COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Can Government End Anything Anymore?

Freedoms perhaps but not much else.

We start wars we can't seem to finish. We create agencies that grow beyond the reasons and boundaries of their original inception. Food stamps which started as a supplement to surplus food now are distributed to 40,000,000 people. Social Security is a growing and gargantuan redistribution system disguised as a pension plan.

We can't seem to end military occupation anywhere. We are still in Kosovo, Europe, where mission creep expanded to policing smugglers and human traffickers. It is no wonder Obama doesn't know how to end a war.

Perhaps he should consult his supporters on Wall Street who have considerable expertise in ending businesses and industries and closing operations down promptly. Of course, the bankers and financial guys insist it is all about compensation. Do we need to award $10,000,000 bonuses to generals and government department heads to incentivize ending anything?

59 comments:

  1. No, the Federals cannot step back, cannot end a program, or occupation of a foreign land.

    Or we'd not be in Europe, almost twenty years after the military threat there, posed by the Soviets, evaporated.

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  2. IEA coordinates a 60 Million Barrel Release from International Oil Reserves.

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  3. We're releasing 30 Million from SPRO.

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  4. I guess $3.65 gasoline is an "emergency."

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  5. Great day for this topic. How hard do you think it will be to end This program?

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  6. Can Government End Anything Anymore?"


    Sure,

    Support of America's allies...

    Just ask Poland, Columbia, Israel, South Korea and Japan...

    They see the writing on the wall...

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  7. The world uses about 87 Million barrels/day of liquid fuels. The IEA nations are going to release 60 million barrels from "Strategic Reserves."

    About 18 hr supply.

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  8. Everything is an emergency if a political career, Andrews AFB Golf Course, and use of Air force One is to slip from Obama's hands.

    The emergency will end when the last barrel of petroleum is exhausted. How many idle drilling rigs still in the gulf?

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  9. Now, the interesting thing will be "How" they do it.

    Will they Sell it? Will they "Loan" it?

    I think they might be surprised.

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  10. Taiwan, you mean Formosa?

    The US has had a "One China" policy, since 1972.

    Formosa is not, nor was it ever, representative of China.

    In the case of the United States, the One-China Policy was first stated in the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972: "the United States acknowledges that Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States does not challenge that position."

    The position of the United States, as clarified in the China/Taiwan: Evolution of the "One China" Policy report of the Congressional Research Service (date: July 9, 2007) is summed up in five points:

    The United States did not explicitly state the sovereign status of Taiwan in the three US-PRC Joint Communiques of 1972, 1979, and 1982.
    The United States "acknowledged" the "One China" position of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
    US policy has not recognized the PRC's sovereignty over Taiwan;
    US policy has not recognized Taiwan as a sovereign country; and
    US policy has considered Taiwan's status as undetermined.

    In an interview with Chinese students on November 16, 2009 President Barack Obama reconfirmed that the United States supports the One China Policy.

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  11. There are still over 25,000 US troops in South Korea. There is no military reason for them to remain there. The South Korean Army, with over 1,000,000 troops can well defend South Korea.

    US troops remain in Japan, as well.
    Much to the distress of the local Japanese living near those US installations.

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. The Governments of the world have just admitted that there is not enough, nor will there be enough, oil produced to supply the world at a price that allows the global economy to Grow.

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  14. The US is expanding its' military footprint into Poland.

    The Story of "o" is telling fiction.

    Permanent NATO detachment in Poland from 2012

    A ‘memorandum of understanding’ was signed today in Warsaw on the stationing of a US Air Force base in Poland.


    Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich and US Ambassador Lee Feinstein signed the agreement after a slight delay, as it was expected that US President Barack Obama would sign the agreement during his visit to Warsaw in May.

    The details of the bilateral agreement are to be negotiated in 2012, with joint US-Polish military exercises expected to commence from 2013.

    The memorandum establishes that joint Polish-American exercises may be carried out on Polish military training grounds, with the allowance for contingents from other countries to take part.

    The US Air Force base is to be the first NATO detachment to be stationed in Poland, as when the country became a member of the pact in 1997, the North Atlantic Council issued a statement that there was no need to station large NATO detachments in new member states.

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  15. In other words, the raise didn't come through, and the only way to pay the rent is to dip into the "Savings" account.

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  16. in 1997, the North Atlantic Council issued a statement that there was no need to station large NATO detachments in new member states.

    There is no threat, today, that did not exist in 1997, when a US or NATO presence was not needed, in Poland.

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  17. Well, now we understand the "unwarranted" optimism from the Bernank.

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  18. Talk of "Isolationism" by the US, is just that, talk.

    The reality is that the foreign footprint of the US is large and growing.

