Dr. Stein, Investments, and Ethics

The other day, the website DailyBeast published a story hit piece about Jill Stein's investments. The gist of it was that she takes public positions on environmental issues that are contradicted by her investments. For instance:

Stein has invested $995,011 to $2.2 million in funds such as the Vanguard 500 fund that maintain significant stakes in Exxon and other energy companies like Chevron, Duke Energy, Conoco Phillips, and Toho Gas, a Japanese company that engages in the sale of natural gas, tar, and coke, a fuel made from coal.

Wow. That's pretty damning, right? Or is it? Let's take a look. First, we have Jill's response:

“If Mr. Ali is truly interested in conflicts of interest of political candidates and their families, where is his disclosure on the conflict of interest posed by Chelsea Clinton's position as a director of the corporate owner of the Daily Beast, IAC? He has created an imagined conflict of interest, perhaps to distract from the very real, harmful conflicts of interest in the Clintons’ pay-to-play schemes, back-room fundraising, and quarter-million dollar speeches for the predatory banks, health insurance industry, and fossil fuel tycoons, who have directly benefited from Hillary Clinton’s policy record as Senator and Secretary of State, as well as from Bill Clinton’s actions as President.”

So that's pretty interesting, Chelsea owns the Daily Beast. Hmmm. I wonder what other Clinton conflicts of interest there are in this story.

According to CBS Marketwatch, in 2015, Hillary had all of her investment portfolio wrapped up into just one mutual fund. A fund which Warren Buffett suggested for his wife to choose. That fund is the Vanguard 500.

Returning to Dr. Stein's statement:

Mr. Ali has failed to show a conflict of interest in Dr. Stein’s investments, as her policy positions have consistently opposed the interests of the companies that form a portion of most index and mutual fund profiles.

The Beast hit piece insinuates that there is an inherent conflict of interest in Dr. Stein's investments, or at the very least a serious ethical misjudgement.

Dr. Stein's financial interests are completely at odds with her policy positions.

On the other hand, Hillary is invested in the *same* fund but has policy positions that endorse fracking and an incremental approach to climate change. One works against her own self interests and the other works for them. Now where is the conflict of interest and ethical lapse, really?

I'm not saying Jill shouldn't be criticised, it's just that this article does a piss poor job at disclosure. Significant information was omitted, and frankly it kind of reeks of desperation.

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from your link:

Like many Americans who hold retirement accounts, pension funds, or who invest in the American economy, my finances are largely held in index funds or mutual funds over which I have no control in management or decision-making. Sadly, most of these broad investments are as compromised as the American economy - massively degraded as it is by the fossil fuel, defense and finance industries. Over the years I have taken steps to divest from the worst of these holdings - transferring my checking and savings accounts from Bank of America largely to a credit union, and divesting from GE, Dupont and Merck stocks I had been given decades ago.

While I have explored “green” mutual funds, I found their investments in fracking and large scale biofuels not much better than the non-green funds. I have not yet found the mutual funds that represent my goals of advancing the cause of people, planet and peace. Admittedly I have not spent a lot of time researching elusive ethical investments. I prefer using my time fighting for social, economic and ecological transformation, and recycling capitalist money into the fight to do so.

I was fortunate to have inherited over a half-million dollars from my parents. I have used this resource to help build the social and political movements needed for transformative change. I used this money to jump start my presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2012, statewide campaigns before that, and to help build the Green Party -- because, unfortunately, the most green, just investments won’t count for squat if the corporations and the super rich funding the Democrats and Republicans are still calling the shots. I also used this money to support my work with radical non profits, including the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, and the Global Climate Convergence.

Of note, my husband and I hold separate investments that reflect somewhat different approaches to money management. These separate holdings are reported as such in my FEC filing.

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Unsurprisingly, her response is superb. In my own feeble way, I touched on some of it when I commented "What would you have her do?", and "This is the world we live in". Also unsurprisingly, another commenter got vociferous in their disdain for my comment (the term "fucking hypocrite" was used). Funny how people deride Stein supporters for being "purity" nuts, then attack her for not being "pure" enough.

