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Submit a Research Needs Statement about transportation and pandemics

As all aspects of transportation deal with the unfolding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are research needs, gaps, and potential ways to leverage innovation revealing themselves across all modes, systems, and disciplines in transportation. In keeping with the mission of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide trusted, timely, impartial, and evidence-based information exchange and research, TRB is issuing an urgent and directed call for Research Needs Statements sp...




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Scouter Code of Conduct

Thanks to Bryan Wendell, author of "Bryan on Scouting" for the following explanation of the Scouter Code of Conduct: We ask our Scouts to follow the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Adult leaders, though, are held to an additional standard. It’s called the Scouter Code of Conduct. Think of it as a checklist of expectations for adult conduct in the Scouting...




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30 Day Challenge for Scouts BSA

Now there is a "30 Day Challenge" for Scouts BSA. Scout, Tenderfoot, and Second Class challenge sheets are available.   ...




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Croutons




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Outreach




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Genetics Society of America honors outstanding contributions to genetics with 2020 GSA Awards

The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce the 2020 recipients of its annual awards for distinguished service in the field of genetics. The awardees were nominated and selected by their colleagues and will be recognized with presentations at The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), held April 22-26, 2020, in the metro Washington, DC area.




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Your Pet Loss Diaries'Theresa, Zeus & Shimma'Another Year Without You Oct 2013 xxxxOct 27, 2013

Dear Shim Shim, I hate this month, it's so miserable and even more so cos you passed on Halloween eve. I remember it all so vividly, your loss and Zeusy's




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Ask A Librarian: What About Controlled Digital Lending?

From a friend: Please explain to me your enthusiasm for controlled digital lending. Please let me know what you think...




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Ask a Librarian: Older person wanting to learn about tech

Subtitled: What’s the Yahoo! Internet Life for this generation? From a friend: A nice older lady asked for advice on...




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As More Students Sit Online Exams Under Lockdown Conditions, Remote Proctoring Services Carry Out Intrusive Surveillance

The coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdown in most countries has forced major changes in the way people live, work and study. Online learning is now routine for many, and is largely unproblematic, not least because it has been used for many years. However, online testing is more tricky, since there is a concern by many teachers that students might use their isolated situation to cheat during exams. One person's problem is another person's opportunity, and there are a number of proctoring services that claim to stop or at least minimize cheating during online tests. One thing they have in common is that they tend to be intrusive, and show little respect for the privacy of the people they monitor.

As an article in The Verge explains, some employ humans to watch over students using Zoom video calls. That's reasonably close to a traditional setup, where a teacher or proctor watches students in an exam hall. But there are also webcam-based automated approaches, as explored by Vox:

For instance, Examity also uses AI to verify students' identities, analyze their keystrokes, and, of course, ensure they're not cheating. Proctorio uses artificial intelligence to conduct gaze detection, which tracks whether a student is looking away from their screens.

It's not just in the US that these extreme surveillance methods are being adopted. In France, the University of Rennes 1 is using a system called Managexam, which adds a few extra features: the ability to detect "inappropriate" Internet searches by the student, the use of a second screen, or the presence of another person in the room (original in French). The Vox articles notes that even when these systems are deployed, students still try to cheat using new tricks, and the anti-cheating services try to stop them doing so:

it's easy to find online tips and tricks for duping remote proctoring services. Some suggest hiding notes underneath the view of the camera or setting up a secret laptop. It's also easy for these remote proctoring services to find out about these cheating methods, so they're constantly coming up with countermeasures. On its website, Proctorio even has a job listing for a "professional cheater" to test its system. The contract position pays between $10,000 and $20,000 a year.

As the arms race between students and proctoring services escalates, it's surely time to ask whether the problem isn't people cheating, but the use of old-style, analog testing formats in a world that has been forced by the coronavirus pandemic to move to a completely digital approach. Rather than spending so much time, effort and money on trying to stop students from cheating, maybe we need to come up with new ways of measuring what they have learnt and understood -- ones that are not immune to cheating, but where cheating has no meaning. Obvious options include "open book" exams, where students can use whatever resources they like, or even abolishing formal exams completely, and opting for continuous assessment. Since the lockdown has forced educational establishments to re-invent teaching, isn't it time they re-invented exams too?

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter, Diaspora, or Mastodon.




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What does the Book of Acts teach about Forgiveness?

