Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[lpetrich]

We should all be feminists | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | TEDxEuston - YouTube - supporters of the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Most of that talk was about various sorts of sexism, like presuming that it's a man who had the money that she was using. AOC herself has suffered from sexism like being directed to events for interns and wives of congresspeople.

 Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

1 Be a full person, 2 Do it together, 3 Teach her that 'gender roles' is absolute nonsense, 4 Beware the danger of what I call Feminism Lite, 5 Teach (her) to read, 6 Teach her to question language, 7 Never speak of marriage as an achievement, 8 Teach her to reject likeability, 9 Give (her) a sense of identity, 10 Be deliberate about how you engage with her and her appearance, 11 Teach her to question our culture's selective use of biology as 'reasons' for social norms, 12 Talk to her about sex and start early, 13 Romance will happen so be on board, 14 In teaching her about oppression, be careful not to turn the oppressed into saints, 15 Teach her about difference.

Kenidra4Humanity on Twitter: "I'm obsessed with @aoc and if you guys could help me get this tweet to her on today on my birthday it would mean the world !! https://t.co/hoqBjgqKxP" / Twitter - the 19th birthday of an AOC admirer. AOC gets a lot of admiration from young women.
with a nice little response from AOC:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@KenidraRWoods_ https://t.co/jiFlqfOaes" / Twitter
Sweet nothings? Maybe, but I like her using the word "exude". It's a bit like Madonna once saying that something continues to "elude us". Does anyone want to get AOC and Madonna together?

There was a shadow on her of a smartphone being held in front of her. Like most of her tweets, it was credited to "Twitter for iPhone"

AOC Explains Whom She's Blocking On Twitter & Why - for harassment and abuse, like posting fake nude pictures.

 

[lpetrich]

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has an alternative: "Feminist: a man or a woman who says 'Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it, w

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Emerges as a Political Star - The New York Times
About AOC's high-school science project:

“One of the administrators wasn’t there at the beginning and came in after she started, and he said to the superintendent, ‘What company is she from?’” Mr. Blueglass recalled. “The superintendent said, ‘She’s a 17-year-old senior in our high school.’ She presented herself, verbally, visually, everything, as if she was a 30-year-old professional presenter businesswoman even though she was 17 years old.”

Mr. Blueglass said that even as a teenager, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez looked at science research through a political lens. “She was interested in research to help people in all areas, including developing nations, not just for the people with money.”

...
She majored in economics and international relations, impressing the professor who taught an antitrust economics class, Marc Rysman, with “great analytic abilities.”

Ocasio-Cortez Makes Mac-n-Cheese on Instagram Live Q&A (Nov 9, 2018) - YouTube and Ocasio-Cortez flirts with run for presidency - while dancing, making mac-n-cheese on Instagram - The American Mirror

Starts with AOC singing along to Janelle Monáe "Break all the rules..." and tying her hair in a bun. The mac-n-cheese had some cut celery on it.
From TAM:

“Chisholm was the first black woman to ever run for president as a nominee of any major political party,” Ocasio-Cortez said while pulling cheese out of the grater.

“She was a congresswoman out of Brooklyn. She was also the first black woman in Congress. And people asked her when she ran for president in the 1970s…60s,” she continued while forgetting the dates and moving from counter to counter.

The socialist went on to say that Chisholm told people that she ran for president because “someone had to be the first,” saying that she knew she was “blazing a trail for.. um.. for.. black candidates.. for.. women.”

SC ran for president in 1972, 17 years before AOC was born. AOC isn't quite as good as me at Googling, it seems.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez Insta story - YouTube - she discussed why she joined the climate-change-activist sit-in in Nancy Pelosi's office, and also getting started in Congress: a swag bag with a high-security smartphone and tablet, an ID card, and Congress's central hall as Hogwarts.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

lpetrich, don't you fear that this somewhat obsession with Ocasio-Cortez starts lumping her into the "cult of personality" territory, instead of political rising star territory?

 

[thebeave]

lpetrich, don't you fear that this somewhat obsession with Ocasio-Cortez starts lumping her into the "cult of personality" territory, instead of political rising star territory?

Yep. It also flies in the face of the narrative that its the Republicans that have an unhealthy obsession with AOC. I mean seriously, this thread goes on about her lipstick choices and recipes?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I mean seriously, this thread goes on about her lipstick choices and recipes?

So you read that...

Personally, I haven't been paying much attention.

