Senator Mark Warner is one of my state’s Senators. Know him through business and have met him several times through mutual acquaintances.
He is a businessman…And he doesn’t make idle threats.
Tag Archives: senator
Sen. Cory Booker Under Protective Detail After Assasination Threat
White wingers…Again.
Corey Booker (l) and Va Senator Doug Jones
Sen. Cory Booker Gets Extra Security Following Death Threat
Police have beefed up security at the senator’s residence in Newark, New Jersey.
Police in Newark, New Jersey, were providing increased protection to Sen. Cory Booker(D-N.J.) after the lawmaker and his family received a death threat.
Newark police were notified by U.S. Capitol Police “regarding a threat on the life” of Booker and his family members, the city’s mayor, Ras Baraka, said on Saturday in a statement. “As a result, members of the Police Division’s Executive Protection Unit have been assigned to provide security at the Senator’s residence in Newark,” the mayor said, according to ABC News.
Baraka did not elaborate on the threat.
Booker was recently in Alabama for the special Senate election that pitted Republican Roy Moore against Democrat Doug Jones. Booker, who’d canvassed for Jones, celebrated the Democrat’s surprising victory last week.
Booker, one of President Donald Trump’s most vociferous critics in Congress, has in recent days blasted the Federal Communications Commission decision to repeal net neutrality, slammed what he called Trump’s “all-out assault on the LGBTQ community,” and called for the president to resign over accusations of sexual harassment.
Another Republican Accused of Doing the Trump
Damn! When it rains it pours Republican sexual predators…The Party of “Gram ’em by their private parts” seems to be real busy at that slogan.
Sending picture of his private parts online…Isn’t that an Anthony Weiner?
Minnesota Republican accused of trapping lobbyist in office and demanding sex
A Minnesota Republican lawmaker is under fire for sending abusive texts to a female colleague and reportedly sexually assaulting a female lobbyist in his office while insisting she help him with his “raging b*ner.”
According to the City Paper, state Rep. Tony Cornish under attack after he was accused of sending unwanted sexual comments to Rep. Erin Maye Quade (DFL), who provided text messages to a local paper.
Late Thursday night, Cornish had his chairmanship of the House Public Safety Committee suspended by House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R) while the allegations are being investigated.
More damning, however, are charges from a female lobbyist, who wished to remain anonymous, who claimed Cornish stalked her and solicited her for sex for over a year, once physically grabbing her in his office while trying to kiss her.
According to the woman, Cornish once blocked her from leaving his office, repeatedly telling her, “I have a raging boner. You can’t leave.”
Confronted with the accusations, Cornish denied the assaults, but did admit to inappropriately texting women, explaining: “I’m an adult. I’m not a saint.”
The accusations against Cornish come at a time when DFL Sen. Dan Schoen is facing demands from his own party’s leaders to resign after he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
The accusations against Schoen include physically grabbing women as well as sending pictures of his genitalia via Snapchat.
Sen Tim Scott to Kelly – “No Compromise to Make on Civil War”
Senator Tim Scott isn’t having Gen Kelly’s excuses and historical revisionism.
Sen. Tim Scott Responds To John Kelly: ‘No Compromise To Make’ On Civil War
The White House chief of staff said the war was caused by the inability to compromise.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) seemingly chided White House chief of staff John Kelly on Tuesday after the former Marine Corps general claimed that the Civil War was caused by the inability to compromise.
“We need to stop relitigating and referencing the Civil War as if there was some moral conundrum,” Scott, the sole black Senate Republican, said in a statement. “There was no compromise to make – only a choice between continuing slavery and ending it. We need to move forward together, instead of letting the divisions of the past continue to force us apart.”
Kelly on Monday said a “lack of ability to compromise led to the Civil War” and called the removal of Confederate monuments a “dangerous” scrubbing of history. The senior Donald Trump aide made the comments during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, who asked his thoughts about the removal of two plaques honoring President George Washington and Gen. Robert E. Lee at a church in Alexandria, Virginia.
