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(As with all recommendations here is the standard disclaimer. I may or may not vote for these people for various reasons unknown to all but myself, but here is who I recommend you vote for… provided you have no other promises to fulfill … )
Demon-Crats… (oops, did I just slip in an extra “n”?)
US Congress Bryan Townsend
Lt. Governor: Sherry Dorsey Walker
Insurance Commissioner: Trinidad Navarro
County Executive: Tom Gordan
Pres. County Council: Penrose Hollins
Wilmington Mayor: Dennis Williams
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If you belong to the Republic-nation, here is who I’d like you to vote for….
Governor: Lacey Lafferty (does NOT support Trump)
Insurance Commissioner: Jeff Craig (does not support Trump)
County Council Exec: Barry Nehe (does not support Trump)
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In state delegate and senate districts I have knowledge of a few who would do you well if you vote them in… (But I’m not commenting on ones I do not know).
Senate District 1: Joesph D. McCole (his opponent is one of the very few who voted AGAINST HB50 which lets parents opt out. )….
State Rep 7 Byron Short (voted FOR suspension of rules on HB 50 this January)…
State Rep 10: Sean Matthews (also voted along with Short to overide Jack’s veto)
State Rep 14: Don Petersen (against Schwartzkopf)
State Rep 15: James Burton (against Longhurst)
State Rep 33: Charles Postles
State Rep 35: David Wilson
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So if you are really out of the loop and still want to vote, but not sure if you are voting in someone good or bad, print this list and take it to vote with you… You will do fine…
One thing is clear. If you do nothing helpful in this election, you have failed your duty as an American. As previously posted, the current bad dream involving one of our major parties, is also an open opportunity to fix what was broken…. it is in this battle you must enlist and you must fight… There are many ways to show your support, just like there are many ways to support America when it had to go to war, even if you can’t pick up a gun and jump out the back end of a plane…
Financially. It is so easy today… And $3 goes a long way if enough people do it… You most likely can spare $3. Find the person’s website, and securely transfer some money… You have done significant damage to your opponent.
If strapped financially but endowed with ample time, volunteer. Any candidate you support, if you work for them, is helping make “America Great Again”….. America is the summation of its people. Working with people to help people is the amalgamation of the American ideal.
All can see clearly now. The enemy is money and those with lots of it. Freely given to people of either party, it has made all government monogamous. The real battle (as those in the education wars can tell you) is between investment capital and human beings…. Investment Capital is winning because they have more control over our representatives than we do…
If you do nothing, the trend must continue. For it is like a train running full steam that remains unstoppable until it is stopped… Most societies across history, whether totalitarian, democratic, or tribal, were run by the oligarchs who own the most capital. That includes the Byzantines, Romans, Greeks, Hebrews, Babylonians, Egyptians. That seems to be the evolutionary trend of all societies.Take Rome, it was a democracy for its first 250 years than a despotic tyranny its next 500… The momentary inability or its democracy at one time to compromise, thereby resulting in its inability to solve serious problems facing them, resulted in that democracy’s removal and the formation of a strong autocratic leader which remained until Rome’s fall 500 years later.
So it is a constant battle which must be waged against our natural desire to just leave our fate to others and accept “whatever”.. The bottom line is that this is not set in stone. We can take action and we can control our fates, if we have the energy to do so.
The crumbling of the Republican party has opened a new door to reclaim power back to the people… All the money donated and spent by big donors, will be wasted either unseen or trashed in kitchen’s trash cans. But human beings working and outreaching, based on a love of nation and not financial pandering, can touch people and change them…
This is an opportunity that comes rare in a lifetime and if you love America, if you want a better nation, if you hope your children can achieve their dreams with nothing holding them back, then you need to accept that the only way that can happen, is if YOU, lead by example, and do something different to make that change…
All to often we sit back, complain bitterly about how nothing we do or say makes any difference without thinking why that is so…
The answer is obvious…
In today’s scheme of things leading up to this election, We The People really held no power with which to be held in respect…. Why should someone listen to us when there were hundreds of millions at stake? But time, and time, and time again over this last four year election cycle, we have seen with our own eyes, that people organized DO have power and CAN make changes… whether it was to keep Wilmington’s Port unionized and owned by the state; whether it was to be allowed to opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessments, whether it was to shut down a cancerous belching smokestack in the center of a 30,000 person city, when people came together and fought for their rights, legislators had to listen back down and the people won…
So you have to do something… That is all… AS a citizen of this nation, this state, this country, your district… You have to become active.
