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Jan. 17, 2017 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:12
January 17, 2017, Tuesday, Hour #3
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Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day.
Great to have you here, Rush Limbaugh.
Behind the golden EIB.
Microphone at 800 282-2882.
If you want to send an email, it's L Rushbow at EIB net.us.
That's a new email address, by the way.
And also a new website design that uh it's much cleaner, much less cluttered.
We've moved the penile erection or extension ads way, way back to the No, we don't have any of those.
I'm just joking.
Anyway, folks, great to have you here.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882, as I said, and we are happy to welcome to the program Brett Bear of Fox News, special report with Brett Bear, and uh just uh a marvelous new book out.
It's been out a week.
It's three days in January.
Dwight Eisenhower's final mission, and it's not exclusively about this, but but delves into great detail about the transition from Eisenhower to JFK, which was multifaceted, including it was a huge generational transition and shift.
And Brett, welcome to the program.
It's great to have you here.
Hey Rush, thanks for having me.
Great to talk to you.
What is it?
I mean, of all the things that uh you might have wanted to write a book about, what was it about Eisenhower and his transition to JFK?
What what what what interested you about that?
Why did you choose that as something to write?
I mean, this is a detailed extent historical book.
It's real the reviews on this book are just off the charts.
It's incredible.
Well, thank you.
I b you know we worked on it for about three and a half years, and I I first got there, you and I are both golfers, and Ike was a golfer, and I I found I stayed at the Eisenhower cabin, happened to be invited down to Augusta, and uh I I was all excited to play, obviously, and and first time, and I walked around there and I said, I don't know enough about President Eisenhower.
I know General Eisenhower, I just didn't know President Eisenhower, and if I don't know it, and I cover Washington and politics, surely my generation and younger really doesn't.
So I went out to the library in Abilene, Kansas, uh, which is if you can get there and if you haven't been there, you should go.
It's a spectacular place, the Eisenhower Library.
And I talked to the folks there, and they said all the books about Eisenhower, this transition has not really been focused on.
And that farewell address.
And I went to the library, they pulled out a box, and I put gloves on, and they pulled out a folder, and they gave me the actual address.
That's fifty-six years ago tonight, that Eisenhower delivers the farewell address.
Uh I'm holding it in my hands.
I see the scribble marks that Eisenhower made and the underlines and the capitalizing, and I thought, this is the thing that will get me a narrative to breathe life into history uh and reintroduce President Eisenhower.
And that's where it all started.
Now, Eisenhower, people be he was the first Republican president in what five terms that had FDR before him and Henry Truman and it it his his presidency for the at least uh first four years of it was was culture shocked.
There are some similarities, interestingly, to Trump.
And in many ways, uh uh Eisenhower sounded like Trump does today, in the sense, you know, Eisenhower warned of the uh imminent danger posed by the military industrial complex and Trump is a get out of NATO.
Trump is suggesting that we're wasting way too much money here.
We need to reallocate resources.
And is that a correct assessment you thought?
Well, I yeah, obviously they're they're you know very different in demeanor, but if you go deeper, there are clearly commonalities there.
The biggest one is both of them are outsiders.
You know, Ike absolutely hated politics, he especially the phoniness of it, and he was determined to to kind of be his own man, not beholden to party.
Um he was practical, not ideological.
And I think clearly that is the road Trump took.
He's not a politician to begin with.
He is more practical, and he's talked about getting things done.
And, you know, he could potentially break the gridlock in Washington, um, you know, b because of the the practicality of figuring out common ground.
Ike in in that farewell address, Rush, talked not only about the military industrial complex, but about deficits and debt, and we can't mortgage our children's future, he said in that speech.
He also talked about Bipartisanship and trying to figure out a way to get things done uh that you can get done first and then argue about what you can't.
Uh people, this answer that you have may surprise people, but it it sounds like that that Eisenhower dealt with uh obstruction and people that wanted to deny him success uh as a president.
So, you know, a lot of people's historical perspective begins with the day they were born, and they think that things are happening during their lives are worse than they've ever been, and they've never happened before in some instances.
And your book illustrates that there's uh there's nothing new happening here, it's maybe the degree of intensity, uh, and there may be some personality differences.
Yeah.
