Boris Johnson put Peter Cruddas forward for a peerage.
The Lords’ Appointments Committee rejected it on the basis of his involvement in a cash for access scandal in which Cruddas had been involved in 2012 when he was a treasurer of the Conservative party. (Pay shed loads of money to the Conservative party for access to the Prime Minister…even if you aren’t Russian!)
Mr Cruddas gave Mr Johnson £50,000 towards his election campaign.
Mr Johnson overruled the Lords’ Appointments Committee and now Mr Cruddas is to be the Noble Baron Cruddas.
That is how Britain works… or doesn’t work.
+++++++++++++++
In 2018, Douglas Ross said it would be easier to get someone to “drink a pint of cold sick” than to back a fishing deal that allowed two years of access to waters for EU vessels.
Now he thinks it’s a good idea to stay in the CFP for 5 years and then have a review.
Are the fishermen happy? Anyone know?
What are fishermen drinking tonight?
+++++++++++++++
But you really can’t ever trust anything that a Tory says. Here’s John Lamont on the fishing matter:
Then there was David Duguid, bless him.
His red lines were no access to fishing waters, but lo, when we looked today, Mr Duguid’s red lines had magically vanished, rather like Ruth Davidson’s famous lines in the sand got washed away when David Cameron trampled all over them and instructed her to do the same. The first of many humiliations for her Ladyship.
For as long as I can remember David Mundell has been threatening to resign, although De Pfeffel saved him the bother by sacking him, but remember how he and the Noble and Gallant Baroness, were going to go if Northern Ireland was offered a deal that was different from Scotland’s?
But when Gove the Evil House Elf announced that Northern Ireland could have the best of both worlds, did David say, “OK, that’s it, you’ve pushed me too far. I resign the Tory Whip?”
No. He assuredly did not. (Where else would someone like him get a job at £90,000 a year?) Nor has her Grace. Not after all these fittings for her ermine and Coronet.
+++++++++++++++++
For more of their double summersaulting U-turns, see this SNP article.
++++++++++++++++++
Today Scotland passed 120,000 figure for Covid cases.
It made the UK BBC news.
Tomorrow England will pass the 2 million figure. A considerably higher rate than Scotland.
Will this make the UK BBC news?
Will the BBC *ever* report that Scotland has the lowest Covid rate in the UK?
(Information from MSM Monitor.)
+++++++++++++++
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Tris, is there a prize for the first person to spot a mention on the BBC that Scotland has the least worst rate of COVID in the UK?
Mind you, it would have to be a pretty big prize before I could be induced to watch or listen to the BBC, as I consider it a mentally unhygienic practice and bad for my blood pressure.
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That is quite an astonishing damnation of the lies we are told.
I completely hate Donald Trump, who in history may go down alongside Nero as the most out of touch politician of all time, but this is not just a solo effort.
It is an utterly corrupt and warped political class.
It is amazing how apathetic the general public is to this.
I would suggest that every one of the evil people portrayed in your post should be required to answer for their lies. It is not just a failure of democracy, it is a failure of humanity.
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We are surrounded, and governed, by idiots, venal, stupid, vicious and amoral.
I feel a spot of William Butler Yeats coming on…
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At last Someone else who feels the same way as me about the snp misrule 👍😎
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I always suspected you had dementia.
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Not without some justification, William.
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Niko, what on Earth gives you the idea that the SNP Government isn’t ruling Scotland well? If it were, we wouldn’t keep electing them.
You know fine well that I was talking about the appalling regime the English electorate have installed at Westminster.
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Who would you have instead, Niko.
Douglas Ross, the puppet of Johnson and Gove?
Dick Leonard controlled by Sir Starmer the junior aristocrat?
Wee Willie run by, whatshisname, who leads the Libdems?
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Munguinites with low thresholds of boredom may wish to skip to the end of this post.
Niko, I could and possibly should have added that the 2014 referendum gave rise to a kind of political renaissance in Scotland, with the Scottish electorate becoming one of the most politically savvy and aware in the world. That is one of the major reasons why our verdict on Brexit differed so sharply from that of the rUK (with the exception of Northern Ireland, where everyone must admit that there are special circumstances).
