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Fascist Is Not Just An Epithet. Fascist Is A Proper Noun That Means A Specific Thing. It`s A Real Thing. It`s Not Always Referring To Ancient History.

-Rachel Maddow

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Fascist Is Not Just

Rachel Maddow

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Fascist Is Not Just An Epithet. Fascist Is A Proper Noun That Means A Specific Thing. It`s A Real Thing. It`s Not Always Referring To Ancient History.

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That`s How You End Up With A Guy Like Dan Fried, Overseeing The U.s. Sanctions Against Russia For Russia Did In Ukraine And Crimea.russia Hates Those Sanctions More Than They Love Life. They Hate Those Sanctions. So, Of Course, You Need Your Toughest And Most Experienced Guy Running Those Sanctions.

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Sarcastic Person

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Particularly When We Are A Country Where Leaders Turn Over Every Few Years And - I Mean, In Russia, Vladimir Putin Has Been In Charge For 17 Years And Counting, Right? That`s A Disadvantage For Us In Terms Of Knowing The Players, Having A Long-term Plan, Right?

David Jolly Is The Only Republican I Could Find Who`s Really Saying Donald Trump, You`re Out, Forget It, This Is Unacceptable, This Is Beyond The Pale.

Flint And Its Lead Contaminated Water Are Now The Focus Of Sustained National Attention Including Political Attention.

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What's Insulting To The American People, The Senate, To This Whole Process Is That The Republicans, With All Other Nominees, Have Said Democrats Are Being Obstructionist For Wanting To See Documents, For Wanting To See A Paper Trail, For Wanting To Get Questions Answered In The Judiciary Committee Hearings, And Now All Of A Sudden, The Republicans Want Those Things For This.

When Vladimir Putin Runs Up Against American Power And American Criticism And American Leadership That Reminds Him Of What Russia Isn`t, When He Runs Up Against People Who He Worries Are Funding His Dissidents Or Supporting Protests Against Him, When He Runs Up Against Criticism Of The Way He Runs His Own Country, What He`s Running Up Against Is The State Department.

Britons Still Commemorate The Battle Of Cable Street In London. There Are Still Pop Songs In Britain That Reference Sir Oswald Mosley And His Black Shirts.

If You Want To Make The Government Take A Religious Side, Then Make The Case, It Should Be Christian Republic.

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[tom Cotton] Has Been An Absolute Champion Of The Idea Of Getting Rid Of Obamacare, Scrapping The Affordable Care Act.

I Really Believe In Trying To Increase The Amount Of Useful Information In The World And In Being Accurate In The Sense That You Can Take What I Say To The Bank, Even If You Disagree With Me.

Francois Hollande Is The President Of France. He Got All Sorts Of Accolades For His Leadership In France After The Paris Attacks.

These Are Career Non-partisan Apolitical Staffers With A Combined 150 Years Of Experience At The State Department Gone, Just Like That Right Off The Top [right After Secretary Rex Tillerson Was Sworn In].

Given How We Know Russia Feels About The State Department, Seeing What`s Happening To The State Department Under This Current [donald Trump] Administration Is Worrying And Raises All Sorts Of Questions About The Connections Between This Current Administration And Russia.

Pentagon Dollars Are Essentially Seen As A Different Kind Of Funding That Doesn't Have To Stand For Itself And Make An Argument For Itself In The House Of Congress.

I'm In Favor Of Outing When People Have Demonized Or Scapegoated Gay People For Their Own Public Gain. I Don't Think Just Being A Republican Is Reason Enough.

For Months, The [donald] Trump Campaign Denied Full Stop That Anybody Associated With Their Campaign Had Any Ties With Russia Or Any Contacts With Russia Full Stop.

As Secretary Of State You Can Go Out In A Helmet If You Want To. Even In Switzerland In Front Of Reporters.

Humans Are Ambitious And Rational And Proud. And We Don't Fall In Line With People Who Don't Respect Us And Who We Don't Believe Have Our Best Interests At Heart. We Are Willing To Follow Leaders, But Only To The Extent That We Believe They Call On Our Best, Not Our Worst.

[bob Ferguson] Won That Huge Ruling Against The First Version Of The Muslim Ban That Resulted In It Being Stopped Dead In The Ninth Circuit U.s. Court Of Appeals.

