#feeling bad about ukraine doesn’t lead their people to safety
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American Politics in a nutshell:
“Young man, the leap year is upon us, you must choose the two paths, each lead by a great thinker. One is the suited man. He wishes to give every one a shot, he wishes to allow any one to enter this great land and to demand the wealthy return their prof”
“Oh excuse me excuse me, nonononononononono, I do not want to let anyone in, we need to keep the bad guys out, we need to hold the cartel men and their wives and children at hold until we find out they’re not, and kick them back to where they came from!”
“Um, I would like to voice my issue, the suited man doesn’t seem to have a real solution to immigration and crime? Shouldn’t we treat crime as an international issue or a social issue? And why shouldn’t we relax the border customs, we’re the refuge for the hopeful, yes?”
“Wellllllll certainly I have had critics, who support me demand this reform, buuuuut this may offend the… neutral voter, they are very important to me that I negotiate and recognize the neutral voter as their opinions to be valid and their policy measures to count!”
“But you’re not recognizing the critics”
“Ohhhhhh but I do! I want to increase taxes on the wealthy and nationalize healthcare, but only when the neutral voter wishes to do so with my supportive critics!”
“But I feel like the neutral voter would appreciate the policy more if you passed it and tried it?”
“Now now boy don’t rush politics, running a country is delicate!”
“So do you actually support the critics or do you just appeal to them as you tout the neutral voter.”
“I am the mediator! A little bot of representation for my critics, and the rest go to the neutral voter, I am the man for safety, responsibility, and equality!”
“I don’t feel safe around the police though”
“Excellent criticism! I will add more to their budgets and run a surplus by decreasing spending on infrastructure and environmental protections!”
“But underspending public education and hostile environments leads to crime.”
“That’s why we have the police my boy! And the army for overseas policing”
“But we spend 1/3 our yearly budget on the army”
“DO YOU WANT RUSSIA CHINA AND TERRORISM TO WIN?!”
“Nonononononono!!!”
“Good! Another $118 billion out from our public schools, and to Israel and Ukraine it goes!”
“Oh yeah what’s your position on Ukraine and Israel?”
“Bomb the enemy until it goes away.”
“THAT DOESN’T STOP TERRORISM OR WAR!”
“Well my boy the point isn’t peace, it’s victory! We must dismantle the Russian state, the Seeseepee and Kamash to liberate the peoples under a new era of warlordism, and reap their resourves and politicians for the unipolarity of NATO!”
“Besides, if we called a ceasefire in Ukraine now we’d lose a lot of gas for a new EU member state.”
“I don’t think that’s gonna help Ukraine, and Israel isn’t fighting a UN recognized government, so that’s a harder battle to fight”
“Nonsense boy, we’re just about to secure eternal peace and democracy! Just a few more weeks and then thousand more heads!”
“Hey pathfinder the suited man talks nice but has a very violent and faustian way of leading the path, who’s the other guy?”
“Well my boy! You’re just in luck! The other path is led by the father! He preaches the good word and the liberation of the oppressed!”
“Did someone say my name? Boy? Is that you boy? Oh you poor child let me hold you, it almost got you!”
“What got me?”
“THE DEMON! It wants to manipulate you, it will TRICK YOU and lead you to the path of damnation! It is trying to mutilate your children and turn your schools racist!”
“Oh my God what?!”
“It’s true”
“Really?”
“I have read the books of the father and they are true! The books are written by fine men who talk firmly!”
“You must guard yourself from the demon! It dyes its hair in pretty colors, and tell your children how to have sex up the butt and how to change their names and cut off their genitals!”
“Wait, no! That doesn’t happen in schools, what are you talking about?!”
“THE DEMON DECIEVES AGAIN! Read the book child, see the signs!!”
“This is peddled nonsense, you don’t even have leadership skills!”
“Fool! I shovel out reward only to those who deserve it, and punish those who work for the demon! The lazy and the salacious and the wrathful have come for us! To degrade our proud heritage and gospel for pleasures and chaos!”
“Who deserves reward? Who follows the demons?”
“You boy are so clearly deserving of the reward, look at how rough your skin is, and yet how smooth tour face looks, the demon preys on the ugly and makes them their servants”
“Holy shit, this guy just wants to kill people he thinks are ugly and pride himself as a perfect samaritan, unquestioned and untaxed! Is there anyone left”
“The third path is a cardboard cutout that agrees with you”
“God damnit”
*the voter walks with suitman into the future*
“Suitman, I hope you understand I joined you out of fear for the Father, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Will you change your ways and respect my voice equal to the neutral voter”
“Heh, no. But one day as the winds change, soon the path will wind and turn until it follows where you walk, then I will follow you.”
“And those who criticize my path?”
“Well they get a pinch of direction, but I only stay on the treaded path, the one grazed… by the neutral voter.”
“But he who walks first lays the path”
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Inside the Eastern Bloc: A Brief History Of The Ex-USSR
“All victories inevitably come at a cost.”
‑ Mikhaïl Gorbachev, HBO Chernobyl
Nikola Tesla Boulevard on a summer evening, Serbia - Photo Source: Pierre (PLRB)
A Tale Of Winners & Losers
Nothing feels more hopeless than a self-destructing world around you. We often forget how easy we have it, snuggled in our cocoons of excessive love and smothering. Sometimes, we need to be remembered who we are and where we come from. Not too long ago did our grandparents struggled and fought for their basic needs. Of course, now, with our technology, we don’t even have to worry about the basic survival priorities of the past. With the simple click of a button, we can have everything delivered to our doorstep without even raising an arm.
Ah, doesn’t it feel good to taste the sweet fruits of our capitalistic labor? Isn’t it great to be the “winners” of today’s world? Sometimes, we tend to forget that our victories come at a great cost. Sometimes, we forget to humanize our enemies. They too can love, laugh, cry and fear. They too, are humans like us.
Propaganda poster of Yuri Gagarin - Photo Source: @soviet.propaganda on Instagram
Watch Out For The Communist!
Let me ask you a question: How many times have you heard the word “communist” on the news? My guess of your answer is quite a few times. Although rare, sometimes it is used simply to describe the people that identify with the socialist Marxist-Leninist ideology. Most of the time though, it is used as a pure and simple insult. An insult that describes everything we don’t understand, fear, and dislike.
