Sleeper Cell in the White House

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Trish and Rob

All the President’s Men…Robert Redford depicting Bob Woodward

As excerpts from Bob Woodward’s book, Fear: Trump in the White House, were released yesterday and today (September 4-5), it dominated the news cycle, even overpowering the Senate judiciary committee’s hearing on Trump’s nomination  of Bret Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Then, today, the insider gossip of madness in the White House peaked with an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times by a senior  White House official who confirmed just about everything that has leaked about the chaos in the Trump administration. This is the first time someone high in the administration has said publicly—though unfortunately anonymously—that Trump is unfit to be president. Essentially, this high ranking administration official is saying that the president is nuts.

If you haven’t read about it already, here it is.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the op-ed titled: “I am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. “The dilemma — which [Trump] does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” the author wrote. “I would know. I am one of them.”

He goes on: “Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

“The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.”

Here’s the synchronicity. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were given information by an anonymous source within the Nixon administration about the Watergate scandal that ultimately exposed Nixon’s crimes. It led to Nixon’s resignation and to prison terms for H.R. Haldeman, G. Gordon Liddy, John Dean, and several others. Now, 44 years later, excerpts from Woodward’s book, which will be published on 9-11, sets off a firestorm of news coverage and denials from POTUS and his administration. Within a few hours, the New York Times releases the anonymous op-ed, and it’s  a confirmation of the material in Woodward’s book.

In both scandals, Woodward’s role was pivotal. Both times the truth teller was anonymous—Deep Throat and now ‘Deep State.’ The revelations in the Times op-ed make Trump’s earlier accusation that Woodward’s book is fiction sound like a toothless defense that even his gung ho supporters would have a hard time accepting. But you never know.

The question with this ‘Deep Throat’ source is why he/she didn’t identify him/herself and use the op-ed as a resignation letter, and send a copy to the appropriate congressional committees. Surely, the person’s ID will come out eventually. But ultimately that’s a secondary matter to the startling and scary assertions presented in the op-ed.  In retrospect, on the book yet to be published, Woodward’s title, FEAR, is certainly sounding applicable. He/she assures us there are others who are also working to protect the country from acts of madness being generated by a mentally unstable occupant of the Oval Office.

All of this reminds us of a now prophetic novel from the 1950s—Night of Camp David—that posed the same question that many are considering today.

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The Dead Battery SynchroS

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Trish and Rob

Precognition often comes through signs and symbols—a particular song we hear, a book that falls at our feet, an animal that crosses our path, a sequence of numbers or a name that crops up repeatedly, an event or incident that hits us viscerally, and yes, even through billboards. Synchronicity is often a component.

We live in a collective sea of these signs and symbols. Nature, the universe, Source, God, whatever you want to call it, constantly chatters to us. But we’re so mired in the business of physical life that we don’t always hear that voice. Or we hear it and ignore it. Or we hear it and think, Yeah, sure, I’m kinda losing it here.

You’re in your car. Maybe you’re on a road trip. Or picking up your son or daughter from school. Or maybe you’re about to back out of your garage to head off to the grocery store, the park, a friend’s house. Your car dies. You turn the key and nothing happens. On one level, it’s an annoying and inconvenient event from our everyday world. But on another level, the abrupt and unexpected nature of the event could serve as a sign or symbol of something that’s about to happen.

When our daughter was in elementary school, Rob would take her to school and I would pick her up. On one particular day, I was in the pickup line – longer than the one in the photo – and my  car suddenly went dead. There I was, the car refusing to start, cars behind me honking because hey, why wasn’t that car moving forward?

Rob drove over and jumped the battery and followed Megan and me home. Once in the driveway, the battery died again.  Clearly, a new battery was in order. But was there something more, an underlying message?

When we’re in the midst of such events in our daily lives, it’s easy to overlook them as possibly symbolic. But sometimes the meaning pops right out at you. I was about to call AAA when I noticed a message on our answering machine from a writer friend. Diane Cleaver, the woman who had been our literary agent for 15 years, who had jump started our careers, had died suddenly of a heart attack.