Lots of people are very confused about the topic of Forgiveness in the Bible. This study looks at what the book of Acts teaches about forgiveness, and in this way, we see a glimpse of what the Bible teaches about forgiveness. This study is an excerpt from from my Gospel Dictionary online course.




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#440989 - Brussels Sprouts Alfredo Recipe



Low Carb Brussels Sprouts Alfredo is a creamy and cheesy side dish loaded with bacon which quickly cooks in the Instant Pot pressure cooker.

craving more? check out TasteSpotting




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#441001 - Chinese Bean Sprouts Stir Fry Recipe



Try some homestyle Chinese with this easy, healthy, and delicious bean sprout stir fry that takes just minutes to put on your dinner table!

craving more? check out TasteSpotting




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When the chips are down, thank goodness for software engineers: AI algorithms 'outpace Moore's law'

ML eggheads, devs get more bang for their buck, say OpenAI duo

Machine-learning algorithms are improving in performance at a rate faster than that of the underlying computer chips, we're told.…




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MongoDB and Rockset link arms to figure out SQL-to-NoSQL application integration

NoSQL, no problem for Facebook-originating RocksDB

MongoDB and fellow database biz Rockset have integrated products in a bid to make it easier to work with the NoSQL database through standard relational database query language SQL.…




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Zoom bomb: Vid conf biz to snap up Keybase as not-a-PR-move move gets out of hand

Things will change forever, nods ex-Facebooker Alex Stamos

Video conferencing software biz Zoom has bought Keybase in a surprise move just weeks after hiring Facebook's one-time CSO.…




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Need some weekend reading? How about the source code for UK, Australia's coronavirus contact-tracing apps

Problems aside, no one is sure how useful phone-based tracking will be

The NHSX, a technology group within the UK government's National Health Service, has released the source code for its Android and iOS COVID-19 coronavirus contact-tracing apps in an effort to allay privacy concerns and improve the code.…




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11/03/13 - Perform without an audience




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2/9/14 - Out of boredom




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3/16/14 - The spark has gone out of your eyes




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9/14/14 - After about seven years




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03/16/15 - Things I liked about school




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01/17/16 - Out there creating memories




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07/16/17 - Now that I think about it




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7/1/18 - Out of the mists




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Featured - My Biggest Lab Mistake (and why I don't leave home without socks)

My grad schools days are long behind me, and as time goes on, my memories of the pain and suffering become more of a blur. But, there was one day that I will never forget.  Not only did I lose an entire days work, but I was lucky to avoid serious injury. It was the day I made the biggest mistake I ever made in the lab.My graduate school was in a southern area of the country where obnoxio; (read more)

Source: Suzy - Discipline: Misc




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Far Cooler and More Memorable Than Most Mother’s Day Cards: A Questionnaire for Kids & Moms to Fill Out

What expression does — did — your mom use all the time? What skill did you learn from her?  What does (or did) she encourage you to do? These are great questions for any mom and child, whether the kid is 5 or 50. And if you click here, you can print out a very […]




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Expanding Miami Zika Zone: Time To Wipe Out Invasive Mosquito

The Miami Beach danger zone for mosquitoes carrying Zika virus is expanding. This isn't just about microcephaly in developing fetuses. Since Zika attacks neural progenitor cells it might cause lasting damage in adults too. A case of acute sensory polyneuropathy in an adult caused symptoms that lasted for months. It is suspected that Zika causes inflammation of sensory nerves and possibly an auto-immune response. So Zika is bad. What should we do about it? Wipe out the mosquitoes that carry it. Totally drive them to extinction. These mosquitoes are invasive in the Western Hemisphere. If a mosquito causes major health problems for the human species we should just wipe it out. Wiping out a mosquito species could be done with...




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Genetic Engineering To Lower Risks And Assure Child Outcomes

In a nutshell: editing offspring DNA at the embryo stage will eventually offer so many advantages that lots of people will cave in on some advantage. Don't want to make your kid smarter? Make him or her better looking? Don't want that? How about a throwing arm competitive in major league baseball? Opposed to that? How about avoiding passing along your terrible allergies, need for braces, terrible eyesight, tendency to get depressed or perhaps anxiety attacks or eating disorders? Lots of ways to be persuaded to step over the line once the tech becomes safe. If asked whether one would genetically engineer one's offspring today many people would answer "No" to the hypothetical question. But today choosing genes for your...




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Dodo le mouton et le landau mystérieux.

