Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

It's not amazing at all how Republicans try to scare Democrats into voting for centrists in primaries, but what is amazing is that often Democrats listen.

 

[untermensche]

It's not amazing at all how Republicans try to scare Democrats into voting for centrists in primaries, but what is amazing is that often Democrats listen.

What is worse is how the Democratic party has twisted the democratic process and stole the nomination from Bernie.

 

[ZiprHead]

...is looking very likely he'll will a second term.

That's got to be a freudian slip.

 

[lpetrich]

Had that source been the Clinton National Network it would be gospel truth?

I thought that it was the Capitalist News Network.

More seriously, why hasn't CNN gone broke? CNN's not doing so must be a major market failure, almost comparable to how little funding the "Atlas Shrugged" movies got.

 

[just_me]

106 pages of posts. I sure hope that she blooms into something worth all of thiss. The media has raised her up and lowered her so much since she first showed up, but I don't expect much from the media other than packing their own pockets.

As for me, I thought she that she and the other new Democrats came about as a protest vote against the Democratic party as President Trump, I think was a protest vote against the Republican party. I just hope we can get things done pretty soon and we can finish what President Obama started. AKA universal heath care that includes mental health. We need that drastically.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I should have said that it'll certainly be outpaced by inflation by the time it goes into effect nationwide, which will likely be something like 2024.

A real currency has a basis. In my youth it was that gold was fixed at $40/oz. We have abandoned the gold standard. Some other thing of limited supply like gold, silver, copper and other metals may serve. A pound of coffee, a bale of hay, a bushel of wheat would work as long as it is given a fixed, permanent value and everything else is allowed to float. Exactly one product and only one product price-controlled.

1) History shows that the economy swung more under a gold standard than with a reasonably managed fiat currency.

2) The economy has vastly outpaced gold production. Had we used a gold standard we would be experiencing major deflation for an extended period and that would be very bad for the economy. (In practice it would mean we wouldn't have seen anything like the growth we have.) Sure, you can say to use something else as your unit but the relative value of various things changes over time, no matter what you pick you'll have a big problem someday.

Today our currency is based on one hour of unskilled labor. Minimum wage. For a job so simple anyone could do it. If we set it permanently to, say, $15/hour then everything else would inflate until $15 was something a 16-yr-old would accept for an hour's work. A babysitter might get $17.50 if really good at it. An ordinary working man would expect about 150,000/yr.

If we set minimum wage to $100 or $1 it would make no difference. The value of other goods and services would adjust themselves in a free market with nothing else at all price-controlled. No farm subsidies. Repeal all law affecting prices or wages.

Except they wouldn't. There's nothing in your system to make them adjust.

Stop taxing corporations. Corporations are a pieces of paper which cannot pay anything. All taxes on businesses are paid by real people and not by the owners of the corporation -- workers and customers are paying that tax. Including the poorest as they buy anything at all. The most regressive tax of all, a pure sales and wage tax.

Here I agree. Corporate taxes are regressive in almost all cases.

Stop taxing income and, instead, tax spending (the constitution calls these excises). Then the Paris Hilton's of the world would be paying a gob of taxes. Tax real estate sales the same as groceries. Tax sales of stock the same as iced tea. This way the people who spend large amounts of money (the top 1%) would pay most of the taxes -- the poorest (the lowest 1%) the least. But everyone would pay taxes. Everyone would have skin in the game.

The problem here is you have a flat tax--very unfair to the poor. Also, you have a problem with the basis value. Put a sales tax on houses and you'll get a major housing shortage. The problem is the value will crash to factor in that sales tax and drop well below what it costs to make one. Thus nobody will build them. You would likewise crash the value of stock and thus take a big bite out of the creation of new companies.

(Note that I have worked out a way around these problems but putting it here would be too much of a derail.)

Meanwhile the Fed "loans" money created out of thin air at interest to the government. The debt has to go up to keep the bankers who privately own the Fed raking in that interest. Interest on nothing.

Disagree. While the debt does go up and up it's because Washington spends more than it taxes. If spending and taxation are balanced the debt won't go up.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I can get a better picture if you want. Why did you expand my avatar instead of addressing the content?