And it’s fun… If you’ve never been to an open meeting where they are discussing things that DIRECTLY pertain to you, you cannot know how inspiring it is to see government dirty and up close, either working for or against you…
But YOU, need to get off your butts, and do something… That is the only way we will ever get people to listen to us… which is, that they fear us… Only then, are we in control over our government and not our government in control over us…
Donald Trump is God’s gift to America. Singlehandedly he has blown up the Republican Party who first drove America right up to the edge of a cliff, then kept reaching over and putting their feet on the brake as we tried backing it backwards to normalcy…
America could not have asked, or even if it did, have gotten a better person to completely destroy the Republican Party by exposing to even those who refused to acknowledge them, their racist, vulgar, hateful, vengeful, stupid, angry, idiotic side… Like the escaped crazy person in the attic, the Republican Party can no longer hide the fact that they harbor some despicable, distraught, dumb, and dangerous people. Most of us knew that already, even if blindly devoted Republicans didn’t…
Talk to any of Trump’s die-hard defenders, and they really think the rest of the world has gone bat-crazy. They can’t see it is themselves who are so… But that always has been the definition of being crazy, hasn’t it? When you finally realize you’re indeed crazy….. you aren’t crazy anymore… Meaning you can finally see the reality and the truth, (which is that you are crazy) so you can’t be crazy (by ignoring reality and truth), even though you ARE actually crazy which is what made you sane; sane because you now realized you are crazy… ) That was borrowed from Heller’s Catch 22, btw..
As an aside, if after election day Trump announced his aim all along was to castrate these Republicans who’ve stalemated progress the past 16 years, that he was working in cahoots with Clinton all along, and that he used his skills of manipulation and showmanship to lead gullible dummies into accepting the craziest of outlandish scenarios, (building a wall and making Mexico pay for it) in order to prove to all, how much they are fools as well as an embarrassment to democracy and need to lose very badly….. well, if that were to happen… history would hold Trump to be a super-hero… Americans love heroes who win and he certainly would have won that one…
I mean look at those big names who are still supporting the top of the party ticket… Paul Ryan. Mitch McConnell, Chris Christie. Charlie Copeland, Colin Bonini! None literally have standing anymore. And look at those who aren’t. Kasich, Lindsey Graham, Simpler, and Lacey Lafferty. Whereas the future of conservatism rests solidly on those sane ones who’ve sworn off Trump, the end is coming for those blindly supporting Trump. Their party will be different after November’s election… A sea change is now taking place…
Which brings up a very interesting possibility on the local level… With the Republican Party in meltdown, there is great opportunity to set up the next ten years… As we have seen in Delaware’s Democratic contingent, being Democrat is not a guarantee of progressive policies. In fact, we have through our Democratic majority, not been able or been strong enough to go against our governor of the same party, who is wrong on some items: the Smarter Balanced Assessment for one… Some party loyalty prevents the will of the people from being accomplished…
Humans being lazy, and with all the negativity associated with those “despicable Republicans”, the easy solution is to vote a big “D” at the top, and wipe out the Republican Party once and for all… In the past elections we have advocated that to good avail. However, this year is an exception because there is no, nor will there be, an actual Republican Party left to organize any destructive policies or to drag their feet…
Therefore, below the level of Federal Offices.. (stopping at US Congress) one should forget about party affiliation in Delaware. It really makes no difference anymore because both party’s are philosophically spread “all over the place”.. The Democrats included progressives like John Kowalko and Paul Baumbach, as well as conservatives like Earl Jaques and Harris McDowell. The Republicans include Trump sycophants like Greg Lavelle and Ruth Briggs King, as well as progressives and very nice people like Ernie Lopez and Cathy Clothier.
