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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 months

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 2, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 3, 2024

The new year has hit with news flying in from a number of quarters.

At home, minimum wage increased in nearly half of U.S. states; it has been 14 years since the last increase in the federal minimum wage, the longest stretch since 1938 according to the AFL-CIO. NPR correspondent David Gura quoted Goldman Sachs’s chief equity strategist to note, ”The S&P 500 index returned 26% including dividends in 2023, more than 2x the average annual return of 12% since 1986.”

Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH) today submitted his resignation, effective January 21, to become the president of Youngstown State University. This shaves the Republican majority in the House of Representatives even thinner. With the recent expulsion of George Santos (R-NY) and resignation of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the Republicans will control just 219 seats, permitting them a margin of only two seats to pass legislation when the House returns on January 9.

The Republican House has been one of the least effective in history, and it has its work cut out for it in the new year. The first phase of the continuing resolution Congress passed in November to fund the government expires on January 19, ending funding for transportation, housing, energy, agriculture, and veterans’ affairs. The second phase expires on February 2. Much of the 2018 Farm Bill that covers food and farm aid expired in 2023. As of yesterday, January 1, the items usually covered in farm bills fall under a hodge-podge of fixes, with some old provisions from the 1930s and 1940s going back into force.

Also outstanding is the measure to provide supplemental funding for Israel, Ukraine, and the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as providing humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

House Republicans refused to pass that measure unless it included their own extreme anti-immigration measures, but they have refused to participate in efforts to hash out legislation, clearly preferring to keep the issue hot to use against the Democrats in 2024. Since President Joe Biden took office, he and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have asked Congress for additional funding for Customs and Border Patrol officers and additional immigration courts, but despite Republicans’ own demand for such legislation, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote to Biden in December demanding that he impose stricter immigration rules and build a border wall through executive action. Today, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) echoed the idea that Biden, not Congress, should deal with the border.

Meanwhile, Emily Brooks and Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill reported today that about 60 House Republicans are planning to visit the border in Texas to emphasize the issue. They are also preparing to impeach Mayorkas on the grounds that he has failed to meet the requirements of the Secure Fence Act, “which defines operational control of the border as a status in which not a single person or piece of contraband improperly enters the country.” As Brooks and Beitsch point out, “not a single secretary of Homeland Security has met that standard of perfection.” House Republicans plan to hold hearings on impeaching Mayorkas, but Homeland Security Committee chair Mark Green (R-TN) has suggested to the Fox News Channel that the articles of impeachment are already written.

At the intersection of domestic and foreign affairs, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), whom federal prosecutors have already indicted for using his office to work for Egypt, was charged again today with using his political influence to work for the government of Qatar. This is a big deal: at the time, Menendez was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a key position in the U.S. government. Two Republican operatives are pleading guilty to evading lobbying laws in their own work for Qatar; their activities appear to have been much more limited than Menendez’s.

The turn of the new year has also produced lots of news in foreign affairs.

On February 4, 2021, just after Secretary of State Antony Blinken took office, Biden spoke at the State Department and said “the message I want the world to hear today” is that “America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.” In a New York Times article from December 31, Peter Baker, Edward Wong, Julian E. Barnes, and Isabel Kershner emphasize that Biden and his team have been engaged constantly in diplomacy with Israel, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. Since the October 7, 2023, attack by Iran-backed Hamas on Israel, Biden has spoken with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu 14 times and visited Israel; Blinken has traveled to the region three times and visited Israel five times.

On December 22, in the Christian Science Monitor, Arab political journalist Taylor Luck and correspondent Fatima AbdulKarim reported that Arab Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan, the U.S., and the European Union have created “[a] massive postwar reconstruction plan…for the besieged Gaza Strip.” The plan is to “rebuild the coastal strip, unite and overhaul Palestinian governance, and create a Palestinian security force in Gaza to ensure Palestinian and Israeli security.”

