Congresswoman Gabby Giffords had a bullet pass through her brain last weekend, and is not dead. I guess she was one of the 14 "lucky" wounded ones, because six others died when Jared Loughner shot them at Giffords' political event. One of the dead, a federal judge. Another, a nine year old girl, born on 911. Yet it appears that Giffords was the main target.
This perhaps should not be surprising, as Giffords was the main implied target of bullets twice before. Once, by Republican operative and all-around nincompoop Sarah Palin, who had gunsight cross-hairs over Giffords' district, with the imperative to "reload." Giffords' Republican opponent this last fall hosted a fundraiser where cash money let you fire an automatic assault rifle into an effigy of Giffords. He said that she needed to be "taken out." These may be metaphors, but the imagery is not ambiguous.
Rush Limburger said "don't kill ALL the liberals, leave a couple on college campuses as fossils to remind us..." Glenn Beck has flat out called for the killing of Nancy Pelosi, and implied violence towards Democrats many, many times. Sharon Angle called for "Second Amendment remedies" and encouraged a start with Harry Reid.
So, when LOGIC sets in, and a few commentators began criticizing conservatives for their violent rhetoric - putting two and two together and coming up with four - and saying that such rhetoric in part led to this shooting, the conservatives lost their shit.
In truth, their shit is probably fully in tact, as they are again besting the liberals at the media spin game.
"There's heated rhetoric on BOTH sides" whine Republicans all over the news. And CNN and network newsies are only too happy to call it even. But facts fly in the face of this. Two and two do NOT equal three, or five, or anything but four.
There IS heated rhetoric on both sides. There is supposed to be...that's politics goddammit! But what is NOT happening is liberals publicly asking for people to kill conservatives. It's just not, and that's the difference.
And if you haven't noticed, it is the targets, or perceived targets, of the right wing that are getting killed. Take Dr. Tiller, for example. Shot to death in church, next to his family, after Bill O'Reilly spent months referring to him as "Tiller the baby killer." The police in Indiana and Florida who got shot by dudes with Beck and Hannity book collections who were convinced that the "government" was coming for their guns. Around that time, right wing radio hosts were saying that if the "government" wants our guns, we should give them to them "one bullet at a time." Think back on all of the "town hall" protesters that were showing up armed to health care protests when their representatives spoke.
Were these militants showing up to politically intimidate with weaponry at Republican town halls? No, of course not. Are conservatives being shot by lunatics at the behest of liberals? No. At least, not since John Hinkly shot Ronald Reagan (that was 40 years ago).
So no, conservatives, it is not the same on both sides. It is LIBERALS being threatened and killed by psychos over the last few years. As change has hit the country, conservatives freaked out and threatened violence. Some lunatics have taken those threats to heart. Now you fuckers need to own up.
See, I called you "fuckers." That's partisan, even "heated" rhetoric. (Actually, it's juvenile rudeness and divisive name-calling!) But I never threatened to kill anyone, nor even implied it. Hundreds of liberal bloggers, authors, pundits and politicians have called Sarah Palin stupid. But nobody has said that there should be a Second Amendment tutorial to address her stupidity. No one has even suggested that the tree of liberty need be watered with the blood of idiots from time to time. Nowhere. None. Nada.
No, we on the left don't need to tone down anything. If we do, we are stupid.
The Republicans are playing the game expertly right now. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Dem from Florida, was being pitched softballs by Stephanie Miller about Republican culpability in the violence. But she said "there has been inflametory language on both sides." She said BOTH sides need to settle down and become more civil. Because of Republican crying and browbeating, this is now the common wisdom in the main stream media. Even Huffington Post is deleting blogs that don't even go as far as what I am saying here. But this makes NO SENSE!
If the newly created conventional wisdom is allowed to stand, then Republicans get to call for liberals to be killed, and have it happen on multiple occasions. Democrats and liberal mouthpieces complain a little about Republicans having them killed, and have to calm down. If I followed this logic, I never got anyone hurt, but I don't get to say "fuck" or "idiot" anymore (referring to my biting, repartee above), but my life may be threatened at any minute. The way it is shaping up, Republicans get people killed - Democrats get muzzled. Un fucking believable.
