Transcription #150

Hey, guys, welcome to threads podcast life unfiltered. Thank you so much for joining Ben and I, whenever you’re listening to this in the morning or at night, I don’t know, that’s as I say the same thing every time. But just after 150 episodes, you’ve kind of just get in a habit. So we appreciate each and every one of you listened to the Reds podcast, this is Episode 150. I tried to get Ben to do something special he poo pooed it, I’m just gonna say he did it. We talked about it. But I’m just like, I don’t know what to do. We’re just kind of not in that place right now to like, have this big episode, we’re just kind of plowing through. So who knows? We’ll see we’re trying to, we’re trying to I’ll let the cat out the bag a little bit. We’re trying to get a live setting set up at some point. But so we could do a live podcast, which would be kind of fun. But anyways, you talk about more about that later. But before we get into our topic tonight, and Ben’s gonna introduce what threads is all about. And then we’ll do the icebreaker.

Well, last night, I had, oh, man, probably close to 10 people over to my house and backyard. We just sat around the campfire. And there were so many conversations happening all at once. I know. But the cool thing about all the conversations was people were just being real, just being open, honest, like this is what I’m dealing with. I heard conversations about parenting conversations about mental health issues. Just across the spectrum, it was so cool to see. And if you’re listening to this, there’s a chance that you were even there. So what we accomplished around the campfire is really what we’re trying to do on the show threads, podcast life unfiltered. It’s just creating a space where we can talk about stuff that matters, things that could be uncomfortable to talk about things that deal with our mental health and our faith journey, whatever that may comprise. So when you tune into threads, that is what you can expect to hear conversations about stuff that matters. And as we talk, we’re looking for those threads, those things in life that we all have in common the things that tie us together. We live in a world that is dead set on separating us by politics and anything else. Well on threads. This is a place where we can come and be human together and just deal with stuff. So that is what the threads podcast is about. I’m excited about what the future holds. Jason and I are working on being a bit more intentional in growing the show and that includes a live podcast recording that we would love to have you at. So definitely stay tuned. I think you’re gonna see some cool stuff coming from the threads podcast Lifeline filtered. So with that we’re gonna jump into our icebreaker. And I just love this question because it always lends itself to good discussion. How are you showing up tonight? As we sit down to record, Jason How are you?

I’m good. It’s Sunday. funday I never understood that Sunday. funday because like, I don’t I feel like that’s kind of a bro thing like Sunday funday I’m like, to me Sunday is kind of, you know, it should be restorative. But like lately it seems like I’ve been busy on Sunday like interesting you got church in the morning or and or production. You know today I had an appointment at one for massage. I know. I know. It’s I hate saying that because it’s like oh, you’re getting it’s like self care, but it’s still something I have to do and that I committed to right. Then Sally’s back in hockey and then threads tonight and it’s just, I don’t know I’m feeling like I kind of wanted today as we talked on the phone. I just kind of want to vejen eat chips and take a nap. But as far as like right now I’m ready to record. I’m feeling good. I think this can be a good episode. so bad. How are you showing up tonight?

I am showing up feeling rested. I had a nice three hour nap today. so jealous. 1245 to 345 I was gonna try to get up at 230 my alarm went off and I was like, Nah, I got nothing to do. I’m going back to sleep. So I did till 345 and it was beautiful. So it was a late night last night. As you heard in the intro I had a fire and friends over so that was late. And that’s defined at homecoming, and he didn’t get home from his after homecoming party. Until like 130 the only reason we let him go to the party was because it was at a teacher’s house so what if it was a hot teacher? It was a male teacher What if he was hot?

You’re like Stefan’s not gay. So keep keep keep trying.

Right? Oh my gosh, Jason’s like a fisherman. Just always putting the hooks in. Well Good. Tonight we are bringing back kind of a format we’ve tried before, but it’s been a while we aren’t going to do a topical episode. In the past, we would take one topic and make an episode out of it. Tonight we’re switching it up a little bit, we’ve just got several different topics that we’re going to hit on. These are basically current events, things that we’ve seen in the news, definitely some stuff that is new, since COVID hit seems like the world is just a very different place it is. And we’re going to talk about that. So to get started, Jason is going to summarize the first topic and that is Haitian immigrants.

So this kind of caught my eye. It was hot and fast in the news, like immigration has always been an issue, especially with the Trump administration where you know, building the wall by the way, that was like falling apart. Have you seen stuff on that?

It’s not surprising No, not really paid much attention.

I haven’t either. I just see little, you know, on Reddit, you’ll see this like the title and you’re like, yeah, I’m not dealing with this. But it’d be like, and I shouldn’t do that. Because like, if I don’t read it just read, I’m part of the problem, right, just reading a title. But this kind of caught my eye that why America keeps turning its back on Haitian immigrants. And it was back about the September 20. Some videos and screenshots came out of the Border Patrol agents kind of rounding them up. I mean, they’re on horses and and stuff. And so it was a little weird to see. So going back to the immigration with the Haitian people has started way back in the day. So it started in the Carter administration. And, and it’s gone Democrat and Republican, it’s not been one side, they’ve all kind of done it with and it’s kind of gone on the waist like on the DL. That’s what they say on the download. Yeah. Back in 1980. There was a judge named James Lawrence to recognize in a ruling that this practice was not only discriminatory, but also racist about not giving asylum to the Haitian refugees. A lot of them came into Florida on boats. And Haitians were be excluded because they were black. And they would because they were a Haitian King overturn the Haitian program, but the Carter administration worked to circumvent it, like subsequent administration would. when reagan administration came into power, they introduced a new Haitian detention program and the policy of I nt er, dictation interdict, I n t e r d IC t IO n, n or you know what that word I, anyways, you’re the smart one in which Coast Guard cutters would intercept both the patient and asylum seekers before they could even reach land and send them back often the violence and death process and continue to the 1890s in 1918 1980s and 1990s. It’s not something new, this is something that both Republican and Democrat administrations have done. It’s it’s very much fits with the long history of the US government denying the legitimacy of patient asylum claims and sending them to a dangerous and awful and deadly situation. So my point of all this is why the Haitian people, is it because they are black, because you hear about that, with the Hispanic and Mexicans coming across. Yeah, it’s an issue, but I feel like it’s not like violence. Like I feel like they get offered the asylum if they need to. And yeah, and asylum remind me is like, if you are in poor conditions, or there’s like war torn areas. Yeah. So if you run across, you just say I claim asylum,

basically, or you make it clear to, you know, when you show up, and you talk to a border patrol agent, telling them I’m here to seek asylum.