 

[lpetrich]

I am not absolutely uncritical, and I criticize what I think is worth criticizing. But she's said a lot of interesting things -- and a lot of things that have gotten into the news. As to cooking recipes, I've seen more on Kamala Harris's ones than hers, I think.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first year plans for Congress | Dec. 27, 2018 | Instagram Live - YouTube
AOC compares Congress to high school, noting that higher-ranking Congresspeople can put their names on first-time ones' bills. Like stealing their lunch money.

She insists that she built her campaign around her political program instead of a personality cult of herself, and that she is part of a movement for social, economic, and racial justice. She hopes that in her first term, that she gets to frame the national conversation on important issues. She says that she has already done a bit of that, like with climate change.

IMO, a good part of her fame has been her tapping into widespread frustration with the political establishment's moving too slow. She comes right out and says that we ought to get off of fossil fuels rather than wringing her hands about how we can't do anything bold. Look at Obamacare -- it's essentially Romneycare, and a public option was removed from it in its planning. It's far from "Medicare for All".

AOC was wearing a black T-shirt with "Living Wage Hawaii" on it and a hexagon around the text. She was doing something with some coconut milk, including using a hand whisk on it.

WATCH LIVE: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Edward Markey hold news conference - YouTube - 2019 Feb 7 - I saw Ayanna Pressley in the background. Also showing up there were Oregon's two Senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden. It's also on C-SPAN. AOC rebutted the notion that the Trump Admin is for less government by citing counterexamples.

At 10:35 in the video, she rebutted a common argument: what about other nations? She proposed that the US become a leader in renewable-energy development, instead of being like the worst of other nations. This will inevitably mean other nations going along, and AOC seems rather short on that. I suspect that the economics will eventually be sufficient, but there is still a push of initial investment that will be required. I must say that it's nice that wind and solar became economically competitive just as the heatwaves started. It would have been nicer for that to happen earlier, but at least it has happened now and not later.

Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tweet About Electric Cars in Hurricanes? - She didn't.

 

[angelo]

Are you aware that between India and China alone over 1000 coal fired power plants are either being built or are in the pipeline in the next few years?

Keep your head in the sand there, mate!

China and India have accounted for 85% of new coal power capacity since 2005, according to the Global Energy Monitor report. China permitted construction for the generation of less than 5GW of coal power in 2018, compared with 184GW in 2015. India permitted less than 3GW in 2018, compared with 39GW in 2010.

"India was going to build a lot more additional coal fired power plants, and instead they are going to build more renewable energy,"

....all while an ignoramus from down under mocks American politicians advocating for renewable energy.

Do pray tell this " ignoramus" from down under what will be used as power sources standby when the sun doesn't shine, or the wind doesn't blow. The hot air blowing from alarmists mouths perhaps?

http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=57680&s=LURQEd

 

[lpetrich]

....all while an ignoramus from down under mocks American politicians advocating for renewable energy.

Do pray tell this " ignoramus" from down under what will be used as power sources standby when the sun doesn't shine, or the wind doesn't blow. The hot air blowing from alarmists mouths perhaps?

As if batteries don't exist. As if other storage technologies don't exist. Read some renewable-energy news sites some time. Storage is now very prominent there.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC Makes Chili on Instagram Live Q&A (Feb 24, 2019) - YouTube

Starts with her talking about her Green New Deal - she seems more familiar with some of the technologies than I had earlier thought: batteries, retrofitting buildings, etc. Then being annoyed with thin disposable plastic shopping bags. I understand that, but I used them for cleaning out my old house -- just the thing to put garbage into. Then a scandal about her not living in her Bronx apartment -- she moved to another one to get privacy and more floor space.

With an overheated planet not being very livable, she asks whether it is OK to have children. She didn't say that one shouldn't, contrary to what some right-wingers claimed about her. It's not just financial problems, like being loaded down with student debt. This ought to be a dilemma for the right wing, the people who make a big issue out of how people ought not to have children that they can't afford.

About Venezuela, she thinks that the problem is a lack of democracy, instead of socialism or capitalism or some other such ideology. She likes democracy in government, democracy in workplaces, democracy in the economy. Then the Iran-Contra scandal and how one of the guilty officials is Trump's ambassador to Venezuela.

About the GND, she says that it's big because it covers the magnitude of the problem, and she says that it's a resolution, not a bill. Ends with a joke that Trump would put baloney in his chili.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repots plant for Instagram fans - YouTube (2019 Mar 18) - her first potted plant that survived long enough to outgrow its pot. It's a zizi plant, one that only needs watering every 2 or 3 weeks. Good for her schedule: in DC 4 days, NYC 3 days each week, each month 1 full week in NYC.

