White nights and Nerves

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

As most of you know I intensely dislike woo woo stuff. Which is part of the reason I wrote the post last night.

Now, there is a fine line between woo woo stuff and “My subconscious does a lot of the thinking for me and it’s highly uneasy with something I can’t pin down.” (The subconscious things is where the novels come from. Either that or I’m an instrument receiving transmissions from novel-land. I don’t like the last, so I’ll go with the first. And I know I do a lot of thinking subconsciously, like when I started smelling a rat with the covidiocy and only AFTER did I add up things and figure out why I smelled the rat.)

For instance, the month leading up to 9/11 I spent waking up halfway through the night and staring at the ceiling. In woo-woo land, where there’s way more than the physical world, and some of us sense it, there are events so large they send an echo both ways. In non-woo-woo land, the left was nerving itself up for SOMETHING at that time, because of the hanging chads and all that nonsense. (This was before questioning the results of elections was “insurrection and a crime” and you’re not supposed to remember that.) 9/11 sucked the air out of that particular room, so it’s possible my subconscious had added two plus two and got fire alarm, then when 9/11 happened kind of stood down, more worried about getting Dan home from Washington DC where he was in a (Non-government related) job assignment.)

However, when I start having white nights, in which I wake up around 4 am and stare at the ceiling having the quiet horrors, like something big and evil and inescapable is heading right for me, I worry. Particularly if it’s more than two in a row. Last night was the third.

I’ve had these before. One or two is often related to something happening to someone I care about, and not having heard from that person in a while, which triggers it.

Three can be something I forgot to do that needs doing, but I just don’t remember, and which will bite me in the soft part of the back if I don’t soon. And sure that could be it.

It’s just that these are BIG horrors, and it doesn’t feel like THAT.

So, that is that, and I’ll just say that I hate feeling hungover without having a drop of alcohol.

The other thing, of course, if that I fell off the sleep hygiene thing. And that is not making anything better.

Specifically the sleep hygiene I fell off from was “no screens after 8:30 pm.” I dislike that rule intensely, partly because I’m slightly OCD and obsessive (like water is SLIGHTLY wet) and if I’m in the middle of finishing something (Yesterday it was re-covering some older novels. I still need to type set and do new paper re-issues.) I don’t want to stop doing it.
Also, although I always scheduled some insty posts, I’m used to doing the first two/three hours of my shift live, and it feels weird to schedule the overnight posts at 8 pm or so.

So… well, my husband wanted to watch a documentary together one night, and then well… yesterday it was the covers. And it’s crept on. And I’m not in bed, reading not a glowing screen by 10 pm. And then I sleep like cr*p.

And it’s going to take another two weeks to get the circadian adjusted again. And I don’t like it. But the body seems to perform better with plentiful and timely sleep. So, you know what? I’ll have to do it.
I just don’t like it.
BUT I like the hangover without drinking even less.

And I purely despise the echoes I’m getting off this set of night horrors. (Oh, Nights in the light is the Portuguese idiom for sleepless nights.) Too much Celt in the bloodline, and then one side of the family did an soujourn in Ireland and Scotland helping no one.

Not much I can do about it, though except take care of myself. And I will get myself straight again. Too much to write to be this ineffective.

But also, just in case, I’ll keep my clothes and weapons where I can find them in the dark.

226 thoughts on “White nights and Nerves”

      1. Biden in a speech that used imagery right out of a military dictatorship declared political opponents to be “enemies of the state” to be treated as criminal extremists trying to destroy the country and a “threat to democracy” who are going to try to steal the upcoming election

        https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/09/01/biden-flanked-by-uniformed-soldiers-bathed-in-red-light-attacks-maga-extremists/

        His press secretary earlier in the day declared that everyone who doesn’t agree with Democrats is an extremist.

        They are all in on eliminating dissent and ensuring they gain absolute power. I expect FBI raids on candidates in key races, IRS targeting of all who openly dissent, and persecution ramped up to 11.

          1. Should I be practicing Hugo Weaving’s V-filled monologue?

            Although I think I’d go for a plague doctor mask rather than Guy Fawkes. I’m pretty sure V’s interpretation of Fawkes’ actions was through rose-tinted glasses at best, and besides, plague doctor masks are both cool and nicely satirical of the COVID panic.

          2. I was going to say that given the HarrisBiden cadres’ open hatred of Jews and their efforts to impose policies that reward and punish based on racial identity, that the only thing missing from the stage Biden was on were a couple of Swastikas.

            1. They really are trying to push, “Dark Brandon.” I thought the “dark MAGA,” shtick was silly, but the Administration’s flacks think it was serious and they’re gonna steal it. Sheesh.

          3. Stage settings echoing Leni Reifenstahl, speech channelling Mr. Mustache.
            Why would I expect a different outcome?

            1. How many of the younger (not yet retired) potential voters have even heard of Triumph of the Will, or seen it, and studied its context? I wonder how many of the young and ignorant saw the garish desecration of Independence Hall and just thought it looked really cool?

        2. The backdrop makes you think he might be speaking from hell…Intentionally looking satanic or calling for satan’s help?

          1. I thought “From Hell” was a Movie about Jack the Ripper, not a Brandon speech.
            Also, has anyone else thought these people are possessed? AND I don’t LIKE Woo Woo.

            3. That set was like a high school musical version of a Leni Reifenstahl scene.

              As I reminded, ex prezzy JEF tagged him as an F-up.

              1. Did you mean high school as in amateur? Because now I’m imagining that execrable Disney tween production crossed with Leni Riefenstahl, and don’t know whether to laugh or be horrified.

                What to call this: Triumph of the Wilted? Derp of a Nation? Naptime for Hitler?

  3. Its this speech that’s coming tonight. I am just utterly filled with dread. I will be the most evil presidential speech in American history. It will have more in common with Hitler’s raving speeches than anything American.

    I fear this speech tonight is the beginning of the crack that destroys everything.

    I am just overcome with dread at the vile move Satanic inspired evil will attempt to make in the world tonight.

    Yes, I believe Joe Biden is a willing agent of the Devil. Evil is trying to shadow the entire world again.

