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Evans W's avatar

Good to read that the Biden administration has Iranian agents like Ariane Tabatabai with top secret security clearances working at the Pentagon.

She's publishing & submitting articles to Foreign Policy, The Huffington Post and Iran’s Fars News agency, supporting a pro nuclear Tehran arguing that Iran is “too powerful” to be contained and that “Tehran doesn’t need an agreement to be empowered and to strengthen its foothold in the region.”

Nothing to see here folks.......in the mean time, lets send another 25 billion to Zelenskyy.

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Brian's avatar

I'm 100% for doing whatever is feasible to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion and restore sovereignty over their internationally recognized boundaries. Not sure what that has to do with Iranian influence operations and a pro-Iranian academic working in the Defense Dept., other than the fact that Iran, in keeping with their long-held identity as one of the "bad guys," is providing weapons and support to their allies in Moscow.

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D.A. Douglas's avatar

Not to mention that Iran remains one of the largest weapon suppliers to Russia viz a viz Ukraine.

I still don't understand the hard-on the Biden Admin (and Obama previously) have for Iran and to get this Nuclear Deal (aka extortion) through.

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Mike Vogel's avatar

What the hell does Ukraine and Zelensky have to do with this? Ukraine is a U.S. ally, fightly bravely to stop madman Putin from taking over their soverign nation. If we don't help them, are you that naive to think Putin won't take this as carte blanche to storm into other neighbors such as Poland? Iran is the total opposite--a two faced theocracy which poses a nuclear threat not only to us, but to the world. If our allies can't count on us, our credibity is shot to hell, and we will inevitably reap the whirlwind.

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Honey Daly's avatar

Mike V, and when China attacks Taiwan, do you believe their “mad man won’t take it as carte blanche to storm other places”, UNLESS we intervene? I am not being sarcastic here, but reading your comments today, I do want to hear how you think we’ll do against the CCP army.

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Mike Vogel's avatar

"Intervening" and assisting Ukraine will act as a deterrent to China. I don't think they want to get into a messy situation with us either.

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Sep 29, 2023
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Mike Vogel's avatar

And we should call them on it, using sanctions and all other means at our disposal. It is noteworthy that 85% of the Fentanyl entering the U.S. is brought in by American citizens driving over the border with the drugs stored in secret compartments in their vehicles and supplied by the cartels. Let's crack down on them as well!

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Evans W's avatar

You may want to adjust your meds. Just sayin....

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Mike Vogel's avatar

After reading the responses from the brain dead conspiracy cultists, I may indeed.

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Class Enemy's avatar

Evans W

A post that makes no sense. If sworn enemies of the US, like the Iranian theocratic regime, now closely allied to Putin’s Russia, has covert operations in the US, than somehow means we should deny Ukraine what it needs to defend itself against Russia and to essentially fight for us the new Cold War (not cold for them!) that Russia has imposed? This makes no sense whatsoever, but I guess America has to buy it because some ex-cable show demagogue has said it, and a bunch of people who have no idea what the Russian empire is about repeat it.

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Elizabeth's avatar

Whoa...she is so outed now. She has touted all over the world for the past 10 years how pro nuclear Iran she is. She was cleverly slipped into our Department of Defense last year. Secretary Austin has received a letter from Rep. Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee demanding an explanation for her federal employment. Best they dump her ASAP. Getting too close to election time to defend themselves.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Too little, too late.

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LonesomePolecat's avatar

How much of the 6 billion sent to Iran ended up in the ever senile Joe's pockets?

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Richard Jaffee's avatar

It was perplexing when Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But now we can see that ironically, his outreach to Iran set the stage for “the enemy of my enemy is my friend“ normalization agreements between Israel and Sunni Arab countries, including, hopefully soon, Saudi Arabia.

Public relations efforts like the ones described are understandable. But so is the strategy of isolating bad actors like Iran and maintaining crushing sanctions on them directly, and indirectly on any countries that trade with them.

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Deep Turning's avatar

Obama is a shallow pseudo-intellectual armed with bad theories about the world, presiding over an administration striking in its mix of arrogance and incompetence. He still lives in DC and still has a strong influence over the Biden agenda. The conventional press has almost completely failed to report on this. The Iran case is just one part of it.

