Monday, September 6, 2010
Arkansas Politics Lincoln gets tough
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 9:23 AM
Boozman sycophants are howling about this latest Blanche Lincoln ad. Such an "attack." So unfair. Truth hurts poor ol' Dr. No. Actually, the ad goes too easy on Boozman. As has often been explained, the bills he's sponsored actually would put a 30 percent national sales tax (as we customarily compute a sales tax) in place of the income tax. If you think this would produce a gain for low- and middle-income people, think again about a 30 percent tax on groceries, clothes, utilities, cars, houses. It would be a bonanza of untold size for people like the Waltons, of course. And there's no telling how high the sales tax would really have to be to remain revenue neutral, once various special interests cut side deals for special relief.
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Comments (37)
Showing 1-37 of 37
It's not like Lincoln isn't always looking out for corporate interests as well.
She wants the estate tax to go away.
In any case, I'll be voting Green Party and I am sad to see so many people will be voting for Boozman. Every time I see one of his signs by a business, I make a mental note not to ever go there.
The same goes for Tim Griffin signs as well. I try to shop locally and in these times, businesses don't need to piss off customers by showing their political colors.
like
dislike
So we should do as we are told by our Democratic leaders and vote for Miss Blanche as being less bad than Boozman. I'm sure they will know as we cast our ballots for Miss Blanche that we won't do that again, only this time, and that we aren't happy with Dems campaigning as supporters of the common man/woman while voting just the opposite once elected.
Yassa, master, I feel that yoke tightening around my neck.
Why do politicians make commercials that look like they are for children? Oh right, politicians think we are all children...
I second the comments made above. I will likely vote for LinCON this go round, but never again...although I have been struggling with my conscious and principles on this (and it's only early September). And regardless, I have no faith that once in office our next Senator will cater to the special interests once again.
My struggle is that faced by all Arkansans, and one thatakes me sad to be faced with. Death by 100 papercuts or death by the knife.
Because I am a Democrat I will not be voting for Senator Blanche Lincoln but will vote for John Gray this time. If the people of Arkansas really want a corporate conservative and the hard life the corporations will indenture them and their children to so be it.
Without a doubt...both Lincoln and Boozman have sold us OUT! OUT of the middle and lower class that is into the biggest recession we have seen since the Great Depression. What is wrong with Arkansas that they can't see the light...both are for HUGE tax breaks for the RICH and the CORPORATISTS...the very folks sitting on all the bucks draining the middle class of America. If you think Lincoln or Boozman are better then John Gray for U.S. Senate it's because you have bought into their BS? Or maybe we are just afraid?
Why don't we all gang up together...spread the word (since the media is obviously not going to give us ALL the Candidates to hear from in the debates) and let's really grassroots ourselves some winners "John Gray, U.S. Senate" and Joshua Drake, Congress 4th District Against Ross the Boss and Rankin Stankin'!
>>I will likely vote for LinCON this go round, but never again...<<
How many times have I seen this expressed? Let me count the ways.
This election is a good time to kick the habit.
"Lincoln Gets Tough?" . . . on what Max? Her constituents? The Democratic Party?
She sure hasn't been tough on Boozman. She has been the been the best booster for the Republican Party of Arkansas, since Winthrop Rockefeller (IMO). Her "old-line politics as usual" and desperately sucking in the DNC leaders with her has inspired more Tea Party adherents in Arkansas than Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, Palin and the Dixiecrat reaction combined.
If she loses, it is entirely a defeat of her own making. She has ignored her party and her constituents for too long. Now she is making her own party pay by colluding with her to bring unwarrented, unnecessary and purely pork disaster relief to Arkansas farmers (predominently corporate to buy votes) to buy votes.
Since my party has decided their best candidate is a microscopically lesser evil than the Republican candidate and that my State is not worth seriously competing-in in national legislature politics, I will be voting for John Gray. We may be hoping for a miracle, but we will be able to sleep at night and be proud of our candidate and what he and the party stands for instead of being appalled and disgusted.
I think the Democratic Party both in Arkansas and Nationally do not realize how much they have permanently lost by their lassitude and "letting sleeping dogs lie" in the last ten years, but they will pay (to them) a horrendous price in Arkansas for the next decade or more.