    3. You gave me a most naughty and subversive idea, but I had to wait until I got home from work to post it:

      1. Start with a video of tonight’s FICUS speech.

      2. Add the video clip of Hitler that’s been used in all those internet parodies for years as a picture-in-picture insert

      3. Bonus points if you can match Adolf’s mouth movements and facial contortions to Biden’s inane blathering.

      Maybe, make it look like those sign-language closed caption windows. If the speech HAS one of those windows, put the clip over it.
      ———————————
      When Eric Swalwell farted on camera, it was the most intelligent thing heard from a Democrat all day.

      1. Sounds meme-able. I’m not talented in that sort of editing software yet, but anyone else is welcome to.

        Oh, and isn’t there a Rule of the Internet about those who compare their opponents to Hitler? Of course, they’ve been doing it forever and a day at this point, so perhaps Rule #8 of Conflict comes into play: “Turnabout is fair play.”

        1. Godwin’s law: As an internet argument gets longer, the probability of a Nazi comparison approaches 1. At this point it is safe to ignore further discussion

          I don’t have sharp video editing skills, but the red background picture currently up at Instapundit really needs an OBEY or similar treatment. Will see what I can work up.

            1. Oof. BIG oof. The pose with both fists up. You know if the mainstream media ever caught a Republican speaker in that lighting in that pose, it’d be the lead picture on every front page and every news website and broadcast for the next week. But Slow Joe’ll get a pass.

              “Journalists.” Feh.

                    2. That was to let the mad Mullahs of Iran and other Jihadists know that he, Obama, was on their side.

  4. I suggest that those of us who are believers, pray our hardest for each other and our nation.

    The St. Michael the Archangel prayer is one I find particularly comforting when spiritual battle seems to be looming.

    May the God of Angel Armies be always at our side.

    2. Been trying to say the St. Michael at least three times a day, usually more, for a while now. It helps. Oh, how it helps, at least for me.

  5. Get your screens to go red/gold to kill the blue, but then you would not want to be doing covers as the colors would be hashed. I used to do that, but a few iterations of computer ago just never installed it. I should get back to it, especially as it now gets dark about bedtime.

    1. Would a pair of yellow lens blue light blockers work well enough to be able to read at bedtime and still avoid the blue?

    2. I used to have one of those apps on my computer, but it would turn the screen so dim and yellow I couldn’t read it at all in my advancing middle age, even in a darkened room, so I would just turn it off every time.

      1. I had one on a Win7 machine that worked well, and the first Linux one was similar. I had to change the Kindle Fire one to a rose color as the default color didn’t do it for me.

  6. I’ve been feeling ‘hinky’ a lot lately too and feel there is something that’s inbound but I don’t know what, where or when.

    My “feeling” is this fall – just prior to or just after the mid term election cycle. For what it’s worth (not much) I got fire extinguishers yesterday and positioned them logically around the house. I’ve also checked the ‘defensive equipment’ and don’t find any gaps that are critical. Every day is now armed/prepared day too.

      1. I’m thinking ‘massive’ for no good reason. Sort of slow and small at first and then it blooms into a whole lot of ‘not nice’ but… regional and not overall. Eh, been wrong before and it won’t hurt to be so again.

    2. Running out of food & water storage room, but I’ll pile it in the bathrooms if I have to. Next week days is dedicated to re-zeroing at distance, nights to final procurement needs, checking on friends. Never completely ready, just getting closer daily, forever.

      My guess? It’s both closer and massive.

  7. O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. </BODY TEXT=”#ff0000″>

    1. WordPress is weird. I can understand it not applying the tag, but showing only part of it as text?

      The text was supposed to be red, because I like the convention.

    3. Amen, amen, and amen.
      All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

      2. You have no idea just how much this disturbed me.
        I’ve been avoiding network/cable news, and even avoiding most of the overtly political blogs (save Instapundit, and I generall focus on the funny and/or weird posts). I’m TRYING not to tap into the mystic cr@p of my Celtic ancestors (over half Celtic, most of it Scottish).
        But, I’ve had these thrums of doom pulsing around in my head/body for months. I can quiet it down with copious fluffy reading, or binge watching non-political shows (mostly police procedurals and British mysteries).
        Not last night. I keep telling myself that I should ignore it, it’s just an over-excited imagination.
        But I don’t believe me.
        It helps to go into prep mode (make lists of the needed essentials, pack the Go-Bag, download manuals and such). Knit. Take a walk.
        But, I’m beginning to think that my subconscious is trying to alert me.
        Now, I’m more inclined (as a science-y person) to think of this nagging worry as simply the result of having noticed something that has not entered the actively conscious part of the brain. That’s the main factor behind much of what is called intuition – we notice things, but the information goes straight into an old part of the brain, where the info can’t easily be retrieved for analysis, but that triggers the fight or flight response.
        Perhaps the Celts were particularly sensitive to acting on those vague ‘feelings’ and that accounts for the legends of ‘second sight’.
        Or, maybe the dam* woo-woo really is a thing.

    1. It feels like the night before a really dangerous surgery.

      It has to happen for healing to begin, but the wait is very nerve-wracking.

  9. I’ve been a cockeyed optimist for much of my life — it’s just a congenital tendency to good cheer and perkiness, which tends to irritate a lot of people — so my instinct here is to make pleasant, soothing sounds and tell everyone to be confident and not take counsel of your fears. And … night before last I found myself staring at the window at whenever o’clock, wondering whether we’ll get out of this as lightly as in Kurt Schlichter’s novels. The hell of it is that a few years ago, it seemed that all the technological and economic elements were in place to make the Messianic Age plausible! Just saying.

    1. Oh, yes – more and more, Kurt Schlichter seems like a minor prophet, the way things are shaking out in Blue America.

      I’ve been stocking up, quietly at the grocery store. Today, scored a bunch of cans of tomato sauce (which we do use freely) and a 20lb bag of rice for $5. I’ll have to stock up at Costco on olive and peanut cooking oils this month … the word through the grapevine is that such will start to get expensive and possibly unobtainable after the end of this year. The feeling that Something Dreadful Slouches This Way is unescapable.

      1. I have decided that I am going to make a nice dinner for hubby and I. Then I’m going to pour a large glass of wine (On a school night!) and I’m going to sit down and watch President SpongeBrain Depends Pants and give his speech the old MST3K treatment.