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For years, the so-called centrists derided the left for allegedly being fixated on one issue--though I never figured out what that one issue was, since I have at least 20 on which I'm focused. Then Sanders runs and the only thing they can think about is his F to D- rating from the NRA, which supposedly made him too pro-gun for them. Funny, though: they still love Park Avenue Howard Dean, who got himself an A rating from the NRA as Governor of Vermont.

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sojourns's picture

That unwitting, unfortunate creature, Chelsea has been the chief honcho of The Daily Beast for quite some time. The Daily Beast is owned by these people: http://iac.com/about/overview

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

http://iac.com/about/leadership/board-directors/barry-diller

From October 1984 to April 1992, Mr. Diller served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox, Inc. and was responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company in addition to Fox's motion picture operations.

Uh-huh, thanks for that? No, just no. Stop these people now please stop the madness. mmph

Peace

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

the DailyBeast could come up with, that confirms to me that Jill is one of the rarest of politicians -- an honest person.

Most people only focus on the mutual funds historical returns, not on the fund portfolio which constantly churns through companies. Now if it was the Vanguard Oil & Gas Fund, I might be inclined the think about it.

And Chelsea is on the DailyBeast's parent company board -- ding ding ding , we have a winner. More Clinton propaganda. The Clinton's have more tentacles than the Great Vampire Squid.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

I just posted a very similar ding dang comment, who directs Chelsea? Fox News guy.

whiskey tango foxtrot

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It owns proportional shares of the five hundred largest corporations in the USA. It's hard to imagine a fund less concentrated.
It's a set it and forget it investment.

Every Clinton is scum!

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Agreed, this is a stupid line of attack, its extremely hard to find a mutual find built around a diversified growth portfolio that doesn't have oil stocks in it, Even if you do find one, their is no guaranty that it stays that way as the fund manager can change its investments at any time without notice.

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Hawkfish's picture

Part of the problem is that "clean" is in the eye of the buyer. The Calvert group used to have a site called "Know what you own" for checking the contents of mutual funds. I finally gave up on purity and settled for a low level of filth (I had a small coop and we were looking for pension plan components).

It's all the old "purity" argument that they used to throw at Bernie. Formally it's a fallacy called "false dichotomy". This is why everyone should learn classical rhetoric - not only is this stuff not new, but the frigging Greeks had names for it all.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Hawkfish's picture

From a campaign email this morning:

But because The Daily Beast is read by a lot of people it has affected our donations, which was their plan. Our contributions have dropped from $17,000 a day to about $3,000 a day.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

I expect the drop is a coincidence: many people are done with the election and donating to a campaign at this time seems rather pointless.

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Hawkfish's picture

Which is too bad - they have to keep campaigning until the bitter end.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Bollox Ref's picture

take on the financial arrangements of the Clinton Foundation.

Should be quite a read.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

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Mark from Queens's picture

Was just looking for article with mention of Chelsea's concerns of impropriety at the Clinton Foundation and came upon this WaPo article, "Inside ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’: Hacked memo reveals intersection of charity and personal income."

Holy shit, the second video, which I'm sure is as closely cropped as possible for the desired effect of showing the biggest possible crowd, just reminds me of how little support there really is for Her, how stilted the appearances truly are and how Emperor's New Clothes this whole thing really is.

What a Great Fraud being perpetuated on the American people. It's a week and a half out and she still can't draw an impressive crowd, while Bernie was routinely packing stadiums with little effort at all. They're forcing her into the WH, because too much money to be made by too many grifters rests on the outcome.

A fucking sham.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Manipulating impressions and manufacturing consent is what the media has done since at least 1968. The job of the media is to convince us to see things the way TPTB want from us. Can there be any doubt that the job of the media has been to sell us on electing Hitlery? (She does want to invade Russia just like he did!)

