Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[lpetrich]

All this dudebro whining gives me nothing to respond to.


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Budgets are moral documents. That means the leader who oversees NYC’s budget has a profound moral responsibility to everyday people. ..." / Twitter
Then her endorsement of Brad Lander for NYC Comptroller. AOC seems to be good at a lot of behind-the-scenes details, like who is in what Congressional committee.


Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez join #FightFor15 Strikers LIVE / Twitter - with some fast-food labor union activists. AOC was introduced by an activist as someone who was once one of them, and she was firmly on their side. She's a great inspirational speaker, if nothing else, talking about how important fast-food workers are.

She noticed something interesting. McDonald's claimed wage raise to $15/hr was only for the places that that company directly runs, only 5% of the total. The other 95% are run by franchises, even if those places do not have much outward difference. She called it a scam, and she called on McDonald's management to have at least $15/hr in all its franchisees.

From a recent Instagram story:

Thousands of constituents gathered in: peaceful rally in Sunnyside, Queens this week (part of the district I represent) for Palestinian human rights and peace in the region

As your Congresswoman, I want you to know that your activism WORKS. Mass organizing in the streets is DEEPLY influential, because unlike TV ads, billboards, or mass mailers these kinds of bottom-up, grassroots demonstrations like this can't be bought or forced. Its a major reason why the movement for Black Lives and climate organizing has also been unignorable and effective. Mass demonstrations are: message straight from the people. And my job is to take your messages to Washington.

That's why this week l introduced legislation to block US targeted weapons sales in the region until a plan to guarantee human rights and safety for ALL is in place. @berniesanders is carrying the companion piece in the Senate

AOC seems to understand activism very well. But opponents may claim that there is a  silent majority that is on their side.

 

[untermensche]

If you go to Twitter there are popular political commentators with large YouTube followings, like Jimmy Dore, who claims to be a supporter of the left, that attack AOC as being a "sell out".

This stems from AOC's refusal to support a proposal Dore was supporting to withhold the vote for Pelosi for speaker until a promise to bring Medicare for All up for a vote in the House.

This is just to say that some people on the left are touchy narcissists that end up supporting nobody because nobody does exactly what they want.

 

[Rhea]

Lotta truth to that, and I don’t know why they expect anyone to match perfectly and have a large enough following to get elected.

 

[lpetrich]

I must mention this bizarre scandal about AOC: what car she drives. Krystal Ball posted about it that

Krystal Ball on Twitter: "AOC derangement syndrome is extremely real" / Twitter


Eliza Relman on Twitter: ".@AOC says she got a car a few weeks ago and was pulled over after taking an illegal right turn on 23rd street, but she got off with just a warning (link)" / Twitter
noting
Watch Everything Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Does In a Day | In A Day | Vanity Fair
from late last year.

"I actually just got a car and I'm really lucky that I have not gotten a parking ticket in the last two weeks. But about two days or maybe the day after I got my car, I did get pulled over for making a right on 23rd Street when I wasn't supposed to, but I got a warning. So that was good."

Brent Scher on Twitter: "BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Multiple sources confirm AOC owns a Tesla, parked it illegally in front of the Whole Foods connected to her luxury apartment building (links)" / Twitter
noting
SPOTTED: Socialist AOC's Tesla Parked Illegally Outside Whole Foods in Posh DC Neighborhood - Washington Free Beacon
notes
What car does AOC drive? - Alt Car news
“I usually travel by train, but due to Covid I now drive by car, I travel by car…NOT a combustion engine vehicle, but I travel by car between New York and DC.”

Then one day on her car being surrounded by Trump supporters,
“…and then they see that I drive an electric car, so then that argument goes out.”

The car blogger stated

New York to DC is a 240 mile drive and, while there are over a dozen electric cars on sale, only the Teslas are able to make that long of a trip without inducing range anxiety for its owner.

