Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Let there be snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

All hail the time of the bunny!

Come on, man.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Clowns to the left of me…

Clowns to the left of me…

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C’mon man: (WaPo)

Author and activist Marianne Williamson, who is considering a second campaign for president against President Biden, plans to visit New Hampshire in the coming weeks to help her make “a more informed decision” about her political future,* she said in a statement.

The visit comes as the New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley has warned national Democratic leaders in a letter that the current plan to deny the state the first primary in the nation will force an unsanctioned event and “create an opening for an insurgent candidate — serious or not — who can garner media attention and capitalize on Granite Stater’s** anger about being passed over by [Biden’s] campaign.”

Two things: 1) Williamson is a joke who called writer Molly Jong-Fast’s MOM to complain about the daughter’s mocking content. 2) As the article notes, Biden didn’t crack double-digits in the NH race in 2020 and still went on to win the primary, so who gives a shit which kooks assemble there to run against the incumbent POTUS? It’s Vermin Supreme-level bullshit.

Open thread.

*As Beatrix Kiddo said to Elle Driver in Kill Bill, “Bitch, you don’t have a future.”

**That’s one very angry Granite Stater! I wonder if his name rhymes with “Cray Fuckley”?

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  3. 3.

    Steeplejack

    I was lukewarm to Marianne Williamson at first in the last campaign, but, boy, her position on energy crystal tariffs was solid!

    (h/t somebody on Twitter)

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I suspect it’s true New Hampshire voters are angry, I just can’t for the life of me figure how grown ass adults think they have some kind of birthright to an early primary.

    If memory serves the last time an ‘insurgent’ candidate won New Hampshire it was Pat Fucking Buchanan, whose recent announcement of retirement shocked people by pointing out that he was somehow still alive. How did that go for the GOP and the country.

  6. 6.

    waspuppet

    “create an opening for an insurgent candidate — serious or not — who can garner media attention and capitalize on Granite Stater’s* anger about being passed over by [Biden’s] campaign.”

    Ummm …

    Also, did anyone at any point during the “writing” of this “story” ask the “writer” why they thought it merited a story?

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    I support this effort to make the NH primary look as ridiculous as possible. Now do Iowa as well.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    I for one am looking forward to a riveting debate between Marianne Williamson, Tulsi Gabbard, and Andrew Yang in advance of the unsanctioned cancelled NH primary.

  9. 9.

    lowtechcyclist

    make “a more informed decision” about her political future

    In order to HAVE a political future, doesn’t one at least need a decent number of citizens VOTING for them??

    That reminds me, I need to make “a more informed decision” about which supermodel I’ll have an affair with.

  10. 10.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    If memory serves the last time an ‘insurgent’ candidate won New Hampshire it was Pat Fucking Buchanan, whose recent announcement of retirement shocked people by pointing out that he was somehow still alive. 

    LMAO!

  12. 12.

    lowtechcyclist

    @waspuppet:

    Also, did anyone at any point during the “writing” of this “story” ask the “writer” why they thought it merited a story?

    Some “editor” either assigned it, or OK’d it when the writer suggested it.

    ETA: IOW, there’s your culprit.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @waspuppet:

    Also, did anyone at any point during the “writing” of this “story” ask the “writer” why they thought it merited a story?

    What part of “garner media attention” is ambiguous? The media are simple creatures who have no free will to resist the stimuli of a Dems in Disarray narrative.

  14. 14.

    scav

    Ah yes, I do remember the entire world — even Peoria! — looking to NH for their opinion on every damed thing eternally.  Could save a lot of money and time by just eliminating the primaries in all other states.  Maybe even the election itself.  Brilliant to see the Squeekiest Angriest Oppressed White Elderly Voter movement rack up more institutional support.  Have they issued their decree on M&M gender expression yet?

  15. 15.

    Renie

    Every day we read more and more weirdo stories about George Santos.  Yet other than the first ‘breaking’ story why have we heard nothing else about the ex-FBI double agent Charles McGonigal story.  This will have a huge and consequential impact on the FBI,  the connections between trump & Russia, Russian operatives in our country still, it’s like a bottomless hole of treason.  Why is the media not reporting on this?    OK I’m loving the Santos stories cuz he’s my rep & I can’t wait for him to go down but c’mon our media sucks at this.

  16. 16.

    schrodingers_cat

    Reupping from the last thread with some background. Its 26th January, India celebrates its Republic Day to celebrate the day it adopted it current  Constitution and became a Republic. The drafting committee was chaired by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar who got his PhD in economics from Columbia University. He also was a lawyer who wrote prolifically.

