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Your Boy Fancy posted:We're voting for our governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegates. The HoD is gonna be a mess, since you have NoVA, where all the defense contractors and well to do folk live and vote en masse, vs the rest of the state, which is a combination of ideologues in the exurbs and the Third World America that is the southwest panhandle. Hey, you forgot the two other most potent forces in state-level politics, the Actual Military in Hampton Roads and the unholy alliance of entrenched Democratic interests and teenage marxists in Richmond! I had a threat about this stuff a while back but after the primary it sort of withered, as things rev back up again I might revive it.
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Sep 11, 2017 12:22
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It's not surprising that so many old-school Republicans are seeking to get out of Dodge. Anyone not firmly aligned with the Trump wing faces a Morton's Fork come the next general election, either angry primary voters cast them out of the party, or they face an uphill battle in the general.
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Sep 11, 2017 22:15
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I expect it to turn out similarly to the Boston event a few weeks back, but about midday tomorrow there'll be a neo-Confederate rally on Monument Avenue in Richmond, right in front of the Mother Of All Robert E. Lee statues. The group responsible, which literally calls themselves the New Confederate States of America, has neither applied for nor received a permit to demonstrate on state property (the circle around Lee belongs to the state), or to demonstrate in the City of Richmond. The state police have cordoned off the actual circle of state property, but the city says as long as the protest doesn't block traffic, they can't block it from taking place. There are expected to be a huge number of counterprotestors, and officials say there's no way to be sure how many white nationalist demonstrators can be expected because a) they haven't filed for any permits, b) the group is from out of state and doesn't publish membership information, and c) these groups have a history of busing in people from across the country. Now, Richmond is better prepared than Charlottesville was, because it's not a small university town and in addition to the city cops there will be state and capitol police and officers from nearby VCU's police force. But since this is all very unofficial, they won't be able to separate protestors from counterprotestors, and because Virginia has  literally the worst gun laws, all weapons are banned except for guns which will be present in huge quantities! So there is a chance this will all go super downhill, and I live on the next block over, so there's an outside chance my car gets set on fire by Nazis. 
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Sep 16, 2017 00:18
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Taerkar posted:The last line of that bit only has only one response: So the police are literally forbidden by state law from banning guns at these things, they aren't wrong about that. Remember, VA is one of the most progressive states in the south but when it comes to guns it's basically anarchy. The cops were being deliberately overcautious and as it turned out basically no Confederates showed up; there were a tiny handful who got jeered at by the crowd and then their tires got slashed and they had to call a tow truck and go home. Then a couple more showed up late and got told their friends already left.  So turns out transforming my neighborhood into the loving Green Zone wasn't really needed, but better safe than sorry I guess.All in all it was an appropriate end; after all, the last time a bunch of Confederates were in Richmond, they did a bunch of property damage then ran away. This was just payback.
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Sep 16, 2017 19:03
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Potato Salad posted:Not that I don't believe you, but where are you getting this? Get what? The account of the events on the ground? From friends present, and also local news. The Virginia statute preventing localities from doing any gun control beyond the extremely lax state standard is here. Quorum fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Sep 16, 2017 |
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Sep 16, 2017 19:30
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Radish posted:No kidding he's been really solid. Yeah, as it turns out the executive is a good place for him. The job at the moment boils down to 1) sell Virginia, which is super easy for a guy who is basically a car salesman, 2) get federal dollars, 3) veto the General Assembly's heinous diarrhea. So it's been a good run and I don't regret that vote in the least.
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Sep 17, 2017 22:09
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Crabtree posted:Is there anyone lower on the totem pole also running in VA? I want as much blue or leftism as I can. Lower on the totem pole how? All of the Delegates are up for re-election as well, so there's a lot of Republican delegates being challenged by Democratic up-and-comers. The House of Delegates is two thirds Republican despite Virginia arguably being 55% Democratic or so, which means there's a lot of opportunities for pickups. Sadly, the Senate isn't up for re-election for a couple of years, so this is our one chance to break Republican control over both chambers (and thus thwart a couple of nasty potential constitutional amendments coming down the pipes, but that's getting a bit esoteric for a lot of people's blood). e: also fun fact, the House of Delegates is the oldest elected legislative body in the Western hemisphere, being the successor body to the original House of Burgesses of the Virginia Colony, which first met in 1619! So it deserves better than being run by a pack of morons who keep passing bathroom bills.