“I would tell you that Robert E. Lee was an honorable man,” Kelly said during the interview.
“He was a man that gave up his country to fight for his state, which, 150 years ago, was more important than country,” he added. “It was always loyalty to state first back in those days. Now it’s different today. But the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War. And men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had to make their stand.”
A number of U.S. historians have criticized Kelly’s comments about the Civil War, calling them “strange,” “sad,” and “wrong.” Stephanie McCurry, a history professor at Columbia University, told The Washington Post that Kelly’s comments echoed talking points of a “pro-Confederate view of the Civil War.”
Republican Senator Jeff Flake Resigns – Blasts Chumph and Party
Wow! Flake unloads both barrels at Republicans and the Goon in Chief…
Yet another Republican Senator can’t take the hypocrisy anymore.
Republican Senator Puts Hold on Water Bill Designed to Combat Lead in Drinking Water
It only impacts black folks…Right.
The bill is designed around helping cities and towns with lead contamination…Not just Flint.
The portrait of yet another racist Republican asshat
Senator puts hold on lead bill, says Flint doesn’t need fed aid
A U.S. senator from Utah who put a hold on a bill to provide federal aid to Flint, Michigan, amid its water crisis said Friday he did so because the federal money is unneeded.
“The state of Michigan has an enormous budget surplus this year and a large rainy-day fund, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars,” Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, said in a statement Friday.
“Gov. [Rick] Snyder has requested $200 million of that from the state legislature for Flint this year. Relief and repair efforts are already in the works,” Lee said. “The people and policymakers of Michigan right now have all the government resources they need to fix the problem.”
The residents of the city of nearly 100,000 were exposed to lead poisoning when the city switched water sources in a bid to save money. Lead poisoning can destroy brain tissue and cause irreversible developmental problems in children.The $220 million bill would provide funds to help Flint and cities like it fix and replace lead pipes, as well as prevent and address lead poisoning.
Lee’s “hold” on the bill only stops the speedy consideration of a bill, and can be bypassed procedurally.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., a key sponsor of the bill, said she was surprised and disappointed that Lee would hold up a bipartisan measure that would “help communities across the country, including in his home state of Utah.” She said if Lee is opposed, he should vote against the bill rather than try and hold it up
Lee accused lawmakers of “political grandstanding” and of using the water crisis in Flint to send federal dollars to their home states.As introduced, the legislation would provide $100 million in “drinking water state revolving funds” available to any state with a drinking water emergency; provide $70 million to back water infrastructure loans; and provide $50 million to prevent and address lead poisoning.
Birthers Now Go After Ted Cruz!
Getting crazy out there. Seems that the same scumbags who challenged President Obama’s have a new target – Sen. Ted Cruz who was born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban citizen father. Even worse, Cruz failed to renounce his Canadian citizenship until just before he announced his run in the Republican Primary. My problem is the fact of the dual citizenship – not where he was born.
Insofar as the State Department –
The “Foreign Preference” criterion (Guideline C) of the December 2005 “Adjudicative Guidelines for Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified Information” makes the “exercise of any right, privilege or obligation of foreign citizenship after becoming a U.S. citizen” a potentially disqualifying condition for a security clearance. Guideline C also states:
And the Department of Defense –
The security concerns underlying this guideline are that the possession and use of a foreign passport in preference to a U.S. passport raises doubt as to whether the person’s allegiance to the United States is paramount and it could also facilitate foreign travel unverifiable by the United States. Therefore consistent application of the guideline requires that any [DoD] clearance be denied or revoked unless the applicant surrenders the foreign passport or obtains official approval for its use from the appropriate agency of the United States Government.
In govermentese that means you cannot get a security clearance in the DOD (Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard) with a dual citizenship. You must renounce your other allegiance.
Ted Cruz should have been disqualified from being a Senator. Being able to be President is absurd, regardless of the birthright claims – because at no point did he renounce his foreign citizenship…
Until it became necessary for his campaign.
Obama Birthers Now Want Ted Cruz’s Head
In 2008, they went after Barack Obama. In 2016, they’re going after Ted Cruz.