    Its India’s Republic day today and the Republic is barely hanging by a thread.

    National Anthem, music composed by A. R. Rahman

    (There are two versions instrumental first and vocal later)

    This is from a time when India celebrated unity in diversity and hate was not the official order of business. This version of the anthem written by Tagore is performed by a galaxy of stars of Indian musical scene (classical and popular) from all parts of India

    *Many are no longer with us. Seeing Lata Mangeshkar, Bhimsen Joshi,  Jagjit Singh, Bhupinder Hazarika brought a tear to my eye.

  17. 17.

    Cameron

    I dunno.  Somehow, I don’t think Vermin Supreme takes himself quite as seriously as Ms. Williamson.  She’s more than welcome to run; doesn’t mean I’d vote for her.

  18. 18.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    The media are simple creatures who have no free will to resist the stimuli of a Dems in Disarray narrative.

    Regardless of how thoroughly absent the evidence is that would justify such a narrative.  And man, they’re really grasping at straws if Marianne Williamson is the best they can do to keep it alive.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    Even though I vaguely remember the writer as being a hack, I’m not mad at WaPo for running the story — it’s a big deal that Democrats are rearranging their primary calendar. The state party chair is squawking, and that’s a legit story. I’m just scoffing at the notion that Marianne Williamson could be a decisive factor in a schoolboard race, let alone a presidential primary.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    It’s Vermin Supreme-level bullshit.

    But lacking the self-awareness.

    As for New Hampshire, I’ve cut them some slack ever since the state quarters came out. First they chose a rock formation as their state’s biggest claim to fame, then it collapsed.

  22. 22.

    The Moar You Know

    New Hampshire is the only place I’ve ever travelled which did not have tortillas in the grocery store.

    That includes such Mexican food hotspots such as Glasgow, Scotland.  They had tortillas.  And avocados.  In December.  The tortillas, it is true, were weird and somewhat cakey, but they had them.

  26. 26.

    geg6

    @Renie:

    I can only guess that the reason is that everyone is being pretty closed mouthed about what is happening with this McGonnigal dude.  Even here and other places where it’s being talked about (I think even at Marcy Wheeler’s place), it seems to be something that people are pooh-poohing in that he probably wasn’t involved in any HRC ratfucking or anything because he was made head of counterintelligence at the NY office in October. But no one seems to mention that, before that, he headed the FBI Cyber-Counterintelligence division.  And though I’m not completely sure of the timeline, I think they have him taking $$ before he was in the NY office.

  27. 27.

    Delk

    With five days left in the month of January 2023, the score for child molestation / kiddie porn arrests:

    priests/pastors/various religious leaders: 20

    drag queens: 0

  28. 28.

    President Johnny Gentle (Famous Crooner)

    Curious if this will be a “broken window” type thing where once someone is the first to announce against him, others follow.

  29. 29.

    The Moar You Know

    Were they actually labelled as tortillas, and not oatcakes? Or scones?

    @Ken: Mission brand tortillas, just like I buy here in San Diego.

    Mmmmm.  Scones.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Renie:

    Yet other than the first ‘breaking’ story why have we heard nothing else about the ex-FBI double agent Charles McGonigal story. …  Why is the media not reporting on this?  

    at a guess, as a non-lawyer: Prosecutors don’t want to reveal anything more than they have to pre-trial, and his defense doesn’t want to say anything until they know what the prosecution has ?

  31. 31.

    Almost Retired

    @WaterGirl:  I dunno.  The 2003 California Governor’s race after the recall was kind of fun.  Strippers, circus freaks, D-list actors, snake-charmers and sword-swallowers, the patently deranged, etc.

    OTOH, we ended up with Governor Arnold – who seemed reasonable in comparison.  So I guess you make a good point.

  32. 32.

    The Moar You Know

    Also, who the fuck is Marianne Williamson?  The name is not familiar.  Suppose I should look it up.

     

    ETA:  wow, a low-rent L. Ron Hubbard. Well, I guess anyone has the right to throw their hat in the ring.

  33. 33.

    Citizen Alan

    @Renie:

    Why is the media not reporting on this?

    Because it is impossible to report on McGonigal without shining a light on all the reporters who credulously repeated off-the-record scoops from the compromised NYC FBI office that helped swing the 2016 election to a Russian asset.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    @Renie:

    Why is the media not reporting on this?

     

    because of their professional malpractice in 2016?

     

    how many of them wrote stories about Hillary and her emails and the FBI ‘investigation’ that were sourced by the traitor?