So you’re not like sneaking over. You’re just saying, Hey, this is what’s going on. I really,

I’m leaving my country because of these reasons, and I’m seeking asylum in your country. So for whatever reason, when Haitians do that, they are denied. Yeah, it’s very often.

So when they first when this first came to light, it says reports have suggested that many of the 14,000 Haitian immigrants who were camped under the Del Rio international bridge had actually left Haiti after 2010 earthquake and stopped in places like Brazil and Chile. But I’ve been on the move to Mexico due to various circumstances. So for 10 years, they’ve been making their way to America. So how do you feel in general about people coming here claiming asylum?

I am in full support of it. I think that I could go so many different directions, but I’m going to try to stay focused on the main central idea that if America is as great as so many in our country say it is then part of our great This should be the way that we treat those who are coming to this great country. Because of conditions in their home country, there are things that happen in their home countries, that they have no control over, whether it’s a political, like a falling out of the political system, and things are just mayhem, or natural disasters. So there’s, there’s things that happen that are beyond anybody’s control, things that are life altering for the people who live in these countries. And those people see America because of our image throughout the world, they see America as a place to go to get help. And that’s how our country was founded, people left unfavorable conditions in Europe and came here to create something new. And so it’s like, people are doing that same exact thing. They’re leaving their country to come to America, for hope and a future. And I think very, I’m very much in supportive immigration. And I think one other fact about our country that is often hotly debated is that those who started America had a religious mindset, a Christian faith element to it. And if that’s true, then if the Christian faith is so central to our life in America, then we should probably pay attention to the words of the Bible. And the Bible has so much to say about, yes, treating the immigrant fairly, and looking out for the immigrant among us. And I think we’ve somehow got very trapped up in the legalities of it all, and we split hairs over, you know, what’s the proper way to come to our country and all this other stuff? I’m sorry, but if you are leaving a war torn country, and your country’s president and leadership model has been overthrown, and it’s chaos, you’ve had so much trauma in your life, the last thing you’re thinking of is the right way to do something. You’re just going to go to wherever you feel is the safe place to go. And if that’s America, then yeah, I think we should have the ability for those people to seek asylum and not you know, condemned them for seeking a better life.

Yeah, I I disagree a little bit I because like, where do you draw the line? Cuz I mean, there’s a lot of war torn countries and a lot of poverty. Shhh. Country, impoverish countries. I mean, where do you draw the line of like, okay, we’re full. I mean, I know there’s plenty of space in America, like everyone’s, like we’re running out, but like, go to go to Nebraska go to North Dakota, like not that there’s not that the weather’s great there. But my point is, there’s a lot of space, but I feel like you You do have to do it properly, even though, you know, yeah, you’ve you’ve traveled for 10 years, you still can’t just run in the country and expect like us to be like, okay, here you go. I think there

needs to be more of a middle ground. Like I’m not asking for our government to give just a free citizenship card. Yeah, but at the same time, like we should have programs in place so that if somebody is showing up after a series of traumatic events, like, we have X, Y and Z that we walk them through, instead of I don’t know, to me, it just seems like there’s not a whole lot of clarity around. Yes, the process. But we don’t have a well defined process. It doesn’t feel like yeah, I feel

like if you come here you have one year to like, apply for citizenship, have a job. And if you don’t, but then and then it’s then it has the problem of Okay, if they don’t then then now we got to hire a crew to chase them down, right turns into this big thing. But I also don’t want them to come over here and not pay taxes. Exactly.

Understand. Yeah, it’s such a convoluted issue. But I what I go back to is my face and how we’re instructed to look out for the immigrant. Now, what does that look like? I think government and policy and legal level? I have no idea. I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know what that looks like. What I do know, is from a very practical humankind showing compassion standpoint. Mm hmm. I feel like we should have people and resources available to those who are seeking asylum. So that people are not met with a border patrol guard on a horse, grabbing them by the T shirt, yanking and pulling at them and trying to throw them the other direction. Like there’s got to be some middle ground. That before you get to that point, but

again, they’re kind of caught in between to their, you know, again, we talked about we don’t know their policy or how things are going there. Just trying to do their job whatever that is and yeah so I don’t know again all these topics we’re we’re we’re not experts by any means is our opinion on there so if you feel frustrated for something we said get your own podcast no

but hire Hey guys Media Group right right i mean

if you definitely want to you know reach out to us and give us your opinion on that stuff we you know which we have had people reach out feel free

yeah and I think what needs to be noted strongly again is the fact that for whatever reason over history Haitians have been

it’s because they’re black yes let’s let’s the elephant the room

yeah it’s because they’re black they are their cases are rejected they’re not worked with it’s just rough yeah so it’s very unfortunate

all right moving on Ben Hey thready thank you so much for listening to the Reds podcast. If you want to support the show which we would love for you to do. You can go to buy me a coffee comm slash threads podcast there you can buy us one coffee two coffees as many as you want or you can sign up for a monthly membership that comes with some great perks all the money that we do earn goes to just cost Ben and I are actually going out you know buying coffee with it but we would if you insist we would do that. Buy me a coffee calm slash threads podcast if you want to support the show. Also the newsletter if you go to threads podcast, comm slash newsletter, put your email in once a month we’re just going to give you know just comings and goings maybe some new stuff maybe a blog article about what’s going on and threads in the threads world if you’d love to have that in your email box, red podcast comm slash newsletter also Hey guys Media Group Hey guys Media Group is a production company that then I and Jesper have created to help people start their podcasts, we can edit podcast, console, anything like that. So if you’re looking to start a podcast, please reach out to us. Email us at team at Hey guys, media group.com. Alright, back to the show.

Moving on our next topic, I read this article and I about had a mini panic attack. I thought so do you remember probably it happens pretty regularly like every 10 to 15 years. There’s like solar wind storm. Yeah, happen

on the sun. Right? Yeah. And solar blew,

it knocks out like back in the day when satellite TV was the rage? Yeah, the satellites would go out and you couldn’t watch your favorite shows or whatever. Well, now they’re talking about something similar happening. And the issue has to do with the interference that those solar flares have on the the fiber connections that go between countries, which

is first of all, before I continue, the sun is so far away. How is that affecting what’s happening on earth? That’s pretty powerful.