I am a retired professor of computer science. A fan of Milton Friedman -- see the Free to Choose YouTubes. That is where I got the truth dumb opinion about taxing corporations. Also about the Fed.

FIXT.

Just because you don't like what he's saying doesn't make it not true.

From a practical standpoint almost all tax applied to a corporation will show up in the price of the goods/services it sells and thus be passed on to the consumer. The poor consumer that spends 100% of his income thus pays a greater % in tax than the rich guy who invests 50% of his income.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Just an example of the diminishing returns of a fixed dollar amount for MW as time marches on: https://www.apnews.com/f70a701b7593450fb4bcb3cb61c543b4

Illinois will join Washington, D.C., and at least four other states with a $15-an-hour minimum by 2025 , an 82 percent spike in current base pay. But it may not be the momentous impact on low-wage workers that some supporters expected.

Using state labor and federal inflation statistics, The Associated Press projected that assuming the current inflation rate of 2.1 percent each year through 2025, $15 then will be worth the equivalent of $10.46 now. So instead of an 81 percent wage increase from $8.25 to $15, after inflation, low-wage workers will be taking home only 27 percent more than they are today.

This gives politicians all the incentive in the world to simply delay the implementation of the policy until inflation has made the $15 initially demanded equivalent to something closer to what capital is willing to accept. They can simultaneously say that they've done something for the working class while making sure that the full $15 doesn't go into effect until inflation has taken a chunk out of it. Of course, indexing the MW to inflation would itself be a solution to this problem, which is why nobody is discussing that seriously.

Ok, they're the ones that need to check their numbers.

They link the numbers on which they are basing their conclusion--and it's looking at inflation from 2009 (the last minimum wage hike there) to 2025.

 

[PyramidHead]

Just an example of the diminishing returns of a fixed dollar amount for MW as time marches on: https://www.apnews.com/f70a701b7593450fb4bcb3cb61c543b4

Illinois will join Washington, D.C., and at least four other states with a $15-an-hour minimum by 2025 , an 82 percent spike in current base pay. But it may not be the momentous impact on low-wage workers that some supporters expected.

Using state labor and federal inflation statistics, The Associated Press projected that assuming the current inflation rate of 2.1 percent each year through 2025, $15 then will be worth the equivalent of $10.46 now. So instead of an 81 percent wage increase from $8.25 to $15, after inflation, low-wage workers will be taking home only 27 percent more than they are today.

This gives politicians all the incentive in the world to simply delay the implementation of the policy until inflation has made the $15 initially demanded equivalent to something closer to what capital is willing to accept. They can simultaneously say that they've done something for the working class while making sure that the full $15 doesn't go into effect until inflation has taken a chunk out of it. Of course, indexing the MW to inflation would itself be a solution to this problem, which is why nobody is discussing that seriously.

Ok, they're the ones that need to check their numbers.

They link the numbers on which they are basing their conclusion--and it's looking at inflation from 2009 (the last minimum wage hike there) to 2025.

Do you have a better idea?

Do you object to a MW that is indexed to inflation?

 

[angelo]

More stupid remarks from your socialist darling.

She's now blaming a non existent oil pipeline with a non existent oil spill. You can't make this stuff up!

 

[Arctish]

More stupid remarks from your socialist darling.

She's now blaming a non existent oil pipeline with a non existent oil spill. You can't make this stuff up!

Which non existent oil pipeline?

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Cost of the GOP Tax Scam for the rich:~$1.8-2.3 Trillion Cost of forgiving all student loans in America:~$1.5 Trillion Clearly where there’s a will, there’s a way. When people say that there isn’t “enough” to do these things, what they mean is they don’t *want* to do them.… https://t.co/tkf7RuAk9d" noting Samuel Sinyangwe on Twitter: "Cancelling student loan debt would benefit 25,000,000 American Millennials by an average of $30,000 each. It’s wild that candidates have not publicly supported this policy to date."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "And before conservatives start whining that I refer to tax cuts (aka revenue cuts) as costs, here’s a reminder that the world recognizes that they are costs too:… https://t.co/alQvsdU0EZ"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Real answer: He’s threatened. Since #HR1 strengthens voting laws+starts to get money out of politics, it hurts his job prospects. After all, who knows what could happen w/o the insane problems we see every Election Day? We might actually get government that works #ForThePeople.… https://t.co/LeUaUjuOoW" noting CSPAN on Twitter: "Q: "Why is the #GreenNewDeal getting a vote in the Senate when #HR1 is not?" @senatemajldr: "Because I get to decide what we vote on."… https://t.co/dhE5FwiFhp"
That's Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez channels Friedman in clash with Wells Fargo CEO - Business Insider