The British Union Of Fascists, Oswald Mosley`s Group, The Black Shirts, They Were Banned In Britain In 1940. And Max Mosley`s Dad, Sir Oswald Mosley, Ended Up Spending Three Years In World War Ii, 1940 To 1943, Interned In The U.k. As Basically An Enemy Of The State. He Spent That Time In Prison, As Did Max Mosley`s Mother.

[donald] Trump Is A Fascist And That`s Not A Term I Use Loosely Or Often But He Has Earned It.

Activism Is Setting A Goal Of Something You Would Like To Be Different, And Figuring Out What Would Have To Change To Achieve That Goal. It's Sort Of Like Math.

What Was Particularly Impressive By The [donald] Trump Campaign At The Time Is How They Were So Organized Around The Wikileaks Stuff.

I Feel Like Americans Have Always Studied Nationalism As A Foreign Phenomenon. And Now, We`ve Got A Nationalist Movement In Our Country That Has A Very Articulate Spokesman In The Senior Counselor To The President [donald Trump].

We All Now Have To Decide Whether We`re Comfortable Using This Word, Weather Fascism Is Too Over The Top To Use In This Context Of Our Politics Right Now In Our Country Or Whether It Helps Because It`s Accurate, To Basically Describe This As America`s Sir Oswald Mosley Moment.

[rex] Tillerson Himself Has No Deputy, For Example. Latest Plans From The [donald Trump's] Administration Call For A 37 Percent Cut To The Agency`s Budget, 37 Percent.

Some People Feel Like Stuff Just Happens To You And You Cope As Best You Can. Some People Feel Like We Can Change What Happens Not Only To Ourselves But To Other People. That's Me, And I Like That In Anybody.

This [british] Dossier Is Still Considered To Be Mostly Uncorroborated But It`s Overall Allegation Is That The Trump Folks Knew, The [donald] Trump Folks Knew About The Russian Campaign To Interfere In Our Election, They Supported It, They Cooperated With It, And In Exchange, They Made Promises To The Russians.

Formula 1 Racing Had A Personal Scandal Right Up At The Top Of Its Governing Body That Was So Weird, That Was So Flagrantly Salacious And Bizarre, That I Think It Not Only Reassured American Racing Fans That Formula 1, Yes, Really Is Kind Of Weird.

I Am Too Old To Know How To Put A Naked Photograph Of Myself On The Internet.

The Spy Boom Has Been A Beautiful Windfall For Architects, Construction Companies, It Specialists, And Above All Defense Contractors, Enriching Thousands Of Private Companies And Dozens Of Local Economies Hugging The Capital Beltway.

I Know Every Film Is Different. Every Filmmaker Is Different And Works Differently.

It Is About Something Personal And Specific, Because When The John Mccain Campaign In 2008 Decided To Elevate Sarah Palin From Total Obscurity To Make Her His Vice Presidential Running Mate, They Knew They Were Making A Big Strategic Gamble.they Knew They Were Taking A Big Risk And It Turned Out In The End To Be A Bad Choice. It Hurt John Mccain`s Chances.

In That First National Election After 9/11 In France, Jean-marine Le Pen Did Not Win The Presidency, But He Did Get To The Final Round. He Was In The General Election. Now, This Week, In The First National Elections In France After What Many People Have Been Calling The French 9/11, The Attacks In Paris Three Weeks Ago, This Time It`s Jean-marie Le Pen`s Daughter, Marine Le Pen And The National Front, Which Is Still A Far Right Pseudo- Fascistic Party, They Came In First Place In France.

I`m Not Sure, But [russia] Might Be Happy To See This Guy [dan Fried] Exiting Stage Left.

When People Get To Speak About Themselves And The Things That Matter To Them, On Their Own Terms, We See Them As Who They Are. They Can't Be Reduced To Objects Of Derision.

John Mccain From The Very Beginning Has Been Unflinchingly Loyal To Sarah Palin. He Has Never Thrown Her Under The Bus. He Has Never Conceded It Was A Bad Decision To Pick Her. He Has Never Ever Said A Bad Word Against Her.

I'm Not A Screamer. I'm Confrontational, But I Don't Think That Translates Into Anger.