The originators of the so-called birther movement are leading a charge this campaign cycle with the same accusations they had two campaign cycles ago.
Eight years ago, the loosely-organized group came together other-izing the man who would become the first black president. Now, they’re attempting to do so with the potential first Latino one. And it’s not just isolated fringe bloggers who have taken up the mantle. WorldNetDaily, a site that has touted both Donald Trump and Cruz and been essential reading for their fans, is supporting the cause as well.
The senator from Texas was born in Calgary, Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father. Cruz released his birth certificate in 2013 and renounced his Canadian citizenship a year later in advance of his presidential campaign, in an attempt to put the issue to bed before it reached national headlines in this campaign cycle.
And that might have resolved it, if Donald Trump had not questioned his legitimacy as a candidate.
“How do you run against the Democrat, whoever it may be, and you have this hanging over your head if they bring a lawsuit?” Trump said in an interview on CNN this week. And just like that, with one question, the real estate mogul effectively brought this issue from the far-reaches of conspiracy internet sites to the forefront of American dialogue.
Trump later suggested that Cruz ask a judge for a “declaratory judgment” to definitively prove the status of his citizenship.
This, of course, would likely create a spectacle that could prove politically advantageous to Trump, who is currently losing to Cruz in Iowa, the first primary state.
“I’m doing this for the good of Ted… I like him. He likes me,” Trump asserted.
While this reads as a witch hunt to most eyes—akin to Trump’s previous efforts to get Obama’s birth certificate released—many of the original founders of the 2008 movement seem to agree with the leading Republican candidate. Unlike Obama, they like Cruz and they want him to clear the air on this birth issue before it’s too late.
“I think it does disqualify him,” said Teo Bear (an online pseudonym), who warned about the issue of Ted Cruz’s birth on his site Birthers.org in 2014. “Let me ask you a question, if you were dating a girl and you come to realize that she wanted to get serious and wanted to have children and you didn’t want puppies, don’t you think you should tell her ‘I don’t want puppies?’”…More…
Standing Tall – Texas Senator Wendy Davis
Another Progressive standing up for her beliefs -Texas Democrat Senator Wendy Davis staged an 11 hour filibuster last night bringing the Rethugly Senate to it’s knees in trying to pass the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation in the country…
So…When we’ve got folks with this kind of grit willing to stand up against Rethugly evil…
WTF can’t President Obama and Senator Harry Reid kick some Rethugly ass?
They can start by filling every single Federal Court Judicial vacancy, and dropping the nuclear option on Rethugly intransigence tying up the judicial appointments.
Harry Reid – Yellowback Donkey Award of the Year
Once again the Democrats fold and run…
Assault weapons ban dropped from gun bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid on Tuesday declared politically dead the effort to ban military-style assault weapons, a setback for President Obama and gun-control advocates who are pushing the Senate to move quickly on bills to limit gun violence.
Reid (D-Nev.) is preparing to move ahead with debate on a series of gun-control proposals when the Senate returns from a two-week Easter recess in early April. Although he has vowed to hold votes on measures introduced after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., in December, Reid told reporters Tuesday that the proposed assault-weapons ban isn’t holding up against Senate rules that require at least 60 votes to end debate and move to final passage.
The proposed ban, “using the most optimistic numbers, has less than 40 votes. That’s not 60,” Reid said.
Still up for consideration are three other bills approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee: bipartisan legislation to make gun trafficking a federal crime, a bipartisan measure to expand a Justice Department grant program that provides funding for school security, and a Democratic proposal to expand the nation’s gun background check program.
Step right on up, Harry – and get your “Yellowback Donkey Award” for legislative cowardice.
They Were Republicans
Had an interesting conversation a few months ago with a couple of folks who had worked for several previous administrations. In LA people can talk about the film industry. In Vegas, it’s the Casinos. In Washington, there are a lot of folks who stay around after serving positions in the Government – so depending on whether you are in a room with DoD and Military people – or a group of Beltway Bandits and Civilian Agency people… It seems that everyone has some experience in – or with one or more parts of the Federal Government.
