Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[angelo]

Forgive me. But I can't help myself.

 

[lpetrich]

Preet Bharara on Twitter: "Ok can someone please explain what “strike the last word” means in this House hearing? I worked on the Senate side where English was more frequently spoken." / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@PreetBharara This phrase is spoken during markups, which are different from hearings. In markups, members are debating the actual written substance of legislation - be it a bill, or (in this case) articles.
“Strike the last word” means you’re adding a pro forma amendment & using it to talk." / Twitter
then
Preet Bharara on Twitter: "@AOC I thank the gentlelady from New York, @AOC" / Twitter

Markup Marathon: What Does "Strike the Last Word" Mean? - Countable
Getting oneself extra time by offering an amendment that replaces the last word in an existing amendment. The striking part is deletion of that word.

A markup is a hearing for debating amendments to bills.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Sometimes being a new member of the House feels like being in Hogwarts. There are lots of arcane parliamentary phrases (I jokingly call them “magic spells”) one can learn to speak on the floor or gain exceptions.
Deep knowledge of these rules is rare but can be powerful." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The House has a full staff of parliamentarians to help members with all of this. It’s a very important job!
Another rule is that members aren’t really allowed to speak in the 2nd person on the House floor/ in committee.
That is why people who aren’t friends say “my good friend”" / Twitter

Amber Sorensen on Twitter: "@AOC Why is second-person not allowed on the floor or in committee? I feel like it would make things so much easier, and that much formality seems so unnecessary -- and/or deliberately confusing and exclusive." / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@amber_jane_9 The way it was explained to me was that it defuses fights.
When individuals debate hot button issues in the second person ex. “you are hurting people!”, debate can devolve quickly as opposed to being forced to say “my colleague’s assertion of X is insulting to Y community”" / Twitter
then
Amber Sorensen on Twitter: "@AOC OK cool, I can get behind that. Unintentionally confusing is fine" / Twitter

Phrases like "Reclaiming my time" and "I yield the rest of my time". Nice lesson in parliamentary procedure from AOC.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC on the Great Hall of the Library of Congress: "Welcome to Hogwarts" - from an Instagram story

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on first year in Washington - CNNPolitics - has a nice little video recap of the start of her career. Like at the Sunrise Movement sit-in in Nancy Pelosi's office, telling the people there that she got her start at Standing Rock, where she saw ordinary people standing up for something important. She also didn't want to be seen as a leader of a movement.

About that sit-in,

The New Yorker had not yet served a day in the House but was, to a mixture of anger and eye-rolling from older Washington hands, already flexing -- and testing -- her political clout.

She conceded later that it was a risky move for her, since she might not have gotten any good committees. But she did get some, and she has put in some commendable service.

Thirteen months on, the experiments continue apace. Ocasio-Cortez told CNN that her time in the city has been in parts "isolating" and invigorating, as she's sought to navigate an institution she never expected to inhabit.

... She is young still, only 30, and -- despite some mostly right-wing media caricatures to the contrary -- deadly serious about her work.

The answer, she says, is that her unusual-for-Washington schedule -- which doesn't include phone "call time" for contributions -- "results a lot in social media, it results in Instagram, but it also results in working on very deep and comprehensive policies. So (the hours not spent seeking support from big givers) completely changes how you approach this job."

AOC ran on bold platform with lots of far-reaching policies, and it's evident that she's given herself time to work on them.

She wants more like-minded Congresspeople to be at her side, so she supports challengers Jessica Cisneros and Marie Newman, and newcomers like Michael Levin, Jahana Hayes, and Katie Porter. Like AOC, KP has distinguished herself in committee hearings.

"A lot 'frontliners' either believe or have taken the approach that you have to be conservative to win a swing district. And when I look at people like Katie Porter or Michael Levin, I know that that is not a universal truth," Ocasio-Cortez said. "So I try to go out of my way to share lists and fundraise for them as well, because I want to prove that there isn't just one way to be a frontline member. It doesn't just mean that you have to vote with Republicans on many issues."

Her fundraising also goes for candidates like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, and causes like Planned Parenthood and the immigrants-rights group RAICES.

AOC then described a conversation with a fellow Congresswoman who also refuses to accept corporate money, though she does accept max-out checks. The two attended a joint fundraiser, and:

Her colleague, Ocasio-Cortez said, described to her a scene crowded with corporate leaders and Wall Street "types." But when it was time for the donors to ask questions of the candidates there, the member said, "Every question was about you."