So our reality is that we have some Republicans slightly more progressive than some Democrats… Parties don’t mean anything on the local level anymore; individuals do… So it does require some effort on everyone’s part. Research into ones candidates is always a good idea, more so this year. Vote for who best represents you, ignoring any party affiliation..
Some people have always done that. But a large contingent tends to blindly vote for party… This year, even though there will be two major parties listed on the ballot, there in actuality will only be one”working” party. The other is simply awaiting the priest to perform the last rites. So if you have a really good Republican taking on a really bad Democrat, such as in the 8th, you are better off if a Democrat, to ignore party because the real progressive is the Republican there…. Likewise in Sussex County, if your Democrat is actually a better civic leader than their opponent, wrapped up in the Republican banner, you are better off voting for that good person…
Because over the full term, as long as your candidate is working for YOU, you are better off, regardless of party affiliation. The problem with some in the current majority party, is that they have gotten too comfortable and have chosen to no longer work for you, but work instead for the governor and his lobbyists who pop into their offices to first lavish praise, then garner huge concessions…
Bottom line, this election is important. Please don’t worry about party affiliation below the national level. Pick yourself a good representative, who will actually listen to YOU, regardless of party affiliation…
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).
I know some of you like to see how it is done… Especially if you are a Republican. There are good lessons here for your NEXT convention…
(Hint: remove all the ugly men/and feature women…)
First they backed Jeb, then Marco, then Cruz, and now, it looks like Wall Street is pinning their hopes on Hillary.
Bernie is not an avuncular Socialist anymore. He is a threat to the capitalistic system of today, a system that has put 90% of America near poverty… The reason? He wants to return America to the capitalistic system we had 20,30,40 years ago… when to borrow a phrase from Donald Trump, “America was great.”
And most of America hopes he succeeds. The anger behind Donald Trump is also anger against the current capitalism which has emasculated the American worker. You add Donald’s followers to Bernie’s followers and you have a majority of America who wants some very big changes to quickly affect the daily lives of 90% of Americans… They need more income.
The capitalist system of today is bigger than America… Most of America’s profits are quickly moved off-shore doing Americans no good for all the work they’ve done for their bosses.
American workers are past their breaking point and only two candidates understand and address their issues. Donald and Bernie. There are opposite differences in addressing the same theme. One is diverting attention away from those big businesses by pointing to Mexicans, Muslims, and Megan (something with M’s?). The other is aiming to control big business by putting it back into the box from which it escaped during George W Bush’s presidency…. But depending on who you mistrust, both are doing exactly the same thing in the grand scheme of things: organizing against today’s form of capitalism.
So, with Wisconsin going to Bernie, there is now some fear that New York may do the same. And that has unleashed all the tricks to blank out both Bernie and Donald so regular Americans continue to be blocked from any say in how their government gets run… something that keeps Wall Street up at night.
Which is why, with the Wisconsin Win, we now have The Daily News of New York and the Washington Post follow-up, excoriate presidential candidate Sanders…
I read the Daily News transcript and you should too. You will understand that headlines quite often these days, do not an accurate description of the article, make.
I was very pleased with Bernie’s answers and was rather shocked that some have said otherwise….
The leader of the negative articles is none other then mega-giant Amazon.Com’s own newspaper, the Washington Post… Remember this paper is owned by Jeff Bezos, 5th richest Forbes designated person in the world, who is worth $52 billion.
There is one reason he would not want Bernie to win and that would be because Bernie would put him in the highest tax bracket. Which is 58% I believe. Though he will cry, cry, cry about paying high taxes, Americans will get far more benefit from his $52 billion portfolio if correctly taxed, then they would from letting him keep even more of his profits, as is being proposed by every other candidate…
So, imagine you had $52 billion in assets… Would you attack someone who would cost you money??? Or someone who would give you money??
Here are the Washington Post’s flurries off that great interview (read the transcript)-=- remind one of Fast and Furious?
9 things Bernie Sanders should’ve known about but didn’t in that Daily News interview
This New York Daily News interview was pretty close to a disaster for Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders picks a dangerous New York fight with Hillary Clinton
The case against Bernie Sanders, according to Barney Frank
Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president
About that Bernie Sanders ‘momentum’ …
Writers for The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, CNN, Slate and Talking Points Memo concluded as well that Sanders had botched the interview.
