A Point Which Would Have Been Worth Making

On Friday, President Trump spoke at a rally in Dalton, Georgia on behalf of Repbulican gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson and senatorial nominee Mike Collings. In the following twittered video, Trump can be seen lying about transexuals in a statement which nonetheless does bear a connection- a very tenuous connection- to reality.

Trump: "We have 5 states where your child goes off to school as Tim and comes back as Tammy 3 or 4 days later. It's true. And teachers make a decision. 'Goodbye Timmy I love you so much, I'll see you later.' And you say, 'Where's my son? My son is in the hospital.' Can you imagine? They don't even need approval"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2026

Donald should be asked which states allow its schools to refer a boy to a hospital for gender-reassignment surgery- and then keep him hidden from his parents for "three or four days".  No member of the media will do this, perhaps because jounalists fear being called out for "fake news"or  being ridiculed by the President. Or maybe they don't want to expose our President, the leader of the Free World and commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation ever, as a liar, cognitively impaired, or suffering from dementia.

At the end of the clip provided, Trump name-checked Minnesota. Nevertheless, he could be simply warping out of shape a policy of four states- Minnesota not included- which pertain to the treatment of trans-curious minors.  In a press release in August, the conservative legal firm Liberty Justice Center noted it has

sent letters to the attorneys general of New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington, warning that school districts’ decisions to withhold information regarding students’ purported gender transitions from their parents violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law. School districts that create or enforce policies that conceal a child’s request to change names, pronouns or gender identity at school may violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The center claims the FERPA

guarantees parents the right to access their children’s education records at schools that receive federal funds. The law defines “education records” as records that “contain information directly related to a student” and are “maintained by an educational agency or institution.” Any school-created or school-maintained records concerning a child’s social gender transition would therefore constitute “education records” and must be made available to the child’s parents.

It's just a guess, but I'd bet the ACLU won't agree. However, whatever courts make of the complicated legal and constitutional issues involved- and assuming the LJC is accurately interpreting current law in the four states- school districts which don't inform parents of a minor's request to change names, pronouns or gender identity at school are making a big mistake. In a New York Times guest essay last year, anti-Trump Republican and gay journalist Andrew Sullivan referred to an

illiberalism (which) made a fateful, strategic mistake. In the gay rights movement, there had always been an unspoken golden rule: Leave children out of it. We knew very well that any overreach there could provoke the most ancient blood libel against us: that we groom and abuse kids… So what did the gender revolutionaries go and do? They focused almost entirely on children and minors.

Leave the children out of it, indeed. Don't leave young people with the consequences of a decision made when they were too young to understand its ramifications. Trump himself doesn't give a rat's ass about boys transitioning into girls or believing they are transitioning, or how a school district handles it. If he did, he would make an effort to get the facts straight (no pun intended, honestly) rather than simply playing to voters' fears. 

However, speaking of trans-curious, there also is the more common term, bi-curious, which could (but wasn't) have been coined to refer to Donald J. Trump pleasuring himself with his dance simulation of fellatio to the strains of the Village People's "YMCA".  During the speech in Georgia, Donald reportedly remarked "we're allowed to have big, strong, handsome soldiers now".  To one man in the crowd, he commented "Oh! He's a good looking guy. You're not allowed to say that about women or men anymore. It's the end of your political career, but he's a good-looking guy."  (Ironically, Trump has, to be generous, diverse sexual interests.)

Of course, it won't end Trump's political career or even put a dent into it. No one will care about Trump's fascination with the "good-looking guy" in the audience nor in "big, strong, handsome soldiers".  No one will care because the media will ignore it. It will also ignore Donald Trump taking a serious issue, young boys who are ill at ease with their biological sex, and recklessly lying about it.

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It's Those Jews Again

Cenk Uygur of The Yong Turks is a virulent hater of Israel and of Jews- not necessarily the same thing, but both apply with him. However, that's not the issue here.

 

People claim “dual loyalty” is a trope, but here is large percentage of Jewish voters abandoning every other position they’ve had just for Israel. Many other Jewish voters aren’t doing this. But you can’t say Israel is more important than every other issue and still claim trope.

— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) October 15, 2026

Uygur may or may not be aware of the following. However, even if he is, he wouldn't understand its applicability to the plunge of support among New York Jews for the Democratic Party:

The Arab American Institute (AAI) released polling at the end of October 2023 that showed support among Arab voters for President Joe Biden catastrophically plummeted from a high of 59% during the 2020 election to a scant 17%. His approval rating also dropped a precipitous 45 points, from 74% to 29% in that time frame. While positive feelings towards Biden had been dropping amongst Arabs steadily since he came into office, the AAI noted that his support fell by 18 points between April 2023 and October 23 alone, driven in part by widespread criticism of his administration's muted response to Palestinian suffering during Israel's initial military response to Hamas' terror attack. 

Support for Harris among Arab-Americans rose after she became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. One rational reason would have been that Harris was not as fond of Israel as was Biden, as exemplified by the "bring them home" chant at the Democratic National Convention, more pithy than "sign the damn ceasefire, Bibi".

The precipitous drop of support among these voters for Biden- and perhaps even the increase for Harris- obviously was due to the federal government's sympathy for, and empathy with, Israel after the 10/7/23 attack by Islamist terrorists.  No one ever has suggested the that skepticism of Biden, and to a lesser extent, of Harris, was due to anything but that Mideast conflict.

These are called "single issue voters," Cenk. To make it simpler: Arab Muslims disliked Biden because he favored the predominantly Jewish state of Israel over loud and proud, murderous Muslims. And now Jews have lost faith in Democratic politicians because none has renounced Abdul el-Sayed, which is sensible because he is a candidate for Senate; and none has denounced his #1 booster, Hasan Piker, which is morally repugnant. 

There are single-issue voters for Israel, just as there are single-issue voters against Israel, euphemistically "Pro-Palestine" voters.  There are single-issue gun rights (euphemistically, "Second Amendment) voters, individuals who vote for or against candidates because the latter are pro-life or pro-choice, and it doesn't end with these. It may be foolish, but foolish is neither unconstitutional nor illegal.

Jews aren't guilty of the dual loyalty anti-Semites have historically accused them of any more than Uygur and his fellow travelers are guilty of dual loyalty because they support Palestine, unfortunately recognized by the United Nations as a non-member observer state.  Nor are  Italian-Americans guilty of dual loyalty because they zealously guard recognition of Columbus Day in recognition of someone who did not discover America.

There are American Jewish organizations in the USA. So, too, are there various organizations advocating for African-Americans, European-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Latinos. There also are Asian-American groups, one of them representing Turkish-American, which Cenk presumably is free to join, if he has not already done so. Fortunately, these do not get accused of "dual loyalties"; that designation is reserved for Jews. 

All of those are part of the rich mosaic of the United States of America.  Or as John Mellencamp recorded in the 1980s in "Little Pink Houses", "Oh, but ain't that America for you and me?"

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Saudi Arabia, Disappeared

An important American ally in the Middle East again is encouraging President Donald Trump to join its forces in escalating conflict.  CNBC reports that the President

said he is considering joining Saudi Arabia in its retaliation against Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen after a deadly attack on Riyadh’s main airport, a move that could draw the U.S. further into a second front in the Iran war.

“We may. We’re going to look at it,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday when asked if the U.S. would back Saudi Arabian strikes. “We just found out about the recent attack. So, we’ll make a decision. We move very quickly.”

Two Saudi Arabian government officials told MS NOW that the kingdom is requesting “urgent defense support” from the U.S. following the attacks.

The officials, including a senior member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, did not want to be identified because of the matter’s sensitivity. They added that the U.S. needs to intervene “as soon as possible” to help the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen fight the Houthis.

This is nothing new because on September 10, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a real sweetheart kind of guy called President Trump twice   

urging him to launch strikes against the Houthis as the Iran-backed group closed in on a vital Red Sea chokepoint, two U.S. officials told Axios. Trump declined, and U.S. officials stressed the administration has no plans to intervene directly against the Houthis for now.

And that was nothing new, as applied elsewhere in the Mideast, for in February Trump launched a

wide-ranging attack on Iran after a weeks-long lobbying effort by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East — Israel and Saudi Arabia — according to four people familiar with the matter, as Israeli and U.S. forces teamed to topple Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly four decades in power.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a U.S. attack, despite his public support for a diplomatic solution, the four people said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, continued his long-running public campaign for U.S. strikes against what he views as an existential enemy of his country.

