Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[angelo]

This pink tax could be an interesting thread on it's own. There's a perfectly reasonably reason why women pay more at the dry cleaners than men. It is sexism! It just costs more to clean women's shirts than men:

https://www.marketplace.org/2017/08/15/fashion-belts-dry-cleaning-gender-based-pricing/

I wonder what the "various necessary and presumed necessary tasks" are that she's talking about that cost more for women than men?

Seconded. As usual, dig beneath the surface of discrimination and you find economics that have nothing to do with discrimination.

Yea. BTW: I meant to say that the reason women sometimes pay more for dry-cleaning isn't due to sexism.

If not sexism, then what? Why would it cost more to clean a woman's shirt than a male's? But whatever bimbo AOC mean's by extra costs for females is obvious. Men [well most] don't buy lipstick, kilo's of make up, perfume, although many men spend a small fortune on aftershave, and many guys over say, 50 also spend big on hair colour. But nowhere near what a female spends on those kind of consumables. Otherwise, dry cleaning cost's are on a par. [unless one is a modern day Monica Lewinsky]

 

[Metaphor]

If AOC bemoans that women have to do extra to prettify themselves compared to men, the only way this expectation is going to change is for women to stop prettifying themselves.

And the best person to stop doing it is AOC: for her to lead by example. Why her? Because AOC's job is safe. She doesn't have a line manager who will have a quiet word with her about looking good for the clients. She doesn't have a performance review where her 'uncooperative' cosmetic-shunning will influence her rating.

Give up the make up, AOC. Take one for the team. And let women, and men, know that's what you're doing.

 

[angelo]

If AOC bemoans that women have to do extra to prettify themselves compared to men, the only way this expectation is going to change is for women to stop prettifying themselves.

And the best person to stop doing it is AOC: for her to lead by example. Why her? Because AOC's job is safe. She doesn't have a line manager who will have a quiet word with her about looking good for the clients. She doesn't have a performance review where her 'uncooperative' cosmetic-shunning will influence her rating.

Give up the make up, AOC. Take one for the team. And let women, and men, know that's what you're doing.

You're kidding of course! AOC with and without make up.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Yea. BTW: I meant to say that the reason women sometimes pay more for dry-cleaning isn't due to sexism.

If not sexism, then what? Why would it cost more to clean a woman's shirt than a male's? But whatever bimbo AOC mean's by extra costs for females is obvious. Men [well most] don't buy lipstick, kilo's of make up, perfume, although many men spend a small fortune on aftershave, and many guys over say, 50 also spend big on hair colour. But nowhere near what a female spends on those kind of consumables. Otherwise, dry cleaning cost's are on a par. [unless one is a modern day Monica Lewinsky]

Did you read the first link? Women's shirts are more complicated. So the machine used to clean a woman's shirt is more complicated and more expensive. Secondly, it's more difficult to fold a women's shirt for some reason, where the guys shirt can be folded over easily with the machine.

 

[Metaphor]

If AOC bemoans that women have to do extra to prettify themselves compared to men, the only way this expectation is going to change is for women to stop prettifying themselves.

And the best person to stop doing it is AOC: for her to lead by example. Why her? Because AOC's job is safe. She doesn't have a line manager who will have a quiet word with her about looking good for the clients. She doesn't have a performance review where her 'uncooperative' cosmetic-shunning will influence her rating.

Give up the make up, AOC. Take one for the team. And let women, and men, know that's what you're doing.

You're kidding of course! AOC with and without make up.

View attachment 29108

No, I'm not kidding. AOC simultaneously bemoans societal expectation that women wear makeup, and indulges in that action when she doesn't have to. And indulges in it quite visibly and talks about it. A lot.

If women don't like the expectation, women must stop enabling it. Yes, that's unfair. It's unfair that society has different expectations for facial cosmetics for men and women, and that women need to spend time applying it. But the expectation is there and it's not going to change until women do the work.

I think AOC should stop wearing make up for a year. Everywhere. At work, social occasions. She is still a good looking woman, who has benefited immensely from that privilege. She will be commented on. That's good. She should be the change she wants to see. She should give up her makeup so that every female executive assistant or business manager or whoever else, who has far less power than AOC, has that slightly more feasible choice of going make up free.