Standstill. The battery dies. The car has to be jumped started.

If there are no accidents, as Robert Hopke theorizes in his book by the same name, then the death of the car coinciding with our hearing about Diane’s death wasn’t random. Just how are all of us, the dead and the living, connected, anyway? How are we connected to the larger world beyond us?

We think of it as synchronicity. It exists in the space between what we see and what we sense, that border between what quantum physicist David Bohm called the implicate (enfolded) order—the underlying reality—and the explicate (unfolded) order—the physical world and everyday reality. The inner, the outer. The non-local and the local mind.

Ever since, I’ve paid close attention to events like this. Especially those involving car batteries.

UPDATE: September 2018

On the morning of 9/1, I drove Megan over to an apartment building where she had to walk a dog. We were going to meet Rob in Cassadaga, then head out to look at some homes in possible areas for our move. Nika, Megan’s dog, and I waited in the car outside the building while she went in to get the dog.

15 minutes later, Megan hops into the car. I turn the key in the ignition. Oops. No go. Megan goes inside the building to see if she can get jumper cables, Rob drives over, we jump the battery and make it back to her house. The battery dies again. We head off for our day and when we get back that evening call AAA. The battery was less than 3 years old, so they install a new one.

Not sure what this incident was about on a synchro level. But  it’s also a synchro that it happened within 72 hours of my writing this post about the dead battery more than 20 years ago. That capitalized S in the post title is what I added with my update.

 

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Florence?

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Trish and Rob

So far in this hurricane season, the Atlantic basin has been lucky. It’s been quiet. Maybe that’s the way nature balances itself after a horrendous hurricane season in 2017 that set records. That flooded Houston. Destroyed Puerto Rico’s infrastructure. Did some major damage to our house. The damage to our place is now in the process of repair – new roof, new dry board, new paint job. But Puerto Rico is still suffering and the death toll there has been adjusted – from 64 to nearly 3,000.

But here we are in early September, when the hurricane season tends to ramp up, and we have a potential cyclone coming off the coast of Africa. Notice the terminology. Potential. The National Hurricane Center predicts that at day 5 (today) there’s a 90 percent chance of development. But notice that in the graphic, the system begins turning toward the west northwest, but is still well away from the U.S. mainland. If it remains on that course shown in the graphic, it looks like it might hit North Carolina.

I’m writing this on August 30. Today, September 5, how do things look? Well, somewhat better in terms of forecast:

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Social Media

Posted on September 1, 2018 by Trish and Rob

One day, I posted the cover of Aliens in the Backyard on Instagram. It was next to some photos of Golden Retrievers, covers from other books, an astrological chart of the solar eclipse on August 11. So some guy comments on the picture: Your IG (Instagram) is dope. What’s your story?

HIS story is – no kidding – “Just trying to play a super hero in a movie.”

But his remark made me think of an episode in Black Mirror, where everything in your life – from getting a job to obtaining a mortgage to leasing an apartment and eating at a restaurant – depends on your social standing. Your brand. Your story. In the episode, your social standing was, well, everything.  

Today on Sirius radio, I heard an MSNBC host talking about how Don Trump Jr’s brand went over well with his dad’s base. His brand, as defined through the number of his Twitter and Instagram followers, connected with people in that base. I was struck by how this all smacked of high school popularity contests or sororities and fraternities when I was in college. But with an important difference. With social media, you can buy followers. Doing so is supposedly against Instagram’s policies, but I frequently get messages about increasing “my profile” by buying followers.

Who are these bought followers? I Googled the question, but the only links that came up were for places where I could buy followers and why I should or should not do it. But if I do buy, then I should buy active Instagram accounts not inactive.  Huh? Under the why I should buy was a link about how increased Instagram followers meant you were an “influencer” – someone other people should pay attention to  because of… well, the number of your followers. Surely, that number must mean something, right?

