So it has come down to the wire. The tea party controlled House of Representatives sent a "compromise" budget bill to the Senate. It didn't defund the Affordable Care Act, but would have delayed the start of the program for a year. In other words until the next budget needs to be passed. You don't have to be a genius to figure out as soon as the new year ends, the tea party mob would repeat the same ruthless act of extortion they are engaging in now. Senate democrats immediately knew this was a cheap, not to mention transparent, con and according to MSN they just rejected it.
These clowns just don't get it. Barak Obama ran on the promise of passing the ACA in 2008 and he won. He ran on the pledge of keeping it in 2012 and won convincingly a second time. The law passed both the house and the senate and was found constitutional by the Supreme Court. It isn't some debatable concept, or bill any more. It is the law of the land. Ladies and gentlemen of the right, either repeal it, or get over it. Just stop screwing with the pay checks of every active military man and woman and the jobs of upwards to 850,000 federal employees.
The most recent poll shows nearly six in ten Americans oppose defunding the ACA if it means having to shut down the government to do it. It is fairly easy to see why. Besides stiffing GI Joe and Jane, it is estimated nearly half of the civilians employed by the Department of the Defense will be furloughed. The FHA which is involved with 30% of all home mortgages in the country will be unable to approve any new ones and there won't be any more small business loans subsidized by the government.
Beyond the immediate economic impact, the Food and Drug Administration will have to suspend routine safety inspections, the Special Nutritional Program for Women, Infants, and Children, other wise known as WIC will shut down, and there will be delays in processing new social security disability claims. The Center for Disease Control will also be hamstrung and their ability to identify and investigate outbreaks of diseases will be limited. Don't plan on that fall trip to Yellowstone either. All national parks, monuments, and the Smithsonian will close. If you're already camped at one you'll be given 48 hours to get out.
This is happening because all manner of right wing clods are running around screaming that the government is trying to take over the health care system here in the United States. They have bombarded the airwaves and their wide eyed followers with a campaign of disinformation and outright lies that is impressive in its scope and boldness. They don't even seem to care if supporters of the Affordable Care Act point out the falsehoods they are spewing. They just keep blathering away and when challenged the only thing that changes in their argument is the level of their volume control. It is as if they believe he who yells loudest and shrillest must be telling the truth. They are the equivalent of a child covering his or her ears and shrieking in order to avoid hearing something unpleasant, like a command to, " go brush your teeth."
The fact is well over 40 million people in the country don't have any health insurance at all. Three years ago the average American spent $8,233 per year on health care. In Norway, the Netherlands, and Switzerland the average citizen pays around $5,000 per year and everyone else in the other developed countries pay less. At this moment it is estimated 20% of all Americans have had, at one time or another, trouble paying their medical expenses. In the UK the figure is 2% and in France it is 9%. And, despite right wing mythology, any fair comparison of the level and quality of health care shows the United States isn't the best in the industrial community of nations. We continuously rank somewhere in the middle, to lower third.
Beyond that there is a moral factor involved which some of these "born again" Christian types seem to ignore completely. What Ted Cruz and the rest of the buffoons are saying is that if you need to change to a different health care carrier, through no fault of your own, and you have a pre existing condition, ie cancer, even if in remission, or type 1 diabetes, you're screwed. Yes, Sarah Palin might bay at the moon about government "death panels," but what she isn't telling you is death panels already exist. They are called insurance company actuaries. They aren't there to help you. They're there to make sure the outfit they work for can turn a really big profit. If it means you die because the stats say you are too big of a risk to insure--well that is capitalism at work, baby. Buck up, at least people will never accuse us of being socialists.
A couple of weeks ago a wise man told critics he supported the Affordable Care Act because, "When you reach the gates of heaven, St. Peter isn't going to ask if you made the government smaller. He is going to ask how many poor people you helped."
Indeed.
See you at the bottom of the cliff tomorrow.
9-30-13
Monday, September 30, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
What is Important: Boomer Sooner
The Senate voted 54-44 in favor of a stop gap budget resolution today which will allow the government to continue to function until the middle of November. Before the vote democrats deleted the provision which required the defunding of the Affordable Care Act from the measure. Ted Cruz got mad and now the whole thing goes back to the house where John Boehner has about as much control over the radical right wing yahoos in his party as he does the weather in Sri Lanka.
But, if you're a fan of the University of Oklahoma football team you don't give a rat's ass about that. You know what is important.
Here is how it is. This is a dusty place subject to searing heat and bouts of brutal cold. There are only a little over three and a half million people in Oklahoma. Nearly half us live in two metropolitan areas, which leaves an awful lot of empty space when you consider the state has 69, 989 square miles. The great depression traumatized us so much that a hefty chunk of the population moved west to California. As John Steinbeck chronicled, those Oklahomans who went, the Okies, weren't exactly welcomed. For decades there was very little to do here. Hell, you couldn't even buy a bottle of whiskey legally until around 1960. The only real release was athletics. We dove into sports both as participants and fans. We became addicted to games. We have never shook it.
It is a little different now, thanks to Clay Bennett bringing the NBA and the Thunder to Oklahoma City, but traditionally the big sport has been college football. And since those rubes up at Oklahoma State just recently figured out how to play the game, college football pretty much meant, OU football.
When you grow up as an Oklahoma Sooner fan you are inundated with glorious stats that are usually dated from 1946, because before then the University of Oklahaom was the portrait of mediocrity in the sport.
Stats like, since 1946 the team has won more games than any other major college program, has a higher winning percentage and has had more consensus all american players. There have been seven national championships. Then we come to the winning streaks. Since 1946 (what did I tell you about that year) Oklahoma won 31 games in a row, then a few years later won a breathtaking 47 games in a row and finally, twenty or so years after that won 28 straight.
The fly in the ointment has always been Texas. They are such an arrogant and obnoxious outfit that most people, even in their home state, don't like them, so you can just imagine what we think of them.
However, the greatest bugaboo of them all, the one team that will drive an old time Oklahoma fan into a rage quicker than anything else on the planet is Notre Dame.
Notre Dame is the kryptonite. It is the ebola virus and the swine flu all wrapped up into one. It is Attila, the fucking, Hun.
