Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[lpetrich]

2 Israeli startup entrepreneurs played roles in rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | The Times of Israel - "After she pulled out of an event commemorating Rabin, some concluded that AOC doesn’t like Israelis. But 2 were instrumental in the lawmaker’s early career"

That was after she graduated from Boston University.

But elsewhere on the internet, there are traces of Ocasio-Cortez’s less publicized gigs, in which two Israeli-Americans figure — Joe Raby and Chen(i) Yerushalmi, men associated more with the world of venture capital and startups than with the working class.

It was under the aegis of these men that Ocasio-Cortez prepared curricula teaching entrepreneurial and self-presentation skills to ambitious young college students and graduates in the Bronx. These skills, which she helped teach to others, may have been instrumental in her own political rise.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesperson, Lauren Hitt, told The Times of Israel that the names Cheni Yerushalmi and Joe Raby “are not ringing a bell with us over here. It may be a fairly tenuous connection.”

Public sources, however, indicate that Yerushalmi was Ocasio-Cortez’s boss at a company called Gage Strategies, while Raby vetted candidates for the Sunshine Bronx business incubator that she applied and was admitted to. Ocasio-Cortez herself publicly associated with both these employment experiences over a period of five years prior to her election to Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez » Student Activities Office | Boston University
Weekend Event Recap: #BULEADS | Her Campus - 2013 Sep 23 - about that conference two days earlier - "The next speaker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, graduated from BU’s College of Arts and Sciences just two years ago. Since graduation, Ocasio-Cortez has founded her own publishing enterprise and serves to better the generation to come at Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator. She presented a stellar speech that exposed the problems with the current education system in urban communities."

Very little of Brook Avenue Press and GAGEis / Gage Strategies survives online.

Borough President Diaz and Senator Gillibrand Call for Tax Breaks to Boost Growing Tech Start-Ups in The Bronx – The Office of The Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr

“Plenty of entrepreneurs have started their businesses on a shoestring and any break they receive means more flexibility for further growth, said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Founder of Brook Avenue Press, a publishing firm for children’s books and curriculum. “A tax break could mean part-time work for someone else or keeping a business’ doors open long enough to turn a profit. Young entrepreneurs are playing a special role in developing promising, creative enterprises for our future and a small break can open up their resources for hiring, creating a new product, or reinvesting in the local economy.”

AOC is to the left of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the picture.

 

[lpetrich]

About the video I'd mentioned previously here:
Sunrise Movement on Twitter: "One week away from the election -- many of us are feeling scared. Scared about if we will have a job, healthcare, or autonomy over our own bodies.

But these moments aren't about ignoring your fear. It's about turning that fear into the fuel propelling us forward. https://t.co/sJxApQKc1M" / Twitter

VANITY FAIR on Twitter: "Presenting our December cover star: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez! Two elections in, the congresswoman is still fighting the fight—and she’s as sure as she’s ever been. Read the @AOC cover story now. Photograph by Tyler Mitchell. (links)" / Twitter

Who Is AOC: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Her Rise to Political Power | Vanity Fair
"The history-making congresswoman addresses her biggest critics, the challenges that loom no matter who wins, and what she’s taking on next."
Very interesting interview

It's interesting that I've seldom seen any mention of her being the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Seems like she is notable for much more than that.

This part hasn’t been reported: The next day Ocasio-Cortez approached Yoho and told him, “You do that to me again, I won’t be so nice next time.” She felt his actions had violated a boundary, stepping “into the zone of harassment, discrimination.” His mocking response, straight out of Veep: “Oh, boo-hoo.” Publicly, Yoho doubled down, issuing a non-apology on the House floor, citing his wife and daughters as character witnesses.

Ocasio-Cortez flashed back to one of her first jobs out of school, when a male colleague whom she’d edged out for a promotion called her a bitch in front of the staff. She had been too stunned to reply, and no one came to her defense. She wouldn’t let it happen again.

That speech in response to Ted Yoho's nastiness showed that she is not just good on Twitter and Instagram,

but a skilled orator with the power to move even her most cynical congressional colleagues. “They were like, ‘I didn’t know you’re that eloquent,’ ” Ocasio-Cortez says with a wry smile. “ ‘I’m so pleased and surprised by your restraint.’ ”

Ocasio-Cortez does not name Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, in a separate conversation, rejects reports of a clash, calling it media-manufactured misogyny. “Two powerful women coming from different perspectives,” she shrugs, “and there has to be a catfight.” Still, “House leadership is, sometimes, a little wary of me speaking on the floor. Not that I’m not allowed to, but it’s a little more dicey,” says Ocasio-Cortez. “I think a lot of people, including my Democratic colleagues, believe the Fox News version of me.”

