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Jack of Diamonds

@tomatopotatotomato.bsky.social
60 followers 87 following 2 posts
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Reposted by Jack of Diamonds
shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 15h
new: federal authorities tapped into a network of flock license plate readers and surveillance cameras owned by chicagoland police during their failed attempts to prosecute marimar martinez and anthony ruiz for following immigration agents last october.
chicagoreader.com
Feds tapped local surveillance networks in botched Chicago prosecutions - Chicago Reader
During their failed efforts to prosecute Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz, federal authorities accessed a network of Chicagoland license plate readers and surveillance cameras.
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Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“Operation Midway Blitz asked us all one question: what will you do when agents swarm your community? Everyone found their place, whether 3D printing whistles, offering rides to school or medical appointments, court accompaniment, or grocery shopping.”
southsideweekly.com
Everything is On Fire
Reflections on what kept us going on the anniversary of Midway Blitz.
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AMPTsuper @amptsuper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"They had 20% fewer emergency department visits and 31% fewer hospitalizations than similar patients who did not receive meals." www.npr.org/2026/09/26/n...
npr.org
Meal deliveries can save money and improve health. Will they survive Medicaid cuts?
Some states deliver meals to Medicaid patients that address their dietary needs. Evidence shows it aids recovery and saves healthcare costs, but federal budget cuts may lead some states to cancel it.
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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 24/09/2026
Senators’ report says taxpayers face higher bills after ‘bargain’ between president and major polluters
theguardian.com
Fossil-fuel firms in line for billions in benefits after answering Trump’s donation call
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 23/09/2026
Five cops in Indianapolis were just criminally charged with abusing Flock to spy on their ex-wives, their wives' ex-partners and women they met on duty. Audit was triggered by us at the @washingtonpost.com, the prosecutor said. From last month: wapo.st/4yfNHng
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Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 19/09/2026
Beef production has been the largest driver of deforestation this century. Over the last two decades, around 128 million hectares of forest have been cleared to make way for agriculture and forest plantations. That’s an area five times the size of the United Kingdom.
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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 11/09/2026
DOGE is still running the show: The Bureau of Land Management gave its state directors *3 days* to list public lands that could be turned over to Big Tech to build AI hyperscalers, after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met with Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy
washingtonsun.com
Inside Trump’s Aggressive Push to Build Data Centers on Public Lands
The Interior secretary is quietly meeting with AI hyperscalers while seeking to accommodate them on his department’s land.
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Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
A city on guard: What the raids left behind after Operation Midway Blitz. Our latest story with @andrew-carter.bsky.social @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social and @ckubzansky.bsky.social @chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com/2026/09/13/c...
chicagotribune.com
A city on guard: What the raids left behind after Operation Midway Blitz
It’s been a year since the Trump Administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” What it left behind can be measured in the number of neighborhood patrollers, people who keep a wary eye from apartment balc...
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Guardian US @us.theguardian.com · 19/08/2026
Turn the Volume Up! at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University highlights the activism of everyday people who have confronted injustice. The show examines how protests and collective action can create and inspire social change
theguardian.com
‘Jim Crow must go’: the artists and everyday heroes who fought injustice – in pictures
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The thing about “woke 1” was that it was substantially correct.
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Yale School of Public Health @yalesph.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
According to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health, a single-payer universal health care system could: ➡️ Cover every American ➡️ Save more than 100,000 lives a year ➡️ Cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace 1/
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
"Elections can change the conditions in which we struggle, sometimes dramatically. But observing and reacting to electoral events will not build the relationships, networks, skills, and forms of collective power that we are going to need." organizingmythoughts.org/resisting-to...
“Democrats appear poised to capitalize on Trump's failures without offering anything politically transformative. This is a model of politics that has already been out-wrestled by fascism. Without a larger shift in the balance of power, it will eventually be out-wrestled again. We need leftward momentum, and a level of organization and built power that the Democrats would shudder to defy.” - Kelly Hayes
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Rep. Mike Levin @levin.house.gov · 07/08/2026
$4 BILLION. That’s how much the Trump Administration has now spent paying companies to cancel offshore wind projects that would have lowered your electric bill. Yes, you heard that right: they are PAYING to keep more energy off the grid and your bills higher.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration to Pay RWE to Cancel Wind Leases
It was the fifth such deal struck by the administration to get companies to drop offshore wind projects.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Steve Rattner: Over 5 million low-income Americans — including at least 1.5 million children — have lost access to food assistance due to Trump's SNAP cuts last year. Most of the hardest hit states are traditionally Republican, resulting in growing hunger crises in states like Arizona.
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 06/08/2026
The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would move forward with a plan to eliminate hundreds of federal regulations governing Head Start, in what advocates fear is a push to gut the program aimed at helping the most impoverished young children in the U.S.
nyti.ms
Trump Administration to Deregulate Head Start, Antipoverty Program Created Under R.F.K. Jr.’s Uncle
While administration officials say the changes will save money by lifting onerous requirements, advocates fear the anti-poverty program will be gutted.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 04/08/2026
Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"
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Nancy Levine Stearns @nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
ICE is a for-profit scam Private Prison Companies’ Enormous Windfall: Who Stands to Gain as ICE Expands For years private prison companies have been an important partner for ICE as the government carries out its immigration agenda. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...
brennancenter.org
Private Prison Companies’ Enormous Windfall: Who Stands to Gain as ICE Expands
For years private prison companies have been an important partner for ICE as the government carries out its immigration agenda.
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W.E.D.em Boyz @leftistwonk.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
With reports of a brain-dead Mitch McConnell, it is critical to avoid the distinction that people want to make between Trump and the GOP. McConnell is the most effective and destructive politician of the 21st century and was the architect of Trump's entire agenda.
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Peter Nickeas @peternickeas.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
A story about how Gov. JB Pritzker presided over the expansion of a predatory and extractive industry. This, by @ctoner.bsky.social and @maggiedough.bsky.social #chicago capitolnewsillinois.com/news/addicte...
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Library of Congress @librarycongress.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
For #Juneteenth: 70+ years after the Civil War, the WPA's Federal Writers' Project began interviewing elderly Americans who remembered being enslaved. These moving narratives & photos are now held here at the Library. Narratives: www.loc.gov/collections/... Photos: www.loc.gov/pictures/ite...
Betty Simmons, Age about 100. Taken between 1936 and 1938. WPA Slave Narrative Project: Container, A932, vol. 16, part 4. Federal Writer's Project, United States Work Projects Administration (USWPA). Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