As I type, Oklahoma has played Notre Dame in football 10 times. I was six years old the one and only time we beat them. That was so long ago neither team had a black player starting on their squad. It was so long ago, Christopher was still a saint and milk was hand delivered to your door three days a week. One year after that win, Notre Dame was the 48th game in the 47 game winning streak.
My father is 88 years old and is the person who taught me I should never judge a person by the color of his or her skin, that segregation was inherently wrong, and republicans are generally cruel and unusual people. This same man, whose father was a devout Roman Catholic, to this day, refers to Notre Dame players as, "those God damned fish eaters." His grandmother was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and he will invariably look at a Notre Dame Fighting Irish line up and in disgust tell you, "There isn't an Irishman anywhere on that God damned team." Yeah, he uses those two words a lot when it comes to Notre Dame.
So what is important right now for many in the Sooner state is that in a scant few hours Oklahoma will play Notre Dame for the 11th time. Ted Cruz can caterwaul all he wants, the government can grind to a halt, and the great apocalyptic asteroid can be only four days out from slamming right into this blue ball, but all that matters is that our guys take the field in South Bend tomorrow.
The beer has been bought, as have the chips and dip. Kickoff is set for 2:30 pm Oklahoma time. The memory of last year and all those previous nightmares sit with OU fans like some collective malignant tumor poisoning our guts. There is only way to exorcise this particular demon. There is only one cure for the itch we haven't been able to scratch.
It is, quite simply, beat God damned Notre Dame!
And while we're at it, Boomer Sooner!
9-27-13
But, if you're a fan of the University of Oklahoma football team you don't give a rat's ass about that. You know what is important.
Here is how it is. This is a dusty place subject to searing heat and bouts of brutal cold. There are only a little over three and a half million people in Oklahoma. Nearly half us live in two metropolitan areas, which leaves an awful lot of empty space when you consider the state has 69, 989 square miles. The great depression traumatized us so much that a hefty chunk of the population moved west to California. As John Steinbeck chronicled, those Oklahomans who went, the Okies, weren't exactly welcomed. For decades there was very little to do here. Hell, you couldn't even buy a bottle of whiskey legally until around 1960. The only real release was athletics. We dove into sports both as participants and fans. We became addicted to games. We have never shook it.
It is a little different now, thanks to Clay Bennett bringing the NBA and the Thunder to Oklahoma City, but traditionally the big sport has been college football. And since those rubes up at Oklahoma State just recently figured out how to play the game, college football pretty much meant, OU football.
When you grow up as an Oklahoma Sooner fan you are inundated with glorious stats that are usually dated from 1946, because before then the University of Oklahaom was the portrait of mediocrity in the sport.
Stats like, since 1946 the team has won more games than any other major college program, has a higher winning percentage and has had more consensus all american players. There have been seven national championships. Then we come to the winning streaks. Since 1946 (what did I tell you about that year) Oklahoma won 31 games in a row, then a few years later won a breathtaking 47 games in a row and finally, twenty or so years after that won 28 straight.
The fly in the ointment has always been Texas. They are such an arrogant and obnoxious outfit that most people, even in their home state, don't like them, so you can just imagine what we think of them.
However, the greatest bugaboo of them all, the one team that will drive an old time Oklahoma fan into a rage quicker than anything else on the planet is Notre Dame.
Notre Dame is the kryptonite. It is the ebola virus and the swine flu all wrapped up into one. It is Attila, the fucking, Hun.
As I type, Oklahoma has played Notre Dame in football 10 times. I was six years old the one and only time we beat them. That was so long ago neither team had a black player starting on their squad. It was so long ago, Christopher was still a saint and milk was hand delivered to your door three days a week. One year after that win, Notre Dame was the 48th game in the 47 game winning streak.
My father is 88 years old and is the person who taught me I should never judge a person by the color of his or her skin, that segregation was inherently wrong, and republicans are generally cruel and unusual people. This same man, whose father was a devout Roman Catholic, to this day, refers to Notre Dame players as, "those God damned fish eaters." His grandmother was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and he will invariably look at a Notre Dame Fighting Irish line up and in disgust tell you, "There isn't an Irishman anywhere on that God damned team." Yeah, he uses those two words a lot when it comes to Notre Dame.
So what is important right now for many in the Sooner state is that in a scant few hours Oklahoma will play Notre Dame for the 11th time. Ted Cruz can caterwaul all he wants, the government can grind to a halt, and the great apocalyptic asteroid can be only four days out from slamming right into this blue ball, but all that matters is that our guys take the field in South Bend tomorrow.
The beer has been bought, as have the chips and dip. Kickoff is set for 2:30 pm Oklahoma time. The memory of last year and all those previous nightmares sit with OU fans like some collective malignant tumor poisoning our guts. There is only way to exorcise this particular demon. There is only one cure for the itch we haven't been able to scratch.
It is, quite simply, beat God damned Notre Dame!
And while we're at it, Boomer Sooner!
9-27-13
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The Ted Cruz One Man Show
I'll have to hand it to that sly little Canadian bugger. You see all this time I thought, Ted Cruz was actually trying to kill the Affordable Care Act and was just too stupid to realize he couldn't possibly do it.
Obviously I was wrong. After witnessing parts of his ego fueled marathon in the Senate, a performance best described as a twisted, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/Triumph of the Will" hybrid, it dawned on me, the whole fighting Obamacare thing is nothing more than political theater--a complete and utter sham. The extended speech was, in fact, the equivalent of a one man Broadway show, titled, "Ted Cruz is Great and He Should be Running Things."
What transpired over parts of two days had nothing to do with stopping the ACA. Oh make no mistake, Obamacare was the excuse, but even if it didn't exist Cruz would have found some other reason to stand in the Senate for hours on end listening to his own golden voice. When he compared other Senators to professional wrestlers and members of his own party to people who tried to appease the Nazis in the late 1930's with concessions, he was doing nothing more than establishing himself as the ultimate reality TV superstar. He wasn't speaking to the Senate any more than I am right now. He was addressing, the ultra right wing, who he thinks will carry him to the GOP nomination and the white house in 2016. While assuming everyone believes the left is bad, he was in effect casting aside the republican establishment and painting them as old, decadent, and devoid of passion. He was saying to the Sturmabteilung, You are the people and I Am Your New Leader. Together We will rule the homeland. Somewhere down the line expect a spirited talk about America for Americans.
