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GCA Forums News for Thursday June 19, 2025
GCA Forums News: Thursday, June 19, 2025
Each Thursday, the GCA Forums pull together the stories that matter. What follows is a quick, no-frills survey of where the housing market sits, what the economy is up to, and how the political winds are blowing right now, on June 19, 2025.
Housing and Mortgage News: Federal Reserve Holds Course, Rates Sit Tight
- Jerome Powell and the remaining Federal Reserve board huddled on June 18 and decided to keep the federal funds rate at 4.25%-4.5%.
- That means four meetings in a row with no change, which is a sign they want to play it safe.
- Most Wall Street watchers had been betting on two quarter-point cuts by Christmas, but the chairman hinted that talk of tariffs, especially anything new from the President, cast a long shadow over those plans.
- Powell pointed out that inflation dropped from 3% in January to 2.4% in May, still above the 2% bullseye the central bank likes.
- Jobs keep coming at a respectable clip.
- The unemployment rate is 4.2%, and May added 139,000 new positions.
- Because the tariff dust-up could rekindle price pressures, odds are the Fed will wait until at least September, maybe December, before loosening the screws.
- Mortgage rates have been around 6.7% to 7% for a while.
- Bankrate pegs the average 30-year fixed at 6.9% in late April 2025, and some insiders think it won’t dip below 6.5% until at least 2026.
- That stubborn ceiling comes from shifting bond yields, especially the important 10-year Treasury, even if the Federal Reserve finally eases up on its hikes.
- All this puts pressure on monthly mortgage payments, which still feel steep next to a median home price that climbed to $416,900 early this year, double the $208,400 recorded in 2009.
- On the national stage, the housing scene looks like a slow-motion tug-of-war.
- By April 2025, total listings will hit levels we haven’t seen since early 2020, especially in Southern cities such as Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta.
- Yet buyers are sitting on their hands; sky-high rates and a jittery economy have chilled the market, so even price cuts in places like Austin aren’t enough to spur fast sales.
- The Northeast and Midwest tell a different story, with inventories so slim that competition keeps pushing prices upward.
- Analysts say many would-be buyers don’t feel safe committing while job security wobbles and borrowing costs eat into their budgets.
Renting vs. Buying
- Most still wrestle with the age-old question.
- Lease your landlord or own your front yard?
- Right now, the math isn’t obvious, and many city dwellers feel like renting is the safer bet.
- Mortgage rates are high, and prices creep higher, so a monthly check to a landlord doesn’t hurt much.
- However, rising rents fueled by inflation and skimpy supply are pushing others to shell out for a down payment even when money feels tight.
- Short-term budgets often look better on a lease, but homeowners eye the day rates fall to the low- or mid-6 percent range and lock in long-term stability.
- Ultimately, the right pick rides on local trends, how steady your job feels, and which line item sits at the top of your financial to-do list.
Economic Updates: Inflation, Unemployment, and Cost of Living
- Inflation is still in the headlines.
- The Consumer Price Index clocked in at 2.4% during May.
- That number slid from the 3% we saw in January, but still hovers above the Federal Reserve’s 2% wish line.
- Looking ahead, economists predict the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index may hit about 3% by 2023.
- A big piece of that puzzle is the tariffs first put in place under the last administration: the 25% now on automobiles from Canada and Mexico, the 55% pinch on China, plus a steady 10% base duty on other goods.
- Because of those levies, the sticker price on shelves could keep climbing, meaning everyday budgets feel a little tighter.
- On the job front, the unemployment rate holds at 4.2%.
- Solid payroll additions have propped it there, yet fresh claims are creeping up, and some analysts warn the figure may nudge to 4.5% by December once tariff headaches scale up.
- As for living expenses, rent chews through paychecks.
- First, wheel borrowers see monthly notes that top $1,000 in 20% of cases, and then groceries, fuel, and other staples keep inching upward.
Stock and Bond Markets
- A quiet lift swept through the stock markets the morning before the Fed spoke on June 18.
- The Dow picked up 0.35 percent, the S&P edged up 0.37 percent, and the Nasdaq tagged 0.48 percent.