Why, oh why would we, on the left, join in disarmament when we did NOT have heavy weapons in the first place? I understand that conservatives don't like our policy, and don't like what Keith Olbermann says. I understand how it sucks to lose elections. Tough shit! You don't get to kill liberals in America because you don't like what we say or vote on. And if you bring the gas, and the lunatic has a lighter, when our house burns down you bear some of the blame. In the case of Tucson, you abetted murder!
The left, the liberals, the progressives - whatever - don't have to tone down shit! We need to speak up and demand accountability from politicians and pundits who have caused harm to so many. They get to criticize us, call us names and counter our arguments. But they don't get to call for our murders. C'mon media, well...that's probably a lost cause. But c'mon Democratic leaders...ah, geez...but for Christ's sake stand up for one of your own! She took a bullet in the head, so fight back on this one. C'mon, say what you know needs sayin'.
Say it: Sarah, Rush, Glenn, Angle and dozens of other pundits and elected representatives, you helped cause the murder of six people in Tucson, Arizona. This makes you bad people unless you renounce the hate-speech you have vomited onto the body politic. Say it, or be victimized yet again by those who have caused this tragedy. Say it, because if left unsaid, their speech will kill again.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
C'mon - C'mon...it's Over!
Obama's done it again - lunged to the right. He has chosen William Daly as his new Chief of Staff.
Fuck that!
It is over. He's done. There will be NO LIBERAL AGENDA OF ANY KIND. Not domestically, not in Foreign policy, not in monetary policy...none.
Here was the list: William Daly, ex governor Vilsack, the current dude Roush, and Tom Daschel. None of these guys is even CLOSE to liberal. At best, Daschel, a current lobbiest and Vilsack, a Republican-lite-type Democrat are the ones who are the most progressive, which is not at all.
Obama never even considered anyone left of center. Nobody. Right-of-center Daly, his choice, was against Health Care reform, and thought the Financial Regulation bill was way too tough on Wall Street.
Look, if you wanted to put a gloss on this travesty, you could have put Howard Dean on the list. Or Al Gore - and these guys aren't even seriously left. You then don't choose them, but you pretend you are considering them.
Nope. Message to ANYONE EVEN MODERATELY PROGRESSIVE: fuck you. Obama has zero interest in an agenda that goes against the richest and most powerful. However, he can't move fast enough to piss all over the working people of America. That is, well over 90% of us. That's our DEMOCRATIC president.
Good luck with that strategy, Mr. President.
On issue after issue, the electorate is massively left of current "center." Washington DC's "center" is to the right of Ronald Reagan's White House. Obama's center is right in the middle of the board room table at Goldman Sachs, or JP Morgan, or Citi Group.
Primary NOW!
Fuck that!
It is over. He's done. There will be NO LIBERAL AGENDA OF ANY KIND. Not domestically, not in Foreign policy, not in monetary policy...none.
Here was the list: William Daly, ex governor Vilsack, the current dude Roush, and Tom Daschel. None of these guys is even CLOSE to liberal. At best, Daschel, a current lobbiest and Vilsack, a Republican-lite-type Democrat are the ones who are the most progressive, which is not at all.
Obama never even considered anyone left of center. Nobody. Right-of-center Daly, his choice, was against Health Care reform, and thought the Financial Regulation bill was way too tough on Wall Street.
Look, if you wanted to put a gloss on this travesty, you could have put Howard Dean on the list. Or Al Gore - and these guys aren't even seriously left. You then don't choose them, but you pretend you are considering them.
Nope. Message to ANYONE EVEN MODERATELY PROGRESSIVE: fuck you. Obama has zero interest in an agenda that goes against the richest and most powerful. However, he can't move fast enough to piss all over the working people of America. That is, well over 90% of us. That's our DEMOCRATIC president.
Good luck with that strategy, Mr. President.
On issue after issue, the electorate is massively left of current "center." Washington DC's "center" is to the right of Ronald Reagan's White House. Obama's center is right in the middle of the board room table at Goldman Sachs, or JP Morgan, or Citi Group.
Primary NOW!
Monday, January 03, 2011
Talkin' Points Some More Shit
If the Democrats want to kick some ass, they have to mimic the Repubs in a fundamental way. They have to stake out their own territory, and defend it with easy to digest talking points.