Why would a Boozman Tax cripple the U.S. economy, especially housing and the car bidness?
Let the master explain it to you. See, it's a matter of muny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8…
.
What should be apparent and shocking to all libs is that Lincoln fails to say if she would
vote against such a "fair" tax.
Now that would be a position on something. Steve, take some time from picnics for the working class Blanche doesn't give a damn about anyway and respond.
.
I do the same thing Socialist does: I don't shop or go into a place of business with a Griffin sign. A certain barbershop in the Heights had a Griffin sign in the window. I called and told them I would not ever come there again. They have a right to put the sign up and I have a right to protest it, but they LOSE.
Yes, vote Green and you LOSE too. I know it's sad, but it's just a fact. Green party candidates will drain votes from Lincoln, handing the election to Boozman. What people need to do, IF Lincoln wins, is to apply a concerted amount of pressure on her. Tell her that this is the last time.
>>She has ignored her party and her constituents for too long.<<
Indeed she has ignored her Party. Her constituents not so much.
Just don't get confused about who Blanche's constituents are and don't
fool yourself into thinking you and I are her constituents.
Credit Card financiers, Big Pharma, Corporate Ag and Big Banks will all see that one
of their own is well-cared for in her immediate retirement.
.
Billyed,
I told her and the DPA and DNC last time and for the last six years repeatedly. If you vote for her this time, you'll just be licensing the concept that a DINO is what you want.
Is it? . . . Then vote for her.
If not, I recommend you look closely at John Gray.
I've found it much more enjoyable to have a candidate you aren't ashamed to support. In that many of the ARTimes Blog disagree . . . they deserve what they get, but they will have lost all right to complain about who they elected.
When you wake, you will feel relaxed and refreshed, and wonder why you EVER bought into a two-party system. Especially in a state where one party is pretty much the same as the other.
SNAP!!!
A vote for John Gray is NOT the same as a vote for Boozman. It's a vote for the person who best represents my interests and beliefs, and not the lesser of two evils. It's not a vote for a Democrat because my dad always voted Democrat, or a Republican because that's who Jesus would have voted for, or any of that malarkey. It's a vote for the non-hip-mo-tize candidate.
Last time was Lincolns last time she out there she will do every thing boozeman will do and not blink an eye . dont be fool by her or boozeman or max they will sell your soul into poverty. And Max quit making comments on your own blog we are sick of your cry baby whining for blanche .
Last time was Lincolns last time shes out there she will do every thing boozeman will do and not blink an eye . dont be fool by her or boozeman or max they will sell your soul into poverty. And Max quit making comments on your own blog we are sick of your cry baby whining for blanche .
from The Arkansas Leader:
....
"But the Fair Tax is about as telling an issue as you can find. Lincoln’s problem is that she seems only superficially knowledgeable about what the thing would do to the people of Arkansas and thus she is incapable of exploiting it like she should.
For example, she repeated the sponsors’ description of it as a “23 percent sales tax.” Twenty-three percent sounds pretty horrible, but the creators of the scheme fashioned a way to make the tax rate look as low as they could. If you looked at the national sales tax in the same way everyone in the country knows the sales tax, it would be a minimum of 30 percent.
....
To produce the equivalent revenue of the other federal taxes, the national sales tax rate would have to be 30 percent, although the tax would be only 23 percent of the after-tax price of the product.
A hidden tax of that magnitude would produce such enormous distortions that we would have an unstoppable underground economy of black-market sales and services. So the tax rate would have to be adjusted upward to meet current and future levels of expenditures for everything from war to Social Security and Medicare. It would be up to the state government to enforce and collect the tax. No state government wants that burden. The state Revenue Department would need an army of auditors and agents and they still couldn’t enforce it."
Well worth reading at the link:
http://arkansasleader.blogspot.com/2010/08…
You people are wrong about voting for her. Boozman would simply be a worst disaster. That's often what a Democracy is, voting for the person who will do the least amount of harm. John Gray can't win. I didn't want to vote the last time for Bill Clinton, because he was such a sexual idiot, but I did. (He signed off on the Republican plan to cast aside bank regulation, Glass-Steagall, which was one of the primary causes of the financial crisis. I'd say that's worse than a blow job in the Oval Office.) And someone here is right, we are not her constituents, but Boozman won't even know you exist. It's a fool's errand, either way. Ain't Democracy great?