The combined effort helped lead Trump to order a massive aerial campaign against Iran’s leadership and military, which in its initial hour led to the death of Khamenei and several other senior Iranian officials.

In March,Daniel C. Kurtzer and Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace explained

Netanyahu was not the only foreign leader pushing for Trump to attack Iran. Foremost among these was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Other reports indicate Arab Gulf leaders have been urging Trump not to stop before further degrading Iranian military capabilities. The difference between Netanyahu and Arab leaders was that the latter told Trump quietly what they wanted but would not be honest with their own people. Still, Trump alone is responsible for the United States’ participation.

Trump and Netanyahu are skilled politicians, and both are adept in the art of the con. In this case, however, there was no con. Trump proved to be a willing and full partner. He was risk-ready and caught up in a self-generated aura of military power and invincibility after taking President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela. He was poorly advised by a coterie of advisers unwilling to say anything to him other than yes— perhaps with the exception of Vice President JD Vance, who has backed Trump publicly but has expressed reservations in the past.

Netanyahu may have determined the timing of conflict, but Trump was likely already on his way to war…

Whatever accountability Netanyahu should face for the Iran war, the fact is that the conflict the United States is now fighting against Iran is Trump’s doing. It is a war based on a false and unproven threat assessment of “imminent threats” to the United States. It is a war being waged without bipartisan support, congressional authorization, or the buy-in of allies or the majority of the American public. And it is a war being prosecuted without the president thinking through potential costs and consequences.

It's a wonder that Israel is often blamed by the ultra-left and the ultra-right for getting the USA to start the war against Iran. To be fair to Marco Rubi ( which he generally doesn't deserve), when the Secretary of State in early March pointed to Israel's role in facilitating our involvement, he was referring to the timing of our attack"  He remarked “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Nonetheless, Netany and those evil "Zionists" get a lot of the blame on social media and otherwise for President Trump's disastrous mistake.But then, it's Israel's own fault that it has a lot of Jews.

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Elitist-in-Chief

He did it again.

Speaking at an event at the Institue of Peace on October 8, President Donald J. Trump remarked "but we have an extremely high IQ audience for a change. For a change. It's very nice."

Two days later, it was a different audience but same message. While the President spoke on October 10 at a rally in Clarksville, Tennessee in behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Hagerty and US Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn

“I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.” The audience responded by laughing--and clapping. “It’s true,” Trump said.

Perhaps realizing how that statement might play on social media, the president quickly added “but we don’t say the stupidest things, we say things of common sense. We say things that make sense, and probably are mostly conservative. But it’s not really conservative, it’s the things of common sense.”

Trump: I could say the stupidest things and you'd clap https://t.co/9LLyA30UzI

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 10, 2026

I'd say the stupidest things and you'd clap, remarks the individual with contempt Americans. Lest we forget, on July 16, 2025 we learned

Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this "bull——," hook, line, and sinker," Trump wrote Wednesday on his Truth Social site, using an expletive in his post. "They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years."

"Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter," he went on.

And these are his supporters. Fifteen months ago, they were "weaklings" who "haven't learned their lesson." They "bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker", "haven't learned their lesson and probably never will"even after being "conned" for "eight long years".  

Four months prior to that, at the first Cabinet meeting of this term, President Trump maintained that Americans generally are "bloated and fat and disgusting". On a positive note, at least then Trump did not single out his supporters, nor veterans, a favorite target of his.

This is just a guy who really, really does not like anyone in his social class. And given that he has stratospheric wealth and tastes to match, that includes virtually everyone in a country he really, really does not like.

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Melodramatic and Tawdry

On Thursday, October 8, Vice President Vance was asked about the upcoming execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who murdered thirteen individuals and wounded at least 31 other people as he attacked Fort Hood Army base inTexas in 2009.  earlier in the day, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated 

that Nidal Hasan's death by firing squad would be public and available to watch. The announcement prompted intense backlash, including from several Republicans in Congress.

On a trip to Ohio, a reporter asked Vance, who is Catholic, how the plan to livestream the execution meshes with his faith.

 "Well, first of all, I've seen this announcement," said Vance. "I don't know that that's actually going to happen"...

"So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people," Vance said. "Now that said, I mean, look, if it's ultimately livestreamed, I'm not going to be watching it."and policies that are broadly acceptable to the public at any given time.)

