A Cuntrastamu! Mash Up
Part I via OccupyOaklandMedia
Occupy Oakland Plans Building Takeover #J28
Posted on 24 January 2012 by Benjamin Phillips
On January 28, Occupy Oakland will take over a vacant building in the city of Oakland to establish a new home, social center and meeting space for the movement. The “Move-in” action will begin with a two-day festival at the new building site, the location of which will remain undisclosed until the day of the event. The seized building will be converted into a social center for the movement.
This building takeover/move-in action was approved by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly and signals a new direction for the Occupy movement: putting vacant buildings at the service of the community.
Despite a nationwide housing crisis and increasing homelessness, thousands of buildings lie vacant in Oakland. The Occupy Oakland Move-In Committee, which is coordinating the event, states:
“Like millions of people in this country, Occupy Oakland has no home.
On January 28, Move-in Day, we’re going to change that. We’re going to occupy a large, vacant building and convert it into a social center.
Come join us for the initial occupation. There will be a festival all that weekend to celebrate our new home.”
During the Occupy Oakland camp, the movement provided food, shelter, medical services and much more to anyone who asked for them. It was recently disclosed that crime in Oakland dropped by 19% during the weeks of the camp, and further, that Oakland Police Chief Jordan was aware of this drop. A letter from Jordan to Mayor Quan stated: “Not sure how you want to share this good news… It may be counter to our statement that the Occupy movement is negatively impacting crime in Oakland.”
Nonetheless, the camp was forcibly evicted twice from Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, on grounds that it threatened the health and safety of citizens. The OPD is being investigated for its actions against Occupy Oakland; they also face federal trusteeship after over a decade of abusing Oakland residents.
Occupy Oakland responded to the first eviction by calling for a General Strike and responded to the second with a coordinated West Coast Port Shutdown. Both events succeeded in shutting down the Oakland Port, due to the tens of thousands of supporters who were willing to defy the City in this direct action. Despite this support, since mid-December the Oakland Police Department, under Mayor Quan’s watch, has arrested dozens of Occupy Oakland people at Oscar Grant Plaza. Many were detained for days though the charges were not pursued because they would not stand up in court. As a result of this persistent repression and harassment, the movement has been unable to continue to provide food, shelter, medical care, and other services at Oscar Grant Plaza. The City, while claiming it cannot afford to provide these services itself, has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on police actions against Occupy, while neglecting the needs of its citizens.
On January 28, the day of the take-over, occupiers will rally at Oscar Grant Plaza at 12 pm at 14th and Broadway, march to the take-over destination, and Occupy. A two-day festival at the seized building location, will include special events, speakers, music, and workshops. At the end of each day, the Occupiers will hold a General Assembly to further define the uses of the building.
The Move-in Building Committee is actively soliciting requests from residents of Oakland and the Bay Area who want to get involved and have suggestions for specific uses of the space that are in accordance with Occupy Oakland principles.
For more information, updates and a schedule for the 2-day festival please visit: occupyoaklandmovein.org
Part II
Karen Boyd 510-238-6365 kboyd@oaklandnet.com
News from: City of Oakland FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2012
City Prepared for Occupy Oakland Protest Saturday City Leaders Call on Community to Get Involved in Productive Programs to Address Social Needs; OPD Prepared to Deter Unlawful Activity
Oakland, CA — Occupy Oakland protesters have announced their intent to occupy a large, vacant building in an undisclosed location in downtown Oakland tomorrow, without the permission of the owner. At their General Assembly meetings and through other communications, they have acknowledged that this activity is illegal.
The City of Oakland welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and free speech; however, social media sites within this past month have continually announced that individuals or groups plan to target police personnel, police vehicles, property, and media vehicles or equipment on an ongoing basis.
The Oakland Police Department is aware of this threat and prepared to deter criminal activity or respond to illegal actions, including vandalism, arson, acts of violence, trespassing, and interference with officers performing their duties. Such activities disrupt otherwise peaceful and lawful gatherings and will not be tolerated.