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Sep 18, 2017 04:56
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Unkempt posted:The UK parliament at Westminster is west of the meridian at Greenwich and so technically in the Western hemisphere. Probably Iceland too but I can't be bothered to look it up. You are technically correct, and I award ten points to House Goon.
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Sep 18, 2017 15:05
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Again, this isn't great but it does not change the calculations. McCain was already counted as a yes on this. Who matters are Paul, Collins, and Murkowski.
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Sep 18, 2017 19:21
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Your Parents posted:no we should just have community policing that involves actually knowing your neighbors names and making friends with people and looking out for each other instead of paying local governments to fund a bunch of uneducated murderers to steal everyones poo poo with asset forfeiture. Community policing is not the same as having the community police itself, which is nice but insufficient outside anarcho-syndicalist fantasyland.
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Sep 19, 2017 16:51
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Right to work laws are extremely popular, even among a portion of the population who otherwise support unions. The only reason a right-to-work Constitutional Amendment failed here last election cycle is because the argument that we already had a right to work law and an amendment wasn't necessary was fairly effective. It's not super great, but those are the facts on the ground; for whatever reason, Americans are more interested in simple arguments about fairness than complicated discussions about free-rider problems.
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Sep 20, 2017 11:45
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Your Parents posted:they can't be better, they're a party of and for the rich and both democrats and republicans deserve nothing but gunshots on the congress floor. So you basically get your takes from South Park and dress them up with some keyboard warrior rhetoric, then
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Sep 20, 2017 23:24
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axeil posted:https://twitter.com/justinjm1/status/912765879150170112 Fun fact, 538 literally posted an article yesterday about several potential events that could change the calculus in 18 for the Senate. (Menendez retires or is forced out before Christie is gone, McCain dies, etc.) This, or technically Corker losing a primary, was one.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:07
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MizPiz posted:A majority farmers congress would be worth it if only to see every bougie urbanite throw conniption fit. In the age of mechanized agriculture, farmers are bougie. We aren't talking old timey Jeffersonian salt of the earth types here.
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Oct 1, 2017 15:38
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bird food bathtub posted:A completely unsurprising result when one of only two realistically possible political parties goes completely ape-poo poo insane, starts openly supporting white supremacist/nazi organizations and wants to force it's citizenry into bankruptcy, or death, or bankruptcy and then death to give a few more points to it's donor class stock portfolios. That's part of it, but ultimately the southern strategy is to blame in more ways than one. With the completion of the southern strategy in the form of the Tea Party wave of 2010, parties are almost completely geographically and ideologically sorted. You don't have northern and southern wings of the democratic party being basically different parties that align for strategic reasons. Or, rather, you do have different wings, but even the most conservative Democrats are substantially more liberal than the most liberal Republicans. There's a strong line of argument out there that holds such highly sorted and highly polarized party systems aren't stable, and tend to break apart either naturally or under crisis. Granted, most of the analyses on the matter I read happened before the 2016 election, so a lot of them assumed, as did we all, that Donald Trump would lose, and that breaking apart might begin imminently. As it is, the Republican party is doomed to victory for the moment, but the fissures in our party system are already more than apparent.
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Oct 6, 2017 12:59
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Javes posted:https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/919930273533440000 Yep, this has been the vague status quo for a while, this doesn't create new law that I know of. Organizers have been advising participants in public demonstrations to disable fingerprint lock at least since last year.
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Oct 16, 2017 15:56
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Lightning Knight posted:fuuuuuck. A world where Northam loses and Fairfax wins is barely better than both losing. AGs have some autonomous power in Virginia, but most of their clout comes when they are backed up by a friendly governor. If Northam loses I, personally, am hosed. Do not hope for that no matter how you feel like being vindictive. Please.
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Nov 3, 2017 01:56
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Lightning Knight posted:No, I don't want him to lose. He's just a douche. I'm mad at him for deciding to be a douche. Actually he's a super nice guy. He did gently caress up though.
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Nov 3, 2017 02:03
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shrike82 posted:I'm hoping we'll see Northam lose especially after his racist comments. With the Donna Brazile revelations, I'm pretty happy overall with the downward trajectory of the Democrat party. I understand the temptation to be vindictive but hoping real, actual people will come to harm is a lovely thing to do. I guarantee you leftism will not be in a better position in 2020 with one more Republican trifecta (because a Northam loss more or less guarantees that).
