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Post by pjotr on Sept 8, 2021 11:49:22 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Sept 8, 2021 11:44:37 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Sept 8, 2021 11:42:14 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Sept 8, 2021 11:29:44 GMT 1
Afghanistan–Poland relationsA participant holds a placard during a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in Krakow, Poland August 22, 2021 [Jakub Porzycki/Agencja Gazeta/via Reuters]Afghanistan and Poland established diplomatic relations in 1928. Afghanistan has an embassy in Warsaw.People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with Afghans in Warsaw, Poland. Photo: ReutersModern relations between Afghanistan and Poland dated back from 20th century, when King Amanullah Khan visited Poland in 1928 and received a warm welcome from the Polish Government. This subsequently gave Afghanistan and Poland its full diplomatic relations. However, relations were later severed after the World War II and later Cold War, in which both had little to no formal connection.
President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki and King of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan in Warsaw, Poland in 1928
At 1980s, during the Soviet–Afghan War, Poland as part of communist Eastern Bloc sided with the Soviet Union, but on the same time, growing Solidarity movement (Solidarność) in Poland and strong anti-Soviet resistance led by Ahmad Shah Massoud were instrumental on causing the collapse of the communist world and the fall of the USSR. Poles showed great support and solidarity toward Afghans against the USSR.At the Afghan embassy in Warsaw in 2019At 1990s, Poland showed support to Ahmad Shah Massoud-led Northern Alliance to fight the Taliban. Shah Massoud also had an interview with a number of Poles, including Piotr Balcerowicz, the last to give interview to him before his death. Polish intelligence led by Alexander Makowski, assisted by anti-Taliban militias in Afghanistan, also helped discovering the existence of Osama Bin Laden and had urged the CIA to kill him at 1999, but the CIA rejected and thus, had missed the chance. The failed attempt was believed to had played a role leading to September 11 attacks by Bin Laden to the U.S. to growing anti-Western sentiment in Muslim world, which Makowski contributed to the missed opportunity to eliminate Bin Laden's threat at 1999.
Poland also contributed troops to Afghanistan in the subsequent Afghan War after the collapse of Taliban rule as part of NATO mission to the country. The Poles were able to win supports from Afghan locals, but it was hampered by American futile efforts in the war. However, due to the cost of the war, sometimes it was referred as Poland's "Vietnam Syndrome" because of incidents like Nangar Khel incident. In October of 2012, Afghanistan gave back to Poland one of the country's original Renault FT-17 tanks that had been captured by the Soviets in the Polish-Soviet War and subsequently gifted to the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
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Post by pjotr on May 11, 2021 23:34:31 GMT 1
Bonobo,
ZACMA: BLINDNESS is an incredible in-depth and sombre movie about sin, atonement, questioning the Stalinist past and the persecution of the Roman Catholic church and priests in Communist Poland, and personal repentance with good film work, the atmosphere of the Polish peoples republic, a Polish church and monastry, faith in God vs atheism (antithesis), the war against faith during communism and repentance of an Old Communist Stalinist interrogator and torturer of the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (1945–1954). A very good and very Polish movie. Also a very Roman Catholic movie, with some Jewish elements in it. But it's atmosphere and content are mainly Polish. These UB (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa) people and Milicja Obywatelska police officers are terrible, but the landscape, monastery, church, country life and some idyllic scenes are wonderful.
I watched 2 Polish movies Sunday afternoon and evening. Kurier (the Messenger) and ZACMA: BLINDNESS.
I wonder if you recognise something about the Polish Peoples Republic in Zacma, this movie about Communist Poland during the sixties. Do you recognise the suppression of the Roman Catholic Church and Roman Catholic priests by the regime of the Polish United Workers' Party (Polish: Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza) and it’s secret service the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (UB; 1945–1954) and the 'Security Service' (Służba Bezpieczeństwa or SB; from 1954 until 1989). The repressions of political opponents were revived following the 1968 Polish political crisis. With the emergence of Solidarność in 1980, Lech Wałęsa was under constant SB (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) surveillance. Throughout the martial law (1981-1983), SB played a key role in wiretapping telephones in public areas and institutions. It also participated in infiltrating Solidarność committees and gatherings.
The torture and execution of Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko by SB (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) members in 1984 shook Poland. The agency (Służba Bezpieczeństwa) is also suspected of killing Stanisław Pyjas, Catholic priest Stefan Niedzielak, and is reported to have abused priest Roman Kotlarz, who died mysteriously after a beating.