  37. 37.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Delk:

      I dunno. I’ve seen some religious officials in outfits that put even the most flamboyant drag performer to shame.

  38. 38.

    Renie

    @Citizen Alan: This guy was involved in the trump-Russian connection and then investigation.  I’m sure he shut down anything that would expose trump.  If prosecutors are going after him, I hope they bring all of it to light.  That NYC FBI office esp with Rudy’s connections, hated Hillary, and they were a big influence in her losing.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @Delk: If the DeSantis SunBund wants to tackle the Drag Queen Story Hour scourge, they should probably have a word with George Santos. 

    @CliosFanBoy: Right? You wouldn’t catch me wearing the late Pope Ratzinger’s red Prada pumps. And I’m a girl.

  41. 41.

    Josie

    @Delk: ​
     I like that you are keeping count. I hope that we can make this go wider. People need to see this in real time.

  42. 42.

    marklar

    I didn’t personally think up this moniker (it might have even seen it in here, and I have source amnesia), but the best name I read for Williamson in the last cycle was “Chakra Con.”

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @The Moar You Know:

    “Low-rent L. Ron Hubbard” is way harsh. She’s far beyond him. A Course in Miracles had some good stuff in it. I don’t think I’ve read any of her other books.

    Should she be in politics? Hell, no.

  45. 45.

    Ken

    @CliosFanBoy: Wasn’t that one of the skits on “Fernwood Tonight”? A couple of tearful parents talking about how their son joined a cult, and is wearing these flamboyant dresses and jewelry — then the son comes out and he’s a Catholic priest in vestments. They Got Letters.

  49. 49.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @The Moar You Know: Self help guru, Oprah spiritual advisor, vocal  opponent of vaccine mandates,  antidepressants and believes illness doesn’t exist you just need to get right spiritually (she wrote about  some of this in her books)

    “her book A Return to Love says “sickness is an illusion and does not actually exist” and encourages readers to see “sickness as our own love that needs to be reclaimed”), for repeatedly doubting the existence of clinical depression and for attacking antidepressants.”http://Health Experts Critical of Marianne Williamson

    She’s a grifter self help spiritual guru, who wants to get into politics.  Unfortunately people are gullible and believe if they have seen someone spouting good sounding nonsense on TV, that affirms their anti-science notions, that person  must be brilliant…ugh.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    The NYTimes has an extensive article about the Durham report.   I’ll try to copy it since it is a give to article.   After reading about Barr and Durham, the only thing that makes sense is their body was invaded by aliens.   What absolute crackpots.   Supposedly, you don’t need a subscription to read it.

    link

  52. 52.

    Kay

    I thought this was smart of the Biden campaign:

    Glennon Doyle is a writer, activist, and the unlikely figurehead of white women in Biden’s 2020 Presidential campaign.
    In the midst of the campaign trail, the Biden campaign called Doyle to enlist her help in garnering support from her white female followers and urging them to head out to the polls.
    Her role may have been crucial in helping Biden and Harris take the election in the year women celebrated the centennial of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing their right to vote.
    Doyle’s career began on her blog Momastery. She is what many would dub a “Christian Mommy Blogger,” though she rejects the term.
    Her writing, for many years, has covered all the topics one would expect white suburban moms to latch on to: her faith, raising a family, getting sober, rebuilding a broken marriage.
    But her career, and her demographic, took an unlikely turn in 2017 when Doyle announced she was ending the marriage that had been the topic of two best-selling memoirs and had started a relationship with women’s soccer star Abby Wambach.
     

    VP Harris met with her a couple of weeks ago according to Instagram. I love all these odd little “affinity groups” liberals can plug into but I do sort of resent the clownish time wasting candidates because I like debates and I’m sick of their “I’m new!” like that’s an accomplishment.

  53. 53.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @schrodingers_cat: You posted some time ago that the BJP had recently made inroads into the mindset of the upper castes.  They were around for a long time without doing that, so what changed?  I know that the Congress Party (as we call it) imploded, but it didn’t necessarily follow that a religious-fascist party would be the ones to pick up the pieces.

  54. 54.

    Rusty

    The problem for a Democrat primary in New Hampshire is that the Republicans control both houses and the governorship.  There is zero chance the Republicans will do anything to help a Democratic primary and will deliberately stoke any anger they can.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Isn’t that the partisan prosecutor who tried to railroad people to make Trump look good and lost every trial?

  57. 57.

    Cameron

    @JPL: Christ.  That might be from the elementary school right up the street from me.  This really, really pisses me off, and I don’t even have any kids.  Although once upon a time I worked for Children’s Literacy Initiative.

