May 202022
 


Marion Post Wolcott Signboard along highway in Alabama 1939

 

Many Ukrainian Fighters Remain In Azovstal, ‘Operation Going On’ (R.)
Surrender “On Far Bigger Scale Than Kyiv Has Acknowledged” (ZH)
Biden Resists Ukrainian Demands For Long-range Rocket Launchers (Pol.)
When US Pivot Is Seen As An ‘Expansion’ Into Asia (Kukis)
US Aid To Ukraine Borrowed From China: Rand Paul (JTN)
US Adds $100 Million In Arms For Ukraine On Top Of $40 Billion Aid Package (PM)
Senate Blocks $48 Billion Aid For Restaurants, Other Small Businesses (Hill)
SpaceX Flight Attendant Said Elon Musk Exposed Himself (BI)
Half Of America Faces Power Blackouts This Summer (ZH)
Analysis of Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive (NBC)
How The Feds’ Civil Suit Against Steve Wynn Helps Hunter Biden (Turley)
Trump Lawyer Demands CIA Action Against Ex-agents on Hunter Biden Laptop (JTN)
African Nations Resisting Bitcoin Only Delay The Inevitable (BCM)
A Theory of Impossibility (Fred Reed)

 

 

 

 

George W. Bush prank call

 

 

Poso WHO

 

 

The ones that remain are those who have most to fear from Russia. But ‘Operation Going On’ is BS, it’s over.

Many Ukrainian Fighters Remain In Azovstal, ‘Operation Going On’ (R.)

Russia’s siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol stuttered towards its end on Thursday, with hundreds of fighters still holed up in the Azovstal steel works and some 1,700 who have already surrendered facing an uncertain fate. A full abandonment of the bunkers and tunnels of the bombed-out plant would end the most destructive siege of a war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. It was unclear how many fighters remained inside. Russia’s defence ministry said 771 fighters from the Azov Regiment had surrendered in the past day, bringing the total of those who had given themselves up since Monday to 1,730. Ukrainian officials declined to comment, saying it could endanger rescue efforts.

Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy head of the Azov Regiment, released an 18-second video address on Thursday to say he and other commanders were still on the territory of the plant. “A certain operation is going on, the details of which I will not disclose. Thank you to the whole world and thank you to Ukraine for (your) support,” he said. Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, which now encompasses Mariupol, said more than half the fighters had surrendered, and that the uninjured had been taken to a penal colony near Russian-controlled Donetsk. “Let them surrender, let them live, let them honestly face the charges for all their crimes,” he told an online video channel.

[..] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Mariupol’s last defenders – regular soldiers as well as members of the National Guard, to which the Azov Regiment belongs – are national heroes, and that he hopes they can be exchanged for Russian prisoners. Moscow portrays the regiment as one of the main perpetrators of the alleged radical anti-Russian nationalism and neo-Nazism which it says threaten Ukraine’s Russian-speakers. read more The unit, formed in 2014 as a militia to fight Russian-backed separatists, denies being fascist, racist or neo-Nazi, and Ukraine says it has been reformed away from its radical nationalist origins. The Kremlin said the combatants would be treated in line with international norms, though some Russian lawmakers demanded they be tried for war crimes and one demanded they face the death penalty.

Read more …

Yesterday 771 surrendered, today’s number will probably be a bit lower.

Surrender “On Far Bigger Scale Than Kyiv Has Acknowledged” (ZH)

Russia’s defense ministry has now revised the numbers of Ukrainian fighters to have emerged from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol upward to more than 1,700 soldiers that have left the plant. A new Reuters headline has stressed that there’s ongoing “silence from Kyiv” as the surrender is on a much larger than expected scale: Moscow said on Thursday that 1,730 Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol over three days, including 771 in the past 24 hours, claiming a surrender on a far bigger scale than Kyiv has acknowledged since ordering its garrison to stand down. Statements from early in the week by Ukrainian officials, including President Zelensky, attempted to downplay this as “surrender” – avoiding the word altogether and instead stressing the end of the “combat mission” and that its Azov fighters were “evacuated”.

Russian-backed separatists in control of the area, Denis Pushilin, has recently said many of Azov’s top commanders still remain inside the huge, cavernous steelworks facility. Reuters observes, “The ultimate outcome of Europe’s bloodiest battle for decades remained publicly unresolved, with no confirmation of the fate of the hundreds of Ukrainian troops who had held out in a vast steelworks at the end of a near three-month siege.” “Ukraine, which says it aims to secure a prisoner swap, has declined to say how many were inside the plant or comment on the fate of the rest, since confirming that just over 250 had surrendered in the initial hours after it ordered them to yield,” the report added. Meanwhile, a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suggests that indeed the number of fighters which were hold up at the plant for months is likely significantly higher that what was known. The Red Cross has thus far registered “hundreds”…

On Tuesday the ICRC started “to register combatants leaving the Azovstal plant, including the wounded, at the request of the parties,” it said in a statement from its headquarters in Geneva. “The operation continued Wednesday and was still ongoing Thursday,” it added. It was previously reported that the wounded are being transported by the Russian military to one of its administered hospitals in the Donbas, some 40km away. The Red Cross sought to stress that it is a neutral humanitarian organization which will monitor the transfer of the prisoners. “The ICRC is not transporting POWs to the places where they are held,” an official statement said. “The registration process that the ICRC facilitated involves the individual filling out a form with personal details like name, date of birth and closest relative.”

Read more …

I like the notion that Biden does anything at all. It adds comic value.

Biden Resists Ukrainian Demands For Long-range Rocket Launchers (Pol.)

