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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

In her Instagram, AOC asked if In-N-Out is overrated. 55% yes, 45% no. About french fries, she likes them crispy on the outside and a bit tender on the inside. But she and her companion(s) got two batches, one all-tender and one all-crispy. "I am something of a french fry connoisseur, if I do say so myself. Really everything in the fried-potato category. :D "


https://www.instagram.com/p/BhpRRJWl0oa/ - 2018 Apr 16 - shows her new campaign graphics - yellow and purple and white with slanted letters.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhrlYOElsCF/ - 2018 Apr 17 - " IT’S OFFICIAL: OCASIO2018 IS ON THE BALLOT FOR NY-14! 🔥
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This is what ~5,500 grassroots signatures, collected by 141 volunteer witnesses, held by 1 overwhelmingly grateful candidate at midnight looks like! 💪🏽💪🏽 #peoplepower
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All weekend, high-priced opposition lawyers were crawling over our petitions to find any excuse to bump me off the ballot.
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Ultimately, our grassroots 5X effort was too overwhelming. As of midnight last night, no objections were filed to our campaign for Congress.
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Ocasio2018 is on the ballot for NY-14 all thanks to YOU. THANK YOU to our supporters, door knockers, petition captains, donors, prayer squads, EVERYONE who helped make this happen in all ways large and small.
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Now it’s time to kick it into high gear. Join us in the Bronx THIS SAT for our organizing rally and Barnstorm. You are all officially invited - so you have no reason to say “I’ve never been to the Bronx” again! COMMIT NOW: LINK IN BIO. " - her with two big stacks of petition pages.

Then more campaigning stuff, like a rally with over 100 supporters. Also merchandise with AOC's campaign graphics on it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bie2tuLlQvd/ - 2018 May 7 - "The revolution will not be (solely) digitized.
📸: [MENTION=990]CO[/MENTION]reytorpiephotography" - AOC crossing a street with some people.

A takeoff of  The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - a slogan of some Sixties radicals.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BihdiTslEsZ/ - 2018 May 8 - MLK 50th anniv. speech - "Our fight is not over"

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bij5u-wl7CA/ - 2018 May 9 - An image of AOC and Paula Swearengin hugging each other - PS was a WV Senate candidate, though unsuccessful

AOC visited some businesspeople, and rising rents has been a problem for them too, as luxury-apartment developers come in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BivL4i9FBEr/ - 2018 May 13 - " ☔️👧🏾: “I‘m going to vote for you!”
👩🏽*💼: “Thank you so much! One day I will vote for you, too.” "

https://www.instagram.com/p/BizxXADFuwJ/ - 2018 May 15 - "Merecemos democracia verdadera en #NY14. #Ocasio2018 lucha por familias trabajadores con propuestas de eliminar ICE, mejorar y expandir Medicare, una garantiza Federal de Empleo, y universidad publica para todos.
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I’m on that primera generación bilingual struggle bus... but I’m trying! 🚎" - Google Translate: "We deserve true democracy in # NY14. # Ocasio2018 fights for working families with proposals to eliminate ICE, improve and expand Medicare, a Federal Employment Guarantee, and a public university for all." - shows a video of AOC speaking Spanish. I don't have an autotranslator that works on voice.
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjFCl8Clyg4/ - 2018 May 22 - " OUR CAMPAIGN IS THE FRONT PAGE STORY ON @theintercept TODAY! 🔥🔥🔥 .
From the article: “It really is a David versus Goliath situation where you have someone that has, in my opinion, abused their power, abused their position to further marginalize working families. Now we’re challenging him.” " - "A Primary against the Machine: a Bronx activist looks to dethrone Joseph Crowley, the King of Queens"

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjIpgywF3lR/ - 2018 May 23 - "🎂 🎈Please join me in wishing our rockstar Campaign Manager Vigie a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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There is no Ocasio2018 without @vigie23. I am so honored to know and love such a jovial, sensitive, resilient, smart, and BOSS woman.
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Did you know: Vigie is one of the only female campaign managers in all of New York City! And I am the only female 2018 Congressional candidate in NYC. Together we are pretty much a unicorn in New York politics 🦄👯*♀️ #veryrare
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Happy birthday Vigie! We love you so much!
📸: [MENTION=990]CO[/MENTION]reytorpiephotography"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "About 10 years ago I worked in Ted Kennedy’s foreign affairs/immigration constituent office.
I REGULARLY fielded calls from panicked mothers who came home to missing family members.
ICE was created in 2003 along w/ the Patriot Act. It was a weapon waiting for a tyrant. /1" / Twitter
She followed up with 8 more Tweets on immigration.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjdi-jPlPj2/ - 2018 May 31 - "Verified
BREAKING: Progressive champion & AG Candidate @zephyrteachout has broken with the New York establishment to endorse @ocasio2018!
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Zephyr is a FIERCE statewide figure for change. And she’s running for Attorney General while pregnant! She’s a badass, a fighter for working families, and a national leader in getting money out of politics. It’s no surprise that she would be the first NY political figure to speak truth to power and endorse Ocasio2018.
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Fun fact: Ocasio2018 has organized the 2nd largest amount of small donors in New York history. Zephyr is #1 after her endorsement by Bernie Sanders in 2016!"