And, while all Teslas can go over 240 miles on a single charge, no sweat, AOC’s Tesla Model 3 Long Range, with its 353+ miles, can make the trip in a single go. The Mid range and Standard just don’t cut it.

So AOC practices what she preaches about electric cars.

 

[lpetrich]

I must say that AOC Derangement Syndrome can be fun to watch.

Why the Very Online Left Hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The article starts out with AOC and Ted Cruz about investigating Robinhood about stopping ordinary traders from trading certain stocks but not hedge funds. She is happy to work with Republicans, but not with someone who supported the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Then Why Online Dems Hate Jimmy Dore! w/ Glenn Greenwald - YouTube

Greenwald: Ted Cruz, whatever you think of him, reached out by saying, “I agree with AOC about this.” So that was an opportunity for right and left to join together to do something that supposedly her main reason for existing as a political figure which is fighting income inequality and instead she goes, turns around and says, fuck you, I don’t want to work with you, you guys got me murdered, you’re a white supremacist. And suddenly the two camps divide again, and over here you have the red team and over here you have the blue team cheering like morons at a fucking high school football game again because she ruined that movement because all she wants to do is attack Republicans and fortify the Democratic party. That is what the left has become, and they know it. And that’s why all that’s left for them to do is do things like talk about your personality and occasionally mine.

Dore responded: “It is stunning to see AOC turning into Adam Schiff.” Yet the only thing more ridiculous than the idea that Ocasio-Cortez is morphing into an establishment figure like Adam Schiff is the idea that Cruz is an ally that the left should consider with any seriousness. For Greenwald to naively take Cruz’s tweet as a good-faith step toward meaningful change is deeply embarrassing considering Cruz’s track record, and only makes sense when one considers that, at this point, Ocasio-Cortez can do no right in his eyes. But it’s not just Greenwald. He’s just the loudest of a growing chorus of post-left cynics who have created a fantasy of Ocasio-Cortez to serve their needs. Here, she is petty, a narcissist, and a disingenuous con artist.

Unsurprisingly, the loudest voices appear to be men.

Then about JD vs. AOC on the Force-the-Vote initiative, to get Congress to have a floor vote on Pramila Jayapal's Medicare-for-All bill.

It’s easy to see why Ocasio-Cortez garners their attention: She is one of the most prominent leftists in the House, has a massive audience, and is palatable to normies who didn’t get the memo that it’s gauche to call yourself a “liberal” in some circles now. But most importantly, Ocasio-Cortez has an earnestness about her that is deeply “cringe” to the swaths of the online left which traffic in cynicism and irony.

Then about what a horrible nightmare the Jan. 6 attack was for her.

This was immediately pounced upon by swaths of irony-poisoned leftist Twitter that seems more interested in owning libs and seeking allyship with edgelord right-wingers than attaining a policy agenda that aids the marginalized and working class. Again, this conversation was largely driven by men, though there were women who offered pithy co-signs too.

Reminds me of the horseshoe theory of politics, that the far left and the far right are often much alike. Sometimes they are.

$ean P. McCarthy on Twitter: "When you criticize the sociopathic imperialist politician who doesn’t give a fuck about you what you are really doing is mocking every rape victim" / Twitter
then
Alyssa Leader on Twitter: "AOC isn't going to read your comments minimizing her trauma and saying she's looking for attention. But all of the people in your life who have experienced trauma and want to know who around them is "safe" and reliable sure will!" / Twitter

ホテプ・モーゼス 6’1, 183IQ, Ph.D on Twitter: "@MikeCraigMC @HillaryFan420 @SeanMcCarthyCom Politicians receives death threats all the time. What makes her any special than Steve Scalise, who was actually a victim of political violence?" / Twitter

Johnny Applebottom on Twitter: "There’s nothing brave or organic abt a *90 min* film-length confessional AOC’s PR ppl cooked up weeks after the event. It’s manufactured vulnerability porn for ppl so soul-sick they want to feel emotionally connected to celebrities. This is onlyfans for politics. Pathetic." / Twitter
Then went on to tweet that this was all contrived by her.