Ukrainian officials are growing frustrated with the Biden administration’s resistance to providing U.S.-made long-range rocket systems, a weapon Kyiv says is critical to outgunning Russia in the heavy artillery duels raging across the Donbas. Officials across the Ukrainian government have pleaded with the U.S. for months to send the Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS. But three people familiar with the issue say the Ukrainians are concerned that the White House is holding back over worries the weapon could be used to launch strikes inside Russia, thereby expanding and prolonging the conflict. “There was momentum on it at Ramstein, but that seems to have cooled,” said one congressional staffer with knowledge of discussions last month in Germany, where 40 nations gathered to discuss the next steps in arming Ukraine.

“There’s definitely a frustration building” in Kyiv over these new caveats being placed on military aid, this person said. The weapon has been near the top of Ukrainian requests for months, and military and civilian leaders in Kyiv have made their case to their American counterparts directly on multiple occasions. A Biden administration official who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal deliberations told POLITICO that the two countries remain “in active discussion” about the weapon, but that even with the $3.8 billion worth of military aid the U.S. has sent Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, not everything Kyiv asks for can be sent quickly. “We have to make decisions about what weapons systems provide the biggest bang for the buck,” with the money Congress allots to the Ukraine effort, the official said.

Over the past several weeks as the latest funding package began to be whittled down, the administration decided “it was more effective and efficient to send the 90 M777 [howitzers] because you can send more of them” and more munitions for the price than a much smaller number of MLRS. The U.S. has quietly provided older, Soviet-era multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine over the past several months after scouring the warehouses of allies who still operate the older weapons. But the more precise, more powerful American systems are what Kyiv is looking for to blunt Russian advances in the Donbas.

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Biden’s in Asia right now. Wonder what drugs they give him on these long flights.

When US Pivot Is Seen As An ‘Expansion’ Into Asia (Kukis)

Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders now more than ever have reason to feel encircled with Sweden and Finland moving to join NATO this week. Moscow’s persistent fear of Western military encroachment on Russian borders now stands as a stark reality in the wake of the war in Ukraine, a seismic development in European security all the more remarkable when taking a long look back at NATO expansion. Analysts and policymakers intensely debated the future of NATO in the early 1990s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union left Russia with a hobbled military that was in disarray. Countries close to Russia cried for protection from a future threat they were sure would emerge once Moscow reordered itself. Others saw a different future, one in which Russia became a cooperative and largely demilitarized nation integrated with Europe. NATO had no reason to exist in such a world, they said.

Remembering what was foreseeable and what was not in that period is important now when looking at the actions of the United States and its allies in East Asia, where a potentially fateful military buildup is underway. In the 1990s, it was not clear whether Russia would renew its military ambitions. But Russian officials plainly stated again and again that they regarded NATO expansion as a security threat. And even a basic reading of Russian history reveals how dire such a threat looms in the eyes of Russians who consider it their duty to safeguard the nation. Similarly now, it remains unclear whether China harbors imperialistic military ambitions as many in Washington contend. But Chinese leaders have made their feelings about an expanding U.S. military presence in Asia quite clear.

America’s pivot to Asia, which continues despite events in Europe, represents an existential security threat in the eyes of Chinese leaders. A basic understanding of geography and economics underscores why. The tradeways of the South China Sea are vital lifelines to China’s economic development. Any foreign military presence in that region operating outside of cooperation with Beijing looks like a hand reaching for the throat of the Chinese economy. Military pacts like AUKUS add to the sense of encirclement China clearly feels, a perception very similar to the one Moscow held as NATO looked to expand roughly a decade after the end of the Cold War. Leaders in Beijing today have good reason to think and act like leaders in Moscow did back in the early 2000s, when Russia grew serious about developing modern military capabilities and taking action in line with explicitly stated security aims. The start of the road to a future war in Asia stretches before us today in much the same way that the beginnings of the war in Ukraine trace back to seemingly slow-moving events almost 25 year ago in Europe.

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“To borrow the money from China simply to send it to Ukraine makes no sense and makes us weaker not stronger..”

US Aid To Ukraine Borrowed From China: Rand Paul (JTN)

Congress needs to borrow money from China to send aid to Ukraine, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told “Breitbart News Daily” on Wednesday, one day before the Senate overwhelmingly voted to send $40 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine and its allies. “I think it’s important to know that we don’t have any money to send,” Paul, a fiscal conservative, explained. “We have to borrow money from China to send it to Ukraine. And I think most people kind of get that, and many Republicans will say that when it’s a new social program, but if it’s military aid to a country, they’re like, ‘Well, we can borrow that, that’s a justified borrowing.'”

Paul voted against advancing the bill along with ten other senate Republicans: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Crapo of Indiana, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of West Virginia, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. Rampant inflation is a major concern Paul said he has with the bill. “The problem is that it all leads to inflation, so it kind of hurts the Republican argument that Biden’s spending and Biden’s debt leads to inflation, except for when it’s bipartisan spending and that doesn’t really count,” he noted.

The United States is currently more than $30 trillion in debt. The U.S. owes China more than $1 trillion, Investopedia states. Paul temporarily blocked the Ukraine aid legislation from moving forward in the Senate, but he was overruled earlier this week. “To borrow the money from China simply to send it to Ukraine makes no sense and makes us weaker not stronger,” Paul said on the Senate floor about the aid package.

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Send them some more scrap metal, why don’t you.

US Adds $100 Million In Arms For Ukraine On Top Of $40 Billion Aid Package (PM)

The Biden administration has announced $100 million in arms funding to Ukraine on top of the newly approved $40 billion aid package. On Thursday, the Senate approved $40 billion in aid for Ukraine as the nation continues to fight back against Russia’s invasion. Just hours later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States would be sending an additional $100 million in arms. In a statement, Blinken explained that Ukrainian forces have “remained firmly in the fight” against Russia, but are in need of assistance, namely arms and other equipment. “Pursuant to a delegation from the President,” Blinken said, “I am authorizing our tenth drawdown of additional arms and equipment for Ukraine’s defense from US Department of Defense inventories, valued at up to $100 million.”