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Timothy Kaluhiokalani's avatar

"lets send another 25 billion to Zelenskyy"

It would be naïve to believe that other countries, including adversaries, so called “allies” and even our own government agencies aren’t engaging their own version of the “Iran Experts Initiative” and dispensing their propaganda via rags like the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal…. which is then drafted into policy by staff of sclerotic, brain dead and/or greedy senators with a fondness for gold bars and beach front property.

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MG's avatar

Who is funding all these "think tanks"? How many millions of dollars has been spent sending these minions all over the world? To do what, exactly?

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DMang's avatar

To WaPo, NYT, CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the White House PR firms, here is a go-to template excerpted from reporting of the embarrassing debacle with the honored Nazi to explain it away;

“While some may view it as a grave error on the part of Canada's parliament, others may argue that it was an unintentional mistake.”

Simply substitute ‘Biden administration’ for ‘Canada’s parliament’ and incompetence is then decriminalized to an “unintentional mistake”.

Let’s try this out on another matter.

--The Biden administration’s overestimation of the effectiveness of the Ukraine military and the weakness of their Russian counterparts is arguably an unintentional mistake.--

That sounds so much better than “a colossal failure of competence with disastrous ramifications.

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Cranky Frankie's avatar

I worry that the obvious is denied in the Biden departments of State and Defense. What kind of oddsmaker would bet on the player with a tiny fraction of land area and population of its opponent in a war of attrition? Not surprisingly, Ukrainians not in the military seem to be fleeing. Clearly they get what Biden, et al, does not.

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George Schneider's avatar

You are my new best friend.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Oh this could be fun. I'll pile on. "The Biden administration's opening of the southern border is arguably an unintentional mistake." Which is so much better than acknowledging the disastrous consequences.

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DMang's avatar

Damn! Journalism is so easy!

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LonesomePolecat's avatar

I wonder, how much of the billions sent to Ukraine will end up in the ever senile Joe's crime family's pockets?

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Amanda's avatar

I think there’s definitely money laundering going on...but how to ever prove it...it’s taken this long to get bank records from when Biden was VP and even though it’s certainly proves he’s a lying asshole it’s just noise to a lot of people...and Dems still won’t admit - or don’t know legally - that if a family member gets unlawful money/gifts, sucks for you!

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Honey Daly's avatar

Lonesome, remember “10% to the Big Guy” tho I wonder just what dirt Ukrainian Big Wigs have on Biden & Hunter?

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Terence G Gain's avatar

I don’t support sending any money to Ukraine. Sending weapons which will never be used is another story.

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Cynthia Albert's avatar

If not Joe's, definitely the Clinton's pockets.

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Honey Daly's avatar

Cynthia, least we forget Obama!

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Mike Vogel's avatar

The money sent to Ukraine will go to weapons to stop Russia in it's tracks and do our dirty work for us. In the Clinton's pockets? WTF are you talking about?

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Timothy Kaluhiokalani's avatar

"The money sent to Ukraine will go to weapons to stop Russia in it's tracks"

Do you really think bombs and bullets are the only way to make money? Step one is blowing everything up. Step two in the money-grubbing scam behind perpetual wars is "Reconstruction". A lot of money is spent but curiously, not much gets built. It's how a lot of defenders of "democracy" got rich off our crusade in Afghanistan.

If there is a democrat administration running things when the rubble stops bouncing in Ukraine, chances are the Clinton Foundation will be dispatched to oversee who gets rich off the tax money our beneficent House and Senate representatives pledge for the effort. If it is the Clinton’s, I hope they do a better job for Ukrainians than they did for Haitians after their earthquake.

https://canada-haiti.ca/content/how-clintons-robbed-and-destroyed-haiti

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Fritz Dahmus's avatar

An assumption based on experience with US politics....that's what they are talking about. Do not ask for evidence.......none will ever "exist".

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Money spent helping Ukraine end Russian imperialism will save trillions in future defense spending.

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The Shadowbanned's avatar

Why would I be scared of "Russian imperialism"? How would that affect me more than Western imperialism where a 15-minute city looms on the horizon, huge inflation on energy costs and food, increasing class divide between the rich and poor, rampant retail theft, a vastly increasing suicide/mental illness rate, open discrimination in the job market, massive looming demographic issues...? Russian imperialism just doesn't affect me.

Sorry if that sounds selfish, but it's how I - and reportedly over 55% of Americans (likely more; that was a CNN poll) feel.

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Cynthia Albert's avatar

Until we know what the goal is and whether it is a fixed goal, no more.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

The goal is to evict Russian troops from Ukraine. The defeat of Russia in Ukraine will end Russian imperialism.

