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In the News (#1512)

February 12, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

[There are] too many examples of investigative tools that become runaway trains.  –  Rebecca Brown

Torture Chamber (#1305) 

It seems highly unlikely that anything will be done about this under the Trump regime:

Floors streaked with blood, rat-infested cells, flooded hallways and routine beatings by [psychopathic thugs]…are but some of the degrading conditions within Alabama state prisons revealed by leaked cellphone videos in a…new documentary that premiered at the Sundance film festival…The Alabama Solution, directed by Andrew Jarecki…and Charlotte Kaufman, reports on the inhumane living conditions, forced labor and rampant [screw] violence…as told by [prisoners]…under constant physical threat from prison management.  Despite [toothless] federal calls for prison reform, Alabama’s prisons currently operate at 200% capacity…[and] have the highest rates of murder, drug addiction and death in the country…prison[ers used smuggled]…cellphones…to document an outrageously brutal and…corrupt system…incarcerated activists Melvin…Ray and Robert Earl…Council [led a] network of sources record[ing]…beatings, unsanitary conditions…drug[s]…supplied by [screws]…and first-person testimony at great personal risk.  Council was nearly beaten to death by guards during the course of production and lost sight in one eye; another source recorded smears of blood trailing from Council’s cell after he was dragged away, unconscious and facedown…


Thought Control (#1325)

Surely you didn’t think they’d be satisfied with only threatening librarians and teachers:

A broad coalition of educational, civil rights, and literary advocacy organizations are banding together to…[oppose] proposed [book-banning] legislation…in Texas.  More than a dozen such bills have been filed this legislative session…[including] one [that] would criminalize almost anyone who allows a [legal minor] to have access to [any] material that [any politician has pointed at while barfing “]harmful to minors[“, such as people who]…put a little free library in [their] front yard…[another] would allow…the…handful of people who…travel…the state with lists of hundreds…of books [they want banned]…to [instead] ban them statewide…

Torture Chamber (#1374)

The 100% predictable result of a judge’s half-assed attempt to stop Louisiana from torturing young people:

Louisiana imprisons young people in an adult jail where they’re attacked by guards, deprived of an education, and kept away from their families…The new court filings are the latest development in a years-long lawsuit [against]…Louisiana…[for caging legal minors] at adult lockups [instead of]…juvenile facilities.  The state’s Office of Juvenile [In]justice…began incarcerating [them]…at Jackson Parish Jail in 2023 after a federal judge ordered them to move all [legal minors] out of…Angola…young [prisoners have since] told the court…that the guards “are very quick to use mace and put their hands on us”…[they’re cag]ed in…“modified shipping container[s]” in the middle of a field…they have been…shot with pepper balls, and had “taser gloves” used on them…there is no school…or…in-person visitation and…they can only call home if they have money in their accounts…the Sheriff’s Office…[lies that prison]ers get 87 minutes a month of free phone call and…and onsite visits are allowed…[but] David Utter…part of the legal team representing the youth, said parents have reported that the Sheriff’s Office told them they cannot visit their children…[and] the legal team had to put money in one client’s account just to be able to speak with him on the phone…

Served Cold (#1405)

Tim Ballard’s partners in profiteering are trying to salvage as much of the scam as possible:

A [disgraced “]sex trafficking[” hysteria profiteer] group is planning to relocate to Minnesota and hoping to set up shop in a new city-owned…facility in Minneapolis.  The prospect that the group, Our Rescue, might be selected to [indoctrinate] police [in “]sex trafficking[” propaganda] in the new South Minneapolis Community Safety Center has drawn criticism from [rival profiteer groups] who call Our Rescue’s approach outdated and poorly informed…Our Rescue was formerly known as Operation Underground Railroad.  It’s moving from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis [but can’t escape either its reputation or a pending] federal lawsuit…

Micromanagement (#1425)

Cops just love new ways to railroad people:

…Parabon NanoLabs was founded…[to profit from] DNA [analysis.  At first the company pursued the prosocial goal of]…developing cancer therapies…[but soon degenerated] into a prominent purveyor of…DNA phenotyping…to [cop shops]…Parabon [claims] its Snapshot FDP System “accurately” predicts not only eye, hair, and skin color, but also face shape.  For a fee, the company will provide [cops] with a rendering of its predictions in the form of a color composite sketch [they can and do run through facial recognition systems]…scientists and legal experts…warn that the company’s sketches are, at best, misleading…Even a scientist who helped develop the technology says it’s not ready for real-world use…In a criminal legal system rife with wrongful convictions and racial bias, there are countless ways…an unproven tool [can be abused]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1433)

Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:

A New York [politician] is trying to introduce the same age verification legislation that has resulted in massive porn sites…going dark across much of the U.S…The bill, introduced by [sociopaths] Jake Ashby and…Mary Beth Walsh, is almost identical to every other [sex surveillance] law that has passed across the country in the last two years…and…defines “material harmful to minors” as a laundry list of sex acts and body parts…

Eavesdropping (#1501)

I have no words sufficient to describe how foolish this is:

Just months after we learned Chinese hackers had compromised US telecom systems through government-mandated backdoors, an inexperienced developer from Musk’s DOGE unit is pushing untested code directly into the Treasury’s payment infrastructure…It seems reasonable to call it one of the most dangerous cyberattacks on the US government.  The Treasury Department wants us to believe…Musk’s team’s access…[was] “read only”…But…[in] reality…a 25-year-old…named Marko Elez (who had refused to give any of his brand new colleagues his last name) had been granted…full administrator privileges to the system….and…is…pushing untested changes directly into production on a system that handles trillions in federal payments…the code changes have a very specific purpose: creating mechanisms to block payments while hiding the evidence…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Diary #763

February 11, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

We both knew Grace was slowly dying for several years now; I just didn’t know it would happen so soon or so suddenly.  So even though I’m relieved that she didn’t have to suffer the awful fate of a slow, protracted death as a bedridden invalid, and grateful that I was able to make her last eight years happy ones (despite her considerable pain and inability to do the things she loved, such as riding her motorcycle), I’m also having some trouble coming to grips with the fact that she is actually gone.  Even typing that last sentence took me ten minutes, because I can’t look at those words on the screen without being overwhelmed by a wave of grief.  She was not good with words herself, but music often gave her a means of expressing deep feelings she could not herself articulate.  Ozzy Osbourne was one of her favorite musicians, and on several occasions over the past few years I found her crying while listening to this song; when I went to comfort her she would hug me tightly and say she wasn’t afraid of death because we’d be reunited on the Other Side.  So I’ve listened to it quite a few times over the past week, hoping that it will allow me to share just a bit of her unshakable faith in our eventual reunion in another life once I, too, have left this one.

Posted in Diary, Music, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments »

Post-Christian

February 10, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

Attention theologians and clergy: So obviously, US evangelicals of the Trumpist variety, with their exhortations to hate their neighbor and calling Christ “weak” and empathy a “sin”, cannot properly be called “Christian”.  So what are they?  What label should be applied to their belief-system?

For right now, I’m going to go with “Post-Christian”. But I don’t know if that’s really self-explanatory enough.  The “prosperity gospel” is in this general grouping, but there are several other heretical movements which belong there too.  I’d appreciate input on an umbrella term.

Posted in Philosophy, Words | Tagged , , | 11 Comments »

Links #762

February 9, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

There are many less severe and less dangerous ways to garner sympathy that don’t include shooting oneself.  –  Jeffrey Lichtman

It seems appropriate to send Marianne Faithfull off with her first big hit.  The links above the video were provided by Franklin Harris, Jesse Walker, Gustavo Turner, Radley Balko, Lucy Steigerwald, Tim Cushing, and Mike Masnick, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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In the News (#1511)

February 8, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

To say that this designation…is without scientific or medical merit is an understatement.  –  Julianne McShane