There was a recent "news" piece claiming that over 90% of Trump's media coverage was negative, yet he mopped the floor with the 16 other losers the GOP put up as candidates. Maybe Michael Moore's interpretation of the motivations of Trump supporters is accurate after all? An observation which Jimmy Dore expands upon?

There has to be an explanation as to why the media has miserably failed in their assigned task of stopping Trump and strewing rose petals for Her to assume the Presidency. I think that the Moore/Dore observations are close to the reality.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

bondibox's picture

Whilst I loathe to share a link to Vox, this article is well worth the read.
http://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/25/13384528/donald-trump-women-...

Why women are still voting for Trump, despite his misogyny
... the fact remains that women who have the fewest opportunities to compete successfully in the labor market are the ones who are much more likely to support the policies and values that reward a traditional division of labor in the household.

Women with more social, economic, or educational capital are much more likely to support the activities of women making their own way in the world, to be proud when they see powerful women who stand up or who are getting ahead of men in any way, and they’re also much more open to supporting social policies that reward individual initiative even if they know that it’s not always rewarded equally.

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“He may not have gotten the words out but the thoughts were great.”

I invested directly in oil companies in 2003 because I correctly guessed we would fuck up the occupation and the price of oil would skyrocket.

That doesn't make me a hypocrite. It makes me a realist.

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If you believe sincerely in single payer you have a moral obligation to cancel your health insurance. (I don't think a snark tag is necessary. But these days you never know.)

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Hawkfish's picture

It is morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money...

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Seriously? Chelsea Clinton?

Chelsea Clinton is criticizing someone who is the most ordinary American running for president because she has a mutual fund?

The same Chelsea Clinton who made $600K to intervew the GEICO Gecko?

The same Chelsea Clinton who had a $3Million wedding?

The same Chelsea Clinton who married a hedge fund manager?

She's a monster, just like her mother.

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mouselander's picture

It would have been a minor miracle if she wasn't. One can't expect the poison apple to fall very far from the toxic tree!

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inactive account

mouselander's picture

Yashar, author of the Daily Beast piece, bravely chose to pass up much easier targets, such as Wikileaks' favorite villainess de jure Hillary Clinton, or the cartoonishly inept Donald Trump, in favor of that shifty-eyed faux environmentalist Jill Stein, rightly dubbed by some of her detractors as the "Tofu Palin."

Who is Yashar (you may ask)? According to the Good Man Project website, which features his writings, "Yashar is a Los Angeles-based blogger, commentator, and political veteran whose writings about women, gender inequality, political heroism, and society are [were] showcased on his website, The Current Conscience."

Alas, it appears The Current Conscience is no more, but fortunately TGMP provides Yashar, a self-described gay Iranian, a platform on which he can boldly expound on such incendiary topics as "Stuff We Should Stop Doing: Calling Women Cougars", or "Men May Never Understand a Day in the Life of a Woman. But Shouldn't We Try?" Sheesh! To tackle subjects that controversial, and then to bravely go after a political behemoth of the stature of Jill Stein, I can only conclude the guy must have cajones the size of beach balls.

And my God, the stuff that Yahsar came up with - absolute dynamite! I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it: Jill criticizes oil companies, and yet her investment portfolio is invested in index funds, which in turn invest in oil companies. The sheer, jaw-dropping, mind-numbing, almost-too-horrific-to-be-fully-believed hypocrisy of it all! It literally makes all the inconsequential little spitballs being thrown at Hillary - election rigging, de facto bribery, serial dishonesty, corruption, war-mongering, undermining national security, committing multiple felonies, blah blah blah blah blah - fade into sheer nothingness by comparison.

So let's all raise our glasses and toast a gutsy, uncompromising journalist that Joseph Pulitzer himself would be proud of - a man blessed with that unique combination of courage and independence necessary to resist the temptation to join all the tedious moles in his profession who spend all their time ineffectually attempting to raise their microscopic little hills into mountains. Thanks, Yashar! I have to confess I don't actually have any gay Iranian friends, but if I did, you would surely be one of them.