Yeah, so the the magnetism of the solar flares, sends down to the earth. And since these fiber optic fiber optic cables are between land masses in the ocean, yes, the water amplifies that magnetism. And essentially, it can short out these fiber optic cables that run between countries. So what they’re saying is, it’s only prediction it’s not like this is of course, you know, supposed to happen. But experts are warning that with this upcoming series of solar flares, there could be a billion dollar internet apocalypse caused by the sun, because the fiber optic cables do not have the shield around them to protect them from these flares. So what happens? Well, what happens when a electric cord gets short circuited, it stops working, right? So the entire internet could go down for days, weeks months, nobody really knows how long it would take to restore it if this interference from the sun actually happened.

Yeah. So I wonder if it’s only during the interference when it’s having that flare up? Does the internet go out? Or is it something we have to go in there replace the lines? I mean, the article doesn’t say, but I’m just

Yeah, I don’t think we really know. Okay. From a personal level, my hearing aids, if they get a short circuit, like if water gets on them, they’re not it’s not like they’re damaged forever. It’s just while they’re being short circuited, they cycle through the programs and it’s noxious. So I think it’s almost it’s probably similar to that is my guess, the solar flare would cause interference, but as soon as that solar flare and magnetism goes away, in an ideal world, hopefully things would just start working again, but It’s hard to say nobody really knows if this is like a damaging interference or if it’s just a interference that happens and then moves on.

Yeah, it’s crazy. When the internet goes down, you don’t realize how much work that you need the internet for. When I worked in the office that we didn’t feed, there had been there be times that the internet goes out. And when I was like to do an office where my boss was like, Alright, you can go home because our entire software is on the internet. That’s just how it works. Yeah. And I’m like, gosh, this is crazy to have the internet shut down. It would be it just I don’t know, even just at a personal level. I know it’s firstworldproblems. But it’s like, I can’t do anything. I would we talk. Yeah. What did we do beforehand? Like, I don’t even have a or if like a cell tower went down. Oh, do you remember Larry talking about when the 18 t bomb? He probably didn’t. He told me this a national member when that that at&t building was bombed? Yes. I don’t know if you remember that. He said it was they didn’t have cell service. It took a little while because the building started flooding or something like that from I don’t know, but it didn’t go off right away. But when it went off, he’s like, we couldn’t get we couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t call we couldn’t text. Wow. No internet on our phones. Like he goes. It was kind of scary. Like, realize just one man put a bomb at the at&t building. And we were shut down for a couple of days wild. Yeah, so it’s scary. I mean, we’re, I feel like we’re always living on the seat of our pants. Yeah, with technology. I mean, we feel like it’s very strong of a structure, but I’m not sure it is

right. Now. It has to be noted. This isn’t like all doom and gloom, right? The percentage the possibility that it will actually happen. They’re saying 1.6% minimum to 12% maximum chance of a huge pseudo solar superstorm occurring. So

it’s kind of like the asteroid thing when it when the ones gonna hit Earth because clearly it happened before many years ago. But 12% I take my money any day. So when you look at it that way, yeah, that’s pretty

high. It is. It’s crazy. So who could predict the Coronavirus? Yang as impactful as it was like that’s a probably very smaller chances as well. So I see 1.6 to 12% in light of COVID. And it’s like, oh, shit, that could actually really? Yeah,

yeah. Because the stats were given for COVID are less than that. And it’s happening pretty Yeah. rampid.

It’s wild. So back in the day, when the solar flares happened, I think it’s like, every 10 to 20 years. The last time the major impact was the satellite TV. Well, since then, we’ve come to rely on the internet for so much more everything. It’s everything. Like, even checking out at the grocery store, like all of that is now online. Yeah. Everything is connected to the internet. It’s wild.

What would your prediction be if we had not a civil war? I don’t want to, but like a natural disaster. Like how many people could survive, like, I feel like half our country would die. Like I could be one of them, too. But I just feel like, as these younger kids are growing up, you and I have had some time without the internet. Yeah, I’m somewhat resourceful. But we’re soft now too, because we’re used to the internet. It’s true, but I mean, my gosh, not having any skills of like, Okay, I’m gonna have to connect with this person, but I don’t have I have to walk to their home. Yeah, or ride my bike, or

No kidding. It’s wild. The last thing I want to point out with this article is it talks about the estimated cost per day to the US economy if the internet went out $7.2 billion a day.

See this is where I think they should be spending some more money on infrastructure they are that’s how much money everyone’s gonna lose.

And that’s just America. Yeah, I mean, we’re not talking Europe or Africa or any other continent. We’re talking just,

yeah, we don’t hear about those cons. Clearly not a Haitian people are.

Nice tie in there. Thank you.

Moving on whistle, Facebook whistleblower. So we all saw this happen on 60 minutes. I did not watch it at 16. I mean,

you have 60 minutes to watch TV and I know right

with commercials. Like let’s trim this down to four minutes on a YouTube video. Yeah, so I think you guys heard about it. Facebook is interesting. Ben will probably agree that he spends probably more time on it than I do. Oh, without a doubt, and people just have their their jam with the internet. I probably spend more time on Tick Tock than Ben does. So you see

the tick tock guy a lot more in the night. Yeah, I’ve seen them one time.

Oh yeah. I’ve can It’s probably over 10 times that I’ve seen them but but anyway so Facebook’s kind of this I feel like a necessary evil I used to post all the time like I see my memories and it was like eight years ago you posted this I’m like shit I haven’t posted anything in like three years now I post podcast stuff on there all the time so self promotion I do that but so basically she came out saying she had 10,000 pages of all these things and where which I think we all kind of knew that Facebook kind of circumvented safety and those kinds of things for money. I mean basically what it boils down to is she was part of that group or whatever in Facebook that you know ignored the stuff especially with the teen girls and making them like the algorithms making them want to check their phones to see if they got likes and stuff like that which that really stresses me out because I mean you have a daughter I have a daughter and they both have phones and I mean I worry about my daughter every day worrying that is she going to have those issues and Facebook can take action to negate that but that negates money exactly and they need to keep you on the platform as much as possible and if they’re not tempting you with those likes then you’re not going to be on the platform so I guess basically that’s what the whistleblower is about is just safety and then the like a lot of stuff with the interaction them trying to not promote it but not hide any they could have shot so much of that shit down they could have but they chose not to over profits and it doesn’t surprise me that a company doesn’t I mean, a company is there to make money I get that but you have to have some freakin morals.

