Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[lpetrich]

David Roberts on Twitter: "There is no phenomenon in US politics more bizarre than the chasm between @AOC in interviews -- smart, funny, self-reflective, devoted to the working class -- & the campfire bogyman caricature that is made of her on both right & left. (link)" / Twitter
noting
Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an Insider Now? | The New Yorker
then
David Roberts on Twitter: "Her career is serving as a parable about what happens when smart, dedicated young people engage in politics -- just like everyone's always saying they should. What happens is, they're thrown in a meatgrinder. They're buried in shit from all sides. It's so damning & depressing." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Thanks! One funny aspect of this is sometimes a detractor will aggressively approach me in person, expecting me to be whatever media has led them to believe, and has no idea what to do after we start talking &they see how misleading it is. The shock creates space for conversation" / Twitter

Brenda on Twitter: "@AOC I look forward to @AOC’s future endeavors. (pic link)" / Twitter

Just a friendly reminder that this out-of-state representative did more to help struggling Texans than
THE ENTIRE TEXAS GOP COMBINED

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "One US Senator “heard stories” about people allegedly using the Child Tax Credit “for drugs” without any evidence or data to back it up.
He then used that as justification to nuke the entire national program, causing millions of kids to fall into poverty in weeks. Horrifying" / Twitter
Joe Manchin.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Meanwhile the press talks about it like it’s some beltway drama without ever showing the people who are sleeping in bubble jackets with no heat or the kids going hungry waiting for some guy in a yacht to decide if they are fully human or not. It’s just shameful, all of it" / Twitter

About conservative Democrats,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Truly wild how these folks called the shots & got their desired nominees, agenda, priorities, legislative order, and excluded us from participating in campaigns yet find no shortage of ppl willing to write as their uncritical stenographers. This is how capital & power works folks" / Twitter


Cori Bush on Twitter: "In case you hadn’t caught on by now, every time there’s a media push blaming progressives, there’s something conservative Democrats are trying to cover up.
This time it’s that they sent 4 million kids into poverty because they killed the Child Tax Credit.
Don’t get distracted." / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@CoriBush " / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Ocasio-Cortez, Markey reintroduce Green New Deal resolution: ‘we need bold big climate action’ | The Hill

Speaking on Capitol Hill Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez said the successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 proved ambitious action on climate was possible. The bill would almost certainly never reach the House floor under the current Republican majority, but speakers repeatedly invoked the possibility of a restored Democratic trifecta in the 2024 elections.

“First, we were called unrealistic. Then, when it was when it came time for the Bipartisan Infrastructure law and inflation Reduction Act, we started to fight,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We said we are not going to take crumbs, and we’re not going to settle for that — we need bold big climate action and we need it now.”

“And that fight resulted in the largest piece of climate legislation in American history,” she added.

Maxwell Frost (D-FL), elected last year:

“Usually in this building, when we talk about cost, we talk about dollars and cents,” Frost said. “But the real cost is human life, people, communities, and so we’re here today to be their voice and work with them to build a livable future and to build a world that’s more than a livable future, it’s about a thriving, livable planet.”

AOC introduced her Green New Deal resolution back in 2019 and 2021, and those are at congress.gov. As I write this, this resolution has not shown up yet at that Congress-info site.

 

[Derec]

Ocasio-Cortez, Markey reintroduce Green New Deal resolution: ‘we need bold big climate action’ | The Hill

Four years later and they still only have that resolution, not an actual bill?
Given what they say about he urgency of the issue, one would expect a finished, gavel-ready bill by now.

Speaking on Capitol Hill Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez said the successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 proved ambitious action on climate was possible.

I guess she admits that this bill was not about reducing inflation - that came from Fed aggressively raising interest rates. Not from the misnamed "Inflation Reduction Act".
As far as the trifecta - Dems might retain the presidency and regain the House, but lose the Senate given that the map is unfavorable to them.

The bill would almost certainly never reach the House floor under the current Republican majority, but speakers repeatedly invoked the possibility of a restored Democratic trifecta in the 2024 elections.

What bill? It's still just in the "resolution" phase.
And even if they won the trifecta, I doubt any GND resolution that AOC and Markey may write would have a chance of passing. And not only because for Dems to have a chance at retaining Senate Manchin would have to win his seat. A Dem House would also balk at it, unless Dems had a substantial majority and could ignore their moderate members. Which is very unlikely.

