California sound of the Byrds, the Beatles invasion, Dylan's electric folk and the psychedelic revolution.

This was the culture of music when each of the lads of MADD began their odyssey in the music scene.  They were the first generation bombarded by all forms and styles of music from radio, television, movies and Broadway shows.  It was the Golden Age of America and the Golden Age of rock and roll.

Before the age of computers, cell phones and multi-track digital recording, when electric guitars were still new and rock and roll was just beginning to discover a niche as a new music genre, a group of young lads in Ottumwa set out on the path that would bring them together in their high school years and launch them into a lifetime love of music.

MADD was a journey from honky tonks to country clubs, street dances to college campuses, and television to the State Fair.  Members grew from junior high marching bands to American Bandstand appearances, from teen clubs to Broadway.  It was magical in a time when the magic of rock and roll ruled.  Here is their story.

 

MADD Members

Mick Sexton

Mick Sexton was a singer and lead guitarist for MADD and the acknowledged leader of the band though he refuses credit and insists all four, Mick Sexton, Barry Monohon, Michael Schomers and Brian David Bernstein should collectively share credit as leaders and founders.  Still, a look at his background and it was clear why he was the driving force in pushing their amazing creative musical achievements.

By age 4 Mick was playing Hank Williams tunes on his Grandmother's piano.  His interest in music caused his mother to rent an accordion from a door to door salesman.  After a handful of lessons, at age 4½ Mick was playing The Blue Danube Waltz live on an Oskaloosa radio station.

His father bought him a Stella acoustic guitar for his 5th birthday and 6 years of lessons led to winning a number of talent contests at county fairs.  Performing for his parent's friends became a family ritual.  When performing on the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in the late 1950's he shared the stage with Raymond Burr (Perry Mason), James Arness (Matt Dillon) and Schuyler "Sky King" (Kirby Grant) at the Ottumwa Coliseum.  By age 10 and 11 he had performed several shows with the popular Rhythm Playboys.

All the while Mick was exceptional in school and YMCA AAU athletics in swimming and diving competition including winning Gold Medals in two State AAU championships and two Regional AAU championships.

He joined his first rock band, The Perfidians, when in 8th grade.  They played the Horseshoe Club and road houses in the Ottumwa area while Mick balanced his education, swimming and musical careers.

After a brief stint with Tommy Williamson's X Rays band he was playing at the Teen Corner Candy Kane Lounge with Barry Monohon, Eddie Hood and Bill Ingles.  When Eddie and Bill departed, Mick, Barry, Michael Schomers and Brian David Bernstein decided to form MADD.

After his MADD experience Mick played in a group called London Fog with Casey Foutz, the 5th member of MADD, that recorded a song in Racine, Wisconsin.  This was followed by the Upstairs Playground, an innovative rock ensemble.

He moved the Upstairs Playground to Iowa City where they performed at the popular college bar Little Bill's, one of the hot spots for University of Iowa students.  Mick later played in a group called Stray Cat.

Then it was on to San Francisco, California where he joined a band called Innersection that opened for the well known band the Whispers.  Mick's band was an all Black Soul and R&B band until he joined.

He then moved to Eugene, Oregon and joined a country/rock band called Captain Country.  This band recorded an album and made music videos and was popular in the Pacific Northwest music scene playing venues from I-5 truck stops to The Dexter Lake Club, a popular venue used for the movie Animal House featuring the band Otis Day and the Knights led by now famous Robert Cray.

It was back to the Top 40 when Mick joined his wife in the band Elixir and they moved to Rochester, NY and joined a circuit playing clubs from Rochester to the Florida Keys, then forming Florida bands The Source and later Sapphire.

Today he retains his passion for music in an avant garde group playing a range of music from the Beatles to Paul Simon to traditional Irish (Celtic) to classical including Mozart, Bach and Beethoven forever seeking to challenge his creativity and push his in depth knowledge and expertise in music.

Barry Monohon

Barry Monohon, bass guitar, was adopted by his maternal grandparents who exposed him to music his entire life.  From his earliest memories of an accordion player performing Mocking Bird Hill for him at his Aunt's house at age 4, to discovering a stash of 78 big band records at age 5 by Glenn Miller, Harry James, Benny Goodman and Sophie Tucker, music was his passion.

The first live concert he attended was Conway Twitty and Brenda Lee in the Grand Ole' Opry Show that regularly came to Ottumwa and one night his step father, Leo Monohon brought the popular Rhythm Playboys over to the house for rehearsal, giving young Barry a chance to sit in with the band.

He progressed from a tonnette to clarinet, to ukulele before joining his junior high band.  Left handed, he got his first electric guitar in junior high and soon took up bass guitar.

Like Mick, Barry also played in local bands before joining the X Rays band with Tommy Williamson where they were the house band at the Candy Kane lounge.  When two members decided to leave Mick, Barry and Brian David Bernstein decided to form MADD with Michael Schomers.

To those who knew him Barry was a fun loving and mischievous character who would rebuild right handed guitars in order to play left handed, and loved a good practical joke.  Like the time he shouted into the microphone during a sold out concert to the teen girls who threw panties on stage to throw money not clothes, and they promptly bombarded Michael Schomers and the others with quarters.

An accomplished graphic design, oil and pastel artist Barry balanced his interest between MADD and his passion for art moving for a time to Berkeley, California where he was caught up in the Abstract Expressionist movement but returned to Iowa.