Then on her nicknames, Sandy, Alex, and AOC. Also on some people making prayer candles of her and RBG and other such favorites.

“It’s very dehumanizing in both ways, strangely, both the negative and the positive,” the congresswoman tells me one afternoon from behind the desk of her Bronx campaign office. “It’s not an accident that, every cycle, the boogeyman of the Democrats is a woman,” says Ocasio-Cortez. “A couple of cycles ago, it was Pelosi. Then it was Hillary, and now it’s me.”

The right wing has had male targets like Bill Clinton, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama. But it targets not only these three women, but also Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Michelle Obama.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC suffered stuff like this:

Three months after her 2018 primary, Andrew Cuomo dismissed her victory as a “fluke.” Ron DeSantis, a congressman at the time, called her “this girl…or whatever she is.”

...
But “we are not used to seeing young women of color in positions of power,” says journalist Andrea González-Ramírez, an early chronicler of AOC’s rise.

Not only AOC, her mother, and her brother get a lot of abuse, but also some people who worked with her.

A designer of AOC’s Cesar Chavez–inspired campaign posters gets death threats; her former dean at Boston University, who introduced Ocasio-Cortez in a 2011 speech viewable on YouTube, regularly fields emails calling him the N-word for “training” her. When President Trump lobs one of his attacks at Ocasio-Cortez—he has called her everything from a “poor student” to a “wack job”—her offices are flooded with calls, voicemails, and emails echoing him.

Then her three very close friends in Congress.

The Squad, as those four women are known, had begun with a serendipitous selfie at freshman orientation, but it is now a source of support that Ocasio-Cortez calls a “gift from God.”

“There have been many times, especially in the first six months, where I felt like I couldn’t do this, like I didn’t know if I was going to be able to run for reelection,” Ocasio-Cortez says. “There was a time where the volume of threats had gotten so high that I didn’t even know if I was going to live to my next term. Their sisterhood and their friendship, it’s not some political alliance. It’s a very deep, unconditional human bond.”

A close friend had told her that giving up would have been “the point” of the threats. “It’s to get you to destroy yourself so that they don’t have to destroy you.” That counsel helped Ocasio-Cortez reach a turning point, telling herself: “Okay, I’m not crazy. It’s not that this is too much for me. It’s that this is an environment with a very specific purpose.”

...
When I hear she gets threats, I always pray for her,” says Tim Burchett, Republican from Tennessee, who affectionately calls her “Cortez.” Yes, AOC has Republican friends. “I don’t agree with a doggone thing she says,” Burchett says, “but I respect her right to represent her constituents just as much as she respects mine.”

But it helps that the four women see eye to eye on a lot of issues, so they can work together professionally as well as personally.

 

[lpetrich]

"Ocasio-Cortez’s charisma and raw talent are often compared to Barack Obama’s."

Yes, AOC seems like what many of BO's supporters hoped he would be. But he was a sort of Bill Clinton II, a centrist who wimped out of doing anything big after working on his health-care plan. He was also very meek about Congress obstructing him.

Then about all those who want AOC to run for President.

In 2016, AOC campaigned for Bernie Sanders -- and she was recruited to run for office by some other BS campaigners. Then this year, she endorsed him.

“She endorsed me right after I had a heart attack, and there were some people who were writing our campaign off. I’ve always been very grateful to her for doing that,” says Sanders. “There are some politicians who are very good on policy, and there are some politicians who are good communicators, and there are some politicians that have a way about them that relates very well to ordinary people,” says Sanders. “Alexandria has all three of those characteristics.”

But she doesn't like all that talk about her running for President.