“First, we were called unrealistic. Then, when it was when it came time for the Bipartisan Infrastructure law and inflation Reduction Act, we started to fight,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We said we are not going to take crumbs, and we’re not going to settle for that — we need bold big climate action and we need it now.”

And yet, what concrete proposals for bold workable climate action has she made?

“Usually in this building, when we talk about cost, we talk about dollars and cents,” Frost said.

That is the most important role of the House of Representatives though.

AOC introduced her Green New Deal resolution back in 2019 and 2021, and those are at congress.gov. As I write this, this resolution has not shown up yet at that Congress-info site.

Time for that rather vague resolution is past. If the issue is really as urgent as she, Frost et al claim, why is there not a real bill written yet? A bill that can be scored by the CBO and that a Congress can actually vote on. What has she been doing for four years, other than silly TikTok videos?

 

[lpetrich]

Four years later and they still only have that resolution, not an actual bill?
Given what they say about he urgency of the issue, one would expect a finished, gavel-ready bill by now.

It's a framework for constructing bills, not some all-encompassing mega-bill. She herself has worked on a Green New Deal for Public Housing, for instance.

I checked congress.gov and the resolution is still absent. congress.gov is sometimes slow, I must concede.

Derec, you could find the 2019 and 2021 versions and read them yourself. Even if doing so would be working and not whining.

 

[lpetrich]

From February last year:

Acyn on Twitter: "Tucker says AOC is not a woman of color and calls her rich entitled white lady (vid link)" / Twitter
and
Acyn on Twitter: "Tucker: Is it just us or does that sound like an invitation to a booty call (vid link)" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "This is the type of stuff you say when your name starts with a P and ends with dejo" / Twitter

That is, pendejo -- Spanish for "a pubic hair" and used like English "asshole" and "dumbass".

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Remember when the right wing had a meltdown when I suggested they exhibit obsessive impulses around young women?
Well now Tucker Carlson is wishing for… this on national TV.
You’re a creep bro. If you’re this easy w/ sexual harassment on air, how are you treating your staff?" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Any man that talks like this will treat any woman like this.
Doesn’t matter if you’re Republican, Democrat, or neither, this is clearly not a safe person to leave alone w/ women.
Once again, the existence of a wife or daughters doesn’t make a man good. And this one is basura " / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I genuinely want to know why Tucker Carlson is allowed/paid to engage in clear, targeted, libelous harassment that endangers people &drives so many violent threats that ppl have to fundraise for their own safety.
Why should they have to pay for his harassment? Make it make sense" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "It’s not within the realm of political commentary, & it’s not just me. He regularly targets people that do not have access to resources for protection. Once he gets to fantasizing about “booty calls” of women on national TV I cease to see the political value outside of incitement" / Twitter

Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC on Twitter: "@AOC Tucker Carlson on Dec. 7, 2021: "We should take Sandy Cortez's federally funded bodyguards away tonight, I would say. Just my view." (vid link)" / Twitter

Tucker Carlson likes to call AOC "Sandy Cortez". "Sandy" is her pre-politics nickname, and "Cortez" is a misunderstanding of her last name -- it's her father's and mother's compounded: "Ocasio-Cortez".

Waleed Shahid on Twitter: "ADAMS proposes $215 million in cuts to NYC public school funding. (link)" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Imagine if defunding schools was as politically controversial as not wanting to fund robodogs and mass surveillance. Imagine if police depts had to meet even a fraction of the financial scrutiny & performance auditing that our schools do.
Just wild what we’ve learned to accept." / Twitter

I concede that robodogs might actually be good technology, at least if they don't have automated gun turrets.

Rep. Clay Higgins on Twitter: "You millennial leftists who never lived one day under nuclear threat can now reflect upon your woke sky.
You made quite a non-binary fuss to save the world from intercontinental ballistic tweets." / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I’ve sat on a committee with this guy for years. He talks like this every day. " / Twitter

What a misfortune

I'm sure that as long as he delivers for his big donors, he can continue saying nonsensical things like that.