The good news is that Vance's priorities do not include blood lust.  The bad news is that the execution still may be livestreamed.

Many Americans would enjoy watching it.  Decades ago, before I stopped watching movies for unrelated reasons, some of the films I would attend would feature bad guys and good guys, of whatever sort. There would come a time when the bad guys would be killed by the good guys, and the theatre audience would erupt in applause. That was expected, arguably normal, but disquieting.

And now we have an Administration which routinely inflicts cruelty for the sake of cruelty. It may be destroying food intended for hungry and dying people abroad, immigration enforcement seemingly intended to separate children from their parents, firing federal workers so that they can be "traumatically affected," or.... well, there isn't enough time in the day to go down the list.

Hegseth boasts "we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things."  

Execution of Hasan- a terrorist, remember- would be the news of the day, perhaps of the week, even if not livestreamed or televised. That would be the case unless President Trump diverts our attention with something else outrageous in the hours afterward, which would be defeating the purpose of encouraging individuals to view it.

There is not a snowball's chance in hell that the primary objective of Hegseth/Trump in turning the execution into a spectacle would be to deter other acts of murder, terroristic or not. Most likely, the production would have little or no effect on violent acts, and "little" is on its way out the door.  If there were any impact, it probably would be in the opposite direction.  Individuals contemplating violent crime might savor the possibility of becoming famous, even though they wouldn't be around to enjoy the full effect of the social media high.  Notoriety in death would be an incentive- not to many, but to enough as to overwhelm whatever trivial deterrent effect there might be.

This tweeter, "a 9/11 widow" whose "husband was murdered by terrorists in the South Tower," understands fully. In part, she explained

Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood. He was convicted by a military jury and sentenced to death. He should be held accountable under the law.

My objection is to turning his death into entertainment or political spectacle.

I don’t need to watch a man die. I don’t need to cheer it. And I certainly don’t need to do either to prove that I am strong, patriotic, or tough on terrorism.

After 9/11, our country made choices in the name of fighting terrorism, including torture,that had profound consequences for the pursuit of justice. 25 years later, the men accused of planning the attack that murdered my husband still have not gone through a completed trial.

That experience has made me more committed to the rule of law, not less.

You can support the lawful punishment of Nidal Hasan and still believe that an execution should not become a public spectacle. Those positions are not contradictory.

And you can believe in compassion and human dignity without being weak.

I have lived with the consequences of terrorism for 25 years. I will not allow anyone to tell me that refusing to celebrate another human being’s death makes me weak.

Don’t mistake humanity for weakness.

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Vile

Hey, everybody! Let's make it more painful!  Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City starts his tweet of three years since Hamas Genocide Day by noting "This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7."  Then he goes profoundly downhill from the sewer in which he lurks.

This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss. The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes. Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment. To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) October 7, 2026

 Eight days after the attack, Robert Satloff of The Washington Institue for Near East Policy noted that it 

killed more than 1,300 Israelis and third-country nationals, including at least 29 Americans, in a country whose population is less than 10 million. In America, that would be equivalent to killing nearly 40,000—13 times more than the number of Al Qaeda victims on 9/11....

As terrible as 9/11 was, tens of millions of Americans woke up the following morning in our vast country not knowing any of the victims or their families. In Israel, a country whose width is less than the daily commute of many Americans, not a single family was untouched by the attack, either directly, through a neighbor, friend or classmate....

The comparison to the 1978 Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981 is apt. Satloff continues

Americans sadly recall how the taking of a much smaller number of hostages—diplomatic personnel at the American embassy in Tehran—paralyzed the U.S. government and dominated daily life in our country for 444 days. Obviously, the hostage factor was never a component of 9/11.

And yet, Zohran Kwame Mamdani decided to celebrate the massacre of October 7, not only by repeating the debunked charge of "genocide" but by going on in detail about the suffering of Palestinians he blames on the Israeli government.  Though mentioning (once) Hamas, the mayor did not acknowledge that none of the death and destruction he claims to be distressed by would have taken place without the terrorist group. The word "terrorist," nor any derivative, escapes his lips, nor does "Jew" or any of its derivatives.  Yet, he wields the term "Palestinian" with no concern about any Palestinian outside of Gaza. Hatred is made no more credible mixed with ignorance.

