Trump 2017 – News in December 2016

Here is an open thread to discuss things the Trump transition people are doing policy, appointments, newsworthy events and the like.

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124 Responses to Trump 2017 – News in December 2016

  1. The controversial governor of my home state is leading the Trump transition team along with Sen. Jeff Sessions. Based on his work as a federal prosecutor here, Chris Christie would make an excellent attorney general but the media would never leave him (or Trump) alone because of the silly Bridgegate mess. I’d propose Trey Gowdy if anyone asked me. Rudy Giuliani would be a good choice but he might have his eye on secretary of state. Glenn Beck mentioned Ambassador John Bolton for that post, and I think that would be fantastic.

  2. CC1s121LrBGT says:

    Most importantly, I think he needs to name Kellyanne Conway to a prominent position. She is one smart cookie. Watch this mid September interview she did with Bill Maher in mid-September.

    I saw it live and then when I found it on the internet a few hours later, I still could not answer Bill’s questions despite having just seen her answers. She is a key reason Trump will be our next President and this was an amazing performance at a time when Trump was way down in the polls:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maL6-l3DdHk

  3. JayMar says:

    While it is natural for the winner to “bury the hatchet,” I believe Hillary and Bill need to be held accountable for their actions. The nation needs to know that no one is above the law. I hope that Rudy Giuliani becomes the Attorney General and fearlessly pursue the reopening of these criminal cases against Bill and Hillary.

    I would love to see Cruz as Scalia’s replacement in the SCOTUS, and Bolton as the Secretary of State. I would also like to see Walker, Jindal, Perry, and maybe even Palin join the cabinet. I am not too sure about Christie, I believe he is an opportunist, but I might be wrong. His embrace of Obama during the Sandy crisis stays with me.

    I would like to see a return to the age of decency, but this might be a pipe dream.

    • Fred Stiening says:

      Maybe Trump can trade a pardon for Hillary for 8 Democratic Senators becoming Republicans. Let the deals begin!

      It might be an interesting exercise to go through the list of 48 Democratic Senators and see which might be persuaded to switch parties. The ones up for reelection in two years from states where Trump won would be the logical candidates.

      Reagan got things done without even a majority of Senators, but that was then. I saw that one of the agenda items is “protecting life from conception”. That is an extreme position, which could cause the Republican women to switch parties. I really hope he doesn’t squander the first 100 days on fighting about abortion.

    • CC1s121LrBGT says:

      I’d be surprised to see prominent roles for Perry, Palin and Walker. Not that they are bad people, I just don’t consider them to be the “best and brightest” and I don’t think Trump does either.

      Jindal may make it, but if you watched his last debate, every sentence out of his mouth was bashing Trump rather than answering the question. If they can reconcile, Jindal would be a good addition.

      At this point, Trump needs to find not only smart people that are on his side publicly, but people he can trust. Loyalty is important, especially to Trump.

  4. JayMar says:

    I am scared he will squander his time tweeting at 3AM. Someone needs to hide his phone. He has started already, after looking so “presidential” the last few days, he is tweeting about the press. I worry about him.

  5. JayMar, I’ll never get over Christie embracing Obama when he was supposedly Romney’s No. 1 surrogate. But I still would have voted for him over Hillary.

    Just heard someone float Sarah Palin as Energy Secretary! How wonderful would it be to watch the exploding heads of liberals and news media types! (Sorry for the redundancy.)

    • Parrott says:

      you got that right JerseyDevil ! Sarah would be excellent as energy secretary,
      The libs and news media would freak out.
      As long as their is no recycled ‘Bushies’ we’ll be good.
      I can even get by with a Newt Gingrich in there somewhere. He doesn’t bother me much,

      parrott

  6. CNN “breaking news” says Mike Pence will lead the transition and Christie will become vice chair. This makes total sense because, until a few days ago, Pence was needed for more pressing assignments.

  7. JayMar says:

    Moving Pence to the transition chair is a great move. Christie has too much baggage to be successful. I trust Pence implicitly, although I hope his personal religious beliefs do not get the best of him.