Despite the base level of ego required to run for any office, Ocasio-Cortez seems uncomfortable with the mania about her future. “I think it’s part of our cultural understanding of politics, where—if you think someone is great, you automatically think they should be president,” she says. “I joke. I’m like, ‘Is Congress not good enough?’ "

Her aspirations are a matter of endless speculation: New York Senate, House leadership, a Cabinet post? “I don’t know if I’m really going to be staying in the House forever, or if I do stay in the House, what that would look like,” she says. “I don’t see myself really staying where I’m at for the rest of my life.” This is one of the few times AOC seems guarded and cautious about her words. “I don’t want to aspire to a quote-unquote higher position just for the sake of that title or just for the sake of having a different or higher position. I truly make an assessment to see if I can be more effective. And so, you know, I don’t know if I could necessarily be more effective in an administration, but, for me that’s always what the question comes down to.” She does not believe in political messiahs, nor does she see herself as a “hierarchical, power-based person.” At the beginning of her first term, her staff still called her Alex. It was only when journalists on the Hill started to follow suit that her team collectively decided to address her as Congresswoman. She blends into the crowd at Pelham Bay Park, even though she’s the only one in a suit. When a nearby gender-reveal party pops a blue confetti cannon, she throws her hands in the air and cheers. When I ask Pressley what the popular narratives miss, she cites humility. “She certainly did not set out to be an icon or even a historymaker. I think it was her destiny, but there is no calculation.”

She's criticized "saviorism", like expecting Barack Obama to be a political savior. As to being a historymaker and an icon, I think that it is her unusual psychological gifts. I'm reminded of some books that I once got, "Profiles of Genius", "Profiles of Female Genius", and the like, but never got around to reading. Their author:

Gene N. Landrum, PhD, is a high-tech start-up executive turned educator and writer. As a businessman he originated the Chuck E. Cheese concept of family entertainment among other entrepreneurial ventures. After years of interacting with creative and overachieving personalities, he decided to document the inner workings of what made them tick and did his doctoral dissertation on the Jungian Psychology of Success. Dr. Gene lectures extensively on the vagaries of eminence and teaches MBAs at the Hodges University graduate school in southwest Florida.

I was hoping for someone with a track record of research, but I was disappointed. So his work isn't like the Big Five personality model or anything similar.

 

[lpetrich]

The eventual champion of the Green New Deal grew up in a jungle-themed bedroom in suburban Yorktown, New York, with a monkey and a tree painted on the walls. “Sandy was always someone who was heavily into science and would nerd out at times,” says Rebecca Rodriguez, her cousin and 2020 campaign manager. The word nerd comes up often among her inner circle. The whole family is Star Trek–obsessed.

She sometimes cites Star Trek as representing an ideal sort of society.

In high school, she did a science project on extending the longevity of nematodes with antioxidants, as a test of the oxidative-stress theory of aging. She was successful with some of them.

Then as a 12-year-old, she tried to get an aerator for a pond near her school. Despite an "impassioned" speech, she was not very successful.

She grew up between the lower-middle-class Bronx neighborhood of much of her family, and the upper-middle-class upstate suburb that had much nicer schools.

Sergio’s death from lung cancer in 2008, during Ocasio-Cortez’s sophomore year at Boston University, altered the trajectory of her life. “I don’t think there’s any way to overstate how close I was with my dad,” she says. Sergio doted on Sandy, and he challenged her. “That sense of ambition to try things when the odds seem so unfavorable, that very, very much comes from my father.” Losing him emotionally devastated her. “It felt like…I didn’t just lose my dad, I also lost myself.”

But she wouldn’t let grief lay her low. “We’re not an ‘Oh, boo-hoo, this happened to me, give me attention’ type of family,” Gabriel says. A week after Sergio died, Ocasio-Cortez returned to college, laser-focused. Her GPA improved that semester. “ ‘This isn’t just about me anymore,’ ” as her close friend Jean-Bertrand Uwilingiyimana sums it up. “ ‘I need to take care of my family.’ She became an adult before any of us.” According to Rodriguez, Sergio’s death “put a fire under her.”

When AOC graduated, she could have gotten an MBA or become a management consultant or Wall Streeter or someone like that. But she didn't.

Having lived on the edge of poverty “makes me better at my job than 90 percent of Republicans, because I’ve actually worked for a living.” The inadequacies of Obamacare are very familiar to her. “The main reason why I feel comfortable saying that the ACA has failed is because it failed me and it failed everyone that I worked with in a restaurant,” she says. She would pay for doctor visits with cash from tips. “You try buying insurance off of Obamacare,” she says. She once had a plan that cost $200/month for an $8,000 deductible - how much one has to pay before the insurance kicks in.