Uh but but now Eisenhower and the and the uh military industrial complex warning, what always amazed me about that, and maybe you can help me understand it, he was of the military.
He was he personified it, and here he is warning the nation about it.
He was a military man who craved peace, and he realized as general who obviously defeated Hitler and and came back as a a hero of the war that there was this industry that had been created obviously to help uh supply World War II, but that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.
It it was pumping money and through lobbyists into lawmakers, they were affecting policy, some government officials were leaving to go head up some of these companies, and then it was a cycle, and he was concerned, he wanted to call it the military industrial congressional complex, but he was persuaded to take out congressional to be uh diplomatic.
And um he he was worried that this would be kind of a churning up of policy.
He said you had to have dissenting views on everything and couldn't be controlled by the money outside.
I mean, obviously that's prophetic um or prescient uh years fifty-six years ago.
How seriously and helpful uh was he in his advice if there was any to JFK during this transition?
It was crucial.
This book starts with the meeting between President Elect Kennedy and President Eisenhower after Kennedy wins at the White House.
And by the way, it ends with the meeting between President Elect Trump and President Obama at the White House.
Those are the book ends of the chapters.
But uh in that meeting, Eisenhower, he was really doubtful about Kennedy.
He was mad that he was talking about a U.S. missile gap with the Soviets that Eisenhower knew wasn't there, and he doubted that he had any experience.
Uh but he met with them and he was impressed with them.
He just didn't like that he Kennedy didn't like the apparatus Eisenhower had set up uh to to debate operations or decisions.
So Kennedy comes in, he dismantles some of that and and relies on a few advisors and his decision making.
Cuba happens, the Bay of Pigs, and the first person he calls is former President Eisenhower.
Right.
And that's that iconic image on the front of the book.
Um you think that there are some parallels here between Eisenhower and Trump after having researched us.
Well what what do you think Eisenhower would say to people about this particular transition?
What would he say about people who are declaring Trump illegitimate and refusing to go to the inauguration?
Well, he wouldn't like it.
Um just reading and knowing all that I read.
I mean, he knew about hurt feelings after elections.
Harry Trumer Truman um really never recovered from Ike's victory and and was barely speaking to him, really wasn't on inauguration day, 1953.
They pull up Eisenhower and Mamie in the car on inauguration day to go have the coffee in the White House before swearing in, and the Eisenhower stay in the car.
That's how chilly it was.
The Trumans stayed in the White House.
Now, really, this is important because people don't think that kind of partisanship has ever happened before.
People, again, whose perspor historical perspective began the day they were born.
I I guarantee you, Brett, there are people shocked to hear you say Eisenhower, great statesman, probably able to put these kind of uh silly little divisive things aside on the on the greatness of this day.
Stayed in the car rather than go in and have coffee with Truman.
And then uh both the Eisenhower Library and the Truman Library describe the ride from the White House to the Capitol as silent, not a word.
Now he uh Truman and Bess leave the ceremony by themselves.
They go to the train station at Union Station, and they refuse Eisenhower's offer to fly them home.
And they take the train.
So I I guess the bottom line is I think Ike would remind Trump's adversaries that that the peaceful transition of power is the is the hallmark of of democracy.
And no matter who's elected, it's the whole point of our nation that we can have this vigorous debate, but when the debate's over and the votes are counted, we become one nation.
And it's not about the campaign or the candidate or the man, it's about the office.
So I bet that's how Eisenhower would weigh in.
Talking with Brett Baer of Fox News about his book, it's it's out a week now, three days in January, Dwight Eisenhower's final mission.
Permit me one departure here from the book.
Uh you opened this door.
You've been covering Washington and studying Washington for much of your professional life.
You ever seen anything like this, what's going on today?
Never.
Never.
I mean, it's truly amazing.
Every day, Rush, I said my staff, you know, watch out.
This is like drinking from a fire hose.
Because, you know, every thing that's happening at this moment, think about where we are.
You know, from that escalite escalator ride in June 2015, to our first debate in Ohio, to throughout the primaries, through the general election, to the night, even of election night when we all thought in the exit polls that Hillary Clinton was going to win.
And now this, and we are just days away from the 45th president, putting his hand on the Lincoln Bible and his family Bible and taking the oath of office.