  58. 58.

    UncleEbeneezer

    NOW: Garland announces DoJ has dismantled the HIVE ransomware transnational criminal organization

  60. 60.

    Kay

    What does she have to say that people who work in government won’t or can’t say? What does she add? Nothing as far as I could tell, last time.

    This is a real competition! It’s insulting to the people who work at it to jump in and dabble.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @eclare:

    I try to keep my Instagram just gardens but she keeps showing up. I had read the article about how she helped Biden so I let her stay. FOR NOW :)

    My Instagram is like an oasis of beautiful gardens and this one mommy blogger. I’m too cranky and not imaginative enough for self help.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: I was reading that earlier and intend to come back to it. Jesus, what a shit-show. IIRC, the one criminal matter they investigated was possible wrongdoing by TRUMP, and yet they let the implication that they were investigating his political enemies for a criminal offense hang out there. Unethical, partisan hacks. They should be disbarred.

  71. 71.

    JPL

    @Baud: It’s even worse than that.   Durham wanted to release an interim article filled with innuendos before the election and several members of his team quit,   He then changed his mind.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @Almost Retired: Also, McGonigal’s crimes were hidden from view by their nature. Reporters aren’t going to be able to find much about McGonigal, so no fresh news for now.

    Santos on the other hand has so many of irregularities and potential crimes that journalists are hard pressed to track them all down. He’s also in the public eye every day that Congess is in session.

    I think more will come out about McGonigal now that he’s busted, but not right away. The WaPo article the next day describes him taking Albanian money three times while he was an Agent. I think there is more and that the feds are just getting started. They’ll squease him hard on his Deripaska connection, as well as put Deripaska’s dealings with McGonigal and others under a microscope

    Russian oligarchs generally are targets now that Trump doesn’t control the Treasury and Justice Departments, and especially with this war. FBI agents had already searched two of Deripaska’s houses when they arrested McGonigal.

    Fellow oligarch Viktor Vekselberg has Deripaska beat, though. On September 6, FBI agents searched three of Vekselberg’s homes, in Miami, Manhattan and Long Island.

    Which brings me back to George Santos (I hope). Andrew Intrater, Vekselberg’s cousin and “money manager,” was Santos’s biggest campaign donor and invested in Santos’s mysterious Florida business. Intrater claims he was fooled by Santos, but he does not sound like a person who gets fooled by anyone, much less a patent con man like George Santos.

  73. 73.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @geg6: I’m starting to find emptywheel (Twitter and .net) increasingly difficult to read. The Twitter spouts arrogant diatribes how you you you and you got this all wrong and the blog posts can be so convoluted that they become pointless to read. And heaven forbid you make a comment that is duplicative of an earlier one or you have some suggestion that adds to the content…either Marcy or one of her equally arrogant FPers will berate you for not reading the comments before commenting or for not having your own blog if you’re so fucking smart.

  76. 76.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @JPL:

    Lefor’s bill would prohibit “public libraries from maintaining sexually explicit books.”

    This includes “visual depictions” of “sexual intercourse.” But also “visual depictions” of “sexual identity” and “gender identity.”

    Gotta pull (and burn) all those books with images of cis het people ASAP.

    Oh, didn’t think of that? So sorry, rules is rules.

  78. 78.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: Indian politics is complicated, how much time do you have?  BJP is the strongest political party right now but their strength is nowhere near what the Congress was at its peak.

    BJP is not that popular in absolute terms. They succeed because they are supported in large numbers by people with a lot of social capital (upper caste and/or wealthy) and their opposition is divided.

  82. 82.

    JPL

    @Sister Golden Bear:  What does that even mean?  At one time Everywhere Babies was on the list, and I still don’t know why?  I was disappointed that Crist didn’t recite the words while he was campaigning.   There were drawings of dads with babies in the playground.  (moms also)

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    This includes “visual depictions” of “sexual intercourse.” But also “visual depictions” of “sexual identity” and “gender identity.”

    Gen Z has ruined porn.

  84. 84.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @eclare: I like Oprah, I just wish she did not have this attraction to charismatic grifters, and end up giving them a platform.  She had on Jenny McCarthy multiple times, also Katie Wright and Dr Christiane Northrup  both anti vaxxers.

  85. 85.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Sister Golden Bear: Truth!  My mom was from way northern Vermont and I think the spice rack we had when we moved in was the same one we threw the contents of away, after she died decades later.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    @eclare: Durham’s final report is going to be interesting.    Maybe he’ll go quietly into the night, but I doubt it.  He was a gig at Fox.