        Because I am an American and I will NOT let the @ssholes bring me down.

        And tomorrow is first Friday and I can go to Mass and pray for us all.

          1. That’s why the glass of wine. No chance of me tossing one of my good crystal wedding glasses.

            I do have a small crocheted unicorn I can hold in my left hand in case I absolutely have to throw something.

            1. I admire your self control.

              $40 Waterford no-longer-made-pattern into $400 TV is not out of the question, but usually it’s just a loud ‘f you’.

              My blood pressure is bad enough; watching FJB would not help, and so far I never have.

              But it’s important to remember – they’re telling us what they think and believe. We need to take them at their word.

              1. Hey there is a place called Replacements Inc in Greensboro NC that you can find those missing plates and rare crystal glasses. Next time just throw the glass at the Fiden

          2. If one is a habitual thrower at the TV, keep a pile of medium sponges handy. If of a strong arm, get poofy loofah. (Loofii?)

            Nerf dart guns have uses as substitute burners.

            ” I said a -dart- gun”
            – Gru

  10. And how is it you’re after blaming us? Mither a’God, woman. Next thing ye know it’ll be “No Irish Need Apply” agin. If it’s someone ye want to blame, blame the bag men and the ones from the sea.

    2. The North of Portugal is the same genetic stock, for the most part. Seers and witches coming out of the fogs is how the South describes us. Oh, and crazy people.
      It’s just if they were going to import genes, they should have gone outside the gene pool.

      1. The Celts came from Galicia/North Portugal. I never got into Portugal, but I have been to Santiago de Compostela. It feels like the west of Ireland. I didn’t do the Camino, but I do have a cockle shell.

        In any case case, if I want to do Portuguese things all I have to do is go down into Ironbound in Newark, plenty of portagees there.

  11. There is an early Kipling poem titled “La Nuit Blanche,” which is where that idiom’s familiar to me from.

    1. I had to look for that one.
      https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_nuitblanche.htm

      In the full, fresh fragrant morning
      I observed a camel crawl,
      Laws of gravitation scorning,
      On the ceiling and the wall;
      Then I watched a fender walking,
      And I heard grey leeches sing,
      And a red-hot monkey talking
      Did not seem the proper thing.
      …
      So I fled with steps uncertain
      On a thousand-year long race,
      But the bellying of the curtain
      Kept me always in one place;
      While the tumult rose and maddened
      To the roar of Earth on fire,
      Ere it ebbed and sank and saddened
      To a whisper tense as wire.

      In tolerable stillness
      Rose one little, little star,
      And it chuckled at my illness,
      And it mocked me from afar;
      And its brethren came and eyed me,
      Called the Universe to aid,
      Till I lay, with naught to hide me,
      ‘Neath’ the Scorn of All Things Made.

      Dun and saffron, robed and splendid,
      Broke the solemn, pitying Day,
      And I knew my pains were ended,
      And I turned and tried to pray;
      But my speech was shattered wholly,
      And I wept as children weep.
      Till the dawn-wind, softly, slowly,
      Brought to burning eyelids sleep.

      The poem entire seemed to me to be a remembrance of an opium dream – based on reading, I hasten to clarify. There are marked similarities to descriptions of LSD experiences, but opium was the fashionable drug of his day.

      Sure enough, Kipling was not a stranger to the trade.
      https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/journalism/rg_opium1.htm

      Kipling visited Harry Rivett-Carnac here. He was an old friend of the Kipling family, and had secured the position of Opium Agent at Ghazipur on a salary of 3,000 rupees a month, equivalent to £2,700 per annum then, and five times as much as Kipling was earning at the time. This reflected the highly profitable nature of the trade.

      Kipling had himself used opium, both as a recreational drug and a medicine. …
      The visit to Calcutta is described in “The City of Dreadful Night”

  12. I’ve been on-edge since early 2019. It wasn’t SARS-2, though that certainly built on it. It was the series of things affecting me personally the month before.

    We’ll see.

    1. And, not even in a cage, just a stained cardboard box with some air holes.

      I’m starting to feel like a Jew in 1937 Berlin and wondering if Krystallnacht will become our next official 3-day weekend holiday. Maybe squeeze it in between Labor Day and Halloween. Or maybe in the spring? There’s a long gap between “Presidents’ Day” and Memorial Day that could use something.

      1. Krystalnacht2.0 would go very much differently.

        Very, very much.

        (Grin … the Kzinti sort)
        (March of Calumbreth)

  14. What me worry?

    However I am paying out of pocket, rather than with Med insurance, to get and keep an extra three months of my prescription medicines on hand, just in case.

  15. If I wake up around 4 am, it’s usually nothing more sinister than I had too much water before going to bed.

    And I can hear cars driving down the gravel drive just fine.

    But I do have this song running through my head at the moment. Only it doesn’t quite mean what they think it means.

    There’s something happening here
    But what it is ain’t exactly clear
    There’s a man with a gun over there
    Are tellin’ me I got to beware
    I think it’s time we stop
    Children, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s going down
    There’s battle lines being drawn
    Oh, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
    Young people speaking their minds
    Are getting so much resistance from behind
    Time we stop, hey, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s goin’ down
    What a field day for the heat
    A thousand people in the street
    Singing songs and are carrying signs
    Mostly say, “Hooray for our side”
    It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s going down
    Paranoia strikes deep
    Into your life it will creep
    It starts when you’re always afraid
    Step out of line, the man come and take you away
    We better stop, hey, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s going down?
    We better stop, hey, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s going
    We better stop now, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s going
    We better stop
    Children, what’s that sound?
    Everybody look what’s going down

      2. I have very mixed feelings about this song. On the one hand, they all ended up dead. On the other, 500 years later, they’re still celebrated.

        2. That seems to happen when the deaths support a righteous cause. “Remember the Alamo” isn’t about a derelict Spanish mission…

    2. See you and raise – Mike and the Mechanics…
      ake the children and yourself
      And hide out in the cellar
      By now the fighting will be close at hand
      Don’t believe the church and state
      And everything they tell you
      Believe in me, I’m with the high command

      Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
      Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
      Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
      Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?