“This brings total US military assistance to Ukraine to approximately $3.9 billion in arms and equipment since Russia launched its brutal and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. “The United States is committed to helping Ukraine continue to meet its defense needs and build its future capabilities,” he continued, “as well as to bolster Allies and partners across NATO’s Eastern Flank and the broader region.” The increasing amount of money has been criticized by Republicans, however only eleven voted against the recently passed $40 billion aid package.

Read more …

Sorry guys, we need it for Ukraine. Of course you support Zelensky from your closed store!

Senate Blocks $48 Billion Aid For Restaurants, Other Small Businesses (Hill)

The Senate on Thursday blocked a bipartisan bill to provide $48 billion to restaurants, gyms and other small businesses hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Senators voted 52-43 to hold a vote on the bill, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to move forward. Just five GOP senators voted for the motion to proceed, with the bill’s opponents citing its impact on the federal deficit and inflation. The vote likely spells doom for the bill, which was crafted by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and backed by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) as a way to help struggling small businesses get out of debt accrued during the pandemic.

“Well, this was our best shot. Make no mistake about it, we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to get it done,” Cardin told reporters after the vote. “But you know, I’ll always fight for small businesses. I’ll continue to look for ways we can help.” Pressed after the vote on any potential plans for a similar measure in the future, Wicker told The Hill, “You know, time is a very fleeting commodity, so I just don’t know.” Advocates had argued that the additional funds were needed to prevent scores of debt-ridden small businesses from closing down. The bill would have provided $40 billion to a relief fund for struggling restaurants. Democrats provided $28.6 billion to the fund in their COVID-19 relief package, but the federal dollars quickly ran out, with only one out of three applicants receiving aid.

“Local restaurants across the country expected help but the Senate couldn’t finish the job,” Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, said in a statement. “Neighborhood restaurants nationwide have held out hope for this program, selling their homes, cashing out retirement funds, or taking personal loans in an effort to keep their employees working and their doors open.”

Read more …

You would hope for something cleverer than this. Business Insider should be deeply ashamed of itself.

SpaceX Flight Attendant Said Elon Musk Exposed Himself (BI)

SpaceX, the aerospace firm founded by Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct claim against Musk in 2018, Insider has learned. The attendant worked as a member of the cabin crew on a contract basis for SpaceX’s corporate jet fleet. She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent, and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, according to interviews and documents obtained by Insider. The incident, which took place in 2016, is alleged in a declaration signed by a friend of the attendant and prepared in support of her claim. The details in this story are drawn from the declaration as well as other documents, including email correspondence and other records shared with Insider by the friend.


According to the declaration, the attendant confided to the friend that after taking the flight attendant job, she was encouraged to get licensed as a masseuse so that she could give Musk massages. It was during one such massage in a private cabin on Musk’s Gulfstream G650ER, she told the friend, that Musk propositioned her. After Insider contacted Musk for comment, he emailed to ask for more time to respond and said there is “a lot more to this story.” “If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light,” he wrote, calling the story a “politically motivated hit piece.” Insider extended the deadline and reiterated the offer to Musk to comment on the claims. He did not respond.

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Sometimes I’m sure they do it on purpose.

Half Of America Faces Power Blackouts This Summer (ZH)

Tens of millions of Americans could be thrown into a summer of hell as a megadrought, heatwaves, and reduced power generation could trigger widespread rolling electricity blackouts from the Great Lakes to the West Coast, according to Bloomberg, citing a new report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a regulatory body that manages grid stability. NERC warned power supplies in the Western US could be strained this summer as a historic drought reduces hydroelectric power generation due to falling reservoir levels and what’s expected to be an unseasonably hot summer.

Compound the hellacious weather backdrop with grids decommissioning fossil fuel power plants to fight climate change and their inability to bring on new green power generation, such as solar, wind, and batteries, in time, is a perfect storm waiting to happen that will produce electricity deficits that may force power companies into rolling blackouts for stability purposes. The regulatory body pointed out that supply-chain woes are delaying major Southwest solar projects, while some coal plants have trouble procuring supplies because of increased exports. They said there’s also an increasing threat of cyberattacks from Russia. By region, the Midwest power grid will be extremely tight. Across the Western US, power generation capacity has declined 2.3% since last summer, even as demand is expected to increase.

Grids in the region may have to source power from neighboring grids as extreme heat will cause people to crank up their air conditioners. A situation of low wind speeds could trigger blackouts, according to NERC. They outlined how the Midwest could face power shortfalls due to the removal of power capacity from retiring fossil fuel power plants. NERC issued a similar warning last year, stating power grids that serve 40% of the US population were at risk of blackouts. One year later, there was only one notable blackout last June during a heatwave in the Pacific Northwest that left 9,000 customers without power. But with reduced electricity generation capacity outpacing new green power sources, the risks of blackouts are increasing this year.

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Ha ha ha, from the very same people who called it Russian disinformation when that was convenient. Credibility zero.

Analysis of Hunter Biden’s Hard Drive (NBC)

From 2013 through 2018 Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with a Ukrainian firm accused of bribery and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud, according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden’s hard drive and iCloud account and documents released by Republicans on two Senate committees. The documents and the analysis, which don’t show what he did to earn millions from his Chinese partners, raise questions about national security, business ethics and potential legal exposure. In December 2020, Biden acknowledged in a statement that he was the subject of a federal investigation into his taxes.

NBC News was first to report that an ex-business partner had warned Biden he should amend his tax returns to disclose $400,000 in income from the Ukrainian firm, Burisma. GOP congressional sources also say that if Republicans take back the House this fall, they’ll demand more documents and probe whether any of Biden’s income went to his father, President Joe Biden. “No government ethics rules apply to him,” said Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics who is now an ethics expert with the Project on Government Oversight. Shaub added, however, that “it’s imperative that no one at DOJ and no one at the White House interfere with the criminal investigation in Delaware.”