 

[lpetrich]

AOC: The Biden Administration’s Rightward Turn Is “a Profound Miscalculation” - interviewed by David Sirota

Starting out with the revelation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's gross corruption.

I think this is an emergency; I think that this is a crisis. I think we’ve had a crisis for some time on the Supreme Court. Congress is out of session for the next week, and that does give Democrats some time to strategize.

I do think articles need to be introduced; if we decide strategically that the actual author of those articles and who introduces them may not be me, that’s fine. I will support impeachment. But if no one’s going to introduce them, I would certainly be open to doing so and drafting them myself. I think this has gone far, far beyond any sort of acceptable standard in any democracy, let alone American democracy.

Her good friend Cori Bush agrees: Congresswoman Bush Statement Calling for the Impeachment of Justice Clarence Thomas
She then talked about primary challenges to incumbents.

I do believe that primaries are healthy. When I first got to the House, not just through winning a primary, but when I was sworn in afterward — even just a public acknowledgment that a primary process involving incumbents is legitimate and healthy for the party — it was just completely taboo, and me supporting that, including supporting primary challengers ...

Part of the problem is likely from who she deposed, a long-time incumbent and a big name in the party -- and an old friend. She acknowledged that in another interview, that many fellow Democrats gave her the cold shoulder from who she deposed.

 

[lpetrich]

... and afterward, the party declared war right back, and it declared war not just on my candidacy but also on progressives writ large. We really saw that last cycle, particularly with the overwhelming number of AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] funds that targeted progressives, including incumbents who had stances that were in alignment with respect for Palestinian human rights.

This led to Maxwell Frost backing off from a pro-Palestinian stance and Katie Porter gushing about Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Summer Lee barely won against an AIPAC-financed candidate and AIPAC successfully defeated Nina Turner, Andy Levin, etc.

I understand that it goes both ways. My first reelection, the party establishment mounted a $5 million primary challenge against me. So I’m aware that saying that primaries are a good thing and healthy for the party also means that I may be on the receiving end of those things, but I still maintain that position.

Great that she has some decency. She was referring to Michelle Caruso-Cabrera's primary challenge of her in 2020 -- MCC vs. AOC -- a challenge with lots of Wall Street money.

She then went on to state that it is possible to win while being outspent.

What this is about is building a very sophisticated infrastructure in the progressive movement that focuses on field operations and professionalizing how we can share that across the movement, because far too many campaigns start from scratch. That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot and working on.

Then she mentioned her PAC, Courage to Change, with its focus on downballot races.

 

[lpetrich]

I do believe that some of the latest developments coming from the Biden administration are highly concerning — increasingly concerning — and not just from an ideological perspective, not just from a substance perspective, which is the most important, but also from a political perspective.

I think it is extremely risky and very perilous should the Biden administration forget who it was that put him over the top. When you look at the places — not just abstract levels of turnout, not just where numbers came from, but these swing places that gave Joe Biden the edge on an [Electoral College] victory — it was young people that that won him this election, communities of color, high turnout areas. This lurch to the right at a time when the Right is scrambling and lost in the desert on how to even win an election after these stunning losses — I think it’s a profound miscalculation. And it is quite dangerous.

Something like Bill Clinton's triangulation, and something like what Barack Obama did.

I think it emphasizes the importance of that grassroots organizing, because it gives us the ammunition and the evidence to tell the story about why this is important. I do believe that the Biden administration historically, particularly under chief of staff Ron Klain, understood that. I do believe that they that they do not take for granted the role of young people and the role of progressive turnout in their 2020 victory. The key is maintaining the boundary and letting them know that this is not something to be taken for granted.

That's how she won, and that's how her friends won. Barack Obama did not hold on to his activists after his first Presidential election, and that was a disaster for him. AOC did, however, and her activists have formed "Team AOC".

 

[lpetrich]

Then interviewer David Sirota asks

So the question is, how can you hold your party accountable or create that boundary with the Biden administration when you and progressives in the Congress are oftentimes voting for what the party leadership wants, and very rarely — sometimes, but rarely — holding out your vote when the party really needs it?

That was a difficult question for her.