      There’s a gun and ammunition
      Just inside the doorway
      Use it only in emergency
      Better you should pray to God
      The Father and the Spirit
      Will guide you and protect from up here

      Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
      Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
      Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
      Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?

      Swear allegiance to the flag
      Whatever flag they offer
      Never hint at what you really feel
      Teach the children quietly
      For some day sons and daughters
      Will rise up and fight while we stand still

      1. Or how about this one:

        An ill wind comes arising
        Across the cities of the plain
        There’s no swimming in the heavy water
        No singing in the acid rain
        Red alert, red alert
        It’s so hard to stay together
        Passing through revolving doors
        We need someone to talk to
        And someone to sweep the floors
        Incomplete, incomplete
        The world weighs on my shoulders
        But what am I to do?
        You sometimes drive me crazy
        But I worry about you
        I know it makes no difference
        To what you’re going through
        But I see the tip of the iceberg
        And I worry about you
        Cruising under your radar
        Watching from satellites
        Take a page from the red book
        And keep them in your sights
        Red alert, red alert
        Left and rights of passage
        Black and whites of youth
        Who can face the knowledge
        That the truth is not the truth?
        Obsolete, absolute
        The world weighs on my shoulders
        But what am I to do?
        You sometimes drive me crazy
        But I worry about you
        I know it makes no difference
        To what you’re going through
        But I see the tip of the iceberg
        And I worry about you
        Oh
        The world weighs on my shoulders
        But what am I to do?
        You sometimes drive me crazy
        But I worry about you
        I know it makes no difference
        To what you’re going through
        But I see the tip of the iceberg
        And I worry about you…
        Absalom
        Absalom

      2. I played that song the day after they stole the election. Brought tears to my eyes.

        And now things are worse, much worse.

      3. The lyrics are a bit ambiguous over who it is they describe, but Red Ryder’s “Lunatic Fringe” comes to mind.

  16. I actually have to miss the Resident’s speech tonight because I have to work. I’ll follow along online and catch the excerpts later as I can. Or not if I want to keep my BP down.

    1. I’m making it a point to not see his speech; we’ll probably get an Inspector Lewis episode on the DVD player and watch that.

      Didn’t sleep well last night. A neighbor was tweaking (I think) his deer/elk rifle this morning. Sounded like a good thing to do. OTOH, the gutters won’t upgrade themselves. (Looks at Gotta-do list, sighs.)

        1. I chose to not watch it, and I’m glad I did; Leni would have been envious, and I don’t need to spend the money for a new TV.

          And then the very next day the senile, corrupt pedophile had the gall to deny what he said.

  17. I have two things running through my head:

    From Longfellow:
    Then tolled the bells more loud and deep,
    God is not dead, nor doth he sleep
    The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
    With peace on earth, good will to men.

    Now, my own:
    The storm clouds billow overhead
    The flood laps at my feet.
    The lightnings flash with looming dread,
    As I the tempest meet.

    Yet I stand here, not alone,
    but with blooming host beside.
    The hidden war all but done,
    Just left where the shadows hide.

    There is a stillness in my breast
    That I cannot explain,
    Save that the ever present rest
    Has joined me yet again.

    In shadows move, not just the foe,
    But ten thousand friends beside,
    We cannot count their number so,
    But in their hands the tide.

    I raise my head to to storm clouds black,
    And stark against the gloom,
    A single ray of lights fights back,
    And spells the darkness’ doom.

    Powers move in the unseen places,
    and those powers that I see,
    Have shining swords and radiant faces,
    Turned against our enemy.

    What all this means? I do not know. But our enemy is not the only one at work. And as the ancient prophet said: There are more on our side than on theirs. They just don’t know it yet. Be of good hope.

    1. All that has been going through my head since I got the gist of a Biden’s screed is this poem I learned as a boy. Joe BI Den managed to surpass his drooling, stupid, psychopathic self. I’m not backing off my view that anyone who wants a civil war, and many on both sides do, is an evil, foolish, idiot. Ah, but should they be so stupid as to suspend constitution, the only thing that gives them a scrap of legitimacy, the thing even the FBI Stasi swore to uphold and defend, then the tocsin shall ring.

      He said that he was not our brother–
      The mongrel! he said what we knew–
      No, Erin! our dear Island–mother,
      He ne’er had his black blood from you!
      And what though the milk of your bosom
      Gave vigor and health to his veins–
      He was but a foul foreign blossom,
      Blown hither to poison our plains!

      He said that the sword had enslaved us–
      That still at its point we must kneel–
      The liar!–though often it braved us,
      We cross’d it with hardier steel!
      This witness his Richard–our vassal!
      His Essex–whose plumes we trod down!
      His Willy–whose peerless sword–tassel
      We tarnish’d at Limerick town!

      No! falsehood and feud were our evils,
      While force not a fetter could twine–
      Come Northmen,–come Normans,–come Devils!
      We gave them our Sparth to the chine!
      And if once again he would try us,
      To the music of trumpet and drum,
      And no traitor among us or nigh us–
      Let him come, the Brigand! let him come!
      — John Banim

      if I remember correctly, he’s writing on the Duke of Wellington who, on being taunted for his Irish brogue, he had one — said that being born in a stable didn’t make you a horse.

      1. I think I’ll go with two to start: “Soldier, Ask Not” and “MacDonough’s Song”. Both are from fiction; both are appropriate today.

        Plus, of course, “March of Cambreadth” and damn near anything by Sabaton.

  18. I need need need my own space, where I can stack as necessary and whatever is necessary. Where I can put in trees, and gardens, berms and water catchment and greenhouses.

    So when something is horribly wrong and I can’t figure out what, and I’m beating around the house unable to even sit down, I have an anchor. I can take a deep breath, look at my place and tell myself I’m as ready as I can be.

    Previously those were the times I would take inventory and identify gaps. Can’t do that where I am right now, and my storage consists of one shelf.

    1. Lauren,

      You may not have been given the actual space, you do, however, know what needs to be done. There will be people who have the space but not the skills. I do believe with every fiber of my being that those who are needed will be directed to where they need to be when the time comes.