Over the past few weeks, organizers have held marches in downtown Oakland which were billed as anti-police initiatives. During this period, about 15 arrests were made, with approximately 60% of those arrested residing outside the region or the state. Since the first encampment was removed on October 25, 2011, approximately 300 people have been arrested. The Police Department has been successful in obtaining restraining orders against individuals who repeatedly commit crimes, and are working with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and Oakland City Attorney’s Office to explore felony and enhanced charges for people who criminally plan and/or work in concert to break the law.
“The residents of Oakland are wearying of the constant focus and cost to our city,” said Mayor Jean Quan.
At a news conference Wednesday announcing their plans, protesters presented a letter to City officials threatening to shut down the Port, blockade the Airport indefinitely, occupy City Hall indefinitely, or call on Anonymous (anarchic cyber “hacktivists”), if the City makes attempts to evict them from the vacant building or deter their actions.
“The City of Oakland will not be bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity,” said City Administrator Deanna Santana. “This community has a rich history of community engagement and progressive activism to address the very complex issues that the protesters claim to stand for—poverty, the housing crisis, homeless, social justice, literacy, education, and economic inequality—none of which can be addressed through violence, threats, or intimidation.”
She continued, “If we are to achieve economic equality, concentrate on the disparities that lead to cycles of poverty, and stop the violence that plagues our neighborhoods, we must work together, collectively, productively, and cooperatively.”
“Breaking into buildings, assaulting police officers, provoking confrontations, and vandalizing property are tactics that are counter-productive and divide our community. They drain scarce City resources away from the neighborhoods in greatest need. Oakland deserves better,” she said.
The City of Oakland calls on the community of Oakland to get involved with any one of the hundreds of organizations dedicated to feeding the hungry, fighting for fair and accessible housing, enhancing literacy, serving children, or improving the livability of our community. To help, the City has provided a list of organizations already making a difference in our community.
“The Oakland Police Department will protect the safety of all residents,” said Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan. “However, we must remind you that we will not tolerate illegal behavior under any circumstances. Those who choose to carry out unlawful actions will be arrested.”
Ways You Can Help
This is a critical time of ever-shrinking resources and programs in our City when Oakland residents need these services the most. Oakland has a long history of supporting a wide variety of productive programs designed to help make the societal changes we all want to see in this great City. Choose one, and let’s work together to make a positive change for everyone.
Homeless Prevention and Support
Homeless Housing/Service Providers–The City funds 15 different local organizations that provide shelter, transitional housing, homeless prevention, rental assistance, legal services, mental health services and services for seniors, victims of domestic violence, youth and people with AIDS. For details, call Susan Shelton at sshelton@oaklandnet.com or call (510) 238-6186.
Foreclosure Prevention and Affordable Housing
Foreclosure Prevention–The City has been working with local community groups to develop a new foreclosure prevention loan fund that will help Oakland residents stay in their homes. The City’s new blighted foreclosed properties program holds banks accountable for cleaning up blighted properties they own. The City partners with the Urban Strategies Council in maintaining the Oakland Land Trust. The City invested funds to develop Oakland Community Land Trust, which purchases foreclosed and other vacant properties and rehabilitates them for low-income home ownership.
Affordable Housing—Oakland has a long history of working to provide a wide range of housing options to keep our city as economically diverse as possible. Most recently, the City created Oakland Green-for-all Model, using Federal stimulus dollars to retrofit homes owned by low-income residents for energy efficiency and creating a jobs pipeline for workers to implement the program. Call (510)238-6225 or email Lin Chin atlchin@oaklandnet.com
East Bay Housing Organizations—EBHO is a 27-year-old membership nonprofit organization dedicated to working with communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties preserve, protect and expand affordable housing opportunities through education, advocacy, and coalition building. You can participate by donating, becoming a member and serving on one of their committees. www.ebho.org or call (510) 663-3830.