Here’s what gets me about Facebook, the entire idea of the company itself like Facebook would not exist and be profitable without us. Yep, they are taking us and making us the business model. Yeah, so that includes you know, on threads we’re all about finding connections that tie us together well that’s not the only thing Facebook is focused on. Sure they like that because people celebrate connectedness but people also use Facebook as we’ve all seen, to argue to pick fights to rally their side against the other side. And again, we are the business model like they are taking advantage of our connections Yes, but also the things that separate

I think they take advantage more of the separation than the connections because it’s the most activity Yeah, you know, behind the curtain thing as a podcast or entrepreneur. Like when I post something on social media not everyone sees it that likes our page the only way that thing gets seen more is engagement. So comments pictures so if you actually do see something you like it just hit the like button I mean, selfish moment here, but but when if you don’t get engagement, basically doesn’t want to do they want you to buy advertising and again, I don’t mind a business making profits. And in that part, I don’t mind that either. That’s okay. But not slowing down the hateful stuff and letting that build because that I feel like there’s more hate on Facebook than the connections that we talked about on Yes, but Facebook

would like you to believe otherwise. They’re they’re the initials are, like all these, you know, sweet grandmas connecting with their grandkids. Like we’ve all seen the Facebook commercials. It’s like this. I don’t know you topik utopian. Everything is great. like everybody’s connecting and being so kind to each other on Facebook, which happens. Yeah, but not nearly as often as the divisive stuff.

Why do you feel like social media platforms just just breed that kind of stuff? Because it’s not just Facebook? Its Instagram. It

is everywhere.

I mean, I feel like Tick Tock is a little different. They people are very, they do argue but I feel like they protect the creators a little bit more. I don’t know. I feel like there’s more justice on tik tok than there is on Facebook, Instagram Twitter,

which is funny because Tick Tock is owned by the Chinese.

Well, it’s a Chinese company, but I mean, I don’t know who actually runs it. But anyways, yeah. So that’s basically what she was doing. Who knows what will come from this. But what’s interesting is the outage that happened the next day nobody knows they’re claiming some a bunch of errors that happen, but I feel like this is me personally, I feel like they did it on purpose to be like, Yo, what’s up now? Like you guys are dying over here. Did you know during that time that Facebook was down and it was Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, they’re all owned by the same company. That 50 over 50 million people join telegram. And that day, in one day, so we remember we were having I don’t know if you were I was having trouble with telegram that day. I was slow I wasn’t getting notifications well then crispo Suma sent me an article he’s like this is probably why telegraph Oh today the influx of people. Yeah, I mean it leveled off but

yeah, I mean there are some countries where WhatsApp is the standard go to App your virtual education oh so kids miss school okay WhatsApp is also often used for work meetings in these countries with limited resources. So when WhatsApp goes down, like their ability to work and to go to school and many other important tasks they didn’t have. So it makes me wonder if Facebook did that intentionally. I think they did if they did, like they’re a bunch of assholes, like people depend on that technology to not just to be entertained like I do, or to communicate and network and everything else. But people use WhatsApp for some very practical things like education and work meetings and productivity and stuff like that. So if it’s true that they just pulled it off it makes me hate Facebook even more well in

my what one side of my head I say no way because they lost so much money by doing that. But on the other side, I can just see Zuckerberg like okay, yeah, you’re Come at me, bro. Yeah, come at me. You’re gonna you’re gonna do a 60 minutes on me. You’re gonna have this whistleblower. Good luck today. Have fun. Flick. Yeah. Although, but if in my head, too. I feel like when people talk about the conspiracy theories around 911 like somebody would a snitch. I feel like that’s the same way at Facebook Live. If he did intentionally shut it’s not as easy as like flipping a switch. But Oh,

sure there is there’s a giant, there’s lips that says Facebook and on off. Yep. Yeah, that’s what I’m going with

anyways, I don’t know. But it was so funny. All the Twitter. People were like, Hi, welcome everyone from Facebook. And just, it was so same with Tick tock, I’m sure Tick Tock exploded with growth on that day, too. Yeah.

It just really was very revealing to me, because you’re right. I check Facebook probably too often than I should.

I will admit I am a I’m a lurker of Facebook. But I rarely comment.

Yeah, I feel like I get I’ll admit it. I’ll be unfiltered. It’s a dopamine hit. Like if I post something and somebody likes it. It makes me feel

good. Yeah, you’ve talked about that. And that’s, I feel like that’s pretty normal.

I don’t necessarily like when I post. sure there’s times where I’m doing it just to get a reaction, of course, yeah. But generally, it’s because I’m trying to share some useful information or post an update about our family, whatever the case may be. But even on those It feels good when it’s engaged. So when Facebook went down, I, I caught myself how many times you went to the property like 15 times during that seven hour span where I open the app? And I’m like, Oh, yeah, nothing down. Oh, yeah, it’s down.

That that really makes you think, like, Oh, my God,

it’s just kind of ingrained in how I operate. When it made me think of, well, what the hell did I do before Facebook, right? And I don’t know if they’re connected, but I certainly had a lot less anxiety before social media 100%

Well, what I’ve, I’ve curated my page a little bit, I hide people all the time later, if it’s causing me issues, if I’m feeling ill, ill will towards them. When I read their stuff, I hide them. I basically look at Uber and Lyft pages people bitching. So I mean, that’s basically what I’m there for. But it also brings up a good point. Have you ever either forgotten or intentionally left your phone? At home and then go somewhere? And then how often you reach your pocket? Because you’re bored? Yeah. Oh, yeah. a psychopath? Because right out there.

Yeah. Like, back when I was doing in person meetings for sales. I would intentionally leave my phone in the car. Good idea. But then I would go to sit down and wait for my meeting. And I’d be in the waiting room. And I’m like, here’s my phone. And I’d have a moment of freakout and then it’s like, oh, yeah, I left it in my car so I could focus on the meeting. That happened a couple of times. Yeah, like, so dependent on the stupid device.

Yeah, it would be interesting that do an experiment. Like leave at home for a day, not for work because if you need it for work, you have to have it but I mean like on a Saturday, just like turn it off and put it in the freezer. I don’t know why, but it’s somewhere give it to your wife so she can hide it so I can’t find it. And this see how you do what you do for your day.

