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Collectively Connected
Welcome to "Collectively Connected," a podcast hosted by a husband-and wife duo, Damian and Denise. In our show, we dive into meaningful conversations about events that are shaping our world and the impact it's having on our lives individually and how it's effecting us collectively.
As a married couple, we are bringing the conversation we are currently having in our home. We're not experts, we're simply passionate about learning and growing alongside our audience. Our goal is to inspire meaningful discussions in your home and foster a sense of community and connection through this ever-evolving world.
Join us as we navigate through thought-provoking topics and invite you to be part of the conversation.
Tune in and lets get "Collectively Connected"
Collectively Connected
002 - Road to the White House: Unveiling the Presidential Hopefuls
What if the key to a more vibrant and competitive political landscape lies in exploring beyond the traditional two-party system? Join us on Collectively Connected as we navigate the Road to the White House, spotlighting the 2024 presidential candidates. Denise and Damian are here to ensure you're equipped with the knowledge to make an informed decision. We promise you'll gain a broader perspective on the election, from well-known figures to lesser-known contenders who might just surprise you with their vision and dedication.
In this episode, we take a comprehensive look at candidates across various political parties, including the Socialist Equality Party, Socialist Workers Party, Constitution Party, Green Party, and independents like Cornell West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Moving beyond the usual suspects, we shine a light on those with broader ballot access, such as the Libertarian Party's Chase Oliver, and, of course, the major contenders from the Democratic and Republican parties, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. We also share our thoughts on the courage and commitment it takes to run for the highest office in the nation.
Voting with your heart isn't just a phrase; it's a principle we stand by. Denise and Damian recount personal experiences and critiques of past elections, emphasizing the importance of choosing someone who truly aligns with your values. Whether you resonate with independents, third parties, or major contenders, we encourage you to find a leader who reflects your principles. Stay engaged with Collectively Connected and subscribe for more enlightening discussions as we journey on the road to the White House.
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Welcome to Collectively Connected the show where we dive into the most important topic shaping our world today. I'm Denise and joining me, as always, is my husband, damian hey everyone.
Speaker 2:We're so glad you're here with us Today. We have a very special episode lined up. It's all about the presidential election and we're calling it Road to the White House. Meet the 2024 Presidential Candidates.
Speaker 1:That's right. In this episode, we'll be introducing you to all the candidates who are currently on the ballot across the United States, from well-known political figures to some lesser-known candidates.
Speaker 2:Exactly. This election is shaping up to be one of the most pivotal in recent history. With so many candidates vying for the top spot, it's crucial to be informed of every option available to the American people.
Speaker 1:You're right, honey. We are also going to share our thoughts on who we resonate with and why. It's going to be a fascinating conversation and we're excited to get started.
Speaker 2:Whether you're a political junkie or just starting to pay attention. This episode will set the stage for our future discussions as the race heats up.
Speaker 1:So grab your headphones, settle in and join us as we navigate the road to the White House. Let's meet the 2024 presidential candidates.
Speaker 2:Let's dive in. Hey, babe, hey.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to have this conversation. I think it's an important conversation to be had and so, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. The road to the White House yeah, introducing the 2024 presidential candidates I was surprised how many there were, and I think the listeners might be a little surprised too. I don't know if you want to jump right in or if you have anything to.
Speaker 2:No, I'm pretty excited to just jump right in. When you really start to look into how many people are actually running for president, it's like, okay, it's not just a couple of candidates that the media seems to be portraying, where it's only these top two people.
Speaker 1:Or there's only two party options too Exactly. That's what I was a little surprised to learn that there's more parties outside of the Democrat, republican, right, left, red, blue Like I was pretty surprised by that and, honestly, pretty excited to see that there's growth in this space outside of what we've been so used to Absolutely, and I think the biggest thing is that the media shows that it just seems like there's only a couple of candidates and it seems like it's shaping up to be a rematch. I mean, keep it real, they only show two.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. It seems like we're kind of being forced to choose between this person or that person. I think that's when I was saying before. It's critical for everyone to just know what are all of the options out here. You know it's 2024. We're hitting a huge election year. Are these all of the options? Is there anybody else that is capable of being a leader? Is there anybody else who has the courage to run for president?