A Broker in Pillage

The government’s lawyers have grown increasingly shameless in inventing bizarre justifications for its crimes against citizens:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that [steal]ing $50,000 from a small business did not infringe the business’ right to private property because money is not property[, claiming]…(1) the government creates money, so you can’t own it; (2) the government can tax your money, so you don’t own it; and (3) the Constitution allows the government to spend money for the “general welfare”…Chuck Saine, the owner of C.S. Lawn & Landscaping…became a client of the Institute for Justice…when the federal government sought to impose over $50,000 in liability on his business through a “trial” held deep inside the bowls of a federal administrative agency…[where] both the prosecutor and the judge were employed..the DOJ argued that Saine has no right to a real judge and jury because the government was only trying to take his money, not his property…prominently cit[ing] the Legal Tender Cases—where the Supreme Court upheld laws forcing people to accept paper currency, rather than gold and silver, as payment for debts…

Guinea Pigs (#656)

This abomination began as a way for cops to target sex workers:

A powerful [computer] tool can predict with high accuracy the location of photos based on features inside the image itself—such as vegetation, architecture, and the distance between buildings—in seconds, with the company now marketing the tool to [cop shops] and [spook houses].  Called GeoSpy, made by a firm called Graylark Technologies out of Boston, the tool has also been used for months by [trolls]…and…stalk[ers].  The company’s founder has aggressively pushed back against such requests…[from anyone without State permission to destroy people’s lives.  Cops]…with very little necessary training, private…companies, and stalkers could, and in some cases already are, using this technology.  Dedicated open source intelligence (OSINT) professionals can of course do this too, but the training and skillset necessary can take years to build up.  GeoSpy allows essentially any…[sociopath] to do it…

I Spy (#1353)

Americans aren’t going to like what it will take to stop this coup:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave [Elon Musk and his henchmen] access to the federal payment system [last week]…handing [people neither elected nor hired by the American people]…a powerful tool to monitor and…unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress…Musk…has recently fixated on Treasury’s payment processes, c[laim]ing the department [should be falsely] rejecting more [authorized] payments as fraudulent or improper…Similar…teams [of Musk henchmen] have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies, but none of those agencies control the flow of money in the way the Treasury Department does…the system…includes sensitive personal information about the millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds and other payments from the federal government…

Feudalism Redux (#1472)

Texas’ ruling psychopaths wanted every one of these girls saddled with a baby before they even graduated high school:

…the Houston Chronicle…reports that in 2023, at least 100 minors had to leave Texas for abortion care; at least six of the minors were children under 12 years old.  This number…is ninefold from what it was five years ago.  Prior to 2022…between 1,000 and 1,400 Texas minors received abortions in the state annually.  That number fell to zero in 2023…many of the minors’ pregnancies resulted from rape [including] every…pregnancy in the youngest age category…[but] Texas’ abortion ban, which threatens providers with life in prison among other steep penalties, offers no exception for rape…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1489)

Looks like it’s time for veils to come back into fashion:

Kroger…[has formed a] partnership with Microsoft to install facial-recognition technology in stores, which could be used to identify individual customers: When a shopper approaches the shelf, she would see a price calibrated specifically for her.  The next shopper might pay a different amount based on their profile.  Retailers could use shopper data to charge higher prices to those who can afford to pay more, but…stores do not have to disclose who is making pricing decisions or why…in October 2024, Kroger [claimed] it had ended its facial recognition pilot program…

The Vultures Descend (#1500)

Moral imbeciles can always be trusted to abuse any power they’re given:

In January, [psychopath]s in [Indiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Carolina] introduced proposals to make…harming a fertilized egg or fetus punishable under homicide statutes, with no exceptions for women who get abortions…These measures would leave pregnant women who [miscarry or] seek abortions subject to criminal charges such as murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and attempted manslaughter and open to wrongful death lawsuits brought by [abusive] partners or family members.  They could also seriously imperil care for women experiencing pregnancy complications and have major implications for in vitro fertilization practices…

Feudalism Redux (#1500)

Forced-birth fanatics are trying to extend their crazed jihad outside their own borders, so as to establish ownership over their subjects:

…a New York-based telemedicine provider has been indicted in Louisiana…for supplying the abortion pill to a teenage patient in that state.  The [attack on]…Dr. Margaret “Maggie” Campbell signals a major escalation in legal challenges by [forced-birth] states against telemedicine providers…who are dispensing abortion drugs under shield laws meant to protect them from prosecution…The…case involves a pregnant minor whose mother allegedly purchased abortion medications from Campbell…in April 2024…In addition to Campbell, [the state is targeting]…the mother…[trying to lock her in a cage for] five years…and [rob her] to [the tune of] $50,000…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Balkanization

February 7, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

Attention, state-level politicians: the watchword is “Balkanization”.  You need to seriously start thinking about it.  Don’t sink into the comfortable, warm embrace of patriotic historical fantasies; instead, consider the lessons of history and have some damned moral courage for once.  A decade ago, Washington and Colorado flipped the bird to the central enabling mechanism of the federal War on Drugs, and thereby started a quiet revolution.  You can do the same.  Think about it.

