Capitalism vs Socialism, Student Rallies, Kennedy's, Clinton & Trump, Schumer Shutdown, Rebel State, SOTU & FISA Memo
Contents
Free Market Capitalism vs Socialism
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And how do they use their disposable income? The US leads by far in government foreign aid, Scandinavia is way below.
Looking at GDP growth rate, it would appear that generally the ones towards the top are free-market/capitalistic rather than socialistic, and, as one might expect, often 3rd world -- more room to grow. Vietnam & China have embraced more of a free-market model after their former more socialist ways, although they are politically totalitarian. List of countries by real GDP growth rate
Poverty rates List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty I think the poorest in our country are envied by many elsewhere. I've traveled to 35 countries, and speak also from observation.
Me:
April 4
Facebook Friend: Will the pro gun rights people get equal time? The Great Society and multi- generation drug use have created people with no compassion OE consonance.
And now they want to close off any serious discussion (or even thought) of effective solutions to gun violence by demonizing those who offer other solutions. Of course they believe they're right, everyone else is wrong (and not only wrong, but evil), end of "discussion." And the Leftist media and faculty reinforce their self-righteousness. They really don't understand that conservatives have even more children than liberals, and love their children at least as much as they love theirs, and want their children safe. That's how evil they apparently think we are. Just like their notion that we want to throw granny over the cliff, want poor children to go to bed hungry, want dirty air & water, etc., etc. And are racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, bigoted, etc., etc. When you've completely demonized your opponents, there's no reason to discuss or reason with them, or consider their views. No, you've justified taking all means necessary to silence and overpower them, including the tactics of Antifa, etc. It’s war.
March 7
Unveiling the new state flag of California. Nullification is alive and well! Jerry Brown apparently flunked American history, never learning about the Civil War, and what was settled then. Of course it only makes sense that the same party that championed this flag then (& slavery, Jim Crow laws, segregation, etc.) would champion a similarly flawed cause today. Just one more reason for the state of New California to secede from California.
April update: At least 2 cities in Orange County, and the C ounty itself, have broken from the California sanctuary state, challenging, along with the federal lawsuit, the constitutionality of it. Sacramento was the site of a modern-day Ft. Sumter attack. Orange County is a traditional conservative stronghold, and actually adds credibility or impetus to the "New California" movement. The county did it ingeniously -- by posting the impending releases of all prisoners (irrespective of nationality) online. That information may be of interest to citizens as well as ICE.
- Capitalism vs Socialism
- Prager University's huge social media impact
- Student anti-gun rallies
- Keep guessing (or conjuring) Hillary
- The media/Left double standard on Presidential promiscuity
- Administration chaos, or "business as usual?"
- The 1%
- State of the Union
- The House Intelligence Committee's FISA memo
- Politics in movies (reprise)
- The Schumer Shutdown
- Rebellion within the rebel state (California)
Free Market Capitalism vs Socialism
A recent email exchange between myself and a colleague:
My colleague who seems to idealize the more socialistic countries, and think our tax rates should be higher, took issue with my statement that free-market capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than any other system, and that socialism/Communism has failed over and over.
I happened to get later that day an email from Prager University featuring a new short video addressing that very issue, which I then shared with my colleague, along with some statistics found online.
https://www.prageru.com/videos/rich-get-richer-poor-get-richer
My colleague who seems to idealize the more socialistic countries, and think our tax rates should be higher, took issue with my statement that free-market capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than any other system, and that socialism/Communism has failed over and over.
I happened to get later that day an email from Prager University featuring a new short video addressing that very issue, which I then shared with my colleague, along with some statistics found online.
https://www.prageru.com/videos/rich-get-richer-poor-get-richer
Me: Per capita GDP: notice that the US & several other countries are ahead of Sweden & Denmark. More motivation to work, and/or more work ethic?
And how do they use their disposable income? The US leads by far in government foreign aid, Scandinavia is way below.
The US also leads in charitable giving (voluntary -- a better motive and more personal than mandatory/confiscatory): These are the world's most generous countries Of course the Scandinavians have much less disposable income, with such high taxes designated to taking care of themselves. And of course they are further Left and secular, which also goes with less charitable, statistically -- they prefer to give other peoples' money. the top 4 have been part of the former British Empire -- established on free trade/capitalism. The Scandinavian countries also got their starts that way, and the sustainability of their younger socialized economies (as well as some other European socialized economies like Greece) looks more questionable than ours that is 242 years old.