I Don't Have Any Option. I'm Not Going To Be Less Gay Or More Pretty. I Can't Try To Have Less Personality Or Fewer Controversial Opinions.

The Cia Has Concluded In A Secret Assessment That Russia Intervened In The 2016 Election To Help Donald Trump Win The Presidency Rather Than Just To Undermine Confidence In The U.s. Electoral System.

We Are Starting To See What May Be Signs Of Continuing [russian] Influence In Our Country. Not Just During The Campaign But During The [donald Trump] Administration, Basically Signs Of What Could Be A Continuing Operation. And Those Two Things Together Are Worth Paying Attention To.

Fascist Is Not Just An Epithet. Fascist Is A Proper Noun That Means A Specific Thing. It`s A Real Thing. It`s Not Always Referring To Ancient History.

I End Up Liking Politicians, Both Left And Right, Who Talk About Political Matters As If They Are Addressing A Bunch Of Adults, As If They Are Capable Of Handling Both Complexity And Emotional Responsibility.

The Day After The Republican Convention Ended, There Was Another Political Bomb That Was Dropped On The U.s. Presidential Election [2016] From Russia. The Day After The Republican Convention Ended, Right Before The Democratic Convention Began We Got What U.s. Intelligence Agencies Believed To Be The Next Big Russian Incursion Into Our Election. We Got The First Wikileaks Dump.

My Idea Of What Was Going On In Politics Was Driven By Activism. I Came Out When I Was 17, And Right Away I Started Working In The Aids Activist Movement. For Me, Politics Was About Getting Drugs Approved And Getting Prisoners Access To The Same Kind Of Drugs That You Could Get On The Outside. It Was About Getting Needle Exchanges Approved. That Was Politics. These Were Policy Problems That Were Killing People, And We Were Trying To Get Them Changed.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson Says He Believes That Same Ruling That Stopped The First Version Of The Ban Should Still Apply To The Second Version Of The Ban Because It Is Basically The Same Ban. It Is Basically The Same Policy.

"red Dawn" Was A Movie Made In 1984 I Think About World War Iii. If You Have Not Seen It And Plan On Watching It, You Want To Close Your Eye And Cover Your Ears But Not Really. You Can Figure It Out.

You May Never Have Heard Of Joseph Overton And His Proverbial Window But You Most Certainly Have Heard The Republican Presidential Campaign In 2015 Year Not Just Flinging The Window Open But Shattering All Its Glass.

We Are Willing To Follow Leaders Only To The Extent We Believe They Call On Our Best, Not Our Worst.

The Way That We Make Dumb Decisions And Discriminatory Decisions Is By Employing Stereotypes About Groups Of People. We Don't See People As Fully Human When Other People Speak For Them.

It Used To Be That We Disagreed Over The Basic Facts We Were Fighting Over, And We Had Different Opinions About Them. Now I Think We Accept Different Sources Of Authority. ... And People Can Establish Credibility On Their Own Say-so As Long As Nobody Follows The Trail And Calls Them Out On It.

Bernie Sanders Are The Only Person Who Talks About The Kinds Of Things That Might Be Driving People To Support Donald Trump In Such Large Numbers In The Republican Party.

If You're Working On Better Conditions For Prisoners, If You Make That A Popular Issue And You Invite Mainstream Media To Weigh In On That Subject, You're Going To End Up With A Much More Regressive Public-policy Environment Than If You Approach It In A Quieter Way. It's Not Because The Public Is Stupid, It's Just That People With Only A Cursory Interest In Something Are Going To Have A Knee-jerk Reaction To It. That's Impossible To Explain In A Cable-news Media... It Doesn't Make Sense.

Marine Le Pen Is More Careful Than Her Dad Was About Saying Things Like Denying The Holocaust, Right? But It`s The Same Politics. It`s The Same Modern Anti Anti-immigrant, Anti-and The Semitic, Xenophobic Authoritarian Modern Pseudo-fascism.

[tom Cotton] Is Seen As A Real Rising Star In The Republican Party. He`s The Youngest Member Of The United States Senate, Routinely Described As An Up And Comer.

