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Reposting from the Democrats! thread to here, a product of my sleep deprived 3AM stupor this morning.Syndlig posted:TIme for a 3:00 AM yelling into the infinite void of a terrible thread in C-SPAM! Since I'm located in the Austin area, I'm again only focusing on Travis and WIlliamson Counties. I doubt I'm the only Austin-area goon on the forums, and hopefully some other goons from the area are reading this and also happen to be Dems. Another important thing to note here is there are a significant amount of empty Precinct Chairs in the area ripe for being filled! I'll list the ones I know of (again, for my two counties): Williamson County - 43 vacant seats: 140, 149, 150, 151, 160, 172, 182, 197, 198, 204, 207, 216, 254, 259, 264, 267, 283, 305, 309, 310, 311, 312, 333, 339, 342, 369, 371, 379, 392, 395, 402, 403, 413, 426, 428, 429, 434, 436, 455, 456, 484, 488, 491 Travis County - 95 vacant seats:102, 104, 107, 108, 112, 114, 117, 120, 122, 136, 140, 141, 142, 148, 149, 153, 160, 163, 203, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 215, 216, 217, 219, 220, 224, 227, 228, 233, 241, 244, 248, 253, 266, 273, 274, 303, 305, 306, 307, 309, 313, 323, 324, 325, 326, 330, 335, 336, 339, 343, 344, 349, 351, 352, 356, 357, 361, 368, 369, 370, 372, 401, 403, 404, 405, 406, 411, 415, 416, 419, 423, 424, 425, 427, 428, 430, 431, 435, 436, 437, 444, 446, 447, 448, 452, 454, 461, 463 From what I can tell, the responsibilities of a Precinct Chair, at least in Texas, is to go to monthly meetings and be a voting member of County Democratic Party. This means you'll be able to vote on policies, fundraising, etc. for your county. They also are in charge of voter outreach for their precinct - this is as much or as little as you want to do. Block walking, phone calls, hell maybe even setting up community events. Basically a precinct chair is the local-level GOTV machine for the county. I'm running for my precinct chair, Williamson County Chair #160. After meeting with some of my local area Dems at the WilCo Young Dems happy hour, I was told that the WCDP meeting this thursday will have a number of elected officials, precinct chairs, and campaign staff, which will be a very good opportunity to get your names and ideas thrown about. There are a significant number of empty chairs that need filling, so if you have any interest in actually effecting change there's no excuse not to at the very least show up to one of the meetings in the quoted post! EDIT: If you're thinking about claiming a precinct chair and don't know what your voting precinct is, you can look it up online (though I can't find a link that works!). Failing that, just show up and ask. Someone should be able to figure out your precinct by your address. surfacelevelspeck has issued a correction as of 15:38 on Dec 6, 2016 |
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Dec 5, 2016 22:18
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TRAVIS COUNTY GOONS
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Man your state party sounds way cooler than my state party. Wanna trade?
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Dec 6, 2016 19:43
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Just got back from the first "What's Next?" meeting Jimmy Flannigan is hosting, and I've got to say I'm starting to feel pretty good about things around here. I won't go into too much detail, but one of the main themes of the meeting was "building a network of community leaders". Basically what it boils down to is a network of people that will be able to provide volunteer work, donations, etc. while keeping local Dem/progressive leaders connected with one another. It sounds like a shitload of work, but also sounds like it could do an amazing amount of good if it gets off the ground. If you're in the Austin area, please go to one of these meetings. There's another one this Sunday at 3:00PM, and if you have any interest at all in volunteerism, where to send donations, how to start in politics, you can't go wrong with making an Austin city councilman one of your contacts.
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Dec 7, 2016 04:50
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Pollyanna posted:considering going to Boston DSA tonight, but I've got food at home I wanna get cooked....... I saw your posts in the Democrats thread, and you might not read this one, but I'm still gonna say "hey, don't get discouraged". Even if you don't want to go to meetings and don't want to get into some crazy elected position or whatever, you should try to go to a single meeting. Meet people, get some business cards/email addresses/phone numbers/whatever. You can still keep in contact with activists and do stuff from the comfort of your own home, like letting them know what's going on in your HOA/neighborhood that they might be able to help with. Activism isn't just "Rah Rah! I'm gonna man the phone banks for 6 hours a day and join 14 committees!", it's also people just hearing about poo poo and letting their local representatives/parties/charity groups know. Hell, if you don't even want to do that much, and have a couple bucks to spare, find some good local charities and donate  .