Contes de fées aux enfants - Dodo le mouton et le landau mystérieux.




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Bonne route - les amis !

Contes de fées aux enfants - Bonne route, les amis !.





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It’s not all about muscle: fibroadipogenic progenitors contribute to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) results from expression of the full-length double homeobox 4 (DUX4-FL) retrogene in skeletal muscle. However, even in cases of severe FSHD the presence of DUX4 is barely detectable. In this issue of the JCI, Bosnakovski et al. used an inducible, muscle-specific human DUX4 to reproduce the low-level, sporadic DUX4 expression of human FSHD muscle as well the myopathology seen in human FSHD disease. Notably, dysregulated fibroadipogenic progenitors accumulated in affected muscles, thus providing a mechanism for the replacement of muscle by fibrosis and fat.




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My 3 favorite books about Japan

Being back in a cold and rainy climate reminds me of Tokyo. No, seriously. Washington has four seasons, just like Tokyo did, and just like Hawaii didn’t. I suppose that’s what has been making me feel really nostalgic these days. I’m in a place with the weather of Japan, but way less awesome. I have seriously owned around seventeen kajillion books about Japan in my lifetime, and I’ve given away, donated, or sold back almost the same amount. Some of them I bought, some of them were given to me, and I even found one or two. But the thing is that I have moved so many times that the only ones I’ve kept are those that I absolutely, positively, do not want to live without. (Well, maybe I could live without them, but then would I really be living?) Anyays! Right now, I only own three books in English about Japan, and these are them, and here is why I really like them:   1. The Otaku Encyclopedia: An Insider’s Guide to the Subculture of Cool Japan Disclaimer: A friend of mine wrote this, but that’s not why I’m recommending it.  Pat has written a bunch of books and papers, and they’re all great, but this is the one that I wish that every single otaku in the world could have. What is it? It’s seriously a dictionary, but not the kind of dictionary that we used when I was a little kid to look up stuff for our school essays. I never had a dictionary like this. You probably know what Hatsune Miku is, but do you know what a Heta-uma is? How about a kuchi-paku? Guess where you can find all of that information that you didn’t know that you needed to have? In this freaking book. I know a fair amount about Otaku culture. I lived and breathed it in Japan for almost a whole decade. But I didn’t know half of the stuff that Patrick wrote about in his book, and that’s why you need it. Plus, it’s got a lot of color, a cute mascot, and some really cool exclusive interviews. You can even learn about Tenimyu!   2. Tokyo on Foot So. I saw this book in the book store in Japan, even though it’s written in English. Maybe that’s because although there is a story in it, it’s mostly drawings and you don’t need to be able to read to get the gist of it. It was written/drawn by an artist that came to stay in Tokyo while his girlfriend was there for an internship. He spent almost every day of his six months there wandering the city with colored pencils and a pad of paper and drawing what he saw. Not only are his drawings aces, I absolutely love his little comments about places and people and things. Right after I bought this book (years ago), I was so enamored that I tried emulating his style with less than stellar results. Me and colored pencils don’t mix, which kind of makes this book even more cool (somehow)! Part of the reason that I really enjoyed this book was because it made me nostalgic for my own first days in Tokyo. I remembered thinking a lot of the same things. I just wish that I’d been good with colored pencils (and had enough confidence to write a book). You can read about my first year here on my blog, though! Honestly, I don’t think that this book is as much a must-have for otaku as the other two, but if art and impressions of Japan is your thing, I think you will love it as much as I do. I seriously only brought two English-language books back with me when I moved out of Japan, and this was one. The other was an ancient copy of The Mysterious Island that my father got when he was a kid and passed on to me.   3. Tokyo Geek’s Guide Aaaaalright. I was really, really skeptical about this one. I’ve seen a hundred other “guides to Tokyo” for otaku, but I didn’t keep any of them. This one, though? I am not only keeping it forever, I am going to give a copy to any of my friends traveling to Japan on their own to go otaku-shopping. Holy cow, I wish this book had existed when I first moved to Japan, because it covers things that it took me years of living there to find on my own! It’s a bona-fide travel guide, minus all of the generic stuff that you can find in a normal travel guide. It doesn’t focus on hotels or nice restaurants. Instead, it lists maid cafes, anime shops, and AWESOME stuff like Swallowtail (don’t know what that is? You need to get this book and find out because it is awesome!). The book is split into districts of Tokyo, and lists otaku-related info about each area along with detailed maps and how to get to all of these places. It’s kind of big and heavy for a travel guide, but it’s seriously the only one that I’m interested in having with me next time that I travel to Tokyo. There are places in it that I haven’t even been to. Oh, and bonus? There is a whole section in the latter part of the book talking about Geeky festivals like Comicket and JUMP Festa. I REALLY, REALLY WISH THAT THIS HAD BEEN AROUND WHEN I MOVED TO JAPAN. It’s 14 years too late for that, but not too late for my next trip, and not too late for yours! It’s also in full color. If you’re reading this, I think that you will probably want this book. GO BUY IT.   This has absolutely NOT been a paid advertisement. I am just a geeky girl honestly recommending things that she likes to you that she thinks you need. :3 See you again soon la la la!