But AOC won't do that.

 

[Metaphor]

Yea. BTW: I meant to say that the reason women sometimes pay more for dry-cleaning isn't due to sexism.

If not sexism, then what? Why would it cost more to clean a woman's shirt than a male's? But whatever bimbo AOC mean's by extra costs for females is obvious. Men [well most] don't buy lipstick, kilo's of make up, perfume, although many men spend a small fortune on aftershave, and many guys over say, 50 also spend big on hair colour. But nowhere near what a female spends on those kind of consumables. Otherwise, dry cleaning cost's are on a par. [unless one is a modern day Monica Lewinsky]

Did you read the first link? Women's shirts are more complicated. So the machine used to clean a woman's shirt is more complicated and more expensive. Secondly, it's more difficult to fold a women's shirt for some reason, where the guys shirt can be folded over easily with the machine.

Facts disturb the feminist narrative. The fact that men's business shirts have less complex cuts, are often laundered and not dry-cleaned, are auto and not hand-pressed, and overall have fewer frills and furbellows are not relevant. Women's tops cost more because society hates women.

 

[thebeave]

Did you read the first link? Women's shirts are more complicated. So the machine used to clean a woman's shirt is more complicated and more expensive. Secondly, it's more difficult to fold a women's shirt for some reason, where the guys shirt can be folded over easily with the machine.

Facts disturb the feminist narrative. The fact that men's business shirts have less complex cuts, are often laundered and not dry-cleaned, are auto and not hand-pressed, and overall have fewer frills and furbellows are not relevant. Women's tops cost more because society hates women.

Yep. Its the same with haircuts. Feminists complain about women's haircuts being more expensive than men's, when in fact its a lot more involved to cut a woman's hair, than a man's.

 

[lpetrich]

I had to look it up:  Dry cleaning - looks like the same kind of process for both sexes. It's called "dry" because it uses some solvent other than water, like perchloroethylene (tetrachloroethylene, "perc").

AOC mentioned:

Ayanna Pressley on Instagram: “Voting with Conan—my favorite tradition.
My mother took me with her to vote in every election. She made sure that I knew that being a super voter was our super power.
No matter how you choose to vote this year—by mail, in-person early, or in-person on Election Day—just be sure to get out there and make your voice heard.”
Conan is AP's husband Conan Harris. AP Instagrammed herself doing early voting in the MA primaries.

About Vanity Fair's recent interview with Angela Davis, Ava DuVernay on Instagram: “The last time I interviewed this icon was for @13thfilm. I love learning from her. I encounter the unexpected whenever we speak. Unexpected treasures. Angela Davis effortlessly drops more knowledge than most folks have ever picked up. And her laugh is soft and musical and lovely.”

I must say that I'm not happy with  Angela Davis. She was a member of the US Communist Party for a long time, and she ran as Gus Hall's Vice President in two elections. She was a supporter of the Soviet bloc over that time, defending its repressions and defending the Berlin Wall. She departed from that party when it supported the 1991 attempted coup by Soviet hardliners. She preferred a more moderate policy.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This pink tax could be an interesting thread on it's own. There's a perfectly reasonably reason why women pay more at the dry cleaners than men. It is sexism! It just costs more to clean women's shirts than men:

https://www.marketplace.org/2017/08/15/fashion-belts-dry-cleaning-gender-based-pricing/

I wonder what the "various necessary and presumed necessary tasks" are that she's talking about that cost more for women than men?

Seconded. As usual, dig beneath the surface of discrimination and you find economics that have nothing to do with discrimination.

Yea. BTW: I meant to say that the reason women sometimes pay more for dry-cleaning isn't due to sexism.

I understood. Women's attire tends to be fancier than men's, that's going to take more effort and have more risk of damage.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I had to look it up:  Dry cleaning - looks like the same kind of process for both sexes. It's called "dry" because it uses some solvent other than water, like perchloroethylene (tetrachloroethylene, "perc").

The process is the same in both cases. It's that on average women's attire needs more handling beyond just the machine.

