In early May, former dictator Rios Montt was convicted in his own country, Guatemala, of genocide. Then three weeks later, apparently due to extrajudicial political pressures, that conviction was thrown out. Professor Colin Snyder provides some needed clarity into justice in Guatemala and the role President Reagan, a big Montt supporter, may have played in that bloody ethnic cleansing against indigenous Maya. US relations in the rest of this hemisphere are called into question by this enlightening discussion.

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Who says the age of worker militancy has passed? The world took notice when the suddenly out of work, former employees of Republic Windows and Doors occupied their factory in 2009. But that was only the beginning. Now The workers own it and manage what is now New Era Windows out of a former Campbell's Soup factory near Chicago. In These Times ccontributing editor Kari Lyderson tells this fascinating story, which should inspire frustrated and concerned workers across America.

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Throughout history, humanist leaders have dreamed of finding a way to move humanity beyond poverty, prejudice, injustice, hate and war to a new era of equality, enlightenment and empowerment. All past efforts have fallen short, yet they have moved us – incrementally and cumulatively – forward to this moment when our guests,  Theresa Ruby and Ross Anthony Gray, say a quantum leap is possible.

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Heroin and smoking addiction.The huge challenges of treating PTSD. The moral and spiritual impacts of psychedelics on humans and society. These are some of the topics addressed by nearly 2000 participants, including over 100 of the world's leading researchers from 13 countries, at Psychedelic Science 2013. Guest today is Brad Burge, communications director for the organizers, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Is it time for awakening instead of fear?

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There are great opportunities in Mexico that can benefit both countries. Opportunities the presidentchooses to not see. On the first half of the show, Professor Robert Pastor, author of The North American Idea: A Vision of a Continental Future, tlaks about opportunhities that can greatly benefit both the US and Mexico's security and economies. And on the second half Christina Chauvenet, of Survival International, looks at what's happening with the few remaining uncontacted tribes and what it says about the edge of imperialism.

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Beginning in the 1930s, liberalism and Southern-style white supremacy worked well together. Today's guest Jeremy Kessler argues that it is liberals themselves who shoulder the blame for accomdating racist Jim Crow policies. As a result, Southern values controlled the implementation of much of FDR's New Deal. And the Cold War, that too came out of the dominance of Southern values. Today, in many ways, we continue to pay the price.

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Underlying a multitude of troubling issues is the matter of undue corporate power. The Supreme Court unloosed the dogs of this power with the Citizens United decision. This show looks at efforts to amend the Constitution to overturn this terrible decision. And Jonah Zern of Public Citizen also takes a look into New Hampshire, where the Republican led state senate is refgusing to hear  House-passed resolution calling for such an amendment. It's a hard road, but it must be traveled to re-establish democracy.

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A major new report on the use of torture was recently released. It is an unquestionably non-partisan report that raises deeply troubling questions about the status of America itself in the wake of the approval of the use of torture at the highest levels. Guest is the Constitution Project's senior researcher and writer Alka Pradhan. The most troubling aspect is the current lack of accountability. The report details what happened, how it happened, but does not answer the question of: what if we do as Obama suggested, don't look back just look forward. What does it mean for America if we do just put this matter behind us? That's the truly frightenting part. Of course we still can face history and face ourselves.

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Most Americans see money go from their pocket to...who knows where? Today's guest is the National Priorities Projects' Mattea Kramer, who leads their research program on the federal budget, spending and tax policy. From what she found, it turns out the priorities of the average taxpayer would serve the country a lot better, and more realistically than current taxing and spending priorites. Yes, we know better than the government! Now we need to keep up the pressure.

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Judy Wicks' new book is Good Morning Beautiful Business; The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local Economy Pioneer. It's a new 21st century way of doing business. And in this discussion she describes a model both left and right can agree on, and it can help feed the six billion of us better than the corporate dictated homogenuous imposition of blandness. And it's a fascinating story.

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It seems they exist in a world above everyone else. The big banks play by their own rules, which certainly appears to be greed pure and simple. Of course the rest of us pay the price. Dearly at that. Senior Fellow at the Campagin for America's Future Richard Eskow talks about the reality of the situation and how creation of public banks can add greatly to restoration of our economy.