I would love it. I would love to try it. I don’t know if I would love the experience and I’d love to try it.

I would love to try it too.

There is I just read this. I can’t remember the organization but they’re sponsoring a challenge. 25 days of no Facebook now and in order and then there’s a prize for those that complete it. I don’t know when they prove it. Well, they have to every day, write in a special journal. And I’m sure they have ways to gauge whether you’re using it or not. I don’t know. But just the thought was fascinating. Like there’s somebody actually studying that. Yeah, like the impact of going without social media for 25

days. Could you do it? I could.

It would be. I want to say yes, because I can do tough shit, but it’d be really cool. I

mean, I’m just talking Facebook, I’m not deleting all social media, Facebook. Yes, I could do that for 25 days, for

sure. It’d be it’d be a struggle because there are some people that I communicate with solely through Facebook.

Yeah. Or like I use Facebook Messenger. Like today with one of our clients Aaron, that’s all we committed we’ve communicated with but then she joined telegram like two days ago. I’m like, Oh, you shouldn’t have done that here. And now I’m gonna communicate this way because I love telegram. But speaking of that, Mike and I think Mike’s still reading it. It’s called comfort crisis by Michael Easter. Think it’s Michael Easter will share the link and in this podcast, it’s really good at talks about being comfortable and phones are part of the discussion so it’d be good to listen ties into what we’re talking about. So

before we jump into the next one, just to comment about that comfort, saying so Andy and I are requiring our kids to go to youth group and last year we allowed our son to go to youth group at our old church because he just knew a lot of people there whatever. This year, we really felt strongly he needed to be connected at youth group at our current church. And so we told him and but he was not happy he was not happy and on the way there tonight He’s like, well, I just feel so much more comfortable at Berkeley I was like that’s why you’re not going growth happens when you’re uncomfortable. I then silence from him the rest of the way there I’m so

proud of you for doing that because like in one hand you know we all have our opinions on parenting So you talked about letting him be out till 130 I know it’s a special night but I don’t think I would ever do that but in the same breath you doing that with him? We didn’t do that with Avery we let her go to evergreen because she knew that people there now she doesn’t now but that’s incredible that you did that like yeah, you grow in the uncomfortable stuff.

Yeah, that’s what I’m finding in my own life. That’s what obviously my wife she’s amazing. She thrives on the uncomfortable she’s a social worker. So she’s always dealing with definition

of uncomfortable Yeah, so But yeah, that’s it we just made that decision and I’m so glad we did. I’m kind of on pins and needles waiting to hear how awful or

how tonight the first night was oh man What about miracle what she say about it?

She was fine yeah, she went last you too It’s no big

okay so yeah, I think as you build it’s kind of like going to the same school and then all of a sudden Hey, by the way, you’re going to well you experienced that you went to private school and then although some of your some of your friends probably went to public school but I feel like that’s kind of the similar thing where you’re with your friends for like eight nine years and then oh, by the way, you’re you can’t see him anymore but well good, good for you that I’m sure that was tough for you to do, as it were it and for him to accept

right our next hot topic is the shortages that have been very prevalent ever since COVID hit whether it’s the workforce or products leaving the shelf at a crazy rate there’s just a lot of things going on. The first article that I want to mention is about Keynes which if you’re not familiar with Keynes Keynes is a fast food chain that I never heard of think it’s in the Midwest somewhere you know how I know about Keynes the hotter family on Tick tock tick tock

Yeah, I know they are Yeah, yeah, of course you boy Yes. We’re told me Oh no, no there they started on YouTube though. I think maybe maybe different it’s certainly the other family yes for told me all started with an H But anyways, maybe Yeah.

So the hotter family if you’re on tik tok, you probably seen them they have I think three boys and then some bonus kids and it’s incredible, incredible. Couple like, mom used to be a drug addict and she’s now in recovery. Wow. And she’s lost a lot of weight and I’m to take your medicine

as we normally we don’t record this lay. I’m an idiot. Sorry about that. Anyways, so the potter

family on Tick tock, Mom, recovering drug addict, just an incredible woman. She runs this Tick Tock channel, and often they’ll have bags from canes okay. I think they’re actually sponsored by Kane. So I think they’re in like, I don’t know, Iowa, somewhere in the Midwest. So Keynes is a fast food chain. I don’t know much about it, but they have chicken. So there’s that. And the chicken apparently is delicious, according to the hotter family. At any rate, the people that run the corporate office for that restaurant, are being called in to actually staff, the franchises the actual restaurants, because they can’t get enough people into work. So people who, who work for corporate are now doing double time they’re working in the office, and then signing out and going to work in the restaurants just blows my mind that that’s happening. So just seeing stuff like that. And Everywhere you look, you see now hiring signs, and it’s just wild. So I look at that and think this is completely new. One of our friends, Nick, at the campfire last night was calling it the new industrial revolution. No, I’m not sure that totally fits. But I think I understand what he’s getting at. Yeah, and it’s just this idea of when the industrial revolution happened, you know, machines started to take over the manufacturing process and stuff like that. And it was just such a jarring impact on the economy. And I think we’re seeing something similar as far as impact goes, whatever this is, that’s happening post COVID. It’s definitely a revolution because nobody can keep staff, staff starting wages are incredibly high. And people are doing crazy things to keep their restaurants staffed. It’s just wild. What are your thoughts on this new world that we live in?

Well, in regards to the kanes restaurant, I think that’s incredible that they’re doing that I know, the corporate people probably aren’t happy, but like, way to think outside the box. I always love when the boss gets in the trenches. Yeah, you know what I mean? And not that if you’re in corporate, you’re the boss but obviously you’ve worked your way up or you’re educated enough to be up there. But it might it might make their company explode because all of a sudden you got these corporate people that know what they’re dealing with, you know, you get you get I always say this and I don’t think Sam listens to this show. But you know, she’s a bean counter. She’s an accountant, right? You get these bean counters that make all these rules and policies. And you know, they don’t know what it’s like to work a closing shift at Keynes. And yeah, when these assholes are coming in the drive thru and screaming at you to get me a your fries and stuff like that, but in general, I think all of this has started because of the pandemic. But I think most of it, it’s the unemployment. People were getting paid a lot of I mean, people are getting paid $1,000 a week to stay at home because of their pandemic. So, I mean, that’s a lot of money. I mean, yeah, it’s gross, but I mean, not very many, like, minimum wage people were making $1,000 a week. But that has wrapped up though it has but I think this is just the trickle down effect of where people are kind of living on the highlife. I agree. It seems like it should be really wrapping up now and people are going to need money. Because other than that, why is it happening? Do you have a thought on other than people were on unemployment and want to work?