Um I've never seen anything like it, and for a anchor who covers politics, it is amazing.
I I couldn't do what you do.
I couldn't keep my opinion out of what I'm not with this kind of stuff going on.
Now I I really admire you, and I'm not smoking you here.
I could not do it.
Watching the way the Democrats are behaving in this infantile puerile manner, with the help of the media trying to make it look like Trump.
Now the the approval polls, people regret voting for Trump.
Are you kidding me?
And you have to report this stuff with a straight face.
Um I mean, it's fun and it's inter it's it's interesting, but let me ask you this, because I I know how I react to it.
Obama came into office blaming Fox News, he's leaving office blaming Fox News.
Uh you take what you do seriously.
You're not a partisan.
You're not a you're you're not you're not part of uh a group of people trying to undermine anybody, you're just reporting you specifically what you do.
How do you react to the president when he says these things over and over about you?
Well, I mean, I just have a personal view.
I mean, I interviewed him in 2010, right before the health care uh bill became law, and despite asking every week uh since that time, uh I never got an exit interview or any interview with President Obama, but I watched intently with Steve Croft's interview at Sixty Minutes, I think it was his seventeenth, um, and he President Obama answered that he was surprised by the partisanship.
And uh I was surprised by that answer, because um clearly his actions in in office um di did not change that dynamic if he was surprised by it.
No.
And um and I think that that's fair to say, no matter your ideology, uh, I think that that's um that's facts.
One of the things that Eisenhower did was he invited the opposition party in uh once a month at least, even more, and he had drinks with them and he talked with them.
I'm not saying that that's the the best, you know, blueprint, but uh he worked with Sam Rayburn in the House and and uh Lyndon Johnson in the Senate and got things done, including the highway system that we currently currently are driving on.
And uh who knows, Trump could do the same thing.
Let me just ask you, did Eisenhower ever say to the Democrat leadership in one of these joint meetings, I won, you lost.
We're doing it my way.
Because Obama did.
Did I ever approach him that way?
In fact, he was adamant that you should not lead by hitting people over the head, and it was never personal in his mind.
A lot of his leadership style rush came from his time as general, and he dealt with huge egos like Bradley and Patton and MacArthur and and then the Allies, Montgomery and De Gaulle, and he had to deal with those egos.
And his leadership style was humble, but he never did that.
He never hit him over the head.
Got Brett Bear from Fox News with us here for another segment, a brief obscene profit break, folks.
We will be right back with more after this.
Welcome back.
We have Brett Bear, Fox News with us, special report with Brett Baer and the lead anchor on election night special event coverage.
And his brand new book, which is a great book, and the reviews on this book across the board, unanimously stupendous, three days in January.
Dwight Eisenhower's final mission.
Now, this next description I'm going to use about your book is used.
I think it's overused by people, particularly in the arts.
But your book to me is really important right now.
And I I want to ask you why that is.
I mean, do you think your book's important?
And if you do, why?
Because I clearly do, but you're the subject, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.
You know, thank you.
I mean, I'm I'm humbled by the the reviews that it's getting, and and you know this better than anybody, um, and I say this not to blow smoke your way, but I read Rush Revere books to my kids going to bed, uh Paul and Daniel, and they go to sleep and they learn something about history, right?
And um they're nine and six, and by the way, they love them.
But I think that this breathes life into history.
We found oral histories uh from the Eisenhower Library and the Kennedy Library and the Truman Library.
Some of them had never been tapped, never been heard.
Some of them were Eisenhower Eisenhower himself talking about his reflections on this time.
We found documents and letters never released about this time.
And this book looks at these three days.
Uh fifty-six years ago tonight, the farewell address is delivered.
Um, but it also looks at his life.
And I think that if people look back, it it was always thought of a sleepy era, but it was really a decisive time.
He was, you know, somebody who won the world war from Hitler.
He was the first Cold War president.
But this threat of nuclear war was real and it was constant, and it was a dangerous time.
And I think that that transition can show us a lot about the transition that is happening right now.
It's a dangerous time.
Terrorism and the threat of war are present, and there's there's many lessons that Eisenhower could convey to us today.
You know, you you just said something that I think is profound, because you're absolutely right.