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj4xnLOlfTt/ - 2018 Jun 11 - "🌟 SUPERSTARS 🌟 Last night these two Ocasio2018 superstars (@localhunny & @kitchen3n) put together an AMAZING comedy Iftar event for Ocasio2018. We came together, joined our Muslim brothers and sisters in breaking fast with a date and water, and laughed our behinds off with an incredible slate of comedians, many of whom joked about life as first and second-gen Americans.
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It was a truly amazing experience in so many ways. This campaign has grown into a movement, and the fight for dignified healthcare, education, housing, and justice reform is so emotionally meaningful to us all. It was great to channel that into laughter and prayer, too."
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj-bcZSl7KO/ - 2018 Jun 13 - "Overjoyed to have worked with our Bangladeshi fam in NY-14 to do this. Big ups to Muslims for Progress & our Ocasio2018 South Asian organizers for making this happen, grassroots style.
💜🧕🏾👩🏽*💼:
- (her campaign pitch in Bengali)" - AOC spoke some Bengali. A salaam alaikum (Arabic greeting) Aamar naam (My name is...) -- Bengali "naam", English "name", Spanish "nombre" -- our Indo-European heritage.

AOC continued to collect endorsements, from orgs like MoveOn.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkO7xwdFWET/ - 2018 Jun 19 - "A weak stance on ICE is completely unacceptable in this morally defining moment. We need to take a stand and we need to do it now. That’s why I am one of the first candidates in the nation to call for the abolition of ICE." - part of the AOC-JC debate, where JC professed to oppose nasty conditions and AOC asked him what was he doing about those conditions? Good move on her part.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bkhsm72FJZ7/ - 2018 Jun 27 - "This is the start of a movement - and there’s so much more to come. This win belongs to every single person who knocked a door, made a phone call, chose to believe, and voted.
Thank you." - got in the New York Times: "Newcomer Defeats Crowley, a Top House Democrat, in a Major Upset"

The third phase of AOC's campaign ended: she won the primary. She dethroned the King of Queens.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnY2d0BltP2/ - 2018 Sep 6 - " “The best thing we could do is work as hard as we can for what is right and what is good.”
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It was an honor to share this conversation with @kerrywashington, who grew up in the Bronx/NY-14. Her grandmother lived just a few blocks from where I do now. You can find it up on @interviewmag. "

She wore a dark green pantsuit that was rather expensive, and right-wingers got all worked up about that. She later explained that it was given for her to wear for that photo shoot.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnZ4_mxlVX3/ - 2018 Sep 6 - " Own your power.
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For so many, it’s radical to feel comfortable in your own skin - and to know that you are more than enough, just as you are.
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One of my favorite quotes is from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: “Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
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So take up space. Speak up. Hold the door open and take others with you. Accept that you will be criticized no matter what - that is the price of fighting for change and innovation. I consider constructive criticism a blueprint for improvement and a medicine for ego.
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Ultimately, the people who get down, stay focused in adversity, and do the thankless work of change are the ones who transform society. We can all be a part of that, if we so choose. We can all knock a door, register our cousin to vote, or educate ourselves on an issue we’re curious about.
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We are all capable of awakening and commitment. And because of that, we can all be great. "