Michael Tracey on Twitter: "This is a masterclass in emotional manipulation -- a genuine political/rhetorical skill. Gotta hand it to her" / Twitter

Anna Khachiyan on Twitter: "Sharing your story of survival is to women what playing with stocks is to men: a select few will profit but overall it’s a net loss for most involved" / Twitter

The article continues

The unmitigated ire against Ocasio-Cortez, above all else, is an overcorrection of the cynical ways in which celebrities, CEOs, and politicians have rendered identity-politics and marginalization for capitalistic and self-interested purposes. ...

Ocasio-Cortez isn’t a socialist savior and never will be (the left’s work is rarely in the day to day of legislating). She doesn’t have the power to singlehandedly, as Greenwald suggested, end a movement of tepid left-right unity over a topic that is already last week’s news, or topple Nancy Pelosi with one vote. But reality is irrelevant here. The fantasy of Ocasio-Cortez—the narcissist, the con, the lib—is the only one that matters.

 

[lpetrich]

'All-out attempted coup': AOC says Capitol attack has 'deeply affected lawmaking'
Talking about this “extraordinarily traumatizing event”,

“Pence was taken out of the Senate chamber something like 60 seconds before these terrorists, insurrectionists got into the Senate chamber,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a conversation with the journalist Maria Hinojosa, airing Friday on the weekly public radio show "Latino USA" and shared in advance with NBC News.

“Pence was the one person, arguably, that had one of the most important roles in making sure that procedurally the Electoral College counts went on as proceeded. Sixty seconds could have meant potentially the difference between what we have right now and a martial state,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This was an all-out attempted coup.”

“If 60 seconds went differently, if a different door was opened, if a chair wasn't barricaded in a certain way, we could have a completely different reality right now," she said. “We don't want to acknowledge that that's how close we got, but that is how close we got."

...
“It has deeply, deeply affected lawmaking, policy making,” she told Hinojosa, “and it's very quiet, it's not spoken about.”

...
Ocasio-Cortez recalled how rioters and other pro-Trump protesters built “functional gallows with nooses and they put them in front of the Capitol.”

“They were looking for us, and we were not protected,” she said. “White supremacy in and of itself is a mythology, and you have to protect it in order to protect that political power, which has now become a very important base in the Republican Party.”

For Ocasio-Cortez, the white supremacist ideals are interconnected with the “idea of American exceptionalism.”

“There's this one myth that it's all happened because we're smarter and perform better," she said. "I don't think we've really internalized how much of that has been created through the subjugation of other people."

...
Ocasio-Cortez said it's important for Latino political leaders “to know who we are.”

“You can elect a Latino who doesn't know who they are. And they advance really problematic policies, and it happens all the time. In fact, it's one of the big reasons why I ran for office,” Ocasio-Cortez, who is from the Bronx, said. “We had a lot of Latinos and Black and brown elected officials, and they advanced the causes of corporate interests.”

“That's why it's important for us to understand what's real, because any corporation can hire a Latino lobbyist and then have it seem woke,” she said.

 

[thebeave]

I must mention this bizarre scandal about AOC: what car she drives. Krystal Ball posted about it that

Krystal Ball on Twitter: "AOC derangement syndrome is extremely real" / Twitter


Eliza Relman on Twitter: ".@AOC says she got a car a few weeks ago and was pulled over after taking an illegal right turn on 23rd street, but she got off with just a warning (link)" / Twitter
noting
Watch Everything Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Does In a Day | In A Day | Vanity Fair
from late last year.

"I actually just got a car and I'm really lucky that I have not gotten a parking ticket in the last two weeks. But about two days or maybe the day after I got my car, I did get pulled over for making a right on 23rd Street when I wasn't supposed to, but I got a warning. So that was good."