Posted in Current Events, History, Tyranny | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

The Shadow of Throwback Thursday

February 6, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

There’s nothing…prohibitionists hate more than whores who refuse to allow themselves to be pimped to the prohibitionist cause.  –  “Real People”

Though prohibitionists will vociferously deny it, all prohibitionism is the same.  –  “Change a Few Words”

The demons [prohibitionists] imagine…in cartoons, games and television shows [are] nothing more than the ones which…drive…[them] to anti-social behavior.  –  “Physician, Heal Thyself”

The tragedy of relationships is that women want men to change, and they don’t, while men don’t want women to change, and they do.  –  “Fossil“

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

In the News (#1510)

February 5, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

Women are not children [who]…need people making decisions for us.  –  Julie Burkhart

I Spy (#990)

The only way to keep data from being misused by state enforcers is not to collect it in the first place:

California [cops] improperly accessed a state database of private information more than 7,000 times in 2023…the EFF discovered…that…[cop shops] reported 7,275 misuses of the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, or CLETS, to the state Department of Justice in 2023.  The vast majority of those offenses were committed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department…which was responsible for 6,789 of the violations…Because of the amount of sensitive information on CLETS, there are rules about when and why [cops] can use it, as well as requiring mandatory reporting of abuses…[which] include cops using it to look up information on romantic interests or retaliate against rivals…[an unknown but presumably much larger number of abuses were never caught and therefore went unreported]…

A Moral Cancer (#1388)

Trump is the proverbial stopped clock:

…Trump’s…[FDA has] withdraw[n] the…proposal to ban menthol tobacco and nicotine products nationwide…[introduced] in 2022 [by] the Biden…FDA…the administration quickly backed off its public endorsement of the prohibition after realizing how unpopular the proposed bans were with voters.  It never took the steps needed to withdraw the proposed rules, however…The…administration said it was targeting…black adults [in particular for this new campaign of violence]…

A Moral Cancer (#1395)

Will progressives ever stop cheering police violence in the name of “public health”?

Newton [Massachusetts politicians] voted to approve an ordinance…that [criminalize]s the sale of tobacco or e-cigarette products to anyone born on, or after, March 1, 2004…joining the busybody politicians of] Brookline, Needham and 10 other Massachusetts communities with similar so-called “generational bans” on tobacco…the state’s high court backed the town’s right to [inflict police violence on people who break the arbitrary] rule last March…David Micley voted against the measure[, saying]…“there’s a cost to taking…away people’s individual choices”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1409)

The censorious lunatic who tried to criminalize “sexting” last year is at it again:

An Oklahoma [politician is once again trying to]…ban pornography in the entire state…Dusty Deevers [attempted to justify his totalitarian violence by spinning his head wildly around while vomiting idiocies and buzzwords including]…“moral sanity”…“degenerate”…”highly addictive drug”…“innocence”…”plague”…[and] “locked away for decades” [at reporters]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1459)

In a just court system, facial recognition “evidence” would be as inadmissible as polygraph results:

An Ohio judge threw out key evidence in a murder case…because the prosecution improperly relied on facial recognition technology…Blake Story was shot in Cleveland last February, and police used surveillance footage taken six days later to [hang] the killing [on] Qeyeon Tolbert…[by running] the video…[through] a regional fusion center[‘s subscription to] Clearview…[no human identified] Tolbert without…Clearview…[and the cops hid the fact that they used it] in the search warrant affidavit which ultimately allowed them to enter Tolbert’s apartment…[without] probable cause…Clearview includes a disclaimer in its reports warning [cops] that its findings are not “intended or permitted” to be used as admissible evidence…The Cleveland case is [good] news for [victims of] prosecutors around the country [because] police are increasingly using facial recognition…to arrest [people]…without any a[ctu]al evidence…