Six Months After 9/11, Jean-marie Le Pen Was Almost Elected President Of France. There Were A Number Of Leaders And A Number Of Parties Running In The French National Elections That Year In The Spring Of 2002. But It Ended Up Being Not Just A Shock Across France, And Not Just A Shock Across Europe. But It Ended Up Being Almost A Worldwide Shock When In The Spring Of 2002, Jean-marie Le Pen Came In Second In Those National Elections. That Put Him In A Two-man Runoff For The Presidency Of France, Spring Of 2002.

Sarah Palin Is Backing In Be To Republican Presidential Politics In A Big Way With A Big High Profile Endorsement Decision.that Is, I Think, Probably Going To Cause A Lot Of Upset In One Particular Part Of The Republican Establishment.

Fascistic Leaders Are Aggressively Macho And Chauvinistic. They Are Xenophobic About People Who They Portray As Outsiders Or Some Sort Of Threat To The Nation Or As Weaklings They Can Denounce.

There`s A Reason People Pause Their Lives To Engage In Political Activism And Pressure Their Local Political Leaders. Because As A Whole, Even If You Can`t Identify Any One Instance, As A Whole Pressure Works And Sometimes It Starts With Something As Simple As Pushing The Button On The Intercom.

We Ought To Realize By Now (see Korea, See Vietnam, See Afghanistan, See Iraq, See Iran) That Deploying The Us Military, Or Dealing Billions Of Dollars A Year Of Arms To Our Ally Of The Moment That Can Serve As A Regional Rival To Our Enemy Of The Moment, Is Not Always The Best Way To Make Threats Go Away. Our Military And Weapons Prowess Is A Fantastic And Perfectly Weighted Hammer, But That Doesn't Make Every International Problem A Nail.

I'm Not Trying To Change Things In The World And Trying To Use My Leverage To Do So. The Only Thing I'm Trying To Change In The World Is That I'm Trying To Increase The Amount Of Useful Information In It. And Entertainment, Honestly.

Part Of What The [british] Dossier Says Is This, Quote, "the Operation", Meaning The Effort To Influence Our Election, "that Has Been Conducted With The Full Knowledge And Support Of [donald] Trump And Senior Members Of His Campaign Team. In Return, In Return, The Trump Team Has Agreed To Sideline Russian Intervention In Ukraine As A Campaign Issue."

I Don't Think About People Watching Me On Tv. I Think It Would Stress Me Out.

Fascism Allegation [to Donald Trump] Is Not Coming From The Left. This Is Coming From The Right. It`s Coming From Inside The Republican Party And From Within Mainstream Conservative Thought.

It Matters That There's Diversity On The Court. I Think It Makes For Better Lawmaking, Because You Have People With More Diverse Range Of Judgment And Who Are Going To Make A Better Decision On The Law.

October 7th [2016], Indeed, Wikileaks Released Its Whole New Dump. A Whole New Bunch Of E-mails And Documents, This Time From [hillary] Clinton Campaign Chief John Podesta, E-mails That U.s. Intelligence Say Were Hacked By Russia. Apparently, Again, They Were Waiting For The Best Possible Timing On The Release.

Cnn Recently Ran A Sort Of Roundup Article On Why Some Conservatives Say That Trump Talk Is Fascist. The Roundup Included This Tweet From Iowa Republican Radio Host, Very Influential Guy In Iowa Republican Caucuses, Steve Deace. Quote, "if [barack] Obama Proposed The Same Religion Registry As Trump, Every Conservative In The Country Would Call It What It Is - Creeping Fascism."

Who Knows If John Mccain Could Have Won That Presidential Campaign [2008] In Any Circumstances When George W. Bush The Outgoing Republican President Had A 22 Percent Approval Rating.

Approval Rating

I Am A Woman, And Sometimes That Impacts What Stories I Want To Do.

I Would Like To Be A Polyglot.

No Matter What Donald Trump Does, He`s Guaranteed To Have Support From The Republican Party.

The Primary Agency Responsible For Rallying U.s.-led Interests Around The World Appears To Be Having The Air Sucked Out Of It. If You Are Russia And You Are Looking At That Right Now, Do You Love What You Are Seeing?

It Is Hard To Know What Sarah Palin Means In Republican Politics Anymore.

The Democratic Party Likes To Remind People That The Russian Force Around That Was Very Strong, Remarkably Strong.