(And are they still using perchloroethylene? I thought that they had switched to CO2 for environmental reasons. Yes, we don't picture CO2 as a liquid but under enough pressure it is and provides a non-toxic liquid for cleaning purposes.)

 

[Harry Bosch]

I had to look it up:  Dry cleaning - looks like the same kind of process for both sexes. It's called "dry" because it uses some solvent other than water, like perchloroethylene (tetrachloroethylene, "perc").

AOC mentioned:

Ayanna Pressley on Instagram: “Voting with Conan—my favorite tradition.
My mother took me with her to vote in every election. She made sure that I knew that being a super voter was our super power.
No matter how you choose to vote this year—by mail, in-person early, or in-person on Election Day—just be sure to get out there and make your voice heard.”
Conan is AP's husband Conan Harris. AP Instagrammed herself doing early voting in the MA primaries.

About Vanity Fair's recent interview with Angela Davis, Ava DuVernay on Instagram: “The last time I interviewed this icon was for @13thfilm. I love learning from her. I encounter the unexpected whenever we speak. Unexpected treasures. Angela Davis effortlessly drops more knowledge than most folks have ever picked up. And her laugh is soft and musical and lovely.”

I must say that I'm not happy with  Angela Davis. She was a member of the US Communist Party for a long time, and she ran as Gus Hall's Vice President in two elections. She was a supporter of the Soviet bloc over that time, defending its repressions and defending the Berlin Wall. She departed from that party when it supported the 1991 attempted coup by Soviet hardliners. She preferred a more moderate policy.

lpetrich: did you read my link? The issue is that women's clothing is almost always dry cleaned at the cleaners. Men's clothes, due to being easier with less seams and etc, is often laundered then pressed the dry cleaners (I didn't know this by the way before researching this); and laundered at the cleaners is cheaper than going through the dry cleaning machine. Does that make sense?

 

[lpetrich]

AOC retweeted
Mike Konczal on Twitter: "Here's @AOC in 2019 pushing Powell on whether relationship b/w inflation and unemployment was falling apart. Powell agrees, saying they've "learned that the economy can sustain much lower unemployment than we thought without troubling levels of inflation." https://t.co/TctE26PxWs" / Twitter
noting
Mike Konczal on Twitter: "After asking Powell why the Fed has so consistently gotten the natural rate of unemployment wrong in the same direction, @AOC follows-up by discussing the breakdown of the Phillips Curve, and the idea that unemployment could be much lower without inflationary worries. https://t.co/g5Wm5WLJDh" / Twitter

Denny Heck on Twitter: "I'd be remiss if I didn't applaud and thank @AOC for her relentless advocacy on this issue since joining @FSCDems last year. She's been an incredible champion in pushing the Federal Reserve to do more for working Americans. https://t.co/HZ8NaOUVm6" / Twitter
noting
The Fed’s New Message: The Economy Can Get a Lot Better for Workers - The New York Times
from last year.

Denny Heck is WA-10 Rep. FSC = Financial Services Committee.

 

[angelo]

That last link wants a piece of my liver to read on!.

 

[lpetrich]

That last link wants a piece of my liver to read on!.

Seems like the article is paywalled. angelo, the New York Times is a capitalist production.

Alexandria vs. Goliath | The Indypendent - 2018 May 15, about her first primary campaign.

It starts out with her going to Joe Crowley's campaign headquarters and requesting a debate with the former Representative.

Ocasio-Cortez grew up in the Bronx but spent most of her summers in Puerto Rico. The lack of opportunities in the Bronx’s underfunded public schools and the grinding poverty she witnessed in Puerto Rico shaped her working-class identity. She returned to the Bronx after college to work as a director for early childhood education programs through the National Hispanic Institute. She became involved in electoral politics during the 2016 Democratic primary as a volunteer for the Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. “Before working on that campaign I really thought it was impossible to run a for office without corporate money, which is why I never thought of doing it,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

Then her trip to Standing Rock. “Seeing people from across the country and the depth to which they were putting everything on the line was just really inspiring to me,” she said about it. When she got back, she got a call from Brand New Congress offering to help her run against JC in NY-14 -- someone who hadn't faced a primary challenge in several years. “If you were going to do this, it had to come from an organizer,” she said. “It had to come from someone outside the system who would give it a jolt. If you want any kind of political career in New York City, you can’t challenge Joe Crowley.”