She gets into a policy issue: Wilbur Ross and the US Census -- *everybody* is to be counted. Its numbers: funding, legislative districts. Citizenship question - to scare immigrants into not responding.

Toward the end, she shows off some other plants that she recently got, and she waters all her plants. From the looks of it, she makes her home Instagram videos with a smartphone camera, with her propping up the smartphone in some way. She moves it to get a better view of the kitchen sink, what she waters her plants in.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

I'm still a fan of AOC just as a breath of fresh air and realism inserted into the system. She's a real person and not an institutional robot and that bring with it both insight and gaffes.

 

[bilby]

....all while an ignoramus from down under mocks American politicians advocating for renewable energy.

Do pray tell this " ignoramus" from down under what will be used as power sources standby when the sun doesn't shine, or the wind doesn't blow. The hot air blowing from alarmists mouths perhaps?

As if batteries don't exist. As if other storage technologies don't exist. Read some renewable-energy news sites some time. Storage is now very prominent there.

Websites aren't storage.

Hand-waving isn't storage.

Batteries exist - but are utterly pathetic; The world's largest batteries have grid supply times measured in seconds (and/or power ratings of a few MW, when GW are needed).

Other storage options exist, but are largely saturated (there aren't many good pumped hydro sites available that are not already in use); are hugely environmentally damaging; and are completely inadequate for the task set by solar and wind power intermittency.

The answer to angelo's question isn't storage, and may never be storage. The answer is Combined Cycle Gas Turbines. And the renewables lobby need to either start admitting this fact, or need to come up with a genuinely viable alternative. Not a handwave; Not a promise of future success; Not a plan that involves yet-to-be demonstrated technologies or techniques, or a plan that has never been adopted.

Wind turbines are a way of generating grid scale, always available electricity from the burning of natural gas. (Or, in Germany, lignite).

Renewable-energy news sites are written by hopeless optimists, gas industry lobbyists, and poorly informed enthusiasts. Fuck the news sites - show me the fucking storage. The sun doesn't shine for about 12 hours a day, and solar power is typically only usefully available for eight. Where are the affordable storage systems that can hold enough electricity to power a grid for sixteen hours, cycling daily for a couple of decades, going to come from?

Wind power is sometimes available at night; And sometimes unavailable for over a week. Where are the affordable storage systems that can hold enough electricity to power a grid for a week, cycling monthly for a couple of decades, going to come from?

This is not a problem that can be waved away by reference to the unicorn-farts proposed by renewable-energy "news" sites who gush over batteries with 100MW power and 130MWh storage, at a cost of $90 million. That's not a solution, it's a massive waste of money that could be spent doing something useful - like building nuclear power plants that run whenever they are needed.

angelo isn't right about much around this topic. But like a stopped clock, he is right occasionally by pure coincidence.

 

[lpetrich]

After some back and forth with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) about guns, she does these:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "We need to organize around the Census, and we need to start now.
This morning we were out bright and early catching AM commuters in Corona and share info on #Census2020
Census is hiring now - and we need NYC organizers! Check it out: [url]https://t.co/c5yXKOZdi0 https://t.co/3pzgAWEIqA" / Twitter[/url] noting
Julie Menin on Twitter: "In Corona this morning with @AOC to make sure NYC knows what’s at stake with the #2020census! Corona had a self response rate in 2010 of 61.3 %. We can and must do better! #CountMeIn #InQueens https://t.co/TdxqyU65dL" / Twitter
The picture shows AOC, Julie Menin, and another woman wearing T-shirts that state "NYC Census 2020", with a box around the "us". I suspect that the right wing will cite that as proof that she wants to rig the census count.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "There is a genre of videos where GOP House members - who clearly didn’t read sworn testimony that detention sinks were broken- filming themselves drinking out of toilet sinks.
They’re so anti-immigrant they risk pink eye to show off that they didn’t do the reading #CloseTheCamps https://t.co/uYLxQqxSej" / Twitter noting
Twitter Moments on Twitter: "Congressman Steve King has shared a video of himself drinking from a toilet/water fountain at a border facility while addressing @AOC's previous criticism of the conditions there. https://t.co/qYwSoaZl2R" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

AOC recently Instagrammed a Colombian-style breakfast at her district office: café, buñuelos, y pan de queso -- coffee, fried dough balls, and Colombian cheese bread

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Instagram Live on Donald Trump, GOP, Puerto Rico & more ft. Wine & IKEA Lol - YouTube (2019 Apr 7 - originally on 2017 Apr 2)- she assembles furnutre for her DC apartment after having been too busy to do so for some months. She was wearing a black jacket and shirt, dark purple pants, and ordinary black shoes, and was eating popcorn and drinking white wine. She was sleeping on an air mattress that is atop its plastic wrapping.

