57 Comments
Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

“When United Launch moves their shipments 4500 miles through the ocean from Alabama to VSFB via the Panama Canal, why does the APCD bother to track, monitor, and permit the last 18 miles which represents 0.4% of the emissions associated with the trip?”

Easy answer: The APCD gets to grow their number of employees, their power and their influence. They create a larger pool of self-interested voters. When everyone depends on government for a job, housing, loan forgiveness, a “free” school lunch or health care, who will vote for those stingy Republicans?

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Granny says it best. I agree 100%. As more and more people work for the government fewer people are engaged in productive enterprise. More parasites, less blood. It is the path to universal poverty and where socialism always leads. An unwritten requirement to work for the government is to possess a middling intelect. Midwits thrive in bureaucracies where success is measured as conformity. Midwits love to admonish others for not following the rules. Midwits never question rules. Midwits love making rules for others. I never met a Democrat that was not a midwit, at best.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

I’m old and I’ve been paying attention for a long time. Civil Service is not what was sold to the public. So many have sold out for their 30 pieces of silver. Now our entire corporate media and education system (even elementary public schools) have been completely taken over with neo-Marxist agendas. Add the allure of high paying government jobs with unsustainable pensions and the private sector is hanging on by a thread. We must elect Trump. We also must do a better job educating people that individual liberty can only exist when there is personal responsibility.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

No,and I rarely hear those words from a Republican. Our party has done a poor job of explaining what we stand for.

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founding
Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

I love it when Granny gets feisty. About that snakebite, did the snake survive?

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Such true words..."individual liberty can only exist when there is personal responsibility". Have you ever heard a Democrat speak such words?

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founding

Granny you are describing words said long ago ““Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:13-14‬ ‭

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

“An unwritten requirement to work for the government is to possess a middling intelect. Midwits thrive in bureaucracies where success is measured as conformity.” So true. Look what has happened to medicine since private practices have disappeared. Treatment is based on top down protocols. The incentive is to manage resources through a redistribution of wealth. The top students no longer enter medicine.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

You and "Granny" are spot on. Ayn Rand wrote eloquently to what you're talking about. Her books should be a mandatory read in American schools.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

I grew up with Ayn Rand. My parents were super fans. I was even an extra in all three Atlas Shrugged movies.

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Thats awesome Granny!

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Wow, V Cool! “Who is John Galt?” Don't ask useless questions. How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? What is wrong with the world?

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founding

Hello Granny "Snakebite" - that is called CORRUPTION "The APCD gets to grow their number of employees, their power and their influence."

Welcome to Santa Barbara where you to can be pulverized with "Infuencing Peddling"

"Power Manipulation" and "Stacking the Empoyee Deck"

You have to love these Santa Barbara "Rattlesnakes" who will bite you in the ass everytime

and consistently inject you with their corrupt venom. Remember thier SLOGAN>>>

"DEI OR DIE" all the way baby!!!!!

Howard Walther, member of a Military Family

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Ignorance. Gotta give them the benefit that that they just don’t know what they don’t know.

They are self absorbed in their space that they control.

Like going Green. The amount of pollution & fracking done to produce solar panels and EVs outweighs the benefit of the solar panels & EVs. Then with EVs, most are charged overnight when coal is the source of electricity.

But people think they’re saving the planet when in fact they’re helping pollute it.

They don’t know what they don’t know.

Government has interfered with knowledge.

Government is pushing expensive initiatives.

Do our representatives know how bad & costly their initiative is?

Looking at officials like AOC I’d say they’re ignorant.

Look at our local officials, do you think they are free thinkers? Their campaigns were bought and paid for by the DNC.

They were chosen because they are followers, not free thinkers.

They are also greedy for power and other perks.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

This fine article by Andy Caldwell again points out the dead machine of government growing inexorably to feed itself and its dead government minions, with no regard to creating efficiencies in or allowing the private sector to create wealth, prosperity or growth. As the number show, Santa Barbara has about 200% more government employees and expenses for the same amount of people in our population compared to most other California cities, governments, and county governments.

As I wrote a year ago, the SB county government has an unfunded pension deficit of over $1 billion, and to put that in perspective, $1 billion means the county must extract 1,000 million dollar homes from the private sector, and put that into the pockets of government workers who are not even working anymore. That’s our legacy from Salud Carbajal and the other supervisors that we elected to overwatch, and monitor our local county government . Our supervisors basically function as pension managers for the government. Again the dead government machine grinds on with its main purpose to extract wealth and transfer it to the unemployed and to fund unneeded and unproductive programs that hinder development and hinder private prosperity as their main focus. Yes, government has a purpose to do those things we cannot do ourselves individually, but at this point, it’s the dead hand of government gone wild.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Andy,

You are such a refreshing resource of common sense in the face of bureaucratic B.S. Perhaps you could investigate the uncontrolled expenditure of hard earned taxpayer money on the “upgrading” of our roadway infrastructure by little, if ever used handicap curbs, mid block STOP sign islands and the unbelievably over engineered intersection at De La Vina and W. Sola streets, while at the same time our street surfaces, especially those most heavily traveled, are an absolute, unmitigated disaster?