Growing up, her parents were “natural organizers” among the largely Latinx immigrant “underclass” in affluent Westchester County. “My dad would get coffee every day at the town Dunkin’ Donuts, and we would invite the cashiers over for dinner,” Ocasio-Cortez says. This background informed her persistent calls for the abolition of ICE: “The Democratic party has been, and this dates back to the Obama administration, extremely weak on developing just immigration policy because we’re scared of our own shadow.”

 

[lpetrich]

Certain critics have tried to claim that she is not as proletarian as she describes herself as being.

The scrutiny used to sting, to “have to announce that your mother was scrubbing toilets, that our family was struggling to do basic things, that they almost repossessed our home several times,” Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez says, “but in the long-term, it only cast further light into who we are: just decent people. Decent people are relatable.”

The irony is that the things Republicans say about her are things that she used to say about herself. Fearing she was failing to make her late father proud, “I used to, frankly, abuse myself mentally about how I’m nothing,” Ocasio-Cortez says. “I realized that I need to choose myself because if I don’t, I’m just going to waste away. I’m just going to give up.”

In her own way, Ocasio-Cortez is continuing Sergio’s legacy of building up the Bronx. “If he were around today…I think he would make fun of me incessantly and he’d be the first one to call me a Communist,” she laughs. “But he would be in my corner too.”

The turning point came when she went to a life coach, one who advised her to go into some direction rather than have some big and distant goal. She started going to Black Lives Matter rallies and campaigning for Bernie Sanders.

Dressing is a challenge for her, because she did not grow up with an upscale wardrobe. “It’s legitimately hard being a first-generation woman…and being working class, trying to navigate a professional environment,” she says. “It continues to take me so long to try to figure out how to look put-together without having a huge designer closet.”

“Every time I go on TV, people ask for my lipstick,” she says. After she announced what lipstick she wore when debating Joe Crowley back in 2018, her admirers caused a run on it. It was Stila’s Stay All Day Liquid in Beso.

As The Squad was preparing notes on what to say in response to Trump's demand that they return home and clean up their homelands before returning, Ayanna Pressley offered some lipstick to the others.

Ocasio-Cortez notably delivered the Yoho speech in her trademark Beso red. Afterward, Pressley said to her, “ ‘You know how I know you showed up to do business? Because you matched your lip with your suit,’ ” Ocasio-Cortez recalls. “[Ayanna] was like, ‘That’s when I knew she didn’t come to play.’ ” Ocasio-Cortez acknowledges that she had, in fact, come to the floor in bold colors to give herself a little extra confidence. “I had a little war paint on that day, for sure.”

 

[lpetrich]

AOC did yoga four times a week in her bartender days, but now her job puts a lot of stress on her. Seems like she is very conscientious about doing a good job.

“Her mother will, on occasion, call me and be like, ‘Is she okay? Is she eating?’ ” Rodriguez says. “We all know when she loses too much weight, it’s a sign that she is really stressed out.”

Earlier this year, Ocasio-Cortez and Roberts got a French bulldog named Deco (an ode to the architecture style) “to force myself to not live and breathe work,” she says. Dog motherhood is the only kind she can fathom at the moment. “I’m sitting here, I’m like, Do I freeze my eggs? Can I afford to do that?” the congresswoman says, laughing. “My orthodontist was telling me about how she was doing IVF, and I’m, like, asking her what her experience is like.”

As the youngest congresswoman in history, she’s in uncharted family-planning territory. “It’s important for us to talk about it, because women, we have to make these choices that men simply don’t have to make. Very few women have…” Ocasio-Cortez trails off, before pointing to Tammy Duckworth as a model.

As she gets more seniority in Congress, she may be able to have a better work-life balance -- and may even have a chance to have some kids of her own.

The article called Riley Roberts AOC's "Marty Ginsburg", after Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband. They met at a weekly Coffee and Conversations event in their Boston University days.

“I think people see how glamorous she is, but these were not two glamorous people,” the couple’s friend Raul Fernandez says. “These were two awkward, supersmart, like-to-talk-about-issues kind of people that met through this super-wonky, nerdy thing.”