The AP ran a photo of him after he delivered the speech. It was the epitome of the image he wants the masses to see. There he was, standing in the middle of a crowd of reporters, microphones offered on all sides, looking as a visionary might--chin tilted slightly upward--gazing far off toward a new and better horizon. Goebbels himself couldn't have asked for a better snapshot of his man Adolf.
Yes, it appears the evil little twerp not only wants to be president, but also granted
the title of Messiah.
Democrats derided his reading of the Dr. Seuss book, "Green Eggs and Ham." Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill claimed her daughter sent her a message saying, "Mom does he not know the point of the story?" Chuck Schumer of New York said the same thing, "Green Eggs and Ham has a moral: don't criticize something, don't reject something until you actually try it."
Both of them missed the point. Cruz is so impressed with himself that minor ironies are completely beneath him. He was delivering a dramatic reading to show the torch lit crowd he is not only a man of steel and endless bladder control, but wonderfully paternal. He was, in those horrible moments, telling us he can be the warm and kind father to all of America.
The republican old guard might hate the guy, but they are scared of him and those like him. What we might be seeing here is the emergence of a new Joseph McCarthy--a brute demagogue whose only goal is to tear the fabric of the nation apart. He certainly has the addiction to attention McCarthy had. And he most assuredly is looking to establish a new order.
If there is a light at the end of this terribly dark tunnel it is at some point Ted Cruz is going to have to face a crowd which isn't so adoring. He has been doing nothing but preaching to the choir so far and in 2016 he is going to have to pick up some votes from people who don't walk around wearing tee shirts that say "Don't Tread on Me."
Indeed, he may play well in Texas, Oklahoma, and someplace like Mississippi, but New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida could be different stories.
A couple of days ago I accused the Senator from Alberta of not being able to count. It has become evident he didn't even bother this time out because winning the battle wasn't his aim. No, he is looking ahead to the big prize and right now he is attempting a power play which will marginalize his GOP opponents in the hearts and minds of the uber right.
Luckily for all of us, my assessment remains the same. He still can't count. He'll find that out in three years when the numbers really do mean something to him.
acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt
9-26-13
Obviously I was wrong. After witnessing parts of his ego fueled marathon in the Senate, a performance best described as a twisted, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington/Triumph of the Will" hybrid, it dawned on me, the whole fighting Obamacare thing is nothing more than political theater--a complete and utter sham. The extended speech was, in fact, the equivalent of a one man Broadway show, titled, "Ted Cruz is Great and He Should be Running Things."
What transpired over parts of two days had nothing to do with stopping the ACA. Oh make no mistake, Obamacare was the excuse, but even if it didn't exist Cruz would have found some other reason to stand in the Senate for hours on end listening to his own golden voice. When he compared other Senators to professional wrestlers and members of his own party to people who tried to appease the Nazis in the late 1930's with concessions, he was doing nothing more than establishing himself as the ultimate reality TV superstar. He wasn't speaking to the Senate any more than I am right now. He was addressing, the ultra right wing, who he thinks will carry him to the GOP nomination and the white house in 2016. While assuming everyone believes the left is bad, he was in effect casting aside the republican establishment and painting them as old, decadent, and devoid of passion. He was saying to the Sturmabteilung, You are the people and I Am Your New Leader. Together We will rule the homeland. Somewhere down the line expect a spirited talk about America for Americans.
The AP ran a photo of him after he delivered the speech. It was the epitome of the image he wants the masses to see. There he was, standing in the middle of a crowd of reporters, microphones offered on all sides, looking as a visionary might--chin tilted slightly upward--gazing far off toward a new and better horizon. Goebbels himself couldn't have asked for a better snapshot of his man Adolf.
Yes, it appears the evil little twerp not only wants to be president, but also granted
the title of Messiah.
Democrats derided his reading of the Dr. Seuss book, "Green Eggs and Ham." Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill claimed her daughter sent her a message saying, "Mom does he not know the point of the story?" Chuck Schumer of New York said the same thing, "Green Eggs and Ham has a moral: don't criticize something, don't reject something until you actually try it."
Both of them missed the point. Cruz is so impressed with himself that minor ironies are completely beneath him. He was delivering a dramatic reading to show the torch lit crowd he is not only a man of steel and endless bladder control, but wonderfully paternal. He was, in those horrible moments, telling us he can be the warm and kind father to all of America.
The republican old guard might hate the guy, but they are scared of him and those like him. What we might be seeing here is the emergence of a new Joseph McCarthy--a brute demagogue whose only goal is to tear the fabric of the nation apart. He certainly has the addiction to attention McCarthy had. And he most assuredly is looking to establish a new order.
If there is a light at the end of this terribly dark tunnel it is at some point Ted Cruz is going to have to face a crowd which isn't so adoring. He has been doing nothing but preaching to the choir so far and in 2016 he is going to have to pick up some votes from people who don't walk around wearing tee shirts that say "Don't Tread on Me."
Indeed, he may play well in Texas, Oklahoma, and someplace like Mississippi, but New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida could be different stories.
A couple of days ago I accused the Senator from Alberta of not being able to count. It has become evident he didn't even bother this time out because winning the battle wasn't his aim. No, he is looking ahead to the big prize and right now he is attempting a power play which will marginalize his GOP opponents in the hearts and minds of the uber right.
Luckily for all of us, my assessment remains the same. He still can't count. He'll find that out in three years when the numbers really do mean something to him.
acta deos numquam mortalia fallunt
9-26-13
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Teddy Cruz Can't Count: The Grand Plan Begins to Flounder
Here is how nuts, Ted Cruz is. He has spent the last several months preaching to mobs of tea party wankers, telling them he and fellow conservatives would force the defunding of the Affordable Care Act, by threatening to shut down the entire government. During that time he convinced himself and his fans that all the people of this nation, even the ones who don't, clap, hoot, howl, and cheer in his presence will blame the shut down entirely on Barak H. Obama, the President of the United States.