Oakland Community Organizations—OCO is a federation of congregations, schools, and allied community organizations, representing over 40,000 families in Oakland. Their current issues are:
- Quality Education
- Safe Communities
- Immigration Reform and Pathways to Citizenship
- Health Care Access
- Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization
www.oaklandcommunity.org or call (510) 639-1444.
CausaJusta:Just Cause– a multi-racial, grassroots organization building community leadership to achieve justice for low-income San Francisco and Oakland residents. With offices in East and West Oakland and in San Francisco’s Mission District, CJJC is a force for justice and unity among Black and Brown communities. CJJC has a wide variety of volunteer opportunities, from administrative to grassroots fund raising and community organization. www.cjjc.org or call Raven at (510) 763-5877 ext. 302.
Helping Schools and Youth
Oakland Literacy Coalition—represents 41 nonprofits working in Oakland schools to help pre-schoolers through elementary aged students improve their reading and writing skills. www.oaklandliteracycoalition.org/
Mayor’s Mentoring Initiative—By promoting the need for mentors, close to 1000 adults have signed up with one of the 46 organizations that offer opportunities for volunteering or mentoring Oakland youth. www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/Mayor/
Volunteering in the Oakland Public Schools—At a time when local and state education funding is in peril and public schools face severe budget reductions volunteers are needed more than ever. Volunteer opportunities within OUSD’s schools provide flexible ways for volunteers to commit as much time as they have available — from one to two hours to www.ousd.k12.ca.us/19941082618751677/
Helping Reduce Blight and Enhance Beautification
Oakland Parks Coalition––recruits and supports Park Stewards who help maintain Oakland’s 120 parks. They also sponsor an annual clean-up project as well as the annual Love Your Parks Day survey. www.oaklandparkscoalition.org
Keep Oakland Beautiful and City Beautification Programs—sponsors local participation in the annual Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup, and promotes involvement with Earth Day, community clean ups, and the City’s Adopt-A- Spot and Maintain-A-Drain programs. This year Oakland residents donated more than 30,000 volunteer hours to Oakland clean-up programs. The City publishes a monthly calendar of volunteer opportunities, available on the city website at http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/PW A/o/FE/s/VO/OAK030034.
Sustainable Gardening and Community Engagement
City Slicker Farms—Since 2001, City Slicker Farms has been partnering with the West Oakland community to grow and distribute thousands of pounds of its own fresh produce. They offer a variety of administrative and urban agriculture opportunities for people of all skill levels. www.cityslickerfarms.org or call (510)763-4241.
Acta Non Verba, Youth Urban Farm Project—Their goal is to combat the growing disadvantage of young people of color not completing high school and attending a post secondary school by empowering them to achieve their goals through urban farming. They host a garden at Tassafaronga Recreation Center in East Oakland. Volunteer gardeners are always welcome.www.anyfarm.org or call (510) 972-3276.
Oakland Landscape Committee—Works with parents, teachers, local volunteer groups and the Youth Probation Training Academy Builds to create and maintain community and school gardens in Oakland. www.oaklandlanscapecommittee.org or call (510) 843-3828.
Urban Releaf—Since 1998, Urban Releaf has planted more than 12,000 trees in neighborhoods of Oakland and Richmond that have little greenery. Located in West Oakland, their program concentrates on working with at-risk youth organizations to promote and sustain community beautification projects. Volunteers are always needed. www.urbanreleaf.org or call (510) 601-9062.
Oakland Food Policy Council—a 21-seat council whose food policy work is about changing the “rules of the game” so that our food system will deliver healthy food, a healthy environment, a healthy economy, and healthy choices for ALL residents of Oakland. We are working to ensue that access to healthy, affordable food is a right and a reality for every Oakland resident. http://www.oaklandfood.org/home or call 510- 654-4400 x233.