The Brexit Leave campaign, and subsequent Tory electoral campaigns and victories down south – rife with electoral fraud and dirty money – show how regrettably easily the English electorate have been bamboozled. That situation is not helped by the general unelectability of the major opposition party (over the longer term, there can be only two major parties under a first-past-the-post electoral system), which is suffering from an unresolved crisis of identity which the Tories no longer do now that they have purged the Party of its anti-Faragistes.
You are aware, Niko, that there was not one local authority area in Scotland where a majority of the electorate voted Leave in 2016? That overwhelming result can be put down to that heightened political awareness – and the bitter experience of being taken for fools in 2014. EVEL – with no corresponding legislation to make the Sewel Convention law, with no moves whatsoever to make the Scottish Parliament a permanent constitutional feature, and all with no sense of irony, no self-awareness, no shame among the Tories at their own duplicity, and no opposition from the only nominally opposition party. Then being dragged out of Europe against our will, despite the repeated assurances of Better Together which bamboozled so many No voters in 2014. Oh yes, that infamous Vow – and instead of abject apologies for their oath-breaking, all we get from the Unionist side is loud and constant quacking about “once in a generation” – no, Niko, I won’t accept “once in a generation” from you or from anyone else.
The opinion polls are trending toward the same sort of majority for independence as there was for Remain – and is doing so despite the barrage of pro-Union claptrap, both unconscious and deliberate, put out by all UK news organizations and all off-air broadcast TV and radio channels with the exception of one regular newspaper title and one regular print magazine (maybe there are Munguinites who can think of more).
That heightened political awareness is why I assert that the Scottish electorate know what they are doing when they elect SNP representatives: greater awareness translates into a lower likelihood of voting against our own best interests. There are negative factors driving voters in that direction too: the realization that the Unionist parties in Scotland are creatures of their London motherships; the general repugnance that Scots feel toward the Tories, exacerbated by their attacks on the devolution we voted for so massively back in 1997; the knowledge that the devolution settlement that was thrashed out was far inferior to what people thought they had voted for; the secular decline in support for the Labour party in Scotland as the scale of their betrayal gradually sank in, with their hopping into bed with Tories in Better Together a self-administered political coup de grâce – and the constant barrage of less and less credible and more and more hysterical attacks on the Scottish Government / SNP / the independence movement.
I’ll put it another way: most Scots have now seen through the lies put about by the Unionist parties and have less and less tolerance for their insensitivity, ignorance and arrogance. Fewer and fewer Scots are bamboozled by the unsupported or deliberately misleading SNPBAAAAD stories in the media, and the ridiculously inept and idiotic smears voiced at both Holyrood and Westminster. Scots in general do not believe that the Scottish NHS, the Scottish education system, Scottish governance in general are failing, though we are all aware that they could be improved and would love to do so if we had the necessary economic and political tools and levers available to us. And after all, we should know whether our services are failing or not, because we live here, because we experience them first hand, and the likes of Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Smugg don’t.
Those Mungunities who skipped directly to this point can save themselves the trouble of commenting TL;DR, because I just did it for you.
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A succinct, well almost, rebuttal Ed. Entirely wasted upon Niko. Taz, on the other hand…
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Taz was always the sensible one.
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I can do the odd one-liner, Conan, but when it comes to argumentifying, “succinct” takes too bloody long.
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Well said, Ed.
I’d just add that the idea that he would lose couldn’t have crossed Cameron’s mind.
Surely even if he was too dim to understand the implications of a possible Brexit on not only NI, but also Gibraltar, someon in the Civil Service might have said something to him.
You’ll either lose NI or you will break an international treaty and probably start a war.
And you will either lose Gibraltar or you will spend your lives and a vast amount of money ferrying ships full of water, food,
and all manners of consumables… and large amounts of unemployment benefits.
You’ll also have to build more hospital accommodating!