An old African American woman in a button down dress stands in front of a chair with her hands clasped, looking at the camera. The chair is outside, positioned in front of a house. A younger woman stands on the porch behind her.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Grand jury testimony on Broadview 6 released today reinforces something I laid out last week: The prosecution was entirely focused on @katmabu.bsky.social. It started with her, implicated Cat Sharp bc Abughazelah had liked a post tagging her, and focused on Andre Martin bc he said he worked for her.
Update: Agent Hylton’s testimony on October 9 reinforces my point here, that this prosecution all arose out of targeting Abughazaleh.

First, the presentation of defendants started with her, and started from one of her posts about the incident.

Q. So let’s start with defendant — one of the defendants who is Katherine Marie Abughazaleh. And you’ll see the names when I do the indictment. Usually I put something up for you, but I have the videos so I don’t want to do that. So let’s go to — in searching the internet, did law enforcement find that an individual using the name Kat Abughazaleh —

It did not present the events that happened leading up to that confrontation, or the White House focus on her. It then implicated Cat Sharp — one of the defendants against whom DOJ dropped charges before the whole thing fell apart — based off Abughazaleh liking a video she appeared in.

Q. Let’s talk about Catherine Sharp. Did law enforcement find a similar video of the incident on the social media Instagram account of a third-party who I will refer to as Individual A?

A. Yes.

Q. Did Kat Abughazaleh indicate a like of the post the video on Individual A’s Instagram account?

Later in the presentation, Mecklenburg focused on Andre Martin by describing not that he had posted or spoken about the incident (as everyone else had), but that he worked for Abughazaleh.

Okay. I have two more for you. Andre Martin.

Did law enforcement find a social media page of an individual who posted that he worked for Kat Abughazaleh?

A. Yes.

Q. Was that individual named Andre Martin?
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 17/06/2026
This crusade against antifa is a cover for a wide net of First Amendment suppression against any kind of left-leaning individual or group. trib.al/aZFSigq
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 10/06/2026
I know I will likely never make it past the first stage of grand jury selection (either side can just read this post aloud) but reading the Broadview grand jurors' push back to prosecutors makes me almost envious of the opportunity
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Ungovernable Jamie Lynn @jamielynnkitten.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I want to be friends with this unidentified grand juror.
Grand juror: Are you actually presenting any new actual facts or just a different viewpoint on your side?