He later played in three bands in the Des Moines area where MADD had achieved great success at the Iowa State Fair and on WHO TV.  After moving to Midwest City, Oklahoma he learned from Des Moines musician and friend George Clinton that the recording contract that was supposed to go to MADD for winning the Omaha Midwest Battle of the Bands was given to the 1910 Fruitgum Company band.

 

Barry now has an art studio in Lincoln, Nebraska and has exhibited both nationally and in Europe and his works are included in many prominent private and corporate art collections.

Brian David Bernstein

Brian David Bernstein, drummer and vocals, came from a family who owned Bernstein's Music Store in Ottumwa.  Under the watchful eye of his father he went from a shy snare drummer in the junior high school band to evolve into one of the best rock drummers in the state.

Just 12 years old when MADD was formed Brian David stunned his peers like Mick Sexton, Barry Monohon and Michael Schomers with his raw talent and boundless energy on the drums, along with his exceptional singing talent, that allowed him to contribute to the three-part plus harmonies that set MADD apart from most bands.

Unlike the other band members, Brian David's first real band was MADD but his on stage presence and flamboyant style made him an instant hit with the fans and gave the impression he was born to beat the skins.

After his years with MADD he played in Iowa City with Mick in the Upstairs Playground and later moved to Des Moines, the heart of jazz, soul and alternative music in Iowa, where he played in Wheatstraw with Dartanyan Brown.

He then moved to Northern Florida where he joined a succession of bands playing the Florida to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina circuit.  These included Then 2 Now, The Prentis Bernstein Group, Bumper and Heart & Soul Limited.

Brian David became a regular session player for numerous groups in Nashville, Tennessee as both a drummer and singer.   In Florida he also taught drums. 

Recently he has moved to Toronto, Canada and he continues to perform between Canada and Florida.

 

 

Michael Schomers

 

Michael Schomers, rhythm guitar and vocals, was in a youth group at church that had a guitar but needed a guitar player for sing alongs, so Michael jumped in.  When the Beatles came along he was hooked.

 

His first band in Ottumwa was the Blew Brothers, with Tony and Tommy Blew.  Their father Don Blew was their mentor.  Don's true passion was his music and he was known as a musician's musician having played guitar in many bands throughout his career including the Ponderosa Playboys which was an area backup band for Nashville stars and the Don Blew Trio and Don Blew Quartet with his two sons.  Don also had taught jazz guitar at Parsons College.

 

With such a great mentor it was a fast track to success.  With the addition of Tom Williamson to their group they became the Aztecs, later the Sidewinders and eventually the X Rays.  They played Washington Junior High School dances and at the YMCA Corral dances.

 

Mick, Barry and Michael all were linked by playing with Tommy Williamson at different times although Michael and Mick had attended the same YMCA camp earlier.  When MADD was formed Barry switched instruments to bass guitar and Michael, who had become an accomplished bass player, switched to rhythm guitar and singer.

 

Michael's father was instrumental in helping the boys acquire the Cadillac hearse which was a symbol of the uniqueness of the band and helped with bookings and managing the gate at concerts.

 

After MADD Michael played in Iowa City in the band Source and eventually moved to Tampa, Florida where he continued to be part of various bands.  While in Florida he played in a highly acclaimed Broadway musical, The Rock and the Rabbi, performing on Broadway in NYC, at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and at the Hard Rock Cafe during national tours.

 

Michael has a recording studio in his home and continues to play with various musicians in the Florida area.

 

Casey Foutz

 

Casey Foutz from Bloomfield, Iowa  joined MADD late in the first year as keyboard player and was a fan favorite as a performer and singer.  After MADD he played with Mick in London Fog and the Upstairs Playground.

 

He became a founding member of Crabby Appleton in Los Angeles, with several Billboard 100 hits.  While with the band they opened for national stars like the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone, Three Dog Night, Guess Who and ABBA.  They also appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and other national shows.  Casey then joined Pacific Gas & Electric of Los Angeles.  Heart problems shortened his career and Casey died in the mid 1980's of heart failure.

 

 

The MADD Years - 1965-1970

All MADD members were pushed by their parents and families to pursue the dream of all teens, to be rock and roll stars, but they were among the few who captured the sound of popular artists so well that they often sounded far better in concert than the original performers.

Many can dream but few can come so close to realizing it as the lads of MADD when they formed their unique band in 1965.  The name was influenced by a song by the Animals called Mad at You.

Before MADD and at very young ages the members played in a variety of local bands including the X Rays, Blew Brothers, Aztecs, Sidewinders, Perfidians and others as they developed their skills as musicians and singers.

When most aspiring rock and rollers were getting their first Fender guitar the members of MADD were already mastering the legendary Rickenbacker 12 string guitar, Hoffner left-handed bass guitar and Ludwig drums.

As noted, in 1964  Mick Sexton (lead guitar/singer) had a band with Eddie Hood (bass/singer), Bill Ingles (drums) and Barry Monohon (rhythm guitar).  Eddie left the band and Barry Monohon took over as bass player.

In 1965 when Bill Ingles left to join the military, Mick (lead guitar), Barry (let handed bass) and Michael Schomers (rhythm guitar) agreed to form MADD with Brian David Bernstein as drummer thus the core group was in place.

Barry was recruited at an audition in Bernstein's house and Barry played a left handed Hoffner Bass like Paul McCartney of the Beatles.  Schomers first practiced with the group at his house.  When the band was first formed Schomers and Bernstein were just 14 and 13 years old respectively, incredibly young for the sophisticated songs and harmonies perfected by the band.

Michael's father helped them buy a 1952 Cadillac hearse as their touring car and in 1965 the band was officially launched.  As they toured Southeast Iowa and their popularity increased keyboardist Casey Foutz joined the band.

