The Big Tent

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

So, here we are, somehow part of a big tent.

Okay, correction, the big tent is still forming. We have the oddest people suddenly trying to be with us or on our side, or something. And it’s not so much like we’ve done something to attract everyone and their second cousin, it’s that the other side has been so enthusiastically pushing people away and excommunicating people and demanding that people conform to not just a narrow but ever changing set of specifications that change constantly. And if they don’t conform, they’re terrible, horrible, basically not-people.

So, people have been drifting out way.

Look, it’s not that our beliefs aren’t attractive, mind. They are. We promise people the ability to work to better themselves and the world. But it’s hard too. Being free is hard you have to admit to your own mistakes. you have to fight your own battles. You have to be the adult, and no one is coming to save you.

This means that a lot of people will be afraid of it, scared and horrified by the work needed. But right now they don’t have a choice, and they’re being catapulted, screaming onto our side. Because it’s still better than the psycho alternative that wants to control their every breath, and, if that doesn’t work, is quite willing to destroy them, their culture, and ultimately all humans.

So, they’ve raced here, and they’re on our side now. At least they think they are. They claim to be.

Except it’s not that easy. Is it ever? At heart they still have a lot of of bad habits. They still run to mamma want government to tell them what to do and how to fix everything.

And they have other unsavory habits. One of them being that they try to be what they always thought we were. And what they thought we were is crazy cakes.

So you’ll hear a lot of nonsense, and a lot of people claiming to be on the right and saying the most bizarrely appalling things.

Of course the difference is that there are a lot of soft skulls who just hear it everywhere and start thinking it must be right.

So a lot of the dumber ones are saying all sorts of appalling things, and really thinking they’re getting this “right wing” thing right.

Look, I remember when they told us about the “era of good feelings” And how there were no partisan feelings, no factions, etc.

But you know d*mn well that there were factions, because there were strong disagreements. And there are strong disagreements.

I think the crazier stuff will shake off. Because it usually does. Russia went completely insane once the opinion/discussion control was gone. And then it went extremely Russia. which is where they are right now. Hey, not all cultures are sane, and most countries sort of aren’t.

But we … as a nation are either incredibly sane or completely insane, coming out on the other side. So we have a way to maybe come out all right.

Maybe.

So, despite the fact that humans are social apes and we tend to imitate each other, and fall in with what we think the group is, I’m telling you to hold on to what you believe, what you think and know is right.

Don’t go falling in with the group because “this is a plausible theory.” And “this is what’s behind everything.” Or worse “this is the opposite of what the left told us they believed. (The left lied, anyway.)

Hold on to your beliefs. And if you’re shaky on those, I recommend our founding documents and the writings of the founding fathers.

If you’re still confused? We believe in individual liberty, individual responsibility and individual achievement. We believe in self-determination, freedom of association, and definitely freedom of commerce.

We believe we have the righ right to say whatever we want, particularly the people who are stupid and wrong, because that’s how it can be argued and how the most horrible things can be shown to be horrible.

Turns out when everyone is shoved under one big tent, it’s where the fights are.

There will be some epic fights. Enjoy them.

It’s the sound of freedom.

90 thoughts on “The Big Tent”

  2. Not to be a curmudgeon, but all these people trying to crowd in under the big tent?

    They need to be vetted. Somehow.

    Guarantee any number are snakes in the grass.

    Liked by 2 people

          1. My dear, sweet sister, who is as lovely a person in existence anywhere, collects clown figurines. She has a China cupboard full of them.

            Creeps me out.

            Just goes to show anyone at all can have a creepy hobby.

            Liked by 1 person

    2. Interestingly, not too long ago I watched a video on just that topic, complete with Baron Harkonnen’s quotation from Dune: “You can never trust a traitor, even one you create.” The vid included some suggestions about what to look for to see if the change represented a true change of loyalty. Things like: has the person been changing or objecting to their former side visually over a period of time? Has the person lost or stands to lose anything by the change? Does the person want to be elevated to a leadership role?

      Cards on the table: I’m a “convert” from liberalism and temperamentally I still am, at least as much of a “liberal” as what the 90s would call it. I began to “come over” back in 2014, mainly because this side wouldn’t police my every thought and I had and have no interest in policing the thoughts of others – and truly turned in late 2015.

      And when I did, I kept my mouth shut and I listened.

      I’m still listening. Still reevaluating things I’d taken for granted, still questioning my instincts, not 100-percent on board with some of what’s considered “conservative” or “traditional,” but trying.