In this way, the Republicans, with the help of the hapless and very conservative main stream media have created an America where Goldman Sachs and Walmart are small businesses, and the wealthiest 2% need tax relief so that working families can survive an economic catastrophe caused by the top 2%. The term was "job creators."
They defined the middle class as $250,000 per year income. $400,000 for a family. These are numbers that the Democrats accepted without a serious alternative.
They are going to steal your Social Security, that you've already paid into, separate from your income taxes AND Medicare. They said "deficit" and "runaway spending." They got our Democratic president to appoint a commission that proposes kicking the shit out of us, holding us by the ankles, and letting the change rain out of our pockets so that millionaires can scoop it up and move it to an off-shore tax haven.
The problem with these one to four word sound bites that the Republicans are so good at creating is that their rebuttal takes many more words. You have to be willing to fight hard and often to refute them. These Dems suck at that in the worst way. That's why I propose not fighting each issue, but staking out an alternative position, and broadcasting it in the simplest terms. Start with numbers.
First number: 100,000. 94% of Americans earn less than $100,000 dollars per year. The median income is under 40,000, and the average is under 50,000, but keep it simple. Do like the stores do, and make it $99,000. Retake the definition of the middle class by using this number. The juxtaposition of a five-digit number to $250,000 is powerful.
Second Number: $2 Billion. This is how much Afghanistan costs us every week. I never hear this repeated regularly, no matter how often I hear about wasteful spending. Hammer this home, two billion mother fucking dollars each week, and shut those fools up - and maybe even end the useless war.
There are other numbers that would be just as powerful, depending on which position you want to stake out. But for christ's sake, slap us with numbers that create a reality that is closer to, well...reality.
Now, here are some short, sound-bite talking points for the liberals to lob like grenades into the debates.
"Stealing our money" This is what politicians or pundits need to say when the inevitable debate over entitlements comes up again. Any cuts in Social Security amount to a theft, and you will be labeled a thief if you advocate for reductions of any kind. "Boner, you're a thief!" "President Obama, you're a thief!" "Alan Simpson, you're an asshole, and a thief!" If they try to take our money, put the thief label on them. If enough do it, the media has to ask the question: "are you a thief?" Remember, it is the question that is important, not so much the answer.
"Hurting American families" Sunday talking head: "Senator McConnell, you recently held 911 heroes money hostage to continue a tax loophole that allows corporations to create jobs overseas. Doesn't that hurt American families?" See, it is the question that matters. It doesn't matter what McConnell says after this. He has to answer in more than three words, and he looks like a fucking ghoul. It's game over if it happens over, and over, and over. It's time for Democrats to take 'family values' away from the Republicans. Let's say clearly that we value families being able to feed themselves, and that Republican policies stand in the way of that.
"Opportunity and accountability" I believe it was Cenk Uygur from TYT that said this, or something very much like it, as the motto for the Democrats; to counter the Republican Party's "less government and lower taxes." If you want to know what Dems stand for, for the love of Poseidon don't send them to the Democratic Party's website to read their platform. Just say those three words. They are simple, malleable, positive and lend themselves to the idea that government is a good thing in the hands of responsible people.
This is just a start. Take the framing away from those who would have you believe that average earners bring home a quarter million per year, and want corporations to pay no taxes, even if that means we get no Social Security. This is the framing we are stuck with currently, and the framing that drives the White House and Congressional leadership. A few simple, but oft-repeated phrases can begin to take the middle back to the left. It will take some discipline, something lacking completely in Democratic politics, but it is an easy way to change the chessboard without direct conflict, which this crop of Democratic leaders seems to avoid so completely.
Primary challengers - this is your opportunity. Keep it simple, keep it real (real numbers, anyway), and say it often.
In this way, the Republicans, with the help of the hapless and very conservative main stream media have created an America where Goldman Sachs and Walmart are small businesses, and the wealthiest 2% need tax relief so that working families can survive an economic catastrophe caused by the top 2%. The term was "job creators."
They defined the middle class as $250,000 per year income. $400,000 for a family. These are numbers that the Democrats accepted without a serious alternative.
They are going to steal your Social Security, that you've already paid into, separate from your income taxes AND Medicare. They said "deficit" and "runaway spending." They got our Democratic president to appoint a commission that proposes kicking the shit out of us, holding us by the ankles, and letting the change rain out of our pockets so that millionaires can scoop it up and move it to an off-shore tax haven.