But the transcript shows a different story…..Sanders’s conversation with the Daily News was more nuanced than some of the criticism might suggest.
Here is one example…. Sanders was faulted for not having formed an opinion on a recent ruling in federal court. “It’s something I have not studied, honestly,” he said.
When asked how to break up JP Morgan, Sanders answered he’d leave it up to the banks.. That is exactly the right answer. The government doesn’t know the most efficient way to break up JP Morgan, JP Morgan does. If the point is to downsize the banks, the way to do it is to give them a size cap and let them figure out the best way to reconfigure themselves to get under it… It is no different than requiring seat belts in every car, but not specifying how they must be constructed…
The same applies to Sanders not knowing the specific statute for prosecuting banks for their actions in the housing bubble. Knowingly passing off fraudulent mortgages in a mortgage backed security is fraud. And the fact that Sanders didn’t know a specific statute, who cares? How many people know the specific statute for someone who puts a bullet in someone’s head? It’s murder. Specific statute? Are you serious?
Although he did not know, he did argue that the federal law enforcement should devote more manpower to investigating the largest financial firms to determine whether any particular laws were violated, something Clinton has also promised to do, putting both of them at odds with Obama, who chose instead to seek large payments to settle, instead of aggressively prosecuting what could be very involved, risky and unsuccessful at the Supreme Court.
With the exception of the subway token thing, gracefully ending with an image of Bernie jumping a turnstile and gracefully eluding the subway police, it often appeared that the Daily News simply had inexperienced reporters asking vaguely open questions to which Bernie was hearing different parts….
Bottom line is that reading the entire transcript, makes Bernie not someone out of touch with the big picture of running America; which means that those saying he was, ARE out of touch with how America needs to be run….
Look. Mom says: Be home for Thanksgiving… She doesn’t say: get out of work early, pack the night before, take the number 5 bus to the station at 7:45; get on the 8:11 train to Philly and get of at Suburban station and take at 9:22, the 102 bus north….
Bernie got it right… Bezos obviously has a $52.2 billion agenda…. If you are smart (Allan Loudell gets fooled every time), don’t believe any media this campaign, but use them to read the transcripts…. for you are smarter than they are.
Brilliant strategy for any voter: go the source; ignore headlines and commentary.
It comes with a caveat. To succeed he must return to his liberal roots. The ones he ran on in 2008 and before. I often hear newcomers praise Matt Denn and in the same breath curse Jack Markell. They probably do not know that at one time they were like butt-buddies in philosophy and direction. Both early supporters of Blue Water Wind over the evil Delmarva Power. (only 8 years ago). Both were against the Death Penalty. Both were for extending rights to Gays. Both were for helping the little guy. Both were against Charters. And both were against man made Global warming, and those corporate extremists who made it happen. Both were pro-business but it had to be ethical business. neither supported being for business so it could continue its unethical business practices…. Both were pro-FOIA, opening government to the scrutiny of its citizenry. Both were against Thurm Adams and his desk drawer veto.
it’s funny when newcomers try to take the current Markell back through his role as Treasurer as proof of his evil ways. For he wasn’t evil back then at all. He was a champion for reform, so much so that he challenged and won the governorship over the Democratic Party’s pre-chosen candidate, John Carney, who was seen as less the progressive.
It’s funny what a few years can do.
But Markell’s track record puts him in very good position to be a leading progressive candidate if he were to try. What better argument against Conservative counter punches could be made than this?
When I was governor and ran a state, I tried exactly what you propose…and it didn’t work.. What would have worked better would have been this: and then list progressive policy….
Still skeptical? Try these then make up your own…..
“When I was governor I tried cutting back on state spending by attempting to cut to my state employees salaries by 8% and my legislature held it to a 2% decrease. One would think that such a streamlining of expense would decrease taxation and cause businesses to move in and create growth. Instead, as the state’s largest employer those cuts had a 1.6% multiplier aggravating the economic damage. Fewer revenues then expected were generated the next year because it hurt those who lived on those earning government salaries as well. With hindsight, the proper approach would have been to keep them the salaries continuous, and to apply a tax on the top echelon who survived the depression rather well, and use that new revenue as the funding for the existing government…. As the economy improved, taxes could be lightened… That would have worked faster than the conservative approach I took.”