Ms. Mecklenburg: Okay. I'm feeling the skepticism already. Are you going to be able to listen with an open mind? Tell me the truth. 

Grand juror: I — no. 

Ms. Mecklenburg: Okay. The. You have to go —

Grand juror: I heard this case like last week and I thought it was a crock of shit then and I still think it is. 

Ms. Mecklenburg: Okay. Thank you for your opinion for everybody.
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
This Vought policy is an attempt to choke out American higher education. America's fascists view its institutions of higher ed—and the people who staff them—as existential enemies of the purified nation
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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Because this country likes to forget what it’s capable of, I take it as a duty to remind us. We sit at the brink of the largest decimation of Black political power since the fall of Reconstruction — a Second Redemption. And the end of Black political power means the end of democracy itself.
nytimes.com
The Civil Rights Era Is Collapsing Before Our Eyes
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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 22/05/2026
one of the problems with media coverage of this guy is NOT that they all like him & want him to succeed but that they are so addicted to their unnatural writing style that it serves to downplay the severity of what they're trying to describe how many places here things could have been said simpler
Sidestepping the Rules, Trump Serves Himself  
A Once-Unthinkable Move on His Taxes  

By PETER BAKER  

WASHINGTON — It is hard to imagine that any previous president would have thought he could engage in such an audacious act of self-dealing.  

Sure the government he runs, then, can be run like his very own business, by barring the Internal Revenue Service from auditing his past returns. And as part of his effort, he worked for $18 billion of taxpayer money to bolster his allies.  

President Trump has used the federal government to advance the personal interests of those on his family and allies more expansively and openly than any occupant of the White House. His very review of history would suggest he has a point.  

But as Mr. Trump, the typical self-interested businessman, stands on the stage of history, his actions do much more than merely benefit himself. They are audacious enough that they risk once-invincible standing in the 16th shows he returned to power in a way that had not previously been done.  

His self-granted writ of immunity from the I.R.S. amounts to a get-out-of-audits-free card, essentially the equivalent of permanently being exempt from audits and forgiving any chance after penalties. While he isn’t the only one that conducts such activities out publicly known, his return from 1990, perhaps remarkably, did not say that his liability might have increased substantially as he is told.  

The I.R.S. audit exemption for new taxpayers of his type generally happens without him ever responding to what he may have done.  