(2,903 geeks have read this)




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The History of Cartography’s Fourth Volume, Now (Almost) Out





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Lifeguard romance out now!

It’s release day for my new MM romance! My last release was Christmas 2018, so I’m very excited to finally have a new book for you. When I was in Australia earlier this year, I got hooked on Bondi Rescue, and this (completely fictional!) romance between a trainee and an older, very closeted lifeguard was born. […]




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Apple Preparing Retail Employees to Return to Work With Tips From South Korea Reopening

Apple in mid-April reopened Apple Garosugil, its lone store in South Korea, located in the Seoul's Gangnam District.


Apple's South Korea reopening has served as a test ground for further store reopenings, and Apple created an instructional video on reopening practices that's now being shared with other retail employees around the world as they prepare to reopen stores. We're not able to share the video, but it provides a good overview of the measures Apple is putting in place to safely operate retail locations.

Retail employees are following a strict set of guidelines that very heavily emphasize social distancing of two meters (or six feet in the United States). Apple is taking the following measures:


  • Prior to when work starts, all employees undergo a health screening complete with a temperature check, with the results logged in a daily spreadsheet.

  • Daily briefings are done in the mornings in the Forum area at Apple Stores, with employees making sure to sit at least two meters apart.

  • Prior to being allowed in the store, customers are also given a temperature check.

  • All ‌Apple Stores‌ are providing hand sanitizer, which customers are encouraged to use.

  • Stores are limiting the number of people inside, forming lines with customers waiting at least two meters apart.

  • Products purchased by customers or returned after repair are delivered from the back in a relay system, being handed off from employee to employee to allow each person to stay in a separated zone without back and forth.

  • Product specialists and Genius Bar staff are positioning themselves across tables away from customers in order to maintain distance.

  • In the forum area, employees sit one cube away from customers they're interacting with.

  • Employees are encouraged to communicate with one another through the Talk app to cut down on unnecessary movement within the store.

  • Half of the workstations in the back are empty, with employees working at alternating workstations to keep more distance between them.

  • Tables have been rearranged to put products on corners to prevent customers from being near one another.

  • Products on tables have been reduced.

  • Communal tables and couches have been removed from employee break rooms and have been replaced with individual chairs evenly spaced about the room.

  • Operating hours are reduced.

  • Employees are all wearing face masks.


After opening its South Korea store on April 16, Apple has reopened its sole store in Vienna, Austria, and 21 stores located in Australia. Stores in Germany will begin reopening on May 11, and all of the newly opened locations are following many of the same guidelines listed above to keep both customers and employees safe.

There's no word yet on when Apple retail stores in the United States will start to reopen, but Apple CEO Tim Cook last week said that stores in North America will begin reopening starting in the month of May.

Apple plans to evaluate data and make reopening decisions on a city by city, county by county basis, following local guidelines and recommendations before opening up a store.
Related Roundup: Apple Stores

This article, "Apple Preparing Retail Employees to Return to Work With Tips From South Korea Reopening" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums




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Furry Fandom and the Internet forced back to roots by viral outbreak

The internet was seen as a major catalyst for the furry fandom finding one another during the times before we held conventions. During that earlier period in the 1990s, conventions and meets were rare, and finding one another was done mostly through the chat rooms and message boards of the past. There was no bandwidth for video or sharing major animation projects, therefore most of our intimate conversations were textual.

For many younger furries, it was a time that was lost in the annals of a distant history. Instead they found themselves joining in amongst a wave of growing conventions being held in various places around the world on any given weekend. Ones where those in custom fursuits march out in the streets openly rather than feeling a stifling isolation of being cooped up in hotel spaces, with a handful of home made creations, being wary of a hostile media looking for a freak show.