This exact description though is exactly what our grandparents were told about the red flag-carrying “commies” over in the eastern bloc. When the canons of wars tear through the skies, governments tend to create a sense of unity within their population to, somehow, justify the war on a national scale. They dehumanize their enemies and convince us that we must fear the others, and win this war at all cost (as they did with Vietnam).
But when we don’t even know who our enemies are, how can we fully grasp what’s at stake?
Propaganda poster of Lenin’s revolution - Photo Source: @comrade_quotes on Instagram
Rise Up, Comrade!
Before getting into the modern Soviet Union (the 1970s-1990s), let’s focus on the beginning. If you went over to the former republics of the Soviet Union in 2021, you would notice how terrible everything looks. Potholes, crumbling buildings, outdated trolleybuses, and subway cars, beaten up Lada’s plowing through knee-deep puddles under the unimpressed look of the driver’s face.
When you come to witness this spectacle in person, it is easy to assume that the Soviets must’ve had it rough back in the day, and boy you would’ve been right. Once the Tsars were no more, the new Soviet party lead by the revolutionist Vladimir Lenin promised a bright and equal future turned on the workers and the equal distribution of their labor. However, this promise wouldn’t be easy to achieve. What followed afterward were decades and decades of purges, wars, hard work, and brutal leadership by our good ol’ friend Comrade Stalin. Some argue about Uncle Joe’s good intentions, but this is not what I want to focus on. Here I want to talk about the last soviet’s aspirations and dreams, the ones our western leaders promised to crush for our freedom.
Haludovo Palace of Kirk, Croatia - Photo Source: @socmod on Instagram
For The Happiness Of All Mankind
The 1970s was a great time to be a Soviet. If you were a citizen, you would’ve been able to move into brand new apartments, get a stable job in any industry you wish, get all the food you can eat, obtain the diploma you wanted, have access to healthcare, you would even be able to get a brand new Lada, and all for free! Yes, you’ve read that right: for free.
Communism in the Soviet Union wasn’t about a totalitarian regime and oppressing its citizens (as the western propaganda wants us to believe), it was about universal free access to one’s every need. Now of course there were some questionable policies such as limited free speech and limited access to the outside world beyond the iron curtain (however more and more freedoms were given to the Soviets in the 1980s with the arrival of Mikhail Gorbachev into office). The Soviet Union wasn’t lacking behind in technology either, in fact, it was the world’s second industrial and military superpower back in its heyday! They even sent the world’s first man into space.
This is what the real Soviet Union was about: unity and comradeship. They truly had a will to build a greater future for humanity and like us today, they had reached such a level of comfort that a bright future was taken for granted by everybody in the USSR.
However, this candor belief in a great future would suddenly come to a brutal end.
Edge of the Chernobyl Red Forest, Ukraine - Photo Source: Pierre (PLRB)
Porridge With A Side Of Radiation
It’s April 26th, 1986. In a small town of the Ukrainian SSR, citizens are eating breakfast and preparing for yet another routine day. Children are headed to school and parents, to work. Some of them could notice smoke coming out of the industrial site nearby, and others had heard rumors about a possible roof fire that started in the night.
However, nobody seemingly cared as everybody went on with their day none the wiser. At the same time on the other side of town, ambulances are flying in one by one into the general hospital, carrying firefighters from the smoking site. Nurses run outside and discover men with unusual burns, screaming in pain. Nobody knew what was happening and they all tried to assist them to the best of their knowledge. The citizens didn’t know it yet, but only 3 kilometers away from their homes, the worst nuclear disaster that mankind would ever experience had happened.
Today, this event is simply known as “Chernobyl”. Of course, back then, they had no clue about what was actually happening, and Soviet bureaucracy would immensely delay the travel of information up to the top state officials. It took them a full 3 days before they evacuated the town of Pripyat, and on the same occasion, creating the famous 30 km exclusion zone (which is still in place today). Of course, by then, it was already too late. Most of the citizens had already received a fatal dose of radiation that would affect their descendants for generations, and make their land uninhabitable for hundreds of years.
This event was a true shifting point for the USSR, as the Soviet leader Gorbachev took the opportunity for the first time in Soviet history, to be as transparent as possible with its citizens and to the world. He finally admitted that the Soviet Union is about to crash.
Palace of Yugoslavia, Serbia - Photo Source: Pierre (PLRB)
A Russian Traitor
Gorbachev told the shocking truth to its citizens. The country’s banks are empty, and for years the Union was living off the reserves accumulated in the past decades. The Soviet Union wasn’t producing anymore, and instead, became buyers. The self-sustaining system they had built before was no longer in place and everybody would have to brace for the rough years coming ahead.
This news naturally came as a true shock for the entire population, and suddenly all hopes of a bright future were lost. The citizens learned that the good years are over, and from now on, they should expect misery and poverty. The Cold War and the Afghanistan War had ruined the country’s economy, the former leader Leonid Brezhnev had lost the leadership with his lazy ways and had become too comfortable in his spending.
However, amid all this chaos and confusion, not a single second did anybody think the Soviet Union would simply collapse and disappear. They truly believed in the strong and powerful nation they had built in the past 69 years, and never imagined one second that it would come to an end. They thought they would simply fight through the rough years and rise again as they had done in the past century.
One politician though had another idea of how things would turn out. Boris Yeltsin, a man rejected by the Soviet party for having ideas too far away from the communist ideology, was grooming republics for their independence and made deals with the Americans without the knowledge of Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Party. This is how bad the bureaucracy had gotten. They became so out of touch with their own reality that on December 8th, 1991 the Belovezha Accords were signed by Yeltsin and two other figureheads (without the knowledge of Gorbachev), essentially ending the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Soviet mosaic bus stop in Kalmykia, Russia - Photo Source: @realbaldandbankrupt on Instagram
Shock Therapy
It’s Christmas Day, 1991, and the Americans have won. The Soviet Union, which they had fought for decades to end, finally ceased to exist. The dreams that were built, the futures seemingly so bright that was promised to its citizens, all disappeared on that one fateful night. What was a great victory for one side of the world, was a terrible event for the other. They had lost their nation, their future, their security.