There is an “inside the Beltway” – it is just not the “groupthink” campaigning politicians try and stereotype it as.
So…the discussion…
What happened to the Republicans? Where did they go?
Former Senator Chuck Hagel (R) wonders the same thing –
Former GOP Senator Chuck Hagel: Republican Party Has ‘An Astounding Lack Of Responsible Leadership’
Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) can’t muster any praise for his Republican colleagues’ behavior in Congress over the past few months. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hagel blasted GOP leadership for their “irresponsible actions” during the debt ceiling debacle, noting that “I think about some of the presidents we’ve had on my side of the aisle — Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., go right through them, Eisenhower — they would be stunned.”
“Disgusted” with the debt ceiling negotiations, Hagel called it “an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican party, and I say that as a Republican.” “Does anyone not believe what’s happened here the last couple weeks in the market was not a complete, direct result of the lack of confidence that came out of that folly, that embarrassment?” he asked. Watch it:
Asked about Tea Party influence, Hagel said the Republican party is too captive to a movement that is “very ideological” and “very narrow.” “I’ve never seen so much intolerance as I’ve seen today,” he said. Later surveying the GOP 2012 field, Hagel said the party may need to rebuild, agreeing that Republicans are now “too far to the right.”
Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens Killed in Plane Crash
Former Alaska US Senator Ted Stevens was killed in a plane crash last night. Stevens was the longest serving member of elected Alaska Congressmen and Senators to serve in Washington, prior to being voted out after being convicted on charges of corruption. Stevens survived a crash in 1978 which killed his wife, Ann. Condolences to Mr. Steven s family, and the people of Alaska he served for so many years.
Former Senator Ted Stevens Is in a Plane Crash in Alaska
Former US Senator (Alaska) Ted Stevens
Rescue crews from the Alaska Air National Guard and theUnited States Coast Guard arrived on the scene more than 10 hours after the crash, hampered by rain and fog in an area of mountains and lakes north of Bristol Bay.
The European aerospace firm EADS said that the chief executive of its North American operations, Sean O’Keefe, 54, a former NASA administrator, was also on board.
UPDATE – Keith Cowing NASAWatch.com: 2:22 PM EDT: According to a family source both Sean O’Keefe and his son Kevin than survived the plane crash but they are both rather banged up.
The family of Mr. Stevens issued a statement on Tuesday morning that expressed concern but said nothing about the former senator’s fate:
“The Ted Stevens family offers their prayers for all those on board and for their families. We thank the brave men and women who are working to reach the site. We continue to work with the Alaska National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alaska State Troopers. We thank everyone for their support and prayers.” The crash occurred about 320 miles southwest of Anchorage before 8 p.m. Alaska Daylight time, the National Transportation Safety Boardsaid. Another plane spotted the downed aircraft around 7 p.m. and notified authorities, the National Guard said.
Mr. Stevens, 86, was among the group flying to a lodge near Lake Aleknagik, where he often spent summers fishing. It was unclear why he and the other passengers were headed there.
The N.T.S.B. said that the crash was about 10 miles northwest of Lake Aleknagik, and the aircraft was a DeHavilland DHC-3T. The single-engine, high-wing airplane plane is owned by GCI, the Alaskan telecommunications provider, as is the lodge.
The plane went undetected by radar, because in the area where it went down, about 20 miles north of Dillingham, there is no radar coverage below about 4,000 feet, according to one air traffic control expert familiar with the area. The expert asked not to be identified because the N.T.S.B. is in charge of releasing information. The flight was under visual flight rules, two people familiar with the area said, meaning that it was not being directed by air traffic controllers. The N.T.S.B. said it was sending a team of investigators to the crash site, even though it said it did not know the identity of those on board. The agency does not ordinarily send a board member from Washington to the crashes of private or corporate planes. Mr. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican senator until he lost his bid for a seventh term in 2008 after he was found guilty of corruption charges; the case was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct.