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inactive account

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might be fiercely protective of the woman who becomes uncontrollably gleeful at the prospect of nuking Iran.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npzN3dZR6JM]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDqMWhkEm8]

[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbJe-Yelp-I]

BTW, I don't buy the "but Bill is nice" stuff. It's a lot easier to be cordial and easy going when a life partner or business partner who terrifies people runs interference. I've seen such duos socially and in business again and again. My analogy/metaphor is the friendly, laid back stage coach driver in Westerns.© Only when the shot pans out do you see the guy "riding shotgun," seated very close to the driver.

Game Change is clear that the ones who always wanted to go most negative throughout the 2008 primary campaign were Mark Penn and Bill Clinton.

Great post, mouselander. I enjoyed it.

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... BTW, I don't buy the "but Bill is nice" stuff. It's a lot easier to be cordial and easy going when a life partner or business partner who terrifies people runs interference. ...

Successful psychopaths are typically successful because they can seem so very charming and warm that they can con you - even experts - right out of your shorts. In Bill's case, that specifically seems to be one of the aims...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Lenzabi's picture

So, this smear piece points out one thing,,,,,,,Investment portfolio companies try to get you more "bang for the buck" which means sadly, investments in some nasty companies. It also points out that the Clinton Campaign is worried enough to smear attack Dr. Jill Stein, to do what they can to discredit her as they are very, very worried. Ph now the FBI is reopened the E-mail investigations. Her Heinous is in mega trouble!

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

Yup, Jill is doing waaaaay better than the rigged polls let on. And Indies are the largest voting group in the US.

We might just survive this yet.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Stein - Baraka
2016

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The Daily Beast's Origin and Ownership

Tina Brown CBE (born Christina Hambley Brown; 21 November 1953), is a journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host and author of The Diana Chronicles, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales. Born a British citizen, she took United States citizenship in 2005 after emigrating in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair. She is legally titled Lady Evans.[1]

Having been editor-in-chief of Tatler magazine at the age of 25, she rose to prominence in the American media industry as the editor of Vanity Fair from 1984 to 1992 and of The New Yorker from 1992 to 1998. In 2000 she was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to overseas journalism,[2] and in 2007 was inducted into the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.[3] As an editor, she has also been honored with four George Polk Awards, five Overseas Press Club awards, and ten National Magazine Awards.[4] In October 2008, she partnered with Barry Diller, chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, to found and edit The Daily Beast. Two years later, in November 2010, The Daily Beast merged with the American weekly news magazine Newsweek in a joint venture to form The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. In September 2013, Brown announced she would be leaving her position as editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast to launch Tina Brown Media [5] and pen Media Beast, a memoir of her years in the media world, slated to be published in 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Brown

Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman, who currently serves as the Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia, Inc. and the media executive responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller is a member of the Television Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1994.

Fox
From October 1984 to April 1992, he held the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox, Inc, parent company of Fox Broadcasting Company and 20th Century Fox, where he greenlighted hits like The Simpsons. Diller quit 20th Century Fox in 1992 and purchased a $25 million stake in QVC teleshopping network. Diller then launched a bid to purchase Paramount Communications, but lost it to Viacom. Diller resigned from QVC in 1995.

2000s
Barry Diller at the Web 2.0 Conference 2005.

Diller was the Chairman of Expedia and the Chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, an interactive commerce conglomerate and the parent of companies including HomeAdvisor, Match.com, Citysearch, and Connected Ventures, home of Vimeo and CollegeHumor. In 2005, IAC/InterActiveCorp acquired Ask.com, marking a strategic move into the Internet search category. He stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp on December 2, 2010.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Diller

IAC/InterActiveCorp (also known as IAC) is an American media and Internet company, with over 150 brands across 100 countries,[1] headquartered in New York City.[2] Joey Levin, who previously led the company's Search & Applications segment,[3] has been the company's Chief Executive Officer since June 2015.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAC_(company) PLEASE LOOK AT IAC's WIKI IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE KIND OF THING WE ARE CONSTANTLY UP AGAINST. THIS, TOO: http://sorosfiles.com/soros/2011/12/soros-funded-journalism.html