JC was the Democratic party boss in Queens. He raised some $20 million over the years for his campaigns, and he gave excess money to conservative and moderate Democrats elsewhere in the nation.

In addition to his well-stocked campaign war chest, Crowley can draw on the backing of local Democratic Party clubs, two dozen labor unions who have endorsed him and a legion of elected officials who will sing his praises on command.

Yet, in a twist of irony, Crowley might be a victim of his past success in deterring primary challenges in NY-14.

“Most people have no idea who their congressman is even though he’s been in office for almost 20 years,” said Amanda Vender, a public high school teacher from Jackson Heights who has canvassed and phone banked for Ocasio-Cortez. “There’s so much enthusiasm when I talk to people and explain that there’s someone who doesn’t take corporate money and is a new, fresh face on the scene.”

...
“In an 85 percent Democratic district, you won’t get voted out of office for fighting for the working class,” said Virginia Ramos Rios, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager.

...
A bastion of both patronage-based political machines that prefer the status quo and finance and real estate elites that profit from it, New York City will be a tougher nut to crack. Joe Crowley stands at the intersection of those forces.

...
Not that Ocasio-Cortez, or “Doña Quixote” as she sometimes refers to herself, is letting that slow her down. In addition to support from Brand New Congress, she has also garnered the support of the Justice Democrats, People for Bernie, Black Lives Caucus and the New York City chapter of the DSA among others. She’s held fundraisers in the living rooms of supporters across the district and has raised more than $200,000 from almost 9,000 individual donors, according to her campaign.

It was still a big struggle. AOC got some 5,400 ballot signatures, over 4 times as many as necessary, so as to overcome ballot-signature challenges.

 

[lpetrich]

Where I found this article:

AOC: ‘It’s Not Just What We’re Fighting For, But How We’re Fighting For It’ | The Indypendent - June 26, in the last day of her 2020 primary campaign.

AOC seemed curiously calm that day.

“I’ve never seen a candidate’s supporters out here on election day, much less the candidate herself,” said James, an Allerton resident, as he gestured at Ocasio-Cortez and a table full of campaign literature staffed by volunteers.

...
“I’m just trying to get re-elected today,” she said with a laugh from behind a black face mask when a reporter asked her about her much-anticipated plans for 2022 and beyond.

When asked about what she learned in her first term,

I’ve always been a believer in inside-outside change — the outside coming from the streets and from protesting and from community organizing and activism. I knew a lot about the outside before. My first term has really been about learning to navigate the inside. I’m getting an understanding of structures, the way power is organized and how the inside and the outside interact. It has been a huge learning point for my first term.

...
I’ve learned a lot about how institutional power is organized. It’s very interesting because, on the one hand, it feels so entrenched and established and powerful. But on the other, there’s an aspect to it that feels very fragile because it’s extremely susceptible to the moment and to public opinion and a responsiveness to events. And so there’s a strange duality to it because there are moments where it feels insurmountable and there are moments when it just feels very, very possible to enact change.

When asked what she hopes to accomplish, she responded "I think it’s less about what I hope to personally accomplish and what I hope that the movement has accomplished." A refreshing lack of ego. After listing such goals as Medicare for All, action on climate change, dignified work and life for everybody, and breakup of concentrations of wealth, she said "That’s on my wish list. I know I alone cannot accomplish those things but I do know we as a movement can."

 

[lpetrich]

Check Out Our New AOC-Green New Deal Poster | The Indypendent -- 2019 Jan 24 -- AOC as FDR driving his car with a cigarette in a holder. Except that instead of a cigarette, it's a flower.

The Art of the Green New Deal — A Next Generation Journal of Creative Culture Shift | by Sven Eberlein | The Art of the Green New Deal | Medium -- 2019 Apr 22

Far from being a mere platitude, the social value of creative effort was deemed vital enough to warrant its own comprehensive arts program under the WPA, Federal Project Number One, informally shortened to Federal One. Conceived and administered by Harry Hopkins, a former social worker who had become one of FDR’s most trusted advisors, Federal One’s five divisions — the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Writers’ Project, and the Historical Records Survey — were based on the (not so) radical notion that not only should artists have the right to public employment and compensation like any other worker but that the arts should be considered just as valuable to the common good as business, agriculture, or labor.