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Nov 3, 2017 05:07
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poopinmymouth posted:Do you (or anyone) honestly believe there is a single argument or logic chain that hasn't been used like a baseball bat to hate-bash any leftist who dares to appose the DNC as king/queen maker? You're right. You didn't logic yourself into the position you're in, and you won't logic yourself out. Trying to argue against emotionally charged positions merely entrenches them. And I'm guilty of this as well; I've got plenty of logical arguments for my position but at heart it's a deeply emotional one based on my total abhorrence of the idea of being governed by a member, any member, of the modern republican party. That's why even though it's important to clear the air and have those arguments, I'm afraid that we aren't capable of having them in a way that will actually help.
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Nov 3, 2017 15:11
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Rockopolis posted:Vote for the lovely Democrat because they're not as bad, then get active and harass them until they give in and behave. Vandalizing their poo poo, jeering at their speeches, be disruptive and make their life hell. It's this! Though I'd add also, don't just use a stick. Reward them for good actions. Call in and express your thanks. Show up and cheer. Use both tools, because they do 100% notice. A republican in office? Will tell you to gently caress off every single time. Even the shittiest Democrat who only listens to popular base pressure one time in ten is still a huge gain, and they listen a lot more than that, when you and people like you, gentle thread reader, bother to stay engaged beyond a half hearted vote or failure to vote in the general election.
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Nov 3, 2017 16:02
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Raskolnikov38 posted:why am i rewarding them for being bad then Voting isn't a reward, it's the bare minimum action to put someone in who is capable of being influenced, as the post I'm responding to made quite clear.
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Nov 3, 2017 16:05
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DACK FAYDEN posted:If you had asked this about T-Mac before he was elected, the answer we gave would not have been "approximately 200,000 convicted felons will get their voting rights restored". Yes. Virginia Democrats tend to campaign to the center and govern to the left. And while how you campaign matters and you should make your voices heard about it, how you govern matters more. Ask any leftist about Campaign vs President Obama.
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Nov 3, 2017 16:27
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Raskolnikov38 posted:lol so there's literally no incentive for him to change tracks based on protesting Actually the opposite; basically all governors run for senator down the line, but they don't get the benefits of incumbency when doing so and are thus incentivized to govern well and have something to run on, since they can't just avoid rocking the boat and coast. (This is basically why T-Mac has been so good, he wants to be popular when he runs for Senate.) It's about the only good argument I've seen for this dumb system.
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Nov 3, 2017 16:42
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poopinmymouth posted:Yep, I'm ultra glad I didn't vote for HRC. VA still went blue, I got to vote for an actual pacifist, and I don't regret it for a moment and plan to do so again in 2020 if the DNC serves up another war hawk corporate toady. So everyone can save their lectures for their Trump voting friends and relatives. Right, because other people actually went out there and did something they may or may not have wanted to do, and saved you the effort.
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Nov 3, 2017 17:17
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poopinmymouth posted:Yep, and them falling for HRC's kleptocracy of the DNC is why we have Trump. But I thought you said part of the reason you were happy with your vote is that Virginia still went blue? Did people actually doing the heavy lifting (bare minimum lifting actually but hey) to prevent their state going for an Actual Fascist do a good or bad thing?  Understand, I took to heart your assertion that you are immune to argument and aren't ever budging from your views. I'm just curious.
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Nov 3, 2017 17:20
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poopinmymouth posted:I wasn't clear then. VA going blue is a reason for the HRC parade to mellow on the bullying. I'd still have zero regrets if VA had gone Trump and I'd blame the same people I do in this reality, and that's Trump voters first and foremost, and next those who pushed HRC and fell for her as a candidate over Sanders. I see. Would you say, then, that the layers of abstraction between your vote and the outcome are irrelevant, and that if someone came to you and said you are the electoral college this year and we're installing Donald Trump unless you tell us to install <centrist Democrat of your choice>, you'd not make that substitution? I think that's a principled enough stand, even if I personally abhor the principles. What I can't stand is when people use the layers of abstraction to wimp out on making a tough choice.
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Nov 3, 2017 17:30
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WampaLord posted:Yelling at people in this thread is a real loving waste of your time. Literally all posts here are a waste of time, though, that's sort of a baseline for posting
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Nov 3, 2017 18:31
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twodot posted:Meanwhile, people are arguing that we need to vote for their Republican-lite Democrats, because, simultaneously, our votes are necessary for them to win and also our candidates can't get elected (because they voted against them in the primary). This seems like an assumption. I, for instance, did not vote for the more centrist Democrat in either last year's nor this year's primaries. In fact, the only primary where my preferred candidates won either time was Fairfax in the LTGov primary this year!
