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March 30, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:38
March 30, 2009, Monday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Check this headline from the Associated Press.
After Obama fires, Rick Wagner, the CEO of General Motors, and the stock market opens today, down now 273 points.
The AP headline, GM shares tumble after U.S. rejects rescue plan.
That's not why the shares are tumbling.
The shares are tumbling because the U.S. Rescue Plan is government owning and operating the automobile companies.
Hi, folks.
Great to have you here as a new week of broadcast excellence is upon us.
I am Rush Limbaugh, America's Truth Detector, America's Doctor of Democracy, a general all-round good guy behind the golden EIB microphone at 800-282-2882, the email address LRushbo at EIBnet.com.
President Obama, mere moments ago, said times like these are the times that produce the creativity and the ingenuity that build great things.
This is when the auto industry sheds its old ways, adopts my ways, and will be reborn.
That's essentially what he said.
I want to go back on this program to Monday, November 24th of last year.
That, of course, for those of you in Rio Linda and Port St. Lucie, would be after the election.
And this is what I said.
The fact of the matter is, when you look at what the auto industry is being asked to do here, show us a plan that will honor all these overpriced union agreements.
Show Congress this plan.
Turn out cars, the environmental extremists demand, stop producing cars customers want, manufacture cars liberals say people should be driving.
And then every time the liberals in Congress change their mind, you have to change your production lines and retool.
And while doing all of this, you have to make a profit.
I would not want to be a CEO of a big automaker these days is headed their way, given their needs.
They're going to have to bend over a whole bunch of times, grab the ankles for whatever sustenance they get from the government.
And was that not prophetic or what?
So Rick Wagner is out.
I have a question.
Does anybody know whether Barack Obama knows how to change a tire?
Does anybody know whether Barack Obama knows how to use a tire gauge?
Does anybody know whether Barack Obama knows what a manifold is and what the manifold pressure is?
Does he know anything about this?
Do any of the people on his auto task force have the slightest idea about the mechanics of an automobile, the designing of an automobile, the manufacturing of an automobile, and of course the marketing and sale.
Now we're in the warranty business too, ladies and gentlemen.
I don't know if you know this or not, but starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty on a newly purchased General Motors car.
Now, that's going to be cool, isn't it?
You take your car in for a problem, and you're going to have to argue with the government representative you're dealing with as to whether or not it's really a problem or whether you caused it.
You think dealing with the DMV is a struggle.
Now, wait till this kicks into gear.
Let's listen to what President Obama had to say in his announcement press conference about an hour ago.
GM has made a good faith effort to restructure over the past several months, but the plan that they've put forward is in its current form not strong enough.
Stop the tip.
However.
You know, this is a, I could stop and start this stuff after every sentence of the others.
Your government, the presidency of Barack Obama, has just said that the restructuring plan put forward by General Motors in its current form is not strong enough.
Based on what?
What do these guys know about the automobile industry?
You know something about Rick Wagner?
Rick Wagner, if you dig deep in a story, let's see what story is this.
This is a political story.
You find out, I'll just read it to you here, that Rick Wagner considered responsible for increasing GM's focus on trucks and SUVs at the expense of the hybrids and fuel-efficient cars that have become more popular in the last couple of years.
Become more popular?
It is trucks and SUVs that kept them afloat.
You know, when the history of this is all written, the question is going to be: where was the media?
Where was the media when this takeover of capitalism and the private sector by the Obama administration was taking place?
Where was the media?
The answer will be the media supported him and then woke up when it was too late.
Then they're also going to ask, where were the Republicans?
And where were the moderate conservatives who told us this was the future?
This kind of use of government was the future.
Where are they?
And the media will ask, where were they?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a dire, dire situation that is taking place.
And it's not just what's happening here in the automobile industry.
There are a whole lot of things going on, capping taxes, capping earnings based on whatever the government wants to do.
This is a major, major thing.
The media is right in there salivating and thinking this is great.
In fact, I'm going to tell you, you're going to, if you haven't yet done so, recue soundbite number two back to the top, Ed.
You run into your average ordinary dime store liberal today, and let me tell you what that dime store liberals' reaction is going to be.
Good.
Good.
