"The Sanctity of Military Spending"

A brilliant title that sums up the values of a society that puts coded references to bible psalms on the sides of rifle scopes whose sole purpose is to kill people...

This is all a good argument as to "Why Socialism".

http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php

Don't forget to line up like mindless drones at the airport and have our shoes smelled, our luggage gone thru, our bodies x-rayed, our laptops confiscated and to give up all of our 4th Amendment rights to stay safe.
America give 100 Million to the people of Haiti, and then ask for 33 Billion MORE to kill the people we are at war with.
How messed up is that?
I wonder if the little aliens are watching us and laughing their asses off. And waiting for us to kill ourselves before the step in and take our planet.
Nah, they are probably smarter than that then to sit by and watch us kill the planet after we kill all other inhabitants

Absolutely let’s cut all our military, even the men and women working in the military. Why should we even have one? If we open our borders tell everyone in the world we are a peace loving nation they will stop hating us. While we are at it lets give everyone the exact same thing that way no one is an individual. After all it's different philosophies that cause war and hatred.

Look at it: 741,000,000,000 dollars (combined) spending on war and preparing for war. It makes my breakfast want to return. It saddens my very soul, It angers me. No, it INFURIATES me!

Jobs are disappearing like water droplets on a hot skillet, people are losing their homes right and left, we get a health-care bill that hands out our diminishing income to insurance and pharmaceutic companies, and the list goes on and on and on.

But our precious Military Budget not only cannot be touched but has to be INCREASED! This is madness, purely and simply insane.

But our corrupt corporate Congress will pass it with hardly a whimper. They ALWAYS do.

Gary

PS BTW I am suggesting the name "The People" ("The People Party") for a new unity party to bring together the dozen or so "third-parties" that better represent the actual positions of the American people than the present duopoly. Imagine campaigning for "The People."

"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come."
-- Carl Sandburg, The People, Yes (1936)

Terrific and most relevant article by Glenn Greenwald. This piece fits in quite nicely with the scene in the well made documentary Why We Fight when congress person after congress person attempts to justify on the House floor why his or her state supposedly cannot do without the latest fighter jet or B1 bomber. As Steven Hill points out in his well written book Europe's Promise: Why The European Way Is The Best Hope In An Insecure Age, "Europe ... spends less than 2 per cent of its gross domestic product on defense and so has vastly more resources to plow into workfare supports for its people." Will any U.S. congress person have the courage and common sense to point this out after Obama gives his speech on Wednesday? I tend to doubt it.

As for me, I will be offering my own humble rebuttal to America's idiotic obsession in building and using more bullets, bombs, and the latest fighter jets by wearing one of my buttons which points out what should be the priority of this country:

HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE

We spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined does on its. It bites at leat 51% of our tax dollars, (did I read the chart right) If we could cut it back to 41% we could afford even the bloated corrupt private health care subsidies that Obama wants. I think that for my taxes I should get Healthcare not 1984 style perpetual Warfare. We spend three trillion dollars to destroy a nation that did not attack us and directly or indirectly take a million innocent lives doing it. We better hope that there isn't a God, or at least that he doesn't care about justice because if on the off chance there is a God who does care our day of judgement is coming.

These are all (illegal) elective wars. Stop funding these war crimes!

I'd rather see a majority of my taxes go to social programs as the Europeans do instead of the "American" military way, thank you very much. Taxes will go up and we can see where it will go: military spending. When will the people organize against this trend? After we all are living in hovels on the brink of famine?

When was the last time you dialed the pentagon to avail yourself of any of their "armed services"?

Any politician who does not call for cuts in military spending will not get my vote. That's a simple litmus test.

Even if Mr Obama wanted to cut munitions spending...which seems extremely unlikely at this point...he knows that soon after his announcement there would be another "terrorist" attack which would make his desires moot plus make him hated even more by the bozos who showed up at the meetings last summer fighting against health care reform.

This train is rolling, folks...there's no stopping it...not by people like us. Spring is coming...plan out your garden and hope the NWO doesn't come in the shape of a mushroom cloud.

How ironic is it that the defense industry is killing us?