Ocasio-Cortez often delivered the final word at those Friday-afternoon talks, while Roberts raised antagonistic counterpoints for argument’s sake. In their liberal university bubble, “it becomes pretty easy for everyone to, basically, have the same thinking,” Uwilingiyimana said. “That always bothered Riley.” The weekend before Election Day 2018, Uwilingiyimana rented a cabin for the three of them in Woodstock, and they made plans for what would happen if she lost—maybe “buying this massive church that was for sale,” he says. “Or we can just start a ranch and stay up here forever.”

That's Jean-Bertrand Uwilingiyimana, a longtime friend.

RR is very shy and private, keeping out of sight and denying interview requests.

Those who know the couple call Roberts “good people,” a “keeper,” and “a genuinely wonderful person.” At the Sundance Film Festival premiere of Knock Down the House, Roberts was “just bawling” during scenes around Sergio’s death, Fernandez says. “I was like, ‘He really, deeply loves this woman.’ What more can you ask for?”

 

[lpetrich]

Then Trump's taxes.

Talking about it winds up Ocasio-Cortez, her tie-dyed mask pulled down to eat a sandwich. “These are the same people saying that we can’t have tuition-free public colleges because there’s no money,” she says, “when these motherfuckers are only paying $750 a year in taxes.” Within a week Trump was in the hospital with COVID-19 and Mitch McConnell was plowing ahead with Amy Coney Barrett’s hearings. “Trump is the racist visionary,” AOC says, “but McConnell gets the job done. He doesn’t do anything without Trump’s blessing. Trump says, ‘Jump.’ McConnell says, ‘How high?’ Trump never does what McConnell says.”

Interesting analysis, and I don't know how correct it is. I read somewhere that MMC is one of the few people to yell back when Trump yells at someone. One has to ask why MMC has been so willing to enable Trump, despite allegedly considering Trump not as smart as he is and "nuts". MMC is also much more of a strategic planner than Trump seems to be.

This election? “This is not about a decision between two candidates. It’s about a decision between two countries.” If Biden wins, her district has a fighting chance. But if Trump wins, “I cannot honestly look them in the eye and tell them that they will be safe.”

But no matter what, this nation is “still in a lot of trouble.”

Under a President Biden, “if his life doesn’t feel different,” she points to a cab driver whizzing by our table, “if their life doesn’t feel different,” she gestures to people walking by the beauty shop and Bengali Halal Grocery, “if these people’s lives don’t actually feel different”—now she is giving a stump speech over her omelet—“we’re done. You know how many Trumps there are in waiting?”

She is tired of incremental change, of “bullshit little 10 percent tax cuts,” she says. “I think, honestly, a lot of my dissent within the Democratic party comes from my lived experience. It’s not just that we can be better, it’s that we have to be better. We’re not good enough right now.”

Then about how she will be joined by some new progressive Congresspeople. Like Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Cori Bush, Marie Newman, and maybe also Kara Eastman and some others.

“You keep telling me I’m just four votes. So I’mma go get more.”

 

[lpetrich]

I think that someone ought to get AOC together with Peter Turchin. He predicted what kinds of troubles we are having, and he notes that the New Deal was a way out of earlier troubles -- and AOC likes the New Deal.

Everything Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Does In a Day | Vanity Fair - YouTube
She is wearing the black dress with big white polka dots that she wore in the article's pictures.

She calls herself "an aspiring morning person", something who tries to get up early and tries not to be up too late at night. Early meaning around 8 am. But she does a lot of her thinking late at night and some of her work late at night, especially in these days of COVID-19.

She recently got a car in NYC, so she sometimes has to move it on alternate-parking days.

Breakfast is usually toast with a little bit of peanut butter or almond butter. I've never heard of almond butter before. Or else a smoothie. She's trying to drink less coffee, so she's switched to macha tea. She has a milk frother that she uses. The most important part is drinking water with a little bit of lemon in it. She drinks it slowly and mindfully and looks out the window at the clouds passing by. That's to slow down for a minute or five minutes, and that's been her recent meditative practice.

Safari is her favorite news app. She reads the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the New Republic, In These Times, etc. I'm sure that she has enough money for subscriptions to all of these publications.

Then on 9 am - 9:30 am, it's out the door. She loves her days in NYC. Days with her neighborhood and her neighbors. But she finds DC beautiful and she likes meeting her colleagues in person. In NYC she may go to her district office, and in DC, she may go to a committee hearing or prepare for a vote. Lots of meetings in both places. She squeezes in a break wherever she can. Lately it's been Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, and Zoom.