  8. Fred Stiening says:

    The devil is in the details… not so fast on repealing Obamacare
    http://fortune.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-obamacare-compromise/

  9. Parrott says:

    You know, just pitching this out there, maybe Laura Ingraham as White House press secretary. She is pretty sharp and can be condescending too : )
    Kinda like Tony Snow, a believer in the mission. He was good.

    parrott

  10. Fred Stiening says:

    Reince Priebus named as Trump’s Chief of Staff (currently RNC head). It is a curious choice. Thoughts?

  11. Fred Stiening says:

    My friend in Chicago who was fearful of Trump was very reassured by the 60 minutes interview – Maybe Trump isn’t a maniac after all

  12. Fred Stiening says:

    Stephen Bannon, the Breitbart guy is named as chief strategist, whatever that is. It feels like he is being patted on the head and put on “special projects”, meaning a do nothing job where he can’t break stuff accidentally.

  13. The New York Times reports that the president-elect is talking with his advisers about how many days a week he can spend in Trump Tower in New York. Is that a good idea, or even feasible? Maybe he’s for real about turning over many presidential duties to the new vice president.

    • Fred Stiening says:

      The secret service views Trump Tower is not defendable especially since a lot of people live and work there. Someone said that on election night Trump was not expecting to win. He is adjusting.

      One of the principles of organizations is the higher you go up in an organization, the further in the future people are looking. The manager of a McDonald’s is planning his employee work schedule and unloading the food truck. The district manager is looking at year over year trends of his stores, finding problems and fixing them. The guy at headquarters is looking at the real estate portfolio and planning which stores to open close or remodel over the next 10 years. The product managers are evaluating new products to introduce in a few years and building a supplier chain. The CEO is looking at cash flows and international expansion strategies.

      Trump knows his movement is bigger than him, but he is mortal. Involving Pence as much as possible is succession planning. As long as Pence behaves reasonably, Trump will be glad to delegate second tier issues to him.

      My sense is Obama has not held cabinet meetings. World leaders complained that Obama was unreachable when there was an urgent issue. That’s going to change. We might even have press briefings again.

  14. Fred Stiening says:

    James Clapper, director of National Intelligence has resigned

  15. Fred Stiening says:

    Mittens Romney for Secretary of State?

    • Parrott says:

      I heard that on Imus this morning Fred. That’s just crazy talk ! Wonder why the Eye of ‘Newt’ Gingrich , didn’t want Secretary of state ?
      I guess you need a ‘Fancy’ guy like ‘Mittens’ ? You can tell ol ‘Boltneck’ Kerry, views himself as a fancy boy. He enjoys yachts built in New Zealand, wine made from grapes stomped by little 7 year old girls, Catsup in a glass bottle, silk ties, and coffee made by dung beetles. (Top Shelf)
      I guess you must have a Fancy boy as secretary of state, or the Helen Thomas troll stand-in mandolin albright? nuts
      parrott

  16. Fred Stiening says:

    Michael Flynn for national security adviser, Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Rep. Mike Pompeo for CIA director

    NPR is apoplectic. Hillary for Prison 2017.

  17. Parrott says:

    Alex just said he would not buy a car from mayor de Blasio of NYC. : )

    Yeah I bet a lot of people are worried about Senator Jeff Sessions, AG
    There is a new sheriff in town !
    Parrott

  18. Fred Stiening says:

    “Mnuchin is a former partner at Goldman Sachs who served as Trump’s national finance chairman during the campaign. Mnuchin also previously worked for liberal billionaire George Soros at Soros Fund Management LLC.”

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/19/source-trump-to-offer-mattis-romney-mnuchin-cabinet-jobs/#ixzz4QaAXbrvY

  19. Fred Stiening says:

    Betsy DeVos for education is an interesting choice. DeVos is the family behind Amway in Grand Rapids, which is the epicenter of Republicanism in Michigan. The Arab American community in Michigan is also a significant force (Spencer Abraham for example)

  20. Fred Stiening says:

    Nikki Haley as UN ambassador – she goes so against the stereotype of what people from the North think South Carolina is like in 2016. She is an (Asian) Indian American who grew up In a Sikh family. Indians are finding a warm reception in the Republican Party – one of the two Republicans on the FCC Commission comes from an Indian family and may well become chairman. White guilt doesn’t work against Indians and neither do the grievances of 400 year old slaves. “Lazy” is an adjective you don’t hear connected to Indians – they thrive at being entrepreneurs and appreciate how much opportunity this country still has.