John Mccain Has Refused To Ever Criticize Sarah Palin, To Ever Admit There Was Anything Wrong About Her Choice. He Has Been Capital "l" Loyal To Her In Such An Unwavering Way, Even Has His Entire Party Has Turned Against This Is Decision That He Made For Obvious Reasons. He Has Been Unflinchingly Loyal To Her.

I Think Of My Job On Television As Explaining Things.

Right After Secretary [rex] Tillerson Was Sworn In, Four Of The Top Career Diplomats At The Department Were Told Their Services Were No Longer Needed.

Those Policies [of Jean-marie Le Pen ]i Find Repellent. I Believe Many People Right Across Consist The World Do. There Is No Future In That Type Of Narrow Minded Racism And Nationalism.

The Downside Of Playing Dumb Is That You Sound Dumb.

Here’s The Thing About Rights. They’re Not Actually Supposed To Be Voted On. That’s Why They’re Called Rights.

Since His Arrival, The New Secretary Of State Has Not Held A Single Press Conference. On His First Big Trip To Europe Last Month For The G20 Summit, Rex Tillerson Said Less Than 50 Words In Total In Response To Press Questions.

Who Knows What Exactly Changed Tom Cotton`s Mind. I Mean, Maybe It Was That Woman Who Said Her Husband Was Dying And Only Alive Thanks To The Affordable Care Act. Maybe It Was The Young Woman On Your Right Side Of Your Screen Who Said That Without The Treatment She Could Only Receive Through The Affordable Care Act She Herself Would Be Dead.

Every Popular Zillion Dollar Sport Has Its Share Of Personal Scandals Around The Sport And Its Leadership.

I Wish Every Republican Wanted To Impeach [jeorge W.] Bush , But People Don't Agree With This. He's Stating A Fact About What He Believes.

[dan Fried] Is The Department`s Foremost Russia Expert And He, Too, Is Now Leaving At A Time When Arguably The State Department Needs It Most, The State Department Will Not Have The Benefit Of His Insight Going Forward.

The Issues Which Mattered To Me As An Activist, Mainly Things Like Prison Reform And Aids, Have Less Of A Chance Of Getting Covered On My Show Than Things I Don't Have A Personal Interest In. It's Because I Don't Trust My Antenna About Being A Good Storyteller On Those Subjects, Because I Know A Lot And Therefore Lose Touch With What The Average Person Might Find Interesting About Them.

Russian Government Attacked Our Election.

Russian Government

Jean-marie Le Pen Is A Holocaust Denier Who Was Convicted And Fined For Dismissing Nazi Concentration Camps As A, Quote, "detail In History." But He Kept Running This Anti-immigrant, Anti-semitic, Populist Unapologetic Xenophobic Far Right Party In French Politics.

I Have A Constitutional Weakness In Which I Am Very Easily Distracted By Flashing Lights. If There Is A Tv On In The Room, I Can't Have A Conversation With You. I Won't Eat, I Won't Sleep, I'll Just Meld With My Couch.

People Who Disagree On Important Issues Don't Agree On The Facts.

The More You Push Back On Donald [trump], Whether You`re In The Media Or Whether You Are In The Gop Establishment, The Stronger His Base Of Support Comes.

[tom Cotton] Is Known For His Efforts To Scale Back Legal Immigration. Legal. He Wants To Stop Legal Immigrants From Coming To This Country. That`s Very Popular In Republican Politics .

There Had Been A Proposed Plank For The Platform That Said The Republican Party Believed The United States Should Support Ukraine In Any Way That We Could Up To And Including Providing Them Weapons, So They Could Fight Off Russian Incursions Into Ukraine.that Was The Proposed Plank In The Republican Party Platform. The [donald] Trump Folks Didn`t Care About Anything Else.

It Is Sometimes Hard To Know What Sarah Palin Means, Just On A Day To Day Basis. Sometimes It Is Hard To Follow What She Is Talking About.

It Makes Sense In That Environment That You Would Hold On In The U.s. Government To The People Who Know Their Way Around This Particular Block.

I Don't Want To Insert Myself Into The Story. I Just Want To Give A Useful Analysis Of It To Help People Come To Their Own Conclusions.