• At a Congressional hearing, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked, "Should Wells Fargo be held responsible for the damages incurred by climate change due to the financing of fossil fuels?"
• This is an economic debate about the concept of "negative externality," most famously addressed by the conservative Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman.
• Friedman believed the government should tax polluters.
• Conservatives love Friedman but they don't talk about "negative externality" theory much.

All the more reason to like her -- she brings up issues that others have been unwilling to.

 

[angelo]

More stupid remarks from your socialist darling.

She's now blaming a non existent oil pipeline with a non existent oil spill. You can't make this stuff up!

Which non existent oil pipeline?

 

[angelo]

More stupid remarks from your socialist darling.

She's now blaming a non existent oil pipeline with a non existent oil spill. You can't make this stuff up!

Which non existent oil pipeline?

And more.....................[video]https://pluralist.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wells-fargo-ceo/[/video]

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

More stupid remarks from your socialist darling.

She's now blaming a non existent oil pipeline with a non existent oil spill. You can't make this stuff up!

Actually, yes... you can make this stuff up. In fact, the right-wing has been producing a good deal of made up stuff recently. I mean, when they aren't posting videos of Ocasio-Cortez dancing or fake nude pics of her.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Clinton hasn't been President in decades! Enough of the Moore-Coulters.

Pelosi knows it is the GOP that must vote to convict Trump to remove him from office. And that would take an extraordinary amount of damaging information on him.

Information that just doesn't exist.

Well, the money laundering, insurance fraud, anyone remember his fake university (before Presidency), emoluments, actions attempting to help Russia, security concerns in White House, obstruction of justice (during Presidency)... we have pretty strong sense that there is info for all of that.

As that article says.

No one has won the Champions League yet, therefore, Manchester City isn't going to win the Champions League.

But the witch hunt won't stop until 2020 and beyond. And by the way the Dems are heading, is looking very likely he'll will a second term.

Yeah, cute you call it a witch hunt. The investigation has more than paid for itself and resulted in several convictions and plea deals.

The reason a Russian investigation is under way is because of Trump's actions and words. Such as supporting suggestions that Russia investigate former US Diplomats, allow a referendum for Eastern Ukraine "independence", give them back their spy HQ in Maryland, tell them specifically (on video tape) that Comey was fired and that freed him up on the Flynn investigation, oh... and his top campaign aides (one is going to prison now) met with Russians regarding intel on Clinton IN TRUMP TOWER! That isn't a witch hunt, those are Red Flags.

 

[Arctish]

And more.....................[video]https://pluralist.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wells-fargo-ceo/[/video]

So she said Keystone XL when she meant Keystone and that makes her stupid?

You sure you want to set the bar that high, angelo? There isn't a poster here who hasn't occasionally failed to reach the lofty heights of perfection, including you.

 

[lpetrich]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Is Instagram still down? Bc after 2 months almost furnitureless in DC I am trying to take you all on the riveting adventure of getting: a chair (Also, if you had to start a new apt from scratch, what would be the first 5 pieces of furniture/items you would get? Asking for me)"
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Needs Help, Asks for Advice… on Buying Furniture in Washington
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Asked Twitter for Furniture Advice at The Root
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter plea for furniture advice goes hilariously off the rails - AOL News