Ocasio-Cortez continued: "And she says to me, 'I don't say this in an offensive way' -- and I'm close with her -- but she says, 'All I could think to myself is, she's just one vote out of 430-odd votes. Why do you care about a freshman member?'"

The question answered itself. It was, in the other member's estimation, not simply a matter of distance from corporate money. It was a feeling, she said, that "they don't have power over you in any way and that they don't feel like you're predictable."

Ocasio-Cortez stopped there and laughed.

"It's funny," she said. "I think I'm quite predictable."

Reminds me of something I read long ago about the congresspeople who got caught taking bribes in the Abscam sting. They said that you shouldn't bother with  Elizabeth Holtzman, because she's too honest. I remember some other things, like:

Ozzie Myers bragged about how much influence he could get. "Money talks" and "bullshit walks." When he was caught, he said that it was a "railroad job".  Michael Myers (politician)

Harrison Williams said when he was caught that "I know in my heart that I did no wrong" and that "time, history, and Almighty God" will vindicate him.  Harrison A. Williams

 

[lpetrich]

Greg Krieg on Twitter: "New: After a year on the job, here’s @AOC on what she’s learned about how power’s won, lost and used in DC ... how she spends her days there ... and why she thinks her name comes up so often at the big dollar fundraisers she doesn’t attend: https://t.co/xcIhtNVINu" / Twitter - where I found that CNN article.

AOC will be having her last town hall of the year in the Bronx, on her Green New Deal for public housing. Following last week's one in Queens on that subject.

I'll see if anyone has asked about getting it through with "I'll vote for your pork if you vote for mine".

Also, if this GND for public housing can be expanded to Federal office buildings and military bases. The latter might get some Republicans on board.

 

[lpetrich]

Video: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Says U.S. Has 'Allowed Weapons Budget to Explode' but Can't 'Write Laws Properly' - from last year Dec 28

In a characteristically informal yet politically charged Instagram Live video, the Ocasio-Cortez argued that "economic austerity" had not seemed to affect the country's weapons budget.

"We did this whole austerity thing," she said while chatting in a kitchen. "So they cut the operating budgets across a lot of government. But, of course, we allowed our weapons budget to explode.

"But we can't pay enough people to write laws properly. Right? We don't have the budget for that. But we do have the budget for tons of weaponry. I'm getting distracted here. I'm making coconut curry shrimp," she told viewers.

sohail on Twitter: "@Ocasio2018 live-streaming talking policy, explaining how the government bureaucracy functions daily while winging diy coconut curry shrimp has strong relatability because it’s no longer a politician who’s swiftly out of sight and mind after winning the ticket. Love it. https://t.co/XaHLH80pNl" / Twitter wearing a T-shirt that says "Living Wage Hawaii"


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defiant in Face of Right Wing Media: I Could Have Let Them Tear Me To Shreds...But I Define Myself - Jan 17

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I’m uneasy about it too. It’s stressful & scary, but it’s also out of my control, so the best thing I can do is try to focus that attention on the most urgent issues of our time: climate change, good gov, jobs, wages, justice; and highlight the contradictions you explain here. https://t.co/TiQJjetpvG" / Twitter

Paul Krugman made several tweets that I'll condense here:

A few thoughts on the Ocasio-Cortez effect on policy discourse, which has been salutary in ways that have little to do with her specific ideas. To be honest, I'm somewhat uneasy about all the attention @aoc is getting, because a lot of it is obviously for the wrong reasons. She's telegenic and her shocking rise makes a good story; but there are lots of impressive freshmen in this class, and she gets all the attention. On the other hand, she's really talented at the modern media game, and is getting a hearing for ideas that more conventional politicians are afraid to touch -- and the reactions of conservatives are pure gold.

First off, the constant attempts to dismiss her as stupid are helping to highlight the casual racism and sexism of so much discourse -- she's surely smarter than the median member of Congress, especially in the GOP, who is basically as dumb as a rock. And time after time the right-wing critics end up showing their own ignorance not just of policy but of politics. The 70% top rate thing is classic: not only don't these guys know that it's based on solid economics, but they don't know that higher taxes on the rich are *highly popular*. They're under the delusion that the public buys into the right-wing economic frame, when the reality is that working-class whites vote GOP for the racism, not the supply-side economics.