At his incessant urging, his pals in the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution that permits a stop gap budget, but only so long as the Affordable Care Act is monetarily stripped bare. Now that the bill, nicknamed the CR, has hit the senate, it has finally dawned on Teddy Ballgame he doesn't have the votes to prevent the defunding part of it from being deleted out of the resolution. So, in a logic found only in his brain, the Senator from Alberta is fighting tooth and nail to keep the CR from advancing. Yes, that is right, Mr. Cruz got exactly what he wanted and yet he is, at this very moment, trying to keep it out of the grasp of senate democrats through every stall tactic he can think of. One has to wonder if he believes the democratic majority in the senate is going to somehow magically disappear at this juncture--you know, just long enough to let he and his cohorts get the CR passed as is. Perhaps he forgot how to count for a little while and now has suddenly regained his cognitive senses. Maybe, illicit drugs have been in use for an extended period and the hallucinations overcame any tenuous grasp he might have had on reality. Or, in the end, he could just be an idiot without the slightest idea of how congress works.
He has been quoted as condemning, "the tendency toward brinkmanship" in Washington. The definition of brinkmanship is, "The practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge--or to the brink--of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome." Sort of sounds like what the crazed Canadian has been doing all along doesn't it? Criticizing oneself is odd behavior for a United States Senator, but there he is trying to stop a resolution he is in favor of, so we really shouldn't be surprised at anything he does.
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had this to say about the state of affairs, "This is misleading the conservative base because it is not achievable and all it will do in the long run is dispirit the base. This is a failed strategy for conservatives."
Senator Robert Burr, R-NC put it a bit more tersely. In his words the notion of shutting down the government over Obamacare is, "the dumbest idea I've ever heard of."
Yesterday Bloomberg ran a story titled, "Five Republican Myths on Defunding Obamacare." Number four is that polls show the public supports the defunding of Obamacare. Oops, sorry guys, but it simply isn't true. CNBC commissioned a poll by Hart--McInturff. It showed 44% of Americans oppose defunding the ACA while 38% want it gutted. However, that number changes dramatically when you throw in shutting down the government. 59% oppose defunding Obamacare if doing so takes a government shutdown, while only 19% are in favor and 18% are unsure. In fact, the only demographic which approves of a government shut down to get rid of the ACA is, you guessed it, republicans who identify themselves as members of the tea party.
This, of course, leads us straight to Bloomberg's republican myth numero uno, that shutting down the government will automatically stop Obamacare. According to the publication most of the ACA funding comes from Medicare and Medicaid which are entitlements and they aren't connected to the budget at all.
Cruz has to know that. Hell, I'm sitting here in an apartment in Oklahoma City sucking on a beer and I figured it out. The only conclusion one can come to is that this version of the continuing resolution is clearly a crude act of extortion meant to shame and terrify the president and the senate into submission.
The problem is, Cruz is a slash and burn guy and it is increasingly apparent it is his only talent. He is the Washington equivalent of a two bit vandal. He can fuck up the works, but he hasn't an inkling when it comes to getting things done. Unfortunately, he is utterly convinced he is not only the smartest guy in the republic, but that everyone else is so stupid they'll buy into everything he says because he is--well--Ted Cruz. If he actually thinks Obama and the senate democrats are going to cave into what he wants he is also delusional, perhaps dangerously so.
According to Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, "...we will not bow to tea party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law. The simple fact remains Obamacare is the law of the land and it will remain the law of the land as long as Barak Obama is president of the United States and I am the Senate Majority Leader."
Even Coburn admits the only way to get rid of the ACA is for republicans to win the presidential election in 2016.
Indeed, The Grand Plan isn't so grand after all. Nearly 60% of Americans don't agree with it. Huge chunks of people in his own party don't agree with it. Barak H. Obama and a majority of the U. S. Senate certainly don't agree with it.
Ted Cruz has his eyes on the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2016. Given what is going on at the moment, he may find his presidential campaign cut short by about three years. In truth, he is currently being exposed to the public as both a bully and hysteric. And worse--that he hasn't a clue when it comes to how things operate in a democracy.
Hey, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
sic vita est
9-24-13
At his incessant urging, his pals in the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution that permits a stop gap budget, but only so long as the Affordable Care Act is monetarily stripped bare. Now that the bill, nicknamed the CR, has hit the senate, it has finally dawned on Teddy Ballgame he doesn't have the votes to prevent the defunding part of it from being deleted out of the resolution. So, in a logic found only in his brain, the Senator from Alberta is fighting tooth and nail to keep the CR from advancing. Yes, that is right, Mr. Cruz got exactly what he wanted and yet he is, at this very moment, trying to keep it out of the grasp of senate democrats through every stall tactic he can think of. One has to wonder if he believes the democratic majority in the senate is going to somehow magically disappear at this juncture--you know, just long enough to let he and his cohorts get the CR passed as is. Perhaps he forgot how to count for a little while and now has suddenly regained his cognitive senses. Maybe, illicit drugs have been in use for an extended period and the hallucinations overcame any tenuous grasp he might have had on reality. Or, in the end, he could just be an idiot without the slightest idea of how congress works.
He has been quoted as condemning, "the tendency toward brinkmanship" in Washington. The definition of brinkmanship is, "The practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge--or to the brink--of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome." Sort of sounds like what the crazed Canadian has been doing all along doesn't it? Criticizing oneself is odd behavior for a United States Senator, but there he is trying to stop a resolution he is in favor of, so we really shouldn't be surprised at anything he does.
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had this to say about the state of affairs, "This is misleading the conservative base because it is not achievable and all it will do in the long run is dispirit the base. This is a failed strategy for conservatives."
Senator Robert Burr, R-NC put it a bit more tersely. In his words the notion of shutting down the government over Obamacare is, "the dumbest idea I've ever heard of."
Yesterday Bloomberg ran a story titled, "Five Republican Myths on Defunding Obamacare." Number four is that polls show the public supports the defunding of Obamacare. Oops, sorry guys, but it simply isn't true. CNBC commissioned a poll by Hart--McInturff. It showed 44% of Americans oppose defunding the ACA while 38% want it gutted. However, that number changes dramatically when you throw in shutting down the government. 59% oppose defunding Obamacare if doing so takes a government shutdown, while only 19% are in favor and 18% are unsure. In fact, the only demographic which approves of a government shut down to get rid of the ACA is, you guessed it, republicans who identify themselves as members of the tea party.