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Dec 7, 2016 15:34
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Barracuda Bang! posted:My understanding of the Tea Party is that they basically ran into similar issues with the Republican Party local groups when they were getting started, and that part of their ferocity had to do with how frustrated they were because of it. This doesn't surprise me in the least. Operational obscurity and intentional stonewalling of potential newcomers (and thus, potential threats to your power) is not a uniquely Democrat thing. We just have to make sure that angry Dems and progressives are mad and active enough to actually do the same thing the Tea Party did and make a hole in the wall. Speaking of being active (perfect segue, 10/10)! The Williamson County Democrat Party is having their monthly meeting tonight at 6:45 at the Allan R Baca Center, Round Rock TX. If at all possible I'm going to be donating to join and volunteering/nominating myself for the position of Precinct 160 chair, because I really don't feel like waiting an entire month for something to maybe happen. It'd be nice if I could be joined by fellow goons doing the same for their respective precincts (if they're empty, since appointments can't be made to filled chairs). Also happening today in Travis County, the Black Austin Democrats are meeting at 6:00 at the Precinct 1 Constable Building, 4717 Heflin Lane, Austin TX. If you're a black dem/progressive, or want to support black dems/progressives, or just want to go to a dem meeting and don't want to drive all the way up to Round Rock for a county meeting that's not even your own county, go to this meeting. There's no time like now to start building up your network of contacts, especially in communities that are likely to be hit hardest by Republican legislation. GlyphGryph posted:Send me an e-mail. Something you might consider for your site: maybe a page that lets people submit requests for information for their local parties and sends an email to people willing to root out that information? I'd be willing to try to find information regarding Texas parties, especially since I've already traded contact info with about a dozen or so connected people and might have a better chance to get information that a layman might have issues finding. Also could be useful is a resource that shows the meeting times/locations of state and county parties, either as some sort of searchable database or as State > County page links?
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Dec 8, 2016 20:52
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GlyphGryph posted:That's a good idea - if not for the site, at least for the OP! I'd be happy to have people take over regional investigations. Especially from Florida, since like half of my requests so far have been for there. Sure, sending you a PM. And to the second point, yeah, I thought it might be a little too ambitious for a single person, but a list of "here's who to contact to get information about your local parties" is a really good first step.
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Dec 8, 2016 21:37
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Got back from the Williamson County Democrat Party meeting about an hour ago; it was pretty cool, actually. The meeting itself was incredibly boring (it's primarily business stuff) but I was able to meet more of the county party members, and made my interest in being precinct chair semi-official. I also met a fellow goon who read my posts and decided to show up, and who expressed interest in being the precinct chair for his precinct, so I feel pretty fuckin' stoked about that. I also apparently already have become something of a known figure, because before and after the meeting people were coming up to me and introducing themselves with "You're the new guy, aren't you? I'm <name>!".
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Dec 9, 2016 05:23
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Hey, goon I met at the WCDP meeting last night, post in here or send me a PM so I can give you my personal email and cell #, instead of the work ones that were on my business card. Since we're in neighboring precincts, it'll probably be easier for us to coordinate stuff versus trying to coordinate through the folks in Taylor/Round Rock/Cedar Park.