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Two thumbs up. It's not just the handicap curbs, it's the ever changing design of these. I think I've seen seven in the last 25 years. Seems like a money maker for Granite or Tierra.

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

I read this very good article by Mr. Caldwell that really is about our US Military

titled "Some Regulations Don’t Accomplish Anything" that should be titled

"Failure to Honor & Respect Our Military Has Serious Consequences"

and I quote from same "I kicked up a hornet’s nest with my article about the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District’s regulation of Space X and United Launch activities on Vandenberg Space Force Base."

There is a much Bigger "HORNETS NEST" that has been recetnly kicked up and I will quote from the Gold Star Families Parents that have lost their sons and daugthers in the service of our Country as follows>>

Recent Statement on Twitter (X) by Gold Star Mother from the recent

Democratic Smear Campaign against President Trump (Re:Arlington) weblink>>

https://x.com/DrewHLive/status/1830027261401239793

“Kamala your statements is nothing more than a Political Spin to

help you look better in your presidential campaign against Donald Trump.”

“You have never walked in our shoes. Our Kids were murdered because

of your administration and you are partly to blame yourself as well.

What happened at Arlington, was President Trump was invited by those

families who have soldiers buried at Arlington. They invited them as

a friend, somebody who has taken the time, numerous times, on numerous

occasions to hear our stories, to speak out our kids names and help us get

some accountability from your administration because in over three years

we have gotten nothing but more and more lies, just like your statement,

more and more spun, lies and cover-ups to make you and your administration

look good.”

“But there is one thing that you [Kamala] said in your statement that was true,

no one should be running for President if they cannot honor military members,

their families as well as Veterans.”

“So I guess this means you should step down Kamala.”

You can see many of the 13 Gold Star Military Family Members

Statements and a list of them at weblinks below>>

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2021/08/28/here-are-the-names-of-the-13-service-members-who-died-in-afghanistan-attack/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IOvz5pMsBA

At the above weblink, at time 8:45, the names of all thirteen military family members

were read that lost their lives, serving their country, at Kabul, Afghanistan,

outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport at Abby Gate.

These thirteen Military Members, like many others who served our Country

is in stark contrast to the Santa Barbara “So-Called Local Leaders” Dereliction

of their sworn Duty, to the United States, to this Community, it's active Military

Members, their families and US Military Veterans and their family members.

Howard Walther, member of a Military Family

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Good One HW…nothing pisses me off more than disrespecting veterans for politics gain…here are more statements from Gold Star families who lost loved one in the disasterous Afghanistan withdrawal…

https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1830045970911867154?s=61

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830044938148442601

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830044664688165285

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830044423079530939

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830044131021762757

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830043841983885343

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830043573124747613

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830043214079774838

what’s worst, we now have Tim Walz — Mr. Stolen Valor — selected to run for Vice President…why are we selecting frauds & thieves to run Our Country…https://x.com/shawn_farash/status/1830078669269745986?s=61

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founding

Hello DL, yes I have up most of the night listening again

to the Gold Star Parents which is very disturbing.

Christy Shamblin, Mother-In-Law of Sergeant Nicole Gee…

is very hard to watch ............

The Main problem is most of our So-Called-Leaders have

no experience or background with Military Problems, Issues,

Military experiences or just keeping the US out of the Endless

Wars ..............

It is all about the MONEY and POWER.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Exactly…it’s also about POWER & MONEY (follow the $$$)…interesting Qs to ponder…

Why did it take an 'outsider' to finally deliver the 'start' of peace in the Middle East?

Why did it take an 'outsider' to finally deliver the 'start' of finally holding China accountable?

What former President used the MILITARY to save the republic and what occurred exactly?

Who is the Commander and Chief of the military?

MILITARY Intelligence v FBI CIA NSA?

Under what article can the President impose MI take over investigations for the 3 letter agencies? What conditions must present itself? Why is this so VERY important? No approval or congressional oversight (State Secrets upheld under SC).They lost this very important power _ the one area of the govt not completely corrupt and directly serves POTUS.