"only 40 percent think that Military spending should be increased"

An Odd choice of words. If 40 percent really believe such it is a huge number. It akin to saying only 40 percent of people do not think murder should be considered a crime.

Hums the Monty Python ditty "every bullet is sacred".

If Oboma said tomorrow night that he was freezing military spending you would see a false flag of major proportions. The war budget is off the table and is the sacred cow of American politics.

MSNBC and WaPo think that Al Qaida's desire to hit the US with WMD is news?

Here's an interesting connection reported by Reuters:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout like a request to protect matters of national security, according to emails obtained by Reuters."

If we the people can get into the inner workings of AIG, it will expose a great deal about both war and financial crimes.

Another brilliant piece about our corporate-military prison.

Here's what beats the current WMD bullshit campaign:

http://www.huliq.com/8059/90797/female-suicide-bombers-linked-al-qaeda-trained-us-attacks

And how 'bout this from ABC News?:

"White House lawyers are mulling the legality of proposed attempts to assassinate an American citizen, Anwar al Awlaki, who is believed to be part of the leadership of the al Qaeda group in Yemen, according to two people briefed by U.S. intelligence officials.

"One of the people briefed said opportunities to "take out" Awlaki "may have been missed" because of the legal questions surrounding a lethal attack which would specifically target an American citizen.

"A spokesperson said the White House declined to comment.

"Hundreds of FBI and other federal agents will fan out this week as part of a secret operation to pursue leads about Americans with connections to Yemen that were previously dismissed as not significant, according to law enforcement officials."

Not arrest, detain, interrogate, and try Awlaki -- but murder him outright.

The FBI and "other federal agents"(Blackwater perhaps?) will fan out this week? Will every U.S. citizen who ever visited Yemen be arrested? Sent to Gitmo or Bagram? Disappeared? Perhaps given the same treatment accorded by the FBI & other federal agents to Mark Clark and Fred Hampton?

I defy anyone to see daylight between the Obama/Bush Administration approach to law and that showed by the pre-1940 Third Reich. And just like 1939 Germany, needs to be violently overthrown.

One of the largest arguments used for not decreasing military funding is that the MIC is one of the largest employers in the US. Conventional beltway wisdom states that reduced military funding would increase unemployment.

I contend that this is a fallacy perpetrated by the MIC to frighten law makers (and they have been so successful). The MIC employs graduates and other highly-intelligent people. Such people are less at risk of unemployment because, simply, they are smart and motivated. Sacking them all, and making funding available for green-technology would soak up all the ex-MIC workers. One could believe that new jobs (beyond the ex-MIC workers) would actually be created and hey, we would have an industry that is good for our country and good for exports.

Let's see the military spending for what it is: a jobs program that enriches a certain constituency--the politically conservative. The active military, veterans, the arms industry, all of the contractors that do everything from intelligence to providing meals to the military--all of them account for a large proportion of the American economy. That is why defense spending is off limits.

RE: Solutions to Reduce or Eliminate Your Direct Support of Military Industrial Complex
How many of the Common Dream readers are paying a lot of federal taxes of which at least 50% go to the MIC?

How many have voluntarily reduced their work hours to reduce the income that is taxed?

RE: Solution; Invest In Renewables to Lose Fed Tax Burden
Others have invested in renewable energy technologies and conservation measures to reduce or eliminate their federal tax burden.
Sure the payoff monetarily may take years but you'll have a lifetime of satisfaction knowing that you didn't support the military and US Empire Wars on top of doing something for the biosphere as well as your credit union savings account.
A solar water heater for $7 grand gets a 30% tax credit or about 2100 dollar federal tax credit.
A new qualifying heat pump gets a 30% fed tax credit.
On demand water heater that cost about $1000 gets 30% tax credit.
There are lots of other cheaper conservation measures that also get tax credits.

If you have already installed those measure listed above one could invest in a solar electric system say for about 10 grand or more and get a 30% tax credit.

Look it up on www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm

US imperialism is a 112-year old tradition. Invading, occupying, bombing, overthrowing third world countries so that our corporations can get raw materials on the cheap. Enslaving the poor people of Haiti for cheap labor for American clothing manufacturers...

Pres. Obama is the drone-murder-King. No charges, no judge, no trials, just drone-executions, murder Obama-style.