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They were performers, not philosophers, and maybe that's why the impact they had on the current identity of the American political left can hardly be overstated. Purdue University political science professor Harry Targ talks about the significant impact made by the great folk artists: Paul Robeson, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. The tradition they kicked off remains vibrant and exceedingly relevant today. Listen in!

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There used to be momentum privatizing publuc utilities. But now it's swinging back to public ownership and control. On part one, Slate columnist Matt Yglesias looks at what it means for the common good.And on part two, Ian Millhiser, Senior Constitutional Policy Analyst for American Progress looks inside what's now before the Supreme Court: Prop 8 which ended marriage equality in California and the Defense of Marriage Act. Odd look, well, decent, for equality.

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The wealthiest Americans in the country have disproportionate influence over our nation's leaders. Problem is, as F Scott Fitzgerald noted, the rich are different. Today’s guest, Professor Benjamin Page, is co-author of a new study of the attitudes of wealthy Americans. It found that wealthy Americans tend to have different political priorities than the rest of us and have a lot more influence over shaping governmental policies. Rich people care much more about the deficit than the rest of us, who care a lot more about jobs and the economy. Some attitudes are surprising. Give a listen.

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In America, we take academic freedom for granted. We are not like those authoritarian regimes that control and intimidate teachers and professros, right? Well, in the 1950s, the atmosphere was chilly indeed. MArjorie Heins, author of the new book: Priests of Our Democrcy; The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom and the AntiCommunist Purge is guest on this show. She reveals the purges that might seem liek Stalinist Moscow, but they were really in New York City. And she says, if you switch the words "communist" with "terrorist," you'll recognize a frightening climate.

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America's war on Iraq started ten years ago on March 19 Some four thousand Americans and well over a hundred thousand, possibly close to a million Iraqis died. On part one, journalist Greg Barrett talks about what he witnessed among Americans and Iraqis on the ground, and what he calls "subversive interfaith friendships." And on part two, Ed Wilson of Voice of the Faithful takes a look at the chances for positive change in the battered Catholic Church with the installation of the new pope, Francis I.

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The old powers-that-be don't want the truth about the Kent State Massacre to ever see the light of day. Others are determined to have that truth known and justice to be done. On part one, Laurel Krause, whose then-19 year old sister Allison was killed at Kent State, talks about an effort to get the UN to press the case, push the US government to follow newly discovered evidence that an order to fire was in fact given. On part two, Nick Turse, author of the highly acclaimed new book: Kill Anything That Moves, talks about his findings that atrocities in Vietnbam were not the result of a few bad apples but were incredibly widespread and may have been simply policy. The young men who carried out the atrocities being victims as well. Facing history, facing ourselves.

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We all have images of the Ku Klux Klan as rabid terrorists. But the frightening reality is they were just average white men of the South. In his new book, Klansville USA, author and sociologist David Cunningham delves into the American cultural and poilitical contexts which gave rise to the klan. How similar are today's right wing movements? And what is the role of a perception of threatened manhood? A word of warning: the Klan's rallly song is played with its offensive words not bleeped out.

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It seems everywhere but the United States there is knowledge that March 8 is International Women's Day. Guests on today's show, father-daughter research team Jeff Rubin and Emma Sokoloff-Rubin talk about what they learned from their extensive travel in southern Brazil into the gains women have made in that developing democracy. It's about protest and governing, and lots more. Their book is called Sustaining Activism, and you will find today's discussion illuminating, with vital lessons which are applicable for women throughout the world.

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A bill to help business create jobs, tax carbon, and save billions on disaster relief has been introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Here Darren Springer, Senator Sanders' chief counsel, describes what it is and how it would work, along with what obstacles stand in the way. And on the second half, Alli McCracken of CODE PINK talks about a recent action in Washington challenging the political power of AIPAC in the US. It's up to us on both these issues.