But he never thought he would lose, becasue people like him are not in the habit of losing.
It must have been a dreadful shock when other people like him… Eton, Oxford rich, were on the other side.
They never lose either.
I’m finding it hilarious that so many people are dredging up videos of earnest looking Scottish Tories, saying that they will NOT TOLERATE any kind of deal that does not give the fishermen immediate access to all BRITISH WATERS.
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Munguin might bestow ‘The Order of the Towers’ on the first person to see that.
Or he might not.
You can never tell with him. Moody animal.
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If I were the recipient of such an award, I would treasure it and light a candle before it daily. Perhaps lay a sardine on a piece of my best Wedgewood china before it in Mr. Munguin’s honour, assuming he like sardines.
With the state of my skeleton and musculature, I cannot promise to genuflect, though, as I could be down there for hours.
[You’re a right wee sook-in, aren’t you?-Ed.]
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Munguin says he likes sardines and saffron.
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Sardines may be procured from all reputable purveyors of comestibles and I happen to have a significant number of tins in stock already; for the saffron, I am willing to go out and pick the croci from the demesnes and curtilages of Schloss Freeman as soon as they bloom in the spring. The croci, not the curtilages, that is.
(Saffron too may be procured from all reputable &c., but have you seen the price of that stuff, Tris?)
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It’s good of you to offer to pick it in the grounds of the Schloss, Ed.
Yes, it’s rather expensive for the average Aldi, is saffron. We’re not quite sure how things will be in January, as normally Munguin send the jet to Paris to pick some up.
The trials and tribulations we have all because the Eton Boy wanted to show people he could put the EU question that had been tearing the Tories apart for years, to bed.
I bet he never thought for a second about the problems in getting saffron… not to mention white truffles.
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There’s a sardine shop in Douarnenez (Finisterre) that looks like an old-fashioned tobacconists, with its window display of many differently-coloured tins of sardines. Haven’t been there in a few years.
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Munguin will probably send me to make purchases…
Mind, Une fois que j’arriverai en France…I might never come back.
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For those of you who are actually interested in the Truth rather than what the BBC tell you then you need to watch this video.
Dr Katherine Horton is a Particle Physicist and Bill Binney was an Intelligence Official with the NSA and now a whistleblower. They reveal where the global mafias real centre of power lies.
While the video does not discuss the Xmas Nashville attack I can reveal that it was an EMF weapon, first postulated by Nikola Tesla way back when, it was NOT a bomb inside an RV, that was just a cover story. It was targetting a hardened underground bunker where AT&T switching service to the NSA was located.
Anyway the Doc and Bill hit the Bullseye with this one. A bit long but worth every minute.
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The Scottish people were asked if they wished to leave the UK.
In a referendum organised and run by the snp .
They chose to stay with the proviso the question would not be revisited for the next 25. Years there is another 19 years to go .
Still the snp ignore the will of the Scottish people in whom sovereignty rests so the snp used to say but now they wish and their Followers to have another vote and if that fails another after that until the Scottish people eventually vote the way the snp demands .
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It’s called democracy, Niko.
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“They chose to stay with the proviso the question would not be revisited for the next 25”
My ballot paper didn’t have any time frame on it nor did the Edinburgh Agreement and those were the only legally binding documents. The Smith Commission signed by every party in the Scottish parliament stated Scotland could become independent whenever the people choose.
Of course people voted no to
1. Remain in the EU
2. Have the Sewell Convention made law
3. The Scottish parliament made permanent
4. Its powers made permanent and indeed increased to “devo max”/closest thing to federalism.
If I’d voted no I’d be REALLY pissed of at having been taken for a mug since none of these actually happened.
It’s the winners who need to deliver on their promises. But they haven’t and so twist what the losers said missing out the caveats
“in my opinion”
“unless a material change in circumstances like the UK leaving the EU.”
Though maybe you are delighted at having a Right wing English nationalistic Brexit government? In which case, I hope Taz (is that a dog?) has more sense
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How very dare you Taz is not just a DOG 🐕 he is a much loved member of our family .