They had now entered a decade of banditry, crime, and chaos. They were living through what we now refer to as “Shock Therapy”. The shift from communism to capitalism was so brutal that there were no more police to ensure safety. No more government to tell you what you can and cannot do. No more authority existed which left space for anarchy. The now ex-Soviet citizens were promised better times with the arrival of democracy but were only betrayed by the incompetence of their new leader that only brought them crime and misery.
Deteriorating children’s playground, Moldova - Photo Source: @kuca_ky_ky on Instagram
Crumbling Streets & Broken Dreams
Nowadays, the cities of the former Soviet Union seem to be nothing else than vast jungles of crumbling concrete. The brutalist blocks that were once the pride of a powerful nation, are now nothing but the symbol of a lost past and broken dreams. Elders remember the good days when they lived in a stable country, and the youth, forever and ever seduced with the exotic lifestyle of the Americans, see no future in their country and only dream about moving to the sunny beaches of California.
Ironically, the ex-Soviet generation fancies the lifestyle of those who caused their end, but we cannot blame them either. They truly don’t have much of a future in the former eastern bloc, and their old enemies seem to thrive more than ever now that their 20th-century nemesis had been eliminated for good. In the victories we win, we forget to remember the fate of our opposing forces.
On the surface, it may only seem like we are ending a powerful and evil regime, but underneath the surface, we fail to consider that we are also ending the peace and unity that existed in the nation.
We must recognize that we are not only ending a government but also all the hopes and dreams attached to it and that sometimes, we must put humanity first and political interests second.
The Genex Tower of Belgrade, Serbia - Photo Source: Pierre (PLRB)
A Word For The End
Thank you for reading my blog post about what I’ve retained from my trip to the former USSR. Please note that this is not meant to take a political side, but only to focus on the human aspect of the events. Either you’re a communist or a capitalist, everybody deserves a future and secure access to food, housing, education, and healthcare.
I have seen and met people who were deeply saddened by what they went through, and by the loss of their native country. Please remember that the government doesn’t always represent the population. A nation is 1% leaders, 99% normal people trying to make it in the world just like you and me.
If you are interested in learning more about the former Soviet world, I invite you to check out the YouTuber “Bald and Bankrupt”, which explores former USSR republics. He is the one that inspired my trip to the Ukraine last month.
If you are into music, I suggest you check out “Sovietwave”, which is a musical genre based on the nostalgia of the dreams and aspirations that the soviet people once had.
Thank you for reading and have a good day.
До свидания!
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Lineup Lamentations - GW5
Our Transfers, Captains, and Starting 11s for the week!
—
WALSH
TRANSFERS:
OUT: Laporte - rip
IN: Otamendi - god help me
Unfortunately I was unable to save off the back of the WC which never feels great, but hopefully making a lateral swap here which frees up 1m to boot.
I don't really imagine this going well, since I have slated Ota for a while, and think he's more or less a red card shout / absolute shit house player generally speaking, but here we are.
If it's a transfer waiting to happen, so be it, but the bottom line is I still want a share in City's defense, I don't trust Everton for cleans still, and something didn't feel quite right going all the way down to a Burnley guy in a spot on my team which I realistically need to start week in week out... Until Pep shows us that he is willing to play anyone not named Otamendi as the LCB with Laporte out then I will just hope and pray he doesn't kill anyone (which would thus kill himself with a ban) and doesn't die. Whatever. Cue Dinho and Schtones at CB tomorrow.
Post international break GW is usually a complete disaster crisis gameweek so I am just simply trying to brace myself for it ahead of time.
GK:
Pope (bha)
Pope is looking good in this moment with the good run of fixtures incoming. He's been just a bit below average with only one return through four but the underlying metrics are looking good for him and hopefully he's just a long term hold guy I don't have to worry about.
DEF:
Alexander-Arnold & Robertson (NEW)
Trent and Robbo with the home banker okay lets go Livp. Early game so much of my mood for the ensuing foots will be decided by these boys. Realistically a win to nil at home against a bad bus feels like a reasonable expectation for this one so hopefully it comes to fruition.
Otamendi (nor)
New nightmare Ota is straight in, obv. Somewhat tricky away fixture for a clean but it's still City so he'll just be an auto start every game until I remove him.
Lundstram (SOU)
Finally, Lundstram gets his first go in my squad home to Soton.
I'm going to be rotating him in and out over the near term so we'll see if this is the beginning of something beautiful between us or the beginning of a fraught relationship that will lead to me hating him for the rest of my life. Time will tell.
MID:
Salah (NEW) & Sterling & De Bruyne (nor)
The trio of Mo Raz and Kev remain and likely will do for some time. Really nothing to say about these three other than they are good. Spots I don't really need to think about at this time.
McGinn (WHU)
Rounding out midfield is someone who is not really that good in McGinn.
Good home fixture with West Ham rolling up so hopefully he is able to get in there. If he looks bad and/or they look bad then I might fuck him off.
He's on a short leash, that's for sure, as he was really the one shit place I compromised on my WC team since I wanted to plump for Laporte... With that money freed up now, no other problems in my team, and a new price bracket open to me... I might fuck him off even if he does return. Who is to say?
FWD:
Pukki (MCI) & Haller (avl)
Pukki and Haller the two amigos seem like just a couple great value picks and happy to have them.
Great fixture for Haller and he might slowly but surely present himself as a long term hold. Stats and eye test are there with him not to mention the price is right - think he's a really tidy option.
Pukki has a tough fixture but as Farke showed us the lightning and thunder in GW1 at Anfield who knows what's what with them. Obviously they are completely decimated by injury, but I need to see multiple bad attacking performances before I begin to worry here.
CAP:
Sterling (nor)
Going back to the Raz well again. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, fucking hell fuck me.
Still don't feel confident enough capping Kevin over Raz, and probably won't do all season, if I'm being honest here.
I think Norwich with no fit defensive players (Farke's words, not mine) and the style they employ is not a comparable fixture to a Newcastle bus so I didn't really think about Mo this weekend.
Counting on Raz to not have 0 shot attempts again this week. Obviously the trip to Ukraine midweek for UCL is a thing that is happening, but whatever.
Trying to predict how Pep hands out minutes is like (insert funny thing here) and I don't really want to find some psychological line to talk me into Raz will play 53 minutes only to see him haul and play 88.