Brent Scher on Twitter: "BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Multiple sources confirm AOC owns a Tesla, parked it illegally in front of the Whole Foods connected to her luxury apartment building (links)" / Twitter
noting
SPOTTED: Socialist AOC's Tesla Parked Illegally Outside Whole Foods in Posh DC Neighborhood - Washington Free Beacon
notes
What car does AOC drive? - Alt Car news
“I usually travel by train, but due to Covid I now drive by car, I travel by car…NOT a combustion engine vehicle, but I travel by car between New York and DC.”

Then one day on her car being surrounded by Trump supporters,
“…and then they see that I drive an electric car, so then that argument goes out.”

The car blogger stated

New York to DC is a 240 mile drive and, while there are over a dozen electric cars on sale, only the Teslas are able to make that long of a trip without inducing range anxiety for its owner.

And, while all Teslas can go over 240 miles on a single charge, no sweat, AOC’s Tesla Model 3 Long Range, with its 353+ miles, can make the trip in a single go. The Mid range and Standard just don’t cut it.

So AOC practices what she preaches about electric cars.

AOC driving a Tesla just doesn't seem right to me. She (with a socialist philosophy) is buying a car that was created by one of those white male loathsome billionaires who epitomizes the capitalist dream and philosophy. Plus, its gonna look awkward when she pulls up into one of her town hall meetings in her Tesla with the auditorium filled to the brim with poor, oppressed minorities while she proceeds to empathize with their plight while also demonizing the rich capitalist elites. I think a Trabant would be more appropriate for her, though those are serious polluters, so I'd be OK with an electric Trabant powered by a stack of good, old lead acid batteries strapped to the roof.

 

[lpetrich]

Latino USA on Twitter: "This Friday on @LatinoUSA, @Maria_Hinojosa's intimate, in-person interview with @AOC. The New York congresswoman opens up about the past year—from COVID-19, to the January 6th Capitol riot, to being a Latina in U.S. politics. (link)" / Twitter
and
Latino USA on Twitter: "Tomorrow on @LatinoUSA, @Maria_Hinojosa's interview with @AOC. The New York congresswoman opens up about the trauma of the January 6 Capitol riot, "60 seconds could have meant potentially the difference between what we have right now and a martial state." (link)" / Twitter
and
Latino USA on Twitter: "#NowPlaying a new @LatinoUSA podcast

New York Congresswoman @AOC opens up in an intimate, in-person interview talking about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what it means to her to be a Latina in U.S. politics.

LISTEN: (links)" / Twitter
Masks Off With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Latino USA

She was interviewed earlier back in 2018: Episode #1844: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Erika L. Sánchez, Demographics and the Girl Mob - Latino USA also Portrait Of: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Latino USA

 

[lpetrich]

AOC Reveals She's Attending Therapy After January 6 Capitol Riot
then
Kyle Griffin on Twitter: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she's attending therapy after the Capitol riot. "Oh yeah, I'm doing therapy but also I've just slowed down.

I think the Trump administration had a lot of us, especially Latino communities, in a very reactive mode." (link)" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Mental healthcare is healthcare. It should be guaranteed as a right along with dental and vision.

If you get a bad cut, you go to the doctor to heal it faster and healthier. Same goes here.

If I could prescribe it to other members, I would
" / Twitter

I listened to the interview. Very interesting. Interviewer Maria Hinojosa interviewed AOC in her Bronx campaign office. They talked about AOC going out in person leading a COVID-19 relef effort last spring. That was when nobody knew much about the disease and how many of us swabbed surfaces in an effort to control it. AOC states that the Fed Gov failed big time. MH last interviewed AOC in March 2020, and this was their first in-person interview. She talked about fighting with her party about the status of immigrants.

About Jan 6, some members and staffers had served in wars. AOC thought of the support staff and where they might have gone. Rep. Ayanna Pressley proposed that AOC pause for a while. She remembers the trauma of her father dying and how it stuck with her for years because she did not adequately deal with it. So she's determined not to let that happen again, so she's taking a few months of rest.