  87. 87.

    catclub

    @rikyrah:

    because of their professional malpractice in 2016?

     

    how many of them wrote stories about Hillary and her emails and the FBI ‘investigation’ that were sourced by the traitor?

     

    This sounds too facile.  There were certainly some journalists  who did NOT source their reporting to traitors or the NY FBI  office. I would think they would be happy to embarass the reporters who did that.

     

    It may be the case that NYT reporters would not want to embarass NYT reporters, but what about other outlets?

  88. 88.

    BruceJ

    @The Moar You Know: When I lived in NY (westchester, NYC suburbs) tortillas were impossible to find. In one store near where I lived I saw Old El Paso corn tortillas…in a can…

    fortunately by the time we moved away several years later, there were plentiful supplies, but for the first year or two we relied on my mom shipping out care packages of 5 dozen at a time from back in Tucson.

  89. 89.

    catclub

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: ​
    Was Dr Oz her go-to doctor for a while? Perhaps I am misremembering.

    ETA: Google is your friend:

    How many times was Dr. Oz on Oprah?
    Oz, and he was a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, making more than sixty appearances.

  90. 90.

    patrick II

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​
      Whether Bodycam or someone Standing nearby with phone, video is changing the face of policework. And the police don’t like it much.
    And… if you know you are Wearing a bodycan how can you let yourself participate in such egregious behaviour ?

  92. 92.

    JPL

    @catclub: What about Dr. Phil?   It might be time for him to have Barr and Durham on his show in order to ask them WTF were you thinking?

  93. 93.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @WaterGirl: We need to change the rules for what allows you to be on a debate stage as a Democrat. Ridiculous candidates not allowed.

    I remember her only from the debates in 2020. Plenty of what I heard from there was valid. It doesn’t mean she should be President.

  95. 95.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Sister Golden Bear: This includes “visual depictions” of “sexual intercourse.” But also “visual depictions” of “sexual identity” and “gender identity.”

    All materials in schools must now depict a genderless utopia.

  96. 96.

    Bill Arnold

    @JPL:

    Durham’s final report is going to be interesting.

    If there are unproven assertions of criminality, I hope one or more of his victims sue him personally, whether or not that is traditionally allowed against a prosecutor.

  98. 98.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @schrodingers_cat: You posted some time ago that the BJP had recently made inroads into the mindset of the upper castes.  They were around for a long time without doing that, so what changed?  I know that the Congress Party (as we call it) imploded, but it didn’t necessarily follow that a religious-fascist party would be the ones to pick up the pieces.

  99. 99.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: BJP has captured the media and politicized the institutions at a Federal (Central govt) level and is using means fair and foul. Like buying MLAs from other parties, toppling state governments.

    BJP’s rise coincides with the upper caste backlash against empowerment of OBC and Dalits especially in the Hindi belt. These observations were made by someone who actually lives in India and writes about its recent history during the runup to the UP assembly  (The state with the most MPs) elections last year.

  100. 100.

    VOR

    @Sister Golden Bear: I think it was The Good Liars who asked people if they should pull a book where two daughters get their father drunk so they can have sex with him. The person enthusiastically agrees. Then they reveal this is the story of Lot, from the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Whoops.

  102. 102.

    Burnspbesq

    @Baud:

    Isn’t that the partisan prosecutor who tried to railroad people to make Trump look good and lost every trial?

    Yes, that’s Durham. Another good reputation consumed by the Trumpster fire.

  103. 103.

    Burnspbesq

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    rules is rules.

    yeah, right. When republican legislatures fuck up in turning their crackpot schemes into legislation, then it’s entirely appropriate to consider legislative intent (say the Republican justices on the state Supreme Court).

  104. 104.

    Gvg

    @Sister Golden Bear: Excuse me, but did you not realize they DID intend that. These people are the ones who never wanted any kind of smut in any library, including medical texts in adult libraries. Think back a few decades. What did your mother tell you about when she was young? Like that.

  105. 105.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Qrop Non Sequitur: Of course, what’s going on here is that these fucks never see themselves as anything other than the default, unmarked case. Their gender identity isn’t gender identity; their sexuality isn’t sexuality; their race isn’t race. They’re just normal ordinary people–they’re talking about weirdos! Can’t expose innocent children to depictions of weirdos!

    I think that in many cases they honestly can’t even see that this isn’t a commonsense neutral position

    It’s why terms like “cis person” get them so mad. The idea that they might not be the unmarked case is like a sledgehammer to their self-concept.

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