A vote for John Gray will allow me to sleep peacefully at night while this country as I've known it goes down the drain. Good people standing by and doing nothing is bad, but good people continuing to vote for bad people is worse. Neither Blanche Lincoln or John Boozman are the answer.....they brought us to where we are today.
Everything indicates that America will have to fail then rise out of the ashes before we have anything again. This isn't the way I planned to spend my sunset years, but our grandparents didn't ask for the Great Depression either.
Congress has been shit since 1994, then we had 8 years of Bush-Cheney, war, torture, now national bankruptcy and instead of people waking up, they continue to sit on their asses while we slide into the dumper. Apparently everything has to break before the voters realize we can't go on electing crooks who abuse us at every turn.
We're living in Cartoon America today only it isn't funny. We've been outfoxed by Fox and the gullible continue to line up for their daily Fox fix. There's no explaining the greed and ignorance on display across this country. This movie won't end well....hide and watch. Osama is laughing his ass off at us....a whole country killed by cheap box-cutters......who would have thought?
If you vote for a Republican or a Democrat you are to blame. If you vote for someone else you are at least considering an alternative in a time of proven failure running one to three decades depending on your memory or perspective.
Get out of the D or R "precious box" they keep you in like Gollum with a ring. Except you D's and R's are so easily duped you don't even require jewelry worth the price of a boxof Cracker Jacks. Both of your candidates are ugly little excuses for citizens, much less human beings. Just the fact they are both determined to avoid substantive discussion at all costs after so many years in their respective offices should tell you all you need to know... they think you are mean-spirited and stupid and both D and R surfs here are simply proving them correct.
I saw the latest ad campaign from Lincoln this weekend...as if these are real issues.
Billy, Lincoln had her chance and my vote in 2004. I voted for her opponent Lisa Burks in the primary but had only two choices in the general: Blanche or Jim "The Fish" Holt. I won't rehash her "accomplishments" but will say, yes Lincoln is marginally better than Boozman--which is like saying smoking filtered "light" cigs is better than unfiltered Pall Malls.
I will sleep just as well, regardless, because, yes, I know the government is broken, but Lincoln will have to answer, on some issues at least, to the Senate Democratic leadership. There are still some good Senate Democrats, and I don't consider Mark Pryor one of them. You say "but good people continuing to vote for bad people is worse. Neither Blanche Lincoln nor John Boozman are the answer... ." I'm saying that one of them will win, John Gray doesn't have a Chinaman's chance in Hell, and I don't want that winner to be Boozman, not least because he's a Republican. Mr. Gray might be God's own favorite but I still ain't voting for him and I will sleep well knowing that I've done my part in keeping the rich man's whore out of the Senate. And I know you'll read that as Lincoln. Whatever. And I know who her constituents are, but I also know that in our Democratic system an election IS about the choice between the lesser of two evils. I think it has always been that way because it's a rich man's game. St. Vic, long may his tribe increase and prosper, will be missed, but he knows that. Where are the Gene McCarthys, where the George McGoverns? As Yossarian says, echoing Villon writing about beautiful women from the past, "Where are the snows of yesteryear?" (Yossarian said Snowdens, and he meant the airman killed on his bombing run, but it's all the same.) That is a huge digression, but I've been up since before my chickens were and like Samuel Pepys, "Being thus out of temper, I could do little at my office, but went home and eat a bit, and so to my lodging to bed."
What a bunch of naysayers on the Arkansas Blog we have become. Gloom and Doom isn't going to solve a damn thing.
I say let's get behind our President and anybody who will support him while he tries to do what it takes to undo all the damage of Bush-Cheney.
I don't much like Blanche but she is 1000% better than Boozman. If you want to feel smug because you voted for Gray, be my guest, but realize that a vote for him is a throw-away vote. Might as well stay home.
We need to get this country up and moving again. Obama may be a one-term POTUS, but he is trying to do the right thing.
Just to make sure my 11:05 a.m. post isn't misconstrued- I've said before I'm not going to reward Blanche Lincoln with my vote ever again. That's like helping her twist the knife in my own body.
If you can vote for her as the lesser of two evils, good for you. That's not good enough for me any more.