- Tariff news and inflation whispers kept traders on edge, making every tick feel bigger than it was.
- Bond buyers still watch the 10-year Treasury like a weather vane, knowing its yield fast-tracks changes in mortgage rates.
Real Estate and Mortgage Industry
- Higher interest rates are sticking around, with home buyers rubbing their temples over monthly payments.
- New-home sales did jump 11 percent from March to April 2025, yet the overall vibe feels flat and thin.
- Selma Hepp from Cotality says some neighborhoods are practically frozen because sellers refuse to cut prices while buyers wait.
- To loosen the logjam, mortgage lenders are trying fresh tricks, including buy-now-pay-later plans that let shoppers smooth out costs for a few years.
Tariffs That Pressure Prices
- Tariffs can steal the Spotlight whenever trade numbers hit the news.
- President Trump once slapped a 25 percent markup on Canadian steel and a similar tag on Mexican imports.
- The figure jumps to 55 percent on many goods from China.
- Jay Powell, who chairs the Federal Reserve, has warned that those duties are a red flag for rising prices and slower growth.
- Even so, Trump has kept pushing Powell to slash interest rates, labeling him stupid and demanding cuts that would shave almost a full point off borrowing costs.
- The central bank insists it will stick to the hard data, no matter how loud the politics get.
Mortgage Fraud under the Spotlight
- As of June 19, 2025, news cycles are still waiting on New York Attorney General Letitia James to spill more beans about the mortgage fraud complaints lingering in her office.
- The CFPB, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney General have not leaked fresh indictments or grand jury summonses, which usually signal the action is heating up.
- Legal watchers guess the probes are either moving at a crawl or stuck in an early review, far from jury boxes or courthouse benches.
- The staff at GCA Forums News keeps its ears open, ready to pounce on any headline that breaks the deadlock.
Trump Administration and Cabinet Controversies: Public Confidence and Leadership
- President Trump took the oath of office again on January 20, 2025, and the country still feels roughly split down the middle.
- Supporters rave about lower unemployment and what they call a gutsy tariff plan that, in their eyes, keeps goods cheap while safeguarding American factories.
- Detractors warn that the same protections could stoke a price surge and rattle overseas trading partners.
- This is a slice of the base expected fireworks—almost arrests after Election Day, especially aimed at names like the Bidens or DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas.
- So far, June 19, 2025, finds the rumor mill buzzing but public documents empty.
- Without hard proof and court filings to back the claims, the proposed misconduct fades to talk around kitchen tables rather than legal showdowns.
Attorney General Pam Bondi
- Pam Bondi steps into the Justice Department with a tough-on-drugs, tough-on-fraud résumé polished during her years as Florida’s top prosecutor.
- Trump loyalists see her as quick to deliver justice and quick to defend the White House, which makes them cheer.
- Critics, however, raise eyebrows whenever she opens a case since they fear loyalty could eclipse fair play in Washington’s often-watchful courts.
Patel and Bongino Surprise Many
Out of the blue, the White House appointed Kash Patel as FBI director and Dan Bongino as No. 2. Social media lit up almost instantly.
Kash Patel’s Resume Under Fire
- Patel has a patchwork career. He worked as a public defender, picked up a few national-security gigs, and once helped senior Republicans on Capitol Hill.
- However, several former prosecutors insist that his record doesn’t stack up against the heavy-crew experience the Bureau usually leans on.
Bongino Once Walked a Beat-Then Spun New Media
- Bongino hit the streets as a rookie NYPD cop and guarded President Obama for a few years.
- Since then, he has grown his podcast audience into the millions, but none of that work has taken him back into an investigative bureau in over a decade.
- Investigators inside the FBI say that the gap and the breakneck pace of new tech make his candidacy shaky.
Comment Sections Turn Into Focus Groups
- Chat threads on GCA Forums News and Reddit are cantankerous.
- Many voters now fear that the hirings lean more toward political loyalty than to the hard-nosed credibility the Bureau has always tried to project.