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  19. desert rat said...
    The US is expanding its' military footprint into Poland.

    The Story of "o" is telling fiction.




    Dont make it personal you lying sack of shit...

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  20. Hey Rodentman?

    Have you murdered anyone this month?

    Or still just telling all those "black op" stories to person who dont know your full of crap...

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  21. The only thing I've killed, today, the misinformation you are trying to spread, Story.

    No rebuttal to the truth but your usual libels and slanders.

    So pathetically predictable that it's almost funny, in and of itself.

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  22. "Can Government End Anything Anymore?"

    I can't tell you the number of women that used that as an excuse not to have sex w/Doug.

    My reputation was a Cross I had to bear.

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  23. Anybody think Obama will ever replace that oil in the reserve?

    ...one of the few things I give GWB credit for.

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  24. What "black op" stories are you referring to?

    I was a Ranger qualified Army combat engineer attached to the School of the Americas, at Fort Gulick and the Jungle Operations Training Center, at Fort Sherman in Panama.
    In the US Army, in light of day.

    I traveled extensively in South and Central America in the 1980's, as both a soldier and civilian.
    Had a great time.

    I'm not sure what you've ever read that would make you believe I was engaged in "black ops", some sort of reading or learning disability on your part, perhaps.

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  25. I was involved in training a lot troops, lots of US Army troops and other Americans that had never seen the United States.

    They were from States, like Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador y Guatemala.

    Most of the young officers from those States cycled through the US training system at the School of the Americas.

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  26. Made some interesting friends.

    Nothing "black" there.

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  27. Okay, You own a refinery down on the coast. What do you do?

    Do you 'borrow' oil when oil is down to $90.00, knowing that it might be back at $110.00 when you have to "pay it back?"

    Or do you just pay the market price, sell your gasoline at market price, take your crack spread, and go on down the road?

    I know what I'd do.

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  28. ... as the war in Libya chokes global supplies.

    There is a war, in Libya.
    It's a real good thing that the US is not involved, in the hostilities.

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  29. The fruits of Multi-culturalism ripen:

    WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.
    Preliminary census estimates also show the share of African-American households headed by women - made up of mostly single mothers - now exceeds African-American households with married couples, a sign of declining U.S. marriages overall but also continuing challenges for black youths without involved fathers.
    The findings, based on the latest government data, offer a preview of final 2010 census results being released this summer that provide detailed breakdowns by age, race and householder relationships such as same-sex couples.
    Demographers say the numbers provide the clearest confirmation yet of a changing social order, one in which racial and ethnic minorities will become the U.S. majority by midcentury.
    "We're moving toward an acknowledgment that we're living in a different world than the 1950s, where married or two-parent heterosexual couples are now no longer the norm for a lot of kids, especially kids of color," said Laura Speer, coordinator of the Kids Count project for the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.


    All that diversity and fractured families will only make us stronger. No doubt about it.

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  30. Those families, fractured by Federal policies.

    The only question that needs be answered, was it done on purpose, or was it just a tragedy of good intentions?

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  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  32. Should we just list those fatherless children as collateral damage in the "War on Poverty"?

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  33. It was foretold ...

    Moynihan issued his research under the title The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, now commonly known as The Moynihan Report. Moynihan's report[3] fueled a debate over the proper course for government to take with regard to the economic underclass, especially blacks. Critics on the left attacked it as "blaming the victim",[4] a slogan coined by psychologist William Ryan.[5] Some suggested that Moynihan was propagating the views of racists[6] because much of the press coverage of the report focused on the discussion of children being born out of wedlock.

    Despite Moynihan's warnings, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program included rules for payments only if the "Man [was] out of the house."

    Critics said that the nation was paying poor women to throw their husbands out of the house.

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  34. .

    Cantor pulls out of White House budget talks

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pulled out of debt-reduction talks with the White House on Thursday, saying the effort has reached an impasse over taxes that can be resolved only by President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).

    In a statement, Cantor (R-Va.) said he remains optimistic about the talks, led by Vice President Biden, which have “identified trillions in spending cuts” and “established a blueprint that could institute the fiscal reforms needed to start getting our fiscal house in order.”

    However, a three-hour bargaining session Wednesday was highly contentious and failed to make headway, as Democrats pressed repeatedly for Republicans to accept provisions to raise taxes, according to participants in the talks...


    Impasse or Negotiating Tactic?

    .

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  35. The lying sack of shit called "rat" says:

    No rebuttal to the truth but your usual libels and slanders.


    And YET it was YOU that said...


    "The Story of "o" is telling fiction."

    This is a porn reference and is a LIBEL

    Might I suggest you lying sack of shit, if you dont throw stones you would not have stones thrown at you?