Speaker 1:We have seen the way these two have done the job and we really have to start asking ourselves is do we like it, do we like the way that they have led this country? And I think that's what made us kind of dive into this arena and really dive into are these our only options? And, like I said, I'm excited to have found out. No, it's not our only options, and I think that the people have a right to know what their options are. And if it's taking it from us and listening to a podcast outside of the mainstream media, then I'm glad that we're here to help.
Speaker 2:Right and kind of touching off, when you were saying you know about the two options, whether people are excited about maybe, their candidate of the top two options or they're not excited. I think either way, competition is healthy. I like competition, I'm naturally a competitive person. So even if you are the front runner or the main guy, you should be able to step up to all competition, because, from a competitive standpoint, we wanna see that you are the best and you're proving that you are the best with all incoming challengers, and you should welcome all candidates of all shapes, sizes and points of view. And so that's what I mean by giving the American people all of the options, because if you're the best, hey, prove it, you're the best. And if we see that your views and your outlooks and your policies are just crushing everyone else's, and hey, may the best man win.
Speaker 2:And so that's where I'm excited to really just dive in, just to give some introductions to who, like I said before, has that courage to run for president, because if they're running for president, they put their name in the hat. And whether people want to say, oh, they're not going to win, or this or that, these guys have got some courage. So let's go ahead and take a second and give a standing ovation for these people who are brave enough to actually sit there and say, hey, okay, I'm going to interview for this job, the job that really nobody wants to run for president. So I'm excited about that. I'm going to introduce these guys.
Speaker 1:Let's hear it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had to do a little bit of research on this, and some of these names I've never heard of before. So I'm not going to sit there and act like I'm a professional on any of these people, but I just want to mention their names. They've gone through the process. These are some candidates that have ballot access, but according to this document, they have ballot access that's expected in 10 states or less, so I'm going to go ahead and introduce the party, their name and also, if they have a vice president pick as well.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so let's Okay. Yeah, you're gonna educate me here too, because it's some of these people I haven't heard from or heard about so Well, so go ahead.
Speaker 2:We can learn together. So from what I have here, let's start. And these are all different parties. I didn't even know. You know how many different parties there were. You know?
Speaker 1:I think for the average person you just believe there's Democrats and Republicansans so, and even what they stand for, exactly that's a whole other research and podcast.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's something we just got to really dive into that and I think everybody should be diving into that. What are all the options? So I'm looking on this one. This says the american solidarity party. So the presidential nominee is regional school board member Peter Sonsky, and he's the presidential nominee out of Connecticut. He has a vice president, lauren Onak, out of Massachusetts. Good luck, guys. So that's your introduction. We have the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The presidential nominee is Claudia De La Cruz out of New York and her vice presidential nominee is Claudia de la Cruz out of New York, and her vice presidential nominee is Karina Garcia, also out of New York.
Speaker 1:Two females.
Speaker 2:What do you think about that? That would be interesting. What do you think about a two female? What if there was a presidential, a president and a vice president, both females?
Speaker 1:How would you feel about that. Oh man, I mean we're going into the rise of the feminine right now. That would be amazing, I think, but I don't know enough about these people to know their character or anything. But yeah, with just the rise of the feminine. I think that would be cool to see, but I just don't think that we're there yet you think Americans just aren't ready to accept having a female president and vice president?
Speaker 2:okay, I can see that being fair. I mean, maybe we'll get there.
Speaker 1:I just don't think that we're there yet, no worries.
Speaker 2:well, good luck, ladies, on your presidential race. Next up we have the prohibhibition Party, so the presidential nominee is Michael Wood, out of California, and then we have his vice presidential nominee, which is John Petrowski I hope I got that right and he's out of Ohio, so good luck.
Speaker 1:I've never heard of that party, but hey, you might see him in your state, you never know and, as I said before, just look into it.
Speaker 2:You know, I want to look into these people as well, just to kind of hear what their Valley. You never know and, as I said before, just look into them, I want to look into these people as well, just to kind of hear what their message is.