Our progressive votes won't matter this time because come Election Day Miss Blanche will have her head handed to her big time. The good news for Miss Blanche? She'll be working as a much higher paid lobbyist (her current salary as an 'elected lobbyist' is severely limited by federal pay scales) come January. That is, after all, her calling.
Billyed,
Your vote for Blanche Lincoln will simply affirm to the Arkansas and National Democratic Party and leadership that Arkansas voters accept and continue to accept Democratic candidates like Blanche and Mark Pryor or emulate them.
Then in future elections you will get the same candidates again, if not in name then in character.
If you believe a change is necessary, you have to vote for it and stand-up for change or you are assuring the National and State Democratic leaders that the candidate you prefer is a blue-dog corporate DINO. The next time they will look for and promote the same type of candidate you preferred as the Arkansas Democratic candidate so they can win again in Arkansas. Actual Democrat candidates won't need to apply because "historically" they "won't appeal to the Arkansas Democratic base" nor win any Republican crossovers. So the party political professionals will select, finance and promote more blue-dog republican emulations that call themselves Democrats.
However, do as you prefer. It is your right and responsibility.
You too, Kizzy. It's not about me feeling smug anymore than it is about you feeling smug by voting for 'Blank.'
"If you want to feel smug because you voted for Gray, be my guest, but realize that a vote for him is a throw-away vote." Posted by Kizzy
Not smug at all, Kizzy, and voting against both Boozman and Lincoln is no throw-away vote. You only get to vote against one or the other. I get to vote against both and register my opinion that neither serve the interests of average Arkansans.
As a veteran I take my right and responsibility to educate myself about the candidates and vote wisely most seriously. I spent 4 long years earning that right. I'm retired and live comfortably, but I vote for candidates who will do what is best for both Arkansas and the country as a whole. I don't need their help. Many folks do. Neither Boozman nor Lincoln understand that.
But I cannot and will not cast a vote for either major party candidate. At some point you have to tell both major parties enough is enough. Both Boozman and Lincoln are nothing but cheap political whores.
My vote against both Boozman and Lincoln is no more a throw-away vote than your vote for a loser like Blanche Lincoln and all she has done to make life harder for average Arkansans. You do what you have to do and I'll do what I have to do.
Please don't insult my vote and I'll do my best not to insult yours.
Unless John Gray gets really high numbers, I suspect the storyline from Sen. Lincoln's defeat will be that Arkansas is turning red, that the Muslim in the White House with his socialist programs is really disliked in the Natural State, and that, for the moment, the Tea Party is in ascendancy.
But since we can't control the storylines, I certainly respect those who intend to vote their principles. One thing is clear is this blog community: no minds are being changed. And that think that probably is tribute to the considered, principled views expressed here.
Oh, and if that *is* the storyline, I don't expect it will nudge Mark Pryor to the left. Quite the oppoosite. Though some may not think that's possible.
The kizzy's and Brantleys of the world simply cannot list substantive reasons Blanche is better... and when they try they are always riding the thinnest of margins at best.
We realists, out of kindness, usually stop listing their failings at a handful to a dozen or so of hundreds or more failings... failings which ignore rule of law, the constitution, kill and maim millions from needless troop deaths to basic health care denied to stealing dedicated funds from hungry children and giving it all to fat farmers.... while working in tandem with Republicans on any number of national looting ponzi schemes... be they estate taxation or flat sales or VAT taxes which all harm the lower 95 percent while making the rich, richer than ever before in history.
There is no opposition with both major parties today... just really really bad theatre.
This goes for the president as well... the man is a liar and a con man(churian) with a decent vocabulary... there is absolutely no fact based evidence to prove otherwise... all y'all defenders quit even trying (with facts) months ago.
If any of y'all would just step back listen to your or your own party/candidate sales tactics in the form of trying to sell a simple household appliance or auto you would quickly realize you are worse than the most stereotypical used lemon auto salesman. You've got nothing to work with but irrational defensiveness, fear of a lesser-more evil which always results in more evil... and a blatantly obviously dangerous product... a product that hasn't been right for decades... and isn't even pretending to admit mistakes or try something new. In fact they are both doubling down on what got us here in their own predictable ways.