Looking at GDP growth rate, it would appear that generally the ones towards the top are free-market/capitalistic rather than socialistic, and, as one might expect, often 3rd world -- more room to grow. Vietnam & China have embraced more of a free-market model after their former more socialist ways, although they are politically totalitarian. List of countries by real GDP growth rate
Poverty rates List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty I think the poorest in our country are envied by many elsewhere. I've traveled to 35 countries, and speak also from observation.
Population below poverty line - Country Comparison -- in rank order -- note US & Sweden are virtually identical, but the US ranks much higher in the other metrics.
Colleague: “GDP doesn’t measure happiness.” [touting the happiness statistics of Scandinavia, more socialistic countries]
Me: Ah, but with that GDP, there is more disposable
income to share the wealth by charitable contributions (as I showed) or even
foreign aid (which, along with government welfare is
less efficient), which shares the happiness, and brings more than selfish
physical comfort. I just read "The Little Book of Hygge,"
(Danish for coziness), so know what they're talking about, besides having
Danish relatives & having spent weeks there. I also know that my
relatives there could not afford to buy the Saab I had just bought, with
their high sales taxes there it would cost at least 2 or 3 times as much, and
they have on top of that much less disposable income due to high income taxes.
And being able to travel brings greater international understanding and
appreciation of what we have -- I've been to 35 countries, which has broadened
my horizons.
A tradeoff between "Egalite" as the
French say, and greater security, and liberty, as we say, or freedom of choices
and opportunities. And a continuum from one to the other going from
greater capitalism & free market to greater socialism. Hardly anyone
disputes that some minimal safety net is fine and good (though some think more
should be done by charitable, free-will giving vs confiscatory), but when we
already have such a system in place, a welfare system that is already abused by
many, and a very progressive tax system, you lose me in thinking we ought to be
more like Scandinavia. And I'll take our medical system over Canada's,
Europe's, Cuba's, etc.
And you could confiscate all the wealth of
the top 1% and still not pay a fraction of the national debt, or for a year of
national operations, or for a few years of entitlements -- and then you'd have
no one else to fleece, and no wealthy business owners to hire people. As
Larry Elder's father said, "I never got a job from a poor
person."
And the poverty statistics were
interesting.
I mentioned what I think is the central tradeoff between capitalism/free market & socialism -- liberty vs comfort. I think that is even more important than GDP or other metrics I mentioned. As our founders, I believe liberty is a god-given right and privilege, and as government gets larger, it erodes that. Liberty also promotes and requires self-reliance, personal responsibility, motivation, ingenuity & entrepreneurialism, which are diametrically opposed to the nanny state that promotes lethargy, lack of productivity and a sense of entitlement. That erodes character, and, I believe as we're beginning to see in other more socialized systems, will implode, like Greece, or California with all its unfunded pension liabilities.
Equality under the law, and equal opportunity are perfectly good aspects of equality, but when you begin to require equal outcomes, you totally lose me. A safety net for those who are mentally or physically unable to care for themselves (although family should also feel responsibility, and even local community/churches) is fine, and I think we already have a fairly good one. But dictating universally from a central government what is best for all (which of course liberals are best at) smacks to me of economic totalitarianism, which in turn infringes on many other choices and aspects of life.
Colleague: You make some good points, but it is a little ironic that the money for your Saab came to Aerospace from tax revenue. The current level of government outlays is unsustainable. You would be surprised by how far the wealth of the top 1% would go in terms of paying off the national debt.
I still don’t see why people born into wealth should get their money tax free, while those who work pay taxes on their earnings.
Me:
Yes, and that tax revenue in turn came from taxpayers employed in the private sector who sustain the government and who are paid by "wealthy" business owners. Again, as Larry Elder's father said, "I never got a job from a poor person." And you saw a sizeable jump in announced new jobs (tens of thousands by some companies) with the new tax law. And with some of the relief of overregulated small businesses that hire a significant portion of the workforce. I think you give Obama too much credit and Trump too little.