Unfortunately he is hell bent on supporting the cause of an Independent Scotland 🏴 .
But I forgive him his waywardness
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He’s the one in the family with some sense.
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Dear Taz
Woof woof woof.
In human that’s sorry for offending your owner. He says you are an indy supporter. Well aren’t you a very good boy. And a clever one too.
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He’s the brains of the family, PP.
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Democracy is a process, not an event.
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Very tiresome this “once in a generation” nonsense being continually spouted by unionists as a reason for not allowing Scots to express our democratic wishes.
There is no document or law (at least not yet) that supports that assertion.
It is up there with Thatcher’s assertion that all it would take for Scotland to become independent would be to elect a majority of SNP MPs (clearly a majority of Scottish MPs).
Don’t hear too much about that do we.
Why are unionists so afraid of allowing Scots to exercise their democratic rights?
They can no longer claim that Scots don’t want to do this since the polls continually show a majority now in favour of independence and the Tory regime’s private polling was showing this before the Covid crisis.
England’s Tories and their fellow English based political parties here in Scotland are intent on the destruction of all things Scottish in the furtherance of their claimed identity as Greater England.
Greater England/UK can no longer exist if an independent entity called Scotland does.
That is what it has now come down to.
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I believe Mr Johnson called the last UK election in the series that we’ve had opver the last few years, as a once in a generation election.
Maybe of course, he meant it and there won’t be another one for 7 years, or as Niko suggests, 25 years…
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We can change our mind, Boris and his Tory government changes their minds daily.
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Particularly when at all recent elections, the SNP and the Greens have had it in their manifestos that there should be another referendum and the Tories have said that there should not.
If the Scottish people didn’t want a referendum why didn’t they vote Tory?
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“They chose to stay with the proviso the question would not be revisited for the next 25.”
Ballocks.
That is all.
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Err yes Conan very insightful
And so goes the Sovereignity of the Scottish people’s
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Exactly, Conan.
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Ballocks: a type of dagger widely used in Scotland and northern England during the later Middle Ages / Early Modern Period.
There are fine examples on display in the National Museum in Edinburgh.
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Well done, tris. Very sharp.
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🙂 I’d not like to be on the wrong side of it, DonDon”!
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1. No such time limitation was imposed. A single politician offered the opinion it was a once in a generation event. The current leader of the YUK is not, as I write, lying dead in a ditch. And one baroness and a failed Scottish secretary have not resigned now that Scotland and Northern Ireland are in different relationships with the EU.
2. There was a signed agreement that purdah was to be observed. Neither party ( the SNP nor the YUK ) was to alter its offer for one month prior to the vote. But the YUK side sh#t themselves when a single opinion poll showed the tide was running for YES, and the YUK then offered “lets call it Devo Max”. We are still waiting for that to be delivered.
3. If the YUK had delivered on the promises they made to get their No vote we would not be in this situation today. The majority of SNP members joined after the sham we were subjected to. I did not join to protest a vote I did not agree with. I joined to right a wrong perpetrated upon my Nation. If yoons are so happy they represent the settled will of the Scots then lets ask the bl##dy Scots. They have voted repeatedly and consistently for the SNP since 2014. We have a mandate.
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I disagree, davidbsb: we do not have a mandate, we have several, repeated mandates.
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Bang on, David.
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This is a lie. An off the cuff comment by Alex Salmond has
never been written into any official document or laws. Get your facts right.
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Yep, Niko’s a haver, Freda.
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BTW Kate Hoey was a Labour MP though many referred to her as the DUP member for London Vauxhall due to her views and birthplace. She’s now a Baroness and has officially left Labour
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Someone posted this online. It’s a link to the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund’s current value. The fund was only set up in 1990. The numbers increase so fast it’s actually dizzying. I’m scunnered – the UK has fecked Scotland and still we have people defending the “union”.
https://www.nbim.no/
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And that’s only one of two funds they have, if I’m not mistaken.
