GD's Political Animal

Sunday, December 7, 2025

School choice makes progress under Trump

"The only way to 'fix' American education is to restore control to local communities, school boards, and — most of all — parents."

Progress in the Fight for Educational Freedom | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

December 1, 2025 - "'The government shutdown 'proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.'

"The most significant thing about this statement in a November 16 USA Today editorial is not its substance. As the editorial’s author points out, the argument presented is not new.

The most significant thing about the statement is that its author is Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

"Unlike many in DC, Secretary McMahon backs up her words with action. She is dismantling the Department of Education, fulfilling one of President Trump’s campaign promises. Since President Trump and Secretary McMahon cannot close the department absent authorizing legislation — legislation that appears unlikely to pass in the current Congress — Secretary McMahon is gutting the department by transferring responsibility for most of its functions to other parts of the government.

"Secretary McMahon has moved to the Labor Department the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers 27 K-12 grant programs, and the office of Postsecondary Education, which administers 14 programs aimed at helping college students, as well as several other programs. The Interior Department will manage the Indian education program, while the State Department will manage the federal foreign language education program. The Department of Education will, for the time being, ensure schools are complying with federal civil rights laws.

"Spreading education programs among several different departments may reduce spending. For example, it could spur Congress to stop wasting millions of dollars a year on public relations for the Education Department. However, it does not necessarily reduce federal involvement in education. Therefore, those of us committed to restoring control over education to local communities must continue to advocate for eliminating all federal education programs. The billions spent by the federal government on “improving” education have had the opposite effect. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 72 percent of American eighth graders are below proficient in math and 70 percent are below proficient in reading.

"America’s education system cannot be fixed by another No Child Left Behind style reform imposed on local schools by federal politicians and bureaucrats. Instead, the only way to 'fix' American education is to restore control to local communities, school boards, and — most of all — parents.

"This is why all who care about quality education should celebrate the continued growth of homeschooling. According to Angela R. Watson of the Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University, homeschooling in the 2024-25 school year “continued to grow across the United States, increasing at an average rate of 5.4 percent.”

"Parents looking for a homeschooling curriculum incorporating the ideas of liberty should consider my online curriculum. My curriculum provides students with a solid education in history, literature, mathematics, and the sciences. It also gives students the opportunity to create their own websites and internet-based businesses. This provides students with 'real world' entrepreneurial experience that will be useful no matter what career paths they choose. The curriculum is designed to be self-taught, with students helping, and learning from, each other via online forums. Starting in the fourth grade, students are required to write at least one essay a week. Students also take a course in public speaking.

"The curriculum emphasizes the history, philosophy, and economics of liberty, but it never substitutes indoctrination for education. The goal is to produce students with superior critical thinking skills. If you think my curriculum may meet the needs of your child, please visit www.RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information."

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/progress-in-the-fight-for-educational-freedom/

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

How to end the war in Ukraine

A Real Ukraine Peace Plan | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

Ron Paul is skeptical that the draft Ukraine war peace plan will result in a real peace, and says there is an easier way to end the fighting.

November 25, 2025 - "Last week’s surprise release of a draft Ukraine war peace plan has raised hopes that the nearly three-year bloody conflict may finally come to an end. Ukraine has suffered horrible losses that may change the demographics of that country for decades to come. If this peace plan can be negotiated in a way that satisfies all sides and the guns finally go silent, I will be the first to cheer. However, the continued failure to understand the nature and origin of the current conflict leaves me skeptical that a real peace can be reached this way.

"From the Orange Revolution in the early 2000s to the Maidan revolution in 2014, the US and its NATO partners have been interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs in attempt to manipulate the country into a hostile position toward its much larger and more powerful neighbor, Russia. We must remember how directly coordinated the 2014 coup was by the United States. US Senators, including John McCain and Lindsey Graham, were on the main square of a foreign capital demanding that the people overthrow their duly elected government. Victoria Nuland was caught on a telephone call planning who would run the post-coup government.