      Ask your guardian angel for directions and it will surely come to you. Refuges are being prepared for those who need them. Make sure you have whatever you need to make a journey, which should fit in a backpack on a shelf and be ready to go when the spirit leads.

      1. That’s actually been the story of my life for the past year. “You’ll know.” Moving from Utah to Kansas. “Just keep working as if you’ll be here forever.” OK, all the work was for someone else, moving on. “Prepare for increasing economic chaos.”

        It’s always been for someone else, and I’m fine with that. Now I’m being told it’s not where I need to be, but what I need to be doing. And that I’ll know.

        The car is packed, ready to go except for food. 20 minutes I could be on the road. I don’t know if that will be the necessary direction, but I’m ready if the call comes.

        Or rather : ) if I get a swift kick in the butt and He says, “You’ve dawdled long enough. Get moving.”

        1. If nothing else guides you, look for fertile, well-watered lands, away from large cities and Interstate highways.

    2. That’s my situation as well. Moving, traveling every week for work, no space for garden or workshop. So I keep the gas tank full, and the bag in the car that I can live out of, even in a Midwest winter, look to do good work wherever I find space to put my hand to it, and trust that the Father will have me where I need to be.

      1. The fact that he’s a puppet is so obvious it’s infuriating. It’s like they’re smearing our faces in it.

        1. Biden is John Gill from the Original Trek episode Patterns of Force, except Gill at least was a good person before he became a puppet. Biden never was.

          1. Biden’s one skill has always been saying what his present audience wants to hear. Now he is saying what his handlers want to hear. Nor did he ever need to learn to distinguish toxic bullwaste from truth, since to him they were the same indistinguishable commodity.

            Jane Haddam’s =Act of Darkness= (murder mystery) opens in the office of a politician and perpetual candidate who can’t remember when it was decided that he was going to run for president. I am left wondering if Clueless Joe the Bidengaffer was one of the inspirations for Senator Steven Whistler Fox.

            Haddam was an old-school liberal who wrote, in both blog and fiction, that “When it came to making a better life for its people, socialism /ess aitch ae tee/ dead rats.” (Sorry, I don’t want to encourage bad behavior from That Which Deleda Est.)

  20. Not watching mush for brains tonight. Will catch excerpts. If they try to trigger something, again. I think it is too soon. Whatever will be ridiculed and mocked well before it means anything, and before November 2022 elections. IF he drops dead(er) on stage. Response will be “Oh Crap”. Not celebratory, like they are expecting/wanting. (What? They expect us to “Oh joyous! Fake is gone. Long live fake slime worse cackling snake 2!” Seriously? Oh and sorry for insulting snakes. And I really don’t like snakes.)

  21. Use slug instead of snake.

    I think it would be oddly amusing if he was “assassinated,” but his body double had an attack of allergies when he was supposed to be “dead.”

  22. For me the term White Nights brings thoughts of St. Petersburg (although when I was studying Russian lit, it was Leningrad — how good it is to have it using the old name again) in the summer, when the sun scarcely sets and the brief nighttime is lit with an unearthly light. In the Russian literary tradition it is a time when the boundaries between the prosaic world and the uncanny grows thin, when a statue of Peter the Great can come to life and chase a clerk through the streets, where a civil servant’s nose can go on the lam and assume a higher rank than its owner, and even in an otherwise realistic novel, a protagonist can lose his reason and commit a crime that would normally be unthinkable to him.

    I’d been reading some friends’ posts about being at Worldcon and feeling a little disappointed that it hadn’t been possible for us to go, especially since we aren’t all that far away. But right now I’m just as glad that I’m going to be right here at home with family, in a city where the mayor made plain back in 2020 that the police department has paddy wagons, and rioters will be taking a ride in them, straight to the lockup.

    We’ll see what tomorrow looks like.

  23. Unless we fine a way to break the present, massive, worldwide cycle of fear psychosis the Canadian at Academy of Ideas discusses in the video, it will be hard to find more than far too few good men to restore our Republic:

  24. The ugly, brutal America evolving from Lincoln’s trashing of human rights and the Constitution itself during the Civil War has run its course, and we are headed for a full blown dictatorship…but Americans are not (yet) sheep like the Europeans, and can do something about it…The next two years will tell the tale, most likely….

    1. While I strongly DISAGREE with your view of Lincoln, Sarah (our hostess) prefers that we don’t discuss the American Civil War.

      To defend Lincoln would require entering that Tar Pit.

      On the other hand, the Real Growth of the Federal Government started in the much later Progressive Era (which predates that other Demon FDR).

      1. Woodrow Wilson, though Biden seems to be topping both, only Obama gives Wilson a run for worst President of all time.

        1. Federal outlays were only slowly creeping upwards until 1917 and 1918. The jump those years was likely due to the War. 1919 saw yet another big jump, but the outlays dropped down significantly to slightly more than half of 1918’s outlays in 1920. Harding, and then Coolidge dialed the outlays down further until they were slightly less than one-half of the 1920 level. But that was still a few times higher than the outlays in 1916. Outlays didn’t breach the 1920 level until 1934, Roosevelt’s second year in office. From there they rose at a slow but steady rate until the War, when they shot up once again. And then, as before, while outlays dropped dramatically at the end of the war, they still were much higher than they’d been before the US entered the war.

          The source for all of this can be found here – http://stats.areppim.com/stats/stats_usxbudget_history.htm

  25. I skimmed this when I woke up in the middle of the afternoon, then went back to sleep. I then woke up thinking lyrics from some Tom Smith tune (about wanting classic Science Fiction / Fantasy BIg Adventure stories, not watered-down dreck) and I hope it’s just that I haven’t listen to the tune in some time.

    o/<i>How many supercars were left to rust,
    Because we didn't have a spare and a jack?
    How many cities crumbled to dust,
    In the first atomic attack? </i>o/

  26. The dark red lighting of the speech is creepy. I guess they’re going for “Dark Brandon”. His handlers managed to keep him semi-coherent. Maybe they upped his adderall dose.

    1. HOLY EFFING EFF, he actually says he “doesn’t have time for divisive culture war”. HAS HE LISTENED TO ANY OF HIS RECENT SPEECHES?