This, of course, leads us straight to Bloomberg's republican myth numero uno, that shutting down the government will automatically stop Obamacare. According to the publication most of the ACA funding comes from Medicare and Medicaid which are entitlements and they aren't connected to the budget at all.
Cruz has to know that. Hell, I'm sitting here in an apartment in Oklahoma City sucking on a beer and I figured it out. The only conclusion one can come to is that this version of the continuing resolution is clearly a crude act of extortion meant to shame and terrify the president and the senate into submission.
The problem is, Cruz is a slash and burn guy and it is increasingly apparent it is his only talent. He is the Washington equivalent of a two bit vandal. He can fuck up the works, but he hasn't an inkling when it comes to getting things done. Unfortunately, he is utterly convinced he is not only the smartest guy in the republic, but that everyone else is so stupid they'll buy into everything he says because he is--well--Ted Cruz. If he actually thinks Obama and the senate democrats are going to cave into what he wants he is also delusional, perhaps dangerously so.
According to Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, "...we will not bow to tea party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law. The simple fact remains Obamacare is the law of the land and it will remain the law of the land as long as Barak Obama is president of the United States and I am the Senate Majority Leader."
Even Coburn admits the only way to get rid of the ACA is for republicans to win the presidential election in 2016.
Indeed, The Grand Plan isn't so grand after all. Nearly 60% of Americans don't agree with it. Huge chunks of people in his own party don't agree with it. Barak H. Obama and a majority of the U. S. Senate certainly don't agree with it.
Ted Cruz has his eyes on the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2016. Given what is going on at the moment, he may find his presidential campaign cut short by about three years. In truth, he is currently being exposed to the public as both a bully and hysteric. And worse--that he hasn't a clue when it comes to how things operate in a democracy.
Hey, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
sic vita est
9-24-13
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Safer in Afghanistan, The NRA Moment of the Week, and Ted Cruz at the Poker Table
Earlier today NBC reported three NATO troops were killed and one was wounded in Afghanistan, proving once again, living and working in a war zone is far safer than walking around in the United States of America.
On Monday, Aaron Alexis, who had been as crazy as a bed bug on acid for years, stepped into the Washington Navy Yard. By the time police killed him, he had shot to death 12 and another 14 were either injured or wounded. Despite a history of mental health issues and at least two previous incidents of gun violence where police had to respond, he had survived a background check by defense department contractor, USIS. That would be the same meticulous outfit who gave the okay to the NSA to hire Edward Snowden. Brother Snowden is currently a resident of Moscow, Russia and wanted by American authorities for making all manner of top secret documents available to the entire world.
Then Thursday, on Chicago's south side, someone opened up with a 7.62 mm semi automatic assault style weapon, which was fed by a high capacity ammunition clip. When the smoke cleared 13, including a three year old were wounded. The shooting occurred in the Back of the Yards neighborhood at a park where a crowd had gathered to watch an evening basketball game. Chicago police superintendent, Garry McCarthy was quoted as saying the type of gun used in the attack, "belongs on battlefields, not on a street corner, or park in Back of the Yards." Given the current casualty rates both in Afghanistan and on the streets of Chicago one would have to agree. To paraphrase an old movie line, "Taliban? We don' need no stinkin' Taliban."
On Wednesday, in what can only be described as, The NRA Moment of the Week, two guys named, Robert Taylor and James Pullum shot and killed each other in a car wash parking lot. They were in a heated dispute because one had been following the other too closely in traffic. Each of these responsible gun owners were licensed by the state of Michigan to carry concealed weapons. Back in 2006, Taylor had his suspended for three years because he was convicted of driving under the influence while he was armed. He reapplied for a new permit in 2010 and was promptly granted one.
Well of course he was. After all, we're not a bunch of communists here. This is the United, by God, States of America. If you don't own a gun, get one. You might as well. Everyone else is packing and nobody, absolutely nobody, is going to stop you from buying it.
Finally, in Washington the house passed a measure that gives the federal government a budget for the next fiscal year, but only if the Affordable Care Act is defunded. The legislation now moves to the senate, where the most vocal proponent of this act of extortion, the mad Canadian, Ted Cruz, sits waiting for its arrival. Unfortunately for tea party enthusiasts everywhere, Mr. Cruz has already admitted he doesn't have the votes to get the bill passed as is.
Some republicans in the center, most notably Peter King of New York are calling Cruz things like a fraud for whipping the conservative hoi polloi up into a frenzy over the bill which stands absolutely no chance making it out of the senate in it's current form. Speaking wishfully, King was quoted as saying, "He'll (Cruz) no longer have any influence in the republican party."
That seems a tad over the top. The fact is Cruz, a man of condescending smarmy smiles, who exudes supreme arrogance, believes he can blame a government shutdown entirely on Barak Obama and everyone in the nation will buy it.
It is a big gamble and he is going all in, not with his money, but the salaries of every man and woman in the military, not to mention hundreds of thousands of other federal employees. There is, at this time, no indication of how the general public--you know people other than the clods who show up at Cruz's town hall meetings--will react. There is a hint though.
The only previous time the senator from Alberta really fucked up was during his college career at Princeton. As a freshman he proved himself such a sucker at the poker table he had to borrow money from a relative to pay off his debts.
Being sure you're right can take you far, but when you become convinced everyone else is stupid it is guaranteed you'll eventually go careening off a cliff. As the man said, "When you bluff, you must be prepared for your bluff to be called."
And there we have it. Another week is in the books and we're all still here, at least at the moment.
As always, stay low and keep moving. There is no such thing as paranoia any more.
sic vita est
9-21-13
On Monday, Aaron Alexis, who had been as crazy as a bed bug on acid for years, stepped into the Washington Navy Yard. By the time police killed him, he had shot to death 12 and another 14 were either injured or wounded. Despite a history of mental health issues and at least two previous incidents of gun violence where police had to respond, he had survived a background check by defense department contractor, USIS. That would be the same meticulous outfit who gave the okay to the NSA to hire Edward Snowden. Brother Snowden is currently a resident of Moscow, Russia and wanted by American authorities for making all manner of top secret documents available to the entire world.