It's about time that CEO found out what this life is like for the rest of us.
About fine for him to find out what it's like to get fired like the rest of us get fired.
Good.
You're going to have 100% slavish, total support of this move by the media and by most liberals and Democrats who voted for Obama because this is all about punishment.
This is all about getting even with this.
This is all about chopping the heads off evil, chopping the heads off the bad guys, the CEOs.
It's about time they find out what it's like to walk out the door having been canned.
That's the essence of the lib reaction to this.
And you'll see it wherever you go.
All right, here, back to the top of the soundbite again.
Basically, in this bite, President Obama is saying he is taking over General Motors, government motors now, but that he didn't take it over.
GM has made a good faith effort to restructure over the past several months.
But the plan that they've put forward is in its current form not strong enough.
However, after broad consultation with a range of industry experts and financial advisors, I'm absolutely confident that GM can rise again, providing that it undergoes a fundamental restructuring.
As an initial step, GM is announcing today that Rick Wagner is stepping aside as chairman and CEO.
This is not meant as a condemnation of Mr. Wagner, who's devoted his life to this company.
Rather, it's a recognition that we'll take new vision and new direction to create the GM of the future.
Well, I see.
It's not a condemnation of Wagner.
No, it's recognition that his vision and direction sucked.
We're not condemning Wagner.
He just didn't know what he was doing, according to us.
And so it's going to take a new vision and a new direction to create the GM of the future.
And Barack Obama's administration is going to do it.
This is, I'll tell you what's headed down the road.
You're going to see union members on the board of directors.
You're going to see green wacko environmentalists on the board of directors.
And General Motors is going to be designing and building cars, selling cars that satisfy Obama's desire for green, environmentally friendly cars, blah, blah, blah, blah.
That's what you're going to see coming down the road.
That's what this is all.
Plus, everybody in the auto industry has to make concessions here except the unions.
This is also payback for the unions.
Now, folks, I made another prediction.
Maybe Cookie will be able to find this in the show archives.
But I made another prediction last year, and I said the, I wouldn't be surprised, I said, if the end result of this is to end up making the United Auto Workers the essential owner of General Motors.
Remember when I said that, snerdly?
That's the ultimate game.
Return the nation's wealth to its rightful, quote-unquote, rightful owners.
So we'll see.
This is just step one.
Now, the president says that the government is not taking over.
In this context, my administration will offer General Motors adequate working capital over the next 60 days.
And during this time, my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan.
Let me be clear.
The United States government has no interest in running GM.
We have no intention of running GM.
What we are interested in is giving GM an opportunity to finally make those much-needed changes that will let them emerge from this crisis a stronger and more competitive company.
None of that is true.
Every bit of that is a lie, is disinformation.
During this time, my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan.
Quick, somebody find for me a business person, an experienced business person in Obama's administration.
Find me somebody in his cabinet.
You can't find you.
They're all academic eggheads from the Ivy League.
You don't have anybody with actual CEO experience on his team.
His team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan.
GM is not going to be working with the government.
They're going to be taking orders from the government.
It's what happens when you run around out there with your hand out and take freebies, take loans, whatever.
You do become obligated.
Then let me be clear, the U.S. government has no interest in running GM.
Yeah, that's why I fired the CEO.
I have no interest in running General Motors, but I can the CEO anyway.
We have no intention of running GM.
What we're interested in is giving GM an opportunity to finally make much-needed changes that will let them, as though we know, we know what the changes are, and we're going to give them time to make those changes.
And this is a guy who's been nothing but a community organizer, has no experience running anything, as I say, may not even know how to change a tire.
Then he put Chrysler on notice, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll give Chrysler and Fiat 30 days to overcome these hurdles and reach a final agreement.
And we will provide Chrysler with adequate capital to continue operating during that time.
If they are able to come to a sound agreement that protects American taxpayers, we will consider lending up to $6 billion to help their plan succeed.
But if they and their stakeholders are unable to reach such an agreement, and in the absence of any other viable partnership, we will not be able to justify investing additional tax dollars to keep Chrysler in business.
So he wants Fiat.
Imagine the leverage Fiat has here.