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Cynthia Albert's avatar

Maybe, I'd prefer to hear that from the President of the US rather than inferences. Perhaps I"m wrong, but I believe that the President of Ukraine would also like regime change in Russia. I'm wondering if our president would go for that. We need to know in black and white. I doubt that a defeat in Ukraine would end Russian Imperialism. Imperialism is in their DNA.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Sure that's it. After all that is what those beacons of democracy the NYT, WaPo, CNN and MSNBC say.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

I don’t read or listen to those sites, so you needn’t be so ignorant. My conclusion is based primarily on how America has responded to its lack of success in foreign wars since WW II.

This war has been a disaster for Russia. Defeat will result in less enthusiasm for wars of choice.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

That was Charlie Wilson's Afghanistan theory too.

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Evans W's avatar

😂😂😂

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Bill Cribben's avatar

It could have been more used practically helping Americans in need not enriching corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Money should not be sent to Ukraine. I support sending weapons which will never be used.

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Dean R.'s avatar

It is the same as money. The weapons are being replaced with US cash. Don't fool yourself.

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2 Cool 2 Fool's avatar

Mitch McConnell - is that you?

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Lynne Morris's avatar

That made me laugh. Thanks. And I agree with the implications of your sly wit.

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Timothy Kaluhiokalani's avatar

"Money spent helping Ukraine end Russian imperialism will save trillions in future defense spending"

I recall hearing "experts" say the same thing about Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan....

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Will Liley's avatar

Colour me cynical but it’s interesting that NOW we are seeing so many of these posts expressing doubts and reluctance to keep supporting Ukraine. Why now? Well, because this is the latest GOP talking point!

And Honey, Mike Vogel doesn’t need any help but let me jump in anyway: yes, we certainly should have stayed out of Vietnam, back in 1945 when it was still a French colony, by refusing to provide the ships and trucks and tanks to the bankrupt French so they could re-assert control. America never had a dog in that fight and should have stayed out of it. We DO have a dog in the Ukraine fight. It’s called “freedom” and if you think fighting for it (even with our guns and money but the Ukrainians’ blood and bodies) is “over there” and not our business, you need to get the history books out. If we don’t defend Ukraine, when will it EVER be justified?

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Mike Vogel's avatar

The problem with Vietnam (now our buddy) was we spent money to help the wrong side. Vietnam was invaded by the English, French and then us. We should have told them to get the hell out and leave that little nation alone.The "domino theory?" Give me a freaking break!

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Lynne Morris's avatar

It is like that old Moe's & Joe song, "Only the Names Have Been Changed".

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Terence G Gain's avatar

Really? You aren’t very good at noting obvious differences. In those wars American blood and treasure were spent on the fools errand of attempting to create democracies in countries composed mainly of people who embraced the conquest ideology of Islam.

In the unjustified Russian war on Ukraine, no American combat boots are on the ground, so no American blood is being spilled. And the money is being spent to assist a fledging democracy which is fighting a conquest ideology.

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Timothy Kaluhiokalani's avatar

You Canadians need to dust off some history books, if they still exist in your country. Maybe you heard that your House of Commons speaker delighted a visiting Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the rest of the clapping seals occupying the House by giving a back slapping, atta boy to Ukrainian “war hero” Yaroslav Hunka, “for fighting the Soviet Union during World War II”, apparently ignorant to the fact that old Yaroslav was a member of the Waffen-SS Galicia, a Nazi military unit notorious for horrific war crimes at the time.

But the ignorance doesn’t stop there, at the time Yaroslav and his Nazi pals were engaging in atrocities, my uncle was dodging U-Boat torpedoes as a Merchant Marine in the North Atlantic to deliver desperately needed supplies to the Soviet Union, our ALLY in fighting Nazis. It’s probably best that my uncle is no longer on this earth. I’m sure he never envisioned a day when one of the Nazis trying desperately to send him to his death in icy waters would be honored by a country, he risked his life to defend.

If you think that Ukraine is a “fledging democracy”, I recommend that you educate yourself. You can start with the following link:

https://amgreatness.com/2023/09/27/springtime-for-hitler/

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Lynne Morris's avatar

The boots are on the ground. Do not kid yourself. While I too, as an American and a Westerner, believe Russia is in the wrong, I cannot say that from the Russian perspective it is unjustified given the actions of the last two Democratic administration's. Probably under Trump too because therein the intelligence agencies lost all pretense of loyalty to a duly elected President. I also very much disapprove of sacrificing Ukrainians in a US proxy war. It is inhumane.