...
In addition to the obvious parallels we can draw between the 1930s and today in terms of looking to the work of our creative citizens to guide us through a seismic societal realignment, there is one other aspect in particular of the WPA’s arts programs that renders them even more relevant to the ideals espoused in the Green New Deal resolution: their distinct lack of the racial prejudice that was otherwise a feature throughout New Deal programs.

Was it to appease the Dixiecrats that were still in the Democratic Party back then?

By contrast, thanks in large part to African-American artists in New York City who formed the Harlem Artists Guild to protest the discriminatory practices and successfully pressured the WPA to hire an unprecedented number of Black artists, Federal One stood out as remarkably unique for its diversity. With color lines removed, Black artists for the first time were able to practice their art full time and become equal members of a community fighting for equal rights for all artists. Federal One also hired Native American, Chicano, and Asian American artists in a time when they were excluded from most commercial jobs, providing not only badly needed income but the opportunity to tell their stories in their own voices. The fact that the Federal Theatre Program was headed by Hallie Flanagan speaks volumes, but women were also represented throughout Federal One as writers, actors, and muralists.

Linking to Art of the Green New Deal: Journal of Creative Culture Shift

 

[lpetrich]

AOC herself has commissioned some posters in the style of the original New Deal's posters. Posters – Official AOC Shop, along with her 2018 and 2020 campaign posters. Still the same six:

• Bronx, NY, NY -- Pelham Bay Park
• Queens, NY, NY -- Flushing Meadows Corona Park
• Boston, MA -- The Public Garden
• Detroit, MY -- Hart Plaza
• Los Angeles, CA -- Griffith Observatory
• San Juan, PR -- Plaza del Totem

 

[lpetrich]

Interview Magazine on Twitter: "This Fall, @JabariBrisport will become New York's first openly gay Black state senator. @AOC is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. It only made sense for her to give him a call. https://t.co/TxIomEHeEA" / Twitter
noting
Jabari Brisport and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Are Looking for Good Trouble - though datelined September 1, it seems to have taken place shortly after the June 23 NY primary election

Jabari Brisport has done the math, and it doesn’t add up. In the richest country in the world, nurses fundraise for PPE, teachers pay for crayons, and billionaires get tax breaks. Growing up in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, the 33-year-old public school math teacher has seen firsthand the struggles of the working class, and he’s not satisfied with the way things have gone. After a 2017 run for city council, the Democratic Socialist led this year’s 25th district primary for the New York State Senate with over half the vote. With a Yale School of Drama degree and a Bernie Sanders endorsement under his belt, Brisport has declared victory as New York’s first openly gay Black state legislator.

Then a conversation between him and AOC.

JABARI BRISPORT: Oh my god, Alex!

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Hey, how’s it going? Congratulations again.

BRISPORT: Thanks! We’re just waiting on the mail-ins, but we feel good. Congrats to you on just whooping [Michelle] Caruso[-Cabrera]’s butt.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Thank you so much. There’s so much relief in just getting past that day. I’m sure you feel the same way.

Then about the Democratic Socialists of America endorsing AOC.

BRISPORT: People hear “socialism,” and they think that it’ll be an end to all the good stuff they like, that somebody is going to swoop in and steal everything from them. That they’ll have to have a breadline and a can of tomato soup, and that’ll be it. But for me, it’s really about getting people out from underneath the thumb of capitalism, and freeing them from the very small group of people that manage—or I should say mismanage—our economy and our society for their own wealth and benefit. It’s about freeing up people to truly experience all the joys in life by making sure they don’t have to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to keep their home from month to month, or whether or not they’ll be able to pay for health care when they get sick. It’s about freeing people from all the existential havoc that capitalism wreaks on us, and allowing them to truly thrive.

All the capitalism apologists are likely to butt in here and sing hosannas of praise to the economic elite. It's as if they found a ruling class that they like.