  21. Fred Stiening says:

    I hope next year Trump eats the thanksgiving turkey instead of pardoning it

  22. Fred Stiening says:

    Look for the New York Times to calculate the average net worth of Trump’s cabinet once they are all picked

  23. Fred Stiening says:

    Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland As Deputy National Security advisor – a former aide to Henry Kissinger and she believes Vlad Putin deserves the Nobel Peace prize.

    I don’t know if her appointment requires Senate Confirmation, but it would be interesting to watch Democrats who visited Cuba to have their pictures taken in front of the Che Guivera mural make the case that Russians are bad

    Bloomberg, WaPo and NY Times are keeping score of how many women Trump is hiring. It won’t matter. Hopefully he is choosing them because they are the best person for the job that is willing to work for us.

  24. Fred Stiening says:

    Rep Tom Price, the Orthopedic Surgeon from Georgia has been nominated to Health and Human Services to amputate Obamacare before it metastasizes

  25. Fred Stiening says:

    Elaine Chao, aka Mrs Mitch McConnell, is to head the department of transportation

    • Parrott says:

      “,,,Elaine Chao, aka Mrs Mitch McConnell, is”
      Heck, she is more ‘butch’ than Lindsey Graham-ham -ham-ham ham.

      I guess he picked her to try an keep McConnell in line, That is the one that should be ‘drained’ out of DC . Posterboy of a no-chin Rino.

      parrott

      • Fred Stiening says:

        She can pick up a shovel and start repairing infrastructure. I hope our $1.4 billion streetcar gets finished before January 20th. You will be glad to hear the tunnel under Tryon street has innovative artwork

  26. Fred Stiening says:

    Steven Mnuchin, another Goldman Sachs alumni to run the US Treasury

  27. Fred Stiening says:

    Keeping their word, The NY Times has awarded Donald Trump the 16 electoral votes from Michigan now that the state issued its final official count with Trump winning by about 10,700 votes. Given the heat, I feel confident that county election officials tripled checked everything. The physical ballots are currently in metal boxes with seals put on them after the initial count.

    The only real reason a vote would change is if the voter marked the dot poorly and the optical scanner saw a “no vote” – but as John Batchelor points out, people like to think every corrected vote will wind up with one candidate, but there is no reason to believe the errors would be any different than the voters as a group. Oakland county figures they need at least 100 people to do the recount of 400,000+ ballots and it will take at least a week. The Brexit vote was finished counting paper ballots by hand in a few hours.

  28. Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary Clinton’s successor as one of New York’s two U.S. Senators, says she will try to stop President-elect Trump from getting his choice as defense secretary. Those on active duty within the last seven years can’t serve in the post unless a waiver is granted by Congress. Gillibrand opposes a waiver for retired Gen. ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, who left the Marines in 2013.

    • Fred Stiening says:

      The final Senate race is to be decided next Saturday in Louisiana. The US Senate was designed by the founding fathers to be a brake against a populist revolution. Assuming the Republican wins, the Senate is 52-48.

      Political parties are not a concept in the Constitution. There isn’t going to be much desire within the Senate to change its rules to weaken its power. The new Congress is sworn in January 3rd. Consider for the moment that Chuck Schumer might be chosen the leader of the Senate.

      Even if the butt hurt Republican losers don’t bolt, do enough Democrats either agree with Trump or are afraid of Trump to give him what he wants? When he gets beat up the first time, how will he react?

      The State Department is apoplectic about Trump talking to world leaders without being guided by them. When talking to the leader of Pakistan, he admired the intelligence of the Pakistani people and how wonderful they are, and said he would love to visit Pakistan. I wonder what India thinks of that…

      Trump’s best hope is if the DNC elects Ellison as their DNC chairman. A black Muslim leading the Democratic Party could push rational Democrats over the edge. A few more incidents like the one at Ohio State might wake up the youth to the real danger. I’m not optimistic, though. My niece was a resident at Massachusetts General and lived on Beacon Hill, only a few blocks from the Boston Marathon bombing. It shook her up – the one time she cried in my presence was when she mentioned the hurt of her mother (my sister) not calling to see if she was OK. The experience of the Boston Marathon bombing did not change her politics one bit.