The Trump years were bad, with outrage after outrage after outrage, and it put many activists in a reactive mode, trying to fight off what the Trump Admin was doing each day.

She called the Jan. 6 attacks an attempted coup, and how some people seem to be in denial about that being what it was.

She thinks that Joe Biden greatly exceeded progressives' expectations, including her expectations. She also thinks that the Democratic leadership recognizes that progressive activists have delivered a lot of votes for them. But she nevertheless finds fault with the Biden Admin about immigration and people coming to the southern border.

Then they got into the question of identity. AOC noted that honkies have it easy because most of the history that she learns in school is European history with other nations mainly being supporting players. She has an older neighbor who likes to talk about Puerto Rican history, like Puerto Rican resistance movements. History that is not discussed very much.

She mentions the American myth of American exceptionalism, and how much of it has involved subjugation of other peoples: colonialism and imperialism. She notes that one can go into politics without being in touch with one's identity and do nasty things to the community which I came from. That's a reason that she ran for office, because a lot of Latinx politicians preferred corporate interests to their communities.

AOC then talked about going camping. Self-reliance, like if one was dropped in the wilderness. She also mentioned backpacking. Doing that has been very helpful to her. Having a connection to nature and green space is very good for people's mental health.

She also talked about being in touch with one's Indigenous ancestry and heritage, something difficult for Puerto Ricans. The Taino people's genes have survived, but not much else. That is something she got out of her trip to Standing Rock.

 

[lpetrich]

Joni Ernst Agrees With AOC That Aspects Of Democrats' Tax Proposals Are "A Giveaway To The Rich" - YouTube
Sen. Joni Ernst. R-IA, claims that the Democrats want to give a tax beak to "high-income coastal elites". She conceded that she agreed with AOC on taxing the rich.

That seems typical of the right wing - finding it difficult to be anti-capitalist unless they can believe that the capitalists are also some other villains. Like being coastal elites or globalists or Jews.


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "We will never, ever tolerate antisemitism here in NY or anywhere in the world.

The recent surge in attacks is horrifying. We stand with our Jewish communities in condemning this violence.

You can help. Take NYC’s free, 1hr bystander intervention course: (link)" / Twitter
She linked to
Bystander Training - NYC Health
with a link to
Bystander Training
Not a complete course, because a complete one would involve practicing doing what it describes.

 

[lpetrich]

raf on Twitter: "Yes this is real. (pic link)" / Twitter
What the pic link was about:  Flag of Palestine

Ban

In 1967, immediately following the Six-Day War, the State of Israel banned the Palestinian flag in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. A 1980 law forbidding artwork of "political significance" banned artwork composed of its four colours, and Palestinians were arrested for displaying such artwork.[6][7][8]

Since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, the ban has been abolished.

Some Palestinians then made the watermelon a symbol of resistance, because of its being red, white, green, and black, the colors of the Palestinian flag.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "The United States did this to Puerto Ricans, too. ..." / Twitter

The United States did this to Puerto Ricans, too.

In 1948, the US-appointed PR gov signed a Gag Law making it illegal to fly the Puerto Rican flag, punishable up to 10 years in prison.

It was illegal until 1957. When the law was repealed, the gov changed the PR flag to US blue.

The reason I bring this up is because colonizing powers attacked PR identity in the process of codifying their 2nd-class citizenship.

People joke about how Puerto Ricans are obsessed w/ flying the flag. That’s bc it was illegal & doing so represented resistance to colonialism.

Nowadays, many people use an in the-middle blue so you can fly a flag without connotations.

It’s this one To this day, there is no officially specified shade which is why you may see a large variation among objects

She inlined some image-file flags with variations in the blue part's color. She noted this article about the various Puerto Rican flags:

The Puerto Rican Flag’s Evolving Colors Say a Lot About the Island’s Relationship With Its Colonial Rulers – Mother Jones

 

[lpetrich]

Kevin Frey on Twitter: "“The Republican party has already shown a pattern of the fact that their vote can’t even be counted on,” said @AOC, expressing concern the negotiations could just end up watering down a plan that Republicans may not even back in the end. (link)" / Twitter

I agree. The Democrats should stop acting like they have battered-partner syndrome, acting desperate to please the Republicans no matter how nasty the Republicans are to them.

