Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Everybody saw this coming.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

This blog will pay for itself.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

People are weird.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

T R E 4 5 O N

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Giving up is unforgivable.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Ammosexuals / Shooting at The Capital Gazette Update

Shooting at The Capital Gazette Update

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They’ve identified The Capital Gazette shooter as Jarrod Ramos. Apparently he had a long standing dispute with the paper and had sued them unsuccessfully for defamation. From The Baltimore Sun:

A Laurel man with a long-running feud with the Annapolis Capital is being held as the suspect in the deadly shooting at the newspaper Thursday, according to law enforcement sources.

Police and federal agents gathered late Thursday outside the address of 38-year-old Jarrod W. Ramos. Rich McLaughlin, the chief of the Laurel police department, said his officers were there as part of the investigation into the shooting at the newspaper, and other sources identified Ramos as the suspect.

In 2012, Ramos filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper and a columnist over a July 2011 story that covered a criminal harassment case against him.

He brought the suit against the columnist, Eric Hartley, naming Capital Gazette Communications and Thomas Marquardt, the paper’s former editor and publisher, as defendants.

A Twitter page in Ramos’ name on Thursday featured Hartley’s picture as its avatar, and a banner image included photographs of Marquardt and the Capital’s former owner Philip Merrill.

The page’s bio read: “Dear reader: I created this page to defend myself. Now I’m suing the s— out of half of AA County and making corpses of corrupt careers and corporate entities.”

The account regularly commented on Anne Arundel County news and referenced a deadly shooting at French newspaper in 2015.

The account had been dormant since January 2016. Then at 2:37 p.m. Thursday — moments before the Capital shooting — the account posted a message that read: “F— you, leave me alone.”

As of right now this appears to be isolated to this particular shooter and this particular newspaper. It does not appear to be part of a larger, coordinated targeting of journalists and the news media.

Stay alert, stay alive!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    @christoq
    Rep. Maxine Waters cancels events due to very serious death threat

    “There was one very serious death threat made against me on Monday from an individual in Texas which is why my planned speaking engagements in Texas & Alabama were cancelled this weekend.”
    https://t.co/M33S9q8z8S

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: I don’t. People who are angry, and believe they are legitimately angry, and believe they haven’t received justice, often do destructive things. Sometimes it is externally destructive, sometimes it is internally/self destructive. Sometimes it is both. My guess is he stewed in his own juiced until he couldn’t take it anymore and something set him off. And he may not even be able to explain what it was and why it set him off today.

  4. 4.

    lamh36

    @frankthorp
    42m42 minutes ago
    More
    Capital Gazette staff writer on CNN just now; “Thanks for your prayers, but I couldn’t give a f—k about them if there’s nothing else.” (The ‘—‘ was not censored when on television)

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    Ramos? That’s a Messican name! See? See?

    (Coming from Trump’s twitter feed in 3 …2 …1…)

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    . It does not appear to be part of a larger, coordinated targeting of journalists and the news media.

    uh, yay?

    I can’t believe we live in a time this both actually had to be said and that its also considered good news.

  11. 11.

    A Ghost To Most

    The crazies are taking their cues, and starting to execute their end-time plans. I wonder what my brother has in mind. We

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    I read some of his tweets – I assume they’ve been taken down – and they seemed incoherent, like he was talking to an invisible friend. We’ll see.

  14. 14.

    TenguPhule

    Three centrist Democrats fighting for their political lives faced growing pressure from liberal activists and some of their own Senate colleagues Thursday to oppose Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court.

    Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana already were navigating tough politics five months before the midterms, seeking reelection in states Trump won by hefty double digits in 2016. Each is critical to Democratic chances of wresting control of the Senate in November.

    The three broke party ranks last year and voted to approve Neil M. Gorsuch as justice. Now, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement announcement, they are caught between liberals demanding that Democrats unite in opposition to Trump’s next lifetime appointment to the court and conservatives insisting they stand with the president.

    n front of the Supreme Court on Thursday, left-leaning activists and four potential Democratic presidential candidates staged a rally under the blazing late-morning sun urging the party to oppose the 25 people from which Trump has said he would choose a nominee.

    Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) took turns at the microphone to demand unwavering opposition to Trump’s nominee.

    “The battle lines have been drawn,” said Gillibrand, shouting at the top of her lungs at the rally. “Which side are you on?”