"Outside intervention led us to the terrible situation of today. This peace deal is another chapter in that same intervention, with the US and its partners desperately trying to manage and solve a problem that they created in the first place. Can you solve a problem created by outside intervention with more intervention?

"For the entirety of this conflict politicians and the media have been unwavering in blaming Russia entirely for what has occurred. I agree that they’re no angels. But the real villains here are the US neocons and their European counterparts who knew it was suicidal for Ukraine to take on Russia but pushed Ukraine to keep fighting anyway.

"Early in the conflict a deal was on the table and nearly signed that would end the war, but the neocon former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded that Ukraine keep fighting.

"Ukraine is the victim here, I agree. But it is as much a victim of the US and European neocons as of the Russians. They believed they could put NATO on Russia’s doorstep and face no consequences. If the tables were turned and a hostile China set up a new Latin American military alliance with the US as its designated enemy, would we sit by idly as military bases were constructed on our southern border? I don’t think so.

"President Trump promised he would end the war 24 hours after he was elected. It was an unrealistic boast, but he actually could have ended it rather quickly. The antidote to intervention Is non-intervention. Biden drug us into the war, that is true. But Trump could have pulled us out by quite simply ending all US involvement. No weapons, no intelligence, no coordination. No need for sanctions or the threat of sanctions, no need for elaborate peace plans.

"A real peace deal would realize that it was always idiotic to believe that Ukraine could stand up to Russia’s war machine – even with NATO’s backing. It is unimaginably cruel to demand that Ukraine keep fighting our proxy war down to the last Ukrainian.

"No 28-point plans can fix this. The real fix is much simpler: walk away."

https://gdspoliticalanimal.blogspot.com/2025/11/how-to-end-war-in-ukraine.html

Monday, November 24, 2025

Alberta bill to limit power of regulatory bodies

The Alberta government has introduced Bill 13 to limit the power of professional regulatory bodies fto control their members' speech outside the workplace.

Alberta’s Bill 13 — the end of woke professional regulators? | Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms | John Carpay:

November 24, 2025 - "Premier Danielle Smith and her government should be applauded for introducing Bill 13, the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act, the first of its kind in Canada. This proposed new law seeks to protect free speech for lawyers, teachers, doctors, and other professionals who, if they wish to earn a living, depend on a licence from their regulatory body. For many years, regulatory bodies across Canada have been abusing their authority by imposing woke ideology on nurses, psychologists, and other professionals.

"Dr. Jordan Peterson was subjected to disciplinary proceedings by the College of Psychologists of Ontario over his political commentary on Twitter (now X). Nurse Amy Hamm was found guilty of professional misconduct by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives for having stated publicly that there are only two sexes. In Saskatchewan, nurse Leah McInnes faced disciplinary proceedings over exercising her Charter freedom to express her opinions about mandatory vaccination policies. BC teacher Jim McMurtry was fired for questioning the popular narrative — thus far not supported by any evidence — that 215 children are buried at or near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

"It's high time for new laws in every province to rein in the ideologues who abuse their regulatory authority by censoring opinions they disagree with. New laws are needed to protect the freedom of professionals to express their opinions publicly, including their freedom to identify themselves as a doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, etc., when speaking publicly.

"Free speech is not the only issue. Of even greater importance, Bill 13 (the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act) amends existing provincial legislation to clarify that a regulatory body exists solely to enforce standards of competence and ethics. Professional Codes of Conduct and the teaching of professional competence should never be used as vehicles for promoting neo-Marxist ideals like 'equity, diversity, inclusion' and so-called 'anti-racism' and “cultural competence” indoctrination. Bill 13 is an important step towards addressing these problems and restoring public trust.... In a move that strikes a dagger into the heart of woke ideology, Bill 13’s preamble goes on to declare 'that all persons are equal in dignity and should not be arbitrarily assigned value or blame based on their personal identity characteristics or beliefs.'