Republicans = God, Guns & Greed
Democrats = WD-40 to make it slip -- Duct tape to make it stick.

What'll take the shine off of the military is a resounding defeat by the Afghan freedom fighters, not an impossibility, considering the fact that Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires. What's more the fate of Argentina's fascist military junta after that nation's armed forces were defeated by Great Britain in the Falkland Islands War supports this premise. What happened was public support for militarism took a shark nosedive, the military junta was deposed with several of its members ending up in the hoosegaw and democracy being restored.

What a monumental waste of money, considering how badly hurt people are in this bankrupt nation. Trillions to cover WallStreet bets. What did our financiers build with all their activity? Vaporware, mountains of derivatives not worth a dime. Trillions to the MIC. What does the MIC make with all this cash? Some of it delivers death for oil. Some of it keeps Republicans employed and docile. Most of it gets decommissioned to an Arizona desert or California Bay, having done absolutely nothing to secure the nation but burn oil during its brief usable life.

What a monumental waste of money in a nation that can't afford to burn up money any more.

Sioux Rose

Mr. Greenwald states, "As always the notion of decreasing the deficit and national debt through reductions in military spending is one of the most absolute Washington taboos. What possible rationale is there for that?"

Answer: Evidence, pure and simple that Mars rules! The military gets the meat, and throws the bones to the masses.

I do not recall the poster who challenged me when I said (in a recent column) that half of U.S. spending goes to the military. Whomever you are, please take a good look at the pie that Mr. Greenwald has placed on display in living color. Hard to argue with facts so bold as these!

If ever our nation needed a political lobotomy, it is now. Such disgusting, amoral, deadly priorities (in feeding resources to the death machine, a monster) when SO MUCH is at stake! I don't think history could possibly hold up the spectre of a more wasteful use of precious resources when intelligent direction mattered so much. And was so clearly evidencing a dereliction of duty, not to mention sanity!

The perversity of the United States of Global Domination.

If the Trillions of dollars spent on the Pentagon in the past twenty years had gone instead to universal health care, education, environmental restoration, green technologies, higher Miles per Gallon efficiency vehicles, better mass transit systems, and improving infrastructure, - the U.S. would be the the target of emulation and admiration.

Instead, both dominating political parties have put their faith in Greed, Wastefulness, a police state, and warmongering.

Millions of people around the world have been displaced, denied human rights, and murdered because of the arrogance and smug disinterest on the part of republicans and democrats who both INSIST on feeding the lying military monster. There is NO good ending as long as this nation believes in military force more than human rights.

Imagine a household where they spent at least half of each month's income on weapons. Then, imagine that THEY went around telling all the neighbors how the neighbors should run their households and forced many of the neighbors to house THEIR extended family and weapons. Then, imagine that THEY controlled the police and the courts. Would you even want to live in the same county?

As bad as the above scenario sounds, the reality of U.S. global brutality is worse. So, naturally, the democrats and the republicans both lie and say they are doing it for "freedom" and "democracy".

Military, military, everywhere! We are but minnows in comparison with the soldiers and their generals marching hidden in front of us all.

I cannot doubt the insincere nature of this administration to mimic the previous administration but Obama is not alone. The culprits are his loyal supporters, aka Obama conservatives, who made it very easy for their chosen candidate to do anything he or she wants and not be called out for it.

But before I get to that, first I think that it is necessary to say why the double standards in spending. We have two major parties in America and the one out of power will complain about wasteful spending of the other side but when the complaining side gets into power they will act as if they never complained about it while the now out of power side will suddenly complain. One side complains about wasteful spending on social programs while the other complains about wasteful spending on military related matters. To be honest, both sides are getting their spending wrong and here is why. Both sides believe in throwing enormous money wherever they please but neither side gives a thought to making a bigger bang for the buck a high priority. Let's take health care and education spending. Money gets thrown at school and insurance companies on a faith based basis that they'll produce better students and by loyal to their customers respectively. There is little accountability for insurance companies and depending upon the nature of the school(s) little accountability there too. Similarly, on military spending enormous amounts of money get thrown with the fallacy that this is the best way to keep America safe. Military contractors are not required to uphold the oaths and people in power can invent lies and exaggerations about theoretical threats becoming very likely without having to prove their allegations.