Recently, I wrote a post about a woman with 12 million Instagram followers – enough to deem her an Instagram celebrity – who made a stink on a commercial flight. Her Instagram profile says she’s a fitness instructor, but most of the photos seem to be of her prominent butt. I get that Stephen King and J.K. Rowling have zillions of followers. They actually have accomplished something – great books!

But I don’t understand the big butt having 12 million followers or why Don Jr – a guy who hunts big game for pleasure and fun – has so many followers that he’s considered an “influencer.”

All of this brought me back to the question by the Instagram guy who’s “just trying to play a super hero in a movie.”  What’s my story? What’s your story? Don’t most of us have more than a single story?

That typewriter at the top of the post belonged to my dad. It’s a Hermes 2000, where he typed his impressions as an American living in Venezuela in the mid-20th century. Like you and me, his story is multifaceted and that, I think, is where most social media falls short. No one has just a single story, a single brand, a single passion. Our personal stories change as we evolve, as our insights deepen over time, and our passions expand.

No one’s identity is defined by Instagram or Twitter, Facebook or Snapchat or any other app. All are useful in one way or another for creative self-expression, business, public relations. But once we believe that any of them embody everything we are as spiritual beings in a physical universe, then we’re in deep trouble. And if we, as a society, allow social media to define who we are, that trouble gets ugly. We become sycophants just as shallow as those old high school yearbooks that declared so and so as “most likely to succeed,” or “most popular.”

So I think about that guy’s question: What’s your story? My response was writer of fiction and non-fiction.  That doesn’t even scratch the surface but Instagram doesn’t care. Give me a photo, words of wisdom, advice, Instagram says, and I’ll make you famous.

 

 

 

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Astrological Archetypes

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Trish and Rob

Aries: I’m the Star Trek motto, going where no one else has gone before. Cross me and I’ll mow you down. I don’t give a shit.

Taurus: I cultivate and civilize what Aries discovers. I’ve also got some secrets that no one will uncover.  I’m vying with Scorpio for the most stubborn sign. Give me a plot of land and I’ll bring you food, sustenance.

Gemini: I collect information and then disseminate it, far and wide. I’m the messenger who takes what Aries discovers and what Taurus cultivates, and hand it off to Cancer. Ha. But hey, I also seduce you with my words and my stories.

Cancer: Ha? Bro, you need therapy, honest introspection. I embrace Aries, Taurus, even you, Gemini. Let me help you. I am MOM. I am TRUST.  I am NURTURING LOVE

Leo: Seriously? This is a real conversation? C’mon, you guys. Let’s go party with Sadge. Let me lead you. Let me show you how.

Virgo: Details, folks, details. How does  the mosaic fit together? How do all these intricate pieces create a whole? Why do I feel like I’m out here on a limb by myself? Huh?

Libra:  Banging my gavel, listen up. Each of you has a piece of the cosmic puzzle, okay? Now, can we all be friends? Please? Can we go find something to do that we all love?

Scorpio: OMG. They’re all missing the point, the absolute bottom line. It’s mythological, you idiots. Profound. Wake up! We’re trapped in the matrix. Who’s leading us out of this weirdness?

Sagittarius: I’ve got tickets to a vision quest on the island of Mykonos in Greece. Give me mushrooms and let’s  go find the truth. All of you are my friends  until you prove to be otherwise and then, oh yeah, dudes, bye-bye.

Capricorn:  I’m scaling mountains one painful step at a time and you guys want to trip  in Greece? Why? Convince me that I should go.  Explain it. Lay out your case. How does this enhance my resume?

Aquarius: Cappy, c’mon,  You have ambition but lack vision. You have goals but don’t understand your personal quest. Your endurance is unsurpassed but…where’s your passion? Me, I’m into the family of man. Give me your visionaries…

Pisces:  C’mon, you guys. All of you. Let’s go dance with the collective. Let’s be visionaries and optimists. Let’s go find a woods or an ocean and meditate and dream  and visualize what we desire. A planet united.