Fiat has just been deemed the appropriate marriage partner, merger partner for Chrysler.
So Fiat can hold out whatever deal they want to get.
And if Chrysler better make the deal, They better make this deal, or they're going to have to go bankruptcy, which is what they ought to do in the first place, which is what General Motors should have done in the first place.
Obama's well aware of the problems of bankruptcy and therefore promised this.
If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired just like always.
Your warranty will be safe.
In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty.
Now, the real key there is Obama telling all of us who have purchased cars all of our lives, and we've got the warranties.
You know, I don't know about you.
I haven't had a whole lot of problems having the dealership actually perform warranty work.
Never doubted the warranty was worth nothing.
I never thought that.
Did you?
Now, all of a sudden, your warranty is worth more than ever.
Your warranty is safer than it's ever again, because the United States government will stand behind it.
Is Hugo Chavez able to possess this man and go out and make speeches?
Poor old teleprompter having to get Obama to say these kinds of things.
And finally, ladies and gentlemen, Obama addressed the peasants, those of you out there.
I'd like to speak directly to all those men and women who work in the auto industry or live in countless communities that depend on it.
Many of you have been going through tough times for longer than you care to remember.
And I won't pretend that the tough times are over.
Really?
I can't promise you there isn't more difficulty to come.
Why?
But what I can promise you is this.
What?
I will fight for you.
You're the reason I'm here today.
Yes.
I got my start fighting for working families in the shadows of a shuttered steel plant.
I wake up every single day asking myself, what can I do to give you and working people all across this country a fair shot at the American drink?
Okay, so you peasants, Obama is doing this for you.
It ain't going to get any better.
He may not be able to save your plant.
He may not be able to save your job.
He can't promise you that there's not more pain to come, but he's going to fight for you.
So what do we have here?
Times like these that produce the creativity and ingenuity that build things, Obama said.
This is when the auto industry shed its old ways, adopted my ways, and will be reborn.
Can't guarantee your job will still be there.
Can't guarantee your plant will stay open, but I'm fighting for you.
The government's not going to run the auto business.
That's why I fired the CEO.
It's not the fault of the workers.
It's the fault of management.
It's the fault of Washington.
The unions are blameless.
Chrysler needs a partner, Fiat.
If they don't get the partner, it's bye-bye.
Nobody is asking about cafe standards, by the way.
Nobody's talking about cap and trade and all of this.
Obama spoke about all the workers, not the shareholders, other investors.
This is a union coup at the behest of the president.
This is a payback.
If you want to understand this, it's very simple.
It's a payback.
A union coup at the behest of the president of the United States.
And unless Chrysler accedes to being bought by a foreign company, they're dead.
You know, there's always been a line, ladies and gentlemen, over which no president would cross with respect to the distinction between the public and private sectors.
Obama has now crossed that line where there is no limit to government's destruction of private activity or control over it.
Back after this.
Stay with us.
Community Organizer College, the alma mater of Barack Obama.
It's not what you know.
It's what people think, you know.
You know, there's also another aspect to this takeover of General Motors and the timing of this money.
You know, Obama leaves for the G20 tomorrow in the UK.
And there have been stories over the weekend about the large traveling party, Obama taking 500-plus people on his trip to the G-20.
It's going to take both Air Force Ones, both 747s.
They'll have a separate press charter.
And, of course, the military aircraft to take the limousine and the SUVs to travel around.
White House cooks to prepare his food.
That stuff's pretty normal.
I checked into this because a big deal was made of this yesterday over the traveling party.
What's unusual, what is not the norm, is the size of the traveling party.
Out of 500 people, 200 of them are Secret Service and other security.
But 500-plus people, that's a little excessive, I am told, from what previous administrations took or presidents took with them on international trips like this.
But regardless, the G20 starts tomorrow, and that's got its own problems.
Angela Merkel of Germany said to Gordon, Brown, the hell with your plan.
We are not raising taxes, and we're not going to commit to a whole bunch of new spending around the world on some global new deal.
We're just not interested in it.
Our partners in Europe are well aware of the problems of spending and spending and spending money that you don't have.
So Obama's headed over to the G20, and also he's got some PR problems.