Trump, Musk, and the Big Beautiful Bill
- Donald Trump and Elon Musk run their business chats under a chaotic sky of Hope and Hustle. Musk, who now jokes about heading DOGE- the Department of Government Efficiency- is poking around federal paperwork and trying to trim the fat.
- People keep buzzing about the Big Beautiful Bill, a one-stop plan to chop spending, but the text is still scribbled on a whiteboard as of June 19, 2025, and nobody has pasted the pages online for inspection.
- Rumor has it Musk’s digital detectives are spotting wasted paper and rusty servers, yet the loud talk about fraud in the Biden years rests on hearsay, and no one has pinned hard proof in the open files.
- Some analysts call the pairing a power handshake that oils Trump’s deregulatory engine, even if Musk sometimes tweets back a slow www dot.
Headlines from L.A. and Beyond
- Reports of fires or street clashes in Los Angeles on June 19, 2025, have not appeared on any trusted wire or the buzz feeds that usually jump first.
- The GCA Forums News crew double-checked the streams and returned empty, so chalk the riot rumors up to bad intel or bored speculation.
- On the brighter side, Acuña Jr. launched a first-pitch homer onto Willets Point during the Mets-Braves matchup, and MVP chatter is rolling hotter than those summer bleachers.
- Injury news isn’t as cheery; the Astros have shelved McCullers Jr. with a sore toe, meaning Houston will juggle arms for at least a week while the X-rays cool off.
Entertainment Update
- Twenty-one pilots recently turned a London street into pure circus energy while filming The Contract.
- Fans quickly nicknamed the drama Drumgate after a stage percussion piece vanished in the crowd.
Geopolitical Tensions
- The spat between Israel and Iran has traders eyeing the oil ticker.
- Any surprise shooting match could push crude prices upward and raise inflation.
U.S. Economic Scene June 19, 2025
The mortgage bar sits near the top shelf, and lawmakers still debate the next Fed move. Tariffs have pinched many goods, so shoppers feel it whenever they reach for a cart.
Politicos can’t stop bickering over the FBI chief pick and those loud, never-happened indictments.
GCA Forums News will watch the current and file updates as they break. Could you check back for tomorrow’s round?
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6 Replies
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What is going on with the price per ounce of Gold and Silver?
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Here are the latest updates on gold and silver prices and a quick look at what might be moving the markets today.
Gold Prices
- Right now, gold sits at about $3,371 per ounce.
- That works out to a slight bump of roughly 0.1 percent as jitters in the Middle East bubble to the surface.
- The numbers dance a little, depending on where you check.
- BullionVault leans toward $3,365–$3,374, Monex lands in the same ballpark, and Kitco users see something close to those quotes.
- Traders say a lot of the buying pressure comes from people hunting for something sturdy to hold when the news cycle turns shaky.
Silver Prices
- Silver, on the other hand, floats in the $36.30–$36.70 corridor right now:
- BullionVault rings in at $36.33. Kitco calls it $36.27.
- JM Bullion switches between $36.59 and $36.61, depending on the refresh.
- Demand in factories and among coin collectors keeps the metal from slipping much, even when headlines aren’t rosy.
Why Prices Are Moving
Geopolitical Jitters:
- The tightening military stare-off between Israel and Iran has nudged nervous cash toward gold first and silver soon after.
- Gains are there, even if they look tiny.
Central Bank Signals:
- The Fed paused rates yesterday yet hinted that cuts could land before the year closes.
- Softer real yields punch up the appeal of stuff that sits and shines.
- Feel free to cross-check the feeds yourself; a lot can slip in or out of the market by mid-afternoon.
Inflation and Dollar Trends
- Rising tariffs have pushed prices up everywhere, and the Federal Reserve is moving slowly with interest-rate changes.
- That mix is quietly weakening the U.S. dollar and nudging many investors toward gold and silver.
A Quick Outlook
- If talk of new wars heats up or the Fed finally slashes rates, gold could drift higher quickly.
- Silver may inch up, too, though much of its rise or fall depends on what gold does and how factories need the metal.