And after you've confiscated all the wealth of the top 1%, Communist-style, you will have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. Then how will you sustain?
And after you've confiscated all the wealth of the top 1%, Communist-style, you will have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. Then how will you sustain?
[He had previously argued against deregulation] Not all regulations are bad, and not all are good. Again, I think there's a continuum, and a tradeoff. One can go to extremes at either end, and overregulate or underregulate. And according to my understanding, a significant contributor to the 2008 crash & recession was the government-mandated sub-prime loans that were defaulted on, after having been bundled into investment packages. A social-engineering "regulation" that may have been well-intended, but had disastrous consequences, not only for the recipients, but to the country as a whole. I don't doubt the good intentions often of those who want to grow government and it's influence, only the consequences, which I think should count more.
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Go Prager U. !!!!! Truly a treasure trove of concise, clear explanations of important topics by top experts (https://www.prageru.com/). I love Prager's on-air interviews of college students in the Prager Force who promote & share Prager U. 5-minute videos w. fellow students -- a beam of multicolor light in an otherwise drab, gray Leftist dystopia. Gives hope for our future. My donation was well worthwhile.
Student Anti-Gun Rallies
March 14
The
politicization and fascist/Leftist group think prevalent in our universities
has now invaded our high schools and middle schools. Faculty now feel
emboldened and justified in fomenting and encouraging, even organizing, mass
protests with clear anti-gun, anti-NRA, anti-GOP, single-solution agendas. They
misuse and abuse their mentor roles with empty-headed and impressionable youth,
social pressure, praise and even credit and college entrance recognition for
such social action. And the media and Democrat political ambulance-chasers help
promote and capitalize on them. There would be loud media outcry if anyone
organized a school march favoring right to life or against Planned Parenthood
-- abortion kills far more than guns.
Facebook Friend: Will the pro gun rights people get equal time? The Great Society and multi- generation drug use have created people with no compassion OE consonance.
Mark Clayson Good points. First they facilitate the sexual revolution, then they complain when it goes awry. Then Leftist Hollywood capitalizes on and promotes gun violence and irresponsibility, then complain when that goes awry. They consistently put down anyone with Judeo-Christian moral values, and personal responsibility -- promoting victimhood and vigilante "no justice, no peace" instead -- then wonder how people have no compunctions about atrocities. This narcissistic, entitlement & herd mentality, and belief that government should have the solution to everything, is exactly the problem. Guns are way down on the list. And in fact, statistics seem to show that guns are used to deter crime and save many more lives than victims of criminal or mass shootings.
And now they want to close off any serious discussion (or even thought) of effective solutions to gun violence by demonizing those who offer other solutions. Of course they believe they're right, everyone else is wrong (and not only wrong, but evil), end of "discussion." And the Leftist media and faculty reinforce their self-righteousness. They really don't understand that conservatives have even more children than liberals, and love their children at least as much as they love theirs, and want their children safe. That's how evil they apparently think we are. Just like their notion that we want to throw granny over the cliff, want poor children to go to bed hungry, want dirty air & water, etc., etc. And are racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, bigoted, etc., etc. When you've completely demonized your opponents, there's no reason to discuss or reason with them, or consider their views. No, you've justified taking all means necessary to silence and overpower them, including the tactics of Antifa, etc. It’s war.
Walk up sounds like a much more powerful and effective and less politically motivated, intended and divisive than the walk outs. Doubtful any schools would be so even-handed as to sanction a group of students wanting to walk out to protest the even larger numbers of killings sanctioned by Planned Parenthood. https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/us/ryan-petty-walk-up-walk-out-stoneman-douglas-shooting-trnd/index.html
Keep Guessing (or Conjuring), Hillary
And now Hillary explains that the reason that the majority of married women voted Republican was because their husbands, sons or bosses dictated it. How incredibly demeaning, presumptuous and condescending. On par with her earlier self-righteous “basket of deplorables” comment (or Obama’s “they cling to their guns and bibles”). These things reveal much more about her than anyone else. And if she keeps guessing, maybe she (and the snowflakes) will eventually get it right.
March 12
The Double Standard -- or No Standard at All
The Double Standard -- or No Standard at All
The Left continues to
outdo itself in levels of hypocrisy – straining at any gnat they might find to
vent and validate their utter disdain for Donald Trump, and disbelief that he
could have been legitimately elected.
