Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The revolution will be supervised.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Everybody saw this coming.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

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

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Breaking News: Rush Limbaugh Is Dead

Reader Interactions

217Comments

  1. 1.

    zzyzx

    Let’s take a moment to mourn Rush Limbaugh’s death…

     

     

    …mainly that it didn’t come at the hand of any of the horrible policies that he helped create. So many ways he could have had an ironic death. The 2021 writers are failing us.

  4. 4.

    VeniceRiley

    So glad we had a change of government so we won’t have him lying in state or anything like that.

  9. 9.

    Geo Wilcox

    And there was much rejoicing… sorry but it is true. This creature poisoned the minds of millions of people and I for one am very glad he is dead. If that makes me a bad person, so be it. I will wear that badge with honor.

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    LOL.  On the same day they’re imploding trump’s Atlantic City casino.

    Laughing.

    And looked up how to spell Hallelujah.

  18. 18.

    LurkerNoLonger

    I think it was Bill Maher who said, after Jerry Fallwell died, that sometimes death isn’t sad. That’s how I feel.

  19. 19.

    Comrade Colette

    Entirely fuck that guy. He stole my brother – poured poison into his ears for decades, calling it “entertainment,” dehumanizing liberals and women and POC and basically anyone who wasn’t a white asshole like himself. I can’t drink champagne during this Zoom meeting but I sure as hell will later.

    Fuck him.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @PsiFighter37:   Hardly!  I am popping a bottle of cava in the fridge for tonight, as we speak.  (Would join you in imbibing now, but have some errands and a long walk to accomplish.)

  22. 22.

    Soprano2

    Things seem a little bit lighter, don’t they? I don’t mourn that asshole, he certainly wouldn’t mourn my death. Being dead doesn’t make people better than they were in life.

  25. 25.

    Gravenstone

    Just saw the banner on CNN and my first thought was “well hot damn!”

    I’ll stick with that sentiment…

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    This is better than our, uh, difficult day losing Andrew Breitbart (ha!) because Breitbart at least had numerous humanizing characteristics.

    Rush?  No.  Is Satanspeed a word??  It is now.

  27. 27.

    laura

    I heartily approve of his exit.
    Psy – popping champagne corks was my immediate thought. It’s not too early and I’ve got the dregs of the bottle of Inagural champers – maybe a wee mimosa is called for

    Also, what Colette said!

  34. 34.

    Poe Larity

    Since this news really isn’t important, I’ll just open thread this as former DoE Secretary Perry has weighed in since that last thread:

    In a blog posted on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website, Perry is quoted responding to the claim that “those watching on the left may see the situation in Texas as an opportunity to expand their top-down, radical proposals.”

    “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry is quoted as saying. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”

    “If wind and solar is where we’re headed, the last 48 hours ought to give everybody a real pause and go wait a minute,” Perry said. “We need to have a baseload. And the only way you can get a baseload in this country is [with] natural gas, coal, and nuclea

    Never misunderestimate Texans.

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @zzyzx: It’s a death we needed, not the death he deserved.  On the other hand what were the 2021 writers going to do, drown Rush in a tub of bleach?

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Poe Larity:“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry is quoted as saying.

    I assume by “Texan” Perry means;  white, male, Republican, age 55+ and makes over 150K a year?

  46. 46.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Comrade Colette: My wife says similar. He’s responsible for the radicalization of her father. There were other dominoes, but Limbaugh is the one most responsible for her dad’s outlook today.

  50. 50.

    MisterForkbeard

    @laura: I thought about making myself an irish coffee over this. Still might, though the alcohol will kill my diet.

    Some things are worth the hit, though.

    @Adam L Silverman: Candidate for the most appropriate gif ever on this blog.

  52. 52.

    Jinchi

    Normally I don’t speak ill of the dead, but he was an awful man who, on learning he was seriously ill, decided to spend his final months inciting bigotry and hatred.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    If Larry Flynt were still with us, I’m sure he’d offer a million dollars for a hot mike moment of the fourth Mrs Limbaugh saying, under her breath and behind the veil that hides the smile she can’t suppress: “about fucking time”

    I’ll say this for him, in spite of his four wives, there was never a fourth Rusty

  56. 56.

    mrmoshpotato

    @zzyzx:

    So many ways he could have had an ironic death. The 2021 writers are failing us. 

    The writers were mentally exhausted from 2020!

  57. 57.

    West of the Rockies

    “He has assumed room temperature.”

    Limbaugh derisively said that when someone he disliked passed.   Right back at ya,  buddy.