A lot of our allies in Europe are not happy about his Afghanistan plans.
More on that later.
But he does have now a feather in his cap as he goes to the G20.
You know, he wants to outdo the Russians over there.
And so now look what he can brag.
He can go to Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, and say, hey, look, Dmitry, I got the car companies.
I got the car companies, Medvedev.
What you got?
We'll take a brief time out.
We'll be back and continue after this.
I have a story here from the St. Louis Business Journal, ladies and gentlemen.
And this is another Obama success story.
Don Davis, the president of Centru Bank in St. Louis, has resigned because his income will be severely restricted by new federal limitations on bank executives.
In January, Central Bank in St. Louis accepted $32.7 million under the TARP program.
And later, the federal government imposed restrictions on the bonuses of top executives at banks and other financial institutions that took TARP money.
Davis said in an interview today, my salary and bonus ain't going to work.
TARP isn't going to allow it.
Don Davis, president of Central Bank in St. Louis, is paid $350,000 a year, also gets 10% of the profits of the St. Louis branch of Centru in 2008 that amounted to about $750,000 for Davis.
So he made over $1 million.
He said, TARP doesn't like me getting that.
TARP, the government, the government doesn't like me getting this.
The comments at the end of this article indicate this is a good guy who did not want any TARP money, but like the CEO of Wells Fargo, was forced to take TARP money.
So why is this a success story?
Because a successful CEO at a bank quits.
I don't want any part of this.
That means the Obama administration gets to repopulate institutions like this with its own people because who's going to want to take over banks like this with all these limitations on what you can earn and your bonuses?
This is just unbelievable to sit here and watch this.
You know, a lot of people ask me who know me and who grew up with me and knew my father about whom I've spoken frequently on this program, Rush.
What would your dad be saying about all this?
This would be a tipping point.
And it would have been reached last week or long ago.
But this would have been a tipping point, I think.
He was the country that we've always known is over.
He would probably say, son, capitalism, as we've known it, is over.
The line has been crossed.
There's always been a line.
Even in war, even during World War II, there was a line that government did not cross in involving itself in private sector activities.
That line's gone.
Obama can go anywhere he wants.
All he's got to do is tell the peasants with the pitchforks he's fighting for them.
That he's fighting for, can't guarantee their jobs, can't guarantee their plants, can't guarantee it's not going to get any worse.
But all he does is think about them.
All he does is fight for them.
And he knows nothing about the industries.
He's trying to save nothing.
I don't think he's trying to save them.
And that's the big thing.
I don't think Obama wants to save the auto industry.
I think he wants it to change.
He wants to take it over.
He wants to refocus it.
He wants it to become another industry doing his bidding.
Same thing with financial industry and so forth.
You know, there's a big story out of New York over the weekend that they, the big, oh, hey, by the Snurdly, I asked you guys, before we get to this New York tax increase, this is phenomenal, too.
Did you guys turn your lights on Saturday night, 8:30?
Boy, I did too.
I lit up the whole place.
I couldn't legally light up the back because of the stupid turtles, but I lit up the inside of the house as much as I could.
And I got a lot of emails from people saying they did too.
And guess what?
I got a couple charts here.
I could link to it at rushlimbaugh.com.
Anthony Watt has a blog, and on his blog are two graphs of power demand, one for Saturday, the next one for Sunday, and they show no difference.
No difference whatsoever.
No observable decrease in energy consumption in Greenland, California during IRF hour on Saturday night.
And in Toronto, the environmentalists there declared success with the same kind of graph, not realizing there is a drop in demand every day during the time of IRF hour.
And in some places, going dark for an hour and then firing everything back up actually increased the output of CO2, the carbon footprint, because the surge in powering back up at 9.30 after this thing wiped out any gain.
And even the organizers, no, it's just symbolism.
It's just symbolism.
It's just to show how we can come together and so forth.
And so this is the tug, the tug of popular sediment that gets people involved in doing meaningless, silly, symbolic things that make themselves feel like they matter, that make themselves feel like they're making a difference.
And those kinds of things are easy.
Well, it's easy using these things to suck people in on the idea that your meaningless life now has meaning.
You have taken action by going dark for an hour.
You have taken action to save your planet.