To many citizens have been robbed of your ability to recognize good, much less advocate for it. Maybe you should spend more time listening to or at least not belittling those who are not.
No offense intended or taken by my comment re people feeling smug. I fully admit that I intend to hold my nose when I push the button for Blanche. Sometimes it does come down to voting for the lesser of two evils. Boozman may win, but he won't do it with my help.
Billyed, Lincoln was going to lose with or without a Green Party candidate on the ballot.
There is a Green party candidate running for the 2nd congressional district and I WILL NOT be voting for him. Griffin, sadly, has a shot at Vic Snyder's seat and I for one will NOT be helping him out by voting Green.
I will be donating money to John Gray (again) because I like his views.
Call me a single issue voter but health care is a big issue to me. Joyce Elliott has NOT come out in support of a single-payer/Medicare for all system and for that she WILL NOT be receiving a donation from me.
I hear you Sound Policy.
I think it's a waste of a vote if in the end you feel that politician won't do right by you.
Joyce Elliott is not perfect and I do not feel my vote for her is a waste of a vote.
Voting for Blanche Lincoln is a waste of a vote because she AND Boozman are not working for working class people's interests.
Why most people in Arkansas cannot figure that out is beyond me (I'm kidding...I know why).
The evidence is right in front of them whenever the AR Dem Gazette shows how the two corporate wh**es vote and you can go online to see what bills they are for or against.
Of course I know that takes more than just listening to the local news stations and glancing at the front page for little headlines.
::sigh::
If the people of Arkansas want to stay poor, they need to vote for Boozman or Lincoln.
I guess we're looking at more years of misery for working class people.
Thanks a lot Arkansas.
I used to think Blanche Lincoln had an open mind and was not just out for getting elected. Oh well. After the ad I just saw on 40/29 at 10:17 on September 6th, she has proved me wrong. I had emailed her and Mark Pryor many times explaining to them the logicality of the Fair Tax. They both emailed me back saying that they would look into it if it ever got out of committee. Now, Blanche Lincoln is trying to make John Boozman look bad for supporting it. The Blanche Lincoln ad says that it would “replace current taxes with a 23% national tax on everything we buy." Yes, it would be 30% tax taken at the register (on new goods only though—items can only be taxed once thus yard sales, antiques, flea markets, re-sale shops, etc would not be taxed at all); however, these are some other things that everyone here needs to understand about the Fair Tax: 1) citizens would get a pre-bate on all necessities up to the poverty level (family of 4 would get over $500 per month to pay the 30% taxes on necessities), 2) illegal aliens and the underground economy pays federal taxes just like the rest of us (there would be no more tax evasion under the Fair Tax than there is now and it would be easier for the IRS to find these people out), 3) rich people would pay 30% taxes on their new yachts, fancy cars, etc, 4) experts say that it will increase the economy by 8% in just the first year, 5) we wouldn’t have to pay FICA, Medicare, or Social Security taxes and neither would our employers so prices of all products will go down by the 20% imbedded taxes that we already pay, so we will not be paying much more for the products than we do now except we will be able to keep all of our money and thus have more money to spend. Those are just a few things. Blanche Lincoln attacking this just shows me that she doesn't care about what is good for America. It shows me that she just cares about getting elected. The Fair Tax is not a Democrat or Republican piece of legislation, but yet Blanche Lincoln has attacked John Boozman for supporting it. I hope everyone will see through any ad that talks about a “23% federal tax” and check out the entire truth at www.fairtax.org. I have read everything on the website and tons of stuff that politicians and other people say against the Fair Tax, and it just shows me that they and you don’t understand what it is and what it will do. I am a mathematician, and it is very sound legislation and is good for America. Blanche Lincoln is only hurting her chances of getting the votes of Arkansans who do their own research and think for themselves. You can email me at goodsmellflowers@hotmail.com, and I will be happy to give you a one page summary of everything on the Fair Tax website from a Mathematician’s perspective.
