Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Derec said:

bilby said:

If someone calls in sick, their work is covered by "waiting time" operators - people who are paid to sit around the depot in case they're needed.
Generally the counter staff get the waiting time people to do odd jobs around the depot, such as putting deliveries away or posting staff notices and other clerical duties. But a lot of the time, they sit around drinking tea. At full pay.

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Sounds like a sweet deal for them, but don't people who actually have to work resent those who just sit around drinking tea all day for the same pay?
And how do you get such a cushy job? Be the son of the president of Local 1514 or something?
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Stay strong we’ve got your back" / Twitter

Major freight railroads are facing pressure to add sick days for their workers from a new front: An influential investment group says some of its members are now pushing the measure that Congress declined to as part of the contracts they imposed last week to avert a potentially devastating nationwide rail strike.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility said Monday that two investment managers it works with to help promote social change at companies had filed proposals at Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads to give shareholders a vote on whether rail workers should get paid sick leave. Similar proposals are likely to be filed at CSX and at BNSF’s parent company of Berkshire Hathaway, but they haven’t been submitted yet. The ICCR represents 300 members with over $4 trillion in assets.

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There seems to be a lot of confusion here about the vote yesterday. The unions wanted the progressive caucus and the Squad to vote the way they did, so they could fight in the Senate. You can disagree with that strategy but it’s the one the unions settled on.

The strategy let’s them fight in the Senate, where they’ll almost certainly lose. But they reasoned that almost certainly losing is better than certainly losing, which is what they were headed for in the House cuz Pelosi had the votes she needed to impose the bad agreement.

If your theory is that the Squad should ignore what the union wants, that’s fine, but make the argument for why that’s the right thing to do.

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Tyler Hackner on Twitter: "@AOC @ryangrim Still disagree with the strategy considering this Senate but we’ll see" / Twitter

On Friday, December 2, 2022, the President signed into law:

H.J. Res. 100, which provides for a resolution with respect to the unresolved disputes between certain railroads represented by the National Carriers’ Conference Committee of the National Railway Labor Conference and certain of their employees;

Thank you to Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, and many others for their leadership.

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Jamal Raad on Twitter: "Are you fucking kidding me @politico? (links)" / Twitter

ON CLIMATE

Winner: Manchin; Loser: Environmentalists The entire climate agenda of the Biden administration is in question right now thanks to

one man and it's unclear if this dynamic will change, given the positions of the senator from coal-mining West Virginia.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@chrislhayes It’s Beltway Brain. Lots of political press spend their time covering the day’s gossip & maneuvering w/ a number tossed in at the expense of covering impact.
Meanwhile 1/2 of these outlets are like “sponsored by big oil & pharma! Today’s guest editor is a right-wing YouTuber.”" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@chrislhayes One thing I was shocked by here is that one outlet that regularly asks substantive questions for people’s understanding is (wait for it) TMZ of all places. They have to ask questions for a broader audience so it’s more “what does this mean for us” instead of“who scored a point”" / Twitter

Actually good, major climate news: today New York City is announcing its public pensions are fully divesting out of the fossil fuel industry and into renewables & climate - a massive shift of about $50 billion.

This move is led by NYC workers. Here’s why this is a big deal.
(previous tweet)

Pension funds are massive pools of money that fund retirement for teachers, city workers, and other public employees.

These funds invest throughout our economy, & the sheer size of pension plans in the US economy (~$5.5 trillion according to @PensionDialog) make them powerful.

I sit on the Financial Services Cmte & often see how Wall St leverages risky &/or unpopular investments onto public pensions, taking bets and setting up workers to hold the bag.

As fossil fuels sink in popularity, pension funds have been an important source for fossil fuel $.

That’s where workers come in to spark change. By demanding their retirements be divested of fossil fuels, workers and voters are precipitating large shifts of $ out of big oil, gas,etc.

That amps up pressure & leaves companies like Exxon w/ fewer places to get fossil fuel money.

NYC is home to some of the largest pensions in the country. If other cities & states join,we’re talking major shifts for climate.

And it’s not only pensions. Univ endowments can divest, too.