And to try to find cause for impeachment – their only hope for sanity
and closure. The latest is their focus
on Stormy Daniels, with whom Trump allegedly had a fling 10 years ago.
The hypocrisy lies in
them & the media even raising or covering the issue – after never showing
any concern over Jack Kennedy’s or Clinton’s flings while in office, or
Clinton’s 3 credible rape accusers in the years just prior to office while
governor (or Ted Kennedy & Chappaquiddick).
The difference is that Trump’s indiscretion, assuming it to be true, was
consensual, long before he was in office, and as far as we know he’s been
faithful to his wife of 10 years. And of
course, more importantly, that he is conservative.
Further, they
continue to hound the entire First Family.
Recently asking his daughter Ivanka how she felt about her father’s
indiscretion. She rightly told them how
inappropriate their question was. Of
course they never even thought of asking Chelsea Clinton about her father’s
escapades or rape charges. They’re
anxious to demand respect for the office of president when Obama is president,
but loathe to give any for this president.
They only really want
respect for themselves, as evident in their self-adulation in awards
ceremonies, and in their clamoring for expression, recognition & mutual
praise of their hatred for any fault they can find with Trump. I have ceased to be surprised at the nonstop
attacks on CNN, MSNBC, or even other networks.
There’s no semblance of objectivity.
And they call themselves journalists and defenders of truth and
liberty? They are merely propagandists,
no better than in any totalitarian regime.
Disgusting even in that hypocrisy.
They could be covering truly significant issues and
accomplishments.
But they belittle and
downplay even the clear evidence that what is bringing North Korea to the table
is not the mamby-pamby (“oh, we dare not offend them”) business-as-usual of
Obama, under which they continued nuclear & missile development unabashed,
but the serious sanctions & messaging of Trump. Of course with N. Korea’s record, “trust but
verify” will be more important than ever.
And the same seriousness will need to be applied to Iran, unless we want
to be dealing with the same situation from an even more suicidal regime not
many years down the road.
Administration "Chaos", or Business as Usual?
After “The
Apprentice,” should anyone really be surprised that Donald Trump fires &
hires? Besides the fact that he’s new at
politics and this job, and still settling on his team? If anyone expected business as usual with
this president, they are living in a liberal fantasyland. Like the one where Obama never fired anyone
in the IRS, State Dept., etc. when they should
have been fired.
Feb. 3
The SOTU Address
Trump gave an
excellent SOTU address. It was amusing
to watch the Democrats almost to a
person sitting glum-faced with no applause, even for the news of the lowest
Black & Hispanic unemployment rates in history. Are they bigoted? They claim that using the term “chain migration”
is somehow reminiscent of Black slavery, but it was originally Democrat
president who coined the term. Then they
claim that he equated MS-13 with dreamers!? Then why is he touting his success
arresting and deporting/imprisoning MS-13, but offering to make DACA permanent
for even more than the original applicants?
They truly have to engage in mental gymnastics just to find fault with
Trump and move the political correctness bar ever higher. How about fighting for Americans instead of
being obstructionist just to spite Trump?
But even Pelosi acknowledged that it was a very good speech, though
saying that one good speech doesn’t make a good president.
The House Intelligence (Nunez) FISA Memo
Regarding the Nunez
FISA memo, which I’ve now read & is linked below, the Washington Post is
celebrated in movies for illegally bringing dark government secrets to light,
but Dems were saying the memo ought not be released – we don’t need to know –
or suddenly national security is important – when it might shine a light on Democrat
administration (including DOJ, FBI) misdeeds.
After all the many illegal leaks under the Obama administration directed
at Republicans or national security that none of them seemed at all concerned
about.
And now they accuse the
GOP of putting law enforcement (FBI) in danger – after they accommodated and
legitimized the Black Lives Matter movement that resulted in the assassination
of many police officers. And no serious
reader of the memo can find anything threatening rank and file FBI agents whom
Trump has praised. Some high-ranking
deep-state officials however do need investigation and very possibly
prosecution. If it harms the FBI’s
reputation & respect, then perhaps rightly so, and it needs to be corrected. Keeping it secret just to preserve some
misplaced respect is hardly worthy of our government by the people & for
the people.