If Mamdani had any sense of decency, any denunciation of Israel would have been suspended for days- or at least one.  When a human being dies, there is no public criticism of the deceased before, nor during, the day of the funeral. When grieving on the anniversary of the death, out of respect, no one airs grievances against the person. 

The best thing, given the mayor's hostility to Jews, would have been for him to say nothing on this anniversary. I checked- it's legal.  Admittedly, in the age of individual self-absoprtion, he would have been denounced. So he could have issued a minimalistic statement, including the first four sentences of his tweet and ending with "we now must redouble our pursuit of peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East".  The statement would not have been much dissimilar to that issued by the governor of New York State.

There has been much speculation as to why Mayor Mamdani and President Trump appear to like each other personally. It's now clear that they see some of themselves in each other.  Lack of character is a defining feature of both men.

There is a time and place for most things, and the time for condemnation of Israel on October 7 is not the time. Not the time, that is, for any decent person, which leaves Zohran Kwame Mamdani out.

 

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Letting Them off The Hook

Remember: Donald Trump is not a bad guy. Jared Kushner is not a bad guy. The Saudis are not bad guys.

We know that because the "progressive" left has told us that, indirectly. This guy was sensible until "you're bombing Iran because Israel told you to.

North Korea has nukes and ICBMs that can hit the entire U.S. Iran has neither. If nukes were the point, you'd be bombing North Korea. You're bombing Iran because Israel told you to.

— James Fishback (@j_fishback) October 5, 2026

When in late February President Trump launched an attack on Iran, The Washington Post reported that it was

after a weeks-long lobbying effort by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East — Israel and Saudi Arabia — according to four people familiar with the matter, as Israeli and U.S. forces teamed to topple Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly four decades in power.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a U.S. attack, despite his public support for a diplomatic solution, the four people said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, continued his long-running public campaign for U.S. strikes against what he views as an existential enemy of his country.

The combined effort helped lead Trump to order a massive aerial campaign against Iran’s leadership and military, which in its initial hour led to the death of Khamenei and several other senior Iranian officials.

That was Israel and Saudi Arabia. It seems that Donald's son-in-law and leading mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, oligarch Jared Kushner, probably helped persuade Donald given that he

has an indirect financial connection through his private investment firm to a series of companies supplying weapons and equipment to the IDF, according to a CNN investigation published on Thursday and based on Israeli financial documents and Israeli transparency regulations.

According to the investigation, Kushner-owned Affinity Partners is the largest shareholder in Phoenix Financial. Documents reviewed as part of the investigation indicate that Phoenix has investments in nine companies connected to Israeli military activity, including manufacturers of ammunition, drones, vessels, and engineering equipment.

The most significant investment is in Elbit Systems, valued at at least $265 million. Other investments include more than $68 million in NextVision, which manufactures cameras for drones, and at least $40 million in Reshef Technologies, which manufactures electronic fuzes for shells. The list also includes Israel Shipyards, Ashot Ashkelon, Boeing, and Caterpillar.

Kushner does not directly own shares in the nine companies, but Affinity may indirectly benefit from their profits through its investment in Phoenix. According to CNN, the company sold about a quarter of its holdings in July for more than $340 million, generating a return of more than five times the original purchase price of the shares it sold.

Following the sale, Affinity remained Phoenix's largest shareholder, with a 7.4% stake valued at more than $1 billion.

The investigation raises questions about the intersection between Kushner's diplomatic activity and his private business interests. Kushner is carrying out his work on behalf of the president on a voluntary basis and does not hold an official government position. Alongside the diplomatic negotiations, he has presented a plan for Gaza's reconstruction that includes the development of tourism areas and opportunities for private investment.

The Iraq war has been very good business indeed for Jared Kushner. He has been given nearly a free pass, and Saudi Arabia a completely free pass, in parceling out blame for the destructive and unpopular war Jared's father-in-law and the Kingdom's friend has been waging in the Middle East.  

Saudi Arabia has been given a free pass, and Jared Kushner nearly a free pass  Nor has President Trump, in some quarters, assumed to have agency. The "Zionism is racism" crowd is glad to exempt the American president, his son-in-law, and the Saudis from responsibility for a chance to claim genocide, which these folks don't understand, or Zionism, which these folks don't understand.

"Woke 1 was crazy", Representative Alexandria Ocasi-Cortez acknowledged while smugly giggling. Welcome to Woke 2, its more dangerous sibling.

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