Phat Beets Produce—Aims to create a healthier, more equitable food system in North Oakland through providing affordable access to fresh produce, facilitating youth leadership in health and nutrition education, and connecting small farmers to urban communities via the creation of farm stands, farmers’ markets, and urban youth market gardens. http://www.phatbeetsproduce.org/
Edible Demonstration Garden at the Gardens at Lake Merritt—The Green Heart of Oakland for Fifty Years. A seven-acre collection of themed gardens. The Gardens at Lake Merritt is located in the heart of Oakland at Lakeside Park. http://gardensatlakemerritt.org/
Community Gardening Programs: The City has 9 community garden plots available to the public for $30 per year. The City also partners with 4 nonprofit-run gardens. For details, contact Peter Collier at (510) 238-2197 or pcollier@oaklandnet.com.
via UCRebelRadio
1.26.2012
To Chancellor White from Concerned Members of the UCR Community
(Via Facebook)
Dear Chancellor White,
In light of the events of January 19, we felt it appropriate to issue our own letter asking for your response to some urgent questions. We are citizens of this community—students, faculty and staff—demanding answers for the troubling events of last Thursday.
Whose decision was it to militarize an unarmed, nonviolent protest on our campus on January 19, by calling in police in riot gear to threaten and assault a crowd of protesters who continually insisted loudly that their protest was intended to be peaceful?
Who decided that this peaceful protest was an “unlawful assembly,” as the police repeatedly announced over the PA system? On what basis was this determined?
Why did you (or whoever else was responsible) not come out to address the crowd and explain this decision? Did you hear them chanting, “Tell us why”? What makes a large crowd of dissatisfied people demanding dialogue with their representatives on their own campus an “unlawful assembly”? And don’t those whose actions are unilaterally deemed “unlawful” deserve an explanation as to why?
Your Friday letter states that the behavior of a “small number of individuals… briefly and peacefully shut down the Regents meeting… Their actions, while making a point to disrupt and while remaining nonviolent, nonetheless prevented others from listening to the discussion by denying public access to the remainder of the meeting.”
If, as you acknowledge, the actions of that small group of students were nonviolent, why and how would the actions of a handful of disruptive students cause the entire protest to be deemed “unlawful assembly” and justify the threat of force and arrest against all of the other students and faculty members gathered?
Why has nonviolent disruption, assertiveness and defiance been equated with aggression, violence and threat on our campus, when Gandhi himself called for nonviolent disobedience to be forceful and confrontational, and when, from a first amendment perspective, “disruptive” and “dangerous” are two very different things?
You say in your most recent Friday letter that you needed to “use our police to ensure the safety of meeting participants as well as the majority of protest participants.” But is there any evidence that any of the protesters were threatening the Regents, rather than simply using disruptive—and potentially embarrassing—tactics to make their demands visible?
Even if it is still true that police presence was required, why did the police have to be armed with violent equipment, as though they were facing dangerous criminals? Could they not simply have been sent to observe and monitor the proceedings; why did they have to be armed to the hilt, and then escalate the situation with the threats and use of potentially lethal force?
Who, in this situation, was the real “threat” to our campus’ security: a group of dissatisfied but unarmed students and faculty chanting “peaceful protest!”, or a group of highly-armed police threatening to and willing to use force through batons, tear gas and rubber bullets (which have been known to kill people in other conflicts)?
Your Friday letter expresses concern about officers who “received minor injuries, as barricades were thrown at them and signs used as weapons.” But what we see in the following videos are police in full riot gear shoving unarmed students and faculty with batons, and then firing paint-filled bullets at them. Please see, among MANY others, the videos and reports of injuries to students and faculty from police violence:
What we see on the following video clips are the protesters seizing the police barricades and trying to place them between themselves and the police. We do not see anyone using the barricades to attack the police. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT9VOYR7cMo&feature=related) Meanwhile, the following video shows a protester being hit with rubber/paint pellets. That student is clearly in a great deal of pain and saying that he is having trouble breathing. He is carried away by a handful of other students who call out for water and help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7tB2LmsbfI&feature=related, skip to 4:30)
You can also see from the videos that the response of the protesters was to chant, “peaceful protest, peaceful protest!”
