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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You have something to say?

Nobody is watching your clickbait shit.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You have something to say?

Nobody is watching your clickbait shit.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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The video is all Trump.

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Originally posted by second:
The Real Secret Behind Trump’s Insane Tariff Obsession

The president won’t clarify what his price for ending his idiotic trade war is. Maybe that’s because it’s something he dare not say out loud.

Trump’s China tariff is 10 percent (against 25 percent on Canada and Mexico) because China purchased vast numbers of Trump’s memecoins. Citing a report from Business Insider, around 40 very rich and anonymous investors own fully 94 percent of the Trump memecoins. Each of these 40 gave Trump more than $10 million for these worthless trinkets.

Have these very rich investors, whose identities are not publicly available, been following some sophisticated investment strategy well beyond the understanding of you and me? No. These purchases are expensive endearments. Whether those extending them include the Chinese government is anybody’s guess. But whoever they are, they want something in return: Low tariffs.

Which may mean Trump’s price for dropping his hugely costly fantasy of resurrecting William McKinley will be not better behavior from China or Mexico or Canada on trade or border crossings or fentanyl, or even Canada becoming the fifty-first state. It may be that Trump is running a straightforward protection racket on his billionaire new best friends. Is that an outrageous accusation? It is. But tell me with a straight face he wouldn’t try it. Trump is NOT honest Abe Lincoln.

https://newrepublic.com/article/191044/trump-trade-war-income-tax

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Do you hear how pathetic you sound right now?

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Trump is again doing that weird thing where he signs executive orders that need to be explained to him just before he signs them.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Movies like Mulholland Drive change a person after watching it. Doesn't matter if they're aware of it or not. If you watched it, you were just a little bit different when you came out the other end.




And 99% of the rest of Hollywood shovelware is exposition filled garbage that doesn't trust the audience to have an IQ above 70 or possess any critical thinking skills at all, so everything gets told to you in completely inorganic ways... No child left behind, and all that.


"As you already know" is a sentence that should lead to the immediate firing of anybody writing it, reading it out loud or even suggesting it.


I'm not a gambling man, but I'd be willing to wager my house and everything I own that this phrase was never uttered by a single character that Lynch wrote. And I guaranty you that if he ever used it, it was for ironic purposes, and most likely as a setup to something that was going to break your brain an hour and a half later.

Having never watched Dune all the way through though, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody pointed out that Alan Smithee directed a character to say that phrase. But Lynch didn't count that so neither will I.


I wonder if anybody ever traced back the origin to "As you already know."

When is the first time somebody destroyed interesting storytelling with that phrase and when did the suits decide that making that part of their business model going forward was a good long term strategy?

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I just explained it to you above without the need for a clickbait video or a hyper-partisan NYT article.

You are a moron. The Democrat party today is made up of morons.

You're toast.


The only fucking hope you have now is if Trump destroys everything, so it's very apparent to everyone paying attention who the bad guys really are now.

Even CNN is showing the stat of how deeply unpopular the Democrat Party is in America today. You're sitting at about 1/3rd approval.

America hates Democrats.

Time for your party to die.

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Because everybody else playing the card game has a hand so weak that even the most gullible of fish wouldn't believe them if they tried to bluff their way out of it.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Why do you bother posting if that's all you're going to say?

What a waste of everyone's time.

You are a waste of everyone's time.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Because everybody else playing the card game has a hand so weak that even the most gullible of fish wouldn't believe them if they tried to bluff their way out of it.

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Be careful using words like "everyone, nobody, always, and never" ... bc you'd most likely be wrong and it'll contaminate your thinking. There are, actually, two nations more powerful than we are, and a fair few we could win in a fight, but only with a lot of losses (economically and/ or militarily).

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This looks like Trump's "maximum pressure" tactic. Threaten 25% tariffs and then delay them after winning concessions. Threaten to take over Panama, then get Panama to stop cooperating with China on their Belt and Road Initiative.

I wonder what his real aim is for Greenland.

Also, I think he's not done with Canada and Mexico.

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There are not any nations more powerful than we are, although I'd be curious to hear what two you're referring to.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This looks like Trump's "maximum pressure" tactic. Threaten 25% tariffs and then delay them after winning concessions. Threaten to take over Panama, then get Panama to stop cooperating with China on their Belt and Road Initiative.