Shaub had previously raised questions about Hunter Biden’s new line of work, selling his own paintings, which created the potential to purchase a painting to buy perceived influence, and also because the White House became involved in the transactions, arranging that none of the buyers’ names be known to Biden, the White House or the public. Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former assistant director for counterintelligence, said there is a national security risk when foreign powers like China see an opportunity to get close to someone like Biden. “It’s all about access and influence, and if you can compromise someone with both access and influence, that’s even better,” said Figliuzzi, now an NBC News contributor. “Better still if that target has already compromised himself.”

Read more …

Civil case vs criminal case. Yes, how convenient.

How The Feds’ Civil Suit Against Steve Wynn Helps Hunter Biden (Turley)

The Justice Department this week sued former casino mogul Steve Wynn for allegedly working as an agent for China. The lawsuit under the Foreign Agents Registration Act is bad news for Wynn, but it may be a win for another potential target: Hunter Biden. By bringing this action as a civil lawsuit, the Justice Department may have undercut the ongoing investigation by David Weiss, the US attorney for Delaware, into Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings. This civil suit doesn’t necessarily bar Weiss, but Hunter’s team can now argue that criminally charging him with a FARA violation would be inconsistent with contemporary investigations.

I recently testified in Congress on FARA prosecutions and noted that the Justice Department had largely dropped civil actions under the act in favor of criminal charges. Special counsel Robert Mueller targeted various Trump officials with FARA, using the law to investigate, search or charge attorneys from Paul Manafort to Rudy Giuliani to Victoria Toensing. I testified earlier that “after ramping up prosecutions in the last decade, the Justice Department has created precedent for the criminalization of what were previously treated as administrative violations. From Paul Manafort to the current investigation of Hunter Biden, there remain questions as to whether Justice Department will operate under a single, coherent and predictable standard.”

Some in the administration may be hoping that this charge will compel a consistent approach that would effectively decriminalize any violations under investigation in Delaware. The feds sued Wynn over his effort to intervene in the case of Chinese businessman Guo Wengui, a billionaire real-estate magnate and critic of the Chinese government. Beijing wanted the businessman back in China and hoped to persuade the US government to deny him a visa. Wynn spoke to President Donald Trump about the case, a call that carried added weight due to Wynn’s position as the Republican National Committee’s finance chairman. Wynn has interests in Macau, and his intervention was allegedly appreciated by high-ranking Chinese officials. The Justice Department asked Wynn to register as an agent, but he declined.

What is most striking about this case is how serious it is, particularly compared with past criminal cases like the prosecution of Paul Manafort. Here, Sun Lijun, then the Chinese vice minister for public security, was allegedly organizing the lobbying effort in 2017 and contacted figures like Elliott Broidy, a former RNC finance chairman, and Nickie Lum Davis, a top Trump fundraiser. Both Broidy and Davis later pleaded guilty in prosecutions. The question is why Broidy was criminally prosecuted in 2020 under FARA, including for work on the Guo matter, yet the Biden administration suddenly decided that the Wynn part of the deals should be treated as a civil matter. This is coming at the very time a grand jury is reportedly considering charges against Hunter Biden that could include FARA violations.

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“I take special pride in personally swinging the election away from Trump. You’re welcome.”

Trump Lawyer Demands CIA Action Against Ex-agents on Hunter Biden Laptop (JTN)

The attorney for former President Donald Trump is demanding the CIA take “immediate legal action” against the 43 former agency employees who signed a letter in October 2020 saying Hunter Biden’s laptop was not authentic and part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The laptop from President Joe Biden’s son and its contents showing questionable actions from the Biden family were proven to be authentic more than a year after the election. “Media outlets used this purportedly credible intelligence assessment as a justification to not report on the story. Some polls show that up to 17% of people who voted for President Biden would not have if they knew about the contents of the laptop at the time,” attorney Timothy Parlatore wrote in a letter obtained by Just the News to the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board Chairman, John Hedley.


“It would not be an exaggeration to say that these former intelligence officials changed the outcome of the election through knowingly flagrant misconduct,” Parlatore said in his 12-page letter. One of the letter’s CIA signatories, John Sipher, said in March, “I take special pride in personally swinging the election away from Trump. You’re welcome.” He quickly followed up that he was using “sarcasm.” Parlatore wrote the letter to Headley because his agency, the PCRB, is mandated to oversee the publication of letters such as the one signed by the 43 former CIA employees. “[I]t is beyond apparent not only that the letter did not undergo the mandatory PCRB review but that it further used violative behavior that could have threatened national security and attempted to play upon the nation’s trust in its intelligence agencies to support a political talking point,” Parlatore noted.

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Excellent argument for bitcoin.

African Nations Resisting Bitcoin Only Delay The Inevitable (BCM)

Doing business on the continent of Africa is very difficult. It is difficult to get payments in and very difficult to get payments out. For example, there is a black market exchange rate, and the government sanctioned exchange rate in Nigeria, meaning that there are two economies running in parallel, on top of the difficulty of moving money out. Bitcoin fixes all of this because anyone can send and receive bitcoin in any amount at any time, without permission, and its price is determined by the market, not the State. Saying “without permission” or “permissionless” as Bitcoiners do, is a phrase loaded with so much benefit that it is hard to describe to Westerners who have no idea of what it is like to do business on the continent of Africa. They take for granted that doing business and sending and receiving fiat money is a matter of pressing a button.

In Nigeria, for example, real life is not so. Moving money is fraught with difficulties and multiple ways of making a loss on a transfer. These piled up losses can make it impossible to earn a profit, and if you do, impossible to spend or recycle it where you need to spend or recycle it. Bitcoin makes all of this go away, as well as adding extraordinary speed to all transactions that are without precedent for Nigerians and many people living on the African continent. Given all of the advantages of Bitcoin, an intelligent person would ask, “Why then hasn’t Nigeria officially embraced bitcoin as a means of payment?” This is the correct question, and there are many answers to this, some cultural, that are preventing the Nigerian government from embracing reality and acting boldly like a leader nation as El Salvador and the Central African Republic has.