It’s almost like an invitation, to try to say in front of everybody and to stand up to the Speaker and to the president and say, “This is not a matter of trust at all. This is a matter of votes. And it’s not that I don’t trust you — it’s that I don’t trust Joe Manchin. And I don’t know if I trust anybody to be able to bring consistency out of a person who does not have any.”

"Build Back Better was a yearlong war we had inside our party." she said.

Then about the railroad-strike issue.

When you look after the vote, folks like RWU were saying, “This is what we asked them to do.” I think that got drowned out by the noise of people operating more on the theory of the situation.

But ultimately, there are moments when there are going to be internal disagreements about strategy. It is so important, especially among the Left, that we develop a discernment between when there are differences in strategy — sometimes they are intense, and sometimes they are rigorous and vigorous disagreements — versus equating that difference in strategy with a 180-degree change in commitment to our vision and our principles.

There is so much money and so much interest invested in sowing chaos on the Left. We have to realize that the same tools that are good for us, and the way that we can use the internet to bypass some of the traditional structures that have gate-kept our media, gate-kept our political organizing, etc. — these are still algorithms owned by billionaires who want to incentivize internal conflict. And they do. I believe there are times when we have fallen for it.

That being said, criticism is fair, and it’s okay.

It doesn't have to be paid saboteurs. Left-wingers have been willing to have vicious fights with each other for decades. That's what inspired the Judean People's Front vs. the People's Front of Judea in the Life of Brian.

 

[lpetrich]

DS then asks: "When people are, from your perspective, misinterpreting a difference in tactics and strategy for a difference in values, do you blame them? Why shouldn’t they see it that way, if they feel like the political system has been selling them out for ten, twenty, thirty years?"
AOC responded

I don’t blame a lot of people for that. I do blame some, because I believe that there are folks and leaders in the space that know better and they fan flames that they know are disingenuous for personal gain. There is a lot of incentive in that when there is an economy that has developed that is based on clicks, views, and attention. And we know the thing that attracts that more than anything else is conflict. So there are financial incentives for certain people, I believe, whose income revenue relies on that to stoke conflict.

So some people pick fights for the attention?

I want to also be thoughtful, because I don’t want to equate that with saying any criticism of our decisions is just playing into the hands of someone else. There are multiple things that can be true at the same time. This is something that we need to really develop and talk out, because a lot of these decisions are not last minute. They may happen last minute, but we can often see that they’re coming from a long way out. We just don’t know exactly when.

 

[Swammerdami]

David Roberts on Twitter: "There is no phenomenon in US politics more bizarre than the chasm between @AOC in interviews -- smart, funny, self-reflective, devoted to the working class -- & the campfire bogyman caricature that is made of her on both right & left. (link)" / Twitter

She sometimes comes across as having a slightly juvenile demeanor. Her views are sometimes poorly articulated and can be deliberately caricatured.

I sympathize with her. I often come across as stupid when strangers interview me, while those who've worked with me before often begged me to work for them for very high consulting fees.

One Infidel can't mention AOC without reminding us that she once worked as a bartender! That Infidel pretends to be open-minded, but doesn't offer opinions on the backgrounds of MTG (QAnon addict and fitness coach), Lauren Boebert (high-school dropout who worked at McDonald's), Madison Cawthorn (serial liar and drop-out), George Santos (Nobel laureate and Medal of Honor winner), et cetera. I think AOC's detractors suffer from jealousy.

 

[Derec]

David Roberts on Twitter: "There is no phenomenon in US politics more bizarre than the chasm between @AOC in interviews -- smart, funny, self-reflective, devoted to the working class -- & the campfire bogyman caricature that is made of her on both right & left. (link)" / Twitter

I guess you have competition as the AOC stan, lpetrich.

I don't get it. I have seen some of her interviews, and she is none of those adjectives. Not even devoted to the working class. Working class needs oil and gas jobs in places like Bakken - jobs that she is explicitly against. So much so that she protested against the pipeline bringing Bakken to market back in 2016.

 

[Elixir]

I don't get it.

That much is apparent.

Working class needs oil and gas jobs

I am fairly certain that her opinion of what the working class needs is different from yours. I believe she made her thoughts on the matter known during her campaign. And her views were preferred by her constituents over those of
Anthony Pappas, whose views were closer to your own.
It’s what is known in politics as “tough shit”.