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The military industrial complex is well aware of the power of Hollywood, that's why they spend gobs of money to influence those productions. But artists will be artists and not all Hollywood productions satisfy the desires of the militaristic plutocrats. There remains great independence in Tinseltown and some great movies are being recognized as such. No not by the Academy Awards but by the just-named 2012 Progressive Movie Awards, described by Hollywood's own Ed Rampell in this entertaining and educational show.

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It may sound fair, but in reality, "Fix the Debt" is the same folks as the bogus No Labels group. Depite the title, it's not about cutting the deficit and reducing the debt, it's really about rich people staying rich and siphoning all the public money they can get their hands on, while telling the rest of America to tighten it's belt for the greater good. Burt's guest, Mark Provost of "US UNcut" and "Flip The Debt", shows that the premise of Fix the Debt would only make our economy worse and increase the deficit.

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The Cold War and Red Baiting of the 50s. America's war in Vietnam. Civil rights and women's equality. All would have been far different had the Democratic machine not replaced FDR's vice president Henry Wallace with their own choice Harry Truman at the 1944 party convention. Wallace opposed imperialism and sought good relations with revolutionary movements throughout the world. Though practically unknown today, according to Petrer Dreier, author of The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century, Wallace was was truly one of our greats. If only...

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On the first half hour it's Dan Kessler, spokesperson for the environmental group 350.org, discussing the upcoming Washington rally on February 17th to push Obama on the Keystone XL pipleine in specific and climate change in general. He needs the push! And on part 2, it's Center for Constitutional Rights senior attorney Pardiss Kebriaei addressing the significant dangers posed by the Obama Administration's use of extrajudicial killings in foreign policy. Topical music, including the Fugs,  fills out the hour. 

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No one would have thought it possible. Prosecution in an international court would have been stunning enough. But now the amazing has happened: President Reagan's buddy, Guatemala's dictator in the early 80s, General Efrain Rios Montt is on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala itself! He is charged with killing over 1700 Guatemalans, and acording to today's guest, Victoria Sanford, founding director of the Lehman Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, the evidence is overwhelming.

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On the first half, Marc Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research talks about a new report on how policies of the International Monetary Fund are affecting the people of Western Europe. Their policies are supposed to boost economic security. Are they really? And on the second half, Huffington Post columnist Janell Ross reports on the complicated relationship between the newly re-elected president and Americans of color. Like many relationships, it's complicated.

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And we thought the Libya war was tucked neatly away. It seems all those weapons, loosed from the old Qadaffi regime, are now set loose in the desert nation of Mali, a former French colony. French forces are on the ground and in the air, fighting against, well who? Conn Halinan of Foreign Policy in Focus, sheds much needed light on this confusing and exceedingly dangerous situation. A Pandora's Box has been opened in northern Africa, and the likely beneficiaries are the Chinese, but not France or the US. Does the word Quagmire sound familiar?

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The belief that the Second Amendment guarantees every individual the right to possess and carry any sort of gun anywhere is exceptionally recent. Guest on this show is Alternet senior fellow Stephen Rosenfeld, who has written a series of articles revealing history that is very inconvenient to the 2013 leadership of the NRA. He reveals that gun rights and gun control have existed side by side steadily since America's founding. And he also shows that the NRA leadership itself favored reasonable gun regulations until an internal coup in 1977. This is a fascinating history, which should be very useful to move us forward.

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Super-weeds and super-insects? Thanks to chemical colossus Monsanto forcing farmers to inject their altered genes into corn and soy plants, there are powerful new highly resistant weeds and bugs out there. On January 10, organic farmers took their case against Monsanto to court. They've had it with Monsanto's aggressive "seed police" and their frivolous lawsuits against farmers for patent infringement, resulting from their seeds being wind-blown onto the non-using farmers' fields. It's real Alice In Wonderland stuff, and it's all too real.

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Very few of us have heard of the US-Dakota War. It happened 150 years ago and ended with 38 Indians being hanged on December 26, 1862. Then it was erased from memory, for whites but not for the Dakota who stayed away from the scene of the horror, Mankato, Minnesota. But on December 26, 2012 a new monument was erected in a moving dedication ceremony. Mankato's Bud Lawrence got the ball rolling for reconciliation  back in 1972 tells us about the war, the tragedy, and the hope.