Getting back to the Democrats and military spending, here's what I suspect has been happening. The Obama conservatives who would otherwise rail against the Bush administration on spending cuts on domestic programs and increases in military spending turned desperate after losses in 2002 and 2004. They figured that if the Republicans could get away with winning at all costs, why not the Democrats. From there, they started out by getting into the habit of tolerating conservative practices. The unfortunate consequences of this strategy was finding ways to defend spending cuts on domestic spending and spending increases on military related matters. Ask the Obama conservatives to defend this failing health care plan and why they opposed single payer and their responses are outrageous. One person told me "well if the conservatives hate it, then Obama is doing the right thing". Another would say "Obama is making the incremental move to single payer" even though the current legislation is geared to keeping single payer further out of reach. Ask the Obama conservatives why they suddenly stay silent on Obama's plan to continue the wars that they would loudly oppose during Bush's presidency and again the responses are outrageous. One person would say "we can't pull out overnight. We need to send in more troops or those troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will be stuck !". This kind of fallacious thinking is what the neocons can count on to continue their long term plans to increase military spending and indefinitely prolong the occupations. Here's another outrageous statement from a pro-war Obama conservative. "Democrats are always called weak on defense and Obama must prove that he's strong on the war on terrorism. Evangelical churches are very kind and helpful while Muslims and atheists don't care about the poor ! Obama is trying to win the war on terrorism and all you want to do is use him for scapegoating! You want Obama to fail don't you ?!?" I had gotten into a nasty argument with that person when I tried to correct her on her misunderstanding of Muslims and atheists but it was no use. Try to tell the Obama conservatives about Obama's refusal to be the change he sort of promised to be and they turn hostile and throw tantrums. They have not only sunk into the Reagan/Bush conservatism but they have also regressed in ways never heard of. This is the serious political illness of the Obama conservatives that I suspect Obama is basing his entire agenda and presidency on.

Here is what I predict of the Obama conservatives:

2010 - Obama conservatives beg voters to elect more Democrats on the basis that the Republicans will block Obama's agenda.

2012 - Obama conservatives cry "He's only had 4 years to clean 8 years of Bush's mess. Give him some more time !"

If Obama loses, watch for them to turn very hostile and possibly violent against anyone who didn't vote for Obama, Republican or Independent.

2014 - Assuming Obama won his second term, the Obama conservatives will make excuses that Obama did his best "but for those pesky Republicans".

2016 - Again, assuming Obama won a second term, prepare to be thoroughly disgusted as the Obama conservatives canonize Obama as "Saint Obama" and try to frame him as a progressive icon. This could get interesting since Obama would have to be at least twice as unpopular as Bush was in 2008.

P.S.: I apologize to Common Dreams if what I said is unacceptable but I want to state the obvious and make a connection. I already got banned on Huffington Post and most likely Alternet for discussing this. Please forgive me if what I said was offensive.

Says author Greenwald: "As always, the notion of decreasing the deficit and national debt through reductions in military spending is one of the most absolute Washington taboos. What possible rationale is there for that?" --The "rationale" (rationalization) is fear, the advertised raison d'etre of National Security State; mentioned by Greenwald himself in his penultimate paragraph. The systemic reason is the historic circumstance that the USA is the preeminent contemporary empire, aspiring to "full spectrum dominance" of the globe in perpetuity; a collectively insane leviathan (a la Hobbes) whose priorities are those of the corporate capitalist elite, sponsors of front men such as Obama. (It is highly informative as to the severity of the capitalist crisis that our corporate masters feel that they have to bleed what's left of the New Deal concessions; a course that courts a quantum leap in the political chaos.) Only "liberals" (reformists), who peddle the lie that We The People can have human priorities under the aegis of empire, can be surprised by the "news" that Greenwald reports. Is Greenwald a liberal, i.e., was (or is) he an Obama supporter?

This is What I imagine my grandson's life is going to be like: After we clean out anything left of value here in national garage sales to China, India, Brazil, or whoever has the bucks, then bloody revenge will be enacted here on those whose crime was not being born soon enough to stop us.

What's a WMD again?