She tries to finish up each day at 6 pm, even though she may sometimes be working later, to 7 pm, 8 pm, or even 10 pm. She does her own tweets (Twitter posts) and her own Instagram stuff, but her team helps her with Facebook.

She tries to keep up-to-date with breaking news, so she can help define the narrative on it. In effect, planting in people's minds her preferred spin on some issue.

Then she talks about posting. Not as much as she used to, but she likes to be one of the first to publicize some issue or position. Though it can be "nerve-wracking", it can also be one of the most impactful things in politics.

She may go out for dinner with her partner or some friends, and take her dog on a long walk. Later, she may watch some very awful reality-TV shows. "Selling Sunset" and the like. She checks for late-breaking news, because she may be asked about it the next morning, and then she switches off her phone. Great for avoiding interruptions.

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I try not to curse in public, but... *" / Twitter
“These are the same people saying that we can’t have tuition-free public colleges because there’s no money, ... when these motherfuckers are only paying $750 a year in taxes.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Bronx energy is a renewable resource, excellent for phasing out fossil-fueled attitudes in the workplace *" / Twitter
About her saying to Ted Yoho: "You do that to me again, I won't be so nice next time."

A new friend:
RZA Asks Jamaal Bowman the Questions We All Want the Answers To

This looks like it's a campaign ad for this general election:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "
Medicare for All.
A Green New Deal.
Federal Jobs Guarantee.

A better world is possible. We just need to choose (and fight for) it. https://t.co/2AXF9qTQf5" / Twitter

She posted some video of herself getting a flu shot.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Today I stopped by our beloved community health center Plaza Del Sol (@Urbanhealthplan) to get my flu shot!

How do flu shots help COVID response?

Lower flu cases fewer flu-related hospitalizations more free beds for COVID treatment.

If you can, get your flu shot! https://t.co/rgFIn4y1yC" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Her Vanity Fair photoshoot stirred up controversy again. Much like the one back in late summer / early fall of 2018 where she wore a rather expensive dark green pantsuit - $2,900 for it and $600 for some spike-heel shoes.

Laura Ingraham on Twitter: "AOC appears in Vanity Fair in outfits worth $14,000 to curse out Trump | Fox News https://t.co/6UlLQs9uCp" / Twitter
I'd like to sic some alien pizza bats on her, to make her be like Ingraham B in ST:TOS "Operation: Annihilate!"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "% worth it, would do again" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "(&I don’t know if you’ve been in a photoshoot Laura, but you don’t keep the clothes.)" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The whole “she wore clothes in a magazine, let’s pretend they’re hers” gimmick is the classic Republican strategy of “let’s willfully act stupid, and if the public doesn’t take our performative stupidity seriously then we’ll claim bias.”

GOP, get yourselves together. It’s sad." / Twitter


One of the responses featured a GOP campaign ad that claimed that anti-Semites in the Democratic Party will run the White House if Biden is elected, showing pictures of AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar.

 

[lpetrich]

Some of the commenters claims that she is a typical socialist, wanting to live like some elite while most people get barely enough to live. But that seems to me to be projection of negative features of capitalism.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Republicans are Very Mad (again) about my appearance. This time they’re mad that I look good in borrowed clothes (again).

Listen, if Republicans want pointers on looking your best, I’m happy to share.

Tip #1: Drink water and don’t be racist" / Twitter

She got this response: kristalisbougie on Twitter: "@AOC https://t.co/DcVVQY9jpO" / Twitter

The way Republicans are obsessing over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wearing $14,000 worth of clothing in Vanity Fair you'd think she'd spent $140 million of taxpayer money to play golf at resorts she owned.

Glenn-Simon Pardot on Twitter: "@AOC Wait so Trump can get a 70k tax write off for a hairstylist, but AOC does one photoshoot and Republicans lose their minds?" / Twitter

Someone posted the pictures on Twitter:
mnr1D on Twitter: "@AOC PERIOD They're really sad you look good asf and they look like unseasoned raw chicken anyway https://t.co/VuKQcAQiPh" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Gary He on Twitter: "A couple frames of @AOC distributing hundreds of pantry boxes in Corona, Queens on Tuesday. The area is home to many undocumented workers, most of whom worked in service industries most impacted by the coronavirus. Many families are still relying on these distributions to get by. https://t.co/Y9ZmTW0ChQ" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The whole country is desperate for a second stimulus, but Republicans fled the Senate the moment they got their anti-everybody justice confirmed.