So @aoc is both a real political talent and very useful as someone who flushes the ignorant prejudice of the right into the open. So in the end it's all good. A party that only had people like her to present its case might have problems, but there are plenty of experienced veterans and deep thinkers too. Not to slight the many other good people, but just compare the lineup of Pelosi, Warren, and Ocasio-Cortez with anything on the other side. And The Onion, as always, has the truth.

Fox News Debuts Premium Channel For 24-Hour Coverage Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Needs Help, Asks for Advice… on Buying Furniture in Washington - Mar 14
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Is Instagram still down? Bc after 2 months almost furnitureless in DC I am trying to take you all on the riveting adventure of getting: a chair
(Also, if you had to start a new apt from scratch, what would be the first 5 pieces of furniture/items you would get? Asking for me)" / Twitter

What Is the Shoshin Approach? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Zen Gardening Post Prompts Mostly Positive Response—For a Change - Apr 8
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Garden planting success!
This is my first time trying a garden like this, so let’s see how it goes. Shoshin approach.
Big ups to Ginkgo Gardens for giving me lots of guidance this morning
Here is their helpful blog for beginners: [url]https://t.co/ZnXffjrbE1 https://t.co/9RdojKn5qI" / Twitter[/url]
Gardeners of Ginkgo Blog | Ginkgogardens
AOC has called herself a "plant mom", and she also has plenty of indoor plants.


Electorette on Twitter: "New @electorette episode featuring a conversation with Rhiana Gunn-Wright (@rgunns), the Policy Director of the progressive think tank, New Consensus, and one of the architects behind The Green New Deal. Listen to entire episode here: [url]https://t.co/xWZY5Dr5Dn https://t.co/OtntNABtfw" / Twitter[/url]
Rhiana Gunn-Wright: Discusses the Green New Deal
RGW appeared in MSNBC's town hall with AOC last spring - Full Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez town hall, unedited
She talked about how legislation gets written - mostly by Congresspeople's staffers, think tanks, and lobbyists. A lot of the GND is stuff that has been done successfully in the past and by other nations. A lot of stuff in the GND was made possible by Obama's economic-stimulus package. Proposes a combination of greentech and New-Deal measures to do both things at once. Also ethnic and racial equity - should not be delayed. AOC has also talked about the racially discriminatory aspects of the original New Deal. RGW then talked about how some GND opponents in Congress have been in the pay of the fossil fuels. Then building upgrades, the subject of AOC's GND for public housing.


AOC's first Congressional action:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Joins Environmental Activists in Protest at Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Office - 2018 Nov 13
She'd earlier mentioned Barbara Lee as an alternative to NP, but when the main challenge to NP was on the right, she sided with NP.

Sunrise Movement on Twitter: "“I’m gonna take the table,” says @Ocasio2018, “because we are busting down the doors.” https://t.co/tQ8IebKtBb" / Twitter - the day before - has a picture of AOC standing on a table while wearing a knee-length tight skirt and high heels. She must be very athletic to get to there. AOC seems to prefer tight skirts and dresses, and her recent green dress is the only relatively loose one that I've seen.

 

[lpetrich]

Katie Porter Came to Washington to Go to War With Wall Street - VICE

The representative from California's 45th District has managed to spin virality out of the driest of congressional hearings by skewering Wall Street's 'weenies.'

Rep. Katie Porter grills Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan - YouTube

In the past year, the former law professor has cemented a reputation as one of the most formidable questioners in Congress, making heads of federal agencies and financial firms squirm in clips that rack up hundreds of thousands of views. As a gridlocked Senate precludes much near-term hope for legislative advancements, Porter has become a surprising hero to progressives and economic populists, a legislator who uses her platform as effectively as anyone in Congress. And she views these viral moments as a way to trigger change. First, you get mad at the men who control the financial system. Then you humiliate them in public. Lastly, and most importantly, you force them to make concessions.