The picture that was published, of her sitting on some steps and looking rather serious.
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bocb29dh0CW/ - 2018 Oct 2 - " Sharing love + strength with sister @ayannapressley as we rallied in support of survivors and urged @jeffflake to #cancelkavanaugh on behalf of all women.
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To all survivors: thank you for your tremendous strength and grace during the pain of this week. I try to remind our community that it’s always darkest before dawn. Right now, we are working to elect a cadre of survivors and allies to bring forth a better world that fights for justice for all.
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📸: @jacktemp of @masslive " - AOC and AP hugging each other. I recall that about AOC and Rashida Tlaib. They evidently got acquainted after they won their primaries.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BofkCgFB2jq/ - 2018 Oct 3 - " Sometimes people ask me how this feels. To be honest, at least in part, I feel scared. Anxious. Overwhelmed. And that’s okay. It is a surreal experience to go from being virtually anonymous to having an enormous amount of attention overnight. Things went from feeling like folks going out of their way NOT to cover our campaign to feeling like there’s a microscope on my every word, joke, meal, outfit, or makeup decision. Every time a media event like this happens I get NERVOUS. But I also think about how I never got to see anyone like me on any magazines growing up. I never saw a version myself in leadership, or on TV, or anywhere really and think, “That could be me.”
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I think of that saying, ‘be who you needed when you were younger.’ When I was younger, I needed to see myself in others. I needed mentorship. I needed an example. I needed to believe that I could. Knowing that gives me the courage to overcome the doubt, the fear, and anxiety: the idea that if I do this, then maybe it will help someone else.
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The whole time I campaigned for Congress up to the primary, I didn’t even have health insurance. I was uninsured until not long ago. I STILL feel squeezed w/ healthcare. So to suddenly be on the cover of a magazine despite all that is enough to make my head spin. I try hard to keep my life as normal as possible, with just a few changes to accommodate the whirlwind. I still live in my 1br BX apartment, but I may move 2 blocks to get a little more space for all the boxes. I go to my same bodega, have the same mailman, play in the same parks with my nieces and nephews.
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The hardest part has been feeling like my full, human, 3-dimensional self gets flattened into a 2 dimensional character for mass consumption or critique. It’s weird. I stumble like everyone else. It’s hard feeling like I have a whole movement on my shoulders. But I also know that’s not true - movement means we’re ALL in this together. I happen to have one mic to amplify the work and causes of others, but it’s not the only mic.
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The goal is to keep pushing so that LOTS 👏🏽MORE👏🏽 champions get the shine they so deeply deserve. That means to everyone out there - your cover is next.
📸: @cassblackbird " - celebrity can be rough. In "Contact across the Solar System", I have "But the Los Angeles area newspapers were full of gossip about the entertainment industry, and in their ship-pilot days, the two (Kalna and Ilmuth) would get a lot of it from LA-area residents. Residents like Firkon and Ramu in previous years. It sometimes made them dread becoming celebrities among the Earthers. It was yet another possible negative consequence of their revealing their true identities, alongside being considered kooks, being sent to mental hospitals as hopelessly deluded, or worse."

The Vanity Fair cover has this AOC quote: "I'm going to make some Democrats mad if they're trying to deliver paydays for Wall Street donors. But that doesn't mean I'm going to burn the house down."
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp2HJO1hFy-/ - 2018 Nov 6 - "Today’s the day. To the countless supporters, door-knockers, organizers, small-dollar donors, and everyone in between - thank you.
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This journey has been one of the most challenging and rewarding collective efforts I’ve ever been a part of. We haven’t just run a campaign - we created a movement in our own backyard. We built community. We centered issues that no one wanted to talk about. We uplifted our neighbors and discovered a level courage + friendship we never thought possible.
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Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey and followed us along to this moment. No matter what happens, this is just a beginning. Let’s continue walking shoulder-to-shoulder in the advancement of economic, social, + racial justice in the United States of America." - Election day. The picture is of AOC doing some electioneering on that day, with some pamphlets advertising her candidacy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp5SiGbhbiw/ - 2018 Nov 7 - "Words will never be enough to express my gratitude. Thank you to the people of the Bronx and Queens for choosing to make history and sending me to Congress. Thank to every organizer, supporter, and small-dollar donor who made this happen."

The fourth and final phase of AOC's election campaign is now complete: she has been elected United States Representative.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqLWHsnhGpj/ - 2018 Nov 14 - "Fox News discovered our vast conspiracy to take care of children and save the planet 😂" - "Radical New Democratic Ideas":
  • Free college for all
  • Free healthcare for all
  • Abolish ICE
  • Green New Deal
AOC often seems bemused by right-wing jerks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqScBouBkd7/ - 2017 Nov 17 - "Progress > polite society. This week our good trouble with @sunrisemvmt got us from ZERO to EIGHT Democrats signed onto the Select Committee resolution for a Green New Deal.
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I got a lot of heat when I joined these amazing activists on Tuesday. “Go protest Republicans,” we were told. “You’re being disruptive and unhelpful,” we were admonished. But the thing about protesting Republicans is that none of them listen. We learned that w/ the Kavanaugh fight and so many before that. Democrats, on the other hand, DO listen. So when everyday people show up in numbers and ask for change with commitment and consistency, we can get somewhere. And we are.
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Today I’m thankful for gutsy leaders like @reprokhanna (CA), @repjohnlewis (GA), @repblumenauer (OR), sisters [MENTION=307]Deb[/MENTION]4congressnm (NM) & @rashidatlaib (MI), NY fam @repmaloney & Rep. Serrano for signing on. Now call your local Dem Rep and let’s get a win in before we’re even sworn in. 💪🏽💜" - that was a protest of climate activists in Nancy Pelosi's office. AOC joined them because she shared their concerns.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "How is Columbus Day a holiday but Election Day not?" / Twitter - I agree that it would be a good trade.
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "In my on-boarding to Congress, I get to pick my insurance plan.
As a waitress, I had to pay more than TWICE what I’d pay as a member of Congress.
It’s frustrating that Congressmembers would deny other people affordability that they themselves enjoy. Time for #MedicareForAll." / Twitter

Some posts on her showing up at a conference on what to do about climate change, and saying about renewable energy "This is going to be Great Society, the moonshot, the civil-rights movement of our generation."