People think back, people that that have a historical uh basis and understand they m a lot of people do look back at the Eisenhower year years and think that they were sleepy.
That you that's a great way to describe it, that not much happened.
That Ike was out there, you know, when he discovered that he couldn't shoot Congress like he could shoot the Germans, he went out and played golf all day.
Nothing really happened.
And of course, that's the exact opposite of what it was not a sleepy time.
It was a boom time in America.
Uh and the post-war period was was uh exuberant uh and America was growing by by leaps and bounds, and and it was not sleepy.
I think that's a uh excellent way to characterize the mistakes people have made in in assuming I what similarities are there between Eisenhower and Trump?
Do you see any?
The differences?
Differences, similarities, what have you?
Well, there's a big difference.
I I'm pretty positive that Ike would not be a fan of Twitter.
Um he he thought less was more and w and words matter from the Oval Office, especially.
Uh so I would bet that he would he would not be a fan of that.
And you know, he had a different demeanor.
His the political scientist Fred Goldstein said that he had uh the hidden hand.
He was a bridge player, and he had the hidden hand of leadership.
In other words, he wouldn't let his cards show.
And it's interesting, it's it's almost exactly opposite.
I think Trump has uh it's a hidden hand, but it's a very showy hand.
Like look at this thing over here, and maybe there's a lot happening behind the scenes while everybody's focused on this tweet.
Um we'll see how his leadership style goes.
He obviously has dissenting views that he's chosen for his nominees for cabinet, uh that will enable him to have the ability that Eisenhower advised Kennedy to have the dissenting views uh always presented to him.
Um one quick final question going away.
The the transition period, the actual meetings between Eisenhower and JFK.
Any any insight uh as to how useful for JFK they were, as opposed to I don't know how useful Obama is being for Trump.
But what I don't think we fully know on the current day.
I think they have talked more than even they're talking about that they've talked.
So I think we'll get a readout over time about the current day.
But back then, um, so when Eisenhower leaves office and Kennedy in the first times goes into the Bay of Pigs and launches the operation.
By the way, Eisenhower told them in the Oval Office three things.
One, make sure you have an exile government ready to go for Cuba.
Two, have somebody to take over for Castro, and three, make sure you have air power.
Well, one didn't happen, two didn't happen, and then Kennedy called off the air power because he didn't want the world to know it was the U.S. uh for that mission.
The mission fails.
He then calls Eisenhower, flies into Camp David, and that's the iconic image on the front, where he turns to Eisenhower and says, you know, you never know really know how tough this job is until you're in it.
And Eisenhower walking up the path says, Mr. President, with all due respect, I think I told you that three months ago.
Excellent.
Excellent.
Well, look, uh, I I don't know where you found the time to do this.
I I know you're you're just busy as can be with your job and family and everything, but this is yeoman's work here, and it's uh it it's it's scholarly beyond people's expectations.
They really have hit a home run with this, and it's valuable and it is important, and I'm not overselling it.
I wish you all the best with it, Brett.
Russia, I really appreciate you having me on.
Brett Baer of Fox News, who is the lead anchor, they're gonna be uh anchoring in fact on the uh on Friday, the inauguration of Trump, as we will be here as well, uh, and as well as he's the lead anchor for special report with Brett Bear.
The book again, three days in January, Dwight Eisenhower's final mission, and we are coming right back.
Sit tight.
Hi, how are you?
Welcome back.
You uh folks, remember in the opening segment of the program today, we talked about these opinion polls that are out that show only 40 percent of the American people approve of the Donald Trump transition, I guess.
Forty percent approval rating right now.
And I made the point, it isn't it interesting.
We have a an electoral college near landslide.
All of these people for a year and a half couldn't get enough Donald Trump, sold out rallies.
Of course, they were free to admit, but I mean, just overflowing, satellite locations, people driving for hours, lining up for hours to get into Trump rallies, large and small towns all over America.
The enthusiasm was off the charts.
Everybody noticed it.
But now, before Trump's even sworn in, we are being led to believe that the very people that elected Trump have already soured on him.
And they're already disappointed, and they're already having regrets and buyers' remorse.
And this we've got two polls.
We have a CNN poll, and we have an ABC News Washington Post poll.
Well, people have been digging into these polls today because they're fake news.
They're fake polls.