Then Thursday, on Chicago's south side, someone opened up with a 7.62 mm semi automatic assault style weapon, which was fed by a high capacity ammunition clip. When the smoke cleared 13, including a three year old were wounded. The shooting occurred in the Back of the Yards neighborhood at a park where a crowd had gathered to watch an evening basketball game. Chicago police superintendent, Garry McCarthy was quoted as saying the type of gun used in the attack, "belongs on battlefields, not on a street corner, or park in Back of the Yards." Given the current casualty rates both in Afghanistan and on the streets of Chicago one would have to agree. To paraphrase an old movie line, "Taliban? We don' need no stinkin' Taliban."
On Wednesday, in what can only be described as, The NRA Moment of the Week, two guys named, Robert Taylor and James Pullum shot and killed each other in a car wash parking lot. They were in a heated dispute because one had been following the other too closely in traffic. Each of these responsible gun owners were licensed by the state of Michigan to carry concealed weapons. Back in 2006, Taylor had his suspended for three years because he was convicted of driving under the influence while he was armed. He reapplied for a new permit in 2010 and was promptly granted one.
Well of course he was. After all, we're not a bunch of communists here. This is the United, by God, States of America. If you don't own a gun, get one. You might as well. Everyone else is packing and nobody, absolutely nobody, is going to stop you from buying it.
Finally, in Washington the house passed a measure that gives the federal government a budget for the next fiscal year, but only if the Affordable Care Act is defunded. The legislation now moves to the senate, where the most vocal proponent of this act of extortion, the mad Canadian, Ted Cruz, sits waiting for its arrival. Unfortunately for tea party enthusiasts everywhere, Mr. Cruz has already admitted he doesn't have the votes to get the bill passed as is.
Some republicans in the center, most notably Peter King of New York are calling Cruz things like a fraud for whipping the conservative hoi polloi up into a frenzy over the bill which stands absolutely no chance making it out of the senate in it's current form. Speaking wishfully, King was quoted as saying, "He'll (Cruz) no longer have any influence in the republican party."
That seems a tad over the top. The fact is Cruz, a man of condescending smarmy smiles, who exudes supreme arrogance, believes he can blame a government shutdown entirely on Barak Obama and everyone in the nation will buy it.
It is a big gamble and he is going all in, not with his money, but the salaries of every man and woman in the military, not to mention hundreds of thousands of other federal employees. There is, at this time, no indication of how the general public--you know people other than the clods who show up at Cruz's town hall meetings--will react. There is a hint though.
The only previous time the senator from Alberta really fucked up was during his college career at Princeton. As a freshman he proved himself such a sucker at the poker table he had to borrow money from a relative to pay off his debts.
Being sure you're right can take you far, but when you become convinced everyone else is stupid it is guaranteed you'll eventually go careening off a cliff. As the man said, "When you bluff, you must be prepared for your bluff to be called."
And there we have it. Another week is in the books and we're all still here, at least at the moment.
As always, stay low and keep moving. There is no such thing as paranoia any more.
sic vita est
9-21-13
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Crazies and Cowards: The Grand Plan
Here is the situation in a nutshell. A few years ago the president proposed a major shift in the way health care is administered in this country. It is called the Affordable Care Act. Congress passed the legislation. The president signed the bill and later, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled it was constitutional. Now, as in right at this very moment, ultra conservative elements of the republican party do not recognize, or accept the decisions made by all three branches of the federal government. In others words, fuck the constitutional process. We don't want the Affordable Care Act and we'll use any and all means at our disposal to get rid of it.
Up until now that has been nothing more than a ludicrous series of votes in the house of representatives, over 40 at this point, to repeal the ACA, also known as Obama Care. After each vote the legislation moved to the senate where it died a quick death.
Now some of the bright bulbs in the house and the senate have decided to use the annual budget vote to get their way. The Grand Plan is to simply not pass a new one--in short, shut down vast portions of the federal government, unless the president agrees to completely defund the ACA and render it useless. In most places this is known as extortion and is a felony. It is a ruse the right wing has used before. It hasn't worked out well for them in the past, but most of these statesmen can be considered clinically brain dead and therefore devoid of any sort of memory.
Pundits on the left are claiming a move like this will cost the GOP seats in congress next year, but the truth is a year in American politics is rather like a geological epoch. By November 2014 this year will have about as much relevance to the average voter as the Jurassic Age. Besides, if recent history has proven anything, these tea party jihadists don't give a rat's ass about polls and what the general public thinks. There is no such thing as the long term for them. Like most criminal minds they are completely obsessed with instant self gratification and never take into consideration the consequences for either themselves, or others. They see the watch in the window, want it, then find a brick to heave through the glass.
The chock ful o' nuts wing isn't in the majority, however their numbers are large enough they can kill any sort of plan which doesn't suit them. The guy who supposedly is their leader, John Boehner has about as much control over them as he does the Gulf Stream. They are a run amok mob and compromise does not exist in their vocabulary.
So, in 12 short days, barring some sort of unforeseen breakthrough, the feds will run out of operating cash.
When that happens several things will occur. One, if you're serving in the military in a place like Afghanistan you'll still have to dodge incoming fire, but you won't get paid for it and unless your spouse has another source of income your family will be screwed. All the national parks and monuments will shut down. Passports will cease to be issued, or renewed. The FHA will have to stop approving home loans and about 800,000 people will be furloughed and out of work. In addition, if you have a refund due from the IRS you're stuck, because it will shut down also.
The president, congress, and their staffs will continue to work, but without compensation. There is no guarantee of anyone receiving back pay unless a rider is attached to a future budget that is approved, so without one there is no recourse to recover salary lost during the shutdown.
In anticipation of a backlash GOP members have already begun laying the blame on Obama by saying he is the one holding up the budget because he won't give in on this single issue. This is a tactic usually reserved for torturers and mobsters. The old, I wouldn't have had to hurt anyone if he'd just done as he was told, excuse. Or, as Rocco might say, "Hey, if you'd signed with our garbage pick up service, your place wouldn't have burned down."
The truth is these terrible brutes know they have to stop the ACA right now, before it is fully implemented. They and their keepers can't afford to let people actually use it, grow comfortable with it, and realize everything the right wing has said about it is a collection of grotesque fabrications.
Those of us who were around in the 60's, when medicare and medicaid were introduced, know the political ancestors of the current republican party were howling the exact same things about those programs. Hand wringing was widespread and the voices shrill--the country was doomed because we were socializing medicine. The government would destroy the greatest health care system in the world--you know, the one very few people could afford.