She linked to these cutesy videos:

James Avatar on Instagram: “This is what happens when we put #chickennwaffles on the menu! #aoc in the house! #goknicks”

baby_opie_ #jamming @baby_opie_ jamming #Wanbli at the #Rounddance he took all 4 leads!

 

[lpetrich]

How 'The Drivers Cooperative' Is Trying to Compete With Uber and Lyft in N.Y. - The New York Times

The Drivers Cooperative, which opened for business in New York this week, is the most recent attempt. The group, founded by a former Uber employee, a labor organizer and a black-car driver, began issuing ownership shares to drivers in early May and will start offering rides through its app on Sunday.

The cooperative has recruited around 2,500 drivers so far and intends to take a smaller commission than Uber or Lyft and charge riders a lower fare. It is an ambitious plan to challenge the ride-hailing giants, and it faces the same hurdles that tend to block other emerging players in the industry: Few have the technical prowess, the venture capital dollars or the supply of readily available drivers to subvert an established company like Uber.

Still, drivers who joined the effort said even a small cooperative could make a big difference in their work, allowing them to earn more money and have a say in the way the company was run. The Drivers Cooperative said it planned to pay 10 percent above the wage minimums set by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, and return profits to drivers in the form of dividends.

The Drivers Cooperative - "We are a driver-owned ridehailing cooperative in New York City."

AOC Instagrammed about it

This is exciting to see! A lot of times when people challenge capitalistic structures, critics in bad faith accuse us of being "against free markets" and wanting "the government to control everything."

This is false! The contrast to a capitalist economy that exploits workers for Wall St profit that makes a tiny % of people billionaires isn't "gov controls everything," it's an economy where the WORKERS have actual power, and worker-owned businesses (aka worker co-ops) are one example of democratic socialism in a business context. Democratic workplaces - aka worker co-ops - ensure that you don't check your rights at the door of your job and also get a share of the profit

In response to exploitation by apps like Uber, drivers in NYC are forming a co-op for app driving. I'm looking forward to following this project and seeing how it grows. -> @thedriverscoop

 

[lpetrich]

New York City Drivers Cooperative Aims to Smash Uber’s Exploitative Model - In These Times


How America's Largest Worker Owned Co-Op Lifts People Out of Poverty - YES! Magazine - "Cooperative Home Care Associates has 2,300 workers who enjoy good wages, regular hours, and family health insurance. With an investment of $1.2 million into the cooperative sector, New York City is hoping to build on the group's success."

"New York’s investment in co-ops is the largest by any U.S. city government to date."

"There is no greater medicine for apathy…than to see your own work and your voice make a difference."

"We needed a new approach to workforce development that would not only reduce poverty but also promote upward mobility."


U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives – Work it. Own It.
has
Worker Ownership – U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Worker cooperatives are values-driven businesses that put worker and community benefit at the core of their purpose. In contrast to traditional companies, worker members at worker cooperatives participate in the profits, oversight, and often management of the enterprise using democratic practices. The model has proven to be an effective tool for creating and maintaining sustainable, dignified jobs; generating wealth; improving the quality of life of workers; and promoting community and local economic development, particularly for people who lack access to business ownership or sustainable work options.

...
Worker-owned business and democratic workplaces exist across the country, with the greatest concentrations in the Northeast, the West Coast and the Upper Midwest. The vast majority of worker cooperatives in the United States are small businesses, with a few notable larger enterprises. Many are concentrated in the retail and service sectors. There are also well-established worker cooperatives in manufacturing and the skilled trades. Traditionally there has been a strong cooperative presence in food production, processing and and sales. In the past ten years, we have also seen the growth of worker cooperatives in the technology sector and home care.