Among the less serious answers were someone who asked her to ask Ben Carson, someone who once spent $31,000 on furniture for a HUD dining room.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "IMO what’s going on in the Wilbur Ross Oversight hearing right now is far more explosive than the Cohen hearing.… " noting Ari Berman on Twitter: "Wilbur Ross testifying before House today. He's already lied under oath about census citizenship question: 1. Said DOJ requested q when he did 2. Said didn’t discuss w/ Trump officials when Steve Bannon put him in touch with Kris Kobach to add question https://t.co/L9HrfU9ANx"
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "We made serious cracks in the citizenship question case, which seriously threatens the Census. You know the questioning is good when the GOP tries to challenge you into stopping, are unsuccessful, and an army of lawyers starts freaking out. Chair @RepCummings saved the day.… https://t.co/Hs0EiqZ4sU" noting Oliver Willis on Twitter: "the whole thing is much longer, but here's @AOC just absolutely pantsing wilbur ross. he tries to say she's out of time so he can't answer why his office broke the law. then @RepCummings says nah son, go ahead and answer and that sends his lawyers into a tizzy and … https://t.co/e3sdcAKDR5"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "GOP challenged me in committee, betting on an assumption that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Spoiler: I knew what I was talking about. Keep believing the patronizing trope about “not smart, but her heart’s in the right place.” Makes em underprepare &not see us coming.… https://t.co/408vVwSu23" noting 🕷Dante Atkins🕷 on Twitter: "This is @AOC just thrashing Mark Meadows here by citing section and subsection of the law being violated by the Executive Branch. I get the feeling that Meadows isn’t enjoying this minority thing too much.… https://t.co/KXMQZQdpRa"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "I know everyone says their committee‘s best, but to watch Chairman Cummings is to take in a study in leadership. He commands universal respect from the both sides of the aisle, because he is tough, fair, & compassionate to *all.* Watch how he swoops in here. I’m taking notes … https://t.co/Aff3LJbS2d" noting Erick Fernandez on Twitter: "The strong line of questioning and level of preparedness from @AOC for every committee hearing is fascinating to watch. Watch her full questioning of Wilbur Ross regarding the proposed 2020 Census citizenship question.… https://t.co/8W4nt2kocY"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Yup. We’re not even debating the citizenship question yet. There is a legal process for adding *any* Q to the US Census. That process takes ~5 years. Changing a Census question, not reporting that proposed change to Congress, and possibly lying about *why* would = Big Trouble.… https://t.co/8exSWC0qgf" noting Dana Nuccitelli on Twitter: "Wow, @AOC is the only one in the room (including Wilbur Ross and his lawyers) aware that 1) the proposed census citizenship question wording is substantively different from the previous version, and 2) such wording changes must be submitted to Congress [url]https://t.co/AUtUItDUc4… https://t.co/yl7AnpNbO8"[/url]

Another reason to like her. She's the anti-Trump not only in politics and in personality, but also in work habits.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "This from @AyannaPressley was a powerful moment yesterday, too … " noting Rep Ayanna Pressley on Twitter: "While my father was in the throes of his substance abuse disorder & in and out of the criminal justice system, our entire family was serving time with him. Incarceration is a shared sentence for families.… https://t.co/hgKrzeyENP"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "At 1st I thought of saying, “Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.” But I couldn’t say “imagine.” Because of Charleston. Pittsburgh. Sutherland Springs. What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe? https://t.co/2mSw0azDN8"
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "This is a time of great vulnerability for our communities. We must come together, fight for each other, & stand up for neighbors. Isolation, dehumanizing stereotypes, hysterical conspiracy theories, & hatred ultimately lead to the anarchy of violence. We cannot stand for it."
She noted Qasim Rashid, Esq. on Twitter: "The #NewZealandMosqueShooting hits very close to home for American Muslims. Why? B/c New Zealand Terrorists: •Admit 45 & American Right Wingers radicalized them •Used same logos as Charlottsville Nazis •Cite same white supremacy online hate as do American white supremacists"
The KKK and neo-Nazis make ideal targets for the Sister Souljah treatment, but neither Trump nor other Republicans want do so that. If they are not closet Klanspeople and neo-Nazis, why do they seem so desperate to get the KKK and neo-Nazi votes?

 

[angelo]

More stupid remarks from your socialist darling.

She's now blaming a non existent oil pipeline with a non existent oil spill. You can't make this stuff up!

Actually, yes... you can make this stuff up. In fact, the right-wing has been producing a good deal of made up stuff recently. I mean, when they aren't posting videos of Ocasio-Cortez dancing or fake nude pics of her.

Fake nude pics of AOC? Could you be so kind as to post them here?