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Buying food at the supermarket is like flicking the switch to turn on the power: we don't see it but it has a lot of impact on the environment, and on human health. Guest on this show is Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder of a new think tank called Foodtank.com. She has 13 specific suggestions as to how to create a future which is better for the earth and human health. It'll take some focus, but appropriate changes have already started.

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While some argue Christmas is really a religious Christian holiday, that's just not the case. On this show, Burt's guest is the Reverend Selena Fox, a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, environmentalist, Pagan elder, author, and lecturer in the fields of Pagan studies, Ecopsychology, and comparative religion. Rev. Fox is a trained counselor and psychotherapist, and began leading public Pagan rituals in 1971 and has done public education about Paganism since 1973.What has come to be known as Christmas really is a holiday for everyone to enjoy and celebrate! Listen in to this fun show.

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Most economists recognize the "fiscal cliff" as an invented crisis. High unemployment is the real problem, yet where is the political pressure on this? Today's guest is Robert Pollin, professor of economics at UMAss Amherst and founding co-director of its hgily regarded Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). In his new book Back to Full Employment, Pollin argues our current preoccupation with the fiscal cliff is all wrong, and that our real national security requres a new focus on federal stimulation of  job growth. Let's do what works!

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My intended guest unintendingly created a surprise opportunity for a monologue on the Newtown massacre and what might be done now. Guest Bill Shireman, CEO of Future500, finally reached the radio studio halfway through this show. He proposes a six pronged solution to forge a prosperous economy. Some radical, sensible ideas.On both issues.

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Not just the right wing plutocrats, but both parties now focus on cuts to solve the deficit and debt problem.Guest on this show is Roosevelt scholar David Woolner who points out why the opposite is needed: America should spend much more to stimulate demand and thus raise more revenue. That is the only approach that will work.

Both FDR and Obama faced some similar challenges; FDR took a stand for the common good in opposition to what he saw as the short term greed of the "economic royalists," while for many reasons, Obama and today's Democrats are more accomodating. Woolner insists that approach will not address our economic realities. Huge income disparities are not only morally wrong, he argues, but are economically counterproductive as well. A stimulating discussion.

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Congress has consistently passed the buck and now, instead of taking responsibility themselves, cuts across the board are threatened. Some, like Defense Secreatary Gates, have blamed entitilements, others, like today's guest cites out of control spending at the Pentagon. Dr. Gordon Adams is professor of International Relations at American Univerity where he teaches national security policy and resource planning. He was a member of the OMB Agency transition team for Obama in 2009 and regularly meets with Pentagon decision makers. Adams argues that cuts, not just in the level of growth, but real cuts can be made without harming our national security. And this year, it may even be politically possible.

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If you see the movie, you owe it to yourself to listen to this interview. Spielberg's basic premise is false. What is true is that Lincoln's presidency had a profound effect on the America we now live in, with so much power in the hands of a few corporate interests. There's a reason why the so-called Civil War (it was not) is still so hotly contentious. Author Professor Thomas DiLorenzo sheds a great deal of much needed light on the real Lincoln. Enjoy the movie, it's a good one, but recognize it is entertaining fiction. Here's the truth.

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What is the truith behind today's flare up in Gaza? Many insist that if you criticise the current government of the State of Israel, that makes you anti-Semitic. But many Jews across the world are deeply dismayed by the actions of Prime Minister Netanyahu's right wing government. Jewish Voice for Peace takes strong issue with the extreme violence. Today's guest is Sydney Levy, advocacy director of Jewish Voice for Peace. Most informative.

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Who would have ever thought it would take this long? The states of Washington and Colorado on November 6th voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana. How did it happen, how can the good sense spread? And on the second half hour, the state of our Constitutional rights under Obama is analyzed in a discussion with the ED of the Center for Conastitutional Rights. The left has been stunningly quiet as our liberties have been undermined. Time to pressure the re-elected president?