Meanwhile our team is helping families pick up the pieces from federal neglect.

It’s criminal and cruel." / Twitter


Jamaal Bowman on Twitter: "* https://t.co/QknufdTA5l" / Twitter
verbally jumping up up and down on Lil Wayne Weezy F for seemingly being unaware of Black Lives Matter and police brutality:
Lil Wayne WEEZY F on Twitter: "Just had a great meeting with @realdonaldtrump @potus besides what he’s done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership. He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done. https://t.co/Q9c5k1yMWf" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "We love you tío " / Twitter
Uncle as in Uncle Bernie
Bernie Sanders on Twitter: "Some people ask what an old Jewish white guy has in common with young women of color like @AOC, @AyannaPressley, @IlhanMN and @RashidaTlaib.

We understand each other. We come from working class backgrounds. And we’re going to go forward together. https://t.co/bANr9KbkmA" / Twitter

The full-length virtual rally:
Ilhan Omar: "Squad Victory Fund Digital GOTV Rally"
Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "Squad Victory Fund Digital GOTV Rally https://t.co/dFVhbqeKF1" / Twitter
Squad Victory Fund Digital GOTV Rally - Ilhan Omar - Live | Facebook

Mainly a gabfest, but they said some interesting things, like how some people got out and voted for the first time in this election - it seems so critical. Also about how some of them came out of activism and how they expect to continue activism - being elected is not enough.

Had AOC, IO, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and several guests, like DJ Novena Carmel, who played some music for them. Also some activists, candidates Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, and Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Maxine Waters, head of the Financial Services Committee, which AOC, RT, and AP are in.

 

[lpetrich]

Katie Porter on Twitter: "Get in loser, we’re going voting. https://t.co/vGT7oMCi7Q" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "You heard the woman! Get in the Sienna and bring snacks!" / Twitter

AOC made some tweets like this:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I spent years working w/ Texas youth and meeting organizers who have been building the groundwork for YEARS to turn Texas blue.

It’s going to happen. The question is: can make it happen this year?

I think so- with work. Join me and @sunrisemvmt for a South TX phonebank tonight:" / Twitter
Those years were years with the National Hispanic Institute as a volunteer educator.


WATCH: Collins, Gideon take part in final Senate debate before Election Day
then
Susan Collins: Maine Republican senator says 'I do not believe systemic racism is a problem in the state' - CNNPolitics
then
CNN Politics on Twitter: "Sen. Susan Collins: "I do not believe systemic racism is a problem in the state of Maine" (links)" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Esta mujer " / Twitter
This woman

 

[lpetrich]

Aaron Rupar on Twitter: "Trump makes stuff up, says Ilhan Omar will be Biden's Homeland Security secretary https://t.co/T1KETfs9rt" / Twitter
then
Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "Thanks but no thanks.

Even though, unlike you and your family, I pass security clearance.

And my appointment would mean an end to caging children, separating families, terrorizing immigrant communities and less cruelty from DHS." / Twitter

On Oct 31, AOC and Julian Castro joined a phonebank with over 300 people, doing 96,000 calls to South Texas.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Saw a Christmas tree up in the neighborhood BEFORE Halloween. Normally I’d bust someone’s chops about it, but you know what? Do what makes you happy. Especially this year. Keep it up till Valentine’s Day if you want. No rules anymore" / Twitter


S. Mitra Kalita on Twitter: ".@AOC at #JacksonHeights farmers market Sunday before elections. Stopped, sought us out and talked to my 8yo about open streets and keeping 34th Ave open. https://t.co/a75Ev6Vcin" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The kids love open streets! " / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Marco Rubio on Twitter: "
Not every democrat is a socialist
But every socialist is a democrat
" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Curious what you call GOP giving away billions in public funds to Wall St & fossil fuel companies?

Or what you call YOUR ability to go to Walter Reed hospital & receive socialized healthcare for free?