I wonder what his real aim is for Greenland.

Also, I think he's not done with Canada and Mexico.

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There is a problem with Trump tearing up all kinds of previous agreements, especially one that he negotiated himself: It makes people realize that Trump's agreements are written on air.

You can get away with that when you're dealing with small nations who can only concede to whatever the hell you choose to do, but not so good when you're dealing with a superior or near-peer power.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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There are not any nations more powerful than we are, although I'd be curious to hear what two you're referring to.

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China's economy is the largest in the world

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and the Russian military is superior to ours, even in the nuclear realm.

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Iran could cause us huge heartburn, by cutting off the Straits of Hormuz, thru which most mideast oil flows. Afghani Taliban defeated us, drove us out. Even a group as small as the Houthis can be a problem, sitting on a strategic chokepoint.

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World has changed over the past 30 years. American's ideas of it haven't. That's dangerous.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This looks like Trump's "maximum pressure" tactic. Threaten 25% tariffs and then delay them after winning concessions. Threaten to take over Panama, then get Panama to stop cooperating with China on their Belt and Road Initiative.

I wonder what his real aim is for Greenland.
Also, I think he's not done with Canada and Mexico.

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There is a problem with Trump tearing up all kinds of previous agreements, especially one that he negotiated himself: It makes people realize that Trump's agreements are written on air.

You can get away with that when you're dealing with small nations who can only concede to whatever the hell you choose to do, but not so good when you're dealing with a superior or near-peer power.

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You are missing part of the equation here, Sigs.

Up until now, we have been a net-exporter of US Taxpayer dollars to all of these countries. To virtually every country on the planet.

None of the deals have been fair to America, or were even in-line with American interests in the first place.

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As you know, most of the oligarchs [here?] who have been running the show have made sure of that over the last several decades especially.

This includes China even more than Canada or Mexico, and the Chinese leadership is well aware of this.

They are strong enough to bluff immediate non-compliance and they have spared themselves the embarrassment that the leaders of Canada and Mexico just faced, but they won't do so for long.

They are going to lose in this new deal, but they're smart enough to know that the losses are satisfactory compared to the other potentialities. And Trump will offer them the dignity of making it look like everyone came to an agreement together and not come out looking like a bitch like Justin just did.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This looks like Trump's "maximum pressure" tactic. Threaten 25% tariffs and then delay them after winning concessions. Threaten to take over Panama, then get Panama to stop cooperating with China on their Belt and Road Initiative.

I wonder what his real aim is for Greenland.
Also, I think he's not done with Canada and Mexico.

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There is a problem with Trump tearing up all kinds of previous agreements, especially one that he negotiated himself: It makes people realize that Trump's agreements are written on air.

You can get away with that when you're dealing with small nations who can only concede to whatever the hell you choose to do, but not so good when you're dealing with a superior or near-peer power.

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You are missing part of the equation here, Sigs.

Up until now, we have been a net-exporter of US Taxpayer dollars to all of these countries. To virtually every country on the planet.

None of the deals have been fair to America, or were even in-line with American interests in the first place.

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if you're referring to foreign aid, nearly all of our routine foreign aid goes to ISRAEL AND EGYPT. And, you'll note, those are the two exceptions to the stop payments on foreign aid.

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And most recently Ukraine and the neocon's project to destroy Russia.
Then, there is the DOD hemorrhaging $$$ all over the globe, protecting Japan and the NATO states. Fair to us? No, but that's on us and our deep state, not them.

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As you know, most of the oligarchs [here?] who have been running the show have made sure of that over the last several decades especially.

This includes China even more than Canada or Mexico, and the Chinese leadership is well aware of this.

They are strong enough to bluff immediate non-compliance and they have spared themselves the embarrassment that the leaders of Canada and Mexico just faced, but they won't do so for long.

They are going to lose in this new deal, but they're smart enough to know that the losses are satisfactory compared to the other potentialities. And Trump will offer them the dignity of making it look like everyone came to an agreement together and not come out looking like a bitch like Justin just did.

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What the world has come to depend on is the American market, and that is bc they can get those all-important petrodollars by selling us stuff, which, UNTIL RECENTLY, were required to purchase oil. And oil, being essential to any modern economy, made it imperative that each nation SOMEHOW scrape enough American dollars together to buy the oil it needed. A lot of international loans were made in the American dollar as well, adding to the requirements for American dollars. Many of those loans are still active, and are a great source of revenue for dollar based banks (JPMChase etc).