I think that was kind of the catalyst and now there’s because of social media and everything else. I think there’s a movement for higher wages.

Oh, so you think there always has kind of been a little bit of a movement and everyone poo pooed it? Yeah. Me included. I’m like, I still am a little baffled by like I you know, okay. An employee at McDonald’s making $15 an hour like, I mean, if that thing runs like chick fil a, I’m okay with Sure. chick fil A’s got it down. whatever they’re doing. Yeah. Hey, those people. I’ll pay more for my chicken because my goal is to get fresh food in and out. You go to any other fast food place. It doesn’t happen. So that’s a little shocking. The other day I saw a billboard for Kellogg’s $21 an hour for production entry level. Full Benny’s.

Yeah. And I’m like, What? Yeah. And what do you say to the people in those positions for 10 years, who started out at this crazy lower rate? And now they’re bringing in people to do the same job at twice the pay, like, what does that do for that person?

I mean, 10 years is a little long. Well, twice. The pay is a ridiculous amount. You’re right. There’s a hospital system going through that too, because they need nurses. And they’re offering new nurses $10,000 and the original nurses that are there like, hey, um, we’ve been in the trenches for the last two or two years and I’ve been here for 20 years, and I’ve done With all this crap and you’re not going to pay me anymore, right, like, I mean, I don’t think the the current nurses should get 10 grand, but let’s show a little love to the people that you know, and that’s why I say like, there’s no loyalty with companies anymore. They will, they will cut you down. But that’s another topic for another day. But I don’t know. I’m kind of glad that the movements happening because I first of all people can’t live on minimum wage and those jobs are set up for kids. They weren’t set up for 25 year olds to make money so I don’t know. It’s crazy. I know all the McDonald’s a lot of them around here are not open 24 hours. Megan and I came home from Oh, last night from your house. Johnny’s was closed down. Really on on Wilson and 28th right there right off the highway. There 24 hours that BP was open but Johnny was closed. They can’t staff it they got to shut it down. So crazy. I mean, do you feel? I mean, are you bothered by someone making $21 an hour? an entry level job?

selfishly probably a little bit because I didn’t start at $21 and hours $21

an hour I’m just like,

yeah, I mean, my first sales job. I was $11 an hour plus commission but I didn’t sell very much my first year right so I lived on beans that yes, you’re my sales career.

Now. Now things are going up in prices. I mean, that is directly related to the pandemic, you know, food prices and stuff like that. So I get that. I’m not I’m trying not to be the old man like and back in raw dairy. I was cutting parsley in the muck field. Didn’t that come up last night? I was drinking baby. Who said Oh, as Chris cow can Yo, Mike and I were talking about the Mk fields and hudsonville what’s incredible to grow things. He’s like, MK fields like, what is Mach? I’m like, it’s dirt you’ve never heard of. Sorry, the complete side. No, I didn’t know if you were involved in that conversation on that one. But um, yeah, I mean, I again, I’m trying not to feel like an old man. Like you know, I only earned $6 but I don’t know man like,

what my first sales job was less than 10 years ago. Yeah, things don’t change that but

here’s the trickle down effect though. And when you’re paying somebody $20 an hour to put cereal in a box which again, it’s it’s an important job, the prices are gonna go up eventually, all they are unless the you know, the company’s making so much profit, they’re willing to give some of it away for their employees, which they should anyways but

Well, I think too, what’s happening is this model of the sea, oh, retaining so much of the profit for how much money himself or herself like, the discrepancy between a CEO and a typical hourly worker is huge night and day, it’s just huge. And the mentality of the American Dream being become a CEO like that’s people’s dream. I think we need to do away with that system. And you know, I know this probably sounds like a socialist thing to say, but why not? Why does the CEO need to make so much effing money and why does he have to hoard it for himself? And shouldn’t his employees also get some sort of better compensation

in the good companies they do? Here’s my only caveat on that I agree with you CEO but I often look at are you were you the original of that business? Did you start this from the ground up? I feel a little less shitty about that guy hold on the money because you started but if you just got hired in and then you became CEO and you making a half a million dollars I’m like there’s no blood for me there’s no of your blood is not on this business at all You just got hired and then it’s different maybe it shouldn’t be different maybe the guy should that originally started it but I mean like I often think to like that’s why people say well you get paid this much because you didn’t shed your blood your tears and your sweat to make this business you’re only here because this guy did it so they should get more money but within reason but when you look at

a McDonald’s though, like I don’t know we’re getting off a little bit but but with these franchises, like the people that are making those franchises happen, they do have their blood sweat and tears. Yeah, yeah. And what’s super unfortunate in all of this is the is the way fast food employees have been treated since the pandemic started like people take the frustration out of them like it’s their fault.

I have tried it and this is saying something for me because I get fossa easy. I haven’t had to tell my wife like Not that she is mean to people, but I’m like, let’s just try to be kind. I know this is frustrating. Let’s just try to be kind because like, I feel like I’ve been in that role as a restaurant worker, and it’s tough. And it just now with the pandemic, you’re right, like they’re doing the best. They can just be like, yep, is it gonna be this long? No, I’ll wait. It’s totally fine. So people

like that. I really do think they’ve got a lot of skin in the game. Yeah, that’s a fast food. Stan, that’s just one segment. But

as we wrap this up, I always have to say, you know, my bosses don’t listen, maybe they do. I don’t know. They’re incredible. They give so much to us. They share a ton of money that they make, like, I’ve always said, like, I get paid. I’m not bragging, I’m not bragging. This is just a compliment them. I know what the the average pay in the field I’m in. And we’re way above that. So and that’s, it’s not like we’re making more money than then this company be my bosses are like, Hey, we just want to give you more because we value Yeah. So that’s why I come back every year.

No kidding. I can see that. All right. And as we think of COVID, and the impact that this pandemic and the unemployment and the shortages, everything else that we’ve talked about, there’s another aspect of all of this that I feel needs to be brought up. And that would be the way people behave on planes these days. It’s wild. Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that you have to wear a mask, and that’s the federal mandate for air travel. If we did not have that mask mandate, I really do think a lot of these unruly passengers wouldn’t be so unruly.