And this is how you get the youngsters, the braindead, and others, ladies and gentlemen, to whom you want to reach to create your majorities.
Now, let's see.
In New York, they've been going back and forth at the state level on budgets.
They are over budget.
They have a deficit in the double-digit billions.
And they've been going back and forth in the state assembly in New York over whether to raise taxes.
They finally decided to do it over the weekend.
Personal income taxes for the upper middle class and the rich are about to skyrocket under a secret deal reached last night by Governor Patterson and the leaders of the legislature.
It's a two-tier tax plan.
You heard about this, Snerdley?
Two-tier tax plan.
They say it's going to bring in $4 billion annually.
I'll bet you that it does not come close to bringing in $4 billion annually.
How's it going to do this?
In part, by raising income taxes 31% for all New Yorkers making more than $500,000 a year.
Now, remember Mayor Bloomberg, who opposed this at one point.
I don't know where he stands on it now.
But Mayor Bloomberg, way back when, said, look, we've got 8 million people live here.
There are 40 or 50,000 taxpayers, families, what have you, that pay so much in tax that they essentially support the city.
And if they start to leave, we've got a big problem.
He said, even if 5,000 of them leave, we've got a huge problem.
We just can't run out there and keep raising taxes on the rich.
The governor, Mr. Patterson, didn't hear him.
It's not just people earning over $500,000 a year that are going to get hit.
A lower-tier tax increase would increase taxes by 14.5% for single people between $250,000 and $500,000 a year.
And for married and joint filers earning $300,000 to $500,000, taxpayers now hit the current top rate of 6.85% when their incomes reach $65,000.
The Patterson plan would tax top-tier earners at 8.97%, the second-tier earners at 7.85%.
This is just one of the elements of a $121 billion spending deal that the governor and legislative leaders forged in secret in a race to make the April 1st budget deadline.
A lot of other taxes and fees, including expanding the deposit law to include plastic water battles, of course, bottled, the tax on tobacco is skyrocketing.
Now it'll be up over $1 a pack.
That happens also in April.
But I want you to see if you can follow something here.
They're going to raise taxes on all these people dramatically, 31% in New York State, who earn over $500,000 a year.
At the same time, the Obama administration is moving directly against one of the industries that pays people that much to limit their bonuses, to limit their salaries, to limit how much they can be paid, and to limit how they can run their businesses.
So if the Obama administration succeeds in reducing, they want a $1 million cap on these people, salary cap.
These people have been paying a lot of tax freight.
There is no way Governor Patterson is going to raise $4 billion a year on this.
Because folks, it's axiomatic.
When you raise taxes on an activity, you reduce that activity.
People start doing that activity less, in this case, working.
When you reduce taxes on an activity, then that activity increases.
When you reduce taxes on income, people start working harder to earn more.
Governor Patterson needs to cut taxes on people.
He needs to spur investment.
He needs to get people going and working.
It's just the exact opposite.
Governor Patterson's like most other liberal Democrats.
Zero-sum game.
The economy's a pie.
It never grows.
Somebody gets their slice, somebody gets their slice.
If somebody's slice is bigger than somebody else's, it means that somebody else is being cheated.
So we've got to even this out.
Obama looks at it the same way.
So massive tax increases in New York and, of course, in New York City.
And overall spending in New York will go up over 9%, almost 9%.
Overall spending will go up almost 9%, while tax increases go up like 31% to a little over 8% in New York for the super rich.
I don't know what the breaking point in New York is, Mr. Snerdley, when people leave.
I mean, I'm leaving.
I'm leaving.
I am seriously.
See, ladies and gentlemen, I have, I would love to tell this story.
I don't think I should.
I don't think I should get personal, but I would love to tell my tax audit story of New York State, New York City since 1997.
It happens every year, but that's not, I have to prove 14 different ways where I am every day of the year.
I have to prove 14 different ways.
Because I pay New York State and City tax on a per diem.
When I am there working, I pay whatever my rate is based on income for that day in New York.
And I try to go as little as pipe.
If it weren't for hurricanes down here, I would never go up there.
New York is the escape valve in case hurricanes are showing up in our area because of loss of electricity.