If these clowns were to attempt to get rid of medicare and medicaid now their political careers would be over in a heartbeat. They know the same thing is coming with the Affordable Care Act.
Republican party policy is currently controlled by a hand full of media cranks who have never served in congress and whose only talent is to roil up the masses with glib one liners and outright lies. The establishment is petrified of them, the NRA, and some rube back home who will run around screaming he is the real conservative in the next primary. What is good, or bad public policy has nothing to do with how the old guard votes any more. It is all about survival in this, the age of the uber right.
The crazies and the cowards--those are the two wings of the GOP at this moment. And the crazies are winning.
Don't think so? Just ask the soldiers sailors, airmen and marines in 12 days when their families run out of grocery money.
9-19-13
Up until now that has been nothing more than a ludicrous series of votes in the house of representatives, over 40 at this point, to repeal the ACA, also known as Obama Care. After each vote the legislation moved to the senate where it died a quick death.
Now some of the bright bulbs in the house and the senate have decided to use the annual budget vote to get their way. The Grand Plan is to simply not pass a new one--in short, shut down vast portions of the federal government, unless the president agrees to completely defund the ACA and render it useless. In most places this is known as extortion and is a felony. It is a ruse the right wing has used before. It hasn't worked out well for them in the past, but most of these statesmen can be considered clinically brain dead and therefore devoid of any sort of memory.
Pundits on the left are claiming a move like this will cost the GOP seats in congress next year, but the truth is a year in American politics is rather like a geological epoch. By November 2014 this year will have about as much relevance to the average voter as the Jurassic Age. Besides, if recent history has proven anything, these tea party jihadists don't give a rat's ass about polls and what the general public thinks. There is no such thing as the long term for them. Like most criminal minds they are completely obsessed with instant self gratification and never take into consideration the consequences for either themselves, or others. They see the watch in the window, want it, then find a brick to heave through the glass.
The chock ful o' nuts wing isn't in the majority, however their numbers are large enough they can kill any sort of plan which doesn't suit them. The guy who supposedly is their leader, John Boehner has about as much control over them as he does the Gulf Stream. They are a run amok mob and compromise does not exist in their vocabulary.
So, in 12 short days, barring some sort of unforeseen breakthrough, the feds will run out of operating cash.
When that happens several things will occur. One, if you're serving in the military in a place like Afghanistan you'll still have to dodge incoming fire, but you won't get paid for it and unless your spouse has another source of income your family will be screwed. All the national parks and monuments will shut down. Passports will cease to be issued, or renewed. The FHA will have to stop approving home loans and about 800,000 people will be furloughed and out of work. In addition, if you have a refund due from the IRS you're stuck, because it will shut down also.
The president, congress, and their staffs will continue to work, but without compensation. There is no guarantee of anyone receiving back pay unless a rider is attached to a future budget that is approved, so without one there is no recourse to recover salary lost during the shutdown.
In anticipation of a backlash GOP members have already begun laying the blame on Obama by saying he is the one holding up the budget because he won't give in on this single issue. This is a tactic usually reserved for torturers and mobsters. The old, I wouldn't have had to hurt anyone if he'd just done as he was told, excuse. Or, as Rocco might say, "Hey, if you'd signed with our garbage pick up service, your place wouldn't have burned down."
The truth is these terrible brutes know they have to stop the ACA right now, before it is fully implemented. They and their keepers can't afford to let people actually use it, grow comfortable with it, and realize everything the right wing has said about it is a collection of grotesque fabrications.
Those of us who were around in the 60's, when medicare and medicaid were introduced, know the political ancestors of the current republican party were howling the exact same things about those programs. Hand wringing was widespread and the voices shrill--the country was doomed because we were socializing medicine. The government would destroy the greatest health care system in the world--you know, the one very few people could afford.
If these clowns were to attempt to get rid of medicare and medicaid now their political careers would be over in a heartbeat. They know the same thing is coming with the Affordable Care Act.
Republican party policy is currently controlled by a hand full of media cranks who have never served in congress and whose only talent is to roil up the masses with glib one liners and outright lies. The establishment is petrified of them, the NRA, and some rube back home who will run around screaming he is the real conservative in the next primary. What is good, or bad public policy has nothing to do with how the old guard votes any more. It is all about survival in this, the age of the uber right.
The crazies and the cowards--those are the two wings of the GOP at this moment. And the crazies are winning.
Don't think so? Just ask the soldiers sailors, airmen and marines in 12 days when their families run out of grocery money.
9-19-13
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Something Evil Once More
There is something evil in our society that we ,as Americans, have to try to eradicate.
Dr. Janis Orlwoski, Chief Medical Officer of Washington Medical Center: the hospital that treated three of the wounded the day before yesterday.
It only took nine months and two days for us to produce another one, or at least another one who made it to double digits. On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza ran amok in a small New England town. On September 16, 2013 Aaron Alexis did much the same thing in Washington D.C.
At least, Alexis picked a tougher target. The Washington Naval Yard has security all over the place and there aren't any babies huddled in classrooms. The body count had reached 12, less than half that of Newtown, before authorities nailed the beast. Eight others were injured, three of them by gun fire.
Aaron Alexis bought a shotgun last week from a gun store in Lorton, VA. It was a legal transaction, but then every gun sale in this country seems to be legal, so that isn't anything new. He'd been allowed on the base because he worked for Hewlett Packard as a defense department contractor and had proper ID. He used the shotgun to kill a security guard at the entrance of the Sea Systems Command Headquarters. He took the guard's hand gun and somewhere in the building latched onto a AR-15. Witnesses say he didn't utter a word as he opened fire on a cafeteria area and other locations within the building.
The rest of it is so numbingly familiar it is almost as if we could use the same background story over and over and just change the name. Aaron Alexis was 34, a former navy petty officer who had been treated at a VA hospital for a variety of mental problems, including sleep deprivation, anger issues, and paranoia. Reports are the navy gave him a general discharge as opposed to an honorable one. He'd been written up for absent without permission from work, insubordination, and disorderly conduct during his time in the service.
His father claims he was suffering from post traumatic stress because he'd been a rescuer in New York City during the 9-11 nightmare. While that hasn't been confirmed, it is known he was living in New York at the time of the attacks.