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrLgChWhTzE/ - 2018 Dec 9 - "In the community, we give out bubbles. No big, complex reason for it - they just make the block a little more beautiful and fun.
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One of my favorite parts of this is when a child blows a stream of bubbles and they float in front of a person running around the neighborhood. We are so often rushing around from one place to another. You’re running out of the subway, thinking of your next destination, or your brain is fixated on some person who was rude to you on the train, when - boop! A bubble floats in front of your nose. It makes people smile every time. Even the crankiest people have to wrestle down the good humor of it. And really, what good is any of this fight if it isn’t accompanied with an effort to be joyful along the way?
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📸: @nikolai_aerosmith" - another reason to like AOC. She seems so positive, even after all that she's suffered through and after all the work that she's had to do. Like being bemused at many of her right-wing critics.

I remember blowing soap bubbles as a kid. I remember their iridescent oil-slick colors and how they partially disappeared before the bubbles burst.
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrL_K7khiJN/ - 2018 Dec 9 - "Tonight we celebrated #Chanukah in community with @jfrejnyc & many others. It was a blast, and Rabbi Mia extended to me the honor of helping her light the Shamash - the servant candle that sparks the others. I’m so inspired by that idea, that each and every one of us can be a ‘shamash’ for our friends, family, and community. Let’s take that energy and light into the start of this coming week!"

That's the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice - "Building a powerful Jewish Left in NYC"

WATCH THIS: Socialist Ocasio-Cortez, Whose Parents Are Both Non-Jews, Claims Jewish Ancestry | Yeshiva World News has several tweets related to that event. Rabbi Mia is Mia Simring, a Conservative rabbi.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "What a beautiful and touching evening we shared tonight for our community Chanukah celebration. Thank you Rabbi Mia for the opportunity of helping you light the shamash, and thank you @JFREJNYC for assembling the festivities! May tonight’s light and hope spark many others ✨ https://t.co/vBE2s3KH5S" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Plus I can never turn down an opportunity to try a new dance! 💃🏽 https://t.co/qwTXLXGrDb" / Twitter

Her response to the rediscovery of a dance video from her college years was to do some dancing near her office in Congress.

Haaretz.com on Twitter: "“One of the things a lot of people don’t know about Puerto Rico, and something we discovered ourselves, is that a long time ago, many generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardic Jews." https://t.co/lgczDI0paN" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Before everyone jumps one me - yes, culture isn’t DNA.
But to be Puerto Rican is to be the descendant of:
African Moors + slaves,
Taino Indians,
Spanish colonizers,
Jewish refugees,
and likely others.
We are all of these things and something else all at once - we are Boricua. https://t.co/IFC4mwAjor" / Twitter

In short, being a mutt. But just about all of us are mutts. Europeans have three main overlays of ancestry - the Paleolithic cave painters, the Neolithic farmers, and the steppe people's horses and Indo-European languages.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Just because one concrete identity may not be how we think of ourselves today, nor how we were raised, it doesn’t mean we cannot or should not honor the ancestors + stories that got us here.
I was raised Catholic, & that identity is an amalgam too - especially in Latin America." / Twitter

Yes, continuing bits of people's old-time religions.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "If anything, the stories of our ancestry give us windows of opportunity to lean into others, to seek them out, and see ourselves, our histories, and our futures, tightly knit with other communities in a way we perhaps never before thought possible." / Twitter

However, some people compared this to Elizabeth Warren claiming Native American heritage.

Taly Krupkin on Twitter: "At Hanukkah event with @JFREJNYC in an moving speech, @Ocasio2018 shares that her family were Sephardic Jews who fled to Puerto Rico. “So many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding” https://t.co/68bjuCFnDD" / Twitter

Taly Krupkin on Twitter: "Hey! Here is a video of @Ocasio2018 singing in Ladino. The song is the Chanukah song “Ocho Kandelikas” https://t.co/g3qDUt5n8B" / Twitter
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez partner Riley Roberts avoids the spotlight - INSIDER
Back at 2011 at a BU TED session, he talked about "twisted logic", "unconventional thinking that challenges the status quo."

She and Roberts met at Coffee & Conversations, a Friday-afternoon student town-hall hosted by BU. There, students discussed everything from the meaning of love to the news of the day, Raul Fernandez, a mentor of Ocasio-Cortez's, told me in December.

Ocasio-Cortez often drove the sessions, ending them with thoughtful conclusions that included "her own twist" on the subject, Alveena Shah, a college friend, told me last year.

Roberts was quieter. "You could see him in the corner of the room really thinking through things," said a mutual college friend of the couple, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss Roberts candidly. She described him as a "philosopher" type.
Click to expand...
He's more introverted than she is - another reason that he likes to stay out of sight. AOC liked having intellectual discussions even then.

Halfway through the Netflix documentary, Ocasio-Cortez sits in her living room and lays out her campaign's direct-mail strategy. She compares her sharp, postcard-sized mailer to the glossy brochures promoting her rival, Crowley.

