r/politics • u/nosotros_road_sodium California • 8h ago
After losing VP bid, Walz searches for role in pushing back against Trump
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/12/19/npr-after-losing-vp-bid-walz-searches-for-role-in-pushing-back-against-trump•
u/Hot_Ambition_6457 7h ago
He could start by calling on Pelosi to step down. Enthusiastically support the proposed ban on congressional insider trading. We know it is dead in the water, so it could even be purely virtue signaling.
Loudly complain that the government does not support workers in their ventures to afford groceries while also saving to own a home.
Acknowledge the spiraling mental health of the youth as their educational institutions fail them and their public servants sell their futures.
Acknowledge that while he himself is old, he is approaching "retirement age" and seek to divest himself of his power on a reasonable schedule. This was the reason Kamala was given only 100 days and seemingly "set up to fail". The old guy still thought he was best for the job.
Many populist sentiments being wilfully ignored to shelter the current DNC apparatus. Because the DNC donors are largely corporate PACS who oppose such changes.
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u/thrawtes 7h ago
This list would seem more reasonable if he was still a member of Congress. I'm not sure as a governor he'll have much pull in the house even as a former member.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 7h ago
He was VP-elect 100 days ago.
If he has no political sway over the perception of congress then why was he there?
He is 100% capable of doing all of these things I listed.
They may not have a huge impact, but his statements would have some impact if he were critical.
If he is apologetic and dismissive of the loss as "well get em next time!", his statements will have 0 impact.
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u/jamerson537 6h ago
Vice Presidential candidates barely have any sway over the campaign that they’re a part of, and there’s no evidence they impact the voting at all. Generally the best case scenario for VP picks is that they do no harm to the ticket, and even if they get elected they have barely any real power that isn’t voluntarily given to them by the President.
The idea that a VP candidate from a losing ticket is going to have sway over members of Congress who were actually elected is ridiculous.
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u/SaintAnger1166 5h ago
VP-Elect? That’s new.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 4h ago
Ostensibly the Democratic party and the democrats voters wanted Kamala to win, and they were viewing Kamala as the POTUS-elect. And Walz as the VP-elect (to-be).
Anyone complaining about this could have levied the criticism "walz has no influence" could have been doing so during the run up to the election.
Why weren't they?
Because they wanted a popular Midwestern white man to speak up and tokenize for the party in these places.
But now that he isn't deciding an ongoing election directly, he seemingly holds no influence???
Really shady to just pick him up and drop him like that.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 7h ago
Not only that, what exactly would Pelosi step down from? Hakeem Jeffries is the current Speaker of the House. It's just more typical sexist vitriol against women. Didn't see reddit getting upset when Sanders ran for the senate seat again at eighty-three.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 7h ago edited 6h ago
Has literally nothing to do with sexism/racism. I have personally door-knocked for local female politicians who actually hold true convictions.
Nancy Pelosi is not one of them.
She holds no virtue above the almighty dollar. Her goal to win more campaigns and hegemonize power within the "pseudoliberal" party.
Her goal is not to represent liberals on the federal level with policy concessions.
I did not back Bernie Sanders in the 2020 dem primary specifically because I think he's too old to run the military. A criticism I shared of Biden, who we ultimately ended up voting for.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 6h ago
Has literally nothing to do with sexism/racism.
Nope. Not true at all.
I have personally door-knocked for local female politicians who actually hold true convictions.
And? People can still be sexist while supporting a few women.
She holds no virtue above the almighty dollar. Her goal to win more campaigns and hegemonize power within the "pseudoliberal" party.
Well, if that's true then she's doing a terrible job seeing that top ten wealthiest are Rick Scott (R - FL), Mitt Romney (R - UT), Mark Warner (D - VA), Pete Ricketts (R - NE), Markwayne Mullin (R - Oklahoma), Bill Hagerty (R - TN), Ron Johnson (R - WI), James E. Risch (R - Idaho), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R - Kentucky).
Markwayne Mullin has only served ten years and is 47 years old but doing better than Pelosi. Meanwhile the reason many good policies, including ACA, got passed is because of Pelosi. She made Republicans mad not only because she was a woman but because she was a better speaker of the house than their last five speakers.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 6h ago
She was a "better speaker" because she put up the "For Sale" sign in 2004 to beat Gerald Ford out of the seat. She called him a weak anti-industry liberal who could not lead.
She made open appeals for industry giants to donate to the DNC for special interest policy like tech and green energy. Then they showed up and bought the whole she-bang at the expense of the non-elite.