JB noted something "heartbreaking", a young black man telling him that “I’m not even voting, man. Politics—that’s a white man’s game.”

Then they talked about what it was like to get elected the first time.

About “Defund the police,” JB noted one of his siblings saying “Defund the police? What? The mafia is going to take over.” Shows what an ill-conceived slogan it is. "Defund" suggests abolishing rather than scaling back and avoiding policing for many things.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Interview Magazine on Twitter: "This Fall, @JabariBrisport will become New York's first openly gay Black state senator. @AOC is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. It only made sense for her to give him a call. https://t.co/TxIomEHeEA" / Twitter
noting
Jabari Brisport and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Are Looking for Good Trouble - though datelined September 1, it seems to have taken place shortly after the June 23 NY primary election

Then a conversation between him and AOC.

Then about the Democratic Socialists of America endorsing AOC.

BRISPORT: People hear “socialism,” and they think that it’ll be an end to all the good stuff they like, that somebody is going to swoop in and steal everything from them. That they’ll have to have a breadline and a can of tomato soup, and that’ll be it. But for me, it’s really about getting people out from underneath the thumb of capitalism, and freeing them from the very small group of people that manage—or I should say mismanage—our economy and our society for their own wealth and benefit. It’s about freeing up people to truly experience all the joys in life by making sure they don’t have to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to keep their home from month to month, or whether or not they’ll be able to pay for health care when they get sick. It’s about freeing people from all the existential havoc that capitalism wreaks on us, and allowing them to truly thrive.

All the capitalism apologists are likely to butt in here and sing hosannas of praise to the economic elite. It's as if they found a ruling class that they like.

JB noted something "heartbreaking", a young black man telling him that “I’m not even voting, man. Politics—that’s a white man’s game.”

Then they talked about what it was like to get elected the first time.

About “Defund the police,” JB noted one of his siblings saying “Defund the police? What? The mafia is going to take over.” Shows what an ill-conceived slogan it is. "Defund" suggests abolishing rather than scaling back and avoiding policing for many things.

It's easy to attack socialism without praising the "elites". According to history, my standard of living, would be far worse under socialism. And it would be worse for everyone else with the exception of the lowest income workers. But even for them, their children have no future. Socialists need to demonstrate that their system can work before they can argue that it should be forced on all.

Regarding "defund the police": yep terrible saying. The left always loses language wars.

 

[lpetrich]

OCASIO-CORTEZ: After I won in 2018, probably the trippiest part of it was this transition time. You’re still a normal person, but one day you’re just a normal working-class person, and while it takes months and months of work, the election is only one day. One of those transformations is moving from the outside to the inside. As activists and advocates, so much of our work and investment has gone toward pressuring the inside, and organizing to exert pressure on the inside. Just yesterday, I was reminded of this chapter in The Odyssey, when the protagonist ties himself to the front of the boat as all these Sirens are coming through to prevent him from changing the direction of the ship. There’s a similar kind of dynamic when you’re an activist or when you come from community organizing, and you’re not climbing the ranks to get to where you are in the traditional way. You’re going straight from the street to Albany. What are you doing to keep yourself focused?

BRISPORT: It’s really about remembering your roots. I never want to forget that I’m a teacher. ... It’s funny, I kind of see myself as, like, a mole on the inside.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: I felt the same way! I’m a mole. A man on the inside.

She still likes activists. She continued with "It’s remarkable how, in such little time, we’re really starting to grow this movement on a city, state, and federal level."

It's good that they are expanding in elected office outside the Presidency. Some third parties seem obsessed with electing a President, even if means being doomed to failure. This movement also involves running as Democrats in most cases, using many otherwise sympathetic voters' tendencies to reflexively vote Democratic.

JB responded

... One way I saw them rile up against me during the election was by branding DSA as an outside national movement coming to attack local community groups. And yes, we are part of a national movement of progressives and socialists rising and taking power, but we’re also all deeply rooted in our communities. I got really good at debate. I was like, “I have 900 people from the district who donated. You have 50. How can you say that I’m the outside candidate?” It can be inspiring for everyday working-class people to know that there are people now running for office and winning office who look like them and represent them.