Jerzy Popiełuszko (born Alfons Popiełuszko; 14 September 1947–19 October 1984) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest who became associated with the opposition Solidarity trade union in communist Poland. He was murdered in 1984 by three agents of Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs), who were shortly thereafter tried and convicted of the murder.
He has been recognized as a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, and was beatified on 6 June 2010 by Archbishop Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. A miracle attributed to his intercession and required for his canonization is now under investigation.
Stanisław Włodzimierz Pyjas (1953–1977) was a Polish student of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, member of the anticommunist student movements. He died on May 7, 1977 in Kraków. The exact circumstances of Pyjas’ death are still a mystery and his case, which is still disputed, shook public opinion in Poland. According to one scenario he was murdered and the killers, probably members of the communist Secret Services, arranged the death to look like an accident. The official scenario, however, states that his death occurred after he fell from the stairs while being drunk. In 2011 his body was examined, and the outcome states that it was the fall that caused his death and that he had not been beaten.
Stefan Niedzielak (ur. 1 września 1914 w Podolszycach, obecnie dzielnica Płocka, zm. 20/21 stycznia 1989 w Warszawie) – ksiądz katolicki, prałat, kapelan Armii Krajowej i WiN-u, współzałożyciel Rodzin Katyńskich.
Roman Kotlarz (born 17 October 1928 in Koniemłoty near Staszow, died 18 August 1976 in Radom, Poland) was a Polish Catholic priest and an activist of the democratic opposition in the days of Polish communism and the People’s Republic of Poland (PRP). During the June 1976 protests in Poland he gave a blessing and support to the striking workers and protesters. He was beaten severely by police on several occasions. He died under mysterious circumstances later that year. He was honored posthumously by many leaders including president Lech Kaczyński. He has also been given the Servant of God designation.
Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pjotr on May 11, 2021 23:26:18 GMT 1
ZACMA: BLINDNESS: Julia BrystigerThe film shows an obscure episode from the life of a Stalinist criminal - Colonel of the Office of Public Security, Julia Brystiger. Her nickname was "Bloody Luna" because during interrogations she tortured prisoners with extreme cruelty. At the beginning of 1960s she appeared in Laski near Warsaw, in the Institute for the Blind, where the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, was also a frequent visitor. His imprisonment in the years 1953-1956 was supervised by none other than Julia Brystiger herself. During the difficult and tempestuous conversation with the Primate, Julia Brystiger rejects the communist ideology, asks for her crimes to be forgiven and for help in finding God...Julia BrystigerJulia Brystiger (née Prajs, born November 25, 1902, in Stryj – died November 9, 1975, in Warsaw) was a Polish-Jewish communist activist and member of the security apparatus in Stalinist Poland (Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego, commonly known as UB; Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (1945–1954)). She was also known as Julia Brystygier, Bristiger, Brustiger, Briestiger, Brystygierowa, Bristigierowa, and by her nicknames – given by the victims of torture: Luna, Bloody Luna, Daria, Ksenia, and Maria. The nickname Bloody Luna was a direct reference of her Gestapo-like methods during interrogations. Her pen name was Julia Preiss. Author of several books.LifeBrystiger was the daughter of a Jewish pharmacist from Stryj (now Ukraine). In 1920 she graduated from high school in Lwów (new Second Polish Republic) and married a Zionist activist Natan (Nathan) Brystiger. She studied history at the Lwów University while pregnant and a year later gave birth to a son, Michał Bristiger.
After graduating from University, Brystiger went to Paris where she continued her education, receiving a PhD in philosophy. Upon their return, in 1928–1929, she got a job at a high school in Vilnius (Wilno) and in a Jewish Teacher's College Tarbuch. Since 1927, she was an active participant in the communist movement, and in 1929 was fired because of her communist agitation. Working for the Communist Party of Poland, she was arrested several times, and in 1937 was sentenced to 2 years in prison.After the German and Soviet attack on Poland, Brystiger escaped to Samarkand, accepted Soviet citizenship and became an active member of the Soviet political administration. She created the so-called Committee of Political Prisoners, which helped the NKVD to imprison several members of the prewar Polish opposition movements. She was "denouncing people on such scale, that she antagonized even Communist party members". Ironically, at one point Brystiger oversaw the interrogation and persecution of Bela and Józef Goldberg – her future colleague, the UB interrogator known as Józef Różański. Różańskis had committed "a crime" of accepting Western food-aid in the form of two kilograms of rice and a bag of flour from the Polish Government in Exile's embassy, in order to save their daughter from starvation. A few years later, Józef Różański joined the NKVD and eventually, became a high ranking functionary in the Polish secret police. He ended up working alongside Brystiger – his former interrogator – in the Ministry of Public Security of Poland under Stalinism.