His stature in Alaska seemed to have remained virtually intact despite the scandal, and recently he had been campaigning with the state’s Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski. Sen. Murkowski issued a statement asking Alaskans to pray for those aboard the aircraft.
Mr. Stevens survived another plane crash on Dec. 4, 1978, that killed five of seven people on board, including his first wife, Ann. He was traveling on a Lear jet that crashed when landing at Anchorage International Airport, which was renamed Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in honor of the senator in 2000.
Before that 1978 crash, Mr. Stevens reportedly spoke of a premonition that he would die in a plane crash, a fate that is not unknown to many in Alaska who travel the vast state in small planes.
Senator James Webb of Virginia, Loses His Seat
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, just destroyed his electoral chances with a ill conceived, and patently erroneous screed on “Diversity” in (of all stupid places), the Wall Street Journal.
Policy makers ignored such disparities within America’s white cultures when, in advancing minority diversity programs, they treated whites as a fungible monolith. Also lost on these policy makers were the differences in economic and educational attainment among nonwhite cultures. Thus nonwhite groups received special consideration in a wide variety of areas including business startups, academic admissions, job promotions and lucrative government contracts.
Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.
Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.
Senator Webb, this constituent is pissed at you. I am pissed at you because of your ignorance. Now, I know you are a former Republican, but that really is no excuse. You have been a Democrat now for a while. What that means is you now, unlike when you were a Republican have access to folks within your own party who fought for Civil Rights in this country. You have access to people who clearly understand the issues, are fully cognizant of the history (because they lived it), and who, like Mrs Sherrod don’t have any crosses to burn about hating white folks.
Further, as a Senator, you have access to many of the countries best legal and academic minds, who can clearly enunciate the history, the legal and Constitutional context, and operation of the various Affirmative Action and Diversity programs in the United States. So why don’t you go down down the hall and talk to one of those legal experts and learn –
Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the US Government cannot pass a law, legislation, or federal regulation which discriminates based on race.
Now, read that a couple of times and let it sink in.
What that means is that ANY Federal Legislation, FAR, or regulation had to apply equally to every single group in America… including the current conservative pity candidate – white folks.
First a few facts to allieviate you ignorance –
Prior to Adorand v Pena, the Supreme Court decision which effectively ended Affirmative Action in this country as a remedy for past and existing discrimination (Existing discrimination, Mr. Webb? Virginia has lots of farms, Mr. Webb, at one time many owned by black farmers. Read this on how racism, and discrimination against minorities still is a serious issue at the USDA.)…
- In 1993 there were over 400 Disadvantaged Small Businesses owned by white males – many from exactly the same region you are crying about.
- Over 90% of the beneficiaries of Affirmative Action in contracting by the Federal Government were white.
Post 1993 and conservative uproar and pushback against black folks starting businesses, the Government contracting system shifted to “Hub Zones”, ergo – companies set up and operated in economically disadvantaged areas were given “Small Disadvantaged Business” status, which allowed them to bid on small (<$200k) contracts without competition, and small competitive contracts (<$12 m) against other similarly situated companies. Hub Zones are not assigned by race – they are assigned by the income and poverty level in any particular area – meaning there are lots of Hub Zones in poor white areas, and hundreds, if not thousands of white owned companies taking advantage of the Federal Government’s “Diversity Contracting Program” as “Disadvantaged Small Businesses”.
But while you are fawning all over the racist conservative right – you might just want to read about the disparate economic impact of Minority Owned Firms, which just might be relevant because of how bad your conservative friends have screwed the American economy and the country. And what the Bushit did to Small Business –
- Cutting the Small Business Administration’s budget by nearly half. The SBA is the financial guarantor of only resort for many Minority owned businesses because of active redlining by commercial and merchant banks.
- Cutting financings of Minority and women owned businesses from 26% of total loans in 1998 to under 8% in 2007.
- Diverting over $800 billion in Minority and women Owned business contracts to the Big 6 Government contractors, often under false pretenses.