    You throw the libel, the lie, the misinformation and the personal attack, only to get pissy when someone calls you on it...

    YEs Rat, you are the slanderer, the liar, the thrower of stones... 1st.

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  36. someone says:


    I was a Ranger qualified Army combat engineer attached to the School of the Americas, at Fort Gulick and the Jungle Operations Training Center, at Fort Sherman in Panama.




    You do know it's a federal crime to pretend to be a veteran......

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  37. Now he was a "ranger"

    it's gets funnier by the day...

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  38. The Greeks can't pay and won't pay, so let them default

    So one day soon, perhaps within the month, perhaps later, Greece will miss an interest payment on its debts. Default would have occurred. Presumably the country would then crash out of the eurozone, re-establish its own currency and suffer a substantial devaluation. That, at least, would make Greece a cheaper tourist destination and give a better prospect to such export industries as it possesses. At the same time, however, Greece's banks, also major holders of government debt, would have to be nationalised. The country would be in a mess, but at least it would be its own mess. Many Latin American countries have been through this long and painful experience and they eventually recovered.

    The rest of us, however, would also be in a mess, just as we were when Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008 holding some $600bn in assets. That led to one of the sharpest falls in stock market prices that the world has ever recorded. It was only five months later that confidence began to return. The economic dislocation was substantial.

    I don't believe, however, that the consequences of a Greek default would be as serious. In the case of Lehman, nobody knew which banks were holding what amounts of dud securities. So suspicion fell upon every institution. There was no presumption of innocence. Banks stopped lending to each other. A credit famine developed.

    But in the case of Greece, the holders of Greek debts are well known and clearly identified. The Belgian financial institution, Dexia, is the most exposed, followed by a Portuguese bank and two German units, Commerz and Postbank. Then comes a long list known to everybody. As far as UK banks are concerned, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays each have minor exposures. We can see exactly who has got the stuff and who hasn't.

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  39. AZ has a history of attracting fake war heros

    ​For the past five years, those who encountered John W. Rodriguez were in the presence of an impressive figure. His Marine uniform was a display of his heroics from Iraq to Afghanistan, a home for every imaginable medal, including the Navy Cross...

    He attended the Marine Corps Ball, trained with comrades on bases in Arizona and at Fort Pendleton in San Diego. He received an armed services discount for items like airline tickets and even used his credentials to get a job at TriWest Healthcare Alliance, where he had access to thousands of soldiers' confidential medical info.

    He seemed to pass as an authentic war hero wherever he went. It was understandable that fellow soldiers didn't want to question a man with such credentials.

    But Dan Ryan did. He's a Vietnam-era Marine turned FBI agent who met Rodriguez at a Republican meeting two years ago. At first, Ryan was impressed, just like the rest.

    "My first reaction was, 'This guy's a stud,' " he told The Arizona Republic. "Then I looked a little more and thought, 'Something's going on here.' I'm very, very sensitive about the Navy Cross. I happen to have written one of the citations for the Marine who was killed right next to me in 1967 in Vietnam in a firefight."

    So Ryan did a little investigating. It turns out that Rodriguez wasn't just a fake war hero parading around with medals he never earned. He'd never even been in the Marines in the first place.

    And since he had access to all those veterans' medical files, and was gaining access to bases across the Southwest, the feds began investigating him as a potential terrorism threat.

    When they finally searched his house last year, they found numerous uniforms, medals, and ribbons of high conduct -- and the receipts he got from buying them.

    You might say soldiers get just a little pissed when someone tries to pawn himself off as one of their own. He was subsequently convicted of forgery, fraudulent schemes and presentation of a false instrument for filing. On Monday, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison, where it will be much more difficult to earn an authentic brand of heroism. (Special thanks to Mesa Bureau Chief Joe for the tip.)

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  40. The story you told, about the US falling away from its' allies, was fiction.

    As is most of what is written, in the Story of "o".

    If claiming, falsely, to be a veteran is a crime, allen must be trembling.

    I rock steady.

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  41. Exposed: The fake 'war hero' who made his own medals and claimed to have fought at Goose Green

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1268027/Exposed-The-fake-war-hero-medals-claimed-fought-Goose-Green.html#ixzz1Q7ggiMTL


    I guess every nation has them....

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  42. I think that I have read enough posts by DR and have had enough experience in and around the military to be satisfied that he in fact did serve in the army and in Latin America. Like him or hate him, he is who he says he is.

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  43. desert rat said...
    The story you told, about the US falling away from its' allies, was fiction.

    As is most of what is written, in the Story of "o".



    Still slandering me oh fake war hero?

    tsk tsk..