We God-blessed Americans killed, what, maybe a million Iraqis and Afghans since '02? Injured maybe another 2 million? Destroyed most of both countries?

Doesn't that make us one giant f**king WMD?

Is there a WMD Al Qaeda could set off that could cause that level of death and horror?

I'll worry when there is and they have a f**king prayer of getting their hands on it...

Okay, let's say we do leave. Who will help the women in Afghanistan/Pakistan??

Since 1994, Ms. Bukhari has documented 7,800 cases of women who were deliberately burned, scalded or subjected to acid attacks, just in the Islamabad area. In only 2 percent of those cases was anyone convicted.

When will Afghanistan and Pakistan evolve beyond that? Does Common Dreams and the people who oppose the war have a plan to protect these women?? Do you care? Really care?

I'm sorry but I just can't support abandoning the women and the girls. I am willing to pay anything to help that part of the world get beyond patriarchal domination that destroys both men and women. We have a ways to go still in this country but just reading Nicholas Kristoff's column in the NY tImes entitled Terrorism that's Personal, I am demoralized to think this sort of insanity exists in the world and goes unchecked and without prosecution.

It's easy to criticize the war--nostalgic even but what is the Left doing to rid the world of customs, religious and otherwise, that sanction violence against women in Islamic countries?

Ok. so let us see how much the Nato/Us alliance has helped the women in Afghanistan. first, they initially birthed the Taliban after removing the most women friendly govt that Afghans ever had. then, they supported the northern aliiance whose civil behaviour was just a shade better. Then, the countries infrastructure has been turned to dust. That really help the women in daily life, when you have to cook on wood and light oil lamps because the power stations made good bombing targets. Also, in the past 9 years, a tremendous amount of monies and effort (or is it lip service) has been spent in improving the lot of women?
As for PAkistan, it is news that US is there to improve the lot of women. Neither the president, the sec of state, the ambassador or Mcchrystal have ever mentioned it. Where did you read it?

According to many is that the constitution allows us to spend as much as we can on military to protect ourselves. We are going to end up like the Soviet Union and go broke doing it. Opps, we are already broke.

This [spending freeze] is an "initiative intended to signal his seriousness about cutting the budget deficit,"

If he were serious he'd cut the "defense" budget.

This is a joke, right? They are going to cut Medicare to buy more bombs?

I must have fallen through a worm hole. This is not the country I grew up in. I'm not in Kansas anymore.

To me, socialism is the next step in human evolution. A step away from violent competition and a step toward living in a peaceful, sustainable community that prioritizes equality, justice and real freedom.

I think we need to take that next step, and relatively soon, as a strategy for survival. It's been on hold for way too long. McCarthy made socialists fear who they were. We still haven't recovered from that. I think MLK and Malcolm would have taken us a ways down the path but they were taken.
And then so many from my generation, the baby-boomers, who started out with real promise, have been bought off with a little piece of the pie. Material success waylaid the revolution that many thought we might achieve.

However, Bush followed by O-man may be the perfect storm. The emperor stands naked. The times they really are a chagin'. Even though the deck is stacked magnificently agaist us, we have real opportunity.
And real responsibility to work hard and smart and as if our lives depended on it. I think they do.

questions for all: what is the total u.s. budget for the current fiscal year? what is thedod budget? what is the homeland security budget? is it part of dod? how much is the department of energy's budget? what part of the d.o.e.'s budget is military related? need we add anything else? let's get a total. and then, let's figure what is the true percentage of the budget that the military takes.

Z1, perfectly stated and said in few words "stop paying federal taxes."

Here is my wimpy formula.

Federal spending 50% spent on military. Military = Defensive 25% / Offensive 25% Deduct and withold @ least 25% of your Federal income tax to defund these illegal, immoral, offensive "wars of aggression. Simple. When you are poor and destitute or almost the government will finish the financial picture for us. Totally broke = no TAXES??

All this cognitive dissonance is causing my brain to explode.

I need a Big PhARMa pill to deal with all this MIC stuff.

We don't have a culture anymore. We're lab rats. Who's the cleverest rat in the lab?

Alert Alert: anthrax attack imminent.

Er, excuse me, I don't mean to be impertinent, but who's the smartest rat in the lab?