They are put together by people who have been responsible for all kinds of fake news about Trump throughout this campaign.
And here is the tale of the tape.
People who have studied the internals and have looked at the sample.
In the CNN poll, you know what sample?
What percentage of the sample was Republican?
Twenty-four percent.
In the ABC poll, the percentage of the sample that was Republican was twenty-three percent.
Now let me ask you a question.
How is it that since 2010 the Democrats have lost over 1,000 electoral seats in Washington, all across the states, state capitals, mayors, city council, you may mean it's it when you go that low, it's up over 1,500 seats.
How in the world has that happened?
How in the world have the Democrats practically been eliminated as a national party?
How do they control everything now if they're only 24% of the population in an opinion poll?
I mean, we're there was a poll last week about uh ideological preferences in this country.
Thirty-six percent of the American people identified as conservative, twenty-four percent liberal, and that isn't new.
Conservative self-identified conservatives have outnumbered self-identified liberals for twenty years.
Different from Republican Democrat.
But it doesn't matter.
Because there is no way that a poll that has 24% of the sample Republican means anything.
It is rigged.
It's fake.
The Democrats lost the presidency.
They lost it, 306 electoral votes to 230 some odd electoral votes.
The Democrats lost the Senate.
The Democrats only control four governorships and state legislatures in the same state.
Only four out of 50.
Barack Obama and his agenda have been repudiated since 2010.
The one exception was when he was on the ballot in 2012, and that's a an aberration.
But for even in that election in the House and Senate, the Republicans won the uh won the House in 2010.
This is journalistic malpractice.
This is flat out fakery.
24% Republicans sample C and then 23% Republicans sample ABC.
And yet the Republicans are winning everything.
Here's another reason why the Democrats and the media and the opposition is so scared of Trump headline Washington examiner.
Trump eyes 10% spending cuts, 20% cut of federal workers.
Huge.
Absolutely huge.
The federal government is so bloated and so out of proportion to the existence of everything else in this country.
And it needs to be pared down, and here comes Trump 10% spending cuts, 20% cut in the federal workforce.
Folks, they're scared to death out there.
Here's a story from the Washington Post.
Trump could cause the death of think tanks as we know them.
Josh Rogan, global opinions writer, Washington Post.
Now this is a dicey area.
But think tanks are worried about this.
Conservative think tanks, liberal think tanks, they're worried about Trump.
For the longest time, the think tanks have been telling their donors, hey, look, we're your guardian.
We're the ones making sure what you believe becomes policy.
We're the ones with relationships, members of Congress, we're the ones that are on point on policy.
We're the ones in some of the media in both in both conservative and liberal spheres is the same.
And Trump's come along and blown that to Smithereens.
And that's reason why there's some never Trumpers out there in both areas, left and right in the uh in the think tank sphere.
I need to put this story in the stack for further detail tomorrow.
Walmart to create 10,000 U.S. jobs in nod to Trump.
Now there's more to this than meets the eye, too.
I can share with you, because I've done it before.
I have always been frustrated.
I grew up believing certain things.
One of the things I grew up believing, and it was common sense, is that people who conduct business in the United States economy would naturally want as little government involved in their business as possible.
And they would want as low a corporate tax rate or small business tax rate as they could get.
And I have been repeatedly stunned to find out how many businesses can't wait to get in business with government.
And I I slowly learned that it's actually easier to get business with government than to beat your competitors in the market.
If you can have a crony relationship with the president, a crony relationship with power brokers, House and Senate, it may help you do battle with your uh and then as as liberalism invaded and its tentacles spread even deeper into our society.
I began to wonder why it was, as deficits mounted up and as income stagnated, why didn't people instinctively know that getting government out and letting the free market work with as few regulations as necessary, why isn't that an automatic regulation?
Why isn't that something that Everybody goes to.
But look at what's going on here.
Walmart creating 10,000 U.S. jobs in nod to Trump.
Is it really Trump?
Is it I guess what I'm asking?
Did Walmart never on their own think that taking action to build up the U.S. economy would benefit them?
Is it just that Trump is doing all these things, making I don't know, threats, promises, however you want to look at it.
I've always thought that big business ended up being afraid of people like Obama and afraid of the Democrats because the Democrats would threaten to use government against them, and so that's why they caved and went along with them.