The problem with these one to four word sound bites that the Republicans are so good at creating is that their rebuttal takes many more words. You have to be willing to fight hard and often to refute them. These Dems suck at that in the worst way. That's why I propose not fighting each issue, but staking out an alternative position, and broadcasting it in the simplest terms. Start with numbers.
First number: 100,000. 94% of Americans earn less than $100,000 dollars per year. The median income is under 40,000, and the average is under 50,000, but keep it simple. Do like the stores do, and make it $99,000. Retake the definition of the middle class by using this number. The juxtaposition of a five-digit number to $250,000 is powerful.
Second Number: $2 Billion. This is how much Afghanistan costs us every week. I never hear this repeated regularly, no matter how often I hear about wasteful spending. Hammer this home, two billion mother fucking dollars each week, and shut those fools up - and maybe even end the useless war.
There are other numbers that would be just as powerful, depending on which position you want to stake out. But for christ's sake, slap us with numbers that create a reality that is closer to, well...reality.
Now, here are some short, sound-bite talking points for the liberals to lob like grenades into the debates.
"Stealing our money" This is what politicians or pundits need to say when the inevitable debate over entitlements comes up again. Any cuts in Social Security amount to a theft, and you will be labeled a thief if you advocate for reductions of any kind. "Boner, you're a thief!" "President Obama, you're a thief!" "Alan Simpson, you're an asshole, and a thief!" If they try to take our money, put the thief label on them. If enough do it, the media has to ask the question: "are you a thief?" Remember, it is the question that is important, not so much the answer.
"Hurting American families" Sunday talking head: "Senator McConnell, you recently held 911 heroes money hostage to continue a tax loophole that allows corporations to create jobs overseas. Doesn't that hurt American families?" See, it is the question that matters. It doesn't matter what McConnell says after this. He has to answer in more than three words, and he looks like a fucking ghoul. It's game over if it happens over, and over, and over. It's time for Democrats to take 'family values' away from the Republicans. Let's say clearly that we value families being able to feed themselves, and that Republican policies stand in the way of that.
"Opportunity and accountability" I believe it was Cenk Uygur from TYT that said this, or something very much like it, as the motto for the Democrats; to counter the Republican Party's "less government and lower taxes." If you want to know what Dems stand for, for the love of Poseidon don't send them to the Democratic Party's website to read their platform. Just say those three words. They are simple, malleable, positive and lend themselves to the idea that government is a good thing in the hands of responsible people.
This is just a start. Take the framing away from those who would have you believe that average earners bring home a quarter million per year, and want corporations to pay no taxes, even if that means we get no Social Security. This is the framing we are stuck with currently, and the framing that drives the White House and Congressional leadership. A few simple, but oft-repeated phrases can begin to take the middle back to the left. It will take some discipline, something lacking completely in Democratic politics, but it is an easy way to change the chessboard without direct conflict, which this crop of Democratic leaders seems to avoid so completely.
Primary challengers - this is your opportunity. Keep it simple, keep it real (real numbers, anyway), and say it often.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
For 2011, Try Representing Us...Or Else!
What do DADT repeal, unemployment extension, and the START Treaty have in common?
They don't threaten even one CEO's bonus this year. These accomplishments were allowed ONLY after extending the ruinous tax cuts imposed by Bush (who could only get them by using the reconciliation process).
Financial reform, you say? Largely a bonanza for the largest banks. They are bigger than ever, gobbling up the smaller, failing banks. They weren't touched. Health care reform? A giant win for big pharma and the medical industrial complex. Their unsustainable system has been propped up by government subsidies for another decade. Another decade of insane profits and bonuses, and still millions will be uninsured, and my rates continue to rise at a pace way above inflation - or my salary.
Entitlement reform is next. There are two ways to fix the looming problem with Social Security and Medicaid: 1. Make the rich pay back the money they took out of it already, or 2. take it from you and me, and kick us in the face while they're at it. Gee, which way do you suppose our DEMOCRATIC president will go?
And that is the key. How will the Dems proceed on the question of SS and Medicaid? If recent history is a guide, we are fucked. Those bastards will sell us out quick. They will tell us to look forward, have adult conversations, and sacrifice. They won't tell the richest 2% that, just the hard-working families of this great republic. And this is why it is so, so, so important to fight the Democrats in 2011.