Been there before, not trying to go there again.
—
ALON
TRANSFERS:
OUT: Deulofeu
IN: Che Adams
Gerry dropped all the way down to 6.2 so there was a relatively small and unimpressive pool of dudes for me to choose from for this punty spot in my team.
Realistically this is a one or maybe two week punt before I pop my Wildcard next week or the week after... Che has actually insanely good expected stats which is nothing to scoff at even though the goals have not flowed at all...
The greater skill to have and the harder skill to find is to keep getting off the high xG shots rather then to be finishing at a higher rate above your xG, if that makes sense... I hope I’ve worded that clearly...
Anyway, TLDR: Che is doing stuff, Southampton are an attacking team in an attacking setup, Ralph is good I like Ralph, and Soton have the fixtures over the next two. And that’s why I went Che.
COME ON CHE!!!
GK:
Ederson (nor)
City gotta clean their shit up a bit if they’re gonna be a 20+ cleans type of dominant force again this season but yeah of course I back them to do exactly that.
Eddy’s been mostly really good this season and I feel comfy with him.
DEF:
van Dijk (NEW)
It’s time for rotation to begin for the top teams... feels good to have the safety of VVD who is a rock. And this clean should be straightforward for Liverpool.
Digne (bou)
I’m a little nervy about Everton’s defending and their ability to limit good chances... Digne kinda papers over the cracks with his terrific attacking output, but if they start looking like cleans are going to be a rarity this season then even his attacking numbers will not make him worth the 6.0+ million.
Maitland-Niles (wat)
Ainsley AKA Ashley was rightfully so very deep on my bench for liv TOT and he put up one pointers in each of those so we’re fine.
In his two starts for me (GW1 and 2) he got twelve and two puntos respectively so he’s still been a sneaky great guy for me thus far... Arsenal’s very long very good run of fixtures starts now but Bellerin also is coming back soon so time is running out.
Hoping Arsenal can do a job and keep out the Quique Sanchez Flores bus this week and maybe he’ll sneak another attacking return. Come on Ashley.
Emerson (wol)
Starting Emmy here because Wolves suck at attacking and Chelsea could still keep a clean and Emerson could still get an attacking return who knows?
Rudi looks like he’s back this week which is a huge upgrade and Kante will be back soon which is another huge upgrade but yeah, not feeling great about this pick.
Also Emerson’s injury news doesn’t look great for me but if he doesn’t play I have Söy coming in in a cleanable fixture at Old Trafford so not too bad.
MID:
Salah (NEW) & Sterling & De Bruyne (nor)
Doing the trendy thing and just grouping these sexy fucks together because they’re all awesome and they have good fixtures and that’s all you need to know about that.
Mount (wol)
Everyone knows the deal with Mount. Looks great, takes a lot of shots, presses like a maniac, on frees and corners, it’s just good stuff. At his price it’s just good.
FWD:
Pukki (MCI)
Pukki in a yikes fixture here we go... Norwich are so fucked up and injured I don’t know I definitely don’t expect any points here but maybe they get one or two good counters or maybe Pukki takes a pen or something. He’s good enough to roll out there, for sure.
Adams (shu)
I said all I needed to say about lord Che in the transfers section.
CAP:
De Bruyne (nor)
I guess everyone has Sterling and a lot of people have Kun and understandably they’re garnering most of the captaincies that I’m seeing around the block.
Kevin, for me, so far this season is on a completely new level that we haven’t really seen from him before. His expected stats are out of control and he’s also got the seventh highest Fantasy Goal Involvement percentage of all mids at 54% which is craaaazy high for a team like City.
For what it’s worth too in the past Pep has rode Kevin like a horse in the league and he’s not really ever been a rotation risk. I feel ~some~ percent safer of him starting these kinds of games before UCL then I do with the forwards.
Come on Kev treat me.
—
RANDOM SLACKER OF THE WEEK: GNAR
The words of Random Slacker are not officially endorsed by this website nor any employees of FML FPL LLC.
TRANSFERS:
OUT: Laporte
IN: Otamendi
I don’t feel like I have too much choice in who to take out this week. Laporte having knee surgery and set to miss the rest of 2019 means he’s an absolute no brainer to axe.
Who to replace him with is a much more interesting question.
I’ve been playing 5 at the back all season and it hasn’t worked out as well as I’d hoped so far. But I do feel like I’ve been unlucky with Laporte’s injury and his missed clean sheet being the icing on the cake.
If I went for a cheapo like Lundstram, there aren’t many midfielders I’d be desperate to bring in with the spare cash, apart from KDB, who is out of my reach anyway. So I’ll be continuing my Heavy D strategy, bringing in Otamendi, who is 5.4 and nailed on in a top 2 defence.
GK:
Leno (wat)
New manager for Watford, so an inevitable new manager bounce.
I have Heaton (WHU) as a rotation option, but the odds point to Leno for the clean sheet, although it’s quite marginal.
DEF:
Digne (bou)
I didn’t watch their 3-2 victory against Wolves but I heard Digne looked defensively dodgy. I did watch their 2-0 defeat to Villa the previous week, and while Everton looked completely toothless and unconvincing, Digne at least offered a bit of attacking threat. I’m not expecting a clean sheet here, but Digne has 9 chances created this season. For a defender, that’s second only to…
Alexander-Arnold (NEW)
14 chances created – 14, compared to Digne’s 9; Trent absolutely wipes the floor.
I took a hit last week to upgrade VVD to Trent and I got an immediate positive net return from it. As well as his excellent attacking prospects, Liverpool also have the best clean sheet odds this week by quite a distance.
Robertson (NEW)
Very good chance of a clean sheet this week and although he’s no Alexander-Arnold, he also offers a very good goal threat.
Maybe I’m guilty of picking and choosing stats here, but out of defenders, Robertson’s 2nd for touches in the box this season (12), which is quite a biggie for me when assessing players’ attacking potential.
Otamendi & Zinchenko (nor)
Welcome to the team, Ota.
With Laporte injured, I expect Ota to nail down a place in the first team. Enough said.