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Oppose the concentration and centralization of power and authority. Natural, locally grown foods. End American imperialism and militarism. Sounds like typical left stuff, right? Well, with the re-election of President Obama, there are petititons from more than 30 states calling for secession. Yes, secession. Today's guest is Michael Hill, hardly a typical lefty. Acutally he's a very traditional conservative. He's co-founder and head of the League of the South, which holds all the above values, and is dedicated to a new paradigm which he and many others believe will serve us a lot better than the monolithic centralized power America has become. Check it out!

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Without a doubt, controversial right wing NH Speaker of the House Bill O'Brien was the Democrats best organizer Democrats could have asked for. Now with the rout behind us, can the sane segments of the Republican Party retake control? Today's guest is Fergus Cullen, who served as state Republican Party chair in 2007-08, talks about adjustments that he thinks can be made to make the party relevant in the twenty teens. Will the hard right allow it to happen? Time will tell.

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They say music has charms to soothe the savage beast. Apparently it also has the power to shake and anger the powerful as well. Israeli Defense Forces radio has banned the playing of a new pop song. According to today's guest, Richard Silverstein, who covers Israeli politics and culture for a number of media outlets, this censorship of a pop song is something new and it does not speak well for the state for the State of Israel as the world has known it. An especially informative show.

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Here's a look at where we stand in the New Hampshire elections. First it's Rick Fabrizio, managing editor for news at Secoast newspapers, making some incisive observations and predictions. Then, on then on the second half, it's two candidates for state representative, looking at the big picture and what's at stake for NH citizens.

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Among the high stakes in the upcoming election is the future of American education. On the first half of this show, national head of the NEA Dennis Van Roekel talks about what's necessary for our secure economic future and about the two highly divergent American attitiudes on public education.
And on the second half, it's Michael Winship who is senior writer of the public television series Moyers & Company and its website, BillMoyers.com. He is also a senior writing fellow at the think tank Demos. The subject is the very real spectre of plutocracy replacing democracy. 

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First we lost Gore Vidal, then on October 21, it was George McGovern. From the archives of 1981, Burt interviews Gore Vidal at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston during his tour for his book Creation. See if his descritions of ancient days remind you of anything today. And of course they talk politics, about the Reagan years then ahead. Then it's Burt's final interview with George McGovern, from April 2012, regarding his book What It Means to Be A Democrat. America was never to be blessed with a McGovern presidency, but his vision continues.

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We need a photo ID to buy liquor or fly on an airplane, so what's the big deal about needing one to vote? Don't we need to stop voter fraud? Actually voter ID is a solution in search of a problem, according to Burt's guest Tova Andrea Wang, author of a new book, The Politics of Voter Suppression: Defending and Expanding Americans Right to Vote. A ghuest on many national radio and TV news programs, in this show Wang explains that the new efforts are part of a long history of the intentional suppression of certain segments of American society. Voting is a right, not a privilege. Don't let them scare you, it is still easy to exercise that right. And we must, to keep America a republic.

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Martha Fuller Clark was one of those swept out in the tsunami of 2010, but it's a virtual cwertaiknty she will be back in the state senate soon, albeit in a new district. She'll explain. There's a lot at stake in the November 6th election, not just the presidency and other top offices. There are three proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot as well and they could mean  major changes if passed. Martha explains.

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It shook the world when it happened. Picasso created one of the century's masterpieces from the terror bombing of the Basque town of Guernica 75 years ago. Today, very few remember the significance of the Spanish Civil War and the still-alive issues involved. Burt's guest is Oberlin Professor and author Sebastiaan Faber, who chairs the Abraham Lioncoln Brigade Archives board of governors. There's a reason the Bush Administration felt it needed to cover a tapestry of Guernica at the UN when Negroponte and Powell spoke there about the US war just beginning on Iraq. These largely forgotten lessons of history we must now learn!

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For most of us the cold war is a bad memory we'd like to forget. But for thousands living in America's southwest, it's a toxic nightmare that is there each and every day. On this show, internationally renowned expert on alternative energy technologies Mark Snyder explains why it is no exaggeration to call the ongoing massive exposure to radiation fromuranium mines America's Chernobyl. And some politicians claim nuclear power is safe and clean!

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