She derides Crowley's mailer as a "Victoria's Secret catalog," designed by over-paid political consultants. It lacks basic information, including the date of the primary election. Crowley's policy positions — beyond his promise to stand up to President Donald Trump — are nowhere to be found.

Roberts, who'd been quietly watching Ocasio-Cortez's monologue after handing her a cup of coffee, then appears on camera. Sitting beside her on the couch, his elbows resting on both knees, he looks straight into the camera. "One of these core, core issues with the Democratic establishment is that their consultants are garbage," he says, clapping his hands for emphasis. "They're losing."
Click to expand...
:rotfl: - a "Victoria's Secret catalog". Yet more evidence of how out-of-touch Joe Crowley was. AOC has prominently advertised her policy positions, happy to say. RR has been very helpful to AOC during her campaign, even campaigning for her.

Who Is Riley Roberts? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Boyfriend Has Stayed Out Of The Spotlight
Why You Haven't Seen AOC Boyfriend Riley All That Much

Luke Thompson on Twitter: "While you were having a nice Valentine's Day, @AOC decided to put her boyfriend on staff - drawing a salary on the taxpayer's dime. Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly. https://t.co/bvncwzxY53" / Twitter
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@ltthompso Actually this cal designation is a permission so he can have access to my Google Cal. Congressional spouses get Gcal access all the time.
Next time check your facts before you tweet nonsense." / Twitter
Good response, and a joy to read. It's what Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and other past prominent Democrats ought to have done.

When Men Step Up ― And Back ― To Support Women's Ambitions | HuffPost - like Elizabeth Warren's husband Bruce Mann, Kamala Harris's husband Douglas Emhoff, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband Martin Ginsburg.
Who is AOC's Boyfriend? Meet Riley Roberts
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in new documentary 'Knock Down the House' - Business Insider
Lears: I remember her and Riley saying if she lost they would go be lumberjacks in the woods for a while. I remember her saying, "I'm really looking forward to wearing regular clothes again." It was an exhausting process, but she also talked about how there was so much of value in the campaign even if she did lose — changing the conversation in the district and organizing the community. These campaigns were activating people who weren't usually involved in the political process, building coalitions that didn't necessarily work together.

She was very clear [in saying], "Even if I don't win the election, this is worth doing because all of this organizing work creates permanent benefits in the community."

(Insider)
Riley Roberts, broke some bad news. He'd finished her favorite ice cream, leaving none for her. "That's really messed up," Ocasio-Cortez joked. "You're, like, so unrepentant about it, too."

(Decider)
Roberts guiltily informs Ocasio-Cortez he finished off the last of the pint of AmeriCone Dream (Stephen Colbert’s flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream) and Ocasio-Cortez laments she never even got a bit. Perhaps a peace offering, Roberts then makes tea in their electric kettle. It’s all very adorable, and will undoubtedly leave audiences wanting to know more about this cute, red-headed hipster.
Click to expand...
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Double standards are Paul Ryan being elected at 28 and immediately being given the benefit of his ill-considered policies considered genius; and me winning a primary at 28 to immediately be treated with suspicion & scrutinized, down to my clothing, of being a fraud. https://t.co/KipcyHaaAb" / Twitter

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrQycTUhgg4/ - 2018 Dec 11 - "Occasionally it seems there‘s an unspoken rule that you’re not supposed to point out double standards... that you’re somehow supposed to wait for a magic champion to drop out of the sky and advocate on your behalf. It’s a quiet suggestion that it’s rude, or crass, to point out double standards and advocate for yourself; and that doing so focuses on making YOU a victim, but conveniently allows the inefficiency, injustice, or mistake to perpetuate, unaddressed and off the hook from correction - even when everyone knows it’s wrong.
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So, how do we fix it? We start by making the comfortable - the decisionmakers and benefiters resisting change - uncomfortable. Do it by pointing out the obvious. Say out loud what everyone is thinking quietly. Be brave. Shake the table. And MOST importantly, stick up for yourself - it’s a service to all who will come after you.
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Sitting pretty has never gotten us a better world. Never has, never will. So buckle up and resolve yourself for good trouble.
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And if you’re a news editor, understand and accept that you are subconsciously biased - everyone is - and ask yourself how you’ve perpetuated that bias and what you will do to correct it."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "For the wall’s $5.7 billion, every child in America could have access to Universal Pre-K.
Yet when we propose the SAME $, we’re told Universal Edu is a “fantasy”& asked “how are you going to pay for it”
Education is an investment in society that yields returns. Walls are waste. https://t.co/fs0nvq6LJq" / Twitter
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrqwCt8Boq1/ - 2018 Dec 21 - "And just like that, GOP discovers $5.7 billion for a wall. $5.7 billion.

What if we instead added $5.7B in teacher pay?
Or replacing water pipes?
Or college tuition/prescription refill subsidies?
Or green jobs?