Trying to do any sort of Bitcoin business in Nigeria very often involves the invocation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has a stranglehold on all businesses and bank accounts in Nigeria. Bitcoin would abolish their societal status and the reign of terror that they’ve unleashed on the great people of Nigeria. It is a sure bet that this is one of the key reasons why they’re trying so hard to stamp out Bitcoin, rather than do their duty to serve the Nigerian people by embracing this new tool. That the most populous country on the continent of Africa is the number two nation on Earth for Bitcoin adoption (one-third of all Nigerians use it) in the face of withering and unethical restrictions is a testament to the powerful and resourceful character of the Nigerian people who are born futurists, natural capitalists and extraordinary entrepreneurs: highly intelligent, capable and motivated.

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This is delightful. Don’t miss.

A Theory of Impossibility (Fred Reed)

A problem of biology for years has been the inability of evolutionists to explain how life or many of its manifestations can have evolved, irreducible complexity and all that, the usual response being ok, we aren’t sure, but any day now we will have the answer. The check is in the mail. But in fact the inexplicability grows ever greater year on year as more and more complexity is discovered, such as epigenetics, and the more complexity, the less likelihood of coming about by chance. But we advocates of Impossibility Theory assert that not only can living things not have evolved, but also that they can’t function. Too many little gear wheels. Therefore life doesn’t exist.

Consider the retina, a very thin membrane consisting of ten distinct sublayers engaging in appallingly complex biochemistry, somehow maintaining position and function for, occasionally, a hundred years. These layers consist of millions of cells doing the impossibly tricky chemical dance mentioned above, more or less perfectly. In the rest of the eye you have the three layers of the eyeball, sclera, choroid, retina, and the five layers of the cornea, epithelium, Bowman’s membrane, stroma, Descemet’s membrane, and posterior lamina. And a lens consisting of a proteinaceous goop contained in a capsule, attached to the muscular ciliary body by suspensory ligaments, and an iris of radial and circumferential fibers innervated competitively by the sympathetic and parasympathetic subsystems of the autonomic nervous system.

No way exists of explaining how this purportedly evolved—or how it works for many years without the layers of intricacy, biochemical through mechanical, collapsing. (I know this stuff because I have eye problems connected with Washington’s foreign policy.) The intricacy of life is layered. We start with a zygote which, being a cell, is bogglingly complex. This little time bomb develops into a baby, which is impossible. If you don’t think so, try reading a textbook of embryology. The migration of cells, this control gradient, that control gradient, DGRNs, perfect inerrant specialization to form implausibly precise and complex things like incus, malleus, stapes, tympanum in the ear and (very) numerous other examples, all impossible individually and more so in aggregate. Impossible, at least, unless we can come up with an auxiliary explanation. Magic seems a good candidate.

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Oliver Stone: Vladimir Putin and War in Ukraine | Lex Fridman

 

 

Maersheimer

 

 

Nate Hagens – The Great Simplification – full movie

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle May 20 2022

Viewing 25 posts - 41 through 65 (of 65 total)
  • Author
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  • #108261
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    The only terrorists that exist are our “leaders”!

    I used to think that too, back in the 90s when I was part of the Christian Intel/Patriot movement…

    Then I realized that large portions of “humanity” were self-assigned to tribal CULTs & that the CULT “leaders” rose from within to represent the CULT, with nascent approval of “their” loyal proletariat.

    I then, slowly, began to realize eugenics was a steadfast trait of ALL these tribal CULTs, although they usually don’t think so…

    Eugenics that evolved into many variants: Economic/political warfare (kleptocracy vs. capitalism), frankenfoods, medical tyranny (vaccines et al.), infanticide, RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! ad infinitum.

    Eventually I realized this twisted mindfuckery was all derived from toxic EGOs in rebellion against the Loving, Healing, Creative Power of the Infinite & by extension the Natural Law that was written upon their hearts, minds & spirit…

    The non-spiritual members of these tribal CULTs hatey-hate-hate the very Miracle of Life, the very Theory of Impossibility that makes their existence possible, which is only eclipsed by toxic EGO’s depraved fear of finite existence + toxic EGO’s insane hatred of the spirit within each & every living thing, that is beyond it’s rapacious grasp.

    So in effect these sociopath “leaders” are of, by & from “The People”, are at least a derivative therein, who are manifestations of the tribal CULT they enigmatically rose to represent, like spores emerging from a petri dish of bacterium…

    ~ This is the way of the EGO ~

    Insanity, fear, depraved imaginations, torment & death is FOREVER the fruit of spiritual rebellion ~ History is awash in reverberations of this truth. “Midwits” unite!

    Where nobody counts & everybody counts!

    #108262
    chooch
    Participant

    Dr. D Rich,

    That had a pretty juvenile/primadonna vibe to it.

    #108263
    John Day
    Participant

    @TAE Summary:
    Zinc 50 mg thrice per day, with quercetin and lecithin (any convenient dose), also thrice daily,
    and Ivermectin 0.4 mg/kg per dose daily, all for 5-10 days, depending on duration of symptoms. Continuing for 2 full days of feeling normal, or 10 full days is prudent.

    The newer strains do not tend to attack the blood vessel lining, so I am not advising aspirin daily, as was good for Delta and prior strains.
    Vitamin-D 10,00U/d while sick is reasonable, and 1000 mg vitamin-C thrice daily is reasonable.
    I hope this remains mild for you.

    #108264
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @chooch

    “pretty juvenile/primadonna vibe” is in reference to Ritter’s behavior or Lira’s?