On August 3, 2013, IBT Media announced it had acquired Newsweek from IAC on terms that were not disclosed; the acquisition included the Newsweek brand and its online publication, but did not include The Daily Beast.[9] IBT Media relaunched a print edition of Newsweek on March 7, 2014.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek

The Daily Beast's Editor in Chief

John Phillips Avlon (born 1973) is an American journalist and political commentator who is the editor in chief of The Daily Beast[2] and a CNN political analyst.[3] He is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics,[4] which critically appraises both traditional American centrism and the more recent radical centrism. He is also the author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America.[5] Former President Bill Clinton said that the book Wingnuts "offers a clear and comprehensive review of the forces on the outer edges of the political spectrum that shape and distort our political debate. Shedding more heat than light they drive frustrated alienated citizens away from the reasoned discourse that can produce real solutions to our problems."[6] Avlon has also been a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun and worked as chief speechwriter for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Avlon (Smells like No Labels, aka, No Principle$.)

Relationship of the Daily Beast with the Clinton Campaign

The Daily Beast is owned by IAC, where Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton, serves on the board of directors.[18]

In March 2016, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks alleged that The Daily Beast was biased in favour of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, stating that from the onset of the campaign in 2014, the website had twice as many positive than negative articles on Clinton. The Beast also included heavily negative allegations about Democrat opposition candidate Bernie Sanders, including allegations that he was a "sellout", not "electable", unpopular with black voters, a warmonger, an atheist Jew and a communist,[19] allegedly accusing Hawai'i of being "too white", according to Uygur,[20] and that his win in the Wisconsin primary, his sixth consecutive primary victory,[21] "changes nothing" for the Clinton or Sanders campaign.[20]

The Beast heavily commented on the alleged "Bernie Bro" phenomenon, and also alleged that "a vote for [Bernie Sanders] is a vote for Donald Trump".*

"Donald Trump-Loving Useful Idiots of the Left"

On August 15, 2016 the Daily Beast published an article by James Kirchick which listed Corey Robin, Glenn Greenwald, Ishaan Tharoor, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and others as "Hillary Clinton-Loathing, Donald Trump-Loving Useful Idiots of the Left."[33][34][35] The article was criticized as being inaccurate by several journalists, such as Jeet Heer, a senior editor at The New Republic[36] and essayist Emmett Rensin, with the latter calling Kirchick "a liar and a hack."[37] Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent tweeted about Kirchick: "Area man willfully confuses refusal to unthinkingly parrot all criticism of Trump with 'admiration' for him."[38] Tharoor reacted by tweeting to Kirchick: "if you had a shred of decency or integrity, you would correct your ridiculous smear of me, but we know that you don't."[39] Greenwald tweeted: "Good job, @TheDailyBeast. Way to come back from your outing-Olympian debacle. Keeping the standards high."[40]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Beast

(The connections with the Clinton campaign section doesn't even mention Bubba's lovely review of a book written by the editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast.)

Any questions, Beloveds? Or are we crystal?

*Isn't it amazing how a political publication doesn't seem to know the difference between (1) a vote in a Democratic primary for the guy who was doing much better than Clinton against Trump--and every Republican hopeful-- in head to head polling and (2) a vote for Trump in a general election? Or was that just Mrs. Hedge Fund talking?

Word: A vote for Sanders in the Democratic primary was a vote for Sanders (the guy who would be trouncing Trump now, instead of asking angrily "Why am I not fifty points ahead?" .

A vote for Stein in the general is a vote for Stein (and possibly also for greater ballot access in 2020 than just the two oldest, played out political parties). The only kind of vote you have is a vote. I know that because I checked: no state in the U.S. entitles anyone to a protest vote, only to a vote.

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Now we wait for crushing rebuttal to the truth...

Stein - Baraka
2016

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