Abuse of power at the
higher levels is something even they are not above, nor are they above the
legitimate oversight responsibilities of Congress, which Nunez & his
committee rightly exercised. If abuse of
power is wrong and actionable for Watergate, then it is also wrong in the IRS,
FBI and DOJ. There should be no double
standard – as there should not be for Hillary Clinton.
The fabricated Trump
dossier, that was paid for by the Clinton campaign & DNC opposition
research, through a law firm and then thru Fusion GPS to British former agent
Christopher Steele, was according to the memo critical/decisive in issuing not
only the original FISA surveillance warrant just before the election, but 3
subsequent renewals after the election.
This was testified to by FBI asst. Director McCabe, who also signed off
on the warrant application. The memo
also shows that FBI & DOJ personnel were aware of the Clinton/DNC/Fusion/Steele
connections, but did not share that important information with the FISA court
judge.
Interestingly, the
memo also says that high-level FBI officer Strzok, who also investigated (& exonerated) Clinton (changing
the language describing her use of a personal email server from "gross
negligence," which would demand prosecution, to "extreme
carelessness"),
and whose emails (& affair) with a fellow FBI employee show clear hatred of
Trump, and orchestration of press leaks, also met with McCabe to discuss an
“insurance policy” against Trump’s election.
And now we see more clearly why McCabe was fired by the current FBI
director (not by Trump as the press has been suspecting), and Strzok
re-assigned.
Deputy AG Ohr, whose
wife worked for Fusion GPS doing ops research on Russia, had been having
meetings with Steele before and after the FBI discovered his illegal press
leaks and cutting him off as a source.
Interestingly, Ohr’s wife, who was also running for state office, also
received political donations from a Clinton PAC.
The memo says that
the FISA application also heavily cited press reports to corroborate/support
the dossier claims – reports that had been planted by Steele himself. Steele was also on record telling Ohr that he
was “desperate that Trump not get elected, and was passionate about him not
being president.” Steele either helped
fabricate the dossier, or encouraged the Russians to do so, knowing what his
customers were looking for. And the FBI
and DOJ not only did not do due diligence in vetting it at best, or at worst
knowingly used it as justification to obtain a warrant to spy and dig up dirt
on a candidate. They were either blind
or complicit – neither good in protecting rights of private citizens. And again, they withheld information from the
court regarding the political origins of the dossier.
While the specific
target of the warrant was Carter Page, an advisor to candidate Trump, it also
allowed them to listen in on any of his conversations, including with Trump or
any of his team. And while the Dems are
saying that Page was on the FBI’s radar years earlier after being approached by
a Russian agent (they’ll apparently be releasing a memo of their own to that
effect), Page had fully cooperated with the FBI then in reporting it. And any new FISA warrant (that must be
renewed every 90 days) must have new, compelling justifications, not relying on
old justifications, and show fruitful findings from the most recent
surveillance. But the Trump dossier as I
understand it doesn’t implicate Page at all, so it’s unclear how it could be
used as a (or the) primary justification for a warrant. But the proof’s in the pudding – nothing
apparently found on Page.
So as politicized as
the Congressional oversight has become, more troubling is the politicization of
the FBI at the highest levels – the deep state was exposed in its glory. There seems to be a lot more concrete
evidence of American interference in the election than Russian. Even after a year of investigation of Trump’s
team for Russian collusion, and all the media hype over that. The only hard evidence is that there was
Russian collusion by the Dems to discredit Trump, which the media downplays. They just have to believe there was some dark conspiracy that
undermined Clinton, and can't accept that she was such a bad candidate, and
that the American people demanded change.
Jan. 24
Politics in movies --
how Hollywood has changed!! I've shared these short clips before, but they bear
repeating. First Jimmy Stewart & Henry Fonda, then Bob Hope.
James Stewart Republican versus Henry Fonda Democrat in the…
YOUTUBE.COM
Jan. 23
This (more deleted
emails, secret society, biased investigations) stinks to high heaven. Time for
another special prosecutor, and for heads to roll. We've got to put a stop to
this entrenched, deep-state, biased bureaucracy, and restore the integrity and
trust in institutions like the FBI, IRS, etc.