Wait a minute, you say, fight the Democrats? Aren't they the good guys?
No. Or, maybe...some. But if they continue to favor the interests of the richest 2% to the detriment, and perhaps ruination of the vast majority of us, then we must fight 'em. And fight 'em hard.
But the Republicans are much worse! They obstruct and block all of our legislation, and generally fuck things up in government. Yes, they do. And, from their standpoint, that is what they are supposed to do. They are the opposition party. They are, by and large, opposed to Democratic (or progressive, or liberal) policy. THEIR JOB is to oppose this Democratic majority, and this President. To do otherwise would be a violation of the trust their voters put to them.
We can argue about their tactics, and even their ethics, but "Boner" and McConnell are fighting for those they represent. And, for the last 30 years or so, they represent Christian conservatives, big business and white men and women who fear their loss of status in a demographically changing America. Those folks and others have elected Republicans to carry out an anti-Democratic agenda. Look, these Republicans are horrible, fuck-faced fuckers, but they are doing what they are supposed to do - shilling 100% for multi-national corporations and their CEOs.
But shouldn't we fight the rich? Those evil corporations who have bought our politicians? We can, in terms of choosing where we spend our money, but otherwise...no. And anyway, corporations aren't necessarily evil. Nor are they good. They are amoral entities.
Corporations are charged with making the maximum profits possible for their shareholders. That is not only their fiduciary obligation, it is their legal duty. Corporations, and their ultra-wealthy CEOs do what they can to enrich themselves, because that's what they are supposed to do. It is the GOVERNMENT's job to check their abuses. (Which is, by the way, why it makes so much sense for them to buy our representatives.)
When big banks commit fraud, when big oil pollutes, when coal mines kill, government is supposed to step up on our behalf. Elected representative are supposed to make laws, and regulators and the justice department are supposed to enforce laws and regulations. Don't blame corporations - blame your government. Look, if the fines are less than the profits, the risks much less than the rewards, then it makes perfect sense to plunder and pollute. If there are no consequences, because you own the lawmakers, why not rape and pillage the nation?
So, government is supposed to protect us, and we want pro-middle and working class policies to be enacted by government. We want equality, opportunity and a clean environment. We need representatives who will fight for these policies. If only we had a political party that had a platform that spoke to these issues.
Oh, yeah...we do. The Democratic Party, thank god. That was sarcasm, if you didn't pick up on that.
The Democrats have sold out a good part of the way. The way Max Baucus ran health care from firmly inside the insurance companies' boxers, the way Chris Dodd had his tongue all the way down the back of Wall Street's pants, the way Obama met with Billy Tauzin to let him write an even more egregious pharmaceutical law than he did for Bush; shows that many of the Democratic leaders also represent the top 2%. They are not on our side.
What we need, for our representative democracy to work for us, is some representatives who are on our side. We need representatives who fight for policy that benefits the 98% over the 2%. These representatives are supposed to be in the Democratic party. And that's why we need to fight them. We need to fight the Democrats this year - to go full-blown tea party on them - until they realize that they are done in politics if they don't start fighting for us.
The rich look out for themselves, the Republicans look out for the rich, and that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is for the Democrats to look out for the rich too. Democratic representatives who do not fight for an economy and an environment that is friendly to working families needs to be primaried hard. This absolutely includes President Obama.
Primary elections are made for changing the guard within the party. It makes zero sense to accept all of one party, and at least half of the other pulling both oars for 2% of the population. Let's take the Democrats back by primarying the shit out of them.
The Republicans did it a little bit in 2010. Let's do it massively in 2012, and let it be known in 2011, represent US, or else.
Primary NOW!
They don't threaten even one CEO's bonus this year. These accomplishments were allowed ONLY after extending the ruinous tax cuts imposed by Bush (who could only get them by using the reconciliation process).
Financial reform, you say? Largely a bonanza for the largest banks. They are bigger than ever, gobbling up the smaller, failing banks. They weren't touched. Health care reform? A giant win for big pharma and the medical industrial complex. Their unsustainable system has been propped up by government subsidies for another decade. Another decade of insane profits and bonuses, and still millions will be uninsured, and my rates continue to rise at a pace way above inflation - or my salary.