Following German Operation Barbarossa Brystiger fled to Kharkov, then to Samarkand deep in the USSR. In 1943-44, she worked for the Union of Polish Patriots, and in October 1944, joined the new Polish Workers' Party. In December 1944, after returning behind the Soviet front, Brystygier began working for the infamous Ministry of Public Security of Poland, where she soon got promoted to the rank of Director of the Fifth Department created in July 1946 specifically for the purpose of persecution and torture of Polish religious personalities. Her career is believed to have been so rapid also because she was intimate with such high functionaries as Jakub Berman and Hilary Minc. In the Polish official archives, there is an instruction written by Brystygier to her subordinates, about the purpose of torture:
In fact, the Polish intelligentsia as such is against the Communist system and basically, it is impossible to re-educate it. All that remains is to liquidate it. However, since we must not repeat the mistake of the Russians after the 1917 revolution, when all intelligentsia members were exterminated, and the country did not develop correctly afterwards, we have to create such a system of terror and pressure that the members of the intelligentsia would not dare to be politically active
Brystiger personally oversaw the first stages of each UB investigation at her place of employment. She would torture the captured persons using her own methods such as whipping male victims' genitals. One of her victims was a man named Szafarzynski – from the Olsztyn office of the Polish People's Party – who died as a result of interrogation carried out by Brystygier. One of the victims of her interrogation methods testified later: "She is a murderous monster, worse than German female guards - SS-Aufseherinnen of the concentration camps". Anna Roszkiewicz–Litwiniwiczowa, a former soldier of the Home Army, said about Brystygier: "She was famous for her sadistic tortures; she seemed to have been obsessed with sadistic treatment of genitalia and was fulfilling her libido in that way.".
Brystiger became the head of the 5th Department of UB (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa) sometime in the late 1940s. It specialized in the persecution of Polish religious leaders. Brystygier – a dogmatic Marxist – yearned to destroy all religion as an "opiate of the masses". She directed the operation to arrest and detain the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. The decision to arrest him had been made earlier in Moscow. Brystygier took an active part in the "war against religion" in the 1950s, during which 123 Roman Catholic priests were imprisoned in 1950 alone.Cardinal Stefan WyszynskiShe also persecuted other congregations, such as the 2,000 jailed Jehovah's Witnesses. Julia Brystygier left the Ministry of Public Security (UB) in 1956 and tried to become a writer, authoring a novel "Crooked Letters". She worked in a publishing house under Jewish communist Jerzy Borejsza (Różański's brother), and was a frequent visitor to a boarding school for the vision impaired, in a village near Warsaw.
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Post by pjotr on May 11, 2021 23:25:46 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on May 11, 2021 23:16:22 GMT 1
Just married Dutch couple driving Amsterdam style
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Post by pjotr on May 11, 2021 22:55:35 GMT 1
These cyclists in Wrocław look like Dutch people who ignore the law. Don’t cycle on squares and not in shopping streets. But we ignore the law and cycle on squares and shopping streets despite the fact that police officers can stop us and can give us a fine of 60 Euro or more. Cheers, Pieter I see. So it is a Europe-wide thing, not only Polish. Those bikes can be a nuisance sometimes coz riders go fast past passers-by. What if a child suddenly ran before a bike? Fortunately, I haven`t heard of such incidents so probably I am too sensitive. But when our kids were small, I was constantly on my guard about bikers - even more than cars. Bonobo,
I am one of the Bycicle fanatics who raced through Dutch towns and cities on my boy, teenage and adolescent bikes. In Zeeland I was chased by local cops who often lost me when I slipped through narrow alleys. But when they caught me the 'sadistic' nature of a local cop came to the surface and then they acted like an occupational Nazi Ordnungspolizei (Grüne Polizei) Feldwebel, Polish Blue police officer or collaborationalist Dutch (Nazi) police.