When I was governor I pushed Common Core hard. I led the nation in its implementation, though held off on being the first to use the test. I still believe some things in Common Core are good for society but with hindsight, I would divorce Common Core tests from being used as the sole ranking of teachers and schools. We found that no matter how hard we pushed accelerated learning, that having one standard set high for all, was defeating. A lower standard set for all works better because there is some realistic chance for all to achieve it. Those on the bottom CAN become proficient with lots of hard work. We found that even our best teachers in our worst schools still gave us the worst scores in our state. We found that mediocre teachers in our best classes still had the best scores. In essence we found no correlation between test scores and quality of teaching. All test scores do we found, is measure the quality of prenatal and infant care. With hindsight, I would say that to do well for our students, all of our students, we need to focus mostly on increasing the human element of education, and particularly in schools of high risk, where the poverty level is over 50% of the student body, we must guarantee an 11:1 student/teacher ratio, insist that it happens and willingly pay for its expense.
When I was governor I tried wooing companies into my state with bribes. I offered no taxes. state loans. even support fees tacked to citizens electricity bills. This was done primarily to develop jobs which were much needed in my state. With hindsight I would have focused more on making sure economic demand remained high instead of trying to get new business to come in. If the demand had stayed at pre-depression levels, jobs would have stayed and remained Instead we gambles on a few temporary jobs involving construction and then when they evaporated we were left continuing to pay the costs, which even today drag down the economy.
When I was governor, we had a automobile plant close up and a possible buyer for it needing some money up front to purchase it. We helped them but they went bankrupt. We lost our loans which we thought were guaranteed to be refunded from sale of its assets. Turns out corporate raiders were ahead of us in line. That points out a discrepancy in law needing adjusted. There is no way private investors putting up money at risk, fully knowing the risk, get first dibs of return over a government who puts up the people’s money to benefit its people. That was just plain wrong and an inexperienced candidate will fall into the same trap as did I. I know ahead of time it does not work.
When I was governor I tried to put in a toxic power plane in the middle of our college town. i thought that any reason to create jobs was reason enough. We tried very hard to engineer the town council and the electorate in order to get proper votes and we succeeded there. However the university walked away from the deal and the deal died. With hindsight, I would not put in a dirty power plant just for jobs. Oil, gas, and coal are done. There are always other options and anything that destroys the atmosphere and our climate, though helpful in the short run, cost far more in the long run than other cleaner alternatives. In truth we misjudged the sophistication of our electorate and their ability to counter our claims with scientific fact, which turned the population against us. The answer I can tell you to America’s future energy is in pursuing the clean energy options and by increasing their efficiency, we lower the cost per kilowatt. Any other way just does not work.
When I was governor I tried getting rid of our Port which is run by the state, by selling it to a private company Kinder Morgan. i thought we had negotiated a very good deal guaranteeing wages at current level for 3 years, and keeping everyone employed the same length of time. However, anytime one privatizes something that is state owned, it is an economic loss to the surrounding area. Private companies hire less than state because they run more efficiently. However, that also means less income and less tax pours into the city. With hindsight, I have learned that privatization is good if the public receives a benefit from better efficiency. But that it is bad, if the service being privatized is something that belongs to all, or requires constant upkeep and maintenance, in which case state ownership is better than private. When our state legislature passed legislation making them the final arbiter of decision, my client pulled out of the deal and the port is doing fine still under state control. I’m here to tell you that privatization of public works only benefits those who buy the operation at a low cost…. There is a reason they were originally state run and that is they are there to serve you first.