"The Regulated Professions Neutrality Act will apply to over 40 regulatory bodies in Alberta. They will be required to apply and practice the principle that a person’s value should never be determined on the basis of that person’s race, colour, ancestry, national, or ethnic origin, religious belief, political belief, sex, etc. Nor should anyone be considered biased, oppressive, advantaged, or morally inferior because of a personal characteristic, according to Bill 13. Nor should anyone bear responsibility for actions committed by other people belonging to the same ethnic or religious group. Alberta’s Law Society and College of Physicians and Surgeons, for example, will no longer be able to apply notions of collective guilt and inter-generational guilt to lawyers and doctors. Regulatory bodies will no longer be able to use 'equity, diversity and inclusion” as the pretext for giving people adverse or preferential treatment because of a personal characteristic like skin colour or sexual orientation.

"Under Bill 13, the education and training required by a regulatory body for its members must relate only to professional competence and ethical standards. Education and training may no longer seek to dictate — expressly or by implication — the range of acceptable or unacceptable opinions or beliefs on any political, historical, social, or cultural issue, or on a matter of conscience. For good measure, the Bill mandates that professional education and training can no longer address “cultural competency,” “unconscious bias,” or “diversity, equity, or inclusion.” Bill 13 appears to be a direct response to the Alberta Court of King’s Bench judgment in Song v. Law Society of Alberta, in which Justice Kachur ruled that the Alberta Law Society had the right, under the Legal Profession Act, to mandate 'cultural competency' training (para. 111).

"Last but not least, the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act requires courts to interpret this new law on a standard of correctness, not a standard of reasonableness. Essentially, this means that regulatory bodies must apply the new legislation narrowly and properly to achieve the goal of protecting free expression, and the goal that education and training be focused on ethics and professionalism (to the exclusion of ideology). Professional bodies will not be able to skirt the law by claiming in court that their own “reasonable” efforts are somehow good enough."

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Democrats use 'affordability' issue against Trump

President Trump's election was due in part to his use of "affordability" issues against the Biden-Harris administration. Unsurprisingly, Democrats are now using the same issues against his administration.

The Real Affordability Agenda | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

November 17, 2025 - "Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election was due in large part to his promises to pursue an America First foreign policy and rein in inflation. One year later, prices remain high, and President Trump is more focused on overseas meddling than on the American people. This has helped enable Democrats to win governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, and self-described Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to win the New York City mayor race by running on 'affordability.'

"Since the election, President Trump has made a number of proposals to ease the burden of high prices. One of the president’s proposals is changing federal housing regulations to encourage lenders to offer 50-year mortgages. Though a 50-year mortgage in comparison to a 30-year mortgage could reduce monthly mortgage payments by over a hundred dollars for a median price home, it could also roughly double interest payments made over the life of the mortgage. So, while the longer mortgage may provide a short-term benefit, in the long run it is a losing proposition for potential homeowners.

"President Trump also proposed using the revenue from his tariffs to give most Americans at least 2,000 dollars. This may provide some help for struggling Americans, but it does not compensate for the damage inflicted on the American economy by the tariffs.

"President Trump has also announced plans to reduce tariffs on some countries in regard to coffee, bananas, and other agricultural products ... with an admission from the Trump administration that the high tariffs have led to increased prices and thus harmed Americans. Hopefully, President Trump will provide more relief from his tariffs, including relief aimed at helping American manufacturers who rely on imports for raw materials and tools.

"While Democrats talk about 'affordability,' most are unwilling to support the free-market policies that produce abundance and affordability. Instead, they want more government interventions in the marketplace — even though history shows government interventions cause price increases and shortages. For example, New York City Mayor-elect Mamdani thinks the way to address housing costs in New York City is through new price controls on rent. He does not seem to understand that a reason housing costs are so high in New York City is because of the city’s existing rent control law.

"Another example is congressional Democrats’ 'solution' to the large increases in Obamacare premiums being to extend the 2021 'temporary' Obamacare subsidies enacted as part of covid relief legislation. Unfortunately, the Republican alternative appears to be to just send Americans money to use to pay medical costs.