 

 

 

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Shady side of the Sunshine State

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Trish and Rob

 

Nobody can go swimming on the Gold Coast of South Florida. All the beaches in Martin County are closed due to an invasion of dangerous blue-green algae. Unlike red tide, which is a natural phenomenon, the blue-green algae bloom is a man-made problem.

Where does it come from? Primarily, Big Sugar, which ironically is federally subsidized. Sugar cane fields proliferate in western Palm Beach County on the south side of Lake Okeechobee. The economy of towns such as Belle Glade, South Bay, Canal Point, Pohokee, and Clewiston are all about sugar. In fact, Clewiston, home of U.S. Sugar, is nicknamed Sugar Town.

Interestingly, subsidies for the sugar industry are opposed by diverse voices including environmentalists, who decry the polluting of Lake Okeechobee, as well as free-market conservatives, who for years have lambasted sugar subsidies, as well as limits on domestic production and caps on imports, as a boondoggle that jacks up sugar costs for consumers and protects Big Sugar.

Beyond conservative economic theory and environmentalism, there’s also the sweet tooth perspective. High sugar prices are driving candy makers out of business. The Hersey company opposed the recent subsidies for Big Sugar approved by Congress in June. The company notes that as many as 600,000 jobs in baking and related industries dependent on sugar are threatened by the high cost of sugar, while the sugar industry employs less than 25,000 people. “We believe leaving these subsidies in place causes more job risk to the U.S. economy than removing them,” said Jeff Beckman, a spokesman for the Hershey Co., based in Hershey, Pa.

On the environmental side: “Sugar needs to be a good neighbor, and the fact is the federal sugar program is directly responsible for taking a massive environmental toll in Florida,” said Cris Costello, an organizing manager for the Sierra Club.

Here’s what happens. Phosphorus runoff from chemical fertilizers pollute Lake Okeechobee, resulting in massive algae blooms, then water is released from the lake and flows into the St. Lucie River and from there into the ocean. In some areas, the water turns murky green, other areas it’s coffee-colored.

While Congress voted to continue subsidizing Big Sugar in June, Florida state government shares the blame. “I think it’s irresponsible to point the finger at the federal government,” said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida. “The question of who let the all that pollution into Lake Okeechobee is not a federal responsibility, that’s a state responsibility. Florida allowed three million acres that drain into Lake Okeechobee to become overdrained and overdeveloped.”

While Governor Scott talks about the importance of preserving the environment, his actions show another side. Scott is running for the Senate this year, and U.S. Sugar is a major contributor to his campaign. His appointees at the water management district recently rejected a deal to buy U.S. Sugar land south of the lake for water storage. That could have eventually reduced the need for discharges to the ocean.

In 2017, the state Legislature passed a bill favored by Big Sugar that allowed polluters to continue discharging phosphorus as long as they complied with best management practices, such as not fertilizing when the weather forecast calls for heavy rain. I wonder how that’s working out, considering that the run off this year appears on track to exceed that of last year, which was four times above the approved standard. Meanwhile, the Florida Environmental Protection Agency on Aug. 2 reported that the blue-green algae in the St. Lucie River was ten times too toxic to touch. That’s because blue-green algae is actually a bacteria called cyanobacteria.

Synchronistically, we were in Clewiston to meet friends just a couple of days before the beaches were closed. (It’s a place we rarely go.) Lake Okeechobee is huge, but the dike along the south shore keeps the lake and the pollution out of sight as you drive along the shore road. But, as the beach closing reveal, you can’t keep the damage out of sight forever. Now people on the coast are feeling the effects of environmental decay. Meanwhile, the federal and state governments largely stands with the polluters, even subsidizing  them as in the case of Big Sugar.

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A Political Synchro

Posted on August 26, 2018 by Trish and Rob

In global events, the synchronicities are often so glaring that even journalists note the “coincidence.”

