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Posts Tagged ‘Never Call the Cops’

Tweet Dreams

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2024| 3 Comments »

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In the News (#1461)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

People in authority can violate your rights while believing they are protecting you.  –  The Budget

Pyrrhic Victory (#1188) 

Every company and organization (including cop shops) using facial recognition without consent needs to be sued until it stops:

[Facebook] has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve the state’s lawsuit accusing…[it] of illegally using facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent…from photos and videos that users uploaded…as part of a [now-]discontinued feature called “Tag Suggestions”…Google separately is fighting a [similar] lawsuit by Texas…

Under Duress (#1222)

Establishment media are finally beginning to admit that cops are habitual liars:

The family of Sonya Massey—whom Deputy Sean Grayson shot in the face as she stood in her kitchen, unarmed and praying for protection—recently publicized that the Sangamon County (Illinois) Sheriff’s Office initially told relatives that Sonya had killed herself.  Once body-cam footage disproved Grayson’s self-serving account, he was arrested and charged…[similarly,] Sandra Bland’s cause of death was ruled “suicide by asphyxiation” (i.e., hanging)…suicidologists and suicide awareness advocates should lend expertise…whenever deaths from police brutality are ruled suicides…police “routinely lie to serve their own interests”…a type of misconduct that emerges not from just a few “bad apples” but from the systematic negligence of judges and juries…to the point that…the judicial system’s favoritism toward police has become seen as predictable…and…[encourages] schemes to victim-blame targets…Peter Keane, a former San Francisco Police commissioner, admitted…that police culture normalized lying…Justice Gustin Reichbach of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, echoed Keane…

Welcome to the Future (#1381)

Constant surveillance damages adolescents’ ability to develop in healthy ways:

…at Lawrence High [in Kansas]…every homework assignment, email, photo, and chat on…school-supplied device[s are] monitored by a[lgorithms provided by a company named]…Gaggle…to provide around-the-clock surveillance.  If a word or an image triggers an alert in the…software, the result could range from the student being sent to an administrator to being referred to [compulsory] counseling to…a visit from local police…Gaggle [absurdly] claims that it has saved an “estimated” 5,790 student lives between 2018 and 2023.  It did this, according to its website, by analyzing 28 billion student items and flagging 162 million of those for review…At what point is the safety you think you’re buying for students actually doing harm in unintended ways?  Won’t teachers avoid assignments that challenge students to consider real-world problems?…Won’t students learn just to keep their emotions to themselves, instead of confiding in a teacher or another trusted adult?  What about the chilling effect on student creativity and expression?  Gaggle is the thought police for K-12 campuses…is it worth it if it turns schools into virtual prisons?

Property of the State (#1416)

The court rejected the charges, but not the “fetal personhood” dogma behind them:

Oklahoma resident Amanda Aguilar was arrested after using marijuana while pregnant.  Though Aguilar had a medical marijuana prescription, prosecutors [absurdly argu]ed that her fetus did not…[and] charged [her]…with [felony] child neglect…the state’s highest criminal court [dismissed the charges, but only because prosecutors charged her under a made-up law; they]…urged Oklahoma [politicians]…to c[riminalize all use of cannabis by pregnant women, regardless of prescription]…at least eight women have been charged under this [made-up law] since 2019…But…the Oklahoma Supreme Court…declined [to hear previous appeals]…Aguilar’s case [only] got its day in court thanks to an overzealous…prosecutor…appealing [a lower court’s dismissal of her charges] to…the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals…

I Spy (#1422)

Don’t let your machines call them, either:

Ford is trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police.  A patent application…was published…Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023…the [dystopian system would use]…cars to monitor each other’s speeds.  If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle.  A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a [handy pigmobile] or roadside monitoring units…It’s unclear what legal argument Ford would make should it try to implement this tech, as human [busybodies] wouldn’t be [sticking]ing the[ir noses into strangers’ business]…Ford has also tried to patent a “night drive mode” that would limit vehicle speeds at night for everyone [regardless of circumstances].  This takes things a bit further by turning drivers into unwitting snitches…

Torture Chamber (#1455)

Americans’ sick lust for torture turns ordinary prison sentences into death sentences:

[Human beings caged] in Texas state prisons are being “cooked alive” by scorching temperatures in facilities without air conditioning, a new investigation [reports, yet when prisoners]…died with body temperatures nearing 107 degrees, officials have continued to blame their deaths on causes other than extreme heat.  In 2023, a Texas prisoner filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s refusal to…[obey] its own laws…mandat[ing] that prison temperatures be kept between 65 degrees and 85 degrees…At one prison, Garza West Unit, temperatures stayed above 100 degrees for 11 days straight in the summer of 2023…

The Cop Myth (#1460)

Cop violence is never limited to members of the public:

An…NYPD [cop named]…Imran Iqbal…was [arrested and] charged with [violently abusing] a child…[his bosses thought saying he wasn’t wearing his magical clown costume was much more important than how he was related to the child he attacked or any other pertinent information like his victim’s age]…

 

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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Links #734

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Given the…lack of viewer response, we weren’t sure the signal was even getting out of the building.  –  Bob Newhart

Since I liked the last video of a TV superhero performing “Orange Colored Sky” that he sent me, the same gentleman sent me this one.  The links above it were provided by Mike Siegel, IncarcerNation, Radley Balko, Anarres Ansible, and Nun Ya, 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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Links #733

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.  –  SiegedSec

Since I’ve featured a number of Batman-related videos lately (both here and in my “Video of the Day” feature on Twitter & BlueSky), I figured I’d share this one, performed by Burt Ward but written and produced by none other than Frank Zappa.  The links above it were provided by IncarcerNation (x2); Radley Balko; Phoenix Calida; Franklin Harris and Gustavo Turner; and IncarcerNation again, 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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Hush…Hush, Tweet Charlotte

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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In the News (#1455)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Help us, we can’t breathe.  –  Elizabeth Nomura

Shame, Shame (#516)

Some of y’all may recall that when all the “police reform” types started touting body cameras as the solution to surging police brutality, I was skeptical:

McNeill points out that the camera records the public, not the officer. She adds, “As long as the cops have the power to turn the cameras off or decide whether footage is released, it’s difficult to see what is to be accomplished here.”

That was February of 2015, and over 9 years later civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis has published a law journal article demonstrating that, as usual, I was correct: the cops wanted the cameras as a surveillance tool, and useful idiots who imagine violent thugs can be “reformed” obligingly gave them exactly what they wanted:

By situating the rise of the police body camera within its actual legal, political, and economic contexts, I suggest that the body camera is one of the most important Trojan horses in contemporary U.S. history.  What follows is a case study of how the police bureaucracy used its own violence as the perfect alibi to get well-meaning people who lacked sufficient information to support greater police procurement budgets, more advanced and efficient technologies of control and incarceration, an explosion of profit for a small group of companies, and an expansion of the capacity of the government to surveil us. And most remarkably: All of it happened under the guise of making the police bureaucracy more “accountable” and “transparent”…

To Molest and Rape

Cops are a menace to women of all ages:

An Orange County woman [has] filed a federal lawsuit…against an Anaheim [cop who]…raped her after seeing her at an In-N-Out Burger and getting her name by running her license plate number…[typical and representative cop] Carlos Romero [was rewarded by] the city of Anaheim…[with a] paid [vacation for raping her] in 2023 after [she reported his stalking, harassing]…and [threatening her until he got tired of her refusing him]…sex…and [raped]…her [vaginally and orally despite her]…repeatedly t[elling] him “no”…His gun was…in full view [and]…she “was terrified and fearful for her life” and just wanted Romero to leave…

Panopticon (#1308)

“Safety” has become the #1 excuse for Orwellian levels of surveillance:

North Carolina [politician] Michele Morrow has made [a fetish of subjecting students to police-state measures that her own children would not have to endure, since she]…home-school[s them.  Like many authoritarians, she is obsessed with incredibly-exaggerated fears of] pedophiles and…gun violence [which she wants to use as an excuse to give dangerous thugs even more power to harass, spy on, persecute, and molest students.  Paradoxically, she wants to give these pervert thugs access to]…video surveillance in classrooms, hallways and bathrooms…

Torture Chamber (#1371)

Americans’ sick lust for torture turns ordinary prison sentences into death sentences:

A…[woman locked up in] California’s largest women’s prison [at Chowchilla] has died amid a brutal heatwave that has left residents without air conditioning begging for relief…temperatures in the region climbed above 110F (43.3C)…[but mouthpieces for the State pretend that had nothing to do with her] death…There have been reports of potentially fatal conditions inside jails and prisons during heatwaves across California and in Nevada, Illinois, Texas, Florida and other states this year.  The Chowchilla fatality has escalated fear and panic throughout the…overcrowded [dungeon, in] which…more than 2,000 people [are locked in cages without] air conditioning…[while screws refuse] to provide enough cold water and other supplies that would alleviate their suffering and reduce heatstroke risks…[many prisoners are] struggling with nausea and headaches…[while officials refuse to maintain or repair] swamp coolers meant to lower temperatures…[for] prison[ers]…locked in these death chambers [while bureaucrats deny the crisis and pretend their facilities are humane]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1423)

The currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade has escaped the US and is careening all over Europe:

The Senate of the Republic of Ireland…[will] debate the country’s proposed…[“monkey see, monkey do”] Online Age Verification…Bill…[whose] sponsor…hailed as a victory the fact that the…imprecise language…[of the US laws his bill apes] has already had a chilling effect on free speech, [namely] “porn suppliers such as Pornhub to cease providing services [to people who don’t know what VPNs are]” in those states…The bill makes platforms and app stores liable for any failure to implement [government-mandated surveillance, and they are specifically required]…to store the…data they collect [at their own expense] for five years, and [make it available for pigs to root through at will]…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #11)

I just can’t feel sorry for cops sexually abused by other cops:

A [Virginia cop named Michael Rusk] is suing his former department and local…[politicians] for $5 million for…sexual harassment a[fter]…he…shot and severely injured his superior…Christopher Gibson [for sexually assaulting him]…police leadership not only knew about the continued harassment but purposefully disregarded it because Rusk is a man…[for years] Gibson made…sexual advances toward [Rusk] including hand-holding, touching, slapping, stalking, and grooming…the[n]…in January 2023, after a night of drinking…Gibson…sexually assault[ed] Rusk…and…Rusk…[responded by shooting] Gibson several times before calling 911…

If Men Were Angels (#1449)

If I followed up on every rapist cop or preacher, I wouldn’t have room for anything else.  But sometimes I have to make an exception:

In 1982, [21-year old married] pastor Robert Morris…[seduced and molested 12-year-old] Cindy Clemishire…while he was staying at her parents’ home in Oklahoma…But 25 years later, when Clemishire hired an attorney and threatened to sue Morris…hi[s]…lawyer…responded by blaming Clemishire for what happened to her…The Feb. 6, 2007, letter was one in a series of exchanges that year between Sharpe and [Clemishire’s lawyer] Gentner Drummond…Clemishire…had been seeking $50,000 in restitution from Morris to cover the cost of counseling.  Morris…offered to pay $25,000, but the talks fell apart…because [Clemishire] was not willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement…

 

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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Links #732

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It’s not dangerous to be scared.  –  Blair Carlyle

I don’t generally give actors a video sendoff, but in this case I couldn’t resist.  The links above it were provided by Jesse Walker (x2), Franklin Harris, and IncarcerNation (x3), 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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Links #731

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Voice ordering solution {repeat three times}.  –  Mason Smoot

Given the final verse, this seemed the most appropriate sendoff for Kinky Friedman; both obit and video were contributed by Jesse Walker, who also published his own tribute to the quirky country star.  The remaining links above the video were provided by Franklin Harris, Violet Blue, Stephen Lemons, and IncarcerNation (x3), 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 (#1451)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Th[e Assange] precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press.  –  Stella Assange

If Men Were Angels

Anyone “shocked” by this must live in a cave:

[Jonathan Elwing, a Florida pastor caught using cryptocurrency to buy child porn of children as young as 4] is now facing more charges…[after] a…search of [hi]s cell phone revealed…at least 14 pictures of him [rap]ing a 2-year-old…

The Face of Trafficking

Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths:

A [West Virginia] couple [who]…lock[ed two of their adopted] children up in a barn and forc[ed] them to work are back behind bars…on a bond that’s more than double what they had already been given– now set at $500,000 each.  Donald Ray Lantz…and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather…[pled] not guilty to over a dozen new charges against them…the adopted children, who were black, were specifically targeted by the couple and forced to work because of their race…the couple was able to acquire the $400,000 bond money for their release from jail in February…[despite claiming] that they had no income or assets, bringing into question where they had acquired the money…from…the couple [say they] sold an 80-acre ranch in Tonasket, Washington [that they claimed not to own] for $725,000 on Feb. 2…the[n]…on March 28…they…sold the…home [that they also did not own]…for $295,000…their bond money…still remains in the custody of the…Court Clerk’s office. [But in a rare moment of normal human decency, the prosecutor said he] believes it should be transferred over to a trust fund for the children…