"Politicians with both parties ignore the real cause of price inflation: the Federal Reserve. When the Federal Reserve increases the money supply, it reduces the dollar’s value, thus increasing the average American’s cost of living. A major reason the Fed devalues the dollar is to monetize the ever-increasing federal debt by purchasing Treasury securities. Therefore, an important action the president and Congress could take to make America affordable again would be to reduce federal spending and start paying down the over 38 trillion dollars debt. Congress should also pass legislation forbidding the Federal Reserve from purchasing federal debt.

"Congress should also pass the Audit the Fed bill, legislation exempting precious metals and cryptocurrencies from capital gains taxes, and a repeal of any other laws that prevent Americans from using alternative currencies. Auditing and ending the Federal Reserve is the true affordability agenda."

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/the-real-affordability-agenda/

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

First takes on the Carney budget

Canada budget adds tens of billions to deficit as Carney spends to dampen Trump tariffs effect | The Guardian | Leyland Cecco:

5 November 5, 2025 - "Mark Carney ... [will] run a deficit tens of billions larger than initially forecast in his first-ever federal budget. The spending plan, titled 'Canada Strong' envisions significant new defence spending, a reduction of the country’s civil service and 'generational investments' ... that would reshape the nature of the country’s economy.....

"As part of its huge spending plan, the Canadian government is increasing defence spending by C$84bn (US$59bn) over five years to combat an 'increasingly dangerous and divided world'. Carney has previously pledged to meet Nato’s goal of spending 3.5% of gross domestic product on defense, but the spending document does little to indicate how close Canada is to meeting that target.

"The budget envisions a reduction to the federal workforce by 2028-29 that would bring the civil service to a size similar to what is was in 2021. The government plans changes to retirement rules – not firings – to achieve that goal.

"In last December’s fiscal update, the federal deficit was projected to be C$42.2bn in 2025-26. But the Liberal plan will run a deficit of C$78.3bn in 2025-26. The government says it will aim to reduce the federal deficit to C$56.6bn by 2029-30....

"Despite criticism from opposition parties that the budget goes both too far in its spending or not far enough, one Conservative lawmaker [Chris d'Entremont] announced he would join the Liberal caucus.... The floor crossing is a key win for Carney’s Liberals, who govern with a parliamentary minority. Until Tuesday, the party needed the support of three lawmakers from other parties to pass this budget and avoid an election. With d’Entremont now sitting with the Liberals, that figure drops to two.

"Parliament is expected to debate the budget for four days, before voting on the spending plan on 17 November."

Carney’s reckless spending budget unites a divided opposition | Western Standard | Christopher Oldcorn

November 6, 2025 - "The Carney government is projecting a deficit of $78.3 billion for this fiscal year. This figure is almost double the $42 billion ceiling the Conservatives had demanded and shatters the prime minister’s own campaign promises of fiscal restraint.... Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed the budget as 'the most expensive in Canadian history,' accusing Carney of breaking every promise he made just seven months ago....

"A recent Nanos Research survey found that three-quarters of Canadians want the government to make spending cuts to manage the deficit. Furthermore, a majority would oppose having another federal election if this budget fails. Carney seems willing to ignore this clear message, having stated he is 'prepared to fight an election over the budget if necessary.'”

Carney’s 2025 “Canada Strong” federal budget: Austerity to fund rearmament, war and corporate profits | World Socialist Web Site | Pierre Lajeunesse

November 5, 2025 - "The 2025 federal budget that Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne delivered to parliament Tuesday ... lays out a program of rearmament and corporate enrichment to be paid for through the slashing of public sector jobs, the evisceration of public services, and other sweeping attacks on working people.... The Liberals aim to spend less on healthcare, housing, education, public services and social supports—so they can funnel tens of billions more into weapons procurement, corporate tax incentives, resource extraction infrastructure projects, and the expansion of Canada’s military-industrial complex....

"In June, Carney announced an immediate 17 percent increase in military spending to ensure Canada met NATO’s 2 percent of GDP military spending target in the current 2025-26 fiscal year. Now the government is positioning the country to reach NATO’s new spending target of 5 percent of GDP, which will require raising the defence budget more than threefold from what it was last year, to $150 billion per annum by 2035.....

