US "The Squad" Megathread - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib Derangement Syndrome

I honestly only know about American politics from what I read on the Internet but since we all love shitting on leftists I figured we'd get a kick out of this. Also it's trending on Twitter so you know it's important.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...irect=on&noredirect=on&utm_term=.960552c9ba53

NEW YORK — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old political novice running on a low budget and an unabashedly liberal platform, upset longtime U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley on Tuesday in the Democratic congressional primary in New York.

The surprise victory by the community organizer in a district that includes parts of the Bronx and Queens came after an energetic, grassroots campaign that mustered more than enough support in a low-turnout race that many had expected to be an easy win for Crowley, a member of the Democratic House leadership.

“The community is ready for a movement of economic and social justice. That is what we tried to deliver,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who has never held elected office and whose candidacy attracted only modest media attention.

She told The Associated Press after her victory that she didn’t have enough money to do polling in the race, but felt in her gut that her message had a chance to connect.

“I live in this community. I organized in this community. I felt the absence of the incumbent. I knew he didn’t have a strong presence,” she said.

Crowley has been in Congress since 1999 and hadn’t faced an opponent in a primary election since 2004, when Ocasio-Cortez was just a teenager. He was considered a candidate to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the majority.

“It’s not about me,” Crowley, 56, told his supporters at a campaign party following his loss. “It’s about America. I want nothing but the best for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. I want her to be victorious.”

He later played guitar with a band at the election night gathering, and dedicated the first song, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” to Ocasio-Cortez.

Crowley represents New York’s 14th Congressional District, where he is also the leader of the Queens Democratic party.

Ocasio-Cortez was outspent by an 18-1 margin during her race but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party’s far left, including MoveOn, as well as the actress Cynthia Nixon, who is running for governor. She defeated Crowley by 15 percentage points.

Born in the Bronx to a mother from Puerto Rico and a father who died in 2008, Ocasio-Cortez said she decided to challenge Crowley to push a more progressive stance on economic and other issues.

She attended Boston University, where she earned degrees in economics and international relations, and also spent time working in the office of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.

After graduating, she returned to the Bronx where she became a community organizer. In the 2016 presidential campaign she worked for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Among her issues is expanding the Medicare program to people of all ages and abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. She recently went to Tornillo, Texas, to protest against policies that have separated parents from their children at the southern U.S. border.

Ocasio-Cortez gained some internet attention for a campaign video called “The Courage to Change,” a two-minute spot for which she wrote the script and featured footage from her own home.

Crowley is chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the fourth-highest ranking position in Democratic leadership in that chamber of Congress.

His loss drew the attention of President Donald Trump.

“Wow! Big Trump Hater Congressman Joe Crowley, who many expected was going to take Nancy Pelosi’s place, just LOST his primary election. In other words, he’s out! That is a big one that nobody saw happening. Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!” he tweeted.

The Republican candidate for the office, Anthony Pappas, is running unopposed and had no primary. Pappas teaches economics at St. John’s University.

She was a Bernie campaigner, is supported by BLM, and wants to abolish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Also this was in a solid-blue Congressional District so you know she's a shoo-in for next Congress.

But hey, we did get to see Trump laugh at Crowley on Twitter.

 

[Sissy Galvez]

Ocasio-Cortez attacks fact-checkers for 'false equivalency,' 'bias'

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/oc...heckers-for-false-equivalency-bias-toward-her

She’s 100% a leftist version of Trump.

 

[thx1138]

Sweden and Finland aren't part of NATO and were legally neutral during the cold war, why do you think the Finnish military uses AKs?

You're right, of course, and that was retarded of me; but for any arguments about "how Europeans do it" it still largely applies to western Europe, I think.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

This one was pretty funny and I'm not surprised. Rules for thee and all that.

Ocasio-Cortez still mum on taking paycheck despite 13 in Congress refusing during shutdown: report

Newly-elected Democratic House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, D-N.Y., who despite tweeting last month that members of Congress should ‘have some integrity’ and not take a paycheck during the government shutdown, has remained silent on whether she’ll take a salary during the partial government shutdown, despite 13 of her fellow congress members vowing that they won’t.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔
@AOC
Next time we have a gov shutdown, Congressional salaries should be furloughed as well.

It’s completely unacceptable that members of Congress can force a government shutdown on partisan lines & then have Congressional salaries exempt from that decision.

Have some integrity.

Ocasio-Cortez’s office on Thursday reportedly refused to respond to The Daily Mail’s inquiry about whether she’ll be taking a salary, while approximately 800,000 federal workers are furloughed or working without pay.

It was not the first time she appeared to evade or ignore the question. When asked last week by The New York Post whether she would take a salary during the government shutdown, the 29-year-old representative said: “I’ve gotta run.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Congressional staff and members of Congress are being paid through the shutdown because the legislative branch was funded last year through fiscal year 2019. Ocasio-Cortez’s salary kicked in last Thursday after she was sworn in as a Democratic lawmaker representing New York.

The departments of justice, interior, transportation and homeland security were either sent home or are working without pay. The first pay period for those workers is Jan. 11.

Other newly-elected lawmakers – both democratic and republican – have said they will either refuse or donate their paycheck during the shutdown, The Washington Post reported.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/al...-take-a-salary-as-government-shutdown-lingers

 

[Tanner Glass]

She’s 100% a leftist version of Trump.

I'm not sure that comparison holds up. They're both "outsiders" but Donald Trump (love him or hate him) was basically a cultural icon and a huge success before he came into politics. AOC is an unknown bartender from New York.