Want to help? Ask your school or pension to divest from fossil fuels & into climate

And while it’s important to note that market-based approaches alone will NOT solve the climate crisis (in fact they largely created it to begin w/), divestment mvmts help create the conditions & pressure necessary for even larger leaps.

So there’s your good news of the day 🗞

Kudos to @NYCComptroller for crunching the numbers and laying out the plan and @NYCMayorsOffice for executing on it

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Waleed Shahid on Twitter: " (vid link)" / Twitter

Yes, I talk with Bernie on the phone a decent amount, not just because we're colleagues, but he's legitimately my friend ... and makes me happy.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "It’s true Love ya tío @BernieSanders, thank you for your friendship even though you may not see this and don’t have apps on your phone " / Twitter

Feels like there are a zillion scandals a month Republicans get in that would result in my expulsion or sanction if I ever did the same

I know it’s a tired thing to say, but over time it’s a bummer to experience how systematically an institution treats different people

I wore a dress a month ago and people lost their minds in vitriol and attack.

Meanwhile we have members fraudulently claiming positions to access confidential information, abusing campaign funds, and raking in big pharma cash while blocking leg and we just normalize it and shrug

It never stops astounding me how much caution and work goes in every single day to get everything right, 2x as good, to avert even the perception of a mistake, bc if one happens it’s explosive. Just to look aside & know if you did anything close to what your peers do it’d be over

It’s not imposter syndrome when institutions actually do treat you differently yet pretend they don’t

It’s not imposter syndrome when institutions treat hardworking newcomers like invaders, yet normalize & accept deep corruption or incompetency from ppl we’re “used” to in power

Anyways this one goes out to anyone in any workplace or setting who deep down knows they need to put in Olympic level effort just to be treated as equivalent to a junior varsity walk-on.

I see you. It’s not fun, but it’s real - and it’s not in your head. Keep shining

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "When you’re in the struggle, it can be hard to see everything you’ve accomplished so far.

What @NYTWA has done to fight for the lives of NYC cab drivers is nothing short of remarkable and inspiring.

Now they are on a hunger strike to bring it home. Let’s stand with them " / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "See you soon, Buffalo! It’s time to early vote for @Indiawaltonbflo! 🗳" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The skirt is perfect #TaxTheRich" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Major NY14 climate victory today!
Earlier this year, fossil fuel co NRG began to rush high-pollution, fracked-gas peaker plants into our community.
We organized all year against it while securing wind + solar projects. Today the plant was denied
When we mobilize, we win (vid link)" / Twitter

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• Glosbe Dictionary - All Languages of the World in One Place - didn't work very well.

Details matter.

A lot of people don’t know what the “bipartisan” bill consists of (despite text) and why it’s critical that Build Back Better be paired with it.

Take climate. There is a LOT of oil and gas lobbyist spin about BIF, but deal is it’s climate negative. One example:

People will say “oh look at all this money in climate - like hydrogen energy!”

Well, not all hydrogen is the same. The H sources matter. There are 3 kinds: blue, green, and grey.

Green hydrogen is the good stuff: that hydrogen comes from water and helps us draw down emissions.

You know where Blue hydrogen comes from? Fracked gas. Blue hydrogen has worse emissions than coal, locks in more powerful climate destruction than what we’re doing now.

Blue is bad. (Grey too)

Guess which one bipar bill finances? Blue. So we need to mitigate that BIF alone harm

Passing BIF w/o BBB makes our emissions & climate crisis worse. Sure, some BIF investments do good - but not enough, so it keeps us in the emissions red.

As someone who actually has to live in the future being debated for us: BBB gives us a fighting chance. BIF alone buries us.

Now for folks who say “you need to compromise”: to start, I do not support blue hydrogen. I am against expanding it.

The compromise is allowing blue hydrogen w/ the drawdown provisions in BBB. Passing blue hydrogen alone without guaranteed drawdowns is not a compromise.

So for those who like to call folks like me naïve, immature, or that “I don’t know what I’m doing”- some of us actually read the text while others get hustled by spin.

Details matter. On climate, they’re life+death. So to do my job, I need more than an IOU. Not too much to ask.