Speaker 2:You never really know what they stand for. So next up we have the Socialist Party, usa, that is. It says Bill Stodden, out of Iowa, is the presidential nominee, and then we have the vice presidential nominee, stephanie Kolinsky, out of Minnesota. Awesome, good luck, guys. Next up we have the Socialist Equality Party. Both of these candidates are out of Michigan. We have the presidential nominee, joseph, and then we have the vice presidential nominee, jerry White A couple of Michigan natives there. And then we have another party called the Socialist Workers Party. So the presidential nominee another women-ran candidate. So this is Rachel Fruit, out of Florida, is the presidential nominee, and then we have Margaret Tro I hope I said that right out of California. So that's the vice presidential nominee.
Speaker 1:Good luck, guys, good luck.
Speaker 2:So those are the candidates with ballot access that are expected to be on about 10 states or less. So these are some of your lesser knowns, but they are on the ballot, they do have a shot, and we want to just wish you luck, okay. So next we're going to introduce some candidates with ballot access that's expected in 20 plus states. So let me go ahead and start from the top. I have the Constitution Party that consists of presidential nominee Randall Terry, out of Tennessee. Then we have his vice presidential nominee, stephan Brodin, who's out of Texas.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Great name.
Speaker 2:Then we have the Green Party. We have Jill Stein. I feel like Jill Stein's a little bit more popular. Jill Stein is out of Massachusetts. I have heard her name come up before. She's a presidential nominee. As far as vice president, I don't see one that is named yet. On as of today of me looking at this, maybe she has an announcement coming soon, but as of right now she does not have a vice presidential nominee. Okay, and then next up we have an independent. We have Cornell West, an independent out of New Jersey. This is the presidential candidate, and Cornell also has a vice presidential candidate, melina Abdullah, out of California. We have Robert F Kennedy Jr, independent out of California. He represents the we, the People Party. So Robert Kennedy is, out of California, the presidential candidate. He has a vice presidential candidate, which is Nicole Shanahan, also out of California. So I would say Robert Kennedy is a little bit more well-known. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1:I would say Robert Kennedy is a little bit more well-known. How do you feel about that? Oh, he's very well-known, so I'm excited to kind of dive into him a little bit as we go on.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. Moving on, we have more candidates. These are candidates with ballot access expected in 30-plus states For this report. It just has one, which is the libertarian party, and that consists of chase. Oliver, who is out of georgia, is the presidential nominee, and chase does have a vice presidential nominee, which is mike turpott, I believe I. Hopefully I said that right. Let me get an email. It's matt, mike termont, termont. It's maT, so Mott. Hopefully I got that right we'll see, we'll find out uh, mike Termat is out of Florida.
Speaker 2:So, butchering some of these names, I'm just kind of reading it as we go. So that's the candidates with ballot access expected in 30 plus states. And uh, like I said, that's the Libertarian Party. Then we've've got the big dogs. This is what most people are aware of.
Speaker 2:We have your main presidential candidates. First up we have of the Democratic Party, we have President Joe Biden out of Delaware he is the current president and the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, and his vice president is Kamala Harris, who's out of California. And then we also have the Republican Party. We have former President Donald Trump out of Florida and, as of today, donald Trump has not announced a running mate. I believe he's been kind of teasing back and forth, you know, of the running mate he's looking into. He's been on record for mentioning quite a few candidates and I'm sure once he does, we can kind of talk a little bit more in depth about that. Donald trump will be representing the republican party. So those are your 2024 presidential candidates. Hey, good luck to all the candidates. I'm a guy that that loves competition and I'm gonna say may the best man or woman win.
Speaker 2:So what are your thoughts on that so far?
Speaker 1:I think that list is impressive. You know, I think I don't know how many did we count on there About 13?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it was around 13 candidates that we have running for president that some people probably have never heard of, but about 13 candidates that are actively on one ballot or another.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, good luck, man, because I'm sure it takes a lot of sacrifice to run for the president of the United States of America. Like that's a tough job, right? Especially in the way the climate is currently. I'm sure it's harder than it ever was. It's just a tough time right now, yeah. And for them to want to step up and apply for that job because I strongly see this as a job they're submitting applications via their rallies and going and talk to the people through debates. You know they're applying for this position of the highest-ranking official of the United States and so I think good luck, good luck right.