  58. 58.

    Cacti

    You could make a reverse version of the story “It’s a Wonderful Life” about Rush Limbaugh…

    Where Clarence the demon, tasked with taking Rusty’s soul to hell showed him scenes of all the people who might not have suffered had Rush never lived.

    “You truly did lead a terrible life, Rush.”

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    We are ALL giving up Rush Limbaugh for Lent.  And forever.  Allah be praised.

    He tore so many families apart.  I really hope that some of his dittoheads might wake up and smell the coffee, rather than fill their heads with sewage from another source.  It could happen, for some of them.

  61. 61.

    scav

    And the sun just came out here.  Even nature is smiling.

    (seriously, at least 4 good news events in 2 hours? I’m giddy.)

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    @West of the Rockies:

    “[Rush] has assumed room temperature.”

    On the way to transitioning to eternal flames and hellfire.  I see him in an eternal Hieronymous Bosch hellscape.

    I suspect some of his ex-wives may be breaking out the bubbly too.  They already got paid.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think this is the first time in a long time I’ve wished Olbermann were still on TeeVee

  71. 71.

    msb

    I hope he encounters more love and mercy than he showed to others

    Watching the trump hazard come down in Atlantic City is pretty cool, especially as it raised money for charity.

  74. 74.

    GregMulka

    Trump’s hotel being imploded and Limbaugh dead? On my birthday? The universe is being very kind to me. Time to buy the powerball ticket and push my luck.

  76. 76.

    James E Powell

    @dmsilev:

    Remember when Rick Perry was a leading candidate for the Republican nomination but then he said something about immigrants being human beings and his campaign was over?

  78. 78.

    Ksmiami

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Eh Texans will start eating eachother (red meat and all) that reminds me of the old restaurant prank. Put in your name in as Donner party of 5 but when you’re called to the hostess stand just say eh we are 3 now, 2 of us didn’t make it

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    I’m teaching the “political question” part of con law right now.  I wonder if a President can rescind a prior President’s award of the Presidential medal?  Sounds like a good final exam question.

  88. 88.

    West of the Cascades

    The electricity is back on in Portland, and Rush Limbaugh is dead, and it’s not even 10 am yet. Gonna be a good day.

    ETA: power is back on in my neighborhood at least, after about 30 hours without – a lot of rural customers in Oregon still without power (about 100,000), nothing on the magnitude of what Texas is suffering.

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ksmiami: The Donner joke is mine. Specifically, I’m going to open a  themed restaurant called Donner’s Family Style Dining. Smith party of 10, your table for 6 is ready…

  96. 96.

    scav

    @Elizabelle: Well, mom got her first ouchie and it absolutely went smooth as silk for a total procedure (Jefferson Health Care!), and then there’s the sparkly fizzle of the casino collapse, that US power outage map is a joy (inner geographer breaks through) and a few other minor things that I’m seriously too giddy to remember quickly.

  101. 101.

    Just One More Canuck

    I’ll steal Bette Davis’ line when she heard about Joan Crawford’s death – “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Rush Limbaugh is dead. Good.”

  102. 102.

    laura

    @MisterForkbeard: I informed spouse that Rush was hurtling to hell and his immediate response was “I’ll drink to that.” It seems there’s a concurrance across the country.

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Comrade Colette:

    @Z. Mulls:

    My younger brother is yet another of Limbaugh’s innumerable … I don’t like to say “victims,” because they all have (or had) agency. But he fell under the Dittohead spell and went completely round the bend.

  105. 105.

    counterfactual

    I am hoping for a lengthy scandal-headline fight over the estate, finally revealing that he spent it all and left nothing.

  108. 108.

    Redshift

    @MisterForkbeard: I am so glad my parents weren’t TV watchers and never listened to talk radio. My dad picked up a little bit of it from Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal for a while, but fortunately it wasn’t enough to stick.

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jinchi:

    Normally I don’t speak ill of the dead, but he was an awful man who, on learning he was seriously ill, decided to spend his final months continuing inciting bigotry and hatred.

    Fixed.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    How they’re describing this human hellmouth in headlines: the euphemisms are out in full:

    WaPost:
    Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio provocateur and cultural phenomenon, dies at 70
    NY Times:

    NY Times:  Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio’s Conservative Provocateur, Dies at 70

    A longtime favorite of the right, he was a furious critic of Barack Obama and a full-throated cheerleader for Donald J. Trump.

    LA Times:  Rush Limbaugh, highly influential conservative radio host, dies at 70

    Rush Limbaugh had huge influence in the political sphere, setting the stage for the rise of conservative talk radio with ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show.’