For reasons I can’t get a grasp on, you want to hold onto the racist meme that progress for black folks means negative progress for white folks…
And that is just plain unacceptable – because it is patently false.
Your version of a “level playing field” is the fact that black folks start 30% of the new incorporations in the United States…
But receive less that .03% of the Venture Financing as reported by Forbes Magazine.
That version of “level playing field” pretends that 10 black kids getting into a graduate program at a state university due to AA, is far more critical a national issue – than the systematic perversion of Justice in many states where blacks are systematically excluded from Jury Pools.
In our own state – you ex-political mate Jim McDonnell has brought back a “literacy test” for ex-felons to gain back their voting rights exactly like the Old Jim Crow system of Poll Taxes and Literacy tests. Now, if a disproportionate percentage of those felons is black (see jury pools) – what exactly does that mean Mr. Webb?
Think you should take advantage of that “learning experience” Mr Webb.
BTW – I put this post under my category – “The New Jim Crow” – perhaps you should read it.
Sen. David “Diaperman” Vitter Goes Birther
Facing the worst ecological and economic crisis of any state since Oklahoma and the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression…
Louisiana Senator, David “Diaper-man” Vitter signals his support for the “birthers”.
Yeah – if I was him, I’d want to talk about anything except my record!
Robert Byrd, Longest Serving Member of Congress
Briefly met Robert Byrd what seems like 1 million years ago when I was a technician servicing computer equipment on the Hill in my first job in the computer industry. Was working on some equipment in his office when he walked in, and unlike a lot of pols, said hello. This was the 70’s, and the country was still in a turmoil, told him my Dad was from West Virginia coal mining country, and remember asking him if he was related to the Virginia Byrds, a political dynasty which held sway in Virginia for near 60 years. He said something to the extent of “no, they don’t claim us – we’re the poor hillbilly coal miner Byrds”.
Robert Byrd, longest-serving member of Congress, dead at 92
West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, the self-educated son of a coal miner who became the longest-serving member of Congress, died early Monday at age 92, the senator’s office said.
Byrd, a nine-term Democrat, was known as a master of the chamber’s often-arcane rules and as the self-proclaimed “champion of the Constitution,” a jealous guardian of congressional power.
His speeches were laced with references to poetry and the Greek and Roman classics, often punctuated by the brandishing of his pocket copy of the national charter.
He was also known as the “King of Pork,” using top positions on the Senate Appropriations Committee to steer federal spending to his home state — one of the nation’s poorest.
Byrd relished the title.
“Pork, to the critic, is service to the people who enjoy some of the good things in life, and I’ve been happy to bring to West Virginia the projects to which they refer. I have no apology for it,” he said.
He was an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, calling his 2002 vote against a “blind and improvident” authorization of military action the proudest moment of his career…
Robert Carlyle Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. on November 20, 1917, in the North Carolina town of North Wilkesboro. His mother died when he was a year old, and he was adopted and renamed by his aunt and uncle, Titus and Vlurma Byrd.
He started his political career by running for the state House of Delegates in 1946, while working as a butcher and welder. He won a seat in the House of Representatives six years later, was elected to his first Senate term in 1958 and won his ninth in 2006, three weeks shy of his 89th birthday.
“If it’s the Lord’s will, the people will send me there. Why? This Constitution needs a champion,” he said before the 2006 vote.
As the senior senator of the majority party, Byrd served as the Senate’s president pro tempore — third in line of presidential succession, behind the vice president and speaker of the House.
While he set two endurance records in Congress, he was only proud of one in the end. The other was for his 1964 filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, when he spoke for 14 hours and 13 minutes in an effort to derail the law.
He opposed civil rights when he first ran for office, a stance he came to regret later in life. He blamed “that Southern atmosphere in which I grew up, with all of its prejudices and its feelings,” for his opposition to equal rights, which included joining the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s.
He called the move “the greatest mistake of my life,” an “albatross” that would always shadow his career.
“It’s a lesson to the young people of today, that once a major mistake has been made in one’s life,” he said, “it will always be there, and it will be in my obituary.”
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