To Molest and Rape

Good grief, don’t volunteer to be around them either:

A Riverside County [California cop is at large] after [somehow] posting $1 million bail following his…arrest…[for] kidnapping…rape…and…oral [rape] of a sheriff’s office volunteer…Alexander Ravy Vanny…was… [arrested on June 22nd and out the next day after his victim]…told [another cop] about the [rape]…

Joey the Player (#1382)

At least these shitty laws were used against an actual violent criminal for a change:

On Wednesday, June 26th, 2026 “Joey The Player”, [AKA] José Olivio Torres was sentenced to 30 years in prison for 4 counts of Sex Trafficking related charges…The FBI interviewed more than 30 victims, [but]…the court was aware of likely hundreds more victims who were too afraid to come forward.  A search of Torres’ home and office revealed more than 400 phone numbers and hundreds of email addresses he used to evade identification…he sent out between 60 and 150 texts and emails daily, trying to lure new victims to New [Jersey]…Torres had written nearly a million dollars in bad checks to sex workers…He sued the prosecutor, the victims’ attorney’s firm, and even the judge…filed hundreds of self-written motions with the court and fired at least four attorneys…most motions were denied, and the lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice…Torres…repeatedly stated that his “real crime” was theft of services…However, [neither] the judge…no[r anyone else involved]…was…convinced by Torres’ attempts to minimize his actions.  The court never once referred to the survivors as anything but sex workers and treated them with the utmost dignity and respect…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1421)

“Simply claiming that the ‘age verification preserves online anonymity’ does not make it so“:

A company that verifies the identities of TikTok, Uber, and [Twitter] users…by processing photographs of their faces and pictures of their drivers’ licenses, exposed a set of administrative credentials online for more than a year potentially allowing hackers to access that sensitive data…The Israel-based company, called AU10TIX, offers what it describes [using buzzwords] as “full-service identity verification solutions”…The news comes as more social networks and pornography sites [have been forced by politicians to] move towards an identity or age verification model…[and] highlights that identity services could themselves become a target for hackers…

Vulture Watching (#1434)

Mutually-contradictory laws are an inevitable result of rampant authoritarianism:

The Supreme Court will allow emergency abortions in Idaho…while a lawsuit over the state’s controversial abortion law [goes] forward…the state…[even] prohibits abortions required to protect a pregnant woman’s physical health…[in] violat[ion of]…EMTALA…a federal law that requires many hospitals to provide stabilizing care to patients who show up to emergency rooms…An Idaho federal district court judge placed a preliminary injunction on [the] law in August 2022…but…Idaho appealed, and the Supreme Court reversed the block in January…[resulting in] “the State’s largest provider of emergency services ha[ving] to airlift pregnant women out of Idaho roughly every other week, compared to once in all of the prior year”…With Thursday’s decision, the Supreme Court has dismissed Idaho’s appeals, allowing doctors to provide health-preserving abortions in the state while the case continues…

Bits and Pieces (#1450)

A short EN Brown piece on the legacy of the Assange persecution:

…it’s hard to exactly call this a win for the WikiLeaks founder.  But on the surface, it is a loss for the U.S. government, which wanted to put Assange away for a much, much longer period of time.  And yet, on some level, authorities got exactly what it seems they wanted: a warning to anyone who would dare to publish information that makes the government look bad.  It provides a clear view of what happens when you actively try to expose government secrets.  Shots have already been fired against future renegade journalists…Assange’s prosecution almost certainly serves as a deterrent for journalists who would encourage whistleblowers…or any outlet that would aim to function, like WikiLeaks, as a source for unredacted publications of government information…

 

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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Links #728

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

He was in his bedroom asleep and you go in shooting.  –  Michael Monroe

A recent thread on BlueSky reminded me of this song, which I liked very much as a kid.  Carl Douglas actually had a number of songs which described movies he had seen; another of them was “Witchfinder General”, which I shared back in January of ’17.  The links above the video were provided by Mark Draughn, Scott Greenfield, Radley Balko, IncarcerNation (x2), and Billy Binion, 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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