This gave America the whip hand in purchases, so many nations were forced to sell at rockbottom prices.

No more. Saudi Arabia is accepting yuan in payment. BUT THESE ARE NOT TAX DOLLARS, THEY ARE AMERICAN DOLLARS IN INTERNATIONAL CIRCULATION.

The China story is long and complicated. Until 2008 they hitched their development to the American market. They also built up a fairly large cadre of mini-oligarchs who were wedded to American based profits. 2008 was a wakeup call. The government has been working assiduously to decouple from America, that's what BRI was all about, IMHO. Right now its largest trading partner is ASEAN. But it hasn't been entirely successful, maybe too many Chinese billionaires are pushing against it. American tariffs against Chinese products would be painful, but it might force China to become independent.

I always thought Chinese dependence on being an exporting nation, and especially depending on the American market, was unsustainable. It was good for a jumpstart in development, but China should have transitioned from it decades ago.

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SIX: There are not any nations more powerful than we are, although I'd be curious to hear what two you're referring to.

SIGNY: China's economy is the largest in the world

SIX: Not without us it isn't.

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SIGNYV and the Russian military is superior to ours, even in the nuclear realm.

SIX: Links or it didn't happen.

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SIGNY: Iran could cause us huge heartburn, by cutting off the Straits of Hormuz, thru which most mideast oil flows. Afghani Taliban defeated us, drove us out. Even a group as small as the Houthis can be a problem, sitting on a strategic chokepoint.

SIX: That's because we had a bunch of idiots and bureaucrats running the show. Not to mention that a lot of them were Globalists and didn't have any allegiance to the nation or even the idea of America.

There is not a single country in the world we couldn't obliterate off the face of the globe today if we wanted to.

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SIX: I'm not saying that it wouldn't end up with us wiped off the globe at the same time, but when you're talking about this magnitude of sheer power, it almost hardly matters which country out of the Big 3 even have the strongest military anymore. That being said, none of the Big 3 have any interests in going to war with each other. At least for now, until the Oil really starts running out.

The Taliban are nothing more than little boys playing Cowboys and Indians. They are of no concern to us so long as we don't allow anymore of them into our country and we remove those already here.

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SIGNYV World has changed over the past 30 years. American's ideas of it haven't. That's dangerous.

Oh... I think they're changing pretty quickly right now.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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SIX: There are not any nations more powerful than we are, although I'd be curious to hear what two you're referring to.

SIGNY: China's economy is the largest in the world

SIX: Not without us it isn't.

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I doesn't need our technology and it doesn't need our dollars..(Its got almost a trillion of them in reserve), altho it may still want our markets so they can keep those factories humming and keep people busy and out of mischief.

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SIX: There are not any nations more powerful than we are, although I'd be curious to hear what two you're referring to.

SIGNY: China's economy is the largest in the world

SIX: Not without us it isn't.

SIGNY: It doesn't need our technology and it doesn't need our dollars..(Its got almost a trillion of them in reserve), altho it may still want our markets so they can keep those factories humming and keep people busy and out of mischief.

SIX: It can't survive without us. Not when it also needs to survive alongside of us. If they lived in a bubble where the US didn't exist, we'd be having a much different conversation.

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SIGNY: and the Russian military is superior to ours, even in the nuclear realm.

SIX: Links or it didn't happen

SIGNY: First, let me point out that Russia isn't defeating Ukraine. It's defeating Ukraine AND NATO AND THE COLLECTIVE (POLITICAL) WEST.

SIX: No shit. I've never argued that. It was never a contest, even with our money.
So the fuck what? The US Military would destroy Russia's.,

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SIX: Nobody has seen a fraction of the might of the US military in nearly 80 years.

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SIX All you're doing is pointing out the bureaucracy and bullshit that keeps America from exerting more than 1% of its massive military might at any given time. Fuck NATO, and Fuck anyone else in the "collective political west" outside of America.

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SIX: 'Im going to leave it there because we're not going to agree on much of anything here and getting into an argument is not anything that comes with an ROI on the back end.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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SIX: There are not any nations more powerful than we are, although I'd be curious to hear what two you're referring to.