News About The Russia Connections To The [donald Trump] Administration And What We Are Continuing To Learn About Those Connections. What`s Getting To Be, I Think, Particularly Unsettling Is That Simultaneously We Are Right Now What`s Going On, I Think, Is That We Are Number One Nailing Down More Direct Connections Between The Trump Campaign And The Russian Government At The Time The Russian Government Was Influencing Our Election.

Continuing To Learn

After [donald] Trump And His Campaign Manager Both Initially Denied Having Anything To Do With The Platform Change, A Trump Campaign Official Now Admits That The Campaign Pushed To Soften The Russian Language In The Platform. It Says It Was Done Specifically At Trump`s Request.

Russian Language

Forced Federal Registration Of U.s. Citizens Based On Religious Identity Is Fascism, Period. Nothing Else To Call It.

It's Not Just The Small-potatoes Post-9/11 Homeland Spending That Feels A Little Off Mission. It's The Big-ticket Stuff Too.

The Republican Front-runner, Has Made A Name For Himself In The Last Months By Trafficking Prejudice And Paranoia. His Latest Insult Is His Call To Stop All Muslims From Entering The United States.

I'm A National Security Liberal, Which I Tell People Because It's Meant To Sound Absurd.

I Will Say That Bernie Sanders Are The Opposite End Of The Spectrum From Donald Trump. We See Him Leading Right Now In The Republican Party In An Intractable Way.

Senator [tom] Cotton Has Campaigned On Wanting To Kill Obamacare. He Voted To Repeal The Affordable Care Act Back In January, But He Now Says, Despite These Marathon All-night Sessions Going On In The House, Republicans Need To Do Better, They Need To Start Over, They Need To Come Up With Something That The Senate Says Will Actually Reduce Prices For Insurance And Keep It Affordable.

John Mccain Famously Has Been Incredibly Loyal To Sarah Palin Ever Since He Picked Her As His Running Mate.

Senator [tom Cotton] Got A Ton Of Blowback. He Became The Star Of Fake Missing Person`s Signs, Encouraging Folks To Call If They Saw Him And Also To Call Him And Ask Why He Had Been Missing While His Constituents Were Looking For Him.

Formula 1 Is A Huge International Phenomenon Even If An Otherwise Car Racing Obsessed American Public Has Always Found Formula 1 To Be A Little Weird.

I Don`t Think We Have Thought Of Ourselves, At Least In A Modern Iteration, As Being A Nationalist Country Or A Country That Has Nationalist Movements.

The Single Best Thing About Honesty Is That It Requires No Follow-up.

Donald Trump Removed All Doubt. He Is Running For President As A Fascist Demagogue.

Hopefully Life Is Long. Do Stuff You Will Enjoy Thinking About And Telling Stories About For Many Years To Come. Do Stuff You Will Want To Brag About.

Chris Christie Who Proposes Accepting Syrian Refugee Orphans Under The Age Of 5 Because They May Not Be Vetted Well Enough. You Can`t Trust Them. The 5-year-olds Might It Be Terrorists. After All, They`re From Syria.

I Definitely Feel Like It Took Me A While To Learn The Baseline Things You Have To Do If You Want People To Hear You. That's Why I've Had The Same Haircut For The Entire Time That I've Been On Television And That's Why I Wear Literally The Same Jacket Every Day. I Keep All The Clothes I Wear On Tv In My Office On A Little Hanging Rack. My Girlfriend Calls It All The Colors Of The German Rainbow. Grays, Blacks, A Slightly Greenish Gray For The Days That I'm Feeling Particularly Festive. I'm Not Trying To Accomplish Anything In The Way I Look Other Than To Be Boring Enough For People To Hear Me.

I Feel Like I Have More In Common With Conservative People Who Have Activist Causes In Their Hearts And Who Are Interested In Electoral Politics Than I Do With Somebody Who Doesn't Care, Doesn't Have Any Political Interests, Doesn't Know What Policy Is, And Doesn't Think Any Of It Matters To Them. If You Care, We're Actually Going To Have A Basis Of Conversation. We Might Supplementally Get Along Very Well, And That Might Be Complicated And Fun In A Way That Is More Constructive Than You'd Expect.

After We Graduate Tonight, We No Longer Have To Let Society Happen To Us. We Get To Create Our Own.

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Abraham Lincoln

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