How can rubber bullets and batons be considered a justifiable response to disruption and embarrassment that is not in any way physically dangerous? What evidence do we have that it was the protesters, and not the highly-armed and militarized police force, who escalated the violence?
What accounts for the tight, 1-minute so-called “comment period” provided at the Regents’ meeting? Students and faculty were demanding an open forum that was NOT controlled by the Regents’ own inadequate vision of what constitutes democratic dialogue and transparent decision-making. In light of this, why should their demand to be heard at such a forum be construed as a threat, justifying such escalated violence?
When fully-armed police are sent in to threaten, shove and physically assault unarmed people who are already frustrated, resentful and angry at being criminalized and having lost their voices, will this not inevitably escalate the level of violence?
So, in conclusion, Chancellor White, we are seeking answers for what happened on January 19, but are also deeply concerned with the implications of these events for the future of free speech on our campus. What makes a crowd of unarmed, peacefully dissenting people “unlawful” and “dangerous”? Who gets to decide, and on what basis? And, what forms of free, nonviolent speech and expression of dissent can be considered “lawful” on our campus, so that they are not met with met with exaggerated militarization, and the escalation of institutionally-authorized violence?
Sincerely,
Concerned Members of the UCR Community
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Fuck You Twits!
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tweets still must flow
One year ago, we posted “The Tweets Must Flow,” in which we said,
“The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact … almost every country in the world agrees that freedom of expression is a human right. Many countries also agree that freedom of expression carries with it responsibilities and has limits.”
As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.
Until now, the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.
We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld. As part of that transparency, we’ve expanded our partnership with Chilling Effects to share this new page, http://chillingeffects.org/twitter, which makes it easier to find notices related to Twitter.
There’s more information in our Help pages, both on our Policy and about Your Account Settings.
One of our core values as a company is to defend and respect each user’s voice. We try to keep content up wherever and whenever we can, and we will be transparent with users when we can’t. The Tweets must continue to flow.
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via @queersolidaritywithpalestine
We are a diverse group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and trans activists, academics, artists, and cultural workers from the United States who participated in a solidarity tour in the West Bank of Palestine and Israel from January 7-13, 2012.
What we witnessed was devastating and created a sense of urgency around doing our part to end this occupation and share our experience across a broad cross-section of the LGBTIQ community. We saw with our own eyes the walls—literally and metaphorically—separating villages, families and land. From this, we gained a profound appreciation for how deeply embedded and far reaching this occupation is through every aspect of Palestinian daily life.
So too, we gained new insights into how Israeli civil society is profoundly affected by the dehumanizing effects of Israeli state policy toward Palestinians in Israel and in the West Bank. We were moved by the immense struggle being waged by some Israelis in resistance to state policies that dehumanize and deny the human rights of Palestinians.
We ended our trip in solidarity with Palestinian and Israeli people struggling to end the occupation of Palestine, and working for Palestinian independence and self-sovereignty.
Among the things we saw were:
- the 760 km (470 mi) separation wall (jidar) partitioning and imprisoning the Palestinian people;
- how the wall’s placement works to confiscate large swaths of Palestinian land, splits villages and families in two, impedes Palestinians from working their agricultural land, and in many cases does not advance the ostensible security interests of Israel;
- a segregated road system (one set of roads for cars with Israeli plates, and another much inferior one for cars with Palestinian plates) throughout the West Bank, constructed by the Israeli state and enforced by the Israeli army; these roads ease Israeli travel to and from illegal settlements in the West Bank and severely impede Palestinian travel between villages, to agricultural land, and throughout a territory which is and has been their homeland;
- a system of permits (identification cards) that limits the travel of Palestinian people and functionally imprisons them, separating them from family, health care, jobs and other necessities;
- militarized checkpoints with barbed wire and soldiers armed with automatic rifles and the humiliation and harassment the Palestinian people experience daily in order to travel from one place to another;
- the reconfiguration of maps to render invisible Palestinian villages/homelands;
- harmful living conditions created and enforced by Israeli law and policy such as limited access to water and electricity in many Palestinian homes;
- violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and the ongoing growth of illegal settlements facilitated by the Israeli military;
- homelessness as a result of the razing of Palestinian homes by the Israeli state;
- home invasions, tear gas attacks, “skunk water” attacks, and the arrest of Palestinian children by the Israeli military as part of ongoing harassment designed to force Palestinian villagers to give up their land;
While travel restrictions prevented us from directly witnessing the state of things in the Gaza Strip, we believe the blockade of the Gaza Strip has produced a humanitarian crisis of monumental proportion.