Yeah, I feel like it’s the airplanes and the buses are federal mandates like nowhere else. It’s really like the fed the Fed say you have like you go in the hospital, it’s their rule. It’s not a federal mandate, but for whatever. I don’t

it’s how closely you are to people, right? Like, the thing with airlines is talking about profits again, they’ve designed those airplanes to fit as many African people as possible in so when you’re in such close quarters, your spit droplets go everywhere. Oh, yeah. Like you just need to wear a damn mask. Oh, because that’s how the virus spreads so and bosses, it’s the same thing to a lesser degree. Typically on a full bus you’re shoulder to shoulder with while I

bring up the buses because I see out in the bus signs it says mask required federal mandate. So I don’t know why the buses the feds are able to do that for the buses. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a government build or government entity. Maybe I’m not able to do that. But the planes aren’t that but that’s the FAA is in charge of that, which is a government entity? I don’t know. But yeah, I don’t know why. I mean, maybe people are just not used to wearing masks anymore. And so when they’re forced to I’m like, I wore one that I didn’t wear one in Nashville, I warm when on the plane, like I was supposed to, it wasn’t a big deal. Like, it’s not like you’re there for like three days. It’s like a couple hour flight and you’re in and out. It’s no big deal. Yeah, but you think that’s why people are freaking out more, it’s just or they’re just fed up with it. And this is the tipping point.

I think that’s probably it, too. And also, I think it has to do with the business model of the airlines again, because again, it’s all about profit getting the most passengers as possible on those planes. And we’ve all seen and heard about the cattle cars of Allegiant and Spirit Airlines and all the other cheap ones, like, they just pack those planes so full. And so when you’ve got so many people around you, that’s going to be a tipping point. For some people, they just can’t handle that pressure of being around so many people.

They said 72% of issues in the past week or over federal transportation mask mandate. So that’s, that’s interesting. The FAA adopted a zero tolerance policy for unruly, sometimes violent passengers, which they should. Yeah. Yeah, I just, I don’t understand it. Why? So it’s funny, though, if they’re so concerned about people, then why are they filling those planes again, so for a while there, again, probably profits. But it’s like this weird thing like, Hey, you gotta wear a mask, but we’re gonna make sure we fill every single seat in here. Yeah, so you’re like, Huh, I mean, I think you should still wear a mask if even if it was every other seat. You’re in tight court. It

is for sure. Yeah. And the tracking of these unruly passengers is new. Well, there really aren’t many records available. It was started July 20. Oh, really? That’s when they started releasing the data. Now maybe they did collect it, but they didn’t really show okay. I don’t know. But there were 128 new incidents reported by flight crews bringing this year’s total to 4626 incidents. That’s insane. So the previous week, 128 of those happened in one week. unruly passengers. It’s just wild. So the typical fine for unruly behavior 45 grand, and they have more than a million dollars in fines that have been proposed.

Yeah. Paid. Yeah. Good luck collecting on.

But until they pay

it, they can’t fly that airline? Sure. I just think you, I think you have a tiered policy about no fly. So first incident, it’s a year, second one, three years. And you know what I mean, you know what I mean? And it I think, if I don’t think the fines are strict enough for people to like, freak out, because if you are a business man, let’s say, hopefully, you wouldn’t do that. But you’d be like, shit, if I get popped for this, like, I can’t fly for work, I’m gonna get fired. Right? You know what I mean? So maybe it’s more of those kind of punishments. Like you can’t use it the service for six months, or whatever it is.

And one of the issues they’re having now is, say, Alaska Airlines puts you on the do not fly list. Well, you can still go to southwest and fly that way. Right? Oh, yeah. There’s

not a that’s not like that for like terror. No. Oh, gosh, no. Also they have the stuff in place to do that. Why don’t they just also, I see what you’re saying. So it’s per brand like so. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they need to put them on all of them then. Although the, although the other companies probably like well, he was a D bag to you. He might be fine for us. We want his business.

We’ll put them on Spirit Airlines and put them in the cattle cow. Like what is the cattle cattle cars?

What are cattle cars? Like? Just cramming people in? Yeah,

okay. Let me Google at the origin. I know what

a cattle car is because they do cram as much in there. So I figured that’s what you’re saying. But then I thought maybe there was this specific area on the airplane?

Oh, no. So it goes back to the railroad days where they would fit as many cattle on a train car as possible. And that’s when a lot of the PETA stuff started happening because it’s unfair treatment to cows to be packed in so tightly. So anyway, when I say cattle car, that’s what I’m referring to. Okay, we’re packing people in airplanes like they did cattle on those cars. Yeah, just every square inch taken up. So and again, I think it’s a business thing. Like, Southwest wants your money. So even if you’re not allowed to fly on a lab, because

you had a bad day or whatever we want

to take you I mean, yeah, wild,

I don’t know. I feel like they should be like, you get one you get one second chance of happens again, you’re never flying again. You’re taking a car. The last thing we want to talk about and then we’ll wrap is the Brian laundry and Gabby petitto case, and it’s probably not what you think of or probably it is you probably know our show and know what it is. It’s more about how why these white beautiful women get these huge stories around them. And everyone’s freaking out about it. It’s valid, don’t get me wrong, for sure. But it’s about the 10s of 1000s of black women that vanish every year. And we don’t hear nothing

about it. And not just black women but indigenous people as well. Yeah, it’s happening quite a bit to Native Americans.

So my only caveat with that is I think the I’m going to sound super bigoted or racist because I don’t know the term Bring it on. But like the reservations are kind of their own country. And they do block a lot of American police and FBI and stuff like that. So I’m not saying it shouldn’t be looked at but I’m just saying it’s, um, it’s a different country. It is. So they I mean, they have their own police. They have their own government, like the whole nine yards. Yeah, they’re living in America, which I’m totally down with. I’m like, I’m totally fine with that. I’m not against it. But just a caveat that they might be blue balling the American law enforcement session to help but

yeah, but as far as the social media aspect, yeah. Like, why don’t their stories spread like wildfire like the Gabrielle story, and again, I agree with you. I think these kinds of stories of missing people need that attention. But why is it that people of color are not included in the media stories? it it’s really disturbing to?