    Lira didn’t call Ritter an asshole which is a fairly reliable example of the child ego projecting their insecure object state.
    He did use the term hysterical to describe Ritter’s false public assertions on Lira’s supposed torture and killing.
    I thought it more damning along the lines of Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” tacked to the Wittenberg cathedral doors considering, as Lira acknowledged, both men seemed to be cooperating experts.

    #108265
    Oroboros
    Participant

    So I was talking to someone who couldn’t understand why the Russian Kalibr cruise missile was such a big deal.

    It’s about 20 feet long, launched off a ship or truck, with a range of over a thousand miles+.

    It is accurate to within a few yards, from a thousand miles away.

    That’s a big deal.

    It means the Russians can hit ANYTHING in Ukraine, day or night, with one or a dozen of these things.

    Like a barracks full of soldiers sleeping or a bunch of tanks just brought in from the Polish border….

    Or a command center in the middle of a city.

    Taken from a security camera across the street from the Ukraine command center, hundres of miles from the launch site, right on the button.

    #108266
    Oroboros
    Participant

    #108267
    John Day
    Participant

    It looks like surrenders at Azovstal have been completed

    BREAKING: Azovstal Is Under Full Control Of Russian Armed Forces

    #108268
    chooch
    Participant

    Lira. I hadn’t listened to him since before his catch and release. Saw that you linked it and figured it might be worth a listen. Never make that mistake again. (Just kidding).

    Anyway, relieved he wasn’t harmed. His release from the SBU implies a few things, either what he has been saying is highly credible and whacking him would only confirm that or they found what he was saying was incredible and harmless for the most part ( though he must have hit a nerve). There is the counter intelligence angle to consider too.

    I thought Brian Eno did a good job framing the discourse challenge.

    #108269
    WES
    Participant

    Azovstal yields 2439 according to South Front.
    I saw a comment saying the neo-nazis blew up a tunnel before surrendering.
    Top nazi was taken away in an armored car for his protection since more than a few people in Mariupol want him dead.

    Russian artillery in Donbas first do a general shelling of a fortified area to drive Ukrainians into their trenches and bunkers, then shell the trenches and bunkers with Lazer guided shells finishing them off. Ukrainians might be better off digging new individual foxholes instead of trenches.

    More reports of Ukrainians surrendering in small groups. One report said an Ukrainian replacement group upon reaching the contact line in Donbas, promptly phoned the Russians and surrendered!

    The Ukraine has passed a bill revoking Ukrainian citizenship for any draft age males who left the Ukraine. All part of the US’s effort to fight the war until the last Ukrainian!

    #108270
    WES
    Participant

    Monkey Pox:

    One thing I have yet to see about Monkey Pox spreading rapidly is any reference to the huge number of vaccine immune weakened people in the west.

    I doubt Monkey Pox will be the last of these kinds of outbreaks.
    We will be plagued with many more now that many people’s natural immune systems have been weakened.

    WEF
    Step 1 was the covid vaccine to weaken natural immunity.
    Step 2 are the huge increases in cancers and all other human diseases.
    Step 3 are new plagues like Monkey Pox, etc.

    #108271
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    There IS the counter-intelligence angle, of course, just as there is transference, counter-tranference between Lira and Ritter on a personal level.

    And I agree Lira writes far more persuasively than he video records. So they say never judge a book by its cover or by his writing. OTOH his notoriety is comparable to Ritter’s on everything related to the Uko-Russo-NATO War. However, I’m not the blogger favorably citing either man’s credibility. So let the audience watch, if they want, then decide.
    Let your opponents fight it out first

    #108273
    John Day
    Participant

    Garden at sunset pictured https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/further-revisions?s=w

    Azovstal surrenders are now completed. Some further high profile prisoner identities should be announced soon.
    Today, on May 20, the last group of the 531 militants surrendered.

    BREAKING: Azovstal Is Under Full Control Of Russian Armed Forces

    High-value prisoners previously captured in Mariupol are linked to bioweapons lab there:
    (retired) US Admiral Eric Thor Olson, (Canadian, suddenly resigned for sex scandal) 4 star General Trevor Cadieu,
    and (UK) LTC John Bailey.

    WESTERN LEADERS TIED TO UKRAINE BIOWEAPONS LABS

    ​ ​Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy gives key takeaways from the last UN Security Council meeting on US biolabs in Ukraine​:​
    ​ ​The US refuses to explain its engagement in military bio activities in Ukraine. Keeps shrugging off several hundred pages of evidence. “These are all lies and Russia’s propaganda, and we are good guys because it can’t be otherwise”. Not a word on the point of discussion.
    ​ ​Western delegations are praising the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and calling on us to make use of its mechanisms. They fail to mention however that it is the US who is blocking the elaboration of BWC verification mechanism. Such a hypocricy!
    ​ ​The US refuses to explain why it doesn’t want an effective international verification mechanism for bio weapons. Why act like this unless you are trying to conceal something? Why does Washington position itself above the international law? American exceptionalism at its best.
    https://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-nato-surrenders-in-azovstal/

    ​ ​Turkey is demanding that Sweden must hand over and extradite “terrorists” in its midst before seeking to join the NATO alliance. In fresh televised remarks on Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Swedish and Finnish diplomats shouldn’t even bother trying to dispatch delegations to Turkey if they aren’t willing to stop supporting Kurdish PKK ‘terrorists’.
    “We have told our relevant friends we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO, and we will continue on our path like this,”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/erdogan-sweden-dont-expect-us-approve-nato-bid-without-first-returning-terrorists

    #108274
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ “Conciliatory tones” from the west, towards Russia, regarding war in Ukraine?
    There are mainly rumors about the content of the US Secretary of Defense’s phone call 5/13/21 to the Russian Minister of Defense, but they talked.​
    We also know that the EU is having trouble divorcing from Russian oil and gas…
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/western-military-strategy-ukraine-changes-conciliatory-tone/5780608