THE DISEASE CALLED CORRUPTION…[they] never thought [HRC] would lose…

PS…THE WAR IS REAL…FIGHT 4 TRUMP, HE FIGHTING FOR US… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUsLDzXWUU4

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founding

DL just posted on X, Lt Colonel Gabbard was there at Arlington

and was a witness the entire Arlington Affair by the DEMs wil

manufactured like everything they touch.

https://x.com/GuntherEagleman

Pinned

Gunther Eagleman™

@GuntherEagleman

·

1h

Holy shlit!!

@TulsiGabbard

comes out and exposes the truth behind all the fake news and DNC trash!

“I was with there from the beginning, from the laying of the wreaths with the family members... I was with them at Section 60 and what I saw was a very grave and somber

Show more

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Yes, it’s plain to see the Arlington smear is just another play by the (terrified) Deep State…as you know, “A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Boots”…

BUT, https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1154112475002036234?s=61

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Gunther Eagleman is a Patriot Warrior…did you listen to the Tulsi Gabbard interview?

FYI, it’s a big club & you ain’t in it… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyvxt1svxso

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1

I guess you're fine with a classless warrior patriot. I'm not.

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Are you referring to Trump, who had at least 6 medical deferments due to bone spurs and then stated that he had lived through his “personal Vietnam war” by not catching STDs?

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haha, another sources say comment…

FYI…Trump received 4 deferments for education and a final medical deferment for bone spurs in his heels…Joe Biden avoided being drafted into the military five times, one more deferment than former president Donald Trump (Biden eventually received a medical exam in 1968, after which he received a "1-Y" classification)…radio silence from your favorite media outlets…

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Although I do believe we ought to be good stewards of our land, water and air, the fraud of our governmental agencies that cause incalculable undue harm to our society must be brought into the light as Mr. Caldwell attempts to do in his good article. Still, the root is the fake green agenda. We must recover true science to debunk this fraudulent agenda and the high profile frauds who are perpetrating this crime on the American people- the green agenda is not about being good stewards of land, water and air, it is about power, control, and the license to transform our once amazing country into a hellscape of dystopian nightmare. The eco propaganda, the race baiting and the energy "crises" are just another few bricks in the wall to destroy us.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Thank you, Andy. Terrific column - good for you rousing the APCD out of their torpor. I went onto their site and was immediately hit by how inessential the APCD is and how fuzzy their goals are. They list these strategies for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation:

Rebates for zero-emission vehicles

Expanded use of zero-emission school or transit buses

Expanding battery-electric and fuel-cell electric vehicle infrastructure

Planting urban forests

Conservation projects on working agricultural land

Retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and battery storage

Expanding the vessel speed reduction incentive program

Renewable gas trucks

How unprofessional can an organization be? The crisis of “climate change” is already amateur science, and on top of that, this list of how they're going to tackle it is something any 8th grader could come up with.

Are we really paying people to oversee these “strategies?” Can't we defund this organization, or whatever we have to do to get rid of it?

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Why don't these regulatory operations control the air pollution flying over the city? The absurdity of the pollution control operations looking at a minuscule source of pollution and making a big deal out of them. An example, in 1980 I flew on a DC-10 commercial test flight to Hawaii from LA to certify a navigation system. The aircraft contained about five people and expended 35,000 gallons of fuel according to the pilot. There were system problems I had to fix, and so another 35,000 gallons needed to be expended. The purpose, the use of a lower cost navigation system meant saving a lot of money and ONLY for the flights between LA and Hawaii: $70,000 cost for an inertial nav system and $30,000 for a radio nav system ... and there are three nav systems per aircraft, shooting for sole use of three radio nav systems which was approved. Think of all the flights made on airplanes. I had to laugh when Space-X "punches a hole" in the ionosphere with a rocket. The ionosphere is self-repairing. And the environmentalists go nuts with freon and other gasses often released into the air. And CO2 gasses are measured in changes of PPM (parts per million). They will express changes of 1 PPM which converts to 0.0001%. I've worked in the instrumentation industry as a design engineer interfacing to sensors. Measuring 1 PPM of anything has to be quite the challenge and probably not realizable. I could go on all day about the waste of any enterprise picking on small sources of pollution. It's ridiculous.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

I'm with you but I think the article said air traffic is a federal concern. I do know the airport is largely federal run, out of the hands of the city, one of the stupider moves Santa Barbara ever made. Nonetheless, if APCD can drove out a winery, then they should be able to at least do something more productive like badger the obnoxious local private jet owners.