On August 25, John McCain’s family announced that the 81-year-old senator died at 4:28 p.m., of glioblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer. When I heard about his death, I mentioned to Rob that Ted Kennedy probably greeted him on the other side because they’d been friends and had died of the same type of cancer. What I didn’t know – and that was announced a few minutes later – was that Kennedy died 9 years ago on this same day, August 25, 2009.

After a journalist mentioned the coincidence, Rob asked me why I’d made that remark about McCain and Kennedy. I don’t know why. It was just something that popped into my head.

So, what are the odds on this one? Two senators, of different political parties, died 9 years apart to the day from the same type of brain cancer. Even though McCain, a former POW in Vietnam, was a war hawk who voted for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I respected for his thumbs down last summer, at 1 a.m., to save Obama Care.

RIP, McCain. I hope you and Kennedy are commiserating already on how to get trump out of office.

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Reincarnation Blues

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Trish and Rob

Once a week or so, I head over to Barnes & Noble to cruise through the aisles and take a look at new books. If a cover looks intriguing, I pick up the book, read the back cover. If the copy on the back captures my interest, I open the book and read the inside flap. If I’m still interested, I open the book to the first page. If it seizes my attention, off to the register I go.

But a couple of weeks ago, I saw Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore on a display table and wondered why the cover and title were familiar. I was pretty sure I would remember reading a book that mentioned reincarnation in the title, but checked the back cover to be sure:

“Milo woke up by the water, as he’d done almost ten thousand times. Death was there with him, sitting cross-legged. She was always there when he awakened, wearing her long black hair like a cape. She didn’t have to be there. She could snuff out his life and leave him to wake up on his own. But she never did. Not once.

“‘Suzie,’ he whispered. (She didn’t like to be called “death.” Who would?”)

So, even though the cover seemed familiar, I definitely hadn’t read the book. I bought it and went home. Rob saw the book on the kitchen table. “We already have this book! You and Megan gave it to me last Christmas.”

So I gave Megan the paperback version I’d bought and I started reading the hardcover.

Reincarnation Blues is clever, funny, strange, and sometimes disturbing. The story alternates between some of Milo’s lives – in the distant past and distant future – and his time in between lives, where he and Suzie (death) are frequently lovers. Mile’s quest is for a life of spiritual perfection, and after 9,995 lives, he has 5 more chances to achieve it and “earn a spot in the cosmic soul.” But the only thing he really desires is to be with Suzie forever.

Some of the lives he lives are harrowing. The one in a future penal colony in outer space is the most disturbing, but in that life, he masters a “mind” technique that enables him to drift naked in outer space without dying. The experiences change something in his brain chemistry  and afterward, he’s able to heal the other prisoners of various illnesses. He becomes a kind of guru and completely transforms the penal colony. In this life, he nearly achieves perfection.

Reincarnation Blues lives up to the starred Kirkus Review it got: “Hilarious and often touching…Tales of gods and men akin to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as penned by a kindred spirit of Douglas Adams.”

It’s one of the most imaginative novels I’ve read in years.

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Numbers in the News

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Trish and Rob

    

 

The number 18, was important in Watergate – the 18-minute gap on the recording that ultimately resulted in Nixon’s impeachment and resignation. It also has shown up in the trump presidency. It took trump 18 days to fire National Security Advisor Michael Flynn after he was warned by acting Attorney General Sally Yates that Flynn might be easily blackmailed by the Russians.

On May 18 of last year, we learned from Reuters and the New York Times that there were at least 18 undisclosed contacts between members of the Trump administration and the Russians. That adds up to a cluster of three #18s.

For the last week, trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been on trial for 18 charges brought against him. That number again. 18 adds up to 9, the number that represents endings.

But it looks like the energy in the larger scheme of things has shifted. On Monday, Manafort was found guilty on 8 of the 18 charges. At around the same time, in a different court, trump’s personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to 8 charges in a plea deal with Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. There’s also a weird synchro here about these events happening within minutes of each other.