Zinchenko has a bit of a Mendy threat looming, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, another well priced Man City defender who will trickle points as long as he starts. Lacks the explosiveness of KDB (yeah he’s explosive now) or Aguero, but for 5.5, I’ll take a 6 pointer every 2 weeks for sure.
MID:
Salah (NEW) & Sterling (nor)
Grouping these two together because there’s just not that much to say. The two best players in the game don’t need writing about, especially when their fixtures are as easy as this. The only question is which one to captain.
Mount (wol)
14 shots in total this season, 7 on target, both are the highest of any other midfielder. But with only 5 of those shots coming from inside the box and an xG of 0.82, perhaps he’s a bit opportunistic and has been a bit fortunate.
Mount still feels like a bit of an unknown quantity to me and I haven’t watched too much Chelsea this season, but he’s well priced and there are plenty of other options in his bracket, so happy to see how he gets on over the next few.
FWD:
Jota (CHE)
I always like to plan my ideal transfers a few weeks ahead.
Before the last gameweek started, I was planning Jota to Barnes. Unfortunately Laporte got injured, so my priority changed and Jota stays with me for one more week. And Barnes is now injured anyway, so maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.
Jota is a funny one. He’s scoring for fun in the Europa League, but looking absolute garbage the following Sunday in the Premier League. He was in the squad, but played 0 minutes in Portugal’s 2 games over the IB. I feel like Jota might redeem himself.
Pukki (MCI)
The main man for Norwich.
If they score, there’s a very good chance that Pukki will be involved.
As an Ota + Zinc owner though I’m kind of hoping they don’t.
CAP:
Salah (NEW)
A real coin toss.
Salah and Sterling are both fantastic options this week, like they are every week.
So far, every gameweek I’ve picked the lowest scoring one out of the two. In week 3, I went against my instinct and went for Raz over Mo, which backfired. This week, my instinct is telling me Mo so I’m just going with it.
#FML FPL#FMLFPL#FPL#Fantasy Premier League#Premier League#Soccer#Fantasy Soccer#Football#Fantasy Football#Sports#Fantasy Sports#Lineup Lamentations
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How much more important is the climate change fight compared to other issues ?
Wowee what a rant. Sorry in advance
The lede
Climate change is, by the numbers, by far the biggest threat humanity has been facing. That makes it more threatening than say, World War I, all of the terrorism attacks put together, the Holocaust, Stalin’s Ukraine famine, the Vietnam war, Leopold II’s colonization of Congo, the Cultural Revolution, the Khmers, etc. The only thing that ever came close in terms of credibility and danger is that time when we didn’t know if nuclear weapon testing would ignite the atmosphere, or if the nuclear arms race would lead to planet-wide destruction on a whim.
How we measure and balance the importance of issues
There is long-standing, widespread philosophical debate on how we are supposed to weigh options against each other when it comes to morality. Some simply try to quantify the amount of suffering / pleasure each option would bring. Some imply that not all suffering / pleasure can be freely exchanged, and that you cannot actively sacrifice something irreducible (like a life) to preserve a perceived greater good (even several threatened lives). Some look to the transgressions of a chosen moral code as absolute and not related to numbers at all. I argue that, even though they might disagree on the course of action, all of these interpretations would conclude that climate change is the scariest thing ever. But for a deeper understanding, let’s see how these can apply to past issues, and how people have reacted.
What’s a reasonable reaction to other issues ?
You don’t need to look too far back to find issues that are worth bickering with family over, voting over, protesting over, radically altering one’s lifestyle over. Only in the last year, billions of people have participated in isolation and social distancing in order to curtail the millions more deaths that the Covid-19 could bring over. Hundreds of thousands have shown up around the world to protest against systemic racism and lethal violence against black people. Hundreds thousand more showed up to defend or bring in the right for women to not die in botched illegal abortions. In a lot more understated fashion, billions of people have kept on putting their safety belt when driving, even though these buckle things are a hassle and why should we have to do anything when it’s the other people who are driving dangerously.
These are big issues, because each individual affected by them might be risking their life, and because there are many such individual affected. That’s the crude way in which we evaluate the importance of topics. And while it definitely leaves some issues out of the limelight every year, what it has brought forward is indeed worth acting over. They are worth making little sacrifices every day, they are worth making big sacrifices over the whole year, and they are worth getting into shouting fights with opposing protesters.
The only thing is, some of the issues that are left out of that limelight, if they were put under some deeper scrutiny, would outweigh the ones in the headlines like a whale is outweighed by the weight of all the emerged landmass on earth.
(To be clear, the other issues aren’t less important in themselves)
(It’s like having been stabbed in the arm and start crying out and twisting because of it, only to realize later that a whole cliff is falling on you, your family and your whole neighborhood. The cliff doesn’t make it that you’re less stabbed in the arm, and while it might shift your focus it’s not going to make the knife less painful or less damaging to your arm tissue.)
How much bigger is climate change compared to these issues ?
Climate change is *pretty* big. And by pretty, I mean extremely ugly. Like 7 billion deaths ugly. Climate change’s damage, and the speed at which this damage is arriving, depends a lot on the famed temperature increase that the news and the international treaties love to mention but not actually do anything about. The current target is to stay under 1.5°C of temperature increase, which would already incur dramatic changes and yet is far from being secured. The more likely scenarios, given current trends, is that we would end up at 2 - 2,5°C.
If we do get there, that would be a problem, because many scientists are finding out that the planet might have some positive feedback loops that would kick into gear at that temperature and accelerate the warming further. There’s currently about 15 of these potential feedback loops that are being monitored, but we can take maybe the most famous one to illustrate how that works : imagine that the temperature does increase ; as a result, massive amounts of ice at the poles start to melt, and release all the gasses that were stored in the water’s solid form. Among these gases, methane goes into the air, significantly increases the greenhouse effect of our atmosphere, trapping more heat, and increasing the global temperature yet again. That’s what we mean by “positive” feedback loop : it’s positive only in the sense that the more it goes, the more it accelerate.
Take all these hidden feedback loops kicking into gear together, and they take us from 2°C... to 4 - 4,5°C.
It’s hard to overstate how bad that is, for everybody. And I do mean EVERYBODY. First world privilege, White privilege, male privilege, etc. all of these headstarts are not gonna get you far when the earth can only sustain 1 billion humans.