      (Of course he hasn’t. He doesn’t even remember them. A female WH staffer even writes his tweets for him)

      I’ve heard there’s some big-time whistleblowers coming soon with proof of the weaponization of the intelligence agencies and social media against the public, so that might be why the Maladministration is putting out this kind of insane rhetoric.

        1. Zuckerberg straight up lied to Joe Rogan. Some friends and I tried to post the NY Post Biden laptop story to FB and couldn’t do it, and then we tried DMing it to each other and couldn’t do it. So, no, Evil Data Zuckerberg, it wasn’t just difficult to find but people could still share it, you lying sack of sh!t.

  27. Peter Doocy missed a great line tonight:

    “We’re standing in front of Independence Hall, where our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution more than two hundred years ago, and Joe Biden wiped his ass with it tonight.”

  28. In interesting news today, the NIH now recommends Ivermectin as a drug, reversing their two+ year crusade of banning it and harassing anyone mentioning it. (Cue confused dog with tilted head shocked face…)

    Also the Rand Corporation basically laid out the whole Ukrainian proxy war as a means to breakup Russia in a paper back in 2019. They even mentioned the blow-back and we are seeing now as a possibility…

    With these tidbits out in the open, I’m just waiting for the false flags or worse to pop up. But it’s good to know I have a near perfect record of Cassandra conspiracy theories coming true…

  29. If you’re looking for disaster in the short run, look towards China where the drought is about to end with a category 5 typhoon with 150 mph winds is bearing down on the South China Sea with the possibility of a major hurricane driving straight down the Yangtze River valley. Have a look at Pakistan to see what that can be like, especially as the fools managed to wreck the drainage systems. Argh.

    Oh, and they shut down ChengDu, a city of 21 million people because Winnie the Pooh is actually worse than Jo Bi Den and Baby Huey over in NK has the WuFlu, let’s hope it’s serious.

    Things are bad. very bad. Possibly the worst year since 1945 for Europe where the Sherman foreign minister has stated that she is comfortable letting Germans suffer for Ukraine and the EU is meddling in the Polish election and changing the rules on reimbursement for aid to Ukraine since the current government is not left wing enough for them. Poland has an army unlike, say, Belgium and Germany who would be hard pressed to put together a corporal’s guard. I have save a copy of that Trump picture with Muti Merckel and all the other EU idiots. the reason they hate him so is that he was right, they know he was right, and they’re terrified that the commoners might realize that he was right.

    With all that, Im still optimistic., though I was a bit down today. Some of that is congenital, some of that arises from the nice block of in the money S&P puts that shelter me from almost everything the economy can throw at me. But most of it comes from faith in my fellow countrymen. I can’t believe that we will be done down by this crowd of incompetent psychopaths. Can you imagine that the country that attacked at midnight, in the snow, on Christmas Eve, during a smallpox epidemic can be taken out by Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer. Mo, Larry, and Curly.

    America is the one eyed man in the land of the blind,

    Still, I’d be shocked if we didn’t have a major financial crisis between now and the end of the year. October is traditional, right on time for the midterms. Remember that the crash of 2008 made Obama President. McCain was well ahead in the polls at that point. Strange things happen when people are afraid.

    Be vigilant and pray if that’s your thing. The

    1. A couple of weeks ago, The China Show had a segment on Shanghai residents who were finally released from lockdown. Since they’d been locked indoors for months on end, they decided to celebrate by getting outdoors, and doing things like going on vacation to the resort region of Hainan.

      And almost immediately afterwards, Hainan was put under lockdown.

      Regarding the US economy… IIRC the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Biden has been selling off to keep the price of oil from skyrocketing any higher, is supposed to run out in October.

  30. Hmm. My music rotation has been tossing up CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising” somewhat more often of late than might be explained by random chance.

  33. I keep remembering that Dr. Pournelle told us that despair was a sin. And I felt a whole lot worse in 1993-94.

    I’ll be honest, my big worry is getting the American military leadership rebooted. We’re going to need war leaders to counter the Chinese…and we don’t have them. Just prior to the Second World War, FDR grabbed COL George Marshall, made him a BGEN…and appointed him Army Chief of Staff. Whereupon Marshall did some wholesale house-cleaning. Invited a bunch of bureaucrats-in-uniform to retire, promoted some real war leaders in their stead.

    The Navy was better off – they had been gearing up for a war with Japan for a decade. Admirals Pratt and Moffett had built a powerful fleet, picked some ferocious commanders to lead it.

  34. But cheer up! I managed to come home from the World Muzzle-Loading Championships with a medal! 2nd place in the original division of the “Malson” 50 meter revolver match. 🙂

  35. The best response to the rant of the potted plant tonight is massive ridicule. To paraphrase the old saw: “Don’t get mad, get rude.”

    1. Yes, this, and possibly with even more of a purpose. As in, “September First, 2022: The Speech That Launched a Thousand Campaign Ads.”

      Tracy “Beanz” Diaz of “Uncover DC” said it pretty well, likely better than I can…

      None of the major networks carried this tonight. They know if they did 99% of America would’ve run the other direction. They are attempting a few things. They are baiting — we won’t fall for it. We aren’t a violent bunch. They are also anticipating that if they can get away with the second coming of Hitler without pushback, they have carte blanche. This was a big mistake for them. Huge tactical error saying all of this in front of our marines while shrouded in red like an authoritarian dictator.

      Meme the living daylights out of this man. Make the memory of his speech tonight the comedic failure that it was. We are Americans. We don’t cower to marionettes reading from teleprompters. We mock them, laugh at them, crack open a beer and grill a d*mn steak. #UltraMAGA

      (t dot me slash TracybeanzOfficial/3583)

      (Although, speaking as someone who quite intentionally did NOT ‘consume’ this piece of, ah, ‘oratory’ — the accounts of it remind me more of Lord John Whorfin in “Buckaroo Banzai” than that nasty little real-world Austrian of our 30s and 40s. Someone who is neither human nor actually from this planet… “History is made at night! Character is what you are in the dark!”)

      This was supposed to “bring America together” — and maybe it will, only not how they think.

        1. Yes, most simply and elegantly yes.

          And, if the assembled company will please note: “Ultra MAGA” — like icky “Deplorables” and colonial-bumpkin “Yankee Doodle” before it — was entirely their creation, not ours.