Well, I think about Yeah, what I think it boils down to is the news want hits and for whatever reason, white girls getting murdered or taken, get the hits. And I don’t know why what the difference between a black woman or a white woman getting, it’s terrible all the way around. It’s just, yeah, I don’t know what else to do. We’ll put a link in about this site that talks about, she spends on all her time on this website getting information about people of color, mostly black. gone missing. And I think it’s just click Beatty, I think it’s just the The news is I mean, why do you think you see like the the police brutality, you know what I mean? Like it gets clicks, you know what I mean? You never see the nice stuff that the cops are doing. It’s just if it’s what do they say if it bleeds it leads or something like that. But why isn’t it leading with the black woman? Or, you know, it just it’s just strange. I don’t know, I’m struggling here, save me, Ben.

I just think that we were talking about the Haitians in the very beginning of our show, and how they are disproportionately rejected when they seek immigration, for whatever reason, in our mindset, as Americans somewhere deeply rooted in our collective unconscious, is this idea that somehow people of color are of less value. And so if something is of less value, it just doesn’t get the media attention. And I think that’s super unfortunate.

Why do you think we have that in America? Do you think? Like, why do we have the racism? Why do we have? I mean, I get why it came from, like, there was slavery. So everyone, I see I kind of get where it comes from. But I mean, I just don’t look at it that way. But I’ll be honest, it sometimes I do find myself slipping a little bit. And it’s just like, why, like, why would I think that way, for whatever reason, and we’re, you know, it just seems weird. It does. And and I don’t know if that will eventually stop as generations move on. Because he got her met slavery, segregation. That was like 60 years ago.

It’s not it. I mean, yeah, that’s my parents lifetime. Yeah. And the 50s.

There were segregation going on. So it’s not like it’s that far away. But maybe it will go away? I don’t know. I think it’s, it just really bothers me.

Yeah, I think, well, if you look at it from the generational perspective, like there’s things that were true about my dad’s day, yeah. And issues that he fought that we’re still fighting, so I don’t think it just goes away. I think it’s an ongoing, it’s a process.

My grandmother died, I think in 2002 or three. She used Negro. Like, no problem. I was like, Grandma, you can’t say that, like, you know what, I mean, those Negroes over there or whatever. And so it’s it’s generational. Like, you know, my parents never said that. And you don’t ever say that. Yeah, you know what I mean, but it just I think you’re right. I think over time, I don’t think I’m right. I said that. Over time it, it will go away. But the stats, there’s some stats here, and it says white girls and women stories that were shared is almost 60% in black girls and women is about 35%. So it’s about half.

But yeah, so of the people that went missing is what it’s saying that yes, us girls. The white girls got all this. Yeah, white

girls and women and 30% more stories. Yeah. And I don’t understand why, but I don’t know.

I think I have hope for the future.

I do, too. I actually do,

especially with our kids as they take the like, they’re just some incredible kids in this world. Yeah. Mine included. You know, I think both of my kids, they don’t look at people in the same way that I look at people and make snap judgments. Yeah, on appearance. They don’t do that.

Yeah, I think I mean, in the elephant in the room. Yes. People of color are different than us. You’re going to look at it and be different. I’m not going to be one of those people that say well, I don’t see color bullshit. Everybody sees color color. Like Come on. Don’t be a dumb ass like that. Your whole life is filled with different colors, right? It’s fine. But I i hope i think the young I think our generation is doing okay, ish. I think our kids are doing a little bit better, but I think it will be their kids. Yeah, cuz I know a lot of people my age that I graduated with, that are probably racist. Yeah. Probably. They were raised that way. Right? That’s just I guess one thing I can say. My My parents never talked about that. We didn’t talk about it. But we also weren’t the flip side, right as far as I remember. But But yeah, as much as I shit on young people in regards to race or anything mental health like they are our future. It sounds stupid, but like they’re these young 25 year olds Yeah, they’re stupid as hell with life stuff, but at least they’re not bigoted at least they’re like, yeah, my friends gay or bisexual what’s the big freakin deal? Yeah, they’re transgender. What’s the big deal? Yeah, like it’s not a big deal but why us old folks think it’s a big deal.

I don’t know. Yeah,

I try to be sensitive to all this stuff, but I’ll be honest sometimes it’s like, it’s like I don’t understand it. I just wish and I know you’re the same way especially in the LGBTQ stuff. It’s just like we’re trying to get somebody on by the way if you want to be on the show and you are on that sounded bad you are one of those people. If you if you fall into that category, we would love to have like an unfiltered conversation where you’re be comfortable with some pretty awkward questions that might come out of us our mouths just because it’s hard for us to to connect with that sometimes and I want to connect more. So anyway, that was a digression.

That’s all right. Well, thank you for listening to this bouncing around talking about different topics. Usually we have kind of a set focus for the show today we just said you know what let’s talk about things that are happening in our world just feels good to to bring them up yeah, it’s

worked through them I totally agree so that’s what a lot of what Facebook can be is like a sounding board I don’t feel comfortable doing that because of the hate but I like having I like talking out loud about stuff I’ve been thinking about. So yeah, I appreciate you guys listening if you hate it, let us know if you have some feedback on some stuff and maybe that we missed and we’re like oh my gosh yes, they

had the conversation send us an email Hello at threads podcast calm or find us on our social media channels and let us know if we’ve missed anything or you know, we’d love to hear from

you. Alright, so coming up the rest of the month that we have David tianma he is going to interview Ben and I and I’m really nervous about that are we giving him like any guidance at all like because I don’t want to be like Tell me about the Divinity like if he asked me that because I won’t I’d be like bro hit stop on the board here because I don’t know what the hell that is.

He has a list of questions already it’s like it’s a published list it’s not something he made but some on Google essentially well

here’s here’s my only Why should we do this real quick here’s my only worry about it is like stuff we’ve answered before That’s why I kind of it could be a show or it could be great yeah I’m nervous as hell not gonna lie and then the 24th we are recording this uncomfortable conversation do social polls first I have noted that means I guess we’ll find out every well to talk about that after we’re done. And then Friday October 29 the recording with Mike and I think that’s going to be just a hit record and we’re just going to shoot the shit we’re gonna do icebreaker and see where it goes

Are you actually okay with that? I know

I’m not but I think it’d be good for me I need to grow to Yeah,

I know when you’re uncomfortable that’s

right we like you talked about with Stefan So guys, thank you guys so much for listening to threads, podcasts life unfiltered air. Remember Keep the Faith do your work and always, always live life unfiltered by

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