    Via Wapo.

    Be thee hot or be thee cold. Be thee not lukewarm or I shall vomit thee out.

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    @Adam L Silverman:

    People who are angry, and believe they are legitimately angry, and believe they haven’t received justice, often do destructive things. Sometimes it is externally destructive, sometimes it is internally/self destructive. Sometimes it is both.

    A perfect description of the coming acts of violence. Perhaps it’ll be a vet who’s been denied healthcare and is already mentally fragile. Perhaps an immigrant or partner of immigrant. Perhaps it’ll be one of us Olds when they go after Social Security. Maybe it’ll be A LOT of us Olds.

  16. 16.

    Spanky

    @guachi: I lived in Laurel for 4 years when I first worked at GSFC, but that was back in the late 70s. Place has gotten skeevy over the years.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: As I wrote last night, the Senate Dems need to make a good effort demonstration fight, then accept reality and let it play out. They can’t stop it. They do need to show they’re willing to fight so as not to demoralize the base. And then they need to get it over with so it can’t turn the midterms into a vote on overturning Roe, which will reenergize GOP voters.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Spanky:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/06/26/disgruntled-veteran-lights-himself-on-fire-to-protest-va-at-georgia-capitol/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5c7641597bd5

    An Air Force veteran set himself on fire near the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday while “wearing a vest lined with fireworks and flammable devices” to protest Veterans Affairs system, authorities said.

    Officials identified the man as John Michael Watts, a 58-year old man from Mabelton, Ga., and said he was “disgruntled” with the VA system, according to Georgia Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mark McDonough.

    Authorities did not say why the man was unhappy with the VA.

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the man parked his Nissan Sentra on one side of the Capitol at around 10:30 Tuesday morning, walked toward the west entrance of the building and lit himself on fire. The man “doused himself with some kind of flammable liquid,” Georgia State Patrol spokesman Mark Perry said.

    A state trooper quickly put out the fire with an extinguisher, and the man was transported to a hospital, McDonough said. More than 90 percent of the man’s body was burned and he is in critical condition, according to local reports. Authorities said the man was able to speak during transport.

    More at the link.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    @Adam L Silverman: I was being facetious. The murderer was off of twitter for years, but left yesterday or the day before. I have no idea if he listened to the pres’s last rally calling the news the enemy of the state, but we do know something riled him up

  30. 30.

    Aleta

    IDing the killer:
    He carried no identification and had damaged his finger tips in an apparent effort to thwart identification by law enforcement, sources said. Authorities resorted to using facial recognition software and comparing his face to databases of passports and driver’s license photos.
    -B’more Sun
    More pieces to it than that of course.

  31. 31.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I’m half serious. How about a compromise? I propose the nominees and GOP members of Congress be harassed for their rest of their lives.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: This is the GOP majority in Congress’s fault. They made this mess. They allowed GITMO to be used for this when in the majority during Bush 43’s first time. They then blocked any funding requests by Obama to wind it down as the numbers of detainees dwindled. They don’t want it closed so they can demagogue it, but they don’t want to pay for it either.

  36. 36.

    Gravenstone

    @lamh36: Hopefully that “individual in Texas” is having a heart to heart conversation with representatives of the Capitol police (who I believe are responsible for the safety of members of Congress, absent other arrangements).

  39. 39.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Aimai:
    I’m not fantasizing about violence. I don’t want this crap to be happening right now.

  45. 45.

    B.B.A.

    @NotMax: so they’ll have geriatric prisoners in the general population then?

    If we survive the current administration, the CIA has to be forced to open its books and explain just why the fuck we’re keeping a bunch of senile goat herders in a warehouse at a navy base we stole from Cuba. Every day, as 9/11 passes into memory and bin Laden’s skeleton rots away at the bottom of the sea, the rationale for Gitmo becomes less and less coherent.

  47. 47.

    Aleta

    * Jayne Miller
    
‏

@jemillerwbal


    Woman who was stalked, harassed, sued, and scared away to another state by suspect in fatal shooting of 5 at Capital Gazette in Annapolis told me he became, for no obvious reason, “fixated” with her..caused her to move 3x, changed her name, and now sleeps with a gun.




    Since 2012, Capital Gazette shooting suspect has sued:
    * The paper
    * The reporter who wrote about a criminal harassment case against him
    * An Anne Arundel Co judge
    * Woman who testified against him



  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    It does not appear to be part of a larger, coordinated targeting of journalists and the news media.