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  44. Deuce said...
    I think that I have read enough posts by DR and have had enough experience in and around the military to be satisfied that he in fact did serve in the army and in Latin America. Like him or hate him, he is who he says he is.



    Well that settles it!

    Rat is the killer he claims he was...

    murderer...

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  45. Got any PROOF he was a RANGER?


    no?


    So it's just another old tired fool, trying to impress people with his knowledge and bullshit..

    Yep, Cliff Clavin of the elephant bar...

    In all his glory...

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  46. Heck, Story, the publisher of the Arizona Republic, Duke Tully, was a social leader, and a fake Air Force officer. Back when the Quayles owned the paper.

    You betcha, the Quayles employed him.

    Wonder if they should have been fined?

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  47. I'll bet that DR knows the difference between a pair of dog tags beginning in RA or US.

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  48. Ahhh, this time we might be "Selliing' the oil to the refiners.

    That means WE get to buy the oil back, later, for a Higher Price. Possibly, a Much Higher price.

    Just Great.

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  49. .

    Al-Qaeda and the Libyan Rebellion
    A new report explains the connection.



    A new report from two French think tanks concludes that jihadists have played a predominant role in the eastern-Libyan rebellion against the rule of Moammar Qaddafi, and that “true democrats” represent only a minority in the rebellion. The report, furthermore, calls into question the justifications given for Western military intervention in Libya, arguing that they are largely based on media exaggerations and “outright disinformation.”

    Al Queda in Liba

    I post this not knowing much about either of the organizations that published the study. They are French and most of the google referances on them are in French.

    Regardless of their politics, I agree with much of what they have to say especially with regard to the role of the media in promoting the Libyan war.


    .

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  50. .

    Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asked Elmendorf whether the CBO had attempted to estimate the budgetary effects of the framework Obama outlined in April, which was based on a 12-year budget window instead of the usual 10 years.

    "We don't estimate speeches," Elmendorf shot back...


    Dems Fail Legal Obligation to Pass Budget

    .

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  51. .

    The issue of millions of additional Medicaid participants was hardly the only health care headache for the administration on Wednesday. Several House GOP lawmakers went public with their demand to know more about who has - and hasn't - been granted a waiver from the law's requirements - and why. Led by Congressman Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., the group sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on June 2. Today - they announced they have yet to receive a response.

    "If Obamacare is so good, if it is so good, why all the waivers?" Huelskamp asked. He also lamented the administration's "lack of transparency."

    On Friday the administration announced that no more waivers will be considered after September 22. That promise made no difference to Congressman Joe Walsh, R-Ill., who said, "Regular folks around the country are still going to be stuck ... because they don't have the power or influence to get an exemption."




    Loopholes and Waivers

    .

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  52. Obamacare is so good BECAUSE of the waivers, not in spite of them.

    The possibility of States and others obtaining those waivers were instrumental in gaining passage of the legislation.

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  53. No one is asking, "what do we do in 30 days?"

    Or, "60 days?"

    Or, "90 days?"


    Are they expecting the arrival of "The Magic Oil Fairey?"

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  54. They're betting that NATO air power, employed in the Libya campaign, will come through and topple the Colonel.

    Restoring all that is good and decent, in the whirled.

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  55. US push for UN Sudan deployment

    BBC News - ‎

    The United States has tabled a draft resolution at the UN calling for more than 4000 peacekeepers to be sent to the disputed Sudanese region of Abyei.

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  56. They will, eventually, get lucky and kill him. However, what do they think comes next? Do they think someone just goes in the back room and throws a switch?

    "Abdul, my good man, go back there and throw the Oil Production switch, will you?"

    It might take years to get all the way back up to prior production. Those Western Oil companies left in a hurry. There's no telling what needed to get done that didn't get done to shut down those fields, and pipelines properly.

    And, then, there's steadily increasing demand from China, India, and the rest of the world. And, declines in fields from The North Sea (and, those babies are Really declining,) Prudhoe bay, Venezuela, Mexico, Nigeria, et al.

    Everybody here, Every Swinging Dick, is in Denial. This is just about as close to Mass Delusion as we're ever going to see.

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  57. How ironic after our President's speech that this routine was about coming home from war.

    It wasn't my favorite of the night but it told a good story. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.

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  58. On Wednesday, gunmen fired on a visiting Iranian oil delegation in Baghdad that wounded two Iraqi guards, but the foreigners were unharmed.

    On Monday, a roadside bomb exploded next to a French embassy car in southern Baghdad. Four French security personnel inside the armored vehicle were unhurt, but seven Iraqis were wounded.

    Violence is dramatically down in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks against government officials and institutions, including security forces, have shot up in recent months, as Iraqi leaders bicker over key security posts left vacant since a March 2010 general election.


    21 Killed

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