Our time together in Palestine has led us to understand that we have a responsibility to share with our US based LGBTIQ communities what we saw and heard so that we can do more together to end this occupation. In that spirit, we offer the following summary points in solidarity with the Palestinian people:
- The liberation of the Palestinian people from the project of Israeli occupation is the foremost goal of the Palestinian people and we fully support this aim. We also understand that liberation from this form of colonization and apartheid goes hand in hand with the liberation of queer Palestinians from the project of global heterosexism.
- We call out and reject the state of Israel’s practice of pinkwashing, that is, a well-funded, cynical publicity campaign marketing a purportedly gay-friendly Israel to an international audience so as to distract attention from the devastating human rights abuses it commits on a daily basis against the Palestinian people. Key to Israel’s pinkwashing campaign is the manipulative and false labeling of Israeli culture as gay-friendly and Palestinian culture as homophobic. It is our view that comparisons of this sort are both inaccurate – homophobia and transphobia are to be found throughout Palestinian and Israeli society – and that this is beside the point: Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine cannot be somehow justified or excused by its purportedly tolerant treatment of some sectors of its own population. We stand in solidarity with Palestinian queer organizations like Al Qaws and Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (PQBDS) whose work continues to impact queer Palestinians and all Palestinians. (http://www.alqaws.org, http://www.pqbds.com/)
- We urge LGBTIQ individuals and communities to resist replicating the practice of pinkwashing that insists on elevating the sexual freedom of Palestinian people over their economic, environmental, social, and psychological freedom. Like the Palestinian activists we met, we view heterosexism and sexism as colonial projects and, therefore, see both as interrelated and interconnected regimes that must end.
- We stand in solidarity with queer Palestinian activists who are working to end the occupation, and also with Israeli activists, both queer and others, who are resisting the occupation that is being maintained and extended in their name.
- We name the complicity of the United States in this human rights catastrophe and call on our government to end its participation in an unjust regime that places it and us on the wrong side of peace and justice.
- We support efforts on the part of Palestinians to achieve full self-determination, such as building an international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement which calls for the fulfillment of three fundamental demands: (http://www.bdsmovement.net/call)
- The end of the Occupation and the dismantling of the Wall (jidar).
- The right of return for displaced Palestinians.
- The recognition and restoration of the equal rights of citizenship for Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent.
Signed, January 25, 2012:
| Katherine Franke | Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Director, Center for Gender & Sexuality Law, Columbia University; Board Member Center for Constitutional Rights |
| Barbara Hammer | Filmmaker, Faculty at European Graduate School |
| Tom Léger | Editor, PrettyQueer.com |
| Darnell L. Moore | writer and activist |
| Vani Natarajan | Humanities and Area Studies Librarian, Barnard College |
| Pauline Park | Chair, New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) |
| Jasbir K. Puar | Rutgers University, Board Member Audre Lorde Project |
| Roya Rastegar | Independent artist and scholar |
| Dean Spade | Assistant Professor, Seattle University School of Law and Collective Member, Sylvia Rivera Law Project |
| Kendall Thomas | Nash Professor of Law, Columbia University |
| Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz | intersections/intersecciones consulting |
| Juliet Widoff, MD | Callen-Lorde Community Health Center |
All organizational affiliations are listed for identification purposes only and in no way indicate a position taken by such organizations on the issues raised in this statement.
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Thank you for signing the petition. An e-mail has been sent to you so that you may confirm your signature.
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