  29. Fred Stiening says:

    As expected, Ben Carson has the official nod for director of Homelessness and Urban Dependency (HUD)

    • Nancy Pelosi (or Nazi Pelosi, as George Soros pronounces her name) is incensed over the Carson appointment. I’m sure she thinks Andrew Cuomo was supremely qualified for the job. Carson would be the first HUD director who has lived in public housing.

  30. Parrott says:

    ALGore is meeting with Trump on climate change ? WTF ? Well just eFFF me !
    Surely he isn’t falling for the ‘three card Monte’ climate change BS from the UN ?

    Hopefully he was there to help Trump with his Internet connection, because that GD powerpoint on climate change is a load of Horse Shite.
    Hell you might as well put Mittens or Hillary in the white House if he believes that ‘Carp’.
    Talk about disappointment. Hell, he might as well put ‘Betrayus Petreaus’ in as Sec of State if he is listening to ALGore.
    “SuperStormSandy’

    Parrott

  31. Fred Stiening says:

    Rahm Emanuel is visiting with the President Elect. I wonder why.

  32. Fred Stiening says:

    Time’s person of the year – imagine that

  33. Fred Stiening says:

    Retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly To run Homeland Security

  34. Fred Stiening says:

    EPA critic Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt named to head EPA

    Heads are exploding all over the country

    • Almost always when a head is exploding, it’s a the head of a liberal. So I think this is a good thing.

    • Fred Stiening says:

      The New York Times just invented a new word – he is a climate change denialist. I guess that means he believes in denialism

      • Parrott says:

        Ha Ha Ha , take that EPA. They have had their tentacles in everything we do for years with their Bullcrap. They have ruined more than they helped. Like that MTBE additive to fuel that ruined so much ground water. Luckily its outlawed in the states as fuel additive.
        EPA were the boneheads, that brought us mega forest fires. I read an article on a link from one of the polls here on SRG, that DDT didn’t make shells of eggs for Eagles more brittle.
        And their CAFE standard for automobile is insane. EPA and Obo want everyone in clown cars. Clean emissions are very good from gas engines up until a point. The EPA got to where they wanted to destroy gasoline engines and diesel engines altogether. they need a good house cleaning
        They are arguing CAFE standards over at ‘The truth about Automobiles’. a lot of millennial snowflakes there.
        parrott

  35. Fred Stiening says:

    Linda McMahon, the wife of Vince McMahon and operator of a pro wrestling league has been chosen to run the Small Business Administration. Jesse Ventura is demanding a steel cage match against Donald Trump

  36. Parrott says:

    I wouldn’t want that le-bron james in my hotel either. did you see on the news he was protesting the Cleavland cavaliers staying in a 5 star hotel owned by Trump while in NYC? So they had to put him up at the Best Western with Colin Keapernick.
    These NBA teams have it way to good. They are mostly thugs.
    idiots
    parrott

  37. Fred Stiening says:

    Andrew F. Puzder For labor – he opposes raising the minimum wage

  38. Fred Stiening says:

    Trump has named the CEO of Exxon/Mobile to be Secretary of State.

    If I didn’t know better, I would think all of these cabinet picks are fake to troll the hell out of the Democrats

  39. Fred Stiening says:

    Rick Perry is being floated as head of the Department of Energy, which he wants to dismantle

  40. Fred Stiening says:

    Donald F. McGahn II For White House Council – NY Times describes him as “combative”. With three generals in the cabinet already, the NY Times should start digging a moat, or at least a fence.

  41. Fred Stiening says:

    NPR, which shut down its comment section during the campaign asks:
    “Is Donald Trump A Threat To Democracy?”

    http://www.npr.org/2016/12/12/505205197/is-donald-trump-a-threat-to-democracy

    • Parrott says:

      Laughing at NPR. ‘Losers’ . That ‘hack’ over at ‘electoral-vote.com’ are still crying and from what I could tell from their website, haven’t updated it much, are still under their bed & haven’t changed their underwear since Nov. 8 .
      That loser won’t let you post comments on his ‘baby-cheit’ and carried the water for ‘Big-Hill ‘ since 2014.
      I have no respect for NPR and the lame-stream media

      parrott

    • TheChairman says:

      I hope so! I’ve had enough of ‘democracy’. Let’s get back to our Republic.