"The budget explicitly recommits Canada to a lead role in the US-NATO-instigated war against Russia.... To this end, Ottawa is allocating an additional $2.7 billion over three years to fund Operation Reassurance, the Canadian Armed Forces’ largest overseas deployment, supporting NATO’s forward military presence on Russia’s borders through its battlegroup in Latvia. In parallel, the government is launching a new $1 billion Arctic Infrastructure Fund to build airports, deep-water ports and all-season road networks across the North—dual-use projects designed to facilitate civilian logistics and military force projection toward the Arctic frontier, where resource extraction and strategic conflict with Russia and other global powers are intensifying....

"At the same time, to pay for this massive rearmament the government has initiated a sweeping program of cuts and restructuring across the public sector. The most immediate and devastating measure is the planned elimination of 40,000 federal public service jobs by 2028. The government plans to use attrition and buyouts, but has already signaled that it will invoke the public sector 'workforce adjustment' clause to impose layoffs where voluntary measures fall short.... The goal is not to improve efficiency, but to shrink public services so that resources can be diverted to the military and corporate sector."

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Blame your central bank for inflation

People rightly blame politicians running deficits for inflation. But spare some thought for the central bankers who enable them.

Can’t Afford a Vacation? Blame the Fed. | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

November 3, 2025 - "According to data collected by the research firm Statista, 29 percent of Americans cannot afford to take a vacation this year. A vacation is not the only thing Americans are struggling to afford. The failure of wages to keep up with price inflation is why household debt hit a record level of 18.4 trillion dollars this year, with the average household owing more than 100,000 dollars.

"The Federal Reserve is responsible for the decline in American living standards and the rise in income inequality. The turning point in the people’s economic fortunes was on August 15, 1971. That is when then-President Richard Nixon closed the “gold window,” severing the last link between the dollar and gold. This left America with a purely fiat currency and no restraint on the Federal Reserve’s ability to create money.

"When the Federal Reserve pumps money into the economy the new money is not equally distributed. It first goes to wealthy and well-connected individuals. These individuals benefit from having increased purchasing power before the new money has caused price increases.

"The Fed also contributes to economic instability and inequality by creating bubbles that distort the signals sent by the market. This causes over-investment in some sectors. When bubbles burst, workers employed in certain sectors lose their jobs, while those at top often suffer at most a modest setback. The government bails out the “too big to fail” corporations, but the government never considers workers and homeowners too big to fail.

"The Federal Reserve facilitates the growth of the welfare-warfare state by purchasing Treasury bonds, thus monetizing federal debt. The majority of government spending is on programs benefiting powerful special interests. This includes in large part the military-industrial complex that gobbles up more money from the government each year.

"The Federal Reserve’s continued devaluation of the dollar to finance an empire abroad and a welfare state at home is the driving force behind the erosion of the people’s living standards. As the dollar loses purchasing power, demand for government assistance increases, leading to more government spending, more debt monetization, and a further decline in living standards.

"The fact that almost a third of Americans cannot afford a vacation illustrates how fiat money harms average Americans. Continued growth of federal debt and Fed-created inflation will lead to a major economic crisis. This will either induce or be caused by a rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. The result will be a rise of demagogic authoritarians of both left and right and increased political violence, leading to an increase in government repression.

"Those of us who know the truth must continue to explain that the solution to our problems is a vacation from the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system that facilitates government growth at the expense of the people’s standards of living and liberty. Limited government, free markets, and peaceful relations and free trade with as many nations as possible are components of the path to lasting peace and prosperity."

Copyright © 2025 The Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/cant-afford-a-vacation-blame-the-fed/

Saturday, November 1, 2025

The Communist origins of Antifa

The extremist group Antifascist Action (Antifa) began as part of the Soviet Union’s operations to bring about a Communist dictatorship in Germany, and worked to label all rival parties as “fascist.”

The Communist Origins of the Antifa Extremist Group | Epoch Times | Joshua Philipp:

September 23, 2025 - "The extremist anarchist-communist group Antifa is in the headlines because President Donald Trump has announced that he will be designating it as a terrorist organization. The organization was initially part of the Soviet Union’s operations to bring about a communist dictatorship in Germany, and it worked to label all rival parties as 'fascist.'