Speaker 2:It's a hell of a job and a lot of people can share their thoughts on who they like, who they don't like. I think it's really easy to bash someone, but it's like, why aren't you running? Then you pose that question someone, they get really quiet. Then they don't really have much of a response. So I'm always wishing these guys luck for just having that courage to lead this great country, this country that we all know and love, and you know of all of us people. We just want to be able to have a prosperous life and take care of our family, and we're all going to try to make the best decision possible from the candidates that we have.
Speaker 2:And so just looking at all of these candidates, making the best decision possible.
Speaker 1:I mean, we know that some of them are very well known and some aren't. Who are the top people for somebody looking for the very first time? Who are the top candidates for somebody looking for the very first time? Who are the top candidates? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I would say the media. It seems like they kind of have your top two. I call those your top big dogs. Seems like that's who they only seem to talk about, but from this paper that I have right here, there's about I like to call the top five candidates. So I'm gonna read some of the people who are really making some noise and really actively campaigning some noteworthy so who are really making some noise and really actively campaigning so noteworthy? So we have joe biden. He's your incumbent president. Um, he's already announced. He's running right now. He's doing his rallies and his campaigning and stuff like that. So joe biden is your current president seeking re-election.
Speaker 2:You have donald trump, who was the former president. He's already announced his candidacy. He's currently running. He's campaigning, he's rallying, he's he's been teasing about who his VP is going to be. A lot of rumors on who that's going to be. The world is always waiting to hear that. Then you have Chase Oliver. He's of the Libertarian Party. He's a candidate. He was a 2022 Georgia US Senate and he announced his candidacy on April 4, 2023. So he's part of the top three. Then you have Jill Stein, who's of the Green Party Says the 2016 Green Party presidential nominee. She announced her candidacy on November 9th of 2023. And then you have Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is an independent. He's an author, a lawyer. He announced he was going to run as an independent on October 9th 2023. He initially had announced he was going to run his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in April 5th 2023. So he had changed. He had gone from running as a Democrat to running as an independent.
Speaker 1:We'll have to get into why that is. Yeah, we'll have to get into all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:But as far as like noteworthy, if people were who do I check out? Who am I? Maybe I've never voted before, or I don't even look at politics, or I don't even care to vote, or whatever it is. If you were looking at any candidates, I would say the ones who have the most noise Joe Biden, donald Trump, chase Oliver, robert F Kennedy Jr and Jill Stein. Right Chase Oliver, robert F Kennedy Jr and Jill Stein. What do you think about those five?
Speaker 1:actually I don't know that what we got going on right now is the best I am finding. There is one specific person who is resonating with me and that's Robert F Kennedy Jr. I really like what he's standing for. I really like that he's not coming in bashing the other candidates, even though they are doing that to him. I just like the picture of the world that he's envisioning. I like that vision of the world that he wants to create. It just really sits well with me.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:How about you? Who are you resonating with?
Speaker 2:I'll be honest, babe, I'm a big Robert Kennedy supporter. I've had a chance to really dive into the message that he is creating in his campaign and what he's looking to do for the people. And sometimes, you know I think you were saying that media bashing and stuff like that Sometimes when someone is bashing, it kind of gets me a little bit curious as to why they're bashing. So I don't like to take things at face value Like, oh okay, well, since this person said something, it must be true. I like to kind of go to the source, naturally. So I want to hear it from someone else.
Speaker 1:So I can make an educated decision.
Speaker 2:I don't know someone writing some kind of article saying something. I don't know who that person is. So instead of taking that word for it, going to Robert Kennedy and that's what kind of got me curious about that, to be honest. And so after hearing you know some of his talks, even when he was running as a Democrat I just really I was really resonating with what he was saying and what his vision was for the country, right, yeah, I was drawn to him then too.
Speaker 1:I was excited we had another option in that party and hey, now he's an independent, which I think to me that just sign collective people. You know, we need to separate ourselves from from that system. Everything he talks about just sits well with me everything from health to the wars, the disease I mean the vaccines he's. And he isn't like anti-vax right. He's like let's just do some more science right and make sure this isn't gonna harm the american people. Yeah, let's make sure that people will take this and they're not gonna die from it. And so I really appreciate that from him, from the soil and the health of our planet. I think he comes at it from such a loving way, which is what we need right now.