Porter is not an obvious contender for viral stardom. She comes across as neither a politician nor a natural performer. She comes off as nice: a Midwestern-native mom with three school-age kids and a short curly coif, hardly our culture’s avatar for a high-profile antagonist of Big Finance. She’s cheerful, witty, and disarming. But she’s also a renowned legal scholar who’s spent her career studying and teaching commercial law and bankruptcy, and she has a knack for parsing tedious concepts, a trait she has in common with her mentor Elizabeth Warren. She also knows how to get people to pay attention to systemic economic inequality: give them a villain. (Not that she calls them that. When I visited her DC office in July, she and her staff preferred wholesome insults like “ding-dong” and “yahoo.”)

If Sloan is the only witness that Porter managed to help embarrass out of a job, several others have found themselves unwitting dunces caught in her tough-but-clear line of questioning.

Congresswoman teaches housing and urban development secretary his own job - YouTube

Much like AOC herself.

 

[lpetrich]

The videos of AOC's most recent town halls are now online - she discussed her public-housing GND in them.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Reminder: tonight is the deadline for open enrollment - that time of the year we are reminded of how amazing “choice” is in our insurance system ().
For today, get insured if you can at [url]https://t.co/oM59nhveTV
For tomorrow, end healthcare profiteering with #MedicareForAll." / Twitter[/url]

I caught up to it a bit late.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "For those who can’t afford it, I feel you. I went uninsured for years bc I made “too much” for a subsidy, but couldn’t afford ~$200/mo for a $7000 deductible.
A coworker went through her entire pregnancy uninsured.That nightmare is a major reason why I fight for #MedicareForAll." / Twitter

The perils of cliff eligibility - one has a risk of falling through the cracks of such a system.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "And to our constituents in NY - you have until Jan 31st to enroll, but tonight is the deadline for your insurance to kick in on 1/1!
Do it here: https://t.co/oM59nhveTV" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Members of Congress also have to buy their plans off the exchange. They are Gold plans that are partially subsidized.
That means I get to “choose” btwn 66 complex financial products.
This is absurd. No person should go without healthcare, &no one should go through this, either. https://t.co/bIeD71CD5g" / Twitter
Get 2020 health coverage. Health Insurance Marketplace | HealthCare.gov

A lot of complexity with not much gained.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "While I am VERY thankful to finally have health insurance, it is a moral outrage that it took me *getting elected to Congress* for that to happen.
The US needs to become an advanced society. That includes establishing healthcare as a right to all people." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "And as someone who has now experienced many parts of the insurance spectrum (being uninsured, underinsured, and adequately insured) I don’t see how anyone can think our current healthcare system only needs a 10% improvement or a just few tweaks.
We need #MedicareForAll." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "And once again, make sure to get insured if you can at [url]https://t.co/oM59nhveTV
Yes, it’s a pain. But it is worth it.
I know some folks are bristling at the fact that I am pointing that out, but we have to acknowledge the reality so we can move forward together." / Twitter[/url]
healthcare.gov again

Ari Rabin-Havt on Twitter: "My health should not be a commodity sold to me by corporate America.
I support a presidential candidate who will fight to make sure it isn’t." / Twitter

Not just some Presidential candidate, but also members of Congress. Obama's failure ought to be a lesson. AOC has the right idea - she ran for Congress instead of the Presidency, and she is trying to help like-minded people get into Congress also.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC recently Instagrammed on her holiday office party. It was a "White Elephant" no-buy one, where all one's presents are things one already owns, or else things one has made.

It was a snapshot from this Instagram post: Lucy Biggers on Instagram: “Wrapping without waste is the best!!! ⁣ ⁣ I teamed up with lifestyle host and fellow Earth lover, @beatrice_copeland to wrap presents…” - it showed how to wrap presents with scarves.

3 Ways To Sustainably Wrap Gifts with Beatrice Copeland - YouTube - the previous video with some wrapping with a cut-up paper bag.

From 2018 Nov 7: Lucy Biggers on Instagram: “2 years ago we all woke up on Election Day depressed and fearful for our future. But I think across the country that day each of us made a…” - with AOC herself


Lucy Biggers (@lucybiggers) • Instagram photos and videos
Lucy Biggers - YouTube
@lucybiggers | Linktree
Lucy Biggers

Sustainability Producer & Host

Hi! I'm Lucy! I'm a producer, host, and video editor for NowThis News in New York City.

I'm passionate about video journalism as a way to highlight critical stories about sustainability. I’m so excited about my latest project called One Small Step, a series that highlights environmental issues and the steps each of us can take to live more sustainably.