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      1. I believe most here would say that your description of yourself, whether or not as a convert, fits them quite well; everything you noted is how rational adults act and think.

        Probably too late for “Welcome!”, so it’s just “Enjoy the ride!”😉

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Interestingly, not too long ago I watched a video on just that topic, complete with Baron Harkonnen’s quotation from Dune: “You can never trust a traitor, even one you create.” The vid included some suggestions about what to look for to see if the change represented a true change of loyalty. Things like: has the person been changing or objecting to their former side visually over a period of time? Has the person lost or stands to lose anything by the change? Does the person want to be elevated to a leadership role?

      Cards on the table: I’m a “convert” from liberalism and temperamentally I still am, at least as much of a “liberal” as what the 90s would call it. I began to “come over” back in 2014, mainly because this side wouldn’t police my every thought and I had and have no interest in policing the thoughts of others – and truly turned in late 2015.

      And when I did, I kept my mouth shut and I listened.

      I’m still listening. Still reevaluating things I’d taken for granted, still questioning my instincts, not 100-percent on board with some of what’s considered “conservative” or “traditional,” but trying.

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      1. The main people pissing me off right now are the converts who brought their disdain for the west and their rank anti-semitism with them. I’m not inclined to abetting either that or racism.

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        1. They are not converts….just Jacobins or Trotskyites or what have you. They still want to be on top of the corpse pile, not in it.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. I’m appalled with two p’s, as Berke Breathed said, by the absolute vileness of the antisemitism.

          I’m not thrilled with the bits of anti-Catholic crap I’ve seen, either. Trying to connect Ash Wednesday with the worship of Taamuz……go on, pull the other one.

          Yes, I got brought up Southern Baptist, but Dad made it very clear all Christians are in this together, and don’t hate on Jews or Muslims, either. (This was pre-9/11).

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The worship of what, now?

            (BTW, the Jack Chick comic “Death Cookie” is the most hilariously ignorant anti-Catholic BS that I’ve ever seen. “IHS” standing for “Isis, Horus, and Sept”? Comedy gold.)

            Liked by 1 person

            2. Taamuz, lover of Ishtar, who she went to the kingdom of death to rescue. The reasoning, such as it was, equated Ishtar with the Virgin and Christ with Taamuz, so the symbolism of Ash Wednesday is super secret code for Goddess Woship and Ancient, Eeeevil Pagan Cults! REEEEEE!

              Liked by 2 people

          2. The irony is that this is 19th century anti-Christian agitprop, repurposed. And the 19th century stuff was at least more consistent in that the anti-Catholic stuff simply assumes that Protestants can use the dove as a symbol without its being a sign of Astarte but Catholics can’t.

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      2. This, pretty much, and on a similar timeline, too.

        I was always somewhere on the libertarian-minded liberal end of things, but there was a dark time when I actually believed the Democrats had some good ideas. (Spoiler alert: they have never not been lying about what their ideas are and where they lead.)

        Started swinging towards constitutional libertarian about 15 years ago, and have been getting steadily more conservative as I go. Heck, I even got religion not very long ago. Well, no, not religion…yet…but I did find God after 35 years of faithlessness. What a time to be alive.

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    1. The primaries are still in the hands of the base. Until that changes, things should be somewhat safe.

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  4. Yeah, I always thought the Democrats would split into the Moderates and the Loonies.

    But it maybe the Republicans will survive as the only Major Party, and then split into the Big Gov and Small Gov parties. And possibly the Loonies, but maybe all the groups will have been infected with this weird tolerance and individual independence thing . . .

    One can hope.

    Liked by 2 people

  6. I think most of the world views us as incredibly insane compared to them. America Is Chaos!The idea of freedom is scary, even to me sometimes. I think most people probably find comfort in at least having a curated/limited number of options to choose from. It’s very comforting knowing there is someone there to catch you if you fail, hence the people who approve of having a nanny-state watching over them. Being the person responsible for whatever happens is stressful.

    Many Americans, those most successful in business I believe, revel in the freedom to go do their own thing and see if works out. I think that freedom lends itself to America’s acceptance to blogs/vlogs as relevant sources of information. It helps to diminish the Gell-Mann amnesia, because you can go do your own search for information if something reported seems a bit off but you can’t tell exactly why.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Search “choice overload” and see what comes up in the consumer-research* literature. There’s also considerable pushback on the notion, which I find heartening: far better a robust debate than a manufactured consensus.

      *While I’m a free marketer, I don’t intend this as a defense or justification of consumer marketing, nearly all of which is either (a) stupid, (b) insulting, (c) stupidly insulting, or (d) insultingly stupid.