Speaker 1:We need somebody to love us and love this planet right because if we don't have that person in there that cares enough to make a difference and make an honest change, it's going to be a rough road. Yeah, okay, we talked about the ones that resonate with you. Why do the others not resonate with you?
Speaker 2:I think that's probably, I would say, number one. I just haven't looked into them enough. I'll be honest with you. I don't want to sit there and say I've looked into. I've heard a little bit about Jill Stein. I've heard about Chase Oliver. I've watched a couple of videos. I haven't dived deep into their campaign to really see on a broad spectrum of what their policies are. So I don't want to sit there and say definitively that, like he doesn't resonate with me and write him off, because that would just maybe I resonate with a couple of things he's saying and maybe it's candy, maybe it's Trump or Biden, who knows?
Speaker 2:you know, sometimes it's not always going to be a 100%. This person checks off all the boxes. We're all people. We all think differently. You know we have different views. How I run my house is how I run my house, how you run your your house how you run your house. So we're not always going to agree on the same thing. I've got best friends and family members who I don't even want to. We don't even agree on half the stuff, right, and that's fine. So I just I would probably say I really want to to dive deeper into Chase Oliver and and Jill Stein. But what was your question again?
Speaker 1:Why don't these candidates resonate with you?
Speaker 2:I guess full disclaimer, you know, when it comes to Joe Biden, I was. I voted for Joe Biden during his campaign. That at the time when I was voting for Joe Biden, I was in the union and so he was really. His campaign was very pro-union heavy and I was in the union, so I would probably say that was one of the things that had gotten. My vote was that he was going to be taking care of union workers. Funny story I'm not even in the union anymore, I'm a business owner but at the time that was something that had resonated with me and I think he was really heavily campaigning with that. I was wanting to vote for Trump, okay.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do, I do remember that.
Speaker 1:And you convinced me to vote for Biden, and I checked that box with so much hesitation.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember that.
Speaker 1:And I'm, yeah, Now seeing where he has taken this country. I will not make that mistake again, I, think this go around. I'm going to follow my heart. I think this go around. I'm going to follow my heart. I'm not going to follow any fear narratives of this vote. Your vote won't count. You know it's a wasted vote. Whatever they want us to believe, it's like. I'm going to follow my heart and the vision that I see for our country.
Speaker 2:And which one is talking about how they can get us there. So let me ask you that question back to you, who would you say that you resonate the least with them of these top big five biden?
Speaker 1:for sure biden. Okay, yeah, I think trump has a lot. He says a lot, you know, and it sounds like he's against the establishment. But when you really take a deep dive of what the Democrats and Republicans actually represent, I just see that they're like one of the same. They should have one name and Biden should be running as president and Trump should be his vice president. That's kind of how I see that Trump should be his vice president. That's kind of how I see that. But yeah, I just think that Biden has really done a lot of damage in the three and a half years he's in office and he still has a couple more months to go and he's on the fast track of spending more money and leaving the border open and just having this country have more problems than it needs to have, because I think he knows his spot is in jeopardy.
Speaker 2:You know, but he's not going to have my vote. Yeah, biden has his fair share of supporters. I mean, let's keep it real with where everyone currently stands. He has a lot of supporters in whatever he's, all of his policies. Say what you want about the wars, there are people who are semi-supporting. A lot of people aren't. I would love to have a talk with people who are supporting some of these wars because we're paying for it.
Speaker 1:So that's something that I don't know that we have an option.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I think that's where Biden's approval ratings probably really plummeting. Because it's like, if you put it up to a vote where it's like emergency vote right now, all Americans were about to go to war and support Ukraine, all in favor, I think unanimously you would hear no, this is how much it's going to cost the American people. This is the budget that we have for the war. If they would have rolled that out and presented that to the American people, I think it would be unanimously. They would say no, because basically the American people would say okay, well, that's going to cost me X amount per year or over the next four or eight years. I'm barely getting my rent or my mortgage or getting my kids paid for. I don't have this kind of money to be set back to support some kind of war that's thousands of miles away from my homeland. That's a no for me.