So I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
I'm going to look for an alternative studio somewhere outside New York, perhaps Texas, another no-income tax state, and I'm going to get the hell over there when a hurricane starts coming our way.
Because this is, I told Mayor Bloomberg, I'll be the first to lead the way.
You know, this is just, I'll sell my apartment, I'll sell my condominium.
I'm going to get out of there totally.
Because this is just absurd and it's ridiculous and it isn't going to work.
It's punishing the achievers for the mistakes and the lack of discipline on the part of a bunch of corrupt politicians that have run that city and state into the ground for I don't know how many years.
And I, for one, am not going to take the blame for it.
We'll be back.
Stay with us.
And the way lights out.
The Earth Hour on Saturday night.
On Saturday night, WNBC-TV Channel 4 sent their ACE correspondent, Tom Yamis, down to, I guess it was in Times Square to report on what was happening at Earth Hour.
Here's what he filed.
The World Wildlife Fund says that they hope to have this in more cities next year.
And as you know, climate change has become a political issue.
And conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said on Earth Hour tonight he planned on getting a Christmas tree and putting on his Christmas lights.
So not everybody participating, not everybody excited about the Earth Hour.
Reporting live in Times Square, I'm Tom Yamas, News 4 New York.
All right, Tom, giving us both sides of the story.
Thank you, Tom.
Well, what a great job.
Tonight gave us both sides of the story.
What a great job.
Tom Yamis, Channel 4, WNBC TV in New York.
Great job.
Both sides of the story.
I sat around Saturday night And I was wondering the people who do things, I mean, I know them.
I know them like the back of my hand.
I know who these people are, but it's still, and I give such thanks, I'm not one of them.
I give such thanks, and my life is not so empty and meaningless that participating in empty symbolic matters like this is a big thrill, a rush, if you will.
But it's so absolutely meaningful.
It just, oh, really?
Dawn just sent me a little note here.
Her daughter was running around the house, turning all the lights off.
And Dawn was running around turning them back on.
By the way, I never got around a Christmas tree, but I made sure the house was lit up like one.
I lowered the air conditioning to 68 degrees.
I turned on every television set.
I turned to volume.
I turned on every computer.
And I logged on to websites using as much CPU requirement as possible.
Flash video, all kinds of animation.
I mean, I did.
I loaded it up out there, folks, and try to cancel out five or six other people who had gone dark.
It's just, it just, it depresses me to see so many people behave like sheep, mindless, moldable sheep lemmings under a misguided premise.
Well, Rush, what's wrong?
If they feel good doing it, it's because of where it leads.
Is it where to lead them and where to lead our country?
Folks, if you want to understand, if you're new to this program, let me give you an umbrella to try to help you understand everything that happens for the most part, or every point that's made, every story we focus on.
One of the things that I value most is my personal liberty and freedom, enshrined by our founding documents, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
And with someone like Obama and his pals running the United States, it is our liberty and individual liberty freedom that is under assault.
We say capitalism's under assault, the private sector's under assault, but it's liberty.
It's all about freedom.
It's about having the ability to do whatever you want to do, the best you can do it, to be the best you can be, to work in your own self-interest, which is not selfishness.
And so if you listen to this program and you are new to it and you listen to us review, listen to me review the Obama takeover to GM plant, understand it has nothing to do with a personal animus against Obama.
It's about the fact that we fear 62 million Americans fear by virtue of those who voted against Obama.
We love and we fear the loss of our liberty, the loss of our freedom.
We fear a government tyranny.
We fear any form of a dictatorship.
We fear the notion that government has all the answers and will do everything necessary to solve every problem for individuals.
It scares us.
So all of the things that happen to be highlighted on this program and all of the comments, criticism aimed at the Obama administration, for those of you new to the program, understand we're all about trying to persuade people here not to give up their freedom, not to give up their liberty, not to give up their pursuit of happiness.
And that's why I cringe when I see so many people mindlessly, blamelessly turn off the lights for a meaningless, symbolic act that will change nothing other than empower the people who want to usurp our freedom and liberty.
Back after this, stay with us.
Those of you on hold on the phones, be patient.
Get to you quick in the next hour.
Brief time out here at the top.
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