Friends are stunned, one so much so he initially disbelieved it was Alexis who did it. Another talked about how he liked to stay in his room alone playing video games hour after hour, "you know, the ones where you shoot people."
As always there were other signs. In 2004 he was popped in Seattle for shooting out the tires of a car. He claimed the owner had, "disrespected" him. Other reports say he told Seattle police he had suffered, "an anger induced black out." In Ft. Worth in 2010 a neighbor called police after Alexis fired a gun in an apartment. Prosecutors dropped the charges when they bought the excuse the weapon went off accidentally while he was cleaning it. They said he didn't appear to be reckless. A friend told the press he had a concealed carry permit for a hand gun when he was living in Texas. As late as August 7th this year, Alexis complained to Rhode Island police that people were talking to him through the walls and ceiling of his hotel room and someone was sending microwave vibrations through his body to keep him from sleeping.
Authorities claim they are still searching for a motive, as if there is one out there that will make any sense. There have been unsubstantiated reports Alexis had either just lost his job, or was in the process of being laid off because the work he was doing at the yard was being relocated to Colorado. Whatever the case, the only thing we can be sure of right now is the guy was bat shit crazy and had been for quite some time.
So, to sum up just another day in the life here in the good old U.S.A.--we have a former sailor who had discipline problems, who had anger issues, who had been treated at a VA hospital for mental disorders, who was listening to voices coming through walls, who had told police microwave vibrations were keeping him awake, and who had previously discharged a weapon on a street during a, "blackout." Then, because a bunch of bellicose twits demand there be no meaningful restrictions, or background checks on gun purchases, this demented goof was able to walk right into a Virginia store and buy a shotgun as easily as he could have bought a six pack of beer at a neighborhood 7-11.
At the end of her statement to the press, Dr. Orlwoski said, "This isn't America. This isn't Washington D.C. This isn't good."
Well, you went one for three there, Doc. Tragically, Aaron Alexis and his ability to get a gun, any gun, and his willingness to use it during a murderous walkabout is, beyond a shred of doubt, exactly what America and Washington D.C. are. A more perfect portrait cannot be painted.
If you don't believe me, I have the statistics to prove it. Or, you can just pick up a phone and call someone in Newtown. They'll explain it to you.
mors vincit omnia
9-17-13
Dr. Janis Orlwoski, Chief Medical Officer of Washington Medical Center: the hospital that treated three of the wounded the day before yesterday.
It only took nine months and two days for us to produce another one, or at least another one who made it to double digits. On December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza ran amok in a small New England town. On September 16, 2013 Aaron Alexis did much the same thing in Washington D.C.
At least, Alexis picked a tougher target. The Washington Naval Yard has security all over the place and there aren't any babies huddled in classrooms. The body count had reached 12, less than half that of Newtown, before authorities nailed the beast. Eight others were injured, three of them by gun fire.
Aaron Alexis bought a shotgun last week from a gun store in Lorton, VA. It was a legal transaction, but then every gun sale in this country seems to be legal, so that isn't anything new. He'd been allowed on the base because he worked for Hewlett Packard as a defense department contractor and had proper ID. He used the shotgun to kill a security guard at the entrance of the Sea Systems Command Headquarters. He took the guard's hand gun and somewhere in the building latched onto a AR-15. Witnesses say he didn't utter a word as he opened fire on a cafeteria area and other locations within the building.
The rest of it is so numbingly familiar it is almost as if we could use the same background story over and over and just change the name. Aaron Alexis was 34, a former navy petty officer who had been treated at a VA hospital for a variety of mental problems, including sleep deprivation, anger issues, and paranoia. Reports are the navy gave him a general discharge as opposed to an honorable one. He'd been written up for absent without permission from work, insubordination, and disorderly conduct during his time in the service.
His father claims he was suffering from post traumatic stress because he'd been a rescuer in New York City during the 9-11 nightmare. While that hasn't been confirmed, it is known he was living in New York at the time of the attacks.
Friends are stunned, one so much so he initially disbelieved it was Alexis who did it. Another talked about how he liked to stay in his room alone playing video games hour after hour, "you know, the ones where you shoot people."
As always there were other signs. In 2004 he was popped in Seattle for shooting out the tires of a car. He claimed the owner had, "disrespected" him. Other reports say he told Seattle police he had suffered, "an anger induced black out." In Ft. Worth in 2010 a neighbor called police after Alexis fired a gun in an apartment. Prosecutors dropped the charges when they bought the excuse the weapon went off accidentally while he was cleaning it. They said he didn't appear to be reckless. A friend told the press he had a concealed carry permit for a hand gun when he was living in Texas. As late as August 7th this year, Alexis complained to Rhode Island police that people were talking to him through the walls and ceiling of his hotel room and someone was sending microwave vibrations through his body to keep him from sleeping.
Authorities claim they are still searching for a motive, as if there is one out there that will make any sense. There have been unsubstantiated reports Alexis had either just lost his job, or was in the process of being laid off because the work he was doing at the yard was being relocated to Colorado. Whatever the case, the only thing we can be sure of right now is the guy was bat shit crazy and had been for quite some time.
So, to sum up just another day in the life here in the good old U.S.A.--we have a former sailor who had discipline problems, who had anger issues, who had been treated at a VA hospital for mental disorders, who was listening to voices coming through walls, who had told police microwave vibrations were keeping him awake, and who had previously discharged a weapon on a street during a, "blackout." Then, because a bunch of bellicose twits demand there be no meaningful restrictions, or background checks on gun purchases, this demented goof was able to walk right into a Virginia store and buy a shotgun as easily as he could have bought a six pack of beer at a neighborhood 7-11.
At the end of her statement to the press, Dr. Orlwoski said, "This isn't America. This isn't Washington D.C. This isn't good."
Well, you went one for three there, Doc. Tragically, Aaron Alexis and his ability to get a gun, any gun, and his willingness to use it during a murderous walkabout is, beyond a shred of doubt, exactly what America and Washington D.C. are. A more perfect portrait cannot be painted.
If you don't believe me, I have the statistics to prove it. Or, you can just pick up a phone and call someone in Newtown. They'll explain it to you.
mors vincit omnia
9-17-13
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