Bottom Line Snapshot
- Gold sits around $3,371 an ounce, up a little because traders are jumpy.
- Silver trades in the $36.30 to $36.70 range, flat for now, even with the mixed news.
Want live charts or tips on buying the shiny stuff? Please feel free to drop a line.
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What is the silver-to-gold price per ounce? Why is gold taking off faster than silver?
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Silver-to-Gold Price Ratio
On June 16, 2025, the silver-to-gold price ratio was about 93.8 to 1. That means you would need roughly 93.8 ounces of silver to buy a single ounce of gold. The number has bobbed around lately but generally stays high, a sign that gold keeps outpacing silver by a wide margin.
Why Gold is Popping While Silver Lags
A few big-picture reasons explain why gold’s price chart looks steeper than silver’s.
Safe-Haven Rush:
Investors grab gold during rough headlines. Ongoing flare-ups like the Israeli-Iranian war push money into gold’s calming glow, sending its price north.
Industrial Rollercoaster:
Silver is used in wiring, solar cells, and electric cars. Factory orders keep it afloat, but push it up and down with the economy. Gold mostly escapes that dance because people buy it to park wealth, not build gadgets.
Institutional Love:
Big funds and central banks still treat gold as the gold standard- no pun intended. Its history of stability and easy trading make pros favor it when nerves fray. That crowd bias can light a quick fuse under gold prices.
Supply Flexibility:
Silver miners and recyclers can ramp up output faster than gold diggers can. The extra ounces appear soon after when silver rallies, dulling the upward spike. Gold’s tighter supply lets its price mood linger longer.
Silver is a metal that bends with the market. When demand spikes, miners ramp up production almost overnight, so prices struggle to shoot the moon. By contrast, gold hides in deep shafts and answers to nobody. That rigid supply cushion makes gold’s rallies feel bigger and last longer.
Over the decades, the gold/silver ratio has flirted with 15-to-1 and 20-to-1. Today’s spread sits near historic highs, hinting that silver may be underpriced but giving gold bulls the bigger party.
All this boils down to a simple feeling: most folks instinctively reach for gold in shaky times. The yellow metal acts like a financial seatbelt. Silver still shines, but its industrial ties and elastic supply keep the spotlight on gold whenever trouble looms.
Gold Price History
Check the day-by-day movement of gold going back decades, courtesy of USAGOLD. Their timeline offers a simple look at how yellow metal values drift up or down.
Gold-Silver Ratio
GoldSilverRatio.org keeps a live dial showing how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. The site’s charts update in real-time and show both short-term wiggles and long-term trends.
Explore the trend: [Live Gold-Silver Ratio Charts](https://www.goldsilverratio.org/)
Silver Hits $36
When silver busted through $36 last month, MINING.COM called it the highest spike in 13 years. The article also lists the market news that pushed prices past that psychological barrier.
Market Crash and Precious Metals
GoldSilver’s editorial team asked a blunt question: What happens next to silver and gold if the stock market free-falls? Their answer reviews historical patterns and investor behavior during severe sell-offs.
Reddit Discussion on Price Decoupling
A thread in the Silverbugs subreddit debates why gold has front-run silver lately. Commenters toss around potential catalysts like inflation fears and central bank policy.
Silver Pricing Charts
GoldSilver.com hosts a dedicated page of silver price charts, letting users switch between hourly, daily, and monthly views. The clean layout helps both traders and casual followers spot breakout points.
Experts on Silver Outpacing Gold in 2025
CBS News polled economists and market analysts on whether silver could race past gold by 2025. Based on industrial demand and mining ramp-up challenges, predictions range from cautious optimism to outright doubt.
Silver Performance in a Recession
U.S. Money Reserve published an insight piece arguing that silver often shines when consumer spending tightens. The article cites prior downturns to illustrate how the metal behaves and why some investors rely on its safety.
Expert Forecasts for 2025 Silver Prices
Various analysts are spacing out target numbers for silver by 2025, with lines drawn between conservative $20 marks and hopeful $50 signals. GoldSilver cataloged those forecasts in a single update for readers tracking the long game.