    Come on, Adam, you know better than this. It doesn’t need to be officially “coordinated” because it will inspire other crazies with a grudge to go out and try to do the same thing. That’s the whole purpose of the kind of propaganda campaign the Republicans are running. Plausible deniability with just enough success to intimidate the right people.

    I will bet that there will be a big security crackdown at the Giant Evil Corporation tomorrow starting tomorrow (or tonight) since we have a large news division and multiple local news stations around the country.

  54. 54.

    Balconesfault

    @Adam L Silverman: the new terms for anyone on the religious right is going to be a referendum on making abortion illegal. It doesn’t matter if Trump’s nominee is approved or not. It’s about time that everyone he doesn’t want to see abortion made it illegal with severe penalties for both The Physicians and the women get their asses to a Ballot Box and register their opinion.

    And if people aren’t motivated enough by the prospect of their state making abortion illegal under Trump’s new Justice, well then I guess it just doesn’t matter.

  56. 56.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: There is a difference between stochastic effects and copy catting and a coordinated campaign. The former is, of course, quite likely. The latter, from the reporting so far, does not seem to be the case.

  60. 60.

    Steve in the STL

    And yet no one here seems concerned that my flight home has been delayed by over five hours and I was forced to stop at an Italian restaurant for chicken Marsala and Chianti. What is wrong with you people ?!

  62. 62.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:
    It was wrong to say, but this isn’t some “normal” process with some supposedly nonpartisan judge going to be appointed. This is an existential threat.

    Even if we win big this November, it won’t stop the damage that will come. I’m just sick of these people getting off scot free all the time.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Steve in the STL: Because no one here knew until you said something about it. It isn’t like we’ve got a spy satellite following you around everywhere…

  68. 68.

    Boussinesque

    @Major Major Major Major: I understand feeling “at your wits’ end”, and I think most of us have been in proximity to that emotional cliff at least once in the past 18 months, but I’m 100% with M4 here, Goku. Maybe try what debit said they were going to do in an earlier thread—dinner, video games, and a news blackout for a little while (I know that’s my plan for the rest of the evening). We need everyone to take care of themselves, get into the streets as often as they can, and get themselves and everyone they know to the polls in November. If you have to unplug for some self care and to avoid this kind of counterproductive despair-driven talk, by all means, do so!

  69. 69.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @NotMax:
    It’s not joking so much as venting frustration. The GOP is trying to ensure that the government will not be able to be peacefully changed. This is scary.

  70. 70.

    EBT

    @Adam L Silverman: One of my favorite classes in high school was my AP US History class. Taught by a guy who was an investment banker until the crash in the 80s. He lost a lot of other people’s money, without really feeling any pain himself. So he became a socialist history teacher.

  74. 74.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:
    As sad as this may sound, I consider the regulars here (such as you) to be my friends, or at least acquaintances, so I don’t like it when I offend someone.

  79. 79.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @efgoldman:
    I’ve been trying over the last few months to be better, if you haven’t noticed. I guess I’ll have to try harder.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    Somebody was asking me about this earlier today.

  86. 86.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Boussinesque: But I’ve got a Florida Man or Woman (though she’s actually in Montana) post I’ve got planned for later. You don’t want to miss that!!!!

  90. 90.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, no. I knew. I keep tabs on Steve at all times.

    How else could I tell if he’s lying about whatever airline terminal he’s got in his name?

  91. 91.

    Steve in the STL

    @Aleta: not yet. The pancreatitis was masking so many things that they couldn’t be sure, though mayo had a list of likely suspects. Now that the pancreatitis has largely abated, she will get another MRI and then a real diagnosis.

  92. 92.

    Boussinesque

    @Adam L Silverman: you really know how to twist a guy’s arm! Alright, I promise I’ll unplug from ESO long enough later on to check it out (in all honesty, BJ is basically my online home, so the likelihood of my missing a non-sports post is practically null).

  93. 93.

    Ohio Mom

    @EBT: Ah the October 1987 stock market crash. I remember it well.

    It was on Monday. The Friday before, my brother, the executor of our mom’s estate, had finally gotten all the paperwork completed. “I’ll take the rest of the day off,” he said to himself, “Selling the stock can wait until next week.”

    I know that story is way off topic but it always makes me smile.