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        1. One of my old history teachers said the only reason it was called the era of good feelings was because democrats had complete control. There was no organized opposition at the time.

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    2. Good feelings for democrats anyway, since the Federalist Party had collapsed and the dems were essentially unopposed. Monroe ran unopposed in 1820.

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      1. This, this is the “good feelings.” There were no major political parties after the Federalists collapsed, the Whigs formed but weren’t really anything solid, and the fringe parties tended to be very fringe (Anti-Masonic, really anti-Jackson).

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  8. The problem is too many people want the freedom, but not the responsibility for that freedom and their choices. It doesn’t work that way, never has never will. Buckle up buttercup, life just gets better, at least if you let it.
    You are the Adult
    No one is coming to save you
    I am so sorry.

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  10. Just learned TwitX was down for two hours due to a denial of service attack. Also, countrywide “protests” at Tesla dealerships and Teslas being set on fire.

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      1. Gonna be late on Making Money. The carry trade essentially unwound today and I was …. Busy. In a good way for me, but still busy. Sorry for the delay.

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      2. “Act Blue” is increasingly looking like the current pipeline for mayhem slush funding. All sorts of articles online about its election fundraising shennanigans. Easy enough to divert some of its 16+ billion into funding rent-a-twitstorm efforts.

        Is SturmTwitten a suitable handle for the idiots “protesting” Tesla? SturmSmurfen? That better fits “blue”.

        SturmSchlümpfe!

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        1. I’m convinced that most of those thousands of ‘NGOs’ and ‘non-profits’ are merely fronts that funnel our tax money into…other ‘NGOs’ and ‘non-profits’. A giant circle-jerk propelled by all those untraceable $trillions handed out by government bureaucrats.

          But then, I’m a cynical and suspicious sort… :-P

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  11. I’m still a bit boggled over how many Dems in good standing (Tulsi G, RFK Jr) have been flung out of the Insane Progressive Clown Posse and have come over to us – because they were honestly not crazy, and didn’t want to buy into the Clown Posse brand of crazy.

    You have to look at some of the Progressive Clown Posse’s recent antics and those who are their standard-bearers and shake your head.

    It might very well be that the Dem party as it is now fades away into the fringe, and the Republicans split into several factions, taking the place of the Dems and Reps as they now exist.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The current Leftroids are approaching the left edge of the galaxy. The shade of Lenin is saying “Now, wait a minute! Don’t be crazy.”

      Liked by 1 person

  12. There are a lot of people in this big tent that I would rather be inside, pissing out, than outside and pissing in.

    And there are a few people in here that I want nothing more than to throw them out and see how many times they bounce. Or land in the cess pool. Or be buried under the cess pool.

    Oh well, you can’t have everything.

    Liked by 2 people

  13. It’s not easy for us who were already in the big tent. We have all been immersed in socialist dogma from when we were born; and only became enlightened by hard work, or hard knocks (or both.) For many of us, the knee jerk is automatically toward a socialist target; and it takes hard work and conscious thought to make sure we stay on the Right path and not drive off into the pucker brush after that elusive shiny.

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    1. A relative, an unemployed vagabond at 18, declared “Socialism is the Only Answer!!”

      When they were 38 and making $90k a year in a medical trade, with upwards potential, the were -decidedly- more centrist, although still Lefty.

      Them: “What the hell are all these taxes coming out of my check? Why?!”

      11B-me: “The only answer is Socialism.”

      Them: (angry Lefty rant…..)

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  14. Yeah, there’s a few people who I really wish weren’t claiming to be on our side. But there’s only so much you can do. Pointing and laughing helps.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Imagine, if you will, there is a sane Democrat. (Insert Red Queen’s “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” here).

      Present this notional D with Jasmine Crockett, TX-30.

      I suspect that’s enough to put one right off The View.

      Not enough to go watch Gutfeld!, but maybe to retreat to the Game Show Network.

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  15. It’s the people on the left who keep saying that Gatekeeping is bad. And one only look at the damage to the fandom the “Tourists” have done (attacking popular shows, trying to pressure Japanese studios to go Woke) to realize “Of COURSE the people who should be kept outside the gate would say Gatekeeping is bad.”

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    1. Note that I, and many of my friends, have the NERVE, the absolute GALL, to be not only CONSERVATIVE! but CONSERVATIVE WIMMIN!!!!