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MG's avatar

100 percent

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Honey Daly's avatar

Lynne, tho many will think I support Putin (WRONG!), but Putin did warn if the prior agreement to keep NATO from advancing to surround Russian borders wasn’t ignored, then had no beef with the USA, or Trump.

Trump “threatened” we’d stop funding NATO unless ALL the other NATO members started paying their delinquent dues = hundreds of billions of dollars.

I know, I know, “Russia, Russia, Russia, and Trump & Putin we’re best buddies” And, Hillary’s, now clearly debunked, Russian Collusion BS seems to follow him still!

So, Mike V, we shouldn’t have been in Vietnam? Afghanistan? Because NOW, 2023, we have 20/20 hindsight?

How will we eventually view our involvement in Ukraine? And what if/or when China attacks Taiwan? What will the US do? Beijing claims Taiwan is their territory, same as Putin has claimed parts of Ukraine belongs to Russia.

How do we know? Where do we draw the line on our involvement in foreign wars?

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Celia M Paddock's avatar

To be honest, Ukraine is more Russian than Russia, historically speaking: the future Russian Empire began in Kiev. So it isn't as if Russia has no historical claim on the territory. And NO, I don't support Putin!!!!!

The reality is that U.S. meddling in Ukraine, beginning in 2014, created a situation where we are, in effect, using Ukraine as a catspaw to pursue a second Cold War against Russia. Because for some reason, certain elements in our government were really upset that the first one ended.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

I agree. At some point we have to learn from the follies of the past. Plus I think all of our foreign escapades have weakened us and we should disengage and reassess our preparedness.

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LonesomePolecat's avatar

It always angers me when some ignoramus yahoo says, "We should bring democracy to country X.". Country X has never been a democracy. In the Middle East all of these countries have been ruled by brutal dictators for thousands of years. That is all they know.

It took a thousand years and lots of blood for Great Britian to evolve into a democracy and we were the offspring of Great Britain. The only form of government we knew was a democracy.

Latin America pretends to be democracies. The Latins, except Costa Rica, are always looking for a strong man to run their countries.

I'll get push back on this but I speak from experience. I was raised and lived in Latin America for 40 years.

I'll put my, on the ground experience, up against some academic any day.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

I never said America should bring democracy to Ukraine. Ukraine is already a democracy. I said America should help Ukraine defend itself from Russia.

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LonesomePolecat's avatar

My post was just a statement of fact, not meant to offend. I apologize if it did.

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Kevin Durant?'s avatar

You have to be a flat-out jackass simpleton to think that China, which is run by millenarian communist psychopaths with a 100 year plan for global domination, will lose interest in Taiwan if Putin doesn’t get to keep enough of Donbas.

This war actually has sped up their plans to take Taiwan because they now have a guaranteed wartime energy supply.

Also, the primary cost of this war is from inflation which is already in the trillions.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

The main cause of inflation is the Democrat Party’s war on Mother Nature.

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Skinny's avatar

The scam of the 21st century!

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Ts Blue's avatar

There a lot of these vying for #1: WW1, the New Deal, Korea, all of the regime change in the Middle East engineered by the US, Vietnam, WMD, Covid...and your choice above for #1, tough choice.

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Mike Vogel's avatar

You don't think us not helping Ukraine and caving in to Russian expansionism will encourage China to invade Taiwan? Seriously?

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Plus Intel. Lots of intel. On another note did you see this about the chip plant in Arizona Biden cut the ribbon on?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tsmc-shifts-focus-japan-amid-152552116.html

Interestingly there is also a story about it in the South China Times.

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Skinny's avatar

Yip same bullshit different war!

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Bruce Miller's avatar

Trillions? Give one example of this hyperbolic nonsense.

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Terence G Gain's avatar

How much money has America spent on defense since the 2nd World War.

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Fred Ickenham's avatar

"Defense" is such an intentionally misleading misnomer. It should revert to its prior name, The Department of War" (1947).

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Lynne Morris's avatar

And you think that the necessity for defense spending will go away if Russia is defeated?

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Terence G Gain's avatar

It will be significantly reduced. Obviously.

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Dean R.'s avatar

That is not at all obvious.

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Lynne Morris's avatar

Obviously not.

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Evans W's avatar

I love satire.

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