These locations are roughly the US "blue states".


Democracy at Work
Democracy at Work (@democracyatwrk) • Instagram photos and videos
I like these cutesy emojis:
DEMOCRATIZE the WORKPLACE
#economics#capitalism#socialism#democracy#workercoop
ProfRichardWolff+DavidHarvey
Subscribe d@w YouTube

Nonprofit media that analyzes capitalism critically as a systemic problem and advocates for democratizing workplaces as part of a systemic solution

WE CAN DO BETTER THAN CAPITALISM

 

[Swammerdami]

AOC driving a Tesla just doesn't seem right to me.

Oh.My.God. Does Fox have this story? I guess this blatant hypocrisy will finally shut up the 'tards complaining about Trump's grifts and grafts, Gaetz' under-age hookers, and GOP efforts to fight fraud in the 2020 election.

Next time the right regains control of Congress and investigates how Hillary kidnapped all of Benghazi's 9-year olds to sell them to Jeffrey Epstein, I hope they can spare 10 or 15 hours to grill AOC on her despicable Tesla purchase.

 

[ideologyhunter]

So true. Why can't this be a bargaining chip? Joint commissions on the Trump Terrorists and liberal legislators' autos.

 

[Swammerdami]

This AOC thread is HUGE. I accidentally clicked to the beginning instead of the end, so will ask questions from 2 years ago.

It's true that the highest rate was about 91%, but from what I've read, nobody paid that rate due to deductions etc. After deductions, the highest rate was about 50%, still much higher than today.

Cite for this? I'm not saying it's wrong, just that I'd like to see hard numbers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I do NOT understand the aversion to deductions from income before taxes (although the best schedules for deductions are debatable). Is it not appropriate that income spent on medicine for your children be taxed at a lower rate than income spent on hookers and blow?

 

[lpetrich]

AOC joined many other politicians on this recent Memorial Day:
AOC, de Blasio, NYC mayoral candidates pay tribute on Memorial Day
AOC joins Vietnam War vets in Queens to mark Memorial Day - New York Daily News


Pelosi tried to stop Green New Deal reveal over AOC anxiety

The excerpt from Edward-Isaac Dovere’s “Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat Trump,” which was first published by Fox News, claims that Pelosi called Markey the night before he was due to unveil the sweeping legislation alongside Ocasio-Cortez.

“She asked him to hold off,” Dovere writes in the book, due out Tuesday. “She wanted more substantive policy. The politics weren’t good right then. Don’t give the platform to Ocasio-Cortez, she urged, anxious about the new congresswoman’s notoriety becoming actual power.”

...
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told the Post Monday that no such phone call ever took place.

Dovere stood by his reporting, telling the Post: “The book was drawn from extensive reporting, and as the note on sourcing in the book says, includes over 400 interviews over four years. It’s full of private conversations, phone calls and emails which haven’t been revealed before – this among them.”

Pelosi's office pushes back against report she tried to sabotage AOC's Green New Deal launch | Fox News

 

[lpetrich]

Conservative book editor fears Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is too photogenic | The Week
notes
Joe Biden and the Conservative-Book Bust - The Atlantic

One conservative editor told me that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York might be the most logical choice, given the right’s fear of socialism, but cited a unique challenge in making the congresswoman appear sufficiently menacing: “It’s hard to find a bad picture of her to put on the cover.” Instead, the editor said, the smart money is on Vice President Kamala Harris, who could be reinvented in the right writerly hands as a devious puppet master pulling the strings of the affable, witless president. (Sound familiar?)

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on Instagram: “Today, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Representative Jamaal Bowman at Jacobi Hospital to call for nearly $400,000 in funding for the Stand Up to Violence (SUV) Program.”

Today, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Representative Jamaal Bowman at Jacobi Hospital to call for nearly $400,000 in funding for the Stand Up to Violence (SUV) Program.

The recent Memorial Day Weekend was especially violent for our community, as more than a dozen were shot and a 15-year-old Bronxite was killed in shootings across all five boroughs.