      Which will get the lefties busily gatekeeping the hell out of femininity. I have, after a few loud insults to that effect, started calling myself an Unwoman. [Term cribbed from the written version of Handmaid’s Tale.] Because once they find out I do not reliably vote D, or promote the second amendment, or any of a number of other non-blue opinions, they get all “NOT ONE OF US” about it.

      Newsflash: womyn have brains of their own and free will. And suffrage.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Depending on the Lefty, it’s either “How could you vote against your own interests,” or “How dare you vote against your own interests?”

        Those are two very different statements.

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        1. Wrong on both. Obviously our husbands and sons are directing our vote, to force us to vote against our best interests! (Covers both “how could you” and “how dare you” statements.)

          FYI. Sarcasm off. At least from my side. Their side? Unfortunately not

          Liked by 1 person

      3. Real exchange I saw once — admittedly among many other messages — but

        Leftist 1: How can women vote against their own interests?

        Woman: Actually, after due reflection, I concluded that voting for this man was indeed in my interests.

        Leftist 2: You’re selfish.

        Note — not stupid, but selfish.

        This sort of flipflopping is chronic, in my experience.

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  16. Our big tent is more like what America was, or we thought or hoped it was. As for filters….

    1. Women voting did not give us this. Every othercountry that went full groupist did so before they gave women the vote in their country.
    2. No jews dont run the world. They never have, ever.
    3. Blacks are too stupid to civilize. Not even going to….look the real tropics are almost impossible to live in. The near tropics are sort of ok….but still nope. Not brains environment.
    4. Non British or Northern European or American can never be part of us. The stupidest troll on the internet keeps banging on about those who have to go back and CivNats and….look, America is an aspirational ideal. It does need to taught and taught well. We were stupid to surrender education to elite specialists. Anyone can learn it and live it….but they must be taught and society must structured to accommodate that. Which means it scares peope.

    Those I think are the filters we need right now.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Strongly reccomend a rephrase of #3, for clarity. (grin) Maybe put quotes areound sentence 1.

      And while my dearly missed Florida does have its share of mental aberations, it seems to be one of the best run states currently, and is growing rapidly, both of which refute the “tropics are impossible to live in”.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Two years living in Florida, it got cold enough to kill pretty much everything in Biscayne bay. A few years earlier the water actually had ice around the edges.

        So, Florida is hot and miserible and without AC, it would be empty, but not tropical.

        As for Africa and S. America and the Eurasian steppes, I say its geography not people

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    3. Clarification of #3….The people running around saying blacks cannot live in a civilization are both groupists (all of x has all the same charscteristics) and at will they conflate lowest trait under discussion with average and assign average as a plain not a Gaussian mountain. So if they are blatting that blacks are stupid, no they are not in the right place. I grew up in a 99.999% white place, mostly Anglo, then German, Italian, Poles and Irish….and heard the same said about every group by every other group. Germans were muderous raging beasts. Poles were stupid drunkards. Italians were drunken Mobsters. The Irish were drunken savages worse than the Hun or the blacks. The Anglos were limp wristed boy bungers.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. The more sophisticated version of that one is “look at the average IQ scores in Africa!” Which are then used to argue that Africans are genetically inclined to be stupid. To which my first response is, yes, LOOK at the IQ scores. Really LOOK at them. Because if the average IQ score you’re seeing in that country is 61 (not making this up, my memory says it was 41 but I’m pretty sure I was wrong) then that means half the country would be below 61 and a good chunk, 35% or so, below 50. That’s can’t-take-care-of-yourself-unaided territory. Do you REALLY believe those are accurate results?

        OR, maybe, just maybe, there’s another explanation. Like how the schools have no textbooks because someone is pocketing the money that was supposed to go to the schools, and sometimes the teachers aren’t even getting paid? (Again, not making it up, and it’s from the same country that had a 61 when I went to look at the reported IQ scores from Africa). And if Sweden had that result where two extra years of good schooling ended up causing a 7-point increase in the average IQ, then years and years of TERRIBLE schooling is going to cause a decrease.

        In other words, the terrible IQ results in Africa are caused, not by genetics, but by living under a kleptocracy, or a pseudo-communist government (more or less pseudo- depending on the country), which amounts to the same thing.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. Book learning IQ tests? Really?

          What about tracking? Hunting? Survival? Put them against anyone else from outside that environment?

          Whose IQ then falls into failure?

          Liked by 1 person

  17. The “Big Tent” is apt. Contrast the RNC and the DNC. Trump’s convention was a Circus. Part Patriotic 4th of July, part Sideshow (with Hulk Hogan), part good music. People were having fun and happy. A diverse conglomerate putting aside lesser differences for a common goal. The DNC looked like an office Christmas Party organized by the Boss and attended by the employees who wanted to leave but didn’t dare.