But notice how no one’s asking the GOP how they’re paying for it."

She's very right in this. Very, very, very right. It's good that someone in such a position has been willing to point that out.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Br5OO1PBBOt/ - 2018 Dec 27 - "Transition time. It’s the little things that make it feel real. Everything for the Bronx and Queens. NY-14." - AOC's office plaque

https://www.instagram.com/p/Br-jt_IBWJk/ - 2018 Dec 29 - "via @huffpostwomen" - "I keep things raw and honest on here since I believe public servants do a disservice to our communities by pretending to be perfect. It makes things harder for others who aspire to run someday if they think they have to be superhuman before they even try."

Like being scared by kitchen-sink disposals. :D

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsORBXXhzDu/ - 2019 Jan 4 - "If Republicans thought women dancing in college is scandalous, wait till they find out women dance in Congress, too! 😉" - her Congress-office-building dance video
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsQu3j4BtZA/ - 2019 Jan 5 - "What can I possibly say except thank you? So many people sacrificed so much for this to happen - my mother most of all.
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My mamá was born + raised in Puerto Rico. She practically raised her siblings in poverty while her own mother worked nonstop to provide food and shelter. She met my father, a Bronx boy visiting isla family, at a young age. They married + moved to NYC - she didn’t even speak English. My parents started from scratch: new languages, new life, new everything. Then came me, and they moved to start over again so I could have an education. Mami mopped floors, drove school buses, + answered phones. She did whatever she needed to do, for me. When my father died, she was left a single mother of 2, and again she had to start over. After he passed we almost lost our home, so we sold it and started over. & over. & over.
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It wasn’t long ago that we felt our lives were over; that there were only so many do-overs until it was just too late, or too much to take, or we were too spiritually spent. I was scrubbing tables + scooping candle wax after restaurant shifts & falling asleep on the subway ride home. I once got pickpocketed, & everything I earned that day was stolen. That day I locked myself in a room and cried deep: I had nothing left to give, or to be. And that’s when I started over. I honestly thought as a 28 year old waitress I was too late; that the train of my fulfilled potential had left the station.
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This week I was sworn in as the youngest woman in American history to serve in the United States Congress. I hope that record is broken again soon. As I raised my hand for the oath, my mother held the holy book & looked into @SpeakerPelosi’s eyes. Afterwards, the Speaker said to her “you must be so proud,” and my mother began to cry.
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It was not long ago that our family’s hope was so dim it was barely an ember. Darkness taught me transformation cannot solely be an individual pursuit,but also a community trust. We must lean on others to strive on our own.
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Thank you all. Whether it was late nights, hard days, pocket change, emotional investment, hard & soft skills, door knocking in the heat or petitioning in the bitter cold - we did this together."

It's very good that she recognized that her success was not something solitary. Very, very good. All too often right-wingers and capitalism apologists whine "I didn't need anybody's help", even when they did have others' help. Even success in business depends on others. Former employers, business partners, employees, ... I was in a startup that seemed to be progressing nicely until its central figure dropped out. He mysteriously disappeared and it was impossible to contact him. Unfortunately, that startup could go nowhere without him.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BuTu3aPBs-e/ - 2019 Feb 25 - "I announced that no one who works for me full-time will make less than $52k and Fox News called it communism 🤣
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In my office, we do our best to practice what we preach, and pay a living wage to all: $52k minimum for all full-time staff. To be honest, I wish our budgets allowed us to make it higher.
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It’s a very unusual move on the Hill and likely one of the highest entry-level salaries in Congress. I do it because I was outraged at how many staffers I saw on the Hill work FULL-TIME leave their day job for a second shift as a barista or elsewhere afterwards **just to afford the basics** - not even to get ahead or save up for something big. It’s totally wrong.
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Low pay is also a big reason for lack of socioeconomic diversity in DC, aka why many spaces in government can feel like a silver spoon club: only people who work 80+hr weeks w/ multiple jobs without an outside life, or whose parents can supplement their pay can have the opportunity to work in the nation’s capital. That has real consequences for government being out of touch w/ the people we serve on all levels. There’s a TON of work that needs to be done when it comes to the workplace (parental leave, hiring practices, living wage, healthcare as a right and not a perk, etc), but it starts with paying people enough to live as a minimum requirement, and not a luxury (and I guess that gets you called a communist these days 😂)."
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I find it revealing when people mock where I came from, & say they’re going to “send me back to waitressing,” as if that is bad or shameful.
It’s as though they think being a member of Congress makes you intrinsically “better” than a waitress.
But our job is to serve, not rule." / Twitter

That's very commendable humility on AOC's part. But it might be fun to imagine what she would sound like if she sounded like pResident tRump, with his incessant bragging and his insults of people that he dislikes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuxV_Xzha9l/ - 2019 Mar 8 - " I am a public servant - that means my job is to put other people’s needs before my own, not the other way around.
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And while it’s hard for special interests to understand that concept, they know it’s powerful enough to try to undermine: (see: dark money conservative groups filing totally bogus ethics complaints so they can report on “alleged,” untrue things).
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The truth is, the reason they’re throwing the kitchen sink at us is because they know deep down that the system wasn’t meant for working people to win. And now that one has, others will follow - and together we will make this nation better for all.
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“Anyone can be great, because anyone can serve.” - MLK "

Here again, AOC expects others to at least try to do what she did. Something that is indeed happening.