      If NPR wants to see what democracy brings, they should visit Venezuela…

      • Fred Stiening says:

        Free toys for the kids looted from the stores by the government?

        • Parrott says:

          yeah man Chris mentioned this story on his morning show. Ol Hugo did a job on that country,
          Chris said that women in Venezuela walked to the border of Columbia and sold their hair for cash.
          There used to be good looking women from Venezuela.
          parrott

          • TheChairman says:

            I think the women are selling more than ‘hair’…

            The thing is, we saw students march (TV news) for Chavez and ‘democracy’ in the late 1990’s. I remember thinking: “Do they realize what they are doing, how long before they regret ever going down that path?” The anti-Trump protesters (anarchists) are of the same mindset, led by the same socialist sycophants of Soros.

  42. Fred Stiening says:

    Quite a day for Trump – criticizing the F-35 program, going to war with the CIA and the Chinese dictator threatening war because of ignorant Trump

    • Parrott says:

      I loved that one. Rebuild the A-10 Thunderbolts and crank up the F15 and F 16 production lines, here , not in India.
      we need some new B1B bombers also
      parrott

      • Fred Stiening says:

        If they made a flying machine gun drone version of the A-10 that didn’t need all the things to protect the pilot, that would be awesome. The beauty of the A-10 was its low cost and simplicity. Our future military conflicts are likely to be with countries with low sophistication weapons, but we keep building airplanes to fight the soviet union.

        Flying very low to the ground and slow makes you invisible to radar and almost impossible for a fast moving airplane to,shoot down. Surface launched missiles don’t work because they are designed to not explode at low altitude. The only weapon they can be hit with is gun fire from the ground. Don’t bring an AK47 to a 30 mm cannon gun fight.

        • TheChairman says:

          The A-10 Warthog is based here in Tucson… when I was in college at UofA, I loved watching those planes fly over campus, doing lazy figure 8’s, appearing to just hover. This is also the location of the ‘bone-yard’, so there are all types of military aircraft which arrive for retirement. Some will circle the city once before their final landing.

          Parrot, here’s one for you: This past spring, I heard a military jet (sound signature) overhead that I didn’t recognize. My neighbor finally spotted it, and it was a B1 Bomber, wings back, doing a hard u-turn on a ‘run and return’ from Dyess AFB, Texas. We both just stood there, mouths agape… what an awesome sight & sound!

          • Parrott says:

            I think everyone likes the A-10. There was a group of A-10s stationed at Myrtle Beach Air Force base in the eighties. I know the reason they flew up and down the beach was to see those neon pink & green bikinis ! They just fly up and back, low and slow, it was awesome. They closed MB AFB.
            Chairman: I have seen the B1B once with the
            ‘ears pinned back’ . Unreal how they sound. Scared the crap out of me and my brother and another friend fishing in a flat bottom boat on the New River here in Virginia.
            They practice low and fast runs on the Radford Army ammunition plant. Most of the time they have the wings out, but that once they were moving on. We get a lot of F-15s around here, first they send on of those EA-6 Prowlers (Intruders) really low, then the F-16s chasing
            ( I guess) a couple minutes later, then the Eagles usually two at a time. The Eagles are from NC . we’re lucky to see the planes around here. Some people never notice them or say , why are they so loud. I always try to go out and see them. Very seldom do you see the first one, but you get to see the ones following.
            We saw a Tomcat or two every now and again, until they retired them.
            Its something when they bring a Hercules by, they are actually very quiet.
            Have a good one guys
            parrott

  43. Fred Stiening says:

    Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke For Department of the Interior. He probably has opinions about the Bureau of Land Management and state claims to Federal lands inside their states.

  44. Parrott says:

    >”The weenies in uptown Charlotte don’t like the A-10, at least not when they are flying over the football stadium.”<

    L_O_L 'weenies' It probably scares them.