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Control might be empowered by the Feds, but it still remains that bigger fish such as aircraft are doing more polluting, so why mess with the small stuff. Yes, my wife had flown on company jets out of SB when working for a corporation. And these aircraft do expend a lot of pollution for the sole purpose of convenience. We see all of this pollution control is simply a power play.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

I'm not sure which mayor dropped the ball by giving the Feds power over the airport. I think it was Sheila Lodge. Really stupid move. If you have gone to meetings to object about air traffic pollution as I have, you are told with a smile by some elected idiot like Laura Capps that there's nothing she can do about it, as she checks her watch to make sure she's not late for her own private jetting out of here.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

And no doubt Laura Capps would bump into Al Gore (the sky is falling) only to talk about what suckers the general public is about pollution destroying the earth. An enormous amount of car pollution control systems has already cured most of the problems with emissions. Now so-called pollution is used more to harass the public.

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Sep 1Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Amen.

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Sep 2Liked by Santa Barbara Current

Government is in many cases well intended but has no motivation to cross reference, or self correct. Private ventures pivot when their practices ill serve the public. Government programs are harming the well being of the citizens in many cases. The best solution is to replace management with management that understands the larger picture of what is the role of government.

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Caldwell has made a ton of money advocating for the worst polluters in Santa Barbara County for a long , long time. This while constantly railing against the “Socialist State of California icreated by Democrats” .

Do Santa Barbarans and our neighbors to the north ever wonder about what happened at Casmalia (Hunter family) Cat Canyon (Greka Energy) and numerous other locations where Caldwell supported entities caused major environmental catastrophes?

I’ll tell you what happened in case readers have short memories -

The “ Socialist State” and the feds had to step in and fund cleanup efforts of the messes left behind by Caldwells cronies who flew the coop , taking the money and running.

A little balance and humility would do Mr. Caldwell good instead of his constant and incessant one sided attacks.

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Nice Gilbert, it looks like everyone is getting in the Money Scam, Money Laundering

Good Ole Boys and Good Ole Gals Club of Santa Barbara.

Nothing would do better than a pair of hand cuffs what do you say ......... like Hilary.

"Because You Would Be In Jail"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbh2qXBMjuY

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Mr. W, surely you know that white collar offenders rarely end up in cuffs. That’s just not how Americas justice system works.

Billionaire Randeep Grewal (Greka) and the wealthy Hunter family (Casmalia Resources) safely scooted with their ill begotten gains while the likes of Caldwell ran cover for them constantly undermining our safeguard systems against just this type of malfeasance.

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founding

Hello Gilbert, financial crimes that involve violation of civil rigths

where large amount of evidence is destroyed do end up in prosecution by

Federal Authorities as follows>>

https://www.justice.gov/crt/criminal-section

The United States Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division Criminal Section investigates and prosecutes a variety of civil rights violations, including:

Hate crimes: Physical harm, threats, or other acts motivated by bias based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability

1. Law enforcement misconduct: Excessive force, sexual misconduct, or other police misconduct

2. Human trafficking: Compelled or coerced labor, services, or commercial sex acts

Reproductive health services: Violence or threats of violence that interfere with access to reproductive health services or clinics

3. Interference with rights: Interfering with certain rights because of someone's race, religion, color, or national origin

And this is EXACTLY what is going on in little ole SB.

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They do it for job security.

By the way, our taxes on purchases is going up because they kicked out the oil industry. And now there is more oil on the beaches.

Morons.

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Which tax specificialy are you writing about? The City sales tax?

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Sep 1·edited Sep 1

Off shore shipping accounts for anywhere from 45% to 75% of the NOx pollution in Santa Barbara County.

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Thank you Andy! I truly enjoy reading your articles and thank you for educating the public!

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Think about the vintage cars manufactured prior to 1975 exempt from emission requirements. On a daily basis, pre-1975 vehicles are spewing out tons more emissions than any winery. Does anyone bother to limit the emissions of these old cars? Nope, let's just pick on the wineries instead.

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Actually, limits to these pre 1975 cars were enacted, by federal requirements limiting lead in gasoline.

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No, it's not just the lead gasoline in old cars. Many older cars don't have NO pollution control devices. My first car was a 1957 Dodge Coronet which I did all the repairs to including the Stromberg 2-barrell carburetor (no fuel injection back then) that required regular cleaning out and I can confirm it had not one thing that would be considered a smog reducing device. Same with any other car back in those days. My new 1973 Pinto station wagon had minimal smog item, still an aspirated engine. My new 1985 Audi was fuel injected, much cleaner. My wife's new 2003 Audi TT I did repair on was loaded with smog control devices; one system included a blower running only for a few minutes on startup which I believed was a little too many pounds of hardware to carry around for two minutes of operation during startup.

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I don't get it. The emissions from the vessels from the east coast all the way to Vandenberg get added to the emissions of the stationary equipment for their calculations of compliance?

We could minimize pollution by going back to a hunter gatherer lifestyle. Oops. There are 7-8 billion on the planet trying to live better lives. That circle won't square.

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