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    1. Zion
      1914-18

      The Doorkeepers of Zion,
      They do not always stand
      In helmet and whole armour,
      With halberds in their hand;
      But, being sure of Zion,
      And all her mysteries,
      They rest awhile in Zion,
      Sit down and smile in Zion;
      Ay, even jest in Zion;
      In Zion, at their ease.

      The Gatekeepers of Baal,
      They dare not sit or lean,
      But fume and fret and posture
      And foam and curse between;
      For being bound to Baal,
      Whose sacrifice is vain,
      Their rest is scant with Baal,
      They glare and pant for Baal,
      They mouth and rant for Baal,
      For Baal in their pain!

      But we will go to Zion,
      By choice and not through dread,
      With these our present comrades
      And those our present dead;
      And, being free of Zion
      In both her fellowships,
      Sit down and sup in Zion —
      Stand up and drink in Zion
      Whatever cup in Zion
      Is offered to our lips!

      –Rudyard Kipling

      Liked by 1 person

  18. I’ve never agreed unconditionally with anybody else in my life. When L. Neil Smith was alive, I was with him about 95% of the time, but when he got off on a “the Confederacy was right!” kick, I hauled him up quick-smart. The South did not secede over tariffs—that was an issue from some decades prior. If you look at the “Declarations of Causes for Secession” you can find online, you see tariffs almost never mentioned, but endless harping on the woes of the slaveholders. (For the record, L. Neil hated slavery as much as I do, but he let his “anarcho-capitalist” side, combined with less knowledge of history than I have, get the better of him.)

    I don’t owe anybody unconditional agreement. I don’t owe anyone love or even liking. All my life I’ve insisted on making up my own mind, thank you very much, and if you want to change my conclusions, you’d better have better arguments than “You’re hurting my feelings!” I was emotionally abused for years by someone who loved that tactic, and these days it’s a sure-fire way to get my hackles up.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. And whatever the merits/flames/rants/metoo, our hostess requires we not rehash the ACW/”late unpleasantness” becasue her reasons, her forum.

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  19. You wanna hear Odd? In 1964 — I was ten, and Barry Goldwater was the Great White Hope against the evil bastard from Texas — Lyndon Baines Johnson. A friend and I were out playing army on his grandparents’ farm. In the course of conversation, he asked me, “Do you believe in pretty much ‘Live and Let Live’? I answered, “Yes.” Probably because I’d been raised to that point (We were ten, remember.) to be that way. His rejoinder then was, “So you’re a libertarian.” It was a word I’d not heard before, but it struck a chord in me, just from the combination of root word and suffix. I think I have been ever since. Even joined the party briefly — until I found out how loon-ridden it was/is. I’ve learned more about the epistemology of the movement since ’64, of course — Rand, Heinlein, Rothbard, Hayek, Mises, et al. Flirted briefly with left-liberals in the ’60s. (If you’re not a liberal at 20 (or, in my case, 16) you have no heart). But exposure to monsters such as SDS and the Weather Underground cured me of that when Democrats refused to read them out of the party the way Buckley did the Birchers. Now I’m supporting a centrist Republican who is using government power to enhance liberty — or so it looks.Look: if you want to get to power in a democratic Republic, you have to build majority coalitions. Both Reagan and Rush preached this. Politics has to be about winning. And it seems, Trump has finally figured out how to win with a center-right coalition. Big tent it is. Has to be.

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    1. Dad told me about the 1964 election. “The Democrats kept saying if we voted for Goldwater, we’d go to war in Southeast Asia. Damn if they weren’t right. I voted for Goldwater and sure enough, we went to war in Southeast Asia.”

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  20. “At heart they still have a lot of of bad habits. They still run to mamma want government to tell them what to do and how to fix everything.”

    Unfortunately, “run to mama” quickly morphs into

    Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State, that good ol’ Mussolini Mantra. Some folks gotta love Big Mother.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Re: The sound of freedom – I was at an airshow one sunny Saturday morning when the USAF Thunderbirds made a low pass by the crowd, and the announcer stated, “Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the sound of freedom.” I went and objected, stating that the T-birds were the sound of power, the sound of freedom is what I heard the Saturday previous where several dozen (if not scores) of friends and neighbors (and complete strangers) were out at the range dispensing Freedom Pills at distances out to 1,000 yards. I don’t know if I convinced him, but it seemed to give him pause.

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