          We just, kinda… made it our own.

          Across a frozen river, at midnight, on Christmas Eve, in the middle of a pox. Check.

    2. Picture if you will a poster that looks like two posters.
      One image is Mussolini. Caption: Il Duce
      Other image is from last night’s.. debacle. Caption: Il Dopy

      1. Barry the O is the political descendant of Benny the Moose.
        Biden would be Mussolini’s forgotten successor (looks it up) Pietro Badoglio.

      3. Obama got nicknamed Il Douche by me. If you look at him side by side with Mussolini, they had/have the same poses and gestures and expressions. CREEPY as heck. Makes you wonder about reincarnation.

  36. I look forward the ‘meme’ of a graph of various prices increasing from 20 Jan 2021 to $NOW with a ‘Watermark’ of pResident Brandon… caption: The Soul of Inflation.

  38. So Brandon made his speech. I didn’t watch it, but I suspect the over-the-top Nazi-esque imagery may not have helped him.

    Regarding the feeling of something big coming, yes, I’ve had the same feeling, at least since 9/11. But… while I despair for the continued downfall of our Republic, I no longer think that the “something coming” will be of a political nature. In fact, I expect Republicans will have a very good November, and #PedoHitler will either step down or be removed (via 25th Amendment) shortly after the new Congress takes their seats in January. What I really fear is that what is coming is more civilization-threatening, on the order of a large asteroid strike or a major (VEI 8?) volcanic eruption.

    Maybe that’s too woo-woo, I don’t know. But that’s the feeling I get.

  40. Celebrate our victories, great or small, team or personal. They do matter.

    Seek opportunities for humor and ridicule in the predictability, in the banality, and in the error of our opponents.

    As to the speech:
    (Sneering)
    “Well! … Aren’t we fierce!”

    Went to bed early instead of watching TV. Thus was better rested for what woke me up. And back I go to slumberland, not having wasted a minute on watching the propaganda of that pathetic poot.

    Folks, leash the black dogs. Despair is indeed sin. Also counterproductive. The opposition wants you fearful. Don’t give the pricks the satisfaction.

    2. Someone chanted the less polite form of “Let’s go Brandon” during the speech at one point. Whoever it was, I tip my hat to you.

  41. The subconscious things is where the novels come from. Either that or I’m an instrument receiving transmissions from novel-land.

    Hey, I’ve read that story… “I’m an instrument receiving transmissions from novel-land,” and/or poetry-land, etc.

    “Wireless” by Rudyard Kipling.

    Eerie, yet also strangely comforting. Still not quite as much fun as, say, “As Easy as ABC.”

    1. My subconscious does NOT write my novels. I know that because when I was writing one of my failed novels, I would fall asleep, and keep typing. My subconscious typed actual words, actual sentences, paragraphs, and used metaphor. It had nothing to do with what I was writing. This mind had a mind of its own. If only it was writing the novel. When I woke up, I had to carefully edit “my” typing.

      So there are two of us. Three, the novel, which has its own voice. Four, I hear God, (or someone who does a real good imitation of HIM). Five, devil, he flees when I say: “Depart from me, in The Name Of Jesus”. So at least 5 possible voices to start. Does each story have its own soul? Not to mention:, Does God have 3 voices? Talk about a crowded brain. This may explain much.

      Just finished reading “The God of Lost Words”, the conclusion of A.J. Hackwith’s trilogy of “Novels from Hell’s Library”. Do books have souls? She seems to think so.

      1. Does God have 3 voices?
        I don’t know about distinct voices, but those 3 should at least be in agreement, or you’ve mis-identified them…

  42. Interesting. The feeling I keep getting is the Lord telling me not to worry and trust Him. Specifically directed to me, I think.

    1. I think it’s a group email – and it’s comforting to be on the address list.
      Although we should still prepare for the coming tribulations, but without worrying over them.

      1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

      2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

      Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the day approaching.

      Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

      https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/scriptures/scriptures-second-coming-christ/

      1. Weber has a scene in the fourth Safehold book where one of the vicars who opposes Clyntahn comments that it looks as though “God is going to let things work themselves out.” It can be rough on the bystanders.

  43. Can some enterprising video ace chop that speech up, reframe the shots, add some subtle WWII imagery, and find a way to getvit past the Big Socialist Media barrier?

  44. His speech wasn’t even over when the memes began. I haven’t seen a Dark Helmet meme yet but I’m hoping for one. Was there ever a smaller man in a more comically threatening setting?

    This is the thrashing of a wounded and dying animal. But very dangerous, until dead.

  45. I did watch the speech last night. I agree with whoever said “It was better in the original German.”

    However, I was greatly cheered by it. Slept better than I have for a week.

    That’s the best they have folks. As good as it gets for them. Instead of invoking fear into the heart of their enemies, their best and brightest have turned the leader of the free world into internet meme. Dork Brandon. All shall look upon me and guffaw!

    Mock them. Mock them like the wind!

    1. I called it yesterday before the speech (not the only one, but still…) Meme target galore. Only part I hedged on was “< 24 hours of the speech”, i.e. last night. What I didn’t get correct was that the memes started before the end of the speech.

      No. Did not watch it myself. Guessing it was on earlier eastern time. 100% missed avoiding it. Done and memes out before I’d knew the speech had happened.

  46. I’d love to know which of the Puppet’s handlers thought that giving an angry speech with harsh red lighting and Marines standing guard behind him was great optics. Dare we hope that someone is undermining the Maladministration from within?

    1. Well John Podesta was just announced as joining Team HarrisBiden so maybe it was a Podesta special. After all, he is one of the key people who game-planned the Democrats 2020 election war game, where the DEMOCRATS threatened secession, replaced slates of electors, had BLM, Antifa and other “activists” take to the streets, i.e. riot, AND GETTING THE MILITARY TO ASSIST THEM, in order to prevent a winning Trump from taking office for a second term. In other words, what they are falsely accusing others of doing as they scream “insurrection”.