Arab diplomats insist the reconstruction of southern Gaza, including alleviating suffering, rebuilding housing and infrastructure, and restoring jobs, must be “rapid”; Gulf states have set $3 billion a year for ten years as the first budget. The plan calls for a “revamped and revitalized” Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza and the West Bank with current president Mahmoud Abbas as a figurehead and an apolitical unity government running affairs.

The plan is still developing, but already the main obstacles are Israel’s governing coalition, led by Netanyahu, who refuses the ideas of a two-state solution and of a Palestinian Authority in charge of Gaza, and Hamas, which Gulf states as well as the U.S. reject as a participant in the future governance of Gaza. Other Iran-backed militias also oppose such a solution.

From the beginning of the Hamas-Israel war, the Biden administration has been very clear that its first goal was to make sure the conflict didn’t spread, with Lebanon’s Iran-allied Hezbollah and other proxy militias joining in fully. Biden immediately sent two carrier groups to the region and promised “to move in additional assets as needed.” On October 10 he warned: “Let me say again—to any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation, I have one word: Don’t. Don’t.”

The New York Times piece by Baker, Wong, Barnes, and Kershner revealed that Biden and his national security team, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security advisor Jake Sullivan, also warned Netanyahu against launching a preemptive strike on Hezbollah. Israel and Hezbollah have been attacking each other with drones, missiles, and air strikes along the countries’ border.

Meanwhile, Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen have attacked ships in the Red Sea, which is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, handling about 12% of global trade and about 8.2 million barrels of crude oil and oil products every day. On December 31, four small boats attacked the Hangzhou, a container ship from the Danish shipping giant Maersk sailing under a Singapore flag, and then fired on the U.S. Navy helicopters that responded to the Hangzhou’s distress call. The helicopter crews sank three of the boats, killing their crews; the fourth fled.

Today, Iran sent a naval frigate to the Red Sea, and Maersk announced it would stop using the Red Sea route until further notice. Hezbollah media said that an Israeli drone strike in Beirut, Lebanon, killed Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of its military wing. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate.

Also today, in response to calls from Israeli cabinet members for the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza, the U.S. State Department issued a “rejection” of both the language and the idea. “We have been clear, consistent, and unequivocal that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel. That is the future we seek, in the interests of Israelis and Palestinians, the surrounding region, and the world.”

And in today’s Washington Post, Lebanon’s former prime minister Fouad Siniora and former Lebanese lawmaker Basem Shabb noted that “[d]espite the ferocity of the bombing and the great loss of innocent civilian lives in Gaza, the conflict remains largely contained to an Israeli-Palestinian confrontation—and more specifically, is broadly understood in the Arab world to be a conflict with Hamas, a non-state actor,” but warned the conflict must not spread. They noted that in November, “[i]n a first, 57 Arab and Islamic countries…called for a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on a two-state solution,” the same concept embraced by the Biden administration.

“In response to Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, the Arab world responded with denunciation—but, more importantly, with diplomacy. No military threats were issued by any of the Arab states toward Israel,” the Lebanese lawmakers pointed out. They urged Israel to embrace the two-state solution “and, in doing so, usher in a new era in the Middle East.”

Lots of pieces moving around the board on this second day of January 2024.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#2024 #Letters from An American #Heather Cox Richardson #political #war in Israel #Israel-Hamas war #diplomacy #do-nothing Republican #US House of Representatives #two state solution

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 10 months

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The “missing” witness long-touted by Republicans in Congress as the missing link to their probe into alleged Biden family corruption was accused of being an unregistered foreign agent for China and an international arms trafficker while violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and lying to investigators, among a laundry list of other federal charges unsealed Monday.

Dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Gal Luft was originally charged on Nov. 1, 2022 and arrested in February, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

Luft had already skipped out on his bail while in Cyprus awaiting extradition to the U.S. for the case in March—though he alleges that the sprawling case against him represents political persecution and retaliation by the Biden administration against a potential witness.