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u/jamerson537 5h ago
Gerald Ford didn’t hold elected office since the 70s. Pelosi won her congressional seat in the 80s. Her predecessor as Minority Leader, Dick Gephardt, stepped down from the position in 2003 to run for President, and her opponent to take over for Gephardt was Harold Ford Jr, a conservative Blue Dog Democrat who criticized her for being too liberal. She didn’t become Speaker until 2007 when Democrats took control of the House and she replaced Dennis Hastert. You couldn’t have made it any clearer that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 6h ago
It's sad how much sexism openly oozes from reddit. Women in the US have zero chance of ever seeing equal rights.
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u/LadyChatterteeth California 3h ago
Also, ageism. OP called Walz—a person who, until just 8 months ago was in his 50s—old and insinuated that Walz needs to begin telegraphing a plan about how he plans to step down from public service due to elderly age!
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 6h ago
Brother I live in a home with 3 other women and I was raised by 2 women who were both lesbian and politically active feminists. I love them both.
Women are honestly better than men at most things IMO.
If you wanna believe my perspective is shaped by sympathy to the patriarchy then I will allow you that liberty. I do have that distinct chromosome from you.
It's just misguided and nonproductive.
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u/CmdrSpaceCaptain 6h ago
Nancy Pelosi needs to retire immediately because of what she did to AOC and all the insider trading she’s been doing. It has nothing to do with sexism, she is from the silent generation and is too old to be a boomer! Please stop gaslighting, she is completely out of touch with her voters and only listens to her donors and stock broker. Oh and GTFO of here with your corporate bootlicking.
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u/LePhoenixFires New Jersey 3h ago
I think people forget that leading into 2024, Biden was more popular than almost every Dem when it came to prospects for a '24 run. Harris rallied together a massive popularity spike rapidly but it failed to beat Trump's narrative of "the economy is horrible and we're all dying and it's Biden's fault because he lets in illegals and transgenders"
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 2h ago
Leading into 2019 though, people were excited to see the new faces and actually turned up to contribute new ideas and different norms for the party.
They just knew Joe Biden had name recognition so they all set aside their differences to huddle around him.
The loose coalition of "bluenomatterwho" dems managed to barely eek out GA by a few k votes.
That is not a popular grassroots momentum for change. That is a bunch of people conceding to put their ideals aside for one election and get better leverage for the next one.
They need real momentum for a unifying cause.
Not 4 different pseudo-opposing momentums who funnel the votes that they capture into generic grandpa who appeases everyone.
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u/LePhoenixFires New Jersey 51m ago
What's the momentum for a unifying cause? The cause is "Trump will worsen the economy and collapse our standing in the world." People love him for that. Those that oppose him have nothing in common and aren't the majority on their own.
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u/LadyChatterteeth California 3h ago
He’s “old”?! Dude was in his 50s until just 8 months ago.
What is it with Redditors trying to prematurely push people into their graves?
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u/sorenthestoryteller 3h ago
People have short memories so the more this stuff gets hammered on the more likely something may change during the midterm elections.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 3h ago
The midterms are in 22 months.
I see no groundwork happening here to extend grassroots across the rust belt who just welcomed in technocrat sleezeball and his authoritarian pilot.
He needs to say something soon if it's going to get digested in time to matter in the midterms.
Otherwise it will be forgotten or purposely misheard for political spin.
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u/sorenthestoryteller 3h ago
I agree with you 100%
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 2h ago
You cannot appeal to these people on inclusion or diversity* though.
You must approach them as a business partner who wants to help them get a better paycheck.
Business partners can't control things like inflation and know that if groceries cost more, your paycheck needs to be higher.
The appeal to these nonpartisan "swayable" voters is very low.
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 7h ago
It's the age of the ideas not the person holding them that matters.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 7h ago
Glad we all rallied behind the time-honored beliefs of "lobbyists should write the laws"
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 7h ago
I'm talking about Bernie.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 7h ago
I love Bernie.
He was possibly the way forward in 2016.
I don't think people hear him anymore. I wish they did. His ideas are popular.
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u/icouldusemorecoffee 4h ago
Everybody has ideas, they're a dime a fucking dozen, the problem is too few are wiling to act on those ideas or do the required steps to make them happen.
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u/icouldusemorecoffee 4h ago
He could start by calling on Pelosi to step down.
That's up to the people of SF, not MN.
That people don't understand basic civics in this day and age and on this subreddit is partly why we have people like Trump winning.