Among the first songs played by MADD was My Generation by the Who and Day Tripper by the Beatles and by 1966 they were known for their complex songs like Red Rubber Ball by Cyrkle, a short lived band who opened for the Beatles on their American tours.

Sexton, who was known for his haunting rendition of Mr. Tambourine Man by the Byrds which he played on a Rickenbacker 12 string set the lads on a course of magical three-part plus one harmonies that made MADD the premier Iowa "Garage" Band of the 1960's and one of the best in the nation.

Of course during that time most national recording artists were covering songs written by others so being a Garage Band and covering songs was typically the ticket to success, provided you had the talent and opportunity to excel.

Not only did MADD have incredible talent but they had help from Iowans and others of all ages who heard and then believed in these talented lads.  MADD never had a manager, booking agent, road manager, publicist, promoter or anyone working for them.  People just wanted them to succeed.

From 1965 until 1970 MADD toured the Iowa/Missouri/Illinois area growing their following from small town gigs to college campuses to being featured on television station WHO in Des Moines, playing the Iowa State Fair, and dominating one of the nation's largest Battle of the Band competitions in Omaha, Nebraska.

Some MADD Venues

Clothing Show at Ottumwa Country Club

The Teen Corner, Ottumwa

Candy Kane Lounge, Ottumwa

Dance Craze Street Festival, Ottumwa

Ottumwa Auditorium Featured act

Keokuk Teen Club, Keokuk, Iowa

Kahoka, Missouri College Dance

Northeast Missouri State University, Kirksville, Missouri

University of Iowa, Iowa City

Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa

WHO TV Teen Show, Des Moines -

Iowa State Fair, Des Moines, Iowa

Starr Stations Midwest Battle of the Bands, Omaha, Nebraska

Among the many unique aspects of MADD was the fact they shared a 1952 Cadillac hearse as their touring car and they all lived together most of the time they played together in order to be able to spend countless hours rehearsing new tunes and mastering new techniques.  Every performance seemed to be enhanced from the previous one.

 

They also were very much involved in the Iowa community of musicians and were constantly sitting in with other bands or sharing techniques and ideas with groups from Keokuk to Iowa City to Des Moines.

 

As a group they set a pattern of showmanship and exceptional skill as singers, musicians and performers covering the most difficult songs of the generation often achieving a sound superior to the bands they were covering.

 

The pinnacle of their success was achieved in 1969 at the Midwest Battle of the Bands in Omaha, Nebraska where over 30 bands had been invited and hit bands the Buckinghams from Chicago and Young Rascals, later the Rascals, from New Jersey were performing.

 

The Starr Radio network, one of the largest rock and roll radio networks in America with stations from coast to coast was sponsor through their KOIL station in Omaha.  Before the competition was completed MADD left all other competitors buried when the thousands of fans blew away the sound meters used to measure audience response.

 

As the clear victor MADD was featured as the opening act for the Omaha auditorium concert by the Buckinghams and Young Rascals.  The sponsors were stunned when the crowd demanded encores by MADD before the featured acts and the Midwest audience clearly favored the incredible energy and professionalism of MADD over even the nationally famous recording artists.

 

 

When MADD completed their opening performance and played several encores in response to the demands of the crowd, Dennis Tufano, a founder and lead singer for the Buckinghams came and up and told MADD, "You guys are far out!"  It was the first time the Iowa boys had received a compliment like that.

 

MADD finally disbanded when some pursued a college education but all of the members went on to play in numerous bands throughout the country including jazz, soul, country rock and avant garde groups.

 

Bands after MADD:

London Fog, Iowa City

Upstairs Playground, Iowa City

Stray Cat, Iowa City

Wheatstraw, Des Moines

Shabazz, Des Moines

Crabby Appleton, Los Angeles

Woodrose, Des Moines

Goo, Des Moines

Source, Iowa City

Sound Minds, Iowa City

Then 2 Now, Florida

The Prentis Bernstein Group, Florida

Northern Harbour, Florida

Bumper, Florida

Heart & Soul Limited, Florida

Charlie Reis, Tampa, Florida

Pacific Gas & Electric, Los Angeles

Innersection, San Francisco

Capitan Country, Eugene, Oregon

Skyline, Eugene, Oregon

Elixir, Rochester, NY to Florida Keys

The Source, Orlando, Florida

Sapphire, Orlando, Florida

 

During the MADD era the band performed with The Rascals and Buckinghams, and after MADD the members were in bands that opened for rock stars including the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone, Three Dog Night, Guess Who, ABBA, the Whispers and George Carlin.  They also appeared on American Bandstand, on Broadway in NYC, at the Grand Ole' Opry in Nashville and the Hard Rock Cafe.

 

 

While Casey Foutz passed away in the 1980's all four core members of MADD are alive and well and three, Sexton, Bernstein and Schomers continue to be involved in bands, music, singing, recording sessions and even teaching music to this day.  The band members can be found in Toronto, New York, Florida and Nebraska where Barry Monohon is an accomplished artist in impressionistic pastel landscapes and mixed media.

 

 

Perhaps the best indication of the exceptional nature of this band of lads from Iowa are the words of their peers from the time period.  When the words come from musicians and recording artists from other parts of the state they have even more significance.  Recently Craig Moore who played in bands the Pagans and GONN from Iowa made these comments about the influence of MADD on bands throughout the state and region.