      In fact it was the Democrats who game planned an outright coup to prevent Trump from having a second term in the event the fraud by mail was not enough to steal the election for Democrats. Now that the Democratic Party’s coup was successful in gaining power, the stuff we are seeing is simply the next step in their effort to hold and expand that power, and it is the game plan that tyrants, dictators and totalitarians have used again and again. Indeed the Nazi like imagery that keeps coming out of Team HarrisBiden captures perfectly essence of their ideology and goals.

    2. Sad as it seems, I believe that their woke memester-wannabes seriously thought this was a great display of The Power of Dark Brandon. And their useful idiots are lapping it up, so although mockery is certainly in order, remember that there are a lot of people who agree with the speech, hated Trump already and have extended that to all Republicans, and will be ready to kill you when the word comes.
      They may do it regretfully or gleefully, but they will do it.

      I saw the “original German” in a comment at Legal Insurrection, but it seems to be going around.

      1. I saw a pre-speech picture of Independence Hall that had the red light that served as a backdrop. But the left (in the picture) side of the building was lit by dark blue light. I suspect, though I don’t know for sure, that the right side of the building was lit by white light, which would have given a patriotic red, white, and blue backdrop.

        Assuming I’m correct, the problem is that in order to show Biden, the camera had to be zoomed in close enough that the only thing visible was the red light, which was both too dark, and casting dark shadows which made the look even worse.

        And even if the cameras had been zoomed back, I suspect that the colors would have clashed. The red was far too dark to work well with any sort of white during a night-time shoot.

        1. WaPo clarified that there were only two lights.
          Not five.
          https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2022/09/02/wapos-framing-of-joe-bidens-deranged-speech-explains-why-the-corporate-press-are-the-enemy-of-the-people/
          (from WaPo)

          “Biden spoke before the majestic backdrop of Independence Hall, colored by red and blue spotlights, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were shaped. Uniformed Marines stood on each side of the hall’s main door and large American flags were unfurled behind the president.”

  47. I didn’t watch the Biden speech, but caught some highlights(?) of it and a bit of a transcript. Holy Cow! The imagery was straight out of nearly every distopian story around. And the text wasn’t any better. I’m not sure who had the bright idea for either of those, but if I didn’t know better I’d swear that person was actually a conservative. It couldn’t have come off any worse had he goose stepped out and saluted, “Sig Heil!” with a straight arm and open palm.

    1. I only saw snippets of Das Speech (or should that be Der Speech?) filtered through Tucker Carlson and Tammy Bruce (sub-ing for Sean Hannity, and again tonight) and it was abominable. The most vicious, petty, hateful spewing of vitriol I’ve ever seen aside from Al Not-So-Sharpton. Not even Mad Maxine topped it.

      There you go, folks, the Fearless Leader of the Democrat party, snarling and snapping like a rabid Pekingese. A clueless dotard, surrounded by clueless incompetents. Of course Karen Two-Names tried to pretend Das Speech was uplifting and inspirational. I used to think they could never find a more insufferable press secretary than Jen ‘Circle-Back’ Psaki, but they have exceeded my expectations.
      ———————————
      Those who do not remember the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes. Those who do remember are doomed to watch everybody else repeat them.

      1. Biden’s always been like that. It’s just harder for them to hand-wave it away now that he’s president.

        I had a certain amount of respect for “Circle Back” Psaki. Yes, she was clearly a propagandist for the administration. But within that role, I thought she did a decent job. Even if she blew off a question with her trademark “circle back” comment, at least she was pretending that she’d get back to the question eventually.

        KJP, on the other hand, is just out and out incompetent. She frequently just blows off questions with “I don’t know.” She blatantly lies. And it’s not even an artful stretching or massaging of the truth. Press Secretaries are expected to do the latter to a certain extent. They’re administration flacks, after all. No, she just flat out lies in the most blatant, unimaginative, and easily disproven ways, such as when she told Doocy the other day that illegal immigrants aren’t walking across the border.

        The irony, of course, is that both women are immediately following quite possibly the best press secretary in living memory, Kayleigh McEnany.

        1. More often, the Karen tries to turn aside inconvenient questions with a blizzard of blather barely related to the subject at hand in an apparent attempt to fatigue the audience into forgetting the question.

          As for Psaki, that dingbat desperately needed to take a few courses in public speaking. Half of the sounds coming out of her pie-hole were stutterings and stammerings of ‘uh’, ‘um’, and other meaningless fill-in noises. I couldn’t listen to it for more than half a minute. That was the mouthpiece of our government, folks; an international embarrassment. Now we’ve got an even worse one.
          ———————————
          Does the Left drive those idiots barking mad, or were they drawn to the Left because they were already batshit crazy?

      1. @ Sarah > “He described Americans perfectly.”

        Which is fitting, as that is who the Leftists now running the Democrat Party have always hated.
        I think Biden Inc. just officially declared themselves TWANLOC.

      2. What was that line from the pink submarine? Something like, “In chaos there is profit.” That’s a pretty good description of the US attitude.

        1. If you mean ‘Operation Petticoat’ I believe the line was, “In chaos there is opportunity” by Tony Curtis as Lieutenant Jg. Holden, just before charging off in the aftermath of a Japanese bombing raid to ‘secure supplies’ for the USS Sea Tiger.
          ———————————
          LCdr. Sherman: “The thing is, with the nurses, being women, and the men, I mean the crew, being men, certain circumstances are likely to arise which are, well, are not consistent with normal submarine operations.”

          Maj. Heywood: “My nurses are acquainted with the facts of life, Commander.”

          Sherman: “So are the men. I’m just trying to avoid any exchange of information.”

    3. KAMAS- Actually, they just edited out the part where he clicked his heels and said, “Sig….uh.. Sig..You Know,The Thing!”

  48. In only marginally related news, because tropical storm Danielle (now hurricane) wasn’t named until September 1st, the North Atlantic and Caribbean made it through August without a named storm for, I’m told, the first time in twenty-five years.

  49. Great post, as always. My Circadians left me, years ago, so between barking dogs, mewing rescued kitties, occasional gunfire here in the hood, I sleep irregularly anyway, However- after seeing portions Asshat Biden’s demonic, red backlit, nazi-like background for his truly insane, dictator speech, keeping the firearms handy is a no brainer for me. Remember that awesome song- Keep Your Rifle By Your Side? Although from a video game, the lyrics have proven to b rather prophetic

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