The House Oversight Committee has for months touted a secret “informant” who could provide evidence of an alleged “quid pro quo” deal for foreign aid between an Obama-era Biden and an unnamed country—though details of the arrangement remain murky and unverified at best.

Those claims partially unraveled when Rep. James Comer (R-KY) in May held a much-hyped press conference in which he promised to expose the preliminary findings of four months’ worth of scrutiny into the Biden family’s business dealings—while failing to air any real evidence of corruption. He then offered a partial excuse for the failure: their star witness had up and disappeared.

The situation was memorialized in a much-publicized Fox News interview, in which a credulous Maria Bartiromo appeared shocked by the revelations.

“Well, unfortunately, we can’t track down the informant,” the Kentucky representative said. “We’re hopeful that the informant is still there. The whistleblower knows the informant. The whistleblower is very credible.”

“We’re hopeful that we can find the informant,” Comer added. “Remember, these informants are kind of in the spy business, so they don’t make a habit of being seen a lot or being high-profile or anything like that.”

Luft then came forward days later in an interview with New York Post opinion columnist Miranda Devine, alleging that he was hiding out in an undisclosed location after being arrested on charges including international arms dealing, as well as a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, among other charges.

“The chances of me getting a fair trial in Washington are virtually zero,” he told Devine as the reason he skipped out on his bail. “I had to do what I had to do.”

Despite the allegations, Comer doubled down on Friday, tweeting that Luft is a “very credible witness on Biden family corruption,” who “provided incriminating evidence to six officials from the FBI and the DOJ in a meeting in Brussels in March 2019.”

“We have no reason to believe the FBI & DOJ acted on this info,” he continued.

On Sunday, Republican Senator Ron Johnson (WI) added Luft should be granted immunity.

“Now, he’s literally fleeing for his life right now,” Johnson told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “He’s on the run. He’s an important witness. He needs to be granted immunity to be able to testify and tell his story.”

Monday’s unsealed charges add some clarity to the laundry list of alleged crimes Luft is accused of—including a 2016 scheme to “recruit and pay” a White House adviser to support China-friendly policies without first filing as a foreign agent.

According to a release from the Justice Department, Luft is also accused of brokering arms deals with Chinese businesses to sell their wares in places such as the United Arab Emirates, Kenya and Libya—all without a valid U.S. license. Federal authorities allege that they have proof Luft hawked anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers, mortar rounds, aerial bombs, rockets and even drones.

To make matters worse, Justice Department prosecutors say he lied to them during interviews about the alleged scheme.

“During a voluntary interview with U.S. law enforcement in which he was asked questions about his involvement in arms trafficking, LUFT made multiple false statements, including that he had not sought to engage in or profit from arms deals,” the department’s statement reads.

Luft is also accused of brokering deals for Iranian oil—which he falsely labeled “Brazilian”—in violation of U.S. sanctions.

In all, Luft faces 36 counts that carry a maximum of 100 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

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tearsinthemist · 2 years

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Ron Johnson Gets Old Promise Brutally Flipped Back On Him By Local Newspaper

Lee Moran

Wed, October 12, 2022 at 8:55 AM

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reminded Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) of his previous pledge to serve only two terms as it urged voters to send him packing in the 2022 midterm elections in a damning editorial published Wednesday.

The newspaper’s editorial board broke down exactly why it believes Johnson is “the worst Wisconsin political representative since the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy.”

It ripped the Donald Trump loyalist, who is facing a reported tight race against Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, as “an election falsifier who recklessly promoted” Trump’s 2020 lies and a “science fabulist” who baselessly questioned COVID-19 vaccines and spread pandemic misinformation. Johnson was also slammed for trying to rewrite “the sordid history” of the deadly U.S. Capitol riot.

The publication has gone after Johnson in a similarly stinging manner before.

The newspaper’s editorial board broke down exactly why it believes Johnson is “the worst Wisconsin political representative since the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy.”

“You’ll notice Johnson is not touting a long record of accomplishments in his ads for re-election,” the board wrote. “Instead, he and his supporters have attacked his opponent — a Black man — as ‘different’ and ‘dangerous.’”