We easily call Dutch compatriots we don't like a NSB-er (member of the war time Nazi Dutch party NSB), the term equals the term Quisling ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling ), rotten fascist (vuile fascist) or other less kind descriptions of a low life. Especially if this person acts in a deviant, obscure, nasty, oppressive or betraying way. In Poland I also once witnessed distrust of unknown Poles by Polish compatriots. I said I met a nice young Polish lady on the street. My host nearly got a heart attack when I told her about my encounter with the nice lady on the street. A quite innocent short encounter and pleasant conversation. She was shocked because I connected to an unknown Polish person, who could have been a 'Communist', 'criminal' or 'terrorist'?
Back to the sadistic local Dutch police of the Vlissingen town on the Walcheren Peninsula in Zeeland. They had a great pleasure to humiliate a teenage boy who had a broken light bulb. They let me walk next to my bike from the town centre to the suburb where my parents lived driving very slowly and enjoying the humilation of this Beavis & Butthead like teenage creature I was. I remember their smiling faces, due to their great heroic enjoyment in humiliating this skinny teenage kid. In Amsterdam I was a bycicle terrorist who scarred tourists to death by driving like a maniac through Amsterdam over sidewalks, bike lanes, squares, along the chanals, over narrow bridges and streets. My Amsterdam girlfriend lived in another part of Amsterdam and I had to cycle or walk or go by tram 7 kilometers to get to her every day.
Fast driving was my joy and pleasure in Amsterdam. I drove like I was participating in a Tour de France episode in Amsterdam or the Tour de Pologne (Wyścig Dookoła Polski, Tour of Poland).Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pjotr on Mar 7, 2021 23:10:52 GMT 1
Ignoring law in minor cases is a national sport of Polish people. The reasons are simple: the legacy of around 300 years of foreign influence or even occupation during which Poles ignored the occupants` law in order to survive. Today they refuse to abide by weird regulations created by their compatriots from town councils and government all over Poland. E.g., the ban on bikes in Wrocław Main Square has been in force for 12 years now. And what? Nothing: PHOTOSBonobo, These cyclists in Wrocław look like Dutch people who ignore the law. Don’t cycle on squares and not in shopping streets. But we ignore the law and cycle on squares and shopping streets despite the fact that police officers can stop us and can give us a fine of 60 Euro or more. Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pjotr on Jan 19, 2021 13:05:51 GMT 1
Oh, I see. Now I remember you already mentioned it before, but I forgot. Sorry. As for double speak, you mean this infamous Am political correctness, right. Do you suggest that when Trump says bad people, Hilary Clinton would say people with unclear intentions? And that`s what Americans are tired of? Yes, Americans are sick of politicians that do not address things directly. The talk "around" things and end up saying nothing of substance about an issue. That way they cannot get in trouble for their views, plus no one can actually know what their views are because they speak so obscurely!! No danger of that with Donald T....if he's anything...he's blunt...usually blunt to a fault!Jeanne/Bo, Americans aren't the only ones that are sick of politicians that do not address things directly. European politicians can talk "around" things and end up saying nothing of substance about an issue as well. That's why leftwing and rightwing populist parties and politicians who have a simple, blunt, direct message, goal and answer to questions have such a large success. In my country Geert Wilders PPV (Freedom party), Thierry Baudet's Forum for Democracy, the Socialist Party, the leftwing Populist migrant 'Think' (= 'Denk' in Dutch) party, and the new movements List Henk Krol (HKL), Code Orange, JA21 (a split off of Forum for Democracy dissidens), and the Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB), Go Realism & Virtue/Party for the Future and NL Beter (the Netherlands Better) emerged on the stage. Like in the USA the Dutch politicians in The Hague often are far away from the people and the regions, most of them come from the Western part of the Netherlands (Holland/Utrecht area) and have little in common with the Southerners from Zeeland, North-Brabant and Limburg, the East with my Gelderland, Overijssel and Drenthe (the Low Saxon provinces, Holland people are not Low Saxons) and the North (Friesland and Groningen). So people who address the rural area's and the provinces outside Holland & Utrecht gain some votes. Probably the same thing in Poland. Bonobo will be able to tell us more about that. Cheers, Pieter
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Post by pjotr on Dec 24, 2020 23:46:25 GMT 1
Merry Christmas Jeanne and Bo. Wesołych Świąt Boże Narodzenie. I hope you have some warm days with familymembers. This wonderful Christian celebration of birth and light brings some joy to the world. Hopefully Covid 19 will be defeated in 2021 with the vaccins.