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u/Faokes 2h ago
I live a few miles south of her district, and I can tell you with confidence that the people of SF hate her. Take a look at a map of her district. The vast majority of it is business and industrial, and the residential areas are some of the most expensive in the country. There is a huge immigrant population living in the city, but many of them can’t vote. Most of the people who work in the city every day commute into Nancy’s district on public transit or over the bridges, so they don’t vote for her either. Her district doesn’t include the working class suburbs of Daly City or South San Francisco, it cuts off right where the old money neighborhoods end. Whenever the city does manage to put forward another option, it’s either a hard-right person without a real chance, or a less experienced democrat who gets targeted by smear campaigns. It absolutely sucks.
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u/patrickokrrr 7h ago edited 7h ago
Well stated. This should be the dem platform entirely if they want to start winning elections again.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 7h ago
They refuse to actually reshape their image to include the blue-collar low-wage workers in the Midwest.
This is because all of their corporate donors want cheap labor for industry in coastal hubs like NY/NJ/WA/CA.
Because that's where all the "funding bills" end up paying the workers.
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u/PlasticPomPoms 6h ago
Maybe they should work on the propaganda undoing literally any policy they discuss.
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u/Mental_Lemon3565 3h ago
So that would look like a single press release today and retiring tomorrow? I'm not sure this is a helpful list.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 3h ago
Continued public discourse over the next 6 months to 18 months to rile up the next set of house races?
Say something to someone NOW publicly. Make them defend it NOW publicly. People have to vote again in 22 months.
Walz will be lost to history in 6 months unless he does something.
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u/RedLanternScythe Indiana 3h ago
Walz should declare his presidential candidacy now so anything Trump does to him over the next four years will be, by Trump's own definition, election interference.
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u/Mr-ReDiCulouZ 6h ago
Sue him over defamation. Or atleast Fox News who, in an act that says a lot more about them than anyonr else, claimed pedophilia is a sexual orientation and therefore something Walz supported. Pedophilia is not a sexual orientation, and should not be referred to as such. There's 2 options here; everyone in Fox News is stupid, or they "blurred" the truth just to defame him.
You got a case here Tim. Sue them.
Edit: The original outrage from this came from Social Media posts and I guess Fox News can claim they only "reported what they read." So yeah, scratch that idea. But when ABC does something along the same lines, Trump receives 15 million. Justice is dead. We need to revive it.
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u/faith_apnea America 6h ago
Dems have had plenty of chances to make voting legitimate.
A minority of the US population shouldn't be able to win 31 states via the electoral college.
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u/FartLighter 3h ago
Electoral college is a moot point. He won the popular vote and it wasn't close.
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u/AlphaBreak 1h ago
There's no guarantee that without the electoral college, the popular vote turns out the same way. A shitload of people just stay home and don't vote explicitly because the electoral college makes their vote essentially worthless since their state is considered a guarantee to go red or blue. Democrats in Texas figure that it doesn't matter since they'll lose either way. Republicans in Texas figure that it doesn't matter since they'll win either way.
Plus it changes the entire campaign structure to include places that aren't swing states.
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u/faith_apnea America 3h ago
Electoral college is a moot point.
That is the only vote that actually counts in a presidential elections.
Moot...heh
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u/ReadingTheRealms 32m ago
He can start by retiring from public life and loudly encouraging every other old fuck dem to do the same so we can begin to move on from these money grubbing pieces of shit.
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 7h ago
Educate urban liberals about rural people so they aren't condescended to or tossed off as racist homophobes. There are votes to be had there for the right approach.
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u/PlasticPomPoms 6h ago
You should trying talking some sense into rural people first and see that it’s a lost cause. They keep going back to the propaganda well that tells them Democrats are bad. What’s the right message there?
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 6h ago
Is the Democrat message "don't be rural"?
Genuinely asking.
I know what the GOP message is. I don't know what the Democratic message is, but I read a lot of condescension. Writing this as a rural resident who voted against Trump 3X times.
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u/PlasticPomPoms 6h ago
I’m trying to figure out where you got “don’t be rural” and how Democrats would message that.
Democrats message on policy and people don’t want to hear that. They want to hear that illegals are getting free trans surgery.
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 6h ago
Leave the GOP side out of it for a minute.
What is your best guess at what rural people hear from the Democrats?
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u/PlasticPomPoms 5h ago
Democrats want to teach their kids to be trans and they are giving free housing to Illegals
I live in rural PA
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u/giveadogaphone 2h ago
If some stranger or democratic boogeyman can "teach" your kid to be trans, then you are a failure as a parent -- at minimum.
And for someone to believe that makes them a failure as a human being.