Still the Brits had lots of wars, bought nukes, retained a seat at the top table, shut down industries, and spent a fortune keeping their mates and what have you in a damned fine style, suitable to their classy upbringing.
So that’s OK.
Plus we got blue passports.
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It makes me grind my teach in rage just thinking about it, PP. That’s why I try not to think of it: I have quite enough trouble with my teeth as it is.
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I put that on my fb, and mongered a grievance or two about it.
This Union has to be brought to an end, and soon. Mind you, yesterday wouldn’t be soon enough.
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Sorry peeps. Munguin’s internet keeps going down today. They must not know who he is.
I’ve written couple of comments only to have them disappear. So please excuse the lack of replies from… Although I see you are doing fine without me 😥😆🤗👍
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tris
Kangaroo 🦘 probably has a good conspiracy on why it’s occurring.
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Mine has been too, Niko. Personally, I think it’s energy beings from Lemuria seeking asylum in our fibreoptic cables. Either that or specially trained psychics in the pay of the Orange Order attacking the IT infrastructure of Scotland’s Yes City.
I expect Tris knows, or at least suspects.
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“specially trained psychics in the pay of the Orange Order”
Surely they have enough untrained psychos?
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LOL. Nearly all of them!
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They have to bring them in specially from secret Russian military research labs in specially modified freight containers, Conan. For the avoidance of doubt, that’s the specially trained psychics in the freight containers, Conan, not the secret Russian military research labs, though I wouldn’t put it past them.
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Well, Munguin does.
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Randomly… another article from Umair Haque entitled “How the Covidiots Won:
They Make Covidiots Dig Graves in Jakarta. We Pander to Their Ignorance and Remorseless Stupidity.”
https://archive.vn/T3Vwj
I have been corresponding with an old American friend who tells me she thinks most Americans would not put up with the restrictions we are living under here in Scotland. I attribute Scotland’s relative success in dealing with the pandemic to a greater sense of community as well as to far better leadership, consistency of information, and regular and authoritative public briefings.
The rates of COVID infection in Scotland are still, of course, far too high, and it gives me no pleasure at all that they are so much higher in the rUK.
I like Umair Haque’s pointing out that lots of people making very slight changes can have a significant overall effect.
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I’ve seen this on Sky news website.
“Latest Scotland coronavirus statistics
Scotland recorded seven deaths from coronavirus between 25 and 29 December, official figures show.
A further 1,895 cases were reported on 29 December.
There are 1,092 people in hospital who have tested positive, 65 of whom are in intensive care.”
I honestly feared there would be more deaths than that, though obviously condolences to the families of the 7 deceased and get well soon everyone else.
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There may however be more deaths and they haven’t been reported yet with the bank holidays and weekend.
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I find those numbers low enough to be somewhat reassuring, PP, though as you say there will be reporting lag, exacerbated by the holidays.
They are of course still too high. I haven’t seen reports of what the R nought number is, though; I’m kinda disappointed that it doesn’t seem to be included with the figures as a matter of course. I have no idea as yet how to calculate it myself, though I should probably find out.
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It’s really complicated Ed because you are dealing with variables that you can’t directly calculate in real time. It’s so complicated it takes a supercomputer in Edinburgh 56 HOURS to run the modelling. I mean in theory it should be easy – but it isn’t.
https://news.stv.tv/politics/coronavirus-what-is-the-r-number-and-how-is-it-calculated?top
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Thanks for that, PP – I’ll add it R naught to my list of things not to bother my pretty little head about!
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From an American friend of mine, on the post-Trump future of social relations. Written by a prominent anti-Trumper, one of the founders of the Lincoln Project.
https://is.gd/2lutXL
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Link is being blocked by Google for me at least. Or is it 77 brigade…?
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Ah. The original URL is to the attachment in my Gmail, so I should have realized that no one else would be able to see it.
Here’s another link to it which, I hope, will work for you: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tCgNFPSGGd5CnJwFZisr_xgxOSXSHE3B/view?usp=sharing.
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There are some sensible Republicans after all… thanks Ed.
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