Johnson was first elected to the Senate in 2010.

“Johnson in the past promised to serve no more than two terms,” the board concluded. “Voters should hold him to that pledge in November.”

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beardedmrbean · 1 year

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was locked in a tight race in battleground Wisconsin, holding a narrow lead Wednesday over Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes in a pivotal race for determining majority control of the Senate.

Johnson declared victory Wednesday, but The Associated Press has yet to call the race. Johnson held a narrow 1-point lead over Barnes, just outside the margin for a recount to be sought.

“The votes are in,” Johnson said in an email statement. “There is no path mathematically for Lt. Gov. Barnes to overcome his 27,374 vote deficit. This race is over.”

Barnes did not concede defeat early Wednesday. His campaign had no immediate reaction to Johnson declaring victory.

“No matter what anyone says, we are committed to making sure every vote is counted,” Barnes’ campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said earlier Wednesday morning. “We will wait and see what the Wisconsin voters have decided after all their voices are heard.”

The race was one of a handful of tight Senate contests across the country that could determine which party holds majority control.

Barnes, the current lieutenant governor, was seeking to become the first Black senator from Wisconsin. Johnson was running for a third term.

#nunyas news #ok so now every vote needs to be counted #remember that in 2024 please

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theroadgoesonforever · 2 years

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savedfromsalvation · 2 years

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occupyhades · 1 month

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Backstabber Watch: The Abyss of Belial

Backstabber Watch focuses on the Children of Belial: Despicable Backstabbers & Dirty Double-Crossers.

‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ Deuteronomy 27:24 (BSB)

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD." Jeremiah 17:5 (NIV)

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. James 3:9 (NIV)

Let those who are experts at cursing— whose cursing could rouse Leviathan— curse that day. Job 3:8 (NLT)

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 1 John 3:10 (NIV)

“And now, you priests, this warning is for you. If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honor me." Malachi 2:1-2 (NIV)

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books. Apocalypse 20:12 (BSB)

#cowardice #deception #theft #iniquity #judgement #damnation

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bllsbailey · 3 months

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GOP Senators Speak Out Against Bipartisan Bill To Address Border Crisis, Send More Aid To Ukraine

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) speaks during a news conference with Republican Senators about border security issues at the U.S. Capitol January 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. Also pictured, L-R, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN). The Republican Senators stated they want more time to review and debate any Senate bill addressing border security reform and Ukraine funding. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Several GOP senators spoke out against a bipartisan proposal to address the southern border and provide more aid to Ukraine.

On Wednesday on Capitol Hill, a group of conservative senators had argued that the deal would not solve the border crisis and may even make the situation worse.

Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggested that Republicans working on the deal will be focusing on including aid for Ukraine’s war effort rather than actually addressing the border crisis.

Cruz stressed that Joe Biden is not doing enough with the laws already at his disposal and he accused Democrats of “wanting open borders.”

“If Democrats cared about fixing the border, they would have already fixed it,” he said.

GOP senators expressed doubts over whether the deal would pass the House. Florida’s Rick Scott said that he believes that it will be “dead on arrival” in the lower chamber.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

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ms-cellanies · 1 year

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I posted 22,667 times in 2022

911 posts created (4%)

21,756 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@russalex

@cheekybug2

@ladytuarach

@angreav

I tagged 252 of my posts in 2022

#donald trump - 19 posts

#us news - 18 posts

#florida - 16 posts

#us politics - 12 posts

#environment - 9 posts

#politics - 9 posts

#world news - 8 posts

#abortion - 7 posts

#ron desantis - 7 posts

#republicans - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 82 characters

#limbaugh was more disgusting than a huge pile of dog barf or a truckload of manure

My Top Posts in 2022:

182 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

ALITO, GORSUCH, KAVANAUGH & CONEY BARRETT MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE SUPREME COURT. They owe their positions to The Federalist Society but they are supposed to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

215 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

I stumbled upon this & thought it was quite interesting. There were stronger restrictions on guns in the “Old West” than the world we’re living in now. The article even mentions that the understanding of the 2nd Amendment was nothing like what we’ve been dealing with since Scalia & the other RepubliKKKans on the Supreme Court made up their own interpretation.