 

[lpetrich]

Ocasio-Cortez 'thrilled to see women taking the reins everywhere from film to Congress' - YouTube - about the debut of a new film version of Louisa May Alcott's mid-19th-cy. novel  Little Women.


Oh Boy. Fox News Unveils "Conservative Squad" - YouTube
Four women with one of them a "token brunette". Fox News has mostly blonde women on it, though it does have some brunettes. This is atypical of the US population, which is only about 16% blonde. For comparison, I checked on House Democratic Women of the 116th Congress | Speaker Nancy Pelosi and also on the Sunrise Movement protesters who did a sit-in in Nancy Pelosi's office, and they are also mostly brunettes. Some Fox women might be bottle blondes, however.
Squad Wannabes Make Their Fox News Debut - YouTube
Conservative's New Strategy... Imitate The Squad - YouTube
I think that if AOC had no scruples, she could have a great career on Fox News as a token brunette.

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery * https://t.co/heigkyBmUq" / Twitter
noting
Justice Democrats on Twitter: "This is embarrassing. Please get help. https://t.co/hj3dJwtJBN" / Twitter

Anti-Establishment on Twitter: "@justicedems Y’all remember the centrist squad? https://t.co/THDtaBs4MD" / Twitter
noting
CNN Newsroom on Twitter: "These five freshman congresswomen changed history by becoming unlikely leaders on impeachment. [url]https://t.co/vSMWkdn8UH https://t.co/JI8Ejbm7u1" / Twitter[/url]

 

[lpetrich]

Townhall with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Jackson Heights - YouTube

She said that activism doesn't have to stop after elections. She described visiting the Sunrise Movement's first action, and finding a lot of activists staying in a church. She noticed that some were in their teens, and that they were willing to endanger their college admissions for what they considered right. The next morning, she went in with a very upset stomach, and she met the activists there. She then talked about how Jackson Heights was a successful multiethnic community and an example for the US and the world. She mentioned how her district office has taken around 700 immigration cases and closed around 500 of them.

"It's not me, it's us" -- Bernie Sanders

The fewer immigrants in a district, the more anti-immigrant it often is. She mentioned how she caught a pharma company taking over a patent and then charging some humongous sum for a drug that is based on that patent -- Gilead Sciences and PREP. She said that it's nice to have good government, something that we'd almost forgotten about. She said that she feels like she's following instead of leading. That seems almost too good to be true, but then again, George Washington was very modest about being the Chief Executive.

Then Q&A. AOC noted that when CUNY (City University of New York) became racially integrated, it started charging tuition. AOC said that we should "connect the dots" about that. She continued with claiming that explicit racial segregation was replaced with economic segregation in other places, and that Iowa and New Hampshire, two very honky states, became first in the nation in 1969(?).

As to how to pay for Medicare for All, forgiving student loans, etc., she notes that there are a variety of ways that we can choose from. A wealth tax, a transaction tax, etc. I think that a transaction tax could be sold as bailout insurance.

AOC then described how some floodwaters were still present as she traveled to Iowa. Climate troubles are now here. She also described the Koch brothers as having bought the Senate -- the Koch brothers' businesses are fossil-fuel-related. Wall Street is heavily into fossil fuels by what it finances. She claims that in Puerto Rico, there's an effort to put a 30% tax on solar panels to equalize their cost with fossil-fuel electricity. Or at least was: P.R. Energy Board orders PREPA to freeze new solar energy tax – News is My Business

AOC then mentioned three arguments for Medicare for All: moral, political, and economic. Then the Trump admin's cuts in food-stamp eligibility. A lot of bureaucratic hassle. She stated that when some European nations were rebuilding after WWII, the people in them asked what sort of society they wanted, and they built universal medical-insurance coverage and strong labor unions and the like. We are in a similar sort of bad situation, she claims. She also points out that some people think that the Trump presidency is an aberration, people like Joe Biden.

She closed by noting that Republicans have their sights on her district, and that they are supporting certain Democratic opponents of her. It would be a triumph for them to unseat her, as she herself recognized. But she noted that numerous candidates not supported by the Democratic leadership had won last year, candidates including her, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar.

 

[angelo]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

 

[ZiprHead]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

Drugs are bad. Mmm-kay.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

Drugs are bad. Mmm-kay.

It'll take a lot to surpass the madness of both The Great War and WWII.

 

[lpetrich]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

What ideology???