Entitlement reform is next. There are two ways to fix the looming problem with Social Security and Medicaid: 1. Make the rich pay back the money they took out of it already, or 2. take it from you and me, and kick us in the face while they're at it. Gee, which way do you suppose our DEMOCRATIC president will go?
And that is the key. How will the Dems proceed on the question of SS and Medicaid? If recent history is a guide, we are fucked. Those bastards will sell us out quick. They will tell us to look forward, have adult conversations, and sacrifice. They won't tell the richest 2% that, just the hard-working families of this great republic. And this is why it is so, so, so important to fight the Democrats in 2011.
Wait a minute, you say, fight the Democrats? Aren't they the good guys?
No. Or, maybe...some. But if they continue to favor the interests of the richest 2% to the detriment, and perhaps ruination of the vast majority of us, then we must fight 'em. And fight 'em hard.
But the Republicans are much worse! They obstruct and block all of our legislation, and generally fuck things up in government. Yes, they do. And, from their standpoint, that is what they are supposed to do. They are the opposition party. They are, by and large, opposed to Democratic (or progressive, or liberal) policy. THEIR JOB is to oppose this Democratic majority, and this President. To do otherwise would be a violation of the trust their voters put to them.
We can argue about their tactics, and even their ethics, but "Boner" and McConnell are fighting for those they represent. And, for the last 30 years or so, they represent Christian conservatives, big business and white men and women who fear their loss of status in a demographically changing America. Those folks and others have elected Republicans to carry out an anti-Democratic agenda. Look, these Republicans are horrible, fuck-faced fuckers, but they are doing what they are supposed to do - shilling 100% for multi-national corporations and their CEOs.
But shouldn't we fight the rich? Those evil corporations who have bought our politicians? We can, in terms of choosing where we spend our money, but otherwise...no. And anyway, corporations aren't necessarily evil. Nor are they good. They are amoral entities.
Corporations are charged with making the maximum profits possible for their shareholders. That is not only their fiduciary obligation, it is their legal duty. Corporations, and their ultra-wealthy CEOs do what they can to enrich themselves, because that's what they are supposed to do. It is the GOVERNMENT's job to check their abuses. (Which is, by the way, why it makes so much sense for them to buy our representatives.)
When big banks commit fraud, when big oil pollutes, when coal mines kill, government is supposed to step up on our behalf. Elected representative are supposed to make laws, and regulators and the justice department are supposed to enforce laws and regulations. Don't blame corporations - blame your government. Look, if the fines are less than the profits, the risks much less than the rewards, then it makes perfect sense to plunder and pollute. If there are no consequences, because you own the lawmakers, why not rape and pillage the nation?
So, government is supposed to protect us, and we want pro-middle and working class policies to be enacted by government. We want equality, opportunity and a clean environment. We need representatives who will fight for these policies. If only we had a political party that had a platform that spoke to these issues.
Oh, yeah...we do. The Democratic Party, thank god. That was sarcasm, if you didn't pick up on that.
The Democrats have sold out a good part of the way. The way Max Baucus ran health care from firmly inside the insurance companies' boxers, the way Chris Dodd had his tongue all the way down the back of Wall Street's pants, the way Obama met with Billy Tauzin to let him write an even more egregious pharmaceutical law than he did for Bush; shows that many of the Democratic leaders also represent the top 2%. They are not on our side.
What we need, for our representative democracy to work for us, is some representatives who are on our side. We need representatives who fight for policy that benefits the 98% over the 2%. These representatives are supposed to be in the Democratic party. And that's why we need to fight them. We need to fight the Democrats this year - to go full-blown tea party on them - until they realize that they are done in politics if they don't start fighting for us.
The rich look out for themselves, the Republicans look out for the rich, and that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is for the Democrats to look out for the rich too. Democratic representatives who do not fight for an economy and an environment that is friendly to working families needs to be primaried hard. This absolutely includes President Obama.
Primary elections are made for changing the guard within the party. It makes zero sense to accept all of one party, and at least half of the other pulling both oars for 2% of the population. Let's take the Democrats back by primarying the shit out of them.
The Republicans did it a little bit in 2010. Let's do it massively in 2012, and let it be known in 2011, represent US, or else.
Primary NOW!
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