  113. 113.

    Shakti

    When I heard the news, I golf clapped at my desk and then did a little spite cardio dancing, bhangra x twerking x cancan style.

    I take my small victories when I find them.

  115. 115.

    Redshift

    “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,”

    Texas Democratic campaign slogan?

    “If you don’t agree with Rick Perry that sticking it to the feds is more important than keeping the heat on in winter, vote for me!”

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    @scav:  Yea about scav’s mom!  I will drink to all of your good news at cava o’clock, in a few short hours.

    Biden saying at last night’s CNN Town Hall that we would all have access to vaccines by August; that was marvelous news.  I am guessing he left himself some wiggle room in announcing that prospective deadline, having seen all the hay made over “You can keep your doctor.”

  121. 121.

    Betty Cracker

    My mom died when she was 68 years old, and every time some terrible person dies who made it past 68 (one of the Koch bros, Adelson and now Limbaugh), it pisses me off just a little extra. It’s not like I expect life to be fair, but that seems especially unfair.

    Oh well. With Limbaugh gone, Florida’s share of famous resident assholes dipped ever so slightly, but now that we have the entire shitgibbon klan, one hardly notices…

  126. 126.

    scav

    @Redshift: Wouldn’t Real Texans be whole-throatedly against sucking the Federal Socialist teat by allowing Federal military bases on their holy soil?

  128. 128.

    Immanentize

    @sab: Kissinger was replaced by a flatulent AI android with limited vocabulary in 1981 by Donald Trump at Studio 54.  Everyone knows that!

    /S/ Q.

  134. 134.

    guachi

    The irony of a cancer on the body politic dying of cancer. And a bigot dying during Black History Month.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    Rupert Murdoch is watching this and may realize that people will be celebrating on at least three continents when he bites it.

    So much of the ugliness and effects of climate change today:  flow from those two monsters.

  139. 139.

    Citizen Alan

    @Elizabelle: ​
     

    This is better than our, uh, difficult day losing Andrew Breitbart (ha!) because Breitbart at least had numerous humanizing characteristics.

    Name three.

  143. 143.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    He could have died of respiratory failure from COVID within days of having a maskless dinner party with Rupert Murdoch and the Mercers. That would have been a much better plot twist.

  145. 145.

    Redshift

    @scav: Wouldn’t Real Texans be whole-throatedly against sucking the Federal Socialist teat by allowing Federal military bases on their holy soil?

    And Abbot should be shunned for begging for super-socialist federal disaster relief, right?

  151. 151.

    Immanentize

    @laura: I love that I can inspire IRAC-trained brains to fire from afar!

    My question for my students today was: Trump moved the embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  Could Biden open a US Embassy to Palestine in East Jerusalem?  Political question or no?

  152. 152.

    Elizabelle

    @Citizen Alan:   Breitbart helped found Huffington Post, FWIW.

    He had an occasional sense of humor; I am not speaking of all the punching down he did.

    His father in law was Orson Bean, who was a cool old guy who was hit by a car at a very old age while on his way to the theatre.  (OK, that’s human by association.)

    I was not sorry to hear that Breitbart kicked it, and even less sorry to see Limbaugh’s demise.  The great tragedy is that Rush was granted such a long life.  He injected way too much poison into the system.

  158. 158.

    catclub

    @scav: ​ 

    Wouldn’t Real Texans be whole-throatedly against sucking the Federal Socialist teat by allowing Federal military bases on their holy soil?

    It should be noted that, unlike most of the useless red states that get more money from the federal government than they contribute, Texas does contribute more than it gets back. … MUCH more prosperous businesses. Also lots of oil.​

  159. 159.

    Dan B

    @Cheryl Rofer: I love the cheers from the crowd as the casino hotel disappears into the cloud of dust!

    Too bad Rush missed a ‘Slim Pickens”* opportunity.

     

    * Dr. Strangelove finale.  But riding the flame out of Rush’s greatest achievement – The Grand Turnip!  con.  The great American success story – snatching bankruptcy from the jaws of victory a major inheritance.

  163. 163.

    NotMax

    @Immanentize

    A legation, almost surely. An embassy would be another matter as (IMHO) that would constitute official recognition as an independent nation, a rather sticky wicket.

  164. 164.

    germy

    In his first interview post-presidency, Trump honors the life of conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh but also says Limbaugh thought he won the election and he says that he thinks he still won “substantially.” Trump did not win the election.

    — Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) February 17, 2021

  166. 166.

    germy

    Response to the NYT obituary:

    Not to play the race card or anything, but do you really believe a famous drug addict of color could die and be arrested for prescription fraud (or even a white lefty, come to think of it), and it would never be mentioned in the entire article?https://t.co/eHM6fTf7qN

    — Allison Burnett (@Allison_Burnett) February 17, 2021

  167. 167.

    Immanentize

    @catclub: not really accurate.  Of course it depends what you count:

    38. Texas

    • Net federal funding: $304 per resident

    • Total revenue from fed. gov.: $269.0 billion (2nd most)

    • SNAP benefit recipiency: 12.0 percent (tied – 23rd highest)

    • Median household income: $59,206 (23rd highest)

  169. 169.

    Starboard Tack

    @Elizabelle:

    That’s it. A joke is that if a Universalist Unitarian had a choice between Heaven, and a discussion about Heaven, they’d go to the discussion.

  172. 172.

    Immanentize

    @Immanentize: versus:

    50. Connecticut

    • Net federal funding: -$4,000 per resident

    • Total revenue from fed. gov.: $41.1 billion (22nd least)

    • SNAP benefit recipiency: 12.0 percent (tied – 23rd highest)

    • Median household income: $74,168 (5th highest)

    Linky

  173. 173.

    Starboard Tack

    @Elizabelle:

    You may be thinking of the UCC, the United Church of Christ, which was the merger of the Evangelical & Reform, and Congregationalist churches. I remember the mitten tree from when I was a kid.

  174. 174.

    germy

    Response to the Washington Post obituary:

    The description of Rush Limbaugh as "a lifelong deficit hawk" in this WPost obit, and omission of the word "racism," really exemplifies the DC/media tendency to pretend purveyors of hate fit into familiar political categories. https://t.co/84qzdTAd4z

    — Mark Schmitt (@mschmitt9) February 17, 2021

  177. 177.

    Citizen Alan

    @Poe Larity: ​
     

    So the same political party that told older Texans that they should be willing to die of Covid in order to preserve the economy for their children is now telling all Texans that they should be willing to freeze to death in their homes just so that Republicans can have some feeble talking point to use against windmills and solar power? If Texas doesn’t go blue after this, they’re a lost cause.

  181. 181.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Mike Hixenbaugh @Mike_Hixenbaugh 3h
    Last night, after we’d lost power & my pipes burst, my toddler choked on a peanut in our dark house. We rushed him across town on icy roads for emergency surgery at a hospital that does not have enough water pressure to flush toilets. Texas is a disaster.

  182. 182.

    Elizabelle

    @Starboard Tack:   Thank you.

    I was remembering a column by the late Michael Kelly, which mentioned the mitten tree.  It was a good one.  (He was The Atlantic Monthly editor who was killed on a trip to Iraq.)  Didn’t care for Kelly’s neocon takes, but the mitten tree column about working across religious differences was a good one.

  183. 183.

    PaulWartenberg

    @Comrade Colette:

    My dad is – was, now – a fervent follower of Rush’s radio show and diatribes. There were times when dad said to me “Paul, you should consider getting into radio and using your time to repeat what Rush says every day!” And I would tell Dad “for starters, that’s plagiarism and I’d get sued if all I did was parrot another person’s radio show. Secondly, I don’t want to repeat the evil shit Rush says about other people.”

    I’ve tried to get my dad to read/follow more reasonable conservative figures who weren’t rabid rage merchants – Frum at the least – but no, my dad got toxified by Rush and O’Reilly and Hannity and nowadays Tucker. I’ve given up on trying to save my parents from that and just try to save myself from that level of rage.

  185. 185.

    germy

    @Bex: Is Clarence Thomas doing the funeral?  Didn’t he marry Rush once?  Also, will Himself attend?

    Most likely.  Yes.  Most likely.

  187. 187.

    germy

    How nice for those who have lived such exemplary lives that they can express glee when others have their lives ruined by a mistake, real or perceived.— Pat Sajak (@patsajak) February 17, 2021

    Limbaugh’s good friend Sajak. Who tweeted “better luck next time” the morning after HRC lost to Trump.

  188. 188.

    Miss Bianca

    Our county attorney interrupted a county commissioner meeting to issue what were, to him, and obviously expected to be for everyone there, very sad tidings.

    I was glad I was muted on a conference call, so that no one heard *my* reaction to that.

  189. 189.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    On the occasion of Rush Limbaugh’s passing, I think it’s appropriate to repeat Rush’s comments when Jerry Garcia died:

    “Just another dead doper. And a dirt bag.”

  190. 190.