    ​ ​Putin: Oil Sanctions Will Be Europe’s “Economic Suicide” On Orders From “American Overlords”​ (Ouch, shaming)
    https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/putin-oil-sanctions-will-be-europes-economic-suicide-orders-american-overlords

    ​Moon of Alabama explains the strategic objectives pushing the EU towards “suicide” cliff.
    As President Biden explained, the current military escalation (“Prodding the Bear”) is not really about Ukraine. Biden promised at the outset that no U.S. troops would be involved. But he has been demanding for over a year that Germany prevent the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from supplying its industry and housing with low-priced gas and turn to the much higher-priced U.S. suppliers.
    [T]he most pressing U.S. strategic aim of NATO confrontation with Russia is soaring oil and gas prices. In addition to creating profits and stock-market gains for U.S. companies, higher energy prices will take much of the steam out of the German economy.
    In early April Professor Hudson took another look at the situation:
    It is now clear that the New Cold War was planned over a year ago, with serious strategy associated with America’s perceived to block Nord Stream 2 as part of its aim of barring Western Europe (“NATO”) from seeking prosperity by mutual trade and investment with China and Russia.
    ​ ​So the Russian-speaking Donetsk and Luhansk regions were shelled with increasing intensity, and when Russia still refrained from responding, plans reportedly were drawn up for a great showdown last February – a heavy Western Ukrainian attack organized by U.S. advisors and armed by NATO.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/05/how-europe-was-pushed-towards-economic-suicide.html#more

    ​ Gail Tverberg looks at cheap energy as the fuel for economy, and that rising debt and falling interest from 1981 to 2020 allowed borrowing to cover energy costs, so that economy could grow, though more feebly after 2008.
    Energy and modern economy are tightly linked. The current period is not actually like the 1970s stagflation, but is much more akin to the Great-Depression/WW-2 period, when declining coal production and higher cost of extracting coal globally created a similar situation of falling living-standards. (UK coal production peaked in WW-1, after which they could no longer supply Italy. Italy had to get coal from Germany, causing a change of alliances)
    ​ ​The economy can only continue as long as all of its important parts continue. We cannot assume that reported reserves of anything can really be extracted, even if the reserves have been audited by a reliable auditor. What actually can be extracted depends on prices staying high enough to generate funds for additional investment as required. The amount that can be extracted also depends on the continuation of international supply lines providing goods such as steel pipe. The continued existence of governments that can keep order in the areas where extraction is to take place is important, as well.
    ​ ​What we should be most concerned about is a very rapidly shrinking economic system that cannot accommodate very many people. It seems that such a situation might occur if the debt bubble is popped and too many supply lines are broken. There may be a time lag between when interest rates are raised and when the adverse impacts on the economy are seen.

    Is the debt bubble supporting the world economy in danger of collapsing?

    #108276
    John Day
    Participant

    Not only are the mRNA and DNA vaccines killing people and immunosuppressing them, more with each subsequent dose, but the push for an “Omicron specific vaccine” is a push for an oxymoron…
    ​ ​The so-called “Omicron Variant” is a very inclusive term that includes “every Sars-Cov-2 descendant after Delta”. It is best to think about it as a marketing term giving an excuse why Covid vaccines do not work, rather than as a scientific term.
    ​ ​For example, the Ba.1 and Ba.2 variants are MORE distant from each other, than they are from any past Sars-Cov-2 variants.
    https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/vaccine-against-variants-is-impossible?s=r

    Officially published (UK just stopped publishing) statistics from various national governments show progressively worsened immune system function among those vaccinated 2 or more times against COVID. Plenty of graphs. Hospital admissions for COVID and deaths from COVID per 100,000 are higher for the vaxxed.
    There is a sharp rise in acquired immunodeficiency syndromes directly related to these gene-therapy vaccines, also. The plague of (non-COVID) all-cause deaths of the working age populations which peaked in Q3 2021, and continues, is also noted. .

    Your Government quietly confirmed the Fully Vaccinated are developing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome while they had you worried about Russia-Ukraine & the Cost of Living

    #108277
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ ​Monkeypox might stand-in for smallpox, and is currently spreading at a low level in the world.
    ​Spartacus: Monkeypox is the new COVID​
    https://iceni.substack.com/p/monkeypox-is-the-new-covid?s=r

    ​ ​NYC Reports First Suspected Monkeypox Case As WHO Convenes Emergency Meeting
    https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/how-has-monkeypox-suddenly-spread-all-over-globe-lightning-speed

    ​ ​ Smallpox vaccines (like what I got in 1962 or so) are about 85% effective against monkeypox ​(​which does not appear to include the ​COVID-​triple-jabbed​)​.
    ​ ​https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/clinicians/smallpox-vaccine.html

    ​ ​The US government supposedly has 20 million doses of tecovirimat, approved to treat smallpox, and ​effectively​ treats monkeypox:
    “postexposure treatment with tecovirimat alone or in combination with ACAM2000 provided full protection. Additionally, tecovirimat treatment delayed until day 4, 5, or 6 postinfection was 83% (days 4 and 5) or 50% (day 6) effective.”
    ​https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25896687/

    #108278
    John Day
    Participant

    More on Monkeypox, the monkeys that got away in February 2022…
    https://bioclandestine.substack.com/p/monkeypox?

    I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but I immediately questioned if the US buying insane amounts of monkeypox vaccines has anything to with the CDC lab monkeys escaping from the transport van in Pennsylvania back in February.

    So I dug into it and what I found was interesting and highly alarming.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-buys-119-million-worth-of-monkeypox-vaccines-after-first-case-diagnosed-in-massachusetts

    A quick refresher. February 1, 2022, a CDC transport carrying 100 “possibly infected” lab monkeys, crashed in Pennsylvania and 3 monkeys escaped for a few days and eventually were caught and killed. The Monkeys were flown from Mauritius, a small island 400 miles off the coast of Madagascar, to New York, and were allegedly being transported by truck to an undisclosed “CDC Quarantine Facility”.