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Post by pjotr on Oct 29, 2020 0:24:07 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Oct 29, 2020 0:19:21 GMT 1
October 2020 Polish protestsProtests started in Poland on 22 October 2020 against the rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal, consisting mainly of judges rightfully appointed by the ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), which effectively tightened the law on abortion in Poland, making abortion illegal in almost all cases, including severe and irreversible disability or incurable and life threatening disease of foetus. A wave of mass protests of people opposing the ruling and supporting more abortion rights began on the afternoon of the same day.The protests opposed the intermixing of the Church with politics in Poland, and opposed the judiciary, executive and legislative powers held by PiS.ProtestsStreet protests started on Thursday 22 October 2020 following the ruling and continued throughout the weekend. Street protests took place in 60 Polish towns on the night of 23 October, and again on 24 October, in the town centres, in front of PiS offices, and in front of the office of religious administrations.[4] On 25 October, protesters staged sit-ins in Catholic churches, disrupting Sunday Mass in several cities, including Katowice and Poznań[5] and churches across the country were vandalized.On 26 October, women and men in 150 Polish towns and cities participated.Female demonstrator faces Female Police officer in WarsawOn 27 October 2020, Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet [pl] (All-Polish Women's Strike) presented a list of demands (fixing the situations of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the Ombudsman, amending the budget – with more funds for health protection and assistance for entrepreneurs, full women's rights – legal abortion, sex education, contraception, stopping the financing of the Catholic Church from the state budget, the end of religious instruction in schools and the resignation of the government) and announced the creation of a Consultative Council – to be modelled on the Belarusian Coordination Council – a platform for dialogue to resolve the sociopolitical situation in Poland.On 28 October 2020, there was a nationwide women's strike under the slogan 'Nie idę do roboty' (I'm not going to work), many workplaces and offices allowed their employees to take part in the protest. Some universities and independents media and companies i.a. Newsweek Poland, Gazeta.pl, Gazeta Wyborcza, NaTemat.pl, mBank also took part in the protest.International protestsInternational demonstrations were organised in Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Bochum, Bristol, Budapest, Chicago, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Göteborg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kyiv, Leeds, Leipzig, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Malmö, Manchester, Mexico City, Munich, Nottingham, Paris, Porto, Prague, Reykjavík, Sheffield, Sydney, Stockholm, Tartu, and Vienna.Jarosław Kaczyński statementJarosław Kaczyński, who is considered Poland's de facto leader (formally he is holding the posts of Deputy Prime Minister and president of PiS), issued on 27 October a several-minute statement. In the statement he called for the "defence of the churches, Poland and patriotism", stated that "the authorities have the full right to oppose these protests" and called "all PiS members and our supporters" to "defend [the churches] at all costs" (Polish: Musimy ich bronić za każdą cenę.). Kaczyński's speech was compared to Wojciech Jaruzelski's address declaring martial law in 1981. Many commentators and journalists interpreted the speech as a call for civil war and a declaration of war on society, based on Kaczyński's expression "at all costs".Relations with the Catholic ChurchSlogans in the protests included swear words opposing the Catholic Church, physical disruption of church services by holding up banners in the churches, and painting of graffiti on church and cathedral walls throughout Poland. The New York Times described the protests as breaking a "longstanding taboo against challenging the [Catholic] church".
During the October protests, enquiries regarding the procedure for apostasy (deregistering from the Polish Catholic Church), which requires a personal visit to a parish priest who is obliged to try to persuade the apostasy candidate to change his/her mind, increased in popularity. Web search engine queries showed high frequencies for "apostasy" (Polish: apostazja) and "how to do apostasy" (Polish: jak dokonać apostazji), and a Facebook event titled "Quit the church at [Christmas]" was followed by 5000 people.A women's rights activist with a poster of the Women's Strike action protests in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020 against recent tightening of Poland's restrictive abortion law. Massive nationwide protests have been held ever since a top court ruled Thursday that abortions due to fetal congenital defects are unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)www.bu.edu/articles/2008/why-poland-is-afraid-of-feminism/For Polish readers you have this Polish wikipedia section with the same subject: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protesty_przeciwko_zaostrzeniu_przepis%C3%B3w_dotycz%C4%85cych_aborcji_w_Polsce
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Post by pjotr on Oct 28, 2020 1:25:02 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Oct 27, 2020 22:49:41 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Oct 27, 2020 22:49:02 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Oct 27, 2020 22:44:02 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Oct 27, 2020 22:42:00 GMT 1
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Post by pjotr on Oct 27, 2020 22:35:52 GMT 1
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