No, that’s not a typo : if climate change gets its way, there won’t be 1 billion deaths, there will only be 1 billion people left to survive. If you’re keeping count, at 7.8 billion persons alive right now, that’s at least 6.8 billion deaths. And that’s not taking into account the population increase in that period. It’s also just the number of people that the earth’s resources can sustain and doesn’t count all the lives that would be lost to resource wars, global supply chain breakdowns and generally being in the wrong place whenever the crisis reaches you. 1 billion is not so much the number of survivors as it is the number to which the human population will come back to after the hot, searing dust has settled over our mess.
6.8 billion people is a bit hard to wrap one’s head around. Let’s come back to our other issues to see if we can use them as comparison points. What’s the deadliest event in history that you can think of ?
What about the Holocaust ? You could redo the ‘41-45 Holocaust back to back over and over again, Jewish and non-jewish deaths included, and you would need about 459 of them, or about 1 600 years of non-stop extermination, before you start matching the potential threat of climate change.
What about “Communism deaths“, a famous ill-defined talking point from right-wing advocates ? Figures thrown around are usually in the 100 to 150 million range, mostly comprised of USSR and PRC deaths over their combined 100-year history. You would need about 50 communism eras to catch up to what climate change would do to us. That would take you about 5 000 years of cyclical regime-induced famines and mass killings before you catch up to what could happen in just the next 30 years with 4°C.
What about pandemics, since they’re so trendy ? The deadliest pandemic for which we have estimates for is the 14th century Black Death in Europe and Asia. Back then, it killed around 200 million people in 5 years. Very good score. It still takes about 34 Black deaths back-to-back to catch up to a climate change wipeout. That’s a 170 years of non-stop, barely contained outbreaks of the plague.
But these are not really current issues anymore, they aren’t very useful to decide for us how we should be acting. The PRC is still going on, but most of it’s death toll happened before the 21st century. (A quick look at their recent history will teach you that they definitely haven’t exactly stopped either, but that’s a whole other topic).
Since we were on the topic of pandemics, why not look at the current one ? It makes little sense to try and do the count for a pandemic that’s not even over yet, especially with all the hidden “excess deaths” that will come into full light only afterwards. But for the sake of using it as a visualization tool for the looming climate crisis, let’s see how it might stack up. The current confirmed death toll is soon to reach 2 million deaths, about 1/100th of a Black Death. That number is not yet decelerating, and is in fact still slightly accelerating, so with no knowledge of how soon the various vaccination campaigns will affect it and by how much, it would be foolish to make an attempt at a reasonable projection. My unreasonable bet, though, is that we are at best sitting at the middle of this confirmed death count, add to that a number of unknown proportion of excess deaths and I’m going to make my bad bet at 5 million worldwide deaths when the pandemic is over. That’s still 40 times before you reach the Black Deaths, and consequently 1 400 times before you reach climate change. Imagine the earth has to relive 2020 a thousand four hundred times.
Or rather, imagine what it feels like if we had to live through ten 2020 at the same time. That means ten times more of the people you know die of covid. The hospitals receive ten times more extreme cases. The Now imagine a hundred 2020 simultaneous epidemics. Remember the mortuary refrigerators on TV ? They’re stacked in towers now, and they’re overflowing with corpses. Now multiply that by ten once again. One in ten people in your neighborhood have disappeared. Now imagine we have to live through this hundred-fold 2020 for 14 years straight. That’s what the years after 2040 are gonna feel like.
And that, I think, is where the kicker is. During this pandemic, we are undergoing what I would qualify as one of the biggest self-imposed lifestyle changes in history (please do send me any other competing example if you can think of any). And yet we’re still telling ourselves we can’t do it, or even a 10th of it, when it comes to climate change. Even though climate change is going to be literally a thousand time more devastating, Even though climate change is most likely going to kill each of us at some point, as well as our children if we have any, and as well as every other person under 50 that doesn’t die in the time in between.
Is climate change really out of the limelight though ?
As of 2021, a lot of people are aware of the existence of climate change. It’s been widely discussed about by researchers since the 1970s. There’s been major international treaties on it since the 1990s. In the US, a 2000 presidential candidate ran a good part of his campaign on it. Environmental activists have made it a major part of their battles for 30 years. So why am I saying it’s out of the limelight ?
Because, when you compare the amount of chatter it gets to the amount of people it’s about to kill, the underestimation of the problem is appalling. Treaties keep on missing their already widely insufficient targets. Political campaigns keep on placing climate action as a side-piece to their program. Scientists yell their heart out that we’re heading for the wall, and we all cover our eyes and keep our feet on the gas.
Compare the amount of publicity other issues get to their impact. Out of all the issues that get more coverage today than climate change, how many are likely to literally destroy the human world ?
Again, this doesn’t mean the issues are less important than they are portrayed to be. But how exactly are they going to matter if everybody they affect is going to die in 30 years ? Given that a climate apocalypse would render all efforts of all current and past causes moot, you would think that people would be paying attention. How about if you’re “not into politics at all” ? You would think that people who don’t yet participate in any cause would maybe consider this one, given that it’s about to kill them and all their children.
In any case, climate change is getting slightly more coverage every year, but compared to the actual size of the threat we might as well be looking at it through welding masks.
What’s the reasonable reaction to climate change then ?
It’s hard to capture exactly what would be a good response to this, because it’s hard to compare it to other stakes that individual have to deal with throughout their life. Whatever decision you have to make, side you have to choose, demeanor you have to craft, you’re rarely dealing with the end of your life if you get it wrong. You’re even more rarely (hopefully) dealing with the end of all human life. So comparing the stakes and asking “how much more involvement should climate change get over this” the answer is always going to be “More”. That in itself is kinda scary, but it doesn’t even give you a good idea of how much more, how much more extreme behavior would be appropriate.
So really, what’s not an acceptable level of intensity in the face of climate change ? Try to ask this question in earnest and you’ll realize how extreme things could be going and still be a reasonable answer to climate change.
I’ll say this : think of any intense activist, even if you don’t personally know one. Somebody that devotes a good part of their life to it, going to major protests, talking about it on a regular basis, donating to campaigns, donating to NGOs tackling field issues, voting based on their engagement, shifting their way of life in some places etc. Imagine they would be doing all that for the cause of climate change. Would it be too extreme an answer to what they are battling ? Which, if you remember well, is the death of 7 billion people ?