On election night they will come here. Drunk on their success, they will not care -- they won't even pause to acknowledge -- that many here dislike Lincoln as much as they do. Fireblanchelincoln, reincarnated, will lead the way. Harvey, under a new name, will weigh in. And in their raucous revelry, they will have a message for Mark Pryor:
Arkansans want tough immigration laws, like Arizona. We don't want law-school deference to the First Amendment; we want the filthy Muslims to acknowledge that this is a Christian country. And we don't want the freaks and perverts to change the meaning of marriage. If gays are in the military, they better kept their Godless ways to themselves. We don't want government spending and socialism. We don't want health care if the government plays a major role. We want our government to acknowledge our Christian origins. We don't want liberals weighing both sides like Elena Kagen. We want the America of the 1950s. That is why we elected Boozman.
Are you listening, Mark Pryor? they will say.
Are you listening Dustin McDaniel?
We are the Majority. We are moral. And you cross us at your peril.
You are welcome to try again in six years, Democrats, they will say. But bring us smaller government, less spending, and more Christianity.
Then we can talk.
And most likely, the Democrats will listen.
"To many citizens have been robbed of your ability to recognize good, much less advocate for it. Maybe you should spend more time listening to or at least not belittling those who are not."
At the risk of sounding as though I'm belittling, eureka, this is malarkey. The election is not rocket surgery, it's just another stupid exercise in participatory Democracy. Not the original Greek version, where everyone participated (well, not the slaves ... or, uh, the women folk, but that's redundant). Not the Roman kind, where the candidate had to stand up and show his battle scars. It's the American kind, where the man or woman who has the most money wins. Why the candidates don't just stand up and open their checkbooks and we skip all this messy campaigning I've never figured out.
Thank you, blue stockings, for the website. I actually read everything on there. make sure you read the "correction" from Boortz under the "But the Fair Tax will lower Prices" section. It actually proves my point for why the figure will be a 30% tax at the register and why the price will go down around 22%. If you read the website given by Blue Stockings, then you will get a real good understanding of both sides of the Fair Tax, but you need to read the links in the website because they make it sound like the "correction" proves their point, but when you go to it, it doesn't. The higher percentage of tax at the register from opponents of change does not take into consideration the amount of embedded taxes that will no longer be present in products. The factcheck website also shows agreement among scholars that the Fair Tax would grow the economy. They also use quotes such as "probably". By the way, blue stockings, I hope you don't teach math if you feel like the website you gave backs up Blanche Lincoln's view. Read all the article including the corrections on the bottom and the American's For Fair Taxation rebuttal letter, and then you will be able to make an informed decision on the Fair Tax Act. I feel that this website http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_…
informs everyone pretty well. Another thing that I don’t agree with is that they tout the “bipartisan President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform,” as giving the gospel truth; however, it is from the government therefore it should be read with skepticism just like everything else. They do a great job at giving the Fair Tax Act's point of view to counteract it if you read all of the article.
Here is a four minute video also giving the fallacies of this type of "23% tax" ad that Blanche Lincoln put out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfEjcnS-244
The video also gives a FactCheck.org quote from April 2010 which says that this type of adverstising is not true. The quote is from http://www.factcheck.org/2010/04/another-f…
"But this ad is quite misleading because it fails to mention that the FairTax proposal would also repeal the federal income tax entirely and do away with the Internal Revenue Service. It would also eliminate gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare and self-employment taxes. But anyone viewing the DCCC’s ad could easily conclude that Burns favored slapping a 23 percent sales tax on top of all existing taxes, which is not true."
I never explain the fair tax as a 23% inclusive tax because that is confusing. However, the Fair Tax advocates are not trying to be deceptive. I went to www.fairtax.org and read the details on why they call it that and it cleared it up for me. So, as a mathemetician, I prefer to say that it is a 30% sales tax at the register on all new items and give all the other reasons why the 30% sales tax will easily replace all federal taxes currently levied on the American People, and I readily cite reasons why the 2005 Advisory panel saying that it would have to be a 34% sales tax is incorrect. However, I also don't mind saying that even a 34% national sales tax as long as it follows the rules outlined at www.fairtax.org will be much better than what we have now. The pre-bate, everyone paying taxes and only citizens getting the pre-bate, us keeping all of our paychecks to be able to spend more money, products prices being exported cheaper because no more embedded taxes, and our prices being more competitive with foreign goods are all great reasons to support the Fair Tax and contact Blanche Lincoln to let her know that she had better get on board with this idea and quit letting the Democratic National Commitee run her campaign, or she get left behind. I hope she wises up.
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