Alert Alert: anthrax attack imminent. Imminent. Indefinitely Imminent.

Through the Looking Glass, Darkly. Oh no, my friend, all those looking glasses have coded biblical references to Jesus as the LIGHT.

Oh Mah God! Pop another pill. Don't you see? Gog and Magog! God told me to do it. Geopolitics: "He tried to kill mah Daddy."

Pop another pill. Overdose paradoxical effect. Valium. Can't sleep.

Alert Alert: anthrax attack imminent.

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date. No time to say...Hello???

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The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! er...I mean the Muslims are coming! The Muslims are coming!

"... The U.S. spends almost as much on military spending as the entire rest of the world combined..."

Just as, in its day (the 16th Century), as the military arm of the Papacy, Spain spent most of its revenues on its armed forces, while neglecting the economic infrastructure at home. That led, in 1936 to civil war.

Is history now repeating itself?

Bring America Back !!!!

****President Dwight Eisenhower, also a 5 Star Army General,
warned us way back in 1962, of these dangers of an out of control military industrial complex. "They" control way over half of our USA Budget.

****The party line of 9/11 gave Them the shock and awe to
renew the old Sacred Cow of the Defense Budget !! The Pentagon just used to play the budget game of asking Congress for more than they needed, then when Congress cut their request back --it was still plenty of big bucks for them. Now, they dont even play the Game, the Sacred Cow
gets all the American Taxpayer bucks they want, and our so called Legislators ask them if they need more !!!!!!!!!!!!

****As long as the American Sheeple keep allowing our Legislators to pour the Billiona and Trillions into the Five Sided Puzzle Palace--The Pentagon==then our economy, healthcare, infrastructure, drug problems, and internal security will take last place !!!

Email them, Call them, Fax them, Write them==tell them we are fed up and wont take it anymore. Get out of Iraq,
Get out of Afghan, Stay out of Iran !!!!!!!!!!!!

Kitja said-
"As for the ideological component, a psychotic brand of Islam-hating fundamentalist christianity has infiltrated the military
-a no doubt deliberately because of its obvious usefulness in helping to brainwash a large portion of the troops
so that they will "believe in the mission."
True true and also true of a large majority of the Amerikan people Puppets.
Their strings are attached subliminaly by TV programming designed to gram and clog.
The elites who type set the disinformation are really stupid also.
Because they have chosen to believe in Rich will always be richer and the Poor are poor because they are stupid.
It is a tragic waste of creativity that could lead to communal prosperity for many more people: Who might even save the Planet for all living creatures.
And yet it is all a chance and Life seems to always find a way.
With or without us!

Muh daddy was a rocket scientist for NASA (the Brits would write Nasa).

He did gas diffusion studies on chimps in space capsules, dealing with such questions as What would happen to the atmosphere in a space capsule if the plastic insulation of the electrical wiring caught fire.

One of his chimps escaped! He showed up in a suburb of Kansas City, tapping on the kitchen window of a suburban housewife, asking to be taken in.

My father never understood how that chimp escaped.

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I have for years wanted us to shut down all overseas military bases. Everyone not on American soil. I want the bases reopened here in this country. The goal of our military is supposed to be the protection of our country. Instead we seem to wish to be the world's police force, and we pay heavily for that privilege.

Israel gets 6 million a day, month, whatever, Eygpt not too far behind...from the US taxpayer. Figure 5, so that is roughly 10 plus how much more daily to who? Allies? Saddam was once an ally. The Bin Ladens are an ally. When the figures for military spending are put out there, the government does not include the TRUTH. We are never told how much the government really spends.
Plus the demise of education is to create more soldiers, loss of jobs, the same. We are bombarded with shoot em ups on tv and constant fear mongering directed at the less informed who watch F*& so people want more guns and bombs, more nuclear bomb plants in Oak Ridge (a $3.5 billion plan right now), more children killed by private corporate militias overseas...sick bunch of creeps.
It's so disgusting what we claim to do in the name of democracy. It is all a lie and too few people know it. Get outraged. PLEASE

To actually significantly reduce the size of the military and all its redundancies would require a decommissioning and conversion plan (e.g., re-employment in green technologies production and site placement).

Any evidence of such a plan?

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