    I never got to hear a Phantom.
    parrott

    • TheChairman says:

      They named the Phantom correctly… it had a hollow and deep sounding whistle/howl, especially cruising or coasting (off throttle). Quite ‘spooky’.

      University of Arizona is near the approach for Davis-Monthan AFB, so it was great for us engineers. Current students are probably trying to close the base.

  45. Fred Stiening says:

    Monica Crowley is going to work in the White House

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/15/monica-crowley-join-trump-white-house/

    That’s an excellent development – she has been a regular guest on John Batchelor back when nobody thought Trump had a chance

    • Parrott says:

      Hey you were correct Fred ! Go over to the K&W and tell them you correctly picked the new press secretary and order dinner and send the bill to
      Big Enos Burdette : )
      Laura would have probably made the press ‘monkeys’ cry
      Monica is easy on the eyes

      parrott

      • Fred Stiening says:

        Actually, she is going to be deputy national security advisor, not press secretary. Milo would be a good choice for press secretary, grinding the “know nothing” press corps into bloody pulp. Milo can be the rodeo clown distracting the angry bulls from charging the cowboy

  46. Parrott says:

    Hey Chairman, C-17 Globemaster just flew by ! Its a cold 20 degrees overcast, and he was way below the clouds. So slow and quiet !
    If he was 400 /500 feet up, I would be surprised.
    I swear I think I could have hit him with my Red Ryder BB gun !
    Just lounging, its amazing something so large is hanging in the air. And quiet !
    He had the little wing tips.
    Talk about a job, that pilot has it made ! I have had to much coffee, to many exclamation points : ) (But it was exciting to run outside and see it )

    best
    parrott

  47. Fred Stiening says:

    Get used to seeing Donald Trump and Chuck Schumer smiling together a lot

    http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/donald-trump-chuck-schumer-232738

    • Parrott says:

      Hmmmmm. I don’t know. I almost call BS on this one –> “Get used to seeing Donald Trump and Chuck Schumer smiling together a lot”<

      Schumer signed on with RINO's McClown and Lyndsie Graham-ham ham ham,
      they are evil, and Graham ham ham ham may have a STD ( plante 09/10/2016)
      so how could you deal with those 'F's' ?

      Schumer likes cameras to much.
      parrott

  48. Fred Stiening says:

    George Soros funded Daily Kos is organizing a “massive protest rally” in DC on Inaguration day. I guess they didn’t hear Hillary warning about not accepting defeat threatening Democracy

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/11/1596587/-March-on-Washington-on-Jan-20-2017

  49. Fred Stiening says:

    South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney to be the head of the Office of Management and Budget

  50. Fred Stiening says:

    Russia’s ambassador to Turkey has been murdered by a Turkish security guard. Syria is about to get very interesting. John Batchelor will be on top of this unless he is on vacation

  51. Fred Stiening says:

    Carlos Slim had dinner with Donald Trump over the weekend. Carlos is the son of immigrants from the Middle East who has leveraged his close relationship with the Mexican government – to become one of the richest men in the world. Slim is the investor who stepped in to keep the New York Times out of bankruptcy.

    https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/12/19/true-trump-had-dinner-this-weekend-with-mexican-billionaire-carlos-slim/xuj64jWJnL7Aa2wyF6B12K/story.html

  52. Fred Stiening says:

    Trump and Canada PM Trudeau agree to make the Keystone XL pipeline work

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-energy-trudeau-idUSKBN14A1S0

  53. Fred Stiening says:

    Sean Spicer as White House press secretary, Jason Miller as communications director

    Trump is a workaholic.

    Spicer has a master’s degree from the Naval War College in National Security. He worked for the RNC more generally. He surely is a Priebus friend

    Jason Miller is another PR pro who worked for Ted Cruz.

    Hope Hicks will become director of strategic communications – she worked for the Trump organization fashion line

    Dan Scavino will be director of social media he met Trump working as his caddy at age 16, and ran some of Trump’s gold operations

  54. Fred Stiening says:

    Thomas Sowell has turned in his pen and retiring

  55. Fred Stiening says:

    A month before the election, Carrie Fisher accused Donald Trump of being a cocaine user. Today, she is dead. Karma is a bitch.

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