surfacelevelspeck has issued a correction as of 19:38 on Dec 9, 2016 |
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Dec 9, 2016 19:35
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Here's an obvious one that I think most liberals/progressives agree on (to a degree), but still worth adding to the list: "Everyone Deserves A Vote" It's an utter failing of the democratic process that there are people who are unable to vote due to failure to register, lack of ability to reach voting stations, or other reasons. 1. Automatic voter enrollment upon turning 18 for all US citizens. All naturalized citizens are automatically enrolled upon taking the oath and receiving their naturalization. Make it illegal to strip a citizen of their voting rights for any reason, most notably change of address and incarceration. 2. Mandatory 2-week early voting period, including weekends. 3. Election Day is a mandatory county/state/national holiday, allowing those who can't vote early to vote on election day. 4. Equal distribution of voting stations in all precincts and districts. Strict regulation and harsh fines for states in violation of this regulation. 5. Declare all voter ID laws unconstitutional. 6. Allow all citizens to vote by mail, for any reason, not just disabled citizens and citizens of a certain age. Targets: Minorities, the elderly, the disenfranchised, and working class citizens. Opposition: By and large, conservatives and Republicans. Increases in voter turnout pulls the overall voting population to the center or center-left. That's maybe not such an easy soundbite since it has so many parts, but each one is equally important. Maybe split this into two groups, anti-disenfranchisement and overall reform? Comedy Option: "Eat the Rich" Summary: The bourgeoisie have gone too long without being eaten. Let's rectify that. Targets: The working class. Also would provide food for those below the poverty line. Opposition: Those not wanting to be eaten.
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Dec 9, 2016 21:31
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AbDomen posted:I'm a permanent resident (green card) and have lived in the US for a few years, though I'm still pretty far from citizenship. Can I still get involved in some way? Yes. Absolutely yes you can get involved. You might not be able to be a voting member of a party, i'm not sure on the rules for that (I'm assuming it requires citizenship), but you can still go to meetings, volunteer, donate, and start making inroads so that in the future when you do get the chance to vote, you're already well-placed in your local party. What's your city/county/state? Glyph's probated right now but I can still see if I can point you in the right direction or find someone for you to contact.
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Dec 9, 2016 22:15
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Alright, revised set of conditions then? 1. Automatic voter enrollment upon turning 18 for all US citizens. All naturalized citizens are automatically enrolled upon taking the oath and receiving their naturalization. Make it illegal to strip a citizen of their voting rights for any reason, most notably change of address and incarceration. 2. Mandatory 2-week early voting period, including weekends and the monday before Election Day. This gives voters the maximum possible opportunity to cast their ballot. 3. Equal distribution of voting stations in all precincts and districts. Strict regulation and harsh fines for states in violation of this regulation. 4. Allow all citizens to vote by mail, for any reason, not just disabled citizens and citizens of a certain age. The original #5 has a slim chance of becoming reality if the Supreme Court suddenly decides to not be abysmal about voter rights, though that's not likely.
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Dec 9, 2016 23:01
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Spent a couple hours today making phone calls for a runoff election in my area. Man, I'm enthused about volunteering but that is some boring rear end poo poo. Gotta give my respect to anyone who does that all day for multiple days during election season.mastajake posted:A week or two ago I signed up to get involved with the Dallas County (Texas) Democrats and just got an email back about it yesterday, so hopefully I'll be able to get involved soon. So looking up your county, you've got a Dallas County Young Democrats meeting on Tuesday @ 6:30 at 3903 Cedar Springs Rd. If you wanna start getting connected sooner rather than later, that's a good meeting to go to. Most goons here probably fall under the category of "Young Democrat", which is typically "40 or under". You've got a fuckload of clubs to join in your area, though it looks like the county party itself isn't terribly open, every meeting on their calendar has been cancelled. AbDomen posted:Sadly part of my willingness is due to the recent election result. I probably wouldn't care much about politics otherwise. Don't feel bad about that, I'm sure the majority of us only started giving a poo poo once we realized we got shellacked. Looking at your county party's website, they meet every 2nd Monday, so your next meeting is actually tomorrow @ 6:00 PM at Albany County Public Library, 310 S 8th St, Laramie WY. If you're not busy, you should drop by and see how active the party is. If they're as small as the photos imply you should have no issue becoming important just by showing up. EDIT: Also a couple of your state representatives are part of your county party so that's even cooler! surfacelevelspeck has issued a correction as of 22:03 on Dec 11, 2016 |
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Dec 11, 2016 21:55
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Travis County Goons: here's your events happening this week. Sorry I posted this late and ended up missing a Forum this morning at 11:45 AM. Mon, Dec 12 @ 6:00pm at Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto Blvd. Liberal Austin Democrats are having a membership party and holding elections. Dunno if this is an open event, might want to call ahead and find out. Tue, Dec 13 @ 6:30pm at Wright Bros. Brew and Brew, 500 San Marcos St #105. Austin Young Democrats are holding their monthly meeting. Wed, Dec 14 @ 5:30pm at El Gallo Restaurant, 2910 S Congress Ave. South Austin Democrats and Austin Tejano Democrats are having a party. Again, call ahead to find out about it. Wed, Dec 14 @ 6:30pm at 3418 N Lamar Blvd. Stonewall Democrats of Austin are having a happy hour/business meeting. Thu, Dec 15 @ 6:00pm at 4717 Heflin Ln. Black Austin Democrats are holding their monthly meeting. Williamson County Goons: There's only one event happening the rest of this month, which is the WCDP Holiday Party on Thu, Dec 15 @ 6:30pm at 445 E Morrow St, Georgetown. $25 door fee, might be worth going to. I'm going, hopefully I'll meet more Wilco goons there? There's also runoffs happening tomorrow, so if you can get to your district's voting station you should. I don't know enough about any of the elections to say one way or the other, but here's the party endorsements if that means anything to you: WCDP & TCDP are endorsing Sean Hassan for ACC Place 4, and a bunch of clubs are also endorsing Julie Nitsch for ACC Place 9. TCDP is also endorsing Alison Alter for Austin City Council District 10.