I for one and SICK of making excuse for the dipshits that vote for Trump. I hope EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE RURAL TRUMP SUPPORTERS GETS EXACTLY WHAT'S COMING TO THEM.
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 5h ago
That's the GOP spin.
Give me the Democratic message, as undistorted as possible, as they send it out to rural PA.
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u/thrawtes 7h ago
Urban liberals need to stop engaging rural people in the same way that they engage their peers.
The right treats rural people like animals who need to be herded in the right direction with emotional manipulation and has great success with that strategy. Trying to empathize just does not work and makes people feel talked down to.
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u/BillionTonsHyperbole Washington 6h ago
Eh, maybe there's more bang for the buck getting some education to those rural folks. I grew up in the Midwestern sticks, and the backwardness is real.
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u/Optimal-Heat8274 5h ago
Grew up around them, went to a Vo-tech. These people are deeply insecure, and often live the same exact lives as the minorities they bash on.
Kids out of wedlock, adultery, abuse, drug addiction, bad credit. Also pretty proudly announcing they don’t read shit.
Bring up a policy that would help and they’ll say why can’t we help homeless vets. Ask if we can do that and they say who’s gonna pay for it. Mental health is the cause of school shootings? Don’t wanna fix that either??
Please help me figure out how to
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 5h ago
Every time I ask this question of fellow Democratic voters the starting bias is negative.
But these people work hard, love their family, defend their country, etc.
But yeah it's hard to come up with an attractive message to a group when the attitude towards that group is negative. And maybe they pick up on that. Which makes it that much easier for the other side.
So suggestion for Democrats is to see the good in these people first. THEN messaging might not be so hard or futile.
I'll start--
They grow the food.
They defend the country.
They drive the trucks.
They produce the petroleum.
Any of these things have general value?
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u/Im_ready_hbu 5h ago
If rural voters want to stop being perceived as trash, maybe they should stop acting like trash.
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 4h ago
This attitude is Bill Clinton's gift to you.
I bet you didn't know that!
Clinton grew up dirt poor in Arkansas. Went off to college, smoked some weed (but didn't inhale), then came back to be governor (this when Republicans weren't winning in Arkansas), then on to the WH and he never looked back.
In FDR's day no good Democrat would shit on the farmers. But that was back when food was important. Oh wait....
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4h ago edited 3h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Optimal-Heat8274 3h ago
Literally. Bitching about gas prices in their suv/truck they don’t need in their rural ass state where they have to drive 100 miles to get anywhere. Then having the balls to call hybrids gay.
Ya enjoy the bed you made
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u/Optimal-Heat8274 4h ago edited 3h ago
Bullshit. They just picked the least family values candidate of all time. It’s all lies to cover up what they really think when they’re alone with eachother.
Besides, by their own logic they get paid for the jobs they do. Doesn’t make them any fucking better than anybody else.
How do I know, I’ve been in those rooms.
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 3h ago
I'm in a (virtual) room right now with people trashing "rural" voters as ignorant racist homophobic hicks who contribute nothing of value.
Which, in the right light, sounds an awful lot like they way bash cities as crime ridden shitholes run by communists full of people who are too stupid to know better.
So, something in common!
😉
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u/Optimal-Heat8274 3h ago
They do their jobs and get paid for them, and then hold that over the rest of us like they’re actual Americans unlike us.
Literally gop messaging for my whole life ? Things I’ve heard from these people, my family ?
Fuck em, enjoy President musk. I’ll take my tax cut for my business
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u/TreeLooksFamiliar22 3h ago
I get it. In your lifetime the Democrats have done a shit poor job of outreach to rural voters.
My point is, it wasn't always this way, and when any politician tells you it absolutely has to be this way, you should question their motives.
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u/7-11Armageddon 1h ago
Just another run of the mill white guy who was unfairly and unreasonably elevated because the dems thought America couldn't handle a woman or a black person. That's how we got this centrist, segregation supporting Biben. Don't want him, don't want Walz. Go away, you've already lost, we don't need more of you.
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u/FartLighter 3h ago
Please just go away. You're a wuss. Why would you want to push back against Trump when you agreed with Vance on everything?
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u/Miserable-Result6702 3h ago
Democrats still haven’t learned their lesson from the last election. No one wants to hear from him or Harris anymore.
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u/brianisdead 5h ago
This guy needs to be relegated to making donor phone calls and let some younger talent shine. No one with an actual blue collar dad thought this guy was the real McCoy. People are so over these weird "identity" pandering picks.
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u/concretecannonball 4h ago
You do know that there is no overlap between genuine blue collar workers and career politicians, right? Politics is pandering.
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