When I was governor i tried to weaken our environmental policy in order to bring in jobs. Some companies were used to not having to comply to environmental regulations and they were the only ones who seemed interested in our properties. So we catered to them. We were able to hide most environmental problems and get approval by most local governments. But with hindsight, I would argue now for the other extreme. Protect the environment at all costs. We can always pass on jobs. They are temporal; they rise and fall. But damage to the environment is almost generational, lasting as long as humans are alive. There are always new jobs being created; every day something new is created. But environmental damage is very harmful and lasts a long, long time, It continues doing its damage long after whatever company that caused it has folded and those jobs are now three states away…. I have learned by being governor that the most important thing we have is our environment and that never should we let temporary jobs blind us to the loss of many future jobs because of our polluted lifestyle..
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As a Presidential candidate these arguments would be hard to bust with theoreticals. Nothing works as well as saying I tried that, it doesn’t work. it would also focus the argument on policy instead of personal traits, something our media is scared to do.
The combination of a sharp younger looking candidate saying the right things people are dying to hear, would do well for our current governor if he ran as a liberal in 2016… And if he rigged the Delaware primary to be on January 2nd, ahead of all others, he would be the leader for a while with three delegates.
I know many are skeptical. But seeing Markell in action readily shows he can be presidential material. but only if he runs now, and only if he uses his mistakes to burst the bubbles always painted for Democrats by their Republican opponents. He plays a room well. He only gets in trouble by those outside the room who don’t appreciate what he is doing. If he just return to his own roots, and ditch the pro-business persona he has taken on, he could go far, possibly being offered the Vice Presidency on a winning ticket if he just would be more liberal.
The very reasons his detractors are calling for his head, would make him a great leader if he was only on the right side of the issues for a change…..
Is the fact that Delaware’s most qualified candidate got 186 votes. It goes to show the ineffectiveness of running on a third party ticket against an incumbent and the challenger from the previous election before.
It was a noble effort and had an unbelievable amazing amount of support from those outside his district who unfortunately were not able to vote for that candidate. I think it does point out the prejudice many people have to third parties here in America. “If you truly were a good candidate, you’d be on the ballot of one of the major parties, so therefore you can’t be that good, especially if I’ve never heard of you.” … I think that line best sums up the thought-process of most average Americans when they go into a booth and decide which button to push…..
It also does show that although voting (for us who love politics) is a never ending passion, it is an enthusiasm that many of our neighbors do not share… When we espouse the absolutely necessity of certain events taking, because they lead to other events to follow which will better their lives, their eyes glaze and they give it as much worth as if the Titans had to beat the Jaguars for your fantasy team to excel….
And it may be for the best. Our blogging world as lagged without Steve’s daily input. Fights that should have seen the light of day, have languished without the right set of eyes to pull them out from their hiding holes… Perhaps it is better that the brilliance and wisdom of Steve be not confined to the floor of our General Assembly where a coalition could effectively bottle it up and silence it, but be strewn again to the winds of cyberspace where unlimited possibilities lie for it to land and become fertile. An active activist can not be an activist unless he remains active (or something like that).
He will surprisingly find that very few of his acquaintance will ever know the outcome… If they ask, just say you fell short and leave it at that. That is all they want to know anyway, is if their Steve is back… The rest of the world goes on, and if you quickly forget, so will they….. (That will be your biggest surprise; how quickly you fit right back into old and people don’t even seem to know you’ve been away.)
Through Steve’s and Catherine’s endeavor to try to launch through a third party, I have received insight…. Money. One needs a sponsor, a patron with a pocket book, to first build a party; one needs mailers comparable to the other two parties arriving on doorsteps and mailboxes first outlining the need for a third party; and to arrive in off- times long before the election, when one does not automatically throw every lit drop piece in the trash, and is so grateful for a piece of mail, they will actually read it…. Build the idea of a third party first, and see if they will come…
As for a name, from watching this cycle I now lean more to the Greens than either Independents or Libertarians as a name to head the third party… However to counter the notion that Greens are a flaky liberal party of unrealistic aspirations, I would change the name to the Green Money party… (how can anyone not like green money) and a platform as this: we are for the growth of small businesses, people’s prosperity, which are done in ways to enhance the environment, not destroy it.
Something along those lines… Could we launch a third party in time for 2016? We’d need 40,000 people and then in Delaware we could no longer be ignored. Though not capable of winning on our own, we would by playing off one party against the other, make them both forced to listen to us. One would think, at least.
kavips 