221 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

Johnson’s comments are the most batshit crazy yet. Could he be suffering from brain damage? Seriously just read this statement he made on Sept. 11th:

“ On Sunday Johnson suggested to Levin that liberals, Democrats, and anyone on “the left” as he put it, do not have an inherent right to participate in American life on an equal footing as Republicans.”

RON JOHNSON MUST BE DEFEATED & NEVER HOLD GOVERNMENT OFFICE EVER AGAIN.

236 notes - Posted September 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

THIS IS A MUST READ.

RUTH BEN-GHIAT IS AN EXPERT ON AUTHORITARIANISM. THAT IS WHAT AMERICA IS FACING, WITH OR WITHOUT TRUMP. RON DESANTIS IS ALREADY PREPARING TO REPLACE TRUMP & OVERTHROW AMERICA’S DEMOCRACY.

PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE & REBLOG IT. OUR LIVES DEPEND UPON US BEING AWARE OF THE IMPENDING DANGER TO OUR COUNTRY.

327 notes - Posted June 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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mongowheelie · 3 months

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Far-right US senators demand special meeting ahead of crucial Ukraine funding vote - Alternet.org

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tried to give false election documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence just before he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to text messages that congressional investigators released during a Tuesday hearing.

Johnson’s Chief of Staff, Sean Riley, contacted Pence staffer Chris Hodgson to say the Senator wanted “to hand something” to Pence. When Hodgson asked what it was, Riley responded: “Alternate slate of electors for [Michigan] and [Wisconsin] because archivist didn’t receive them.”

“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson responded.

As then-President Donald Trump sought to deny Joe Biden’s election win, his team asked supporters to falsely claim that they were the electors who represented the states’ voters ― and to sign phony slates purportedly delivering Electoral College votes to Trump. The strategy sought to prevent Pence’s certification of the real Electoral College result on Jan. 6, 2021.

During its fourth public hearing, the House Committee investigating Trump supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol that day unveiled the text messages between Riley and Hodgson and an additional message from a top Republican official.

In a Jan. 4 text, Wisconsin Republican Party Executive Director Mark Jefferson wrote: “Freaking Trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the Senate President.”

The revelation that Johnson tried to give Pence false ballots creates a clear link between the Senator and the campaign to overturn the 2020 election. And it underscores the range of public and private ways that prominent Republicans supported Trump’s bid to defy voters and hold on to power while fueling the outrage that drove the assault on the Capitol.

Johnson was not one of the 139 Republican lawmakers who voted to uphold Trump’s election lies. He did, however, host a December 2020 hearing during which Trump allies spent hours promoting conspiracy theories about the previous month’s election.

Soon after the news broke, Johnson’s spokesperson Alexa Henning tweeted, “The Senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office.”

“The Vice President’s office said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story,” Henning continued. The Senator later told reporters that he knew on the morning of Jan. 6 that “somebody” delivered the false ballots to his office but denied that he was trying to push the fake pro-Trump electors.

“I do not know [the source]. I have no idea,” Johnson said. “This was a staff-to-staff exchange, and I was basically unaware of it. The Chief of Staff contacted the Vice President’s staff and said, ‘Do you want this?’ They said no, and we didn’t deliver it and that’s the end of the story.”

Johnson is currently running for reelection in Wisconsin.

One of his potential rivals, Democratic hopeful Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, issued a statement about Johnson’s actions on Tuesday afternoon.

“Ron Johnson actively tried to undermine this democracy,” Barnes said. “Once again, Ron Johnson has proven he’s a danger to our country and our fundamental rights. I’m calling for him to resign immediately.”

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