Home | Brand New Congress AOC's original campaign logo was the BNC one. BNC has announced its first three candidates, and one of them was a 2018 one: Cori Bush.

Justice Democrats - it has a video of a conversation between AOC and some JD activists. The JD's wanted people who were willing to serve some larger cause instead of making it all about them, and AOC was a good pick.
 
Then this very remarkable Instagram post. Its picture is of a red shopping basket with some stuff in it: a carton of oat milk, some whole-wheat bread, a jar of Goya something, some soup mix, some ramen noodles, and some other things. Not much.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxno-EOHDQl/ - 2019 May 18 - "I looked down at my grocery basket today and couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. I’m still paying my student loans, and while I try to make my own meals; I also quite often will resort to a frozen dinner or take out. These are luxuries I never had growing up, and as I looked down at my basket today, I couldn’t help but think of all the times as a child that I complained about eating rice & beans for what felt then like the 10,000th time. Rice and beans was our staple meal, and we ate it the vast majority of days. As a kid I eventually complained about it. I got tired of eating the same thing all the time, and I wanted to have the elaborate meals I saw children eating on TV.
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Now, being an adult with bills and having had to scrimp and calculate everything for years, I feel terrible about it. My parents were young and trying to raise two kids on a dime. Eating rice and beans every day is what allowed me to go on school trips and play soccer. I didn’t get it then - my parents didn’t want me to feel limited - but I really feel guilty for it now.
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When I graduated college, my first job paid $45k. It was more than my mother made in her entire life. There is a lot of guilt and strange emotions that comes with that, but now when I think about those moments - those dinners where I whined because I didn’t understand the sacrifice my parents were making - all I can do is try to take that guilt and turn it into everyday gratitude.
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I’m thankful. Half the time I don’t feel deserving of how my life has turned out over the last year. It brings a lot of stress and complications, but I’m not afraid for my own survival the way I used to be when I didn’t have insurance or when the restaurant was dead for weeks in a row and I wasn’t making the tips I needed to pay rent. All I can do is be thankful. I thank my creator and every well-wisher, supporter, organizer, family, and friend. And dedicate my life now to working as hard as I can so that everyone in this country can have the opportunities needed to be blessed with a basket like the one I have today.
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(Also sorry to be posting pics of food in the middle of Ramadan! 😬 When inspiration strikes ya gotta do what ya gotta do)"

A great statement by her. It is good that she has resolved that nobody should ever have to go through what she had to go through.
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByJffo0AOLO/ - 2019 31 May - "According to ROC, 1 in 10 NYCers work in the restaurant industry. 1 in 2 Americans will work in hospitality at some point in their lives.
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I’ve always found the detractors who say they’re going to “send me back to bartending” fascinating - after all, what is so wrong with making an honest living? Service workers of all stripes - nail salon, restaurant, car wash workers & more - are some of the hardest working people in the country; and these industries are only growing.
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It’s time to #RaiseTheWage to $15 an hour nationally, no exceptions, #TipsOnTop. It’s far too easy to exploit tipped workers otherwise - which is why sexual harassment and labor violations run rampant in an industry that is up to 70% women and 40% single mothers.
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#RaiseTheWage will help countless people and families worry a little less and live more dignified lives. Let’s get it done."

Click on the arrows on the pictures to scroll through them. The middle one is some video of AOC shaking some ice in a big metal cup(?).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BygpIQGAmfH/ - 2019 Jun 9 - "Que Bonita Bandera 🇵🇷" - What a Pretty Flag - the Puerto Rican flag

https://www.instagram.com/p/By_iqIZgxQI/ - 2019 Jun 21 - "They are concentration camps.
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There is absolutely no reason to apologize for calling them what they are. The GOP should apologize for running concentration camps, starving children, and committing international human rights abuses by separating children from their parents.
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As long as this administration keeps operating what academics, experts, and historians widely agree to be concentration camps, I will not stop holding their feet to the fire for it.
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🎥: @theintercept" - when the House Minority Leader asked her to apologize for using the term "concentration camps", she demanded that he apologize for those camps' nasty conditions.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Refuses to Apologize for Comparing US Border Detention Facilities to Nazi Concentration Camps | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com (Aug 13) - I find her courage most remarkable.
 
You find her Courage most remarkable? Don't you mean her remarkable stupidity for comparing the Nazi concentration camps to anything happening on the southern US border?
 
angelo said:
You find her Courage most remarkable? Don't you mean her remarkable stupidity for comparing the Nazi concentration camps to anything happening on the southern US border?
Click to expand...
She means concentration camps more generally, not extermination camps.