Continued on Page A14
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
“.. What is happening is an assault on democracy, and they’re using the easiest vector, which is anti-Black racism, because it’s the easiest thing you could do, the laziest thing you can do,” Nelson said. @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/05/22/m...
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Some notes now that I’ve seen the transcript of the hearing, thanks to @lizdye.bsky.social . First: the government dismissed the felony count in an effort to convince the judge not to make them produce full transcripts, knowing they showed serious misconduct.
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Jason Meisner @jmetr22b.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Story: Feds dismiss remaining counts in 'Broadview Six' case after serious misconduct was revealed before not one but two federal grand juries, which was hidden from the judge until she agreed to look at unredacted transcripts. Still developing: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/21/p...
chicagotribune.com
Feds dismiss remaining counts in ‘Broadview Six’ case
Just five days before a jury trial was set to begin, federal prosecutors have dismissed all remaining counts in the “Broadview Six” case.
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Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
blockclubchicago.org
Charges Against Broadview Protesters Dropped After Feds Admit To Grand Jury 'Errors'
The U.S. Attorney's Office's decision to drop the charges followed a surprise Thursday hearing where a federal judge detailed misconduct on the behalf of federal prosecutors during the grand jury proc...
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Jason Meisner @jmetr22b.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
///BREAKING/// The feds are DISMISSING all remaining counts in the politically charged "Broadview Six" case days before trial, marking the final collapse of what had been one of the marquee criminal cases to come out of Operation Midway Blitz. Background: www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/07/b...
chicagotribune.com
Judge tells ‘Broadview Six’ defendants ‘Congratulations’ and dismisses conspiracy count
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed the felony conspiracy count against the remaining defendants in the “Broadview Six” case, further winnowing a politically charged prosecution that is now down to ...
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Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Comprehensive account of how current federal govt is hounding qualified researchers out of the USA. This is the most anti-science counter-Enlightenment administration this country has ever had. www.indystar.com/story/news/e...
indystar.com
How a mislabeled package led to a deportation and closed IU labs
Federal authorities have charged and deported several Chinese academics, including two at IU, for what critics claim are technicalities.
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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 01/05/2026
It's May Day in Chicago and across from the United Center, labor and immigrant advocacy groups are gathering in a local park ahead of the afternoon's planned marches and rallies. Atmosphere is very festive; people are getting down to Dolly Parton's "9 to 5."
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Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez @ramirez.house.gov · 22/04/2026
Trump and his cronies around the world are the most dangerous “transnational criminal network” threatening us.    They are swindling us, stealing our hard-earned dollars, waging a war in our cities, and committing war crimes abroad – all for private profit.
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Subscribe to Radio Free America (link in bio) @kleinman.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Orban achieved a level of authoritarian consolidation unthinkable here and they still successfully got rid of him. Never let the doomers have the final say.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 06/04/2026
really like this quote from john bingham the goat on citizenship from 1867
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Bebo, Chicago Rat Czar 🐀 @bebopott.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Eugene Debs, May Day 1919 “With every drop of my blood I defy their law, and I despise them. I am appealing to you, to the common people; I care nothing about the Supreme Court, corporation lawyers every one of them. The Supreme Court is not the court of last resort; the people are.”
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Lee Drutman @leedrutman.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Correction. Orwell never said this. He did however, warn that: "political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” (That's Politics and the English Language, one of my favorite essays)
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 04/03/2026
DHS repeatedly said that an aggressive apartment raid in Chicago last fall was prompted by intel on a gang takeover. Documents show the real story behind the raid was to target alleged squatters — with the landlord's blessing.
propublica.org
The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building
The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But new documents make no mention of the gang and reveal federal agents had information about “ille...
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Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez @ramirez.house.gov · 03/03/2026
From Gaza to Iran, warmongers are murdering innocent children. Iranians civilians, including more than 80 girls and teachers at a school, are dead because of Trump's illegal action.
abcnews.com
Iranian officials claim school hit during US-Israeli army strikes
Dozens of students at an all-girls elementary school were among those killed amid the U.S.-Israel strikes in the country Saturday, Iranian officials said.
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Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez @ramirez.house.gov · 04/03/2026
Fascists and despots start wars to remain in power and enrich themselves with no regard for the civilians put at risk. For the Trump administration, our lives are expendable in their pursuit of power.
abcnews.com
Trump on stranded Americans: 'It happened to all very quickly'
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
After months of relentless rapid response in Minneapolis, members of Defend the 612 had a moment to breathe and reflect on the lessons they’ve learned, the grief they carry, and the citywide fellowship they hope will endure. The crisis is not over, and I’m grateful they made time to speak with me.
organizingmythoughts.org
“We Belong to Each Other Now”: Lessons from Minneapolis
“This extreme closeness, togetherness and intimacy — you cannot infiltrate your way into a space where you'll understand that," says May, a rapid responder in Minneapolis.
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Delia Catalina Ramirez @delia.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Look, if they don't like the comparison, maybe they should take off their hoods.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/02/2026
crickets from the free speech crowd, of course
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the garbage store boy @screaming.party · 04/02/2026
I've never been a conspiracy theory guy, but you're never gonna convince me that there hasn't been a specific cabal of ultra-rich dullards trying to buy, strangle, and bring to heel all of the most important reality-shaping machines since the uptick in power labor had during COVID
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Everybody has it backwards. Billionaires aren’t buying up these institutions to make money. They’re buying them to kill them. Same as the oligarchs destroying government and social programs and things like weather forecasting and regulatory bodies. They’re creating a world they control completely
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Jodi Cohen @jodiscohen.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
BREAKING: The Trump administration repeatedly said the aggressive apartment raid in Chicago last fall was prompted by intel on a gang takeover. New docs show the real motivation was to get alleged squatters. And the landlord and manager helped them. www.propublica.org/article/chic...
propublica.org
The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building
The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But new documents make no mention of the gang and reveal federal agents had information about “ille...
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Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Marimar Martinez goes to Washington, says she wants Trump officials to admit she's not a 'domestic terrorist' From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
chicago.suntimes.com
Marimar Martinez goes to Washington, says she wants Trump officials to admit she's not a 'domestic terrorist'
Martinez once appeared at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse as a criminal defendant. Now cleared of wrongdoing, the U.S. citizen told Democratic Senators and House members in Washington, D.C., about her ...
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