"The organization can be traced to the 'united front' of the Soviet Union’s Communist International (Comintern) during the Third World Congress in Moscow in June 1921 and July 1921, according to the German booklet 80 Years of Anti-Fascist Action by Bernd Langer, published by the Association for the Promotion of Anti-Fascist Culture. Langer is a former member of Autonome Antifa, formerly one of Germany’s largest Antifa organizations....

"Moscow ... sought to unite the various communist and workers’ parties of Germany under a single ideological banner that it controlled. 'The "unified front" thus did not mean an equal cooperation between different organizations, but the dominance of the workers’ movement by the communists,' Langer wrote....

""Benito Mussolini, a Marxist and socialist who ... founded the fascist movement as his own political party ... took power through his 'March on Rome' in October 1922.... The KPD [Communist Party of Germany] decided to use the banner of anti-fascism to form a movement. However, Langer noted that to the KPD, the ideas of 'fascism' and 'anti-fascism' were 'undifferentiated,' and the term 'fascism' served merely as rhetoric.... Both the communist and fascist systems were based on collectivism and state-planned economies. Both also proposed systems wherein the individual was heavily controlled by a powerful state and both were responsible for large-scale atrocities and genocide.

"According to the 2016 annual report of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, from the viewpoint of the 'left-wing extremist,' the label of 'fascism' as pushed by Antifa often does not refer to actual fascism but is merely a label assigned to 'capitalism'.... This held true from the beginning, according to Langer. For the communists in Germany, 'anti-fascism' merely meant 'anti-capitalism'.... A description of Antifa on the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s website notes that the organization still holds this same basic definition of capitalism as 'fascism'....

"Langer wrote that, historically, by labeling the anti-capitalist interests of the communist movement as 'anti-fascism,' the KPD was able to use this rhetoric to label all other political parties as fascist. 'According to this, the other parties opposed to the KPD were fascist, especially the [Social Democratic Party of Germany],' he wrote. Thus, in a move that today would be considered ironic, the group that the communist 'anti-fascists' most heavily targeted under their new label of 'fascism' was the social democrats....

"At this time, Hitler and his Nazi Party had begun to emerge on the world stage, and the Nazi Party employed a group similar to Antifaschistische Aktion in its use of political violence and intimidation, called the 'brownshirts.' Antifaschistische Aktion, meanwhile, began to attract some members who opposed the arrival of actual fascism in Germany and who did not subscribe to — or were potentially unaware of — the organization’s ties to the Soviet Union. However, the violence instigated by Antifaschistische Aktion largely had an opposite effect. The ongoing tactics of violence and intimidation of all rival systems under the Antifa movement, along with its violent ideology, drove many people toward fascism.

“'The Communists’ violent revolutionary rhetoric, promising the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a Soviet Germany, terrified the country’s middle class, who knew only too well what had happened to their counterparts in Russia after 1918,' Richard J. Evans wrote in The Third Reich in Power. 'Appalled at the failure of the government to solve the crisis, and frightened into desperation by the rise of the Communists, they began to leave the squabbling little factions of the conventional political right and gravitate towards the Nazis instead.'

"Langer noted that, from the beginning, the KPD was a member of the Comintern, and 'within a few years, it became a Stalinist party,' both ideologically and logistically. He wrote that it even became “financially dependent on the Moscow headquarters.' Leaders of the KPD, with Antifa as their on-the-ground movement for violence and intimidation of rival political parties, fell under the command of the Soviet apparatus. Many KPD leaders would later become leaders in the communist German Democratic Republic and its infamous Ministry for State Security, the Stasi.

"As Langer wrote, 'Anti-fascism is a strategy rather than an ideology.' It was brought into play in Germany in the 1920s, not as a legitimate movement against the fascism that would later arise in Germany, he wrote, but instead 'as an anti-capitalist concept of struggle.'”

A version of this article was first published on Aug. 18, 2017.

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