 

[Derec]

She sometimes comes across as having a slightly juvenile demeanor. Her views are sometimes poorly articulated and can be deliberately caricatured.

Yep.

One Infidel can't mention AOC without reminding us that she once worked as a bartender!

I am guessing you mean me?
I rarely mention her barmaid past . Usually I just respond to others (like you just now) bringing up her past. When I do bring her up it's not apropos of nothing (again, like you just now) but to argue against the point that she is some sort of authority on economics because of her economics BA. My point is that she never used her degree in practice. Instead she preferred to take a bartending job. Why? Maybe because it afforded her more flexibility to do things like drive almost 1700 miles one way in a gas-burning Subaru just to protest against an oil pipeline. Now that's a supervillainess origin story!

That Infidel pretends to be open-minded,

Again, if you mean me, I am.

but doesn't offer opinions on the backgrounds of MTG (QAnon addict and fitness coach), Lauren Boebert (high-school dropout who worked at McDonald's), Madison Cawthorn (serial liar and drop-out), George Santos (Nobel laureate and Medal of Honor winner), et cetera.

I do not recall that any of them have fans (or even supporters) on here. Much less a stan that is maintaining a 274 page thread about her by posting they tweets.

I think AOC's detractors suffer from jealousy.

LMAO. No.

 

[Derec]

And her views were preferred by her constituents

So? Her district is D+28.
Democrats need to play with people outside such strongholds to win elections. Demonizing oil and gas while we still need it is counterproductive.

 

[Elixir]

So? Her district is D+28.

So? Maybe her constituents are smarter than Republicans.

 

[Swammerdami]

One Infidel can't mention AOC without reminding us that she once worked as a bartender!

I am guessing you mean me?
I rarely mention her barmaid past .

Define "rarely." Are you up for a monetary wager? I've not checked but I'll lay odds that YOU first introduced the notion that AOC was a bartender in a plurality of threads. (You've also denied that she organized a non-profit, letting us know your "research" into this woman you are so eager to criticize did not include even a skim of her Wikipedia article!)

And here, while pretending to be less snide, you feel the need and urge to substitute the much more demeaning "barmaid" for "bartender." I'd say Shame on you! but go ahead and wear your snideness and misogynistic bravado proudly like a badge of honor. I hear FoxNews has an opening.

 

[Derec]

It's a framework for constructing bills, not some all-encompassing mega-bill. She herself has worked on a Green New Deal for Public Housing, for instance.

Still, I would have expected a lot more development in 4 years. Especially if the issue is as pressing as she et al are claiming.
There is a lot of things that can be done if she and others like her were to abandon absolutism.
First, we need to drive coal power to zero. Coal is more carbon intensive than gas and much, much dirtier (sulfur, mercury, particulates, more radiation than a nuke plant). Fracked gas drove US coal consumptions down hard. Thus, demonization of it by far left is counterproductive.
Also, just getting rid of coal in US alone will not do. We need to pressure coal to be abandoned globally. Especially in China.
Herschel Walker may have expressed himself poorly, but bad, coal-polluted air from China indeed finds its way to the US, especially West Coast. CO₂ from coal is a global problem, as it easily distributes across the globe, but other pollutants including particulates and mercury can also make it across the Pacific.
Chinese air pollution blankets US west coast

Therefore, we need to do more to push China to get rid of coal. If you have to strict policies in the US, but don't do anything about China, all you do is push more manufacturing there, for a net loss for climate and the environment.

We still need oil and gas and will for decades. We also need nuclear since it is the least carbon-intensive and safest form of energy.
But doctrinaires like AOC are declaring everything but "renewables" (nothing is truly renewable because of 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) as anathema. It's a religious stance that is holding us back.

Derec, you could find the 2019 and 2021 versions and read them yourself. Even if doing so would be working and not whining.

Are they different? Did you read them? Can you sum them up?

 

[Derec]

So? Maybe her constituents are smarter than Republicans.

If they were, they would not have elected her.

 

[Elixir]

So? Maybe her constituents are smarter than Republicans.

If they were, they would not have elected her.

In your opinion, which has an unfortunate track record.

Are they different? Did you read them? Can you sum them up?

Failure to do your own work is b probably a factor.