Silver at $100 per ounce
Investing News asked a provocative question: Can silver reach $100 an ounce? The article weighs supply constraints, rising tech demand, and wave after wave of speculation from retail and institutional buyers.
goldsilverratio.org
Gold-Silver Ratio | Live Charts, Trends, and Analysis
Explore the current gold-silver ratio with up-to-date charts, trends, and expert analysis. Stay informed on how the ratio impacts precious metal investments.
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One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded during a routine test in Texas. According to Cameron County authorities, the Starship 36 suffered “catastrophic failure and exploded” at the Starbase launch facility. The Starship is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket. It is central to Musk’s long-term vision of colonising Mars. This is the latest setback, with SpaceX betting that its “fail fast, learn fast” ethos will eventually pay off.
SpaceX Rocket Blows Up in Texas: Elon Musk’s Mars dream just took a hard hit.
On Thursday afternoon, officials and onlookers called it a routine test when the company’s Starship 36 toppled over in a giant fireball at the Boca Chica starbase. Cameron County crews later tallied the wreckage as a total loss, straight-up numbers no space fan ever wants to hear.
Starship carries the loudest brag in rocketry: it is bigger and stronger than anything humanity has ever built. Musk talks about moving people, cargo, and maybe tourists to the red planet and then beyond that.
Another explosion is the last thing a project already ranked by trial-and-error standards needs. Still, SpaceX leans on its motto, “Fail fast, learn faster, “which has already turned single-use boosters into Ferris-wheel rides for satellites.
Even so, fire and smoke make great videos, but lousy press releases and investors notice. Partners in Washington, Europe, and anywhere else with a telescope want schedules, not excuses; delays at Boca Chica could push their clock hands two, three, or more ticks later than promised.
Nobody got hurt in the blast, but it highlights how tricky and dangerous it is to wire up next-gen space hardware. Detractors grumble that the constant flops prove SpaceX is pushing too hard. Yet, fans fire back by noting that this hammer-it-out mindset lets the company sprint past older aerospace crews.
Starship is still an open question when human passengers finally ride, maybe because the challenge keeps morphing. Even so, if Musk and the engineers can flip each setback into fresh know-how, the bold vision of settling Mars stays on the table.
SpaceX rocket explodes in new setback to Elon Musk’s project.
https://youtu.be/SDAzBSndPG0?si=eQ3BUYAg84ZCkbpc
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by Harlan.
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by Harlan.
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by Harlan.
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by
Gustan Cho.
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A SpaceX Starship Goes Boom in Texas
So much for another test run, late Wednesday, a Starship booster blew up on a SpaceX pad near Brownsville, lighting up the dark sky and dousing the company’s Mars dreams in another wave of disappointment.
What Happened
- A static-fire check was the plan.
- Instead, a what-just-happened moment ripped through the quiet at 11:01 p.m. Central Time on June 18.
- Footage from neighbor cameras looks less like engineering and more like accident-scene TV.
Company Talk
- SpaceX briefed reporters using the words “major anomaly.”
- That phrase may sound clinical, yet it sits beside a large plume of fire that startled people miles away.
- It’s terrible news that turns a shiny prototype into crispy memories almost in real time.
On-Site Response
- Cameron County firefighters were on the scene quickly, their sirens stirring the midnight calm.
- After poking through the wreckage, they declared it a total loss, the kind of lingo that always punctuates disaster reports.
- Nobody got hurt in the blast that shook the Starbase facility, and that’s the good news.
- Still, the fireworks remind us how twitchy modern rocket tech can be.
- Early Thursday, Elon Musk thumbed out a one-liner on X, calling the damage “just a scratch.”
- Experts wince at the phrase because it shrinks a frightening setback into a punch line.
- SpaceX Starship is 403 feet tall, making it taller than any roller coaster and tougher to build.
- In Musk’s daydream, the ship will haul people and pizza to Mars, eventually nudging settlers toward other planets.
- NASA is also pinning part of its Artemis moon plans on Starship, so the stakes feel huge.