There are so, so many details like these linking BIF & BBB.

We can’t just say “oh there’s X million for this!” Does X million actually get it done or is it half a bridge?

How many times has leg been rushed just for people to be resentful at details later? Let’s do this right.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Today was our 4th Annual Community Halloween event and I finally got out of my last-minute cat ears rut!
A little one did try to trick us out of some sweets though (pix link))" / Twitter

“I’m very excited to welcome these extraordinary new members of our Committee, whose remarkable experiences and gifts will soon be known to the whole country. They have come from all over America to fight for their communities. Now they join the Democrats on the Oversight and Accountability Committee—the ‘Truth Squad’—to conduct thorough and fact-based oversight to ensure an effective, efficient, and accountable American government that delivers for the American people.”

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Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "Thank you for the wonderful dinner @ewarren. It was great to be in community with you all tonight. (pic link)" / Twitter

In elevation to the vice ranking member position, while it’s not yet final, would give the well-known third-term progressive Democrat a high-profile perch to tangle with Republicans on a laundry list of controversial investigations they’re planning — on topics ranging from Hunter Biden’s business dealings to the southern border to GOP efforts to probe the “origins” of the coronavirus.

“There’s been conversations, but nothing’s been finalized,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a brief interview Friday when asked about her interest in the party’s No. 2 position on the panel, which is sparking open discussion among her fellow Democratic lawmakers.

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“I have the greatest admiration for her skill, and I’m sure we’re going to be able to deploy her to maximum effect on the committee, along with all these other amazing new members,” Raskin said in an interview about her position on the committee, declining to directly address whether Ocasio-Cortez would become his No. 2.

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“I think I’m going to have a lot of fun on this committee,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters generally earlier Friday after her formal naming to the panel. “Of course, [Republicans are] going to be calling hearings on horrible things, but our job is to protect the people and protect the vulnerable communities that they seek to attack … it gives us an opportunity and a platform to de-legitimize a lot of the disinformation that they’ve been advancing.”

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Maxwell Alejandro Frost on Twitter: "@AOC @RepRaskin @OversightDems Proud to serve on @OversightDems with you!! " / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@MaxwellFrostFL Likewise! Let’s do this You’re gonna be a pro in no time!" / Twitter

lpetrich said:

I like her explanation of the hydrogen colors. There are more, like black and brown, made using black and brown coal, pink for nuclear, yellow for photovoltaic energy, white for natural hydrogen (rare), ...

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Union busting is a sophisticated & lucrative business. It specializes in the psychology of getting you to doubt yourself and your peers. Don’t fall for it
Listen to these Starbucks workers explain their experiences since starting to unionize, including pressure from the top. " / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "You all bringing it down to the wire with a hunger strike and standing constantly + consistently with our drivers every day brought this victory home. Thank *you* " / Twitter

Conservatives argue against raising wages by claiming it’ll raise prices. But that isn’t reliably supported w historic data.

However, what we’re seeing now is perhaps an ex. of prices rising when wages/benefits are *too low*- not enough workers, hurts supply chain, prices hike.

When people drop out of the workforce, it’s a pretty complicated & expensive endeavor to get them back.

The reason is bc unlike physical supply chain issues where problems are a bit more straightforward (not saying easy, but more clear), labor supply issues can be more complex.

You can see this in the issue of wages. You will sometimes hear stories of a place claiming to have raised wages but still having trouble keeping people.

Well, when a pandemic devastated intergenerational families of workers and there’s no childcare, people can’t go back to work

I haven’t seen data yet if those anecdotes are indicative of a larger trend (& if so, how large), but the point still stands.

Like many working class Latino families,my grandma lived with us growing up and cared for me as my parents worked. Until she moved in, my mom stayed home

My family is one of essential workers: school bus drivers, postal workers, cleaners, etc

When childcare wasn’t available, my family couldn’t work - they stayed home.

When childcare isn’t universally available, it impacts the labor market. It can become a supply chain issue!

For people saying this is too out there, read this WSJ coverage.

Women, low income workers, people of color are disproportionately represented in those not re-entering the labor force.

There are reasons for that!

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