Reply by CRAIG MOORE on May 29, 2012 at 2:43pm

"MADD didn't make a record, to the best of my knowledge they never wrote a song, but they were the ultimate garage cover band. SO good, they knocked us out totally. We were still beginner's in the Pagans. I don't think we had met Rex & Brent yet when we first saw MADD, and I had only been playing bass for a couple of months. Barry the bass player looked like McCartney & played a Gibson EB-1 violin shaped bass left handed. He was amazing as were all of them. I asked him how long it was going to take me to get a handle on bass and he told me "oh about 6 months and you'll start to get it, start to 'hear' things."

We were practicing & learning songs and listening to records 24/7 of course, and I literally watched the calendar and at that 6 month mark 'viola!' I started hearing octaves and such on the records, started to decipher the 1 from a harmonic note, etc. Still had a LONG way to go but that remark was magic.

MADD did "Rain" letter perfect when it was NEW, at a time when most bands could only listen in awe to the record. The organist was Casey Foutz who eventually left Ottumwa with Phil Jones (Enoch Smoky) and were founding members in LA of Crabby Appleton, "Go Back" etc.

MADD evolved into THE UPSTAIRS PLAYGROUND and got very, very psychedelic, California acid drenched.  Guitarist Mike Sexton was beyond fabulous as a guitarist & vocalist, last time I saw him was 1968 or 1969 and he looked exactly like a taller version of Dickie Peterson (Blue Cheer). He's either a highly paid session musician with a huge ranch in Montana, a rocket scientist, born again, or dead. I have no idea.

David Bernstein the drummer was one of the greatest unknown shit kickers you could imagine.  I heard some vague rumblings about him in the early 70's but never knew where he ended up. I hope he's fine and I hope he never lost his love of music, he was great.

But MADD's bass player had a huge impact on me personally, and the band was idolized thoroughly by The Pagans and GONN, and in fact they inspired both the spelling of our name AND the fact that we adamantly enforced the "no 'THE'" rule, as did MADD. The fact that we had our own hearse was as close as we could get to being as cool as MADD, in our minds. Until we made a record, anyway. I saw this hearse ad about 6 months or so ago and sent it out to Phil Jones just as a reminder of the good old days back here in the Midwest.

I saw Casey back in Ottumwa about 1983 when my band Ready Steady Go was playing a club there. He had been playing with Pacific Gas & Electric in LA and had a heart attack, moved back to the home town to recuperate and get his head together. It was great to see him, he always reminded me of Gene Clark, but he seemed pretty down and not very happy.

I was pleased that he remembered me and the band and all the times we hung out with them. Not too long after that I heard he had another heart attack and died. Very sad. So all you fans of records by GONN, you need to say a 'hail Mary' for Casey and never forget there was a band called MADD that maybe didn't make a record but their impact is with you still, every time you hear GONN or hear another story of the Iowa scene 1965-1968.

They were the ultimate Iowa garage band. "

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MADD is everything a true local band should represent in order to be enshrined in the Iowa Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.  They earned the respect of their peers.  Once on stage they demonstrated exceptional talent as musicians and singers.  They played the most difficult instruments and sang the most complex three-part plus one harmonies at a level far beyond their young years.

As individuals they never hesitated to help people seeking advice on playing or singing techniques.  While they electrified audiences they never lost their humility.  They loved the challenge of mastering complex songs and were never satisfied until their song was as good if not better than the original.

They grew up during the birth of rock and roll and MADD performed through the psychedelic era excelling in the astonishing diverse evolution of music and rock and roll.

Throughout their careers they have been great innovators and ambassadors for the State of Iowa and the rich Iowa musical heritage throughout the nation.

Jim Putnam

Here is how you can reach the band today.

mick.sexton.775@facebook.com

barry.monohon@facebook.com

brian.d.bernstein@facebook.com

michael.schomers.7@facebook.com

 

Memories of MADD - Their signature song

 

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Terrorism back in America after 14 year absence - Tragedy in San Bernardino - 14 dead, 21 injured

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Not since the World Trade Center disaster September 11, 2001 has the war on terrorism been in evidence here in America.  That all changed in San Bernardino, California this week when fourteen were murdered and twenty-one injured.

Armed to the teeth with assault rifles, hand guns, and pipe bombs, a home grown radicalized Islamic terrorist and his Pakistani wife invaded a Christmas party and left the horrendous carnage of bodies and blood.

Three hours later, when they were most likely returning to their bomb factory for more ammunition, they were spotted and after a short police chase a gun battle ensued and nearly 500 bullet blasts later the two terrorists were dead while just two cops were injured.

The chance encounter at the bomb factory most likely save many, many more lives as a dozen pipe bombs and thousands of more rounds of ammunition remained in the factory.

As of this morning, two days after the slaughter, our president still refuses to call it a terror attack saying it might be a terror attack or it might be a work place dispute.

Of course all evidence points to terrorism since the couple had to spend months preparing the arsenal and making the pipe bombs.  Also, his so called dispute at the Christmas party which is yet to be confirmed took place a couple of hours after he and his wife dropped off their six year old daughter with her grandmother.

In addition, she was from Pakistan, they met in Saudi Arabia, he traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, she was on a green card, and they met through the Internet.

Need I remind the readers all the major participants in the World Trade Center disaster were from Saudi Arabia.

At first Obama, Hillary Clinton and the liberal media ignored the terrorist angle and called for more gun control and restrictions to prevent such disasters.  California has the toughest gun control laws in America and has banned assault rifles but the guns used in the attack were still legal.

After day one Hillary started moving apart from Obama by saying it might be terrorist related.  No one in the media is mentioning the fact the terrorism is directly related to the failed policy of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy.