    The CDC have been “tight-lipped” about what possible infections the monkeys could have been carrying. The airline, Kenya Airways, declined to disclose who shipped the monkeys, but said they were cancelling their subscription of providing their transport to assist the CDC.

    Who is sending infectious lab monkeys to the CDC from tiny islands in Africa? And why are all parties involved so desperate to keep it a secret?

    #108279
    WES
    Participant

    Dr. John Day:

    I vaguely remember something about several people who found/located the 3 escaped monkeys becoming ill with something maybe Monkey Pox?

    Heard anything more from Texas’s medical mafia?

    #108280
    WES
    Participant

    So it looks like the vaxxed are now spreading Monkey Pox just like they spread covid.
    No wonder only the vaxxed are allowed to travel.

    #108281
    chooch
    Participant

    Missing Kovid.

    https://srbin.info/en/svet/sad-sklopile-ugovor-o-istrazivanju-kovid-19-u-ukrajini-3-meseca-pre-pojave-korone/

    […] Why did the Ministry of Defense pay a company that is supposedly a “global company for engineering, procurement, consulting and construction specialized in infrastructure development” to help implement the “program to reduce the biological threat in Ukraine”?

    And why did both DOD and the company pay Labyrinth Global Health INC to conduct the KOVID-19 study in Ukraine at least a month before the alleged appearance of the new coronavirus, and three months before it was officially named Kovid-19?

    https://www.conservativenewsdaily.net/breaking-news/wuhan-lab-publishes-study-manipulating-h7n9-virus-to-be-more-lethal/

    [..] The Wuhan Institute of Virology is believed to have engaged in the risky form of research regarding bat coronaviruses, as now-deleted webpages reveal the lab manipulating bat coronaviruses to “replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.”

    Now, the latest edition of the lab’s journal, Virologica Sinica, appears to contain a similar style of research with the H7N9 virus in chickens and mice. The publication’s Editor-in-Chief is Wuhan’s infamous “bat lady,” Shi Zhengli, who is the lab’s premier bat coronavirus researcher and a recipient of funds from Anthony Fauci through Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance.

    Virologica Sinica published the study “Combined Insertion of Basic and Non-basic Amino Acids at Hemagglutinin Cleavage Site of Highly Pathogenic H7N9 Virus Promotes Replication and Pathogenicity in Chickens and Mice” in its most recent edition, published February 2022.

    #108282
    WES
    Participant

    Chooch:

    Since all of these evil people have been promoted for their evil deeds, we are totally screwed!

    #108283
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    V. A.
    You may like the exhibition at the Guggenheim-Bilbao. You may have to go from home page to exhibitions “Motion, Autos, Art, Architecture” currently on display.

    https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/exposiciones/motion-autos-art-architecture#themes

    T-Bear
    Thanks for that amazing link to Guggenheim-Bilbao; mind blowing beauty of the cars throughout the history of the automobile…
    Enjoyed immensely…

    #108285
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    @ Dr. John Day – Monkeypox
    _______________

    It’s official, Monkeypox landed in Canada: Canada’s chief public health officer acknowledged Friday that a “provincial health authorities” are investigating “a couple dozen” possible cases of monkeypox and most of the specimens under review are from Quebec — where five cases have been confirmed already this week! Yes, …

    … few snips from the presser dated May 20, 2022, 11:57:MDT:

    Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, Dr. Theresa Tam [Canada’s chief public health officer] said the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg is running tests on samples from Quebec and B.C., and it’s possible that some of those suspected cases may be confirmed as monkeypox in the coming hours.

    “We don’t really know the extent to which the spread has occurred in Canada. So that is an active investigation,” Tam said. “What we do know is that not many of these individuals are connected to travel to Africa, where the disease is normally seen.”

    In a tweet Friday evening, Santé Québec said there are now five confirmed cases in the province.

    … Huston, we now do have an exploding Monkeypox problem!

    F.S.

    #108299
    Redneck
    Participant

    Gonzalo , “Ritter does not hold fast to his original position over time’. Maybe Gonzalo is just attached to his Russia , Russia , Russia uber allies narrative while Scott is willing to tell the truth as he sees it and not get locked into a rigid ideological straight jacket .Now who would have the most expertise about military operations , Scott or Gonzo? It was very refreshing to see Scott be able to modify his position as the situation on the ground changes. It is obvious to any person who really wants to get at the facts rather than just beat the drum for Russia that Russias adventure is not going well. After all three months have gone by and Russia is still really struggling to take more ground which is absolutely necessary if it wants to reach its stated goals. Civilians in Donbass are still dying from Ukraine shells and Ukraine is now shelling Russian territory and one civilian has been killed , not a good look after three months of effort. All of Gonzos opinions about Scott are pure speculation and the general tone , the condescension , has myself thinking a lot less of Gonzo than Ritter.

    #108302
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Wait: they quoted Tony Blair, top worldwide war criminal?

    What was with the Scott Ritter thing? I remember Maddow was placed and had some great scoops initially to fabricate the social capital so people would believe her reckless and un-credible nonsense later for years. Is this what they were starting with Scott, using him bc of leverage? Maybe start with something like that and then salt falsehoods, then on command pull him and the transparent falsehoods, and bring up his past to discredit anti-war people and alt media? I don’t get it yet. However, being so reckless as to just CLAIM, “without evidence” as they say, that Lira had died very specifically, discredits him to deep warning — only the nattering crowd in the barroom — more or less permanently.

    You can’t just go full Russia, then one day total reversal. What happened? Can Scott point to his thinking on this? Some event? It’s weird and troubling.

    #108347
    Noirette
    Participant

    bosco, thanks for the links, interesting.

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