Obviously not. Counting the deaths makes the question almost moot. It even appears that their response is far below the emotionally-appropriate response. If you and everybody you know is about to have their life cut decades short, it doesn’t feel enough to just be smiling at an annual rally. What’s appropriate regarding your own feelings would go into pretty aggressive and violent territory pretty quickly. Fortunately, that’s not taking into account what would work, and that has to be a part of the reasonable answer as well. But for this long-ass rant, I just want to settle how intense you would be allowed to go if you had to.
I fail to see a clear upper limit. When your life is in immediate danger, pretty much any behavior becomes appropriate, whatever gets you out of danger quickly. Here your life is not in immediate danger, you still have around 30 years to spare, but it is in unequivocal danger. You will die. And it’s not like you were the only one in that life-threatening situation : if a stranger is about to die, any action that you might take to remove them from harm would be welcome and hailed as heroic. If a loved one was about to die, then all actions become obviously acceptable. Here 7 billion strangers and all your loved ones are about to die, so at what should we be stopping ?
This might be starting to scare you the other way rather than helping. What is this person going to be asking that I do ? Am I gonna be asked to commit crimes ? Should I expect eco-conscious people to be committing amateur terrorism now ? So I want to take that time to remind you of the deep reason why we would be fighting climate change. We’re fighting climate change to prevent lives to be lost and way of lives to be wrecked. If the fight itself is putting lives in danger, what’s the point ? That would be like cutting the tree to escape a falling branch.
My point is, whatever you think you’re doing for climate change now, it’s time to admit it’s not enough. You will have to go all-in. You will have to make the craziest activists up their game just to compete with you. You’re gonna have to be comfortable with doing and saying stuff people will hate you for. You’re gonna have to show up. You’re gonna have to move where your money goes. You’re gonna have to deprive yourself of some stuff. You’re gonna have to try to deprive other people of some stuff. Some of it won’t be easy, it will feel bad, it will be tough to pull off, it will take time and effort. But you’ll do it because if you don’t, everybody you know will die young.
See you soon.
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Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà
New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/adam-schiff-whistleblower-poland/
Adam Schiff Whistleblower Impeachment Based on a Tweet from #Poland?
by George Eliason for Ooduarere via The Saker Blog
Look at the date in the above screen-shot. Read the summary again after you pick yourself up from off the floor.
Adam Schiff and the Democratic Party are basing an impeachment of the President of the United States on…wait for it….a tweet?
This particular tweet happened one day after the phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy. So, quick question- how does a Ukrainian in Poland know about the one particular in the phone call any of the news outlets didn’t know until late September?
On August 25th Ukrainian channel 112UA reported “Donald Trump congratulated his Ukrainian counterpart on the victory of his political force in the parliamentary election. He also expressed hope that the corruption cases that worsened Ukraine-U.S. relations would be investigated and solved fast.”
On September 21, RFERL reported, “U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed he spoke with Ukraine’s president about former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a July call that is now at the center of a political scandal threatening to hamper relations between the two countries.”
The one difference between the tweet @DebkaG sent and the initial report of the story is the mention of Joe Biden. That wasn’t public until Donald Trump confirmed it.
How did DebkaG know “specifically Joe Biden” was under investigation?
According to the New York Times– The whistle-blower who revealed that President Trump sought foreign help for his re-election and that the White House sought to cover it up is a C.I.A. officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point, according to three people familiar with his identity.
The man has since returned to the C.I.A., the people said. Little else is known about him. His complaint made public Thursday suggested he was an analyst by training and made clear he was steeped in details of American foreign policy toward Europe, demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of Ukrainian politics and at least some knowledge of the law.
The C.I.A. officer did not work on the communications team that handles calls with foreign leaders, according to the people familiar with his identity. He learned about Mr. Trump’s conduct “in the course of official interagency business,” according to the complaint, which was dotted with footnotes about machinations in Kiev and reinforced with public comments by senior Ukrainian officials.
This explains why Adam Schiff wants no part in having the whistleblower testify. Imagine getting up in front of the US Congress as the whistleblower and saying- I saw it on Twitter. It must be true. That’s enough to impeach the President.
Imagine being Adam Schiff and trying to get re-elected or just living that one down.
In truth, I know next to nothing about DebkaG. The profile suggests a Ukrainian national in Poland because of the links to both the Ukrainian and Polish governments. The source @almostjingo sent it to me for another reason as well. They saw a tweet where DebkaG was asking former Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch what she knew about me.
This same Yovanovitch who is testifying at Donald Trump’s impeachment hearing was just exposed for stalking Americans and American journalists online. She’s concerned about her safety? What was she doing with the information about US citizens?
If DebkaG was tweeting about the phone call during the same timeframe, Yovanovitch is lying if she says she has no knowledge of the source and possibly the whistleblower.
Yovanovitch just testified she knows nothing about anything relevant concerning the Trump-Zelenskiy call. She was taken to task by John Solomon of the Hill for being one of the biggest activist policymaking diplomats in Ukraine.
William Taylor was just exposed for trying to restart the civil war in Ukraine after a pullback agreement was reached and signed by all parties. He is an extreme activist working against US foreign policy.
Pictured below Lugansk Peoples Republic Foreign Minister, Donetsk People’s Republic President Denis Pushilin, Ukraine’s former President Leonid Kuchma sign on troop withdrawal.
Then we have Alexander Vindman who doesn’t know enough about Ukraine to keep his job, but he poses as the US best expert. Vindman’s loyalties support Ukraine and he shows this by trying to change US policy.
I was concerned by the call,” Vindman said, according to his testimony obtained by the Associated Press. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”-Vindman
The bottom line is if the Democrats try to go forward with impeachment of any US president based on a whistleblower who got his information off…wait for it….Twitter, the only way they might see the inside of the Oval Office until the 2030s is to take the tour.
This action, if successful will destroy the US Presidency. No crime has been put on the table. It’s innuendo, politics, and we hate Donald Trump! If Congressman Schiff has anything substantial, the time passed for him to produce it. There is nothing.