Funny how it’s only “socialism” when others get what y’all give yourselves." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "(Also, the idea that socialists like Dems... lol)" / Twitter

Bernie Sanders on Twitter: "
Our agenda is on the ballot.
Let's beat Trump.
Let's win progressive victories.
Let's create a nation for all of us.
Join our last rally before Election Day, Monday night at (link)" / Twitter
Linking to
Bernie_Sanders - Twitch

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The thing about Republicans putting four popular women of color on their ads across the country & acting as though they’re running against us everywhere is... people kinda like what we fight for: healthcare, housing, climate, & justice for all.

(links)" / Twitter
Linking to
Squad Victory Fund described as "a joint fundraising committee authorized by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress, Ilhan for Congress, The Committee to Elect Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib for Congress, Courage to Change, Inspiring Leadership Has a Name PAC, Power of Us PAC, and Rooted in Community Leadership PAC." -- PAC's to elect the four Congresswomen, and also their PAC's for electing other candidates.

Something like how Fox News once presented AOC's platform and called it a great horror.

 

[lpetrich]

Adam "Expand the Court" Best on Twitter: "The thing about Texas Republicans trying to throw out 100K+ ballots is that they've already created racist voter ID laws, closed 750 polling places since 2012, and gerrymandered the bejesus out of districts, but they still need more voter suppression to keep TX from turning blue." / Twitter

BetoMedia on Twitter: "Beto & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Beto tells how AOC almost BROKE THE INTERNET when it was announced she'd be joining Beto for his (link) phone bank tonight at 6:30pm (link)" / Twitter
Link: Powered By People - Beto's phonebanking site.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Thank you Beto!

Y’all, we are serious about Texas - flipping this state is not a matter of if, but when.

That “when” can be right now, this year, with your help. People are smashing volunteer phonebank & signup records. We can do this.

Join us tonight: https://t.co/k0ct6UsCjJ" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

That earlier GOTV event had an interesting moment. Rashida Tlaib recalled having to educate her mother about US elections. RT Sr. got confused about there being an election in August, then one in November. Isn't there only one election? RT had to explain to RT Sr. what primary elections are.

Midnight Rider Chump for Trump! on Twitter: "I hope AOC isn’t using the Whitestone Bridge today there is a lot of traffic! https://t.co/E59ErRfnFB" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I took the Throggs Neck. Heard there was a pileup of chumps on the Whitestone" / Twitter

Cute.

Zara Rahim on Twitter: "If you’re anxious or worried about Tuesday, I truly encourage you to try and channel that energy into organizing for as little or as much time as you can. Every single call helps. I‘m calling voters in TX with @BetoORourke and @AOC at 7:30 pm EST! Join us: https://t.co/XfGSPNJeem" / Twitter


Ayanna Pressley on Twitter: "When Chairwoman Auntie @MaxineWaters reclaims her time, she is reclaiming it for all of us. (links)" / Twitter
Linked to iwillvote.com

Uncle Bernie + Auntie Maxine

 

[lpetrich]

Beto O'Rourke on Twitter: "We made 2,626,315 calls to Texas voters today, thanks to the thousands of volunteers and many amazing guests who fired us up. Big thanks to @AOC who led the last shift, inspiring and encouraging us to keep talking to Texas voters. Back at it tomorrow! https://t.co/ydRLQgCxxJ" / Twitter

AOC summed it up with
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "We made 2.6 million calls into Texas.

*Today.*" / Twitter

🕷Dante Atkins🕷 on Twitter: "HERE'S WHY WE PHONE BANK: ..." / Twitter

HERE'S WHY WE PHONE BANK: I had two amazing phone calls in Texas on the @AOC and @BetoORourke bank. One: an elderly Black woman tried to visit an early voting site this weekend and it was closed, so she thought voting was over. I told her what was up, gave her her polling place,

told her the requirements, and told her to back her car with her friend and go get it done. She woudn't have shown up without that call, and that call could be the difference between zero votes and 4-5 votes.

A few calls after that, I had a conversation in Spanish with someone who wasn't thinking about voting because it didn't matter in Texas. I convinced him to get out there because this year, TX was close, so if there's one election in TX to show up for, it was this one.

So now, he's gonna show up. The phonecall made that happen. Beto and AOC had about 2000 people on the phonebank tonight, and we all made 2.5 MILLION CALLS.

We're doing it again tomorrow, starting at 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern. Go to https://poweredxpeople.org and sign up. I believe that we can flip Texas.

That may or may not happen this year, but if nothing else, the Dems will get close. That might even make Texas go the way of California, where the Republican Party has declined into political irrelevance.