Torture Chamber (ROTW #13)

The government calls this “justice”; for journalists to parrot that is a choice:

…a…350 pound…[mutant screw named Tyler Grant Lynn was given free reign to terrorize legally-innocent]…teen-aged boys…[by] twist[ing their]…arms over their heads [until they broke].  The snap of one boy’s fracturing left humerus…could be heard by the…microphone on a security camera mounted 40 feet away.  An administrator at the [Kentucky jail] who saw the boy’s arm hanging awkwardly later [yelled “stop faking!” at him]…despite [a politician’s] promises…and…a federal civil rights investigation, [subhuman thugs] continue…to [brutalize young people]…The boys were given ibuprofen…after [reporting] their broken arms…[to] a nurse…[who refused] to examine the[m and instead just yelled “stop faking!” at them]…The boys were [finally] taken to a Paducah hospital three days later…The second boy needed surgery to put metal plates in his arm to repair the damage…

The Vultures Descend (#1493)

Because abortion is protected by the Wyoming constitution, forced-birth fanatics keep framing their attempts as “keeping women safe”:

Two bills that would [make abortion more difficult and odious have] passed [a Wyoming committee]…One would…use the [“admitting privileges” scam to] clos[e] Wyoming’s only [abortion] clinic…the other [uses bogus “environmental” concerns to humiliate women using abortion drugs by forcing them]…to [bleed into a bag marked “BIOHAZARD”]…and return the tissue to their physician for disposal…Wellspring [Health Access] founder Julie Burkhart said…it was “within the realm of possibility” that attorneys representing Wellspring would file a lawsuit against HB 42 if it passes the Senate and is signed by the governor…and…the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not find any evidence that mifepristone was significantly contaminating waterways more than any other pharmaceutical drug…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Diary #762

February 4, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

Like me, Grace was estranged from her family; she had been close to her mother and stepfather, but her mother died about two years before we met, and her stepfather passed about 20 years ago.  But neither of her siblings seemed interested in keeping in touch, and she hadn’t spoken to her daughter since an ugly, acrimonious divorce in the early ’90s.  So when the mortician told me that there would be a delay in cremation due to legal requirements that they attempt to contact her next of kin, I was irritated but unsurprised.  It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been; they called me Friday to tell me the numbers they could find were all either disconnected or unresponsive, so they were going ahead with the arrangements we’d discussed.  And in a few weeks, when the weather improves, I’m going to have friends over for a memorial and spreading of her ashes, because that was what she wanted.  Jae told me a few days ago that Grace had told her that after her passing, she wanted her tools to go to a reservation school for use in shop classes; I’m trying to get in touch with tribal governments to find a likely candidate.  Though she hadn’t mentioned it to me, I have no doubt that Jae understood her correctly; over the time I’ve known her she has become increasingly interested in her heritage, and her tools were her most prized possessions so she’d want them to be used rather than just collecting dust or rust.

Speaking of her possessions, right now they’re triggering tears every time I see them; I do most of my writing at the kitchen table, which means her chair and desk are only about two meters away, and cluttered with all of her things.  On Sunday, I decided to put fresh linens on her bed and didn’t stop crying for an hour afterward.  And because I’m very sentimental, I’ve kept every little gift she’s ever given me; the picture above was the card that came with flowers she sent for my birthday in 2015, while I was in Seattle and she was still in Oklahoma.  It’s not even her handwriting, because of course the florist took it down from her dictation.  But the words and thoughts were hers, and may give you some inkling of why I’m missing her so terribly right now.

Posted in Biography, Diary | Tagged | 5 Comments »

Links #761

February 3, 2025 by Maggie McNeill

Tim Burton once did the exact same thing to my cousin.  –  The Bog Freak

Remember that new Chopin waltz discovered back in October?  Mike Siegel found a video of That Internet Pianist with the Creepy Stare playing it.  The links above it were provided by Tracy Quan, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation (x2), The Onion, and Asawin Suebsaeng, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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