Now Trump's coming along and is well, it's not just Walmart.
General Motors has announced 10,000 no, that's the same story.
General Motors is one billion dollars fresh U.S. investment and uh creation of more than 1,000 new jobs.
But why why does it take Trump getting elected to do this?
I know that the the the knee-jerk reaction, well, Trump's promising this if they take their business and make it.
I know all of that.
But Trump spent the last year and a half talking to Americans about a different version on growing the economy and bringing jobs back to America.
And his his agenda Trump's talks on the economy, they were clear, they were simple ideas expressed by somebody who sounded very confident that he could do it.
That he could rebuild America's manufacturing base.
He could rebuild and reignite the U.S. economy.
Twelve to eighteen months, day after day after day, simple message.
And look what that that year and a half is reaping now.
Want a Trump win, obviously.
And apparently not only did voters listen to the message, so did business executives.
I mean, it's all good.
Don't misunderstand.
But why is what I guess what I'm asking is why is what Trump was saying about the economy revolutionary?
Why was it so my God, I can't believe he's saying that.
Why was it of that nature?
And the answer is that's how deeply we had descended into government-first socialism type economics.
It we had descended so deeply and so far into into government being the center of the universe and government being uh the final arbiter, government picking winners and losers that the idea that that wasn't going to happen was shocking.
When it ought to be everybody's instinctive opinion.
Get government out of things.
If you really want them to grow, if you really want prosperity, if you really want liberty, if you really want freedom, get government and all these mindless regulations out of it.
Don't care what health care, automobiles, energy, get them out of it.
Why is that so revolutionary?
And the answer to that is that's how deeply we had plunged into left-wing socialism in this country at all levels.
Back after this, folks.
Don't quote.
Another alert here on the phone.
Mike Tomlin rips Antonio Brown says Steelers will punish him swiftly for inconsiderate Facebook video.
That's all I know.
I haven't had a chance to look at the video or check into it.
But interesting.
Here's Mary in Beaverton, Oregon.
I'm glad you waited, Mary.
Great to have you on our program.
Hi.
Rush, thank you so much for taking my call.
Yeah.
Um, I want to just briefly, as briefly as I can go over two major points today.
One can well, one is Obamacare, the other is Donald Trump's tweeting habits.
First of all, on Obamacare Rush, I'm 53 years old.
I've been living the nightmare since its inception.
I I'm on Obamacare.
I've had it shoved down my throat.
Uh it an Obamacare replacement is not rocket science rush.
It is not rocket science.
Very very simply.
You know, bullet point.
Be able to buy insurance across state lines, great.
Twort reform, great.
That needs to happen.
Health care savings accounts needs to happen.
Tax deduction needs to happen.
It's a great it's a great point.
They're try to make it sound, oh, it's really tough.
We've got to repeal it.
Then we have to replace it's not.
Yeah, yeah.
And Rush, well, Wait a minute.
These last three points, Donald Trump and only Donald Trump can deal with these because he's not.
The only thing that's difficult at Rus di difficult about replacing it, Rush is our politicians are working for the lobbyists, not the American people.
True.
So point number three, and Donald Trump sent a major salvo yesterday across the bow to the pharmaceutical companies.
I have yet to see an industry rush where competition is not a good thing.
However, the pharmaceutical companies in the United States have no competition because the U.S. is the only major industrialized nation that does not have price controls on our pharmaceuticals.
Consequently, every American consumer ends up subsidizing the rest of the industrialized world.
If you have diabetes rush in the U.S., you are paying easily 40% minimum to upwards of 90% more for the identical medication from the identical manufacturer than our European counterparts.
Okay, I'm sorry.
I have to stop you there because we're out of time.
I'm going to assume you're going to support Trump's tweeting as the only way to do battle with a uh biased and corrupt drive-by media.
I happen to support you.
I hope he doesn't stop tweeting.
I hope he keeps tweeting.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Practically every news network is leading with a story along the lines of this.
News alert, news alert.
At least 53 Democrats plan to skip inauguration.
As though that is the big news of the inaugurate.
Let them skip it.
They're irrelevant anyway.
It doesn't matter if they are.
If they're there.
It doesn't matter at all.
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