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Nov 3, 2017 18:44
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No Butt Stuff posted:If it's a holiday and you don't get a to a local polling place or early vote by mail or whatever then I don't care how the gently caress it effects you A national holiday would not meaningfully benefit most working class people, you'd need a national day where businesses are required to offer people the whole day off, which isn't impossible but would be a staggeringly huge endeavor.
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Nov 3, 2017 20:31
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https://mobile.twitter.com/ElectProject/status/926222450836361216 Filthy centrist vote looking good so far, good work YourBoyFancy! 
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Nov 3, 2017 21:44
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RottenK posted:is Northam just spineless or is there some bigger reason for him making GBS threads his pants every time there's even a slightest chance that he did something to upset racist whites It's because he came up in a political era when Virginia was a lot less blue, like basically all politicians here over forty, or hell thirty, and hasn't really internalized that it's okay to just let it roll off your back, the urban areas have got you. This is why our governors always do better in office, by the way. They don't have to run in this kind of election again and their instincts aren't fighting them.
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Nov 4, 2017 01:46
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SimonCat posted:Not sure what your point is with this one. Is supporting Berghdahl cool just because it pisses off Trump? It's because Tulsi Gabbard is somehow a tankie and jerking off about R Toops, which is pretty impressive honestly Also the man is mentally ill and was tortured for five years, throwing him in jail wouldn't help anybody, but would appeal to authoritarians desperate to punish someone who broke the rules.
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Nov 4, 2017 15:45
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SimonCat posted:She's a Veteran who is pissed off that a dude skated on desertion charges. I really don't see the problem there. He was tortured for five years and is being kicked out with a dishonorable, denying him medical and psychiatric support and severely damaging his job prospects. Someone having a background that inclines them to want him to suffer more than that does not excuse the desire to inflict additional suffering. Tulsi Gabbard sucks.
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Nov 4, 2017 15:54
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Chilichimp posted:Along with pretty much every Veteran or active service member I know, by this logic. I mean... yes? Time served is a very appropriate punishment in this case, Bergdahl was inappropriately admitted to a military that used him and broke him. He deserves our pity as a society, not to be broken further.
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Nov 4, 2017 16:18
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WampaLord posted:"If you were truly empathetic, you'd be empathetic to the people demanding blood" is certainly a fresh argument, i'll give you that. Right. Explanatory factors are not exculpatory. I can understand why, say, suburban white people are afraid of the spooky browns, but that doesn't mean it's okay for them to block the extension of bus lines and vote for Republicans. I get it. The military instills a certain mindset that leads people to demand blood. But they don't deserve to get it, because this is a human being and we ought to try to be a better society than that.
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Nov 4, 2017 16:38
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Chilichimp posted:Warrior ethos and esprit decor are the same thing as ignorance and racism... only in US pol, gat dam. I'm not sure what you're even arguing here anymore. You've already conceded that he doesn't need to be punished further, you just seem to be upset that people are saying soldiers and vets who want him punished are wrong. Like, is this a tone argument or something? Would it help if I said they're probably not bad people for wanting him punished further, they're just motivated by the desire for punishment which is a darker feature of the human psyche?
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Nov 4, 2017 17:19
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Office Pig posted:https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/926872061359861761 Donna Brazile is a terminal moron whom you shouldn't believe about basically anything, especially how she really truly isn't responsible for anything and she thought of doing something super unprecedented that would've gotten her castigated forever, but she just decided not to!
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Nov 4, 2017 19:31
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It's probably true that people in the Democratic Party, a famously broad party currently comprising basically all non-insane political actors in the United States, have complicated feelings about the necessity for leftward movement. Some may even think it's the right thing to do even if it hurts the party in elections!
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Nov 5, 2017 01:49
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Lightning Knight posted:I think the important question is what do "left" and "right" mean to Democratic voters, and do they have working ideological understanding of the difference between democratic socialism, social democracy, neoliberal policy, etc. If nearly half of black respondents think that leftists are a problem for the Democratic party, as per that poll, then what do they perceive to be leftism? It's tempting to think that if we just explained it right everyone would jump aboard, and doing a better job of selling leftist policy is helpful for building support, but I don't think not understanding leftism explains the entirety of that gap. Some of it may well be the cultural conservatism of the more heavily churched segments of the black Democratic base, and some may be a general suspicion of populist messages in general. Either way, it's something any candidate explicitly aligned with the left of the party will need to deal with moving forward. Nice Twitter rando burn I guess?
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Nov 5, 2017 03:50
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