First, a "GLADOM" small circular table. She learned in economics class to organize one's givens. How she gets through this nastiness, by thinking of future generations and how she might be remembered by them. She hopes as someone who tried to better humanity, even at great personal sacrifice. We need drastic changes, she says. Moderation is not enough. Big changes seem extreme, as MLK noted - "Why We Can't Wait", one of her favorite books.

Then Trump's tax returns -- no matter what one thinks about Trump, those returns should be helpful. Then BOOM! Put the tabletop on the table frame that she'd assembled.

Then a "LISABO" desk. What AOC is eating: ordinary buttered popcorn with ground-up pepper.

Student loans? Vote! A military draft ought to include all sexes and gender identities.

Puerto Rico? Originally a colony of Spain, after the Spanish-American War, a colony of the US, something that she emphasizes. She prefers self-determination, whatever might result. Previous referenda have been not much more than polls. Need a binding one. Previous ones had low turnout because of being non-binding. She's called elsewhere for the "decolonization" of PR, though she is neutral on statehood vs. independence.

DC is also effectively a colony, but with a smaller population than PR. The remaining US colonies, as AOC would call them, have even smaller populations.

Capital punishment? Against. Fruit snacks? Mott's. Mets or Yankees? "Come on, now" Years until the world ends? 12 years to cut emissions by 50% or more before climate catastrophe. "You may laugh but your grandkids will not. So, understand that the Internet documents everything." She then brought up the people who were on the wrong side of history in the civil-rights movement, and how climate-change deniers and obstructionists will end up just like them. "I just feel bad for you. I pity you for your role in history right now."

THen on why Republicans dislike her - she thinks that it's because she exposes their lack of moral grounding on so many issues. Seems like "they hate us for their freedoms", I must say. Also their belief that short-term gain is the only important thing, no matter what the long-term costs.

Being happy with herself that she did what she could to help people is what she cares about. She's not in this out of political calculation, and with her age, she has plenty of time to learn and make mistakes. Caging children on the border is not a mistake, however, but cruel and just plain wrong.

The cardboard box for the desk could make a good yoga mat, she says.

 

[angelo]

....all while an ignoramus from down under mocks American politicians advocating for renewable energy.

Do pray tell this " ignoramus" from down under what will be used as power sources standby when the sun doesn't shine, or the wind doesn't blow. The hot air blowing from alarmists mouths perhaps?

As if batteries don't exist. As if other storage technologies don't exist. Read some renewable-energy news sites some time. Storage is now very prominent there.

Batteries? Are you serious? How long would a battery the size of a small town power a city for. 3 minutes, 5 minutes? Wouldn't Manufacturing almost anything, or running say, a supermarket require at the very least 100's of diesel or gas generators as back up?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Not if you reverse the polarity.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

...How long would a battery the size of a small town power a city for. 3 minutes, 5 minutes?...

Can you show with some math why 5 minutes is a reasonable consideration?

Wouldn't ... running say, a supermarket require at the very least 100's of diesel or gas generators as back up?

That count is suspiciously high for 1 supermarket.

 

[ZiprHead]

...How long would a battery the size of a small town power a city for. 3 minutes, 5 minutes?...

Can you show with some math why 5 minutes is a reasonable consideration?

Wouldn't ... running say, a supermarket require at the very least 100's of diesel or gas generators as back up?

That count is suspiciously high for 1 supermarket.

The hospital building I worked in, five floors, three medical, two administrative, and a basement where PT/OT was done and the entire IT department for the for the whole system of many buildings, had a had a backup generator about the size of a small shipping container.

 

[angelo]

I meant dozens of shopping malls, not just one single supermarket which could theoretically run it's entire operation with a single fossil fueled generator for a considerable time.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I meant dozens of shopping malls, not just one single supermarket which could theoretically run it's entire operation with a single fossil fueled generator for a considerable time.

Well, here's what you wrote and it's even on this page:

Wouldn't Manufacturing almost anything, or running say, a supermarket require at the very least 100's of diesel or gas generators as back up?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I meant dozens of shopping malls, not just one single supermarket which could theoretically run it's entire operation with a single fossil fueled generator for a considerable time.

Well, here's what you wrote and it's even on this page:

Wouldn't Manufacturing almost anything, or running say, a supermarket require at the very least 100's of diesel or gas generators as back up?

Take what you can get.