8 represents, among other things, money, the central issue in both cases. Manafort’s trial was about tax fraud, banking fraud, and undisclosed foreign bank accounts. Cohen’s guilty pleas included tax evasion and campaign finance violations. Money. I suspect more 8s will show up over the course of the next month as these stories evolve.

Number clusters – 3 or more of a number or numbers – tend to appear frequently in the news and in global events and provide additional information about what’s going on beneath the surface. They also happen in our personal lives. Carl Jung used to experience number clusters and wrote about them in his autobiography. He believed they were indicative of an archetype that has become active in our own psyches and once we figure out its meaning – or deal with the archetype – those numbers tend to drop away.

Stay tuned for more 8s. I doubt if the people involved in all this are going to confront the archetype or figure out what it means.

 

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Attractors Among Us

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Trish and Rob

Robert Bingham…UFO attractor

Some people seem to have an innate ability to attract certain things into their lives. In the movies, there was Forrest Gump, who always found himself in the midst of important game-changing historical events that altered the future. Among them, as a young kid he somehow meets Elvis Presley and later John F Kennedy, and his very presence alters the course of history in small ways.

In real life, the physicist  Wolfgang Pauli, was known for being present when laboratory equipment malfunctioned.  When we went to Toronto for the TV show William Shatner’s Weird or What, Trish talked about the strange events that dogged Pauli as well as his obsession with the number 137. While in Toronto, we repeatedly saw that number. Upon arriving, we were stuck in traffic downtown, and there on the building right next to us were the numbers, each about three-feet tall. We later noticed a gym with that same address and on our last day we were walking around \and saw a sign at the former location of that gym which said in large letters that it had moved to 137….

Some people also seem to attract synchronicities and Trish and I find ourselves among them—as the above examples. We often notice two or three a day, usually small things that we never write about on the blog. Like the other day when a man we hadn’t seen for month at the dog park happened to show up one afternoon right when we needed to talk to him. I had bumped into him at Home Depot a few days earlier and found out he was working as a handyman. I told him we could use his help for a couple of projects, then we each went on our way. So when he appeared at the dog park, Trish assumed it was an arranged meeting time where we would talk about the projects. But it was simply a meaningful coincidence. He hadn’t been at the park for months because he was too busy and just happened to have a couple of free hours. So the encounter was a useful coincidence, as well as meaningful.

We’ve also heard about people who seem to attract UFOs or at least be in the right place at the right time and spot strange objects in the sky. Some of these people then get in trouble when they start thinking they are somehow special and to bolster their specialness status they start faking sightings and photos. One such man, whom we met once, lived in Gulf Breeze, Florida and was found to be hoaxing some of his sightings. Yet, dozens if not hundreds of others saw UFOs over Gulf Breeze. We took a trip there during that time and had a sighting when were were out on the long fishing pier. We saw a hovering bright light in the middle distance that wasn’t a star or any known craft. It appeared to be about 1,000 feet in the air. It eventually moved away and disappeared.

Now we’ve read about another man named Robert Bingham in Los Angeles who repeated saw strange objects and began taking photos of them. After collecting photos for ten years, he mentioned his peculiar hobby to someone in 2010. He was referred to someone else interested in UFOs and very quickly 40 people turned up at a meeting to examine and discuss his photos. That was the start of a continuing and evolving L.A. UFO group that continues with events to this day. You can read more about Bingham and the group here.

That’s a link to an article in the New York Times, and nowhere in the article is there any evidence presented, or even a suggestion, that Bingham is acting fraudulently. Good going, Robert!

So it seems the mystery of UFOs is complemented by the mystery of those people who apparently have a knack for spotting them. That’s similar to Pauli’s unwelcome ability to ruin experiments and the ability of some of us to repeatedly experience meaningful coincidences. I’m sure there are other subjects or fields of endeavor where these attractors are also sometimes present.

If you know of any other similar cases where people have an uncanny ability to be present over and over again when something unusual happens, let us know. It could be the subject of a new book…THE ATTRACTORS or maybe…THE FORREST GUMP FACTOR.

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