Coming out of 2019, it seemed that the time where furry was just an internet thing was fully behind it. However a series of unfortunate events were in line for 2020, a year that has led humanity to be forced into their rooms by an irate Mother Nature as an easily spread virus has forced governments around the globe to take drastic measures to slow its spread and put strict limits on social gatherings. A situation which has forced both the furry fandom, and the internet that brought it together, back to their roots.

read more




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Hillary Faces Questions About Cash Donations to Clinton Foundation

Hillary Faces Questions About Cash Donations to Clinton Foundation. Continue reading




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Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement to the United States Senate May 12 2015

The Senate considered H.R. 1314, the legislative vehicle for trade promotion authority reauthorization.?It would give the president broad fast-track authority when negotiating trade agreements and require Congress to consider treaties without an amendment process. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against this bill before the Senate on May 12, 2015. Continue reading



  • Accountants CPA Hartford
  • Articles
  • H.R. 1314 the legislative vehicle for trade promotion authority reauthorization
  • May 12 2015
  • Senator Bernie Sanders
  • Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement to the United States Senate May 12 2015
  • TPA
  • TPP
  • trade promotion authority
  • Trans Pacific Partnership
  • transcript
  • United States Senate
  • video

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Is Bernie Sanders out in far-left field or are both political parties out in far-right field

Have you ever observed the mating dance of the birds of paradise? The male moves dramatically, and in response, the female inches away, but ultimately the male conquers the female, and achieves the purpose of this ritualistic, instinctive dance. Well, … Continue reading




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Bernie Sanders calls out Hillary Clinton to announce her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement

Bernie Sanders calls out Hillary Clinton to announce her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement; however, Hillary Clinton refuses to reveal her position, hoping that the agreement will be passed and she won't have to take a position. Continue reading




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Debbie Lusignan the Sane Progressive calls out Bernie Sanders for failing to contest the election fraud in the Democratic primaries

Bernie Sanders would have already won this nominating contest if we had received an accurate accounting of the vote. It is deeply troubling the Senator would be sending out surrogates to talk about his allegiance to the Democratic party and Clinton in general in the face of the Party instituting theft against its own constituents. It is no mystery HOW to win. Count the votes and contest fraud. A tough Sane Progressive call out. Continue reading




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Ralph Nader talks about the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Primary on C-Span May 4 2016

Ralph Nader on Campaign 2016 Ralph Nader talked about his upcoming book, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think, as well as the latest developments in the 2016 presidential election. Continue reading




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JAW-DROPPING Evidence Of Election Fraud & Media Blackout

The evidence is adding up that this election is a SHAM! Exit polls do not add up on the Democratic side and regularly predict better results for Bernie than the voting machines are telling us! The mainstream media won't even come close to touching this, and in fact they're even attacking Lee Camp for bringing it up. Don't miss this segment of Redacted Tonight! Continue reading




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Jill Stein is right about our foreign policy and Hillary Clinton is all wrong!

Unlike Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein would not continue to expand our military budget and presence in the world but would curtail both, saving American taxpayers trillions of dollars and saving the world millions, if not billions, of lives. Listen to her present a rational, humane foreign policy in this interview on The Young Turks Town Hall meeting held October 21, 2016. Continue reading




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Jill Stein is right about our foreign policy and Hillary Clinton is all wrong!

In an interview with Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks TYT show on October, 21, 2016, Jill Stein was asked what would she do to ensure the protection of Estonia from an invasion from Russia. I found her response to … Continue reading



  • Accountants CPA Hartford

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Hillary Clinton and the corporate Democrats lost because Donald Trump ran to their left and outflanked them so don’t blame Jill Stein or sexism or racism. Video and transcript.

There's got to be a reason for the Democrats to suppose to exist. And the reason the Democrats are supposed to exist is to be an opposition party to the Republicans. If you're in bed with the same people, taking money from the same people, you're no longer an opposition party. There's no reason for you to exist. And guess what? Don't be surprised that people don't vote for you. Continue reading




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Donald Trump sells out supporters by selecting executives from Goldman Sachs for key cabinet posts to regulate our economy

Donald Trump sold out his supporters and the 99% by selecting Wall Streeters and war mongers for his top cabinet positions. Continue reading