Plotted From The Beginning [WATCH]...
AMERICANACTIONNEWS.COM
The Schumer Shutdown
Jan. 22
Looks like the Dems
blinked about the Schumer shutdown. Comical how they want to claim it's due to
Trump's poor negotiating skills -- when they're the ones who got nothing out of
their gambit. As if Trump standing firm on his position, and threatening the
nuclear option had nothing to do with it. In addition to the polls indicating
they were having no luck blaming the shutdown on the GOP -- Americans saw
through that, despite the best efforts of the media to cover for them by
claiming it must be the GOP's fault since they're in control of government. As
if there was no 60 vote rule in the Senate to pass a budget -- and Dems were
holding out. They didn't want to chance hurting their midterm election odds.
And polls clearly indicate the majority of Americans want more border control,
no chain migration for DACA recipients, and other elements of the Trump
immigration agenda. Looks like there's dissatisfaction & dissension in the
Democrat ranks:
The Democratic leader confronts the most serious cracks in the
unity he's tried to foster since he took the reins of his conference last year.
POLITICO.COM
Jan. 19
Well, the Schumer shutdown has begun. Dems objected to none of the
provisions of the bill, but wanted to make a political statement at the expense
of many Americans, including our military & CHIP recipients. They'll try to
blame it on the GOP, but that'll pass muster about as well as Russian
collusion. They wanted the wall left out, so we accommodated, and will address
it as part of a comprehensive immigration bill including DACA, which all
support, and which doesn’t expire until March -- still time to deal with that
separately from funding government. They insist on DACA first, then border
enforcement & comprehensive immigration reform later -- just like Lucy's
football after previous amnesties, and still no border enforcement. Shame on us
if we fall for that, again. But of course they think actual border enforcement
is the end of the world. No doubt they'd think differently if they didn't
expect illegals to vote Democrat once they get a pathway to citizenship.
Dems will ill afford the
shutdown albatross when this memo is made public about the political workings
in the FBI, linked to Democrat collusion with the Russians. No wonder hardly
any of the Dems wanted to read or release the memo. Goes right along with the
other deep state workings like the IRS.
And apparently support for Trump has doubled among Democrats
after his successful first year, including among minorities. Here's an example.
Interesting that Reagan & Trump both had degrees in
economics and both have seen economic booms in their presidencies. Obama had
the longest, worst "recovery" of any of our recessions -- with a
degree in constitutional law. And he couldn't even get the constitution right
-- all he did was what he could to work around it.
Historians have noted that FDR, Kennedy & Johnson were
all more ill-behaved, with fouler language, than Trump, but of course they get
a pass. Dems clearly have a double standard, and are merely out for character
assassination, barring any actual one.
It was laughable to see reporters trying their darnedest, in
the press brief with the President's doctor, to find some hope of physical or
mental impairment. Only to be told that, thanks to good genes, Trump could
easily be fit for a second term, and, if he improved his diet and exercise,
live to 200. That scared them to death. Now with Russiagate, insanitygate &
healthgate drying up, they'll have to turn to something else to turn attention
from the great economy, tax benefits, etc. Probably back to the racist &
sexist mantra, which they of course want to pin on all of the GOP. But they
need to look in the mirror before they cast the first stone, because their
record is hardly sterling.
CNN’s Martin Savage interviewed a diverse group of Democratic
voters from Ohio on Wednesday who all praised President Donald Trump for the things
he has done…
DAILYWIRE.COM
Rebellion within the Rebel State
Jan. 16
Forget Northern vs
Southern California -- this is much better. And there's precedence in how West
Virginia was created. New California would include everything basically except
the coast between San Francisco & L.A, and only inland at Sacramento. It is
much more conservative, and would have much more independence from all the
current craziness (bad business climate, taxes, education system, bullet
trains, sanctuary cities, etc.). With all the water & food resources, it
would also have more power/influence over the Left Coast. And would reduce the
California Left's political power nationally. And would be in control of its
own border w. Mexico.
Where do I sign the
petition & donate? And I wouldn't even have to move far -- I could go back
to Orange County where I grew up.
Group wants to take over most of the state and cut off coastal
urban areas.
USATODAY.COM
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