    Comrade Colette

    @germy:

    have their lives ruined by a mistake, real or perceived

    “a” mistake? Well, I guess if you consider Limbaugh’s entire life a mistake, that’s accurate.

    I have never paid the slightest attention to Sajak so I was unaware that he’s a dittohead fuckwad.

  193. 193.

    Brachiator

    Just tuned in to media and the Internets, and am seeing the news about Rush.

    2021 may be a pretty good year. A few things keep getting better and better.

    And if we get the pandemic licked, they will be able to have a long line of people waiting to piss on Rush’s grave without the need for a lot of social distancing.

    I hope the cemetery provides sufficiently for runoff.

  194. 194.

    germy

    It’s beginning: A county Republican chairman in Kentucky is calling on Mitch McConnell to step down as Senate Minority Leader over his statement that Trump bears responsibility for the Capitol attack.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 17, 2021

    I’m gonna get popcorn and enjoy watching the Kentucky Republican Party that Mitch built swallow him whole. https://t.co/FsFG9Ig4pp

    — Rex Chapman (@RexChapman) February 17, 2021

  197. 197.

    Subsole

    @zzyzx: 

    I will mourn that he didn’t die sooner.
    It really still amazes me that there are actually people who make the world better by leaving it…

  198. 198.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy: <Mr. Burns>Excellent.</Mr. Burns>

    I did wonder why he took that position. The Turtle never does anything without careful calculation, so I assume he judged this was the likeliest path to survival and that he was going to outlast the pro-Trump wing of the party.I’d like to see them eat him and THEN implode. A sort of ourobouros thing.​​
    Or perhaps a better analogy is this.​

  205. 205.

    TheTruffle

    I’ve been listening to various versions of “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” since I heard the news.

  207. 207.

    cain

    If there is one thing we should all be grateful for – that Dems are in charge of the federal govt – otherwise this asshole will be lying in state in the capitol building while Republicans circle jerk around his corpse waxing eloquence while their noses are firmly buried in his putrid and decomposing asshole.​
     
    What? Too soon?

  208. 208.

    Subsole

    @catclub: Also worth mentioning that, ironically enough, the ones who most loudly feel that way tend to have spent some time in those military bases…

  209. 209.

    Elizabelle

    Interesting.  The FTF NY Times changed their website front page headline and blurb about RL’s death.

    They originally had (and it’s still what you see when you click on the story):

    Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio’s Conservative Provocateur, Dies at 70

    A longtime favorite of the right, he was a furious critic of Barack Obama and a full-throated cheerleader for Donald J. Trump.

    Now, it is:

    Rush Limbaugh, Who Built Talk Radio Into Right-Wing Attack Machine, Dies

    Mr. Limbaugh, 70, who helped transform the G.O.P., pushed talk radio to the right with misogynistic and racist language and conspiracy theories.

    The Times seems to be having a culture war within its ranks, for real. Good. They need it.

  210. 210.

    Subsole

    @Citizen Alan:

    No, if we don’t go blue after this it’s because we still haven’t recovered from a decade’s worth of rampant voter suppression measures. Which they’re ratcheting up. Georgia has them SCARED.

  213. 213.

    randal m sexton

    Him and Sheldon Adelson are now circle-mates with Roger Ailes.  maybe Rupert can join them soon.

  214. 214.

    Jinchi

    @germy: A county Republican chairman in Kentucky is calling on Mitch McConnell to step down as Senate Minority Leader over his statement that Trump bears responsibility for the Capitol attack.

    It seems to me that the Republicans could shut this nonsense down real fast if any of them reacted to the party censure with, ‘Okay, you don’t want me in the party. I’ll just start caucusing with the Democrats’.

    Obviously that wouldn’t work for Mitch, but pretty much any of the 7 Senate Republican outcasts could make the jump if they had a mind to.

  215. 215.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    It’s beginning: A county Republican chairman in Kentucky is calling on Mitch McConnell to step down as Senate Minority Leader over his statement that Trump bears responsibility for the Capitol attack.

    This is Death Cult Supreme.

    Trump was never really a Republican, or not much of anything. He saw that the GOP fit his resentments and was ripe for his grift.

    But now the GOP goobers love Trump even more than they loved Reagan.

    This is insane.

    The chaos can’t last, but it is fun to watch them battle each other for now.

  217. 217.

    Just Chuck

    @germy: Boy oh boy it’d sure be a shame if the wingnuts started pulling all their campaign donations from Turtle’s warchest to spend on internecine conflict.  It really would pwn this lib and make him cry I tell ya.

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