As usual, the many law enforcement agencies and personnel performed heroically risking their lives to help the victims and end the attack.

If only the politicians (Obama, Clinton and fellow Democrats and liberals) could do the same and declare war on Apocalyptic Islamic terrorists maybe we could begin to rid the Earth of this evil threat.
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Trump Explodes in Latest CNN/ORC poll. Liberal Media Ignores Trump's Triumph!

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Look at the latest CNN/ORC poll today.  In the past few weeks, Trump has moved twenty points ahead of his nearest competition in the national polls.  Yet his national surge is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the trust people have in him to handle the issues most affecting their lives.

As noted by CNN, Trump holds massive margins over other Republicans as the candidate most trusted to handle the economy (at 55%, Trump stands 46 percentage points over his nearest competitor), the federal budget (51%, up 41 points), illegal immigration (48%, up 34 points), ISIS (46%, up 31 points) and foreign policy (30%, up 13 points).

Looking at those Republicans who consider each issue to be "extremely important" to their vote, Trump's standing on each issue is even stronger. Among those Republican voters who call the economy extremely important, for example, 60% say they trust Trump to handle that issue. Among immigration voters, 55% trust Trump on the issue. On foreign policy, Trump inches up to 32%, and among those who call terrorism an extremely important issue, 49% say they trust Trump most on ISIS.

Ironically, most liberal media refused to headline the massive Trump surged and chose to focus on the candidates whose numbers were far behind the leader.

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Sixty percent of Americans' no longer Trust the Mass Media for News - Up from forty-five percent in 1999!

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Fifty-five percent of Democrats do trust the mass media (radio, newspapers, and television), while just thirty-two percent of Republicans, and thirty-three percent of Independents trust the media, according to the latest Gallup poll.

Two things are clear from the latest Gallup results.  I guess we have to stop calling it the Main Street or Lame Street media since well below half of Americans trust it, and Democrats are more gullible since they are the last demographic still trusting the media.

 

There is no surprise in the numbers since the media has become the advocate for polarizing society, and long ago started moving in the direction of manufacturing news as opposed to reporting the news.

Today money and greed drive the competition between news sources rather than quality and fairness, and since the advent of the Internet more and more news stories come from cyber space than old fashion reporting.

The result is truth is no longer a necessary goal, plagiarism is an acceptable shortcut, and being objective is just plain stupid.  What a shame.

It seems we as a society apply the same twisted standards to content for mass media beyond the news.  When it comes to shows, or "content" to the politically correct, vulgar is kosher, more vulgar is kosherer, and downright disgusting vulgarity is kosherest.

If a television censor from the 1950's came back today, they would think the forces of Sodom and Gomorra had overrun America and that we finally achieved moral bankruptcy.  Demons would be ruling the land.  Then again, there might be some truth to the proposition.

The disintegration of faith in our institutions has been accelerating throughout the Obama presidency and today, with the unraveling of the American foreign policy throughout the world, the people are showing their disgust.

The policy of accommodation of all those forces in the world hating America, jealous of America, or tired of hearing about America as advocated by the Obama Administration and the major players under Obama like Hillary Clinton is taking a toll.

Even Obama's former Secretary of State Clinton is beginning to crack under the pressure of reality as she is distancing herself more and more every day from her former boss and his failed policies, policies that she developed and championed.

Gallup

Politics

September 28, 2015

Americans' Trust in Media Remains at Historical Low

by Rebecca Riffkin

Story Highlights

• Four in 10 Americans trust the mass media
• Ties 2014 and 2012 for the lowest trust level in Gallup's trend
• Younger Americans less likely than older to trust the media

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Four in 10 Americans say they have "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of trust and confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This ties the historical lows on this measure set in 2014 and 2012. Prior to 2004, slight majorities of Americans said they trusted the mass media, such as newspapers, TV and radio.

Americans' confidence in the media has slowly eroded from a high of 55% in 1998 and 1999. Since 2007, the majority of Americans have had little or no trust in the mass media. Trust has typically dipped in election years, including 2004, 2008, 2012 and last year. However, 2015 is not a major election year.

This decline follows the same trajectory as Americans' confidence in many institutions and their declining trust in the federal government's ability to handle domestic and international problems over the same time period.

Trust in the Mass Media Has Fallen More Sharply Among Those Younger Than 50
Trust in the media continues to be significantly lower among Americans aged 18 to 49 than among those 50 and older, continuing a pattern evident since 2012. Prior to 2012, these groups' trust levels were more similar, with a few exceptions between 2005 and 2008.

Trust Among Democrats Remains Low, but Higher Than Among Republicans
For more than a decade, Republicans and independents have been significantly less likely than Democrats to trust the media. This pattern continues in the latest survey. In 2014, Gallup found that trust among Democrats fell to a 14-year low of 54%, and this figure is essentially unchanged at 55% this year. While more Democrats than Republicans continue to say they trust the media, the percentage of Republicans who report that they trust the mass media increased slightly this year, from 27% to 32%. This increase was offset, however, by a decrease in independents reporting trust, from 38% to 33%.

Bottom Line
Americans' trust level in the media has drifted downward over the past decade. The same forces behind the drop in trust in government more generally, as well confidence in many U.S. institutions, may also be at work with the media. But some of the loss in trust may have been self-inflicted. Major venerable news organizations have been caught making serious mistakes in the past several years, including the scandal involving former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams in 2015 that some of his firsthand accounts of news events had been exaggerated or "misremembered."
Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods
Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Sept. 9-13, 2015, with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.


Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
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How peculiar - Obama suddenly is almost silent on Chicago Police Murder of Black Man

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After inflaming racial tensions by condemning police treatment of Blacks in Ferguson and Baltimore on television and in the media, suddenly Obama uses Facebook

Here was the lead news story today, from Chicago, the number one city in America in murders in 2014 and for several years.

Journalist Brandon Smith, left, and activist William Calloway talk to reporters Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, after a Cook County judge ordered the Chicago Police Department to release a video of an officer fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Nov. 25, in Chicago. The video is said to show the officer shooting McDonald 16 times in October 2014. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

ABC News

By don babwin and jason keyser, associated press

CHICAGO — Nov 25, 2015, 1:54 AM ET

Officer Charged With Murder in Teen's Death

A white Chicago police officer who shot a black teenager 16 times last year was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday, hours before the city released a video of the killing that many people fear could spark unrest.

City officials and community leaders have been bracing for the release of the dash-cam video, fearing the kind of turmoil that occurred in cities such as Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, after young black men were slain by police or died in police custody.

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Obama goes from press conferences and television interviews to condemn police actions to just posting in his new Facebook account saying he is "deeply disturbed" by what happened!  Now wait a minute, this time there is no doubt the event was unjustified, an abuse of power, and an excessive use of a firearm and Obama is only "deeply disturbed."

Perhaps the media is protecting him from the real story.  Chicago, of course, is Obama's home.  The Mayor of Chicago is Obama's former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.  Not only was Rahm his right hand man, he was also the top fund raiser for the Obama campaigns because of his relationship as an executive in Goldman Sachs before he went to work for Obama.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Warren Buffett

The year-long lack of action by the prosecutor in Chicago and the brutal and senseless killing by firing sixteen shots into the victim, who was high on PCP at the time, were about as conclusive of evidence as possible.

A video from a camera mounted on a Police car was suppressed by the Chicago authorities, and only came to light when a judge order the release, which happened today, a year later.  It showed sixteen shots in fifteen seconds.

The City of Chicago seemed to try to minimize the impact of any evidence and keep the whole case out of the media while Rahm Emanuel ran and got re-elected as Mayor during the past year by paying $5 million in hush money, before any charges were even filed.

Maybe it is about time a federal investigation of the role Emanuel had in withholding the video and paying off the family should be investigate.  You might add to that investigate why Obama nearly ignored commenting on this racial incident after being all over the news on all previous incidents.

It seems awfully like a cover-up in Obama's hometown.  Emanuel won a run off for mayor just last April after none of the five candidates were able to get 50% of the vote.  Strange how the liberal media is selectively silent when it comes to our president.

Here is what he had to say about police actions before the incident happened in his hometown.

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President Obama's Facebook post says he's "deeply disturbed" by video showing teen shot by Chicago police officer.  November 25, 2015

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The Washington Times

Obama says Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson ‘stains the heart of black children’

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Sunday, September 28, 2014

President Obama said the shooting death of a black teen by a white police officer last month in Ferguson, Missouri, exposed the racial divide in the American justice system that “stains the heart of black children.”

Speaking at the annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in Washington on Saturday night, Mr. Obama said the death of Michael Brown “awakened our nation” to a reality that black citizens already understood.

“In too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement,” Mr. Obama said. “Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness.”

Mediaite

Obama on Baltimore: ‘No Dispute’ Men of Color Disproportionately Targeted by Police

by Tina Nguyen | 4:08 pm, May 4th, 2015

And that sense of unfairness and of powerlessness, of people not hearing their voices, that’s helped fuel some of the protests we’ve seen in places like Baltimore and Ferguson and right here in New York. The catalyst of those protests were the tragic deaths of young men and a feeling that law is not always applied evenly in this country. In too many places in this country, black boys and black men, Latino boys, Latino men — they experience being treated differently by law enforcement. In stops and in arrests and in charges and in incarcerations. The statistics are clear up and down the criminal justice system. There’s no dispute.

CNN

Obama: 'No excuse' for violence in Baltimore

By Eric Bradner, CNN

Updated 5:08 PM ET, Tue April 28, 2015

The growing violence in Baltimore, just 40 miles from the White House, represents another challenge for the Obama administration in addressing racial unrest across the country. Since the police killing of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer, the administration has worked to acknowledge deep frustrations in minority communities while also supporting law enforcement.

Obama said he spoke with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was sworn in Monday, said the Justice Department is investigating Gray's death.

Just hours after she was sworn in, Lynch was at the White House on Monday evening meeting with Obama to discuss the violent protests unfolding in Baltimore. She said she will send Vanita Gupta, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and Ronald Davis, director of Community Oriented Policing Services, to Baltimore "in the coming days" to meet with religious and community leaders.

Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms arson investigators are aiding local authorities in investigating 60 fires — 10 structure fires like a CVS and a nursing home construction site, the others vehicles — in Baltimore on Monday night.

The White House sent three representatives to Baltimore on Monday for Gray's funeral: Broderick Johnson, a native of the city and the chairman of the My Brother's Keeper Task Force; Heather Foster, an adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement; and Elias Alcantara, the associate director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

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When Greed Dominates the Public Interest we get this! Pharmaceutical Giant Finds New Use for Viagra - Screwing the Public!

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Prolonged Erection Proves Profitable!

IT'S OFFICIAL: Pfizer agrees to a $160 billion deal to avoid US taxes

By Sam Ro 

The pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Allergan will combine to form a $160 billion global drug behemoth.