When I say courage, I mean saying that some much longer-serving politician ought to be doing the apologizing - Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was first elected in 2006.
 
angelo said:
You find her Courage most remarkable? Don't you mean her remarkable stupidity for comparing the Nazi concentration camps to anything happening on the southern US border?
Click to expand...

That might be stupid if she had actually done that. Good thing she did not make any such comparison. That comparison was made by idiotic Republicans who do not understand that "concentration camp" is not synonymous with "Nazi concentration camp".
 
angelo said:
You find her Courage most remarkable? Don't you mean her remarkable stupidity for comparing the Nazi concentration camps to anything happening on southern US border?
Click to expand...

Remarkable stupidity, indeed.
 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: The IN THE THICK Interview

Nice interview. AOC felt a strong sense of connection to the Standing Rock protesters, and she felt called to go. She also felt a connection with her Taino heritage - the Tainos were the original population of Puerto Rico, and they disappeared as a separate population after European colonists arrived. But Puerto Ricans still have some Taino ancestry in them. So if that seems like Elizabeth Warren once claiming Cherokee ancestry, AOC has a bit more justification.

She also talked about the Democratic party apparat in the Bronx and Queens, and how politicians would be unwilling to be seen with her. It was mostly Latino in the Bronx and more white in Queens, but almost all male in both places. Her solution: create her own political club. So she went door-to-door, for door after door after door for several months, signing up new voters.
Well for me, on a personal level before the election, I stopped feeling despair when I started working my ass off. I felt despair when I was sitting on my couch and watching the news. When I was on the internet just reading every day go by in our nation sliding into an abyss. But when I started working my ass off, I stopped feeling that, and I can guarantee that if anybody is out there feeling despair right now, if you start working your ass off, it’s going to be exhausting. But it’s going to be really fulfilling.
Click to expand...
She suggested that if you don't want to run, you can help someone else run, like by managing their campaign. AOC had the only female one in NYC, someone who volunteered to do so. She also doesn't consider herself a leftist. She stated that we are in another Gilded Age.

Portrait Of: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - has a NPR interview for during her campaign. She ran her campaign out of her apartment living room before moving into a former law office. It had a lot of folding plastic furniture. When she and her interviewer walked out into the street, her interviewer said that she's a "flats girl". She responded that she does like wearing heels once in a while, but that she wears flats when she has to do a lot of walking - it's important to be comfortable.

Then a town hall that AOC had where she didn't invite the news media - because of how fearful many people are. She got a lot of flak for that, but many people in her community understood. A problem with her campaigning in some places in NYC is that many people live in fear of ICE agents dragging them away. She also says that her constituents appreciate her for standing up for them, and that they don't want her to back down. She also says that for a very long time, she failed her father when he told her to "make me proud". She thinks that her father would say what a mess she got into, while smiling at her - she recalls her father answering questions with full respect even when she was a kid. Seems like a great father she had. Now that she's been elected,

She recalls growing up and being in the underclass of her affluent Westchester neighborhood. Some of her detractors have implied that she was upper-middle-class there and thus not a real Bronxite.
 
AOC (Once Again) Schools Fox News About the ‘Latina Thing’ - which is pronouncing her name correctly. She also notes "Pro Tip: My last name is not “Cortez,” just as theirs isn’t “Ingra” or “Carl” or “Hann.”", referring to Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity.

Ex co-worker no fan of Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
But one waitress has a bad memory of working with Ocasio-Cortez, 28, as Ocasio-Cortez tended bar during the very busy Cinco de Mayo celebration in 2017.

At the end of the night, when it came time to split the $560 in tips she had gotten at the bar, Ocasio-Cortez gave the waitress only $50. After the waitress complained to her manager, her take was doubled to $100, a source said.

“It says so much about her character,” said my source. “From that point on, I wouldn’t talk to her. I couldn’t look at her.”
Click to expand...
However, most others there liked Sandy, as they called her.

The life story of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: bartender to lawmaker - INSIDER
AOC's graphics designer for her campaign:
"Everyone just loved Sandy," Starrett said. "She had an infectious kindness, an infectious presence."
Click to expand...
I think that that's a part of her success -- she seems *very* likable. Nancy Pelosi called her "very gracious". This is like why Joe Biden was very unwilling to say harsh words about some segregationists that he had known in his early years - they were *very* courteous to him.

Ayanna Pressley, someone who got compared to AOC when she had a primary victory:
"I was struck by her rawness, her conviction — she'll hate me saying this — her beauty," said Pressley, now Massachusetts' first black congresswoman.
Click to expand...
Two weeks before the election, Ro Khanna became the only Congressperson to endorse AOC. He originally endorsed Joe Crowley, then "This is the type of person who deserves to have a shot to serve. She's doing it for all the right reasons."
 
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