Thankfully, NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi has been fighting youth violence since 2014 through their SUV Program. SUV addresses youth violence in the Bronx by deploying outreach workers to respond to shootings to prevent retaliation and to assist family members of those who have been injured or killed. The program addresses the root causes of violence by investing in community, mentorship, and therapy. Additional funding would increase mental health services under the umbrella of the SUV Program.

If we want to reduce violence, we need to support our communities — not throw them away.

My transcript of her speech, from the captioning:

When you open a door to a jail, and look at who's inside, an enormous amount of people are dealing with untreated mental-health issues. And it is not acceptable for us to use jails as garbage bins for human beings. We need to treat people and see them as human. And so it is not a place for us to throw people for whom we don't want to invest in the actual holistic issues of their lives. If we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them. The answer is to make sure that we actually build more hospitals, we pay organizers, we get people mental health care, and overall health care, employment, etc. It's to support communities, not throw them away.

I'm sure that the right-wingers will be saying at this point "What about the victims?" I'd like to see AOC address that issue some time. Might she respond something like this? Rep. Ilhan Omar sort of turns the other cheek

In her personal account, she Instagrammed

Did you know that our community right here in the Bronx has developed a method of reducing violent incidents (like shootings and stabbings) by over 50%?! This is a huge, huge breakthrough.

It's called the Stand Up to Violence (SUV) program and it's run with community leaders out of Jacobi Hospital. The key is in treating violence as a disease in need of treatment, rather than throwing people in jail and doing nothing else - which doesn't address the root causes of violence to begin with and sets up a repeat cycle of trauma in our communities.

With SUV, make hospitals - instead of jails - the center of response to violent incidents. We bring in psychiatrists and social workers, hire people in the community who turned their *own* lives around to coach young people into doing the same.

This approach has slashed reoccurrence of violence by more than HALF - which is more effective than many policing strategies at ending cycles of violence and crime. Today I'm asking for federal funding to scale it up so we can have a model to replicate across the city and country - proud to partner with @jamaalhowmanny to get it done.

Right-wingers will no doubt grumble that this is "government spending", while ignoring that government spending on their favorite things is exactly that. Things like military and police forces.

 

[lpetrich]

An "Official Team AOC" account on Instagram:
Team AOC on Instagram: “Stop the NRG Fracked Gas Power Plant”

Stop the NRG Fracked Gas Power Plant

NRG has proposed to replace their power plant in Astoria with another fracked gas plant, as opposed to using renewable energy sources. We can’t let the greed of the fossil fuel industry continue to pollute our air and harm our communities. Governor Cuomo has the power to stop this plant, sign up through the link in bio to help oppose NRG’s proposal and organize for a fossil fuel-free future for all.

Video: @_kohar
Featured: @nycdsaecosoc, @zohrankmamdani, @queensclimateproject, @afnan1212

Has AOC herself speaking to some activists, along with some of the activists themselves. From the video,

Astoria and Long Island City generate over half of the energy generated in New York City

Our children also make up over half of the city's hospitalization rates for asthma. That area in Astoria, Queens is often referred to as "Asthma Alley" because the asthma rates in that neighborhood, in that general area, are much higher than the national average.

AOC: "True revolution and organizing work isn't just electoral. It is non-electoral too. It requires outside, community organizing. That is what our path forward is. That's what we're going to do with advocacy, with community activists, with parents, with kids - that's what this future is all about."

Official AOC Shop

Jeff Deng

Our "Abolish ICE" tee was illustrated by Queens-based artist Jeff Deng. His work is primarily inspired by his experiences as an Asian American, things he has read, and conversations he’s had with his friends. Jeff's recent projects have come alive in many art forms, including illustration and animation, and he has been exhibited throughout the city. When he is not creating art, he can be seen riding his bike around the boroughs.

That picture shows an icebox with "Abolish" painted onto it. Seems that AOC and her team have a sense of humor.