This is the most disgustingly repugnant use of politics in US history. The idea the Democrats are willing to tear the fabric of the country as Ocasio-Cortez recently put it “for 2020,” violates the oath every Congressman and Congresswoman takes.
The reality is simple. Instead of working to fix the problems the US faces, Democrats, let Donald Trump to lead that charge. Instead of giving reasons to vote for their party, Democrats led a disjointed headhunting party against the Presidency with no rhyme or reason to it. The only explanation has been and is still Trump makes them feel bad.
Instead of fixing the deep state issues that will derail Bernie Sanders (again), Gabbard, or any other moderate, they’ve chosen shoddy narratives devoid of truth that will push the DNC further into militancy.
How does this set up the 2020 election for Donald Trump and any Democratic challenger?
game over.
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Flowers dating etiquette
Funeral Flowers
Are you planning the floral theme for your wedding? First date with roses maybe too much. Now to help you want to know before heading out on. Ukraine women and men believe mothers know best, too. Finally, if you are still unsure about the process associated with the deceased's family, ask the funeral home or the family's religious or cultural leader for advice. In some social circles, the man will still pay for most of the evenings out, but the woman should pick up the tab at least sometimes. Particularly in graz, the hofburg on a battlefield, language, austria and in russia are proud of germany and sydney.
Russian Dating Etiquette Tips
Some people are not comfortable with the idea of men pulling out their chairs, opening doors for them, or helping them out of the car, so be mindful of that and if in doubt, just ask. The main thing to do is to keep a positive atmosphere and avoid too personal conversations unless you both feel like it. If things were really fantastic, the man could even send her flowers the next day; just don't make the bouquet so ostentatious that it will lead her co-workers to snicker about what really went on the night before! Another rule to remember: any stories that involve vomit or secretions of any sort no matter how funny or appropriate you think they are will generally be a complete turnoff to a woman. Consider making a suggestion yourself so your date doesn't feel overwhelmed. If permission is granted, the parents of both the man and the woman meet to discuss the details of the wedding and marriage.
7 Things Women Expect On A First Date
The best thing to do is try to make the other person as comfortable as possible. Be prepared to be kissed by your host one to three times as you greet and depart. Many, many people meet online today, and online dating sites have their own special form of etiquette. That said, the man will often pay for the first date, even if the woman was the one to initiate the outing; however, she should definitely make a sincere effort to pay for the date and only let him pay if he insists. There are a lot of and an equal number of in the last 20 or 30 years. In fact, the man I have been dating for nearly two years gave me a single white rose on our first date.
10 Old Fashioned Dating Habits We Should Make Cool Again
Next to walk down the aisle are the family and kin to the deceased followed by close friends who will take their seats in the first few rows, marking the start of the ceremony. And never, ever, talk on your cell phone, check your email, or text while on a date! It goes without saying that you should mind your table manners if your date takes place at a restaurant. There must be something about her outfit, her hair or the way she smells that you like. Any guy who tries to make himself look more important by being rude or haughty to the restaurant staff will only succeed in making a fool of himself. There are numerous ways to meet someone new. Traditional dinner party etiquette says to steer clear of controversial topics like religion and politics, and this is equally good advice for a date. The third toast is given in celebration of Ukrainian women, such as the women in the household and female friends and colleagues.
Flower Etiquette
Conversation is what will make or break a date. Page 1 of 2 Landing yourself a first date is only the first step in securing a smooth transition into an eventful and exciting night. If you act as if the date is all about you, you may quickly find yourself alone. Remember, if the woman still lives with her parents, you do not want to offend them by failing to respect an old Ukrainian custom. Be careful not to get sloppy drunk, either. If her favorite color is purple, give her a purple flower. If this does not apply to you, stand behind the chairs and allow room for other kin, or close family to stand near the grave.
10 Old Fashioned Dating Habits We Should Make Cool Again
And every man who has done that has certainly gotten a second date with me. Brought to you by Brought to you by Female Etiquette In the Vietnamese culture, the woman is expected to be submissive and never initiate a courtship with a man, because it is seen as being too forward and improper behavior for a woman. If you ever feel uncomfortable or unsafe at any point during your date, trust your gut and remove yourself from the situation. Some of the pick up artists tell students not to offer to buy a woman a drink in a bar, for a couple reasons and I agree : First, some women just freeload, take the drink, and walk away and do this all night to guys. It is okay to bring children to a funeral if they are well-behaved, especially if they are interested in attending and were close to the deceased. Until they also love with austrians love, austria dates back and etiquette on my table. Think of a classic -style date scenario.
13 Helpful Tips for Proper Funeral Etiquette
You may also be interested in. When shaking hands, remove your gloves. You can never go wrong paying someone a compliment on a first date! Just thank him, and let him know that you appreciate his gesture. Ukrainian women and men are a friendly lot, so don't be impatient if they use a lot of time introducing themselves. Not assuming sex is to be had at any point in time.
Austrian dating etiquette
Austria bad dating game says sally fazakerley, women used to france, greeting, all over. Blind dates are one of the oldest ways to meet a date. To keep apartments clean, most hosts will provide you with a pair of slippers. The man should also give the woman gifts and flowers at the beginning of each date as symbols of the woman accepting both the man and his feelings for her. If you continue to date this gentleman, there may be a time when you feel it is right to discuss the financial aspect of dates. When you are in love or falling in love, few gifts seem quite as appropriate to express how you feel as flowers. I was far too into him to do anything but appreciate the gesture.
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Safety, more than etiquette, dictates that you should be careful not to reveal personal details to a stranger online, such as your full name, address, or place of employment. If you are nervous about what to talk about on your date, brush up on current events or pop culture in the days before your meeting. In Ukraine it is not a custom to shake hands with a woman. But what is more important — flowers are symbolic. Even if she does offer, insist on paying because she may be testing you in such a way. You should also be polite to the other people you encounter on your date, including servers.
Dating and Flowers
Thank you for leading me in the right direction, giving me the confidence to believe in myself and helping me find the love I deserve. It is based on wooing a girl and doing your best to win her heart. Take off your shoes upon entering your Ukrainian woman friend's home. You may not feel like dressing up or trying to impress your date, but he may be expecting more than jeans and an old t-shirt. On this in austria: communication: hello or modernise their contributions to expect such from another country.
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