Allergan shareholders will be receiving $363.63 worth of Pfizer stock as payment. Specifically, for each share of Allergan, investors will receive 11.3 shares (based on the Pfizer's Friday closing price of $32.18) of the new combined company.

Importantly, the combined businesses will be renamed Pfizer Plc but legally will be combined under Allergan Plc. This means the combined company will officially be domiciled in Ireland.

"Upon the closing of the transaction, the combined company is expected to maintain Allergan's Irish legal domicile," management said.

This type of deal, also known as a tax inversion, has been embraced by more and more US companies as a way to dodge relatively high US tax rates by moving to low-tax regions like Ireland.

For Pfizer, this means billions of dollars in savings.

"Pfizer anticipates the transaction will deliver more than $2 billion in operational synergies over the first three years after closing," management said. "Pfizer anticipates that the combined company will have a pro forma Adjusted Effective Tax Rate of approximately 17%-18% by the first full year after the closing of the transaction."

"The proposed combination of Pfizer and Allergan will create a leading global pharmaceutical company with the strength to research, discover, and deliver more medicines and therapies to more people around the world," Pfizer CEO Ian Read said. "Allergan's businesses align with and enhance Pfizer's businesses, creating best-in-class, sustainable, innovative, and established businesses that are poised for growth."

The combined company will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PFE.

Here are the bullets summarizing the deal via Pfizer:

·                          Creates a new global biopharmaceutical leader with best-in-class innovative and established businesses

·                          Enhances revenue and earnings growth profile of innovative and established businesses

·                          Broadens innovative pipeline with more than 100 combined mid-to-late stage programs in development

·                          Transaction expected to close in the second half of 2016

·                          Expected to be neutral to Pfizer's Adjusted Diluted EPS1 in 2017, accretive beginning in calendar year 2018 and more than 10% accretive in 2019 with high-teens percentage accretion in 20202

·                          Expect combined Operating Cash Flow in excess of $25 Billion beginning in 2018

·                          Increased financial flexibility facilitates continued investment in the United States

·                          Preserves opportunity for a potential future separation of innovative and established businesses

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CPT Terrorism Update - Part 5. Articles of Interest to those who want to be informed

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Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Since 1948, almost 10 million Muslims have died at the hands of fellow Muslims

August 24, 2011 6:52 am By Marisol Seibold

Where is the outrage over that? Double standards abound. As the Israeli envoy Dan Gillerman said in 2008: “When Christians kill Muslims, it’s the Crusades. When Jews kill Muslims it’s murder, and when Muslims kill Muslims, it’s like talking about the weather. Nobody really cares about it.”

And as the late Samuel P. Huntington observed: “Wherever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have problems living peaceably with their neighbors. The question naturally rises as to whether this pattern of the late 20th century conflict between Muslim and non-Muslim groups is equally true of relations between groups from other civilizations. In fact, it is not. Muslims make up 1/5 of the world’s population but in the 1990s they have been far more involved in intergroup violence than the people of any other civilization….Islam’s borders are bloody, and so are its innards.”

Note also the Ahmadinejadesque (to coin a new term) rhetoric from Turkey’s Erdogan. “Why Golda Meir was right,” by Burak Bekdil for the Hurriyet Daily News, August 23 (thanks to Joshua):

It has been more than two and a half years since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan told to Israeli President Shimon Peres”s face, “You (Jews) know well how to kill.” Prime Minister ErdoÄŸan has also declared more than a few times that the main obstacle to peace in this part of the world is Israel, once calling the Jewish state “a festering boil in the Middle East that spreads hate and enmity.” In this holy month of Ramadan full of blood on Muslim territories, let’s try to identify who are the ones who know well how to kill.

As the Syrian death count clicks every day to come close to 2,000, the Turkish-Kurdish death count does not stop, already over 40,000 since 1984, both adding to the big pool of blood called the Middle East. Only during this Ramadan, the Kurdistan Workers” Party, or PKK”s, death toll has reached 50 in this Muslim Kurds vs. Muslim Turks war. This excludes the PKK casualties in Turkey and in northern Iraq due to Turkish military retaliation since they are seldom accurately reported.

Let’s speak of facts.

Sudan is not in the conventional Middle East, so let’s ignore the genocide there. Let’s ignore, also, the West Pakistani massacres in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) totaling 1.25 million in 1971. Or 200,000 deaths in Algeria in war between Islamists and the government in 1991-2006.

But a simple, strictly Middle East research will give you one million deaths in the all-Muslim Iran-Iraq war; 300,000 Muslim minorities killed by Saddam Hussein; 80,000 Iranians killed during the Islamic revolution; 25,000 deaths in 1970-71, the days of Black September, by the Jordanian government in its fight against the Palestinians; and 20,000 Islamists killed in 1982 by the elder al-Assad in Hama. The World Health Organization’s estimate of Osama bin Laden’s carnage in Iraq was already 150,000 a few years earlier.

In a 2007 research, Gunnar Heinsohn from the University of Bremen and Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, found out that some 11 million Muslims have been violently killed since 1948, of which 35,000, (0.3 percent) died during the six years of Arab war against Israel, or one out of every 315 fatalities. In contrast, over 90 percent who perished were killed by fellow Muslims.

It bears repeating that the Arab nations went to war with Israel with the expectation of annihilating the Jewish state once and for all. But the Arab states kept losing the wars.