- Even so, the project keeps tripping over its shoelaces.
- This latest bang is merely the most public faceplant of 2023, and earlier fireballs and belly-flop landings are already faded GIFs in most engineers’ inboxes.
Impact on Flight 10 and Mission Timeline
- SpaceX planned to back up its bragging rights with Starship Flight 10, but fate shrugged.
- Ship 36 flared up on the Boca Chica pad before anyone even counted down, and now the hull is scrap instead of hardware.
- With that single event, the neat calendar that allows NASA or European loads to hitch a ride was torn in half.
- Washington, Brussels, and a dozen commercial ops trusted the SpaceX clock, so everybody suddenly had to shuffle paperwork and shelves.
Industry Implications: Innovation vs. Reliability Debate
- Boom-or-bust has always hovered over every Boca Chica sunrise, and the blast puts the idea back on center stage.
- If you believe the critics, pushing too hard is now tattooed across the charred metal of Ship 36 and welding torches.
- Defenders quickly remind you that the same trial-and-error pace snagged SpaceX’s Falcon 9 medals long before Boeing or Lockheed had a prototype.
- Building the world’s biggest vehicle changes the math, no question, yet that claim of sheer boldness refuses to die.
The Tough Stuff That Still Needs Fixing
- SpaceX has never tried to build a rocket this big; the engineers can feel it daily.
- Starship weighs more than a brand-new Boeing 747, yet it has 33 roaring Raptor engines pinned to a Super Heavy booster.
- Getting the fuel inside is no Saturday-morning fill-up.
- Liquid methane and oxygen live at bone-chilling temperatures, so pumps, pipes, and valves act like a high-tech ice rink.
- Elon keeps promising a reuse rate measured in hours, not months.
- That creates extra problems inside every wire harness and circuit board since every part has to survive fiery landings repeatedly.
- Once the ship finally climbs out of Earth’s atmosphere, it still has to nail a landing on Mars, where the air is too thin and too twitchy to breathe.
- Designers call that a three-envelope problem.
- Each flight envelope- Earth, space, and Mars- demands a different engineering flavor.
Cash and Confidence: A Tug-of-War
- Elon laughs off skeptics in public, but Wall Street scribbles numbers and asks quieter questions.
- SpaceX needs shiny tech demonstrations because its future funding rounds sit on those, not on bravado.
- Fireball launches make killer highlight reels, yet they also vacuum the air from boardroom pep talks.
- Investors love the vision but hate watching their money stapled to a rocket that detonates.
- So far, the money has flowed, partly because Musk can pitch a dream like a Silicon Valley IPO.
- Each pyrotechnic failure ratchets the heat until the next test stays blameless and flawless.
Looking Forward: Mars Dreams vs. Earth Reality
- A collection of mangled prototypes now dots the SpaceX test yard.
- Each fiery mishap pushes the target date for real human flights further across the calendar.
- Still, the company habitually turns smoke and debris into fresh know-how.
- Remember how Falcon 1 had to disintegrate three times before anyone cheered a proper orbit?
- Reusable Falcon 9 boosters still collect applause; that comeback story began in failure.
The Bigger Picture: Space Exploration’s High Stakes
- Starship is not just SpaceX’s glassy rocket, but humanity’s next big adventure in the sky.
If the beast finally clears Earth’s gravity and stays intact, the solar system could move from theory to tourist brochures. Of course, that dream can stall for decades, one crater at a time.
Clean-up crews pick up charred bits of SN-36 as engineers scramble to debug what went wrong- failed sensors, faulty valves, and the pressure lines that refused to hold.
Every explosion raises the pressure dial on Musk’s promise to make us a two-planet species.
The cost, literally and figuratively, also keeps climbing.
Right now, the highway to Mars runs through a dusty graveyard in South Texas.
Author’s note: The details below come from what we know now, June 19, 2025. SpaceX hasn’t published a step-by-step breakdown of why Starship 36 blew apart so that the official probe could reveal fresh reasons and wider fallout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggrdrOvmTsg&list=RDNSggrdrOvmTsg&start_radio=1
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