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Dec 12, 2016 22:41
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OhFunny posted:So I was looking at the NH Young Democrats calendar for events and meetings and it's just blank. If you've got any interest in it, I'd ask if there's anything that you can help out with regarding logistics/organizing or web administration. Otherwise, probably just introduce yourself and try to keep up on when meetings are so you can show up and make a good impression.
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Dec 13, 2016 22:33
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GlyphGryph posted:I'm going a little crazy not being able to go to any meetings or poo poo this month, I want to be out there doing poo poo. I've been to some meetings and did some volunteer work for the runoffs, but I feel like there's gotta be something more I can do. The next meeting for any of the Wilco clubs/parties isn't for nearly 3 weeks, so I've suddenly gone from going to several meetings a week to crickets. Regarding the Alpine County Democrats, it looks like their website no longer exists, unfortunately. The California Dems site has their phone # listed as (530) 694-9691 and email as kylescabin@gmail.com. Their facebook page had a post saying they were meeting on Nov 15th, so if they're anything like here that would presumably mean "third tuesday", which would be in 4 days. I'm gonna send an email to that address and see if I can get anything for you, but the person looking might need to send them a message on facebook (I don't actually have a facebook account, so...).
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Dec 16, 2016 20:10
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Happy new years, everyone! Hopefully you've all recovered from your holiday-induced food comas. I'm not gonna bother putting up meeting dates for my counties since their websites (mostly) don't suck and actually have meeting times on them. Reminder to the goon that went to meetings after reading my posts that there's a Wilco Young Dems meeting on the 5th at Third Base on 183, which is a pretty informal meeting where you can get drunk and talk politics. Also, you still haven't posted yet, but hopefully you're still looking into being a precinct chair. I've been looking into what groups other than the Democrat party exist in the area, and it seems like they're it. The Austin, TX branch of the DSA seems disorganized at best or nonexistent at worst - their website doesn't list meetings, nor does their Facebook page, and comments on the Facebook page make it look like there's only 6 of them total. It might be worth getting in contact with them just to try to see if there's anything I can do to help, but it feels like something of a dead end in terms of tangible near-future activism. Aside from that, I think the Democrat party is the only left-leaning group here. If anyone's in WIlliamson/Travis county and wants to be a precinct chair or run for an officer position in the party, those meetings are being held this month. Williamson County is holding a Candidate Recruitment meeting on Jan 11 @ 7:00PM at 1915 S Austin Ave. Suite 102, Gerogetown. I think you have to declare your candidacy at or before this meeting to be considered. Travis County, I'm not actually sure. The county party has no meetings on the calendar, so I don't know if they conduct their business at the same place as one of their local clubs. If you're interested in running for an officer position or precinct chair you're SOL if the slot is full, candidacy needed to be declared before Dec 13th, but if you want to fill an empty slot I'd suggest calling them at (512) 477-7500 and getting info on their appointment process. Travis seems more insular than Wilco, probably due to it being a far more blue county and so they don't have to fight tooth and claw, but they still seem pretty open to newcomers.