According to Mssrs. Heinsohn and Pipes, the grisly inventory finds the total number of deaths in conflicts all over the world since 1950 numbering around 85 million. Of that, the Muslim Arab deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict were at 46,000 including 11,000 during Israel’s war of independence. That makes 0.05 percent of all deaths in all conflicts, or 0.4 percent of all Arab deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In another calculation ignoring “small” massacres like the one that goes on in Syria and other deaths during the Arab Spring, only Saddam’s Iraq, Jordan, the elder al-Assad’s Syria, Iran-Iraq war, the bin Laden campaign in Iraq, the Iranian Islamic revolution and the Turkish-Kurdish conflict caused 1.65 million Muslim deaths by Muslims compared to less than 50,000 deaths in the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1950, including fatalities during and after Operation Cast Lead which came after the Heinsohn-Pipes study. For those who don’t have a calculator ready at their desks, allow me to tell: 50,000 is three percent of 1.65 million.

Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel, or rather the “Mother of Israel,” had a perfectly realistic point when she said that peace in the Middle East would only be possible “when Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
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CPT Terrorism Update - Part 4. Articles of Interest to those who want to be informed

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Who's killing Muslims?

By Dean Obeidallah

 

Updated 11:33 AM ET, Thu January 15, 2015

Story highlights

Dean Obeidallah: Al Qaeda kills more Muslims than non-Muslims

Al Qaeda and ISIS focused on power, not principles, he says

Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM's weekly program "The Dean Obeidallah Show." He is a columnist for The Daily Beast and editor of the politics blog The Dean's Report. He's also the co-director of the documentary "The Muslims Are Coming!" Follow him on Twitter: @TheDeansreport. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN)We have all seen a great deal of hypocrisy from politicians, pundits and the like. But there's a new king of hypocrisy: al Qaeda.

On Wednesday, al Qaeda released a video featuring Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi, one of its top commanders in Yemen, claiming responsibility for the horrific attack last week on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. He gave two reasons for the attack.

First, he claimed it was in revenge for Charlie Hebdo's printing of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed. Al-Ansi then went on to state in much greater detail that the attack was in response to France and the West killing Muslims: "We will tell you once again ... stop spilling our blood." And then he urged Muslims across the world to "take vengeance for Muslim blood spilled."

Well, if spilling Muslim blood is the deciding factor for us Muslims to decide who we should take vengeance against, then al-Ansi and others in al Qaeda should immediately go into hiding. Simply put, al Qaeda has been slaughtering Muslims for years. Islamic clerics, doctors, nurses, women, children, etc. -- you name any type of Muslim, and al Qaeda has butchered them.

In fact, a report released in 2009 by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point documented the people killed by al Qaeda between 2004 and 2008. It found that only 12% of the victims of al Qaeda were Westerners. That suggests that al Qaeda has killed seven times as many Muslims as non-Muslims. And these attacks were just the ones for which al Qaeda had publicly claimed responsibility.

And since that report, al Qaeda in Yemen has engaged in even more vicious attacks on Muslims. Keep in mind that 99% of the population of Yemen is Muslim (65% Sunni and 35% Shia) so with a few exceptions, virtually every person the group kills there is a Muslim.

In December 2014, for example, an al Qaeda bomb killed 15 children and 10 adults when the bus they were on was blown up by an al Qaeda car bomb intended for a competing militia leader in the area.

This attack followed another in which al Qaeda sent a suicide bomber into a crowd of protesters in the nation's capital, killing 47 people and injuring 140.

And back in December 2013, al Qaeda launched an attack on a hospital, killing 52 people and wounding 167 with two car bombs before gruesomely shooting patients and doctors in the hospital.

The list goes on, but al Qaeda is not alone in killing Muslims who stand in its way. ISIS has done the same in Iraq and Syria.

A U.N. report released late last year found that ISIS had killed thousands of Muslims -- both Sunni and Shia -- between July and September of that year. This includes the slayings of three nurses in Mosul, Iraq, because they refused to provide medical care to ISIS fighters. ISIS also killed numerous Sunni imams for refusing to swear allegiance to ISIS, and beheaded another Sunni leader for refusing to support the group.

And the reality is that that's truly what al Qaeda and ISIS are about. They are not about the concept of "submit to Islam or die," as some have claimed. It's submit to ISIS/al Qaeda or die. Both organizations clearly don't care how many Muslims they kill. Yet at the same time they will both claim they are carrying out their actions in the name of Islam. In fact, al-Ansi stated in Wednesday's video that the terrorist brothers who carried out the attack on the Charlie Hebdo officers were "two heroes of Islam."

He couldn't be more wrong.

But that isn't to say there weren't heroes of Islam in Paris that day -- it's just that they are two quite different people.

Ahmed Merabet was the French police officer shot in cold blood while lying on the sidewalk by the so-called "heroes of Islam." As his brother stated at a press conference, Merabet was a proud Muslim who gave his life defending French values of "liberty, equality and fraternity."

And there was Lassana Bathily, the Muslim employee at the kosher deli in Paris who reportedly saved the lives of seven Jewish patrons by helping them hide when Amedy Coulibaly entered the store with guns blazing. Bathily's actions exemplified the famous Quranic verse, "Whoever saves one -- it is as if he had saved mankind entirely."

Obviously, calling out the hypocrisy of al Qaeda and ISIS won't change these organizations' goals -- they will continue to invoke Islam as cover for their political ambitions because it helps them entice new recruits and raise funds which are vital for their continued existence.

But maybe if their hypocrisy is consistently laid bare then it might help all understand the true motivation of these terrorist groups and hopefully even give pause to any Muslims thinking of joining their un-Islamic cause. After all, al Qaeda and ISIS aren't interested in upholding the principles of Islam. They are focused only on power, however many Muslim lives they take.
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