  96. 96.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:
    That’s nice of you to say. I had been doing pretty well lately not saying stupid shit. Reminds me of the program Sherlock from Elementary is in and occasionally fell off the wagon. Guess I’ll have to get back on and do better.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    @lamh36: @sanjeevs:
    Aww crap, the Hiaasen name is special in my view and I didn’t know Carl had a brother in the business.

    So sorry any of these fine folks were confronted with this madness.

  102. 102.

    PJ

    @Steve in the STL: I can’t say anything about that, but personally, for a few bucks more, I would have gone for the Barbera over the Chianti. And next time, don’t pass on the tiramisu.

  104. 104.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Sheesh, the brazenness will never cease to amaze me and I’m cynical as fuck.

    Do these people not know how amazingly content-rich an image from modern camera gear is? Morans.

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    @Ohio Mom:
    That’s ironically like getting there extra-early so as not to miss boarding the Titanic.
    “There will be other passages.”
    “No, not like this!”
    So true.

  109. 109.

    Steve in the STL

    @Adam L Silverman: precisely. Fried ravioli? BBQ pork steak? Pizza with provolone rather than mozzarella? What is wrong with these people?

    @PJ: would have preferred the Barbera, but it was available by the bottle only and I still had to go through airport security. There were better wines by the glass as well but Chianti was the only Italian one and you know what a purist I am!

  110. 110.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Boussinesque: I was kidding. I’m planning on doing it, but I may not get to it till tomorrow. I wasn’t planning on doing three posts today, but, of course, reality happened.

  111. 111.

    Ohio Mom

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: We oldsters scold you because we care.

    I know you’re anxious about the state of the world, you’re young and it feels like your whole future is at stake. But everyday life will go on, and you will too.

    We’re all sorry to see our country take such awful wrong turns. But other peoples have lived through worse. You need to make a good life for yourself so you have the fortitude to help make things better. Anger, fear, panic, acting rashly, are not going to get you there.

  113. 113.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ohio Mom: The guy in Miami that killed everyone in his office and then himself because of that crash was a friend of mine’s dad. It did a number on her.

  115. 115.

    andy

    Wow, so a white boy who has a woman and smart people problem has himself a mad minute. Looks like he’s checked all the important boxes in the incel playbook.

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: As I’ve repeatedly said: they aren’t very smart, though they do have a sort of cunning, they are loud, they telegraph everything.

  122. 122.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Ohio Mom:
    Thank you for this and that describes how I feel pretty well. And you’re right. I have to take care of myself first.

  123. 123.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Daaaaang.

    My kid’s following Kennedy’s footsteps insofar as going to the same grade, middle and high schools. Unsure how to process all that.

  124. 124.

    Ohio Mom

    @Adam L Silverman: How sad.

    All our aunts and uncles told us not to worry, the stocks would bounce back. And they mostly did bounce back enough, eventually, months and months later. My brother was executor for a long time.

  125. 125.

    Boussinesque

    @Ohio Mom: I just wanted to say I <3 you for this comment. I’m not quite so young as Goku, but I feel the same way a lot of the time (having been in climate science in school doesn’t help one feel optimistic for the future), so I appreciate the collective wisdom, kindness, and even-keeledness of this community.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: Jews tend to not name their children after living relatives, so there are very few Jewish Jrs and IIIrds out there.

    I am named for my paternal great-grandfather as in my middle name and last name. Interestingly, and I’ve not spent any time to see if this was him (we know little about him as he abandoned the family on the TB ward in the sanitorium in Denver after relocating from Minneapolis for the climate because he and my grandmother had tuberculosis), Hiram Maxim’s colleague and co-inventor was named Louis Silverman.
    http://decimal1.blogspot.com/2017/01/silverman-maxim-m1896-prototype-pistol.html
    https://www.alloutdoor.com/2017/10/04/watch-maxim-silverman-model-1896-automatic-pistol/

  129. 129.

    Mandalay

    @sanjeevs:

    Carl Hiaasen’s brother

    You’d think that there is nothing useful or constructive you can say after learning that your brother has been murdered, but Carl Hiaasen found a way:

    Hug your loved ones like there’s no tomorrow.

    Sound advice.