SIGNY: China's economy is the largest in the world

SIX: Not without us it isn't.

SIGNY: It doesn't need our technology and it doesn't need our dollars..(Its got almost a trillion of them in reserve), altho it may still want our markets so they can keep those factories humming and keep people busy and out of mischief.

SIX: It can't survive without us. Not when it also needs to survive alongside of us. If they lived in a bubble where the US didn't exist, we'd be having a much different conversation.

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You keep thinking this but you haven't shown me WHY it can't survive without us. What do they need from us that's so existential that they can't get somewhere else? LINKS OR IT HASN'T HAPPENED.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

If we're spending over $1 Trillion per year on a military that doesn't have a shot against Russia, what the fuck is any of this for?

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Originally posted by second:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

If we're spending over $1 Trillion per year on a military that doesn't have a shot against Russia, what the fuck is any of this for?

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Do you mean the US military is less capable than the Ukrainian military which has not yet surrendered to Russia?

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I think you're also overstating the damage that was done when it comes to the important bits.

If we're spending over $1 Trillion per year on a military that doesn't have a shot against Russia, what the fuck is any of this for?

You're not right about this one. If we were as easy to topple as you believe we were, it would have already happened. Especially when the rest of the world is going to be potentially held hostage to an entire societal shift every 4 years because our politicians have lost their fucking minds in the last 12 years.


You can spend your days worrying about America being a 2nd rate superpower, but I'm not spending 1 second after posting this reply even considering it.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Ukraine ($17.2B)
Israel ($3.3B)
Jordan ($1.7B)7
Egypt ($1.5B)
Ethiopia ($1.5B)
Somalia ($1.2B)
Nigeria ($1B)
Congo (Kinshasa) ($990M)
Afghanistan ($886.5M)
Kenya ($846M)

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United States: US$502 billion (14.8% of China’s total exports)
Hong Kong: $276.4 billion (8.2%)
Japan: $157.6 billion (4.7%)
South Korea: $149.3 billion (4.4%)
Vietnam: $138.2 billion (4.1%)
India: $117.8 billion (3.5%)
Russia: $111.1 billion (3.3%)
Germany: $100.6 billion (3%)
Netherlands: $100.3 billion (3%)
Malaysia: $88.1 billion (2.6%)
Mexico: $81.5 billion (2.4%)
United Kingdom: $78.2 billion (2.3%)
Singapore: $77.6 billion (2.3%)
Thailand: $75.9 billion (2.2%)
Australia: $74 billion (2.2%)

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Nobody involved so far was ever trying to win that war aside from Putin and the Ukrainian soldiers.

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It's the top brass that's been running our country swinging their dicks all over the place and keeping the riff-raff in line

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I think you're also overstating the damage that was done when it comes to the important bits.

If we're spending over $1 Trillion per year on a military that doesn't have a shot against Russia, what the fuck is any of this for?

You're not right about this one. If we were as easy to topple as you believe we were, it would have already happened. Especially when the rest of the world is going to be potentially held hostage to an entire societal shift every 4 years because our politicians have lost their fucking minds in the last 12 years.


You can spend your days worrying about America being a 2nd rate superpower, but I'm not spending 1 second after posting this reply even considering it.



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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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So.

Imprecise thinking on your part.
What do you mean by "topple"?

Attack us at our borders, and march on DC to take over the country?

Send a barrage of (conventional) missiles to destroy all of our important military and civilian sites, starting with destroying our land-based nuclear missile arsenal?

Attack any number of our 800 military bases and installations that are scattered all over the world?

The probability ranges from "not gonna happen" to "highly unlikely".

What I worry about is people -like you - in positions of power starting a destructive conflict bc they overestimate our strength, and underestimate the adversary's.

Like Vietnam and Ukraine.

People who weren't alive then think we fought in Vietnam with one hand tied behind our back. Not true. Over the course of the war, 3.4 MILLION soldiers were deployed there, of which 1.9 MILLION were drafted, and over 58,000 were killed. For comparison, that's larger than the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

But if you want to know why we're spending a trillion dollars ... well, there are a lot of companies making a lot of money doing things that are utterly useless for our security.

Fortunately Trump doesn't seem to be a fan of military action. I guess, being a real estate developer, he's more comfortable with tariffs and sanctions.

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger


AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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