Speaker 1:And it's also the potential of a draft happening. You know, people don't want to go and fight these wars because I think and that's something we can get into in another episode about what's behind these wars, like why, what are we fighting here? You know, I think a lot of people are opening their eyes to what are we fighting here, right, like what is the purpose of all this? And so to sit here and have a potential of a draft happening, I really can't see people. If I ask a room full of people hey, are you pro for this draft? Sending your kids off, sending your family members off, I would doubt anybody would really be like, yeah, send me. But who knows? I think right now we're not as united as we would like to be because they're working hard to keep that divide, you know. But I don't know. I'm excited that we don't just have these two options. You know, when you think about the favorability of some of these third-party candidates, it's exciting to know that one of these other options outside of that two-party system could win.
Speaker 2:And I think that let's chat about that for a second. Just knowing if a third-party candidate does win, I mean what does that represent? Because I think we we're so just growing up knowing anything about politics. All we know is Democrats and Republicans or this or that and this president. So it's like, when you do have an independent president, I mean you only have a handful of presidents that have even ran as an independent you know exactly.
Speaker 2:So it's like what does that look like? You know to actually have, um, a modern day independent president that changes almost the entire for the people. Exactly like that changes the system. That changes everything. And I think I just like the message that robert kennedy stands for, because I think when he's running he's talking about the system itself, the system of the democrat and republicans. That's one of his campaign messages, where he talks about this duopoly system, like it's kind of like they both serve the same master. You think you're getting better with this person, but are you really? And it seems like they both have the same boss and I think he's disrupting the status quo.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, yeah, he's the underdog. He's the underdog, and I'm a big believer in underdogs.
Speaker 2:I'm an underdog myself. I've been counted out all my life, from sports to jobs to business, everything, and so just having that perseverance, despite what people are saying about you, I kind of thrive in that and so I like that mentality that Kennedy has. It really excites me when he has that underdog mentality. And so I'm really drawn to that, naturally.
Speaker 1:I see him barreling through all of it, right, because he is, and he's coming at it with such a graceful, respectful manner. You know, we actually get to see what he stands for. We get to witness a future president in action, and I think he's giving us a very good example of what that would look like, you know, when you leave the bashing out and you stick to the job. He's showing us what that looks like, right, and I think that's pretty cool to be able to witness and be here at this time and have a choice and a voice. It's exciting.
Speaker 1:It's an exciting time it is, it's alive I'm going to keep saying that throughout our episodes an exciting time to be alive in 2024. This is going to be a very pivotal year, just for our country, for humanity. I'm excited. I want to end with, for the first time voter out there no, and I. I'm coming from somebody who the last election was my first time voting and I'm in my 40s. I just never, I didn't grow up in a house where voting was a thing. And so, for the first time voter who's out there researching, you know, on these candidates, what would you tell them that they should be looking for and what would you tell them about how they should feel about their choice.
Speaker 2:I would say you already nailed it earlier. You said lead with your heart. I think that really taking some time, take some time to yourself, not around anyone, not being peer pressured to talk about. Take some time for yourself and really go to their website, go to JoeBidencom or DonaldTrumpcom, whatever it is, and hear their message. And even before you do that, ask yourself what do I want? What do I want this country to look like, what? What do I see this country being for myself, for my family, my kids, for my future? What does that look like for me?
Speaker 2:And now, once you have that message, take that same thought and then go to Joe Biden calm, or go to Donald Trump calm, or Robert kit RFK calm, whatever his website, chase Oliver Jill Stein. Go there and now watch a few of their videos. And watch it on your own and just see how it makes you feel and if it resonates with you, great. If you're like that's not exactly what I thought it was gonna be, hey, that's fine to check out another candidate. I think that's probably my best advice.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So go out and vote this November and vote with your heart.
Speaker 2:Vote with your heart. Thanks for taking the time to listen to Collectively Connected with me, damian and my wife Denise. Remember to subscribe, share and join in the conversation Until next time. Friends stay connected, thank you.