Also, angelo, have you ever read any of her interviews or watched any of them? Or watched any of her Instagram talks or videos of any of her town-hall meetings or campaign speeches?

 

[lpetrich]

AOC's Green New Deal for Public Housing Town Hall - 12/14/19 (video orientation and audio corrected) - YouTube
She was pleased at the holiday-season turnout. She voted against NDAA because "Space Force is a bridge too far". She will vote no on NAFTA 2.0. Then the Green New Deal for public housing. Three principles:

1. Decarbonization - reducing CO2 and CH4 and other greenhouse-gas emissions to zero
2. Environmental justice - people who are low on the socioeconomic scale tend to be the most vulnerable
3. Workforce mobilization - to accomplish those things

New Deal public housing - 1934, LBJ Dept of Housing and Urban Development - 1965. Transition from racial discrimination to class-based discrimination. Disinvestment - 1980's, One strike and you're out (criminalization) - 1990's.

30% of income as rent, but no winter heat, no hot water, mold on ceiling, lead in pipes

Then Q&A. AOC answered about "green roofs" - solar panels or rooftop gardens, even painting a roof white so that it does not heat up too much. Also, street drainage and building drainage going into the same sewers, so if there is a storm, there is too much for the wastewater treatment facilities, and the overflow is dumped into nearby bodies of water. That's a problem in NYC, like in Flushing Bay in Queens. Rebuilding sewers difficult with city or state funding alone.

Hudson Yards = Dubai on the Hudson -- DUBAI ON THE HUDSON: Hudson Yards NYC | WONDERLUST

About deficit spending, it should be *reduced* during good times, though it may be increased during bad times. The recent tax cut means that it's necessary to do fiscal rather than monetary stimulus in bad times, that is, voting in new spending rather than adjusting interest rates.

Oil barons shouldn't become solar barons. Wants renewable-energy jobs to be unionized. She claims that the Federal Gov't has been prioritizing Wall Street since before she was born, and that with the New Deal, it had been prioritizing ordinary people. Thus, her liking of the New Deal. She is, however, critical of its racially discriminatory aspects, and she firmly wants to avoid those aspects.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

They don't have the votes to actually be dangerous. The only threat is of strokes in outraged conservatives.

 

[Derec]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

They don't have the votes to actually be dangerous. The only threat is of strokes in outraged conservatives.

They plan to eventually get enough votes through demographic changes. The bogus "asylum seekers" that flood our southern border are a means to that end.

 

[lpetrich]

Something on defining affordable housing -- look within some radius. For NYC, that radius includes Westchester County in upstate NY, complete with its mansions. That bumps up what's defined as "affordable".

AOC also talked about the immigration casework that her Jackson Heights district office does, and how it has reunited some families. She also notes that the naturalization process for would-be citizens has slowed down a lot during the Trump presidency.

Then Amazon. She notes that there is a broad consensus that tax giveaways don't do much for local economies. She also wants repeal of SESTA & FOSTA to make life easier for sex workers, and to legally distinguish sex work from human trafficking (SESTA & FOSTA mix them up).

Then surveillance cameras with facial recognition. AOC says that she shares with many Republicans a strong commitment to civil liberties. She notes that many big businesses do a lot of surveillance, and that they may share what they found with gov't agencies. She claims that a lot of facial-recognition technology does not work very well and is racially biased.

Then she mentioned people threatening civil war if Trump loses. I think that it says something about what sort of following Trump has gotten, people who consider him some great and heroic leader. She notes that the Right seems to think that any election that they lose is illegitimate and that any election that they win means that they can govern with impunity. She thinks that if Trump loses, some people will want to dismiss him as an aberration. But he got a big following, and some later leader might appeal to that following.


From last spring, AOC's GND town hall: The Green New Deal With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | All In | MSNBC - YouTube

 

[angelo]

Sooner or later, Americans will wake up to the danger posed by the " squad" and idiots such as AOC. If not, then America like many EU nations are destined to be subservient to the most barbaric, supremacist ideology the Earth has ever seen, far surpassing anything before it!

What ideology???

Also, angelo, have you ever read any of her interviews or watched any of them? Or watched any of her Instagram talks or videos of any of her town-hall meetings or campaign speeches?

You are aware that most if not all politicians have speech writers right? What I have seen from her is complete fantasy and nonsense!