  130. 130.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: The Elders have not given me authorization to confirm or deny that at this or any other time.//

    Actually it’s Omar. For Omar Bradley.//

  131. 131.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: 19 indictments and four guilty please with more to come isn’t exactly no consequences. These things take time. And I know everyone is stressed and angry and anxious, but this fight is going to be a marathon. Panic will not do anyone any good.

  132. 132.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: Until or unless he tells you he’s helping the Russian mob launder money to someone in the President’s family it’s all good.

  133. 133.

    PJ

    @Adam L Silverman: and in addition to being the only major bank still willing to work with Trump, DB was fined last year for laundering more than $10 billion for the Russians. But of course those facts are completely unrelated, as is, no doubt, Justice Kennedy’s son’s work at the bank.

  136. 136.

    Brickley Paiste

    I missed hearing about this today because I was out doing voter registration work today, but this is just awful.

    I mean you live in a comparatively small media market and – no offense here – the work that you do is completely inconsequential in the big scheme of things, you think that you are safe. I mean, somebody shoot up WaPo? Sure. Could see that .

    Is there any “place” in America, that hasn’t been the place of a mass shooting? Movie houses, churches, malls, schools, restaurants, college libraries, concerts -all lost as safe “places.” I really can’t think of an exception.

  138. 138.

    Ohio Mom

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I had a moment just before the election when I had a premonition Trump would win. I was in the locker room at the Y. I thought, “That’s it, everything is OVER. It’s all gone.”

    I calmed myself down by telling myself, “Wait, these cinderblock walls aren’t going anywhere.” I was in that much of a state of panic, I felt like the world was going to physically dissolve.

    As far as I can tell, the two eternal truths of adulthood is most of the time you are putting other people’s interests before your own, and you are mostly responsible for talking yourself off ledges.

    Nobody tells you when to go to sleep but you’re too tired to stay up late anyway.

    Keep at it Goku!

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Great story! The pistol itself looks impossibly futuristic for 19th century, more like something James Bond would use to deploy a dart delivering “a certain psychoactive compound” to make somebody docile and talkative.

  143. 143.

    Quinerly

    @Steve in the STL: near the airport! Let’s get you to my neighborhood for live music and a Half and Half at McGuirks someday! Hoping your wife is doing better. Safe travels.

  148. 148.

    PJ

    @Adam L Silverman: Another interesting coincidence was raised in the comments to the FT article you posted:

    Kassandra Aug 31, 2017
    When DB decided to expand beyond Germany, it lacked a home-grown talent pool for international banking. At the time, German banking was very traditional, and didn’t come with any social prestige attached. That’s why the provincial Frankfurt bankers fell for Ackermann, who had just been run out of Switzerland, and led the bank into a series of scandals and crooked deals (he is now running the Bank of Cyprus, which is suspected of being heavily involved in Russian money laundering). Of course, the DB board didn’t ask questions as long as Ackermann was making money, but its board members also didn’t have the background and the expertise to understand what Ackermann and his team of mercenaries were doing. For a long time, “Dumb German Money” was a real thing, because German bankers were not a cultural elite like in France and in the English-speaking world and, as a result, got into all kinds of idiotic and risky criminal deals.

    Wilbur Ross, until he became Commerce Secretary, was Vice-Chair under Ackermann at the Bank of Cyprus: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/23/wilbur-ross-russian-deal-bank-of-cyprus-donald-trump-commerce-secretary

  150. 150.

    PJ

    @Adam L Silverman: And some key quotes from the Guardian article:

    One of Ross’s first big decisions at the bank was the appointment of former Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann as chairman, whom he chose in part because of Ackermann’s “huge Rolodex”, according to a 2014 Bloomberg interview.

    Ackermann’s ties to Russia were especially strong, including a warm relationship with Putin and Herman Gref of Sberbank.

    And:

    A year later, Bank of Cyprus announced (pdf) it was offloading the Russian business, including loan exposures, to Avetisyan for €7m. The core assets had been purchased for €450m in 2008. Deutsche Bank’s London office advised Bank of Cyprus on the deal.

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PJ: Yep. And a great deal of Manafort’s money was laundered through it. It is, also, of course, the bank that Putin crony Alexander Torshin is tied to. Torshin is the oligarch that established the channel via the NRA.

  156. 156.

    wkwv

    I just found out that two reporters/writers whom I had read in my local weekly community paper earlier today were among the five Capital Gazette employees murdered. John McNamara had been producing up to half of all the coverage for my town of 50,000 people. RIP

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