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Jan 1, 2017 21:12
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jarofpiss posted:austin dsa is supposed to have a lot of members. i can find out where/when they hold meetings if you want Sure, that'd be helpful. I'll probably go to their meetings and keep in contact but I'm still gonna see what can be done with the county parties, but I'm sure there're some goons who'd rather join the DSA over the Dems.
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Jan 2, 2017 02:58
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jarofpiss posted:DSA Austin meets every third Thursday at 7pm at Scholz's in Austin. 1607 San Jacinto BLVD Austin TX. I've heard they have good numbers but I've never been to a meeting. Maybe I will drive up one day and visit. Awesome. You are a gentleman and a scholar. I'll definitely go check out one of their meetings, since that's like a 10 minute drive from where I work.
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Jan 3, 2017 18:50
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If you're in Williamson and were planning on going to the Young Dems meeting tomorrow, don't go. It's been cancelled for this month, and they're looking to change venues to attract more people than just the Austin area. I decided to nominate myself for the Brushy Creek Regional Chair for the Western Wilco Democratic Club, so I'm now officially a dues-paying member of that club, and next Thursday I'll also be the precinct chair for my voting precinct. I really hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this, but gently caress it, if no one else is gonna do it, I sure as hell am.
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Jan 5, 2017 05:13
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OAquinas posted:What exactly do precinct chairs/captains do? Not opposed to jumping in but I'm not gonna pull a Trump and sign up for a job I have no clue about. From what I've been told, precinct chairs are really what you make of it. A lot of chairs tend to be empty, and even of the filled ones sometimes the person really just doesn't do much of anything. The expectations of the precinct chair in my county seems primarily to primarily be to go to meetings and vote, and to try to increase voter turnout in your precinct.
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Jan 5, 2017 22:23
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https://berniesanders.com/ourfirststand/ Here's a link to those rallies on Bernie Sanders' website. If you click "Find A Rally Near You" you can, well, find a rally near you. Doesn't look like there's any in my area, sadly, but I might bring it up at the meeting tomorrow and see if anyone knows anything about it.
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Jan 12, 2017 00:36
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It's been a while since I've posted in here. Sorry about that, I'm actually currently sick with some sort of respiratory infection so I've been (mostly) taking things easy. I did, however, go to the Women's March this past Saturday and it was  . Took a few photos, here's the two best ones to come out of it: This was in the middle of the crowd at the corner of 11th & Congress. I actually was attempting to meet up with my county party but never made it to the meeting spot. The place was so packed it took me almost an hour to get onto the street.  Things got way too warm for me so I started marching on the sidewalk instead, got a nice shot of how thick the crowd was. Organizers reported 50,000+ in attendance, supposedly APD thought it was closer to 100,000-strong. Utterly insane. I didn't take a picture but probably my favorite sign, just because it was a bit absurd, was a huge white sign that said, in tiny text in the center, "I am upset." In party news... I'm going to the Wilco Dems Happy Hour this Thursday (if I'm not still sick, that is), which will be at 6:00 - 8:00 PM at Morelia Mexican Grill, 9900 W Parmer Ln, Austin, TX 78717. If you're from an activist group like the DSA I think it'd be great for you to show up to this - now seems like the perfect time to start getting all the local groups coordinating on some joint effort. Plus you get to get drunk and yell about politics to elected officials, so, hey! Wilco Young Dems had their meeting pushed back, so it might be tomorrow, at Third Base, 13301 U.S. 183, Austin, TX 78750, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM. I haven't received any word that it will in fact be happening, so it might just be off for this month. Williamson County For Bernie and Our Revolution is hosting a monthly meeting tomorrow from 7:00 - 8:00 PM at 3104 Pointe Pl, Round Rock, TX 78681. I probably won't attend due to not wanting to get anyone sick.
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Jan 24, 2017 23:05
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So I gave my resume to my county party chair, and he's handing it up to the state party chair, who I guess will be putting it in some sort of file they draw from when they need work done. Doubt much will come of that, but we'll see! I'm also talking to the few important people and new friends I know from the meetings to see if they need any workers in their offices and/or know of anyone who does. So, uh, if anyone here is in Williamson/Travis County, Texas and knows of some group or organization that needs tech support or whatever then let me know!
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Feb 8, 2017 06:51
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