 

[thismanlies]

She’s 100% a leftist version of Trump.

I have to disagree. Say what you want about Trump’s relationship with the press. Cortez is acting shocked the press would dare criticize her.

 

[Tanner Glass]

I have to disagree. Say what you want about Trump’s relationship with the press. Cortez is acting shocked the press would dare criticize her.

AOC is a Democrat, she should be shocked the press would criticize her.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Styx vlogged about 90s liberal Whoopi Goldberg who corrected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the far-left attacked Whoopi.

Styx posted a short comment who was worth to quote.

Watching a far leftist get called a sellout and attacked by people who think Sanders is too far right is fun.

 

[CatParty]

 

[JosephTX]

You're right, of course, and that was exceptional of me; but for any arguments about "how Europeans do it" it still largely applies to western Europe, I think.

I mean the French are also militarily independent because they didn't want to be effectively married to America and effectively withdrew from NATO in 1966 and ejected all Nato forces by the end of 1968 and only rejoined in 2009.

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria...-looking-passionate-creative-thinkers-1230735

13 staffers, at a minimum of $15/hour.

So if the coffee-fetcher intern is going to be making $15/hr, what will her "deputy chief of staff" be paid?

13 staffers being paid "competitive salaries"(her words) and two district offices/free legal aid clinics(Bronx and Queens- ridiculous real estate prices), and all of other expenses... laptops, travel expenses, coloring books and magic markers, etc....

All of this to be covered by a $1.3 million annual budget, and zero money from lobbyists.

I'll bet she doesn't make it half a year before she's tapped out, crying poverty, and her employees are looking at a living wage of the bosses table scraps.

Okay, first off, the nitwit who promised to pay her staff big salaries is now crying poverty, because she doesn't have the money to equip her "caseworkers" with laptops. She just ran a congressional campaign, but she doesn't have a few laptops lying around? Did she run her campaign with crayons and construction paper?

Caseworkers? This is what her staff is doing? They're caseworkers helping poor people who speakie no Englie to fill out mortgage applications? So, instead of spending her budget on like, actually running her broom closet office in DC, she decided to set up"district offices"(read: legal aid clinics) in the slums of NY instead?

It's just ridiculous.

"I'm going to pay everybody who works for me the big bucks!"

Two days later...

"Waaaa! We can't afford to buy pots for our soup kitchens! Waaaa!"

 

[RumblyTumbly]

The more I read about her, the more I am reminded of that time Homer Simpson became trash commissioner of Springfield.

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

Is that even kosher? If she uses(taxpayer) money out of her junior congrissgurl cadet budget to run free legal aid clinics in her home district? Isn't that pretty much just buying votes?

I mean, if a Republican rep used money out of his budget to set up free clinics to assist gun owners with the paperwork to apply for concealed-carry permits, would the left not shit chisels?

 

[Kamov Ka-52]

View attachment 635558

https://www.newsweek.com/alexandria...-looking-passionate-creative-thinkers-1230735

13 staffers, at a minimum of $15/hour.

So if the coffee-fetcher intern is going to be making $15/hr, what will her "deputy chief of staff" be paid?

13 staffers being paid "competitive salaries"(her words) and two district offices/free legal aid clinics(Bronx and Queens- ridiculous real estate prices), and all of other expenses... laptops, travel expenses, coloring books and magic markers, etc....

All of this to be covered by a $1.3 million annual budget, and zero money from lobbyists.

I'll bet she doesn't make it half a year before she's tapped out, crying poverty, and her employees are looking at a living wage of the bosses table scraps.

>13 paid staff as a freshman representative

She only needs one or two legislative aides/assistants, a secretary in DC and maybe four district staff at most. If she really needs more warm bodies, well, that's what unpaid interns (who would view the opportunity as manna from heaven,) are for.

View attachment 635563
Caseworkers? This is what her staff is doing? They're caseworkers helping poor people who speakie no Englie to fill out mortgage applications? So, instead of spending her budget on like, actually running her broom closet office in DC, she decided to set up"district offices"(read: legal aid clinics) in the slums of NY instead?

Is that even kosher? If she uses(taxpayer) money out of her junior congrissgurl cadet budget to run free legal aid clinics in her home district? Isn't that pretty much just buying votes?

I mean, if a Republican rep used money out of his budget to set up free clinics to assist gun owners with the paperwork to apply for concealed-carry permits, would the left not shit chisels?

Having at least one district office is the norm, and constituent outreach is a major portion of a Representative's responsibilities outside of what they do in DC. I wouldn't say its equivalent to buying votes per se, after all, nominally at least, it is the job of a member of congress to protect and improve the lives of, the people that live in their districts. However, if her intent is to open multiple offices, and evidently hire lawyers to help people free, that's fucking retarded, and is well beyond the scope of what services are generally offered to constituents by legislators.

Edited for clarity

 

[kobebyarlant]

Spoiler: For you Kiwifarms.

 

[Butta Face Lopez]

The more I read about her, the more I am reminded of that time Homer Simpson became trash commissioner of Springfield.

"Can't someone else pay for it?"

 

[Jaimas]

When a representative is making one have bad flashbacks of Michelle Bachmann's crazy, you know you got someone special, Kiwis.

Thankfully, knowing what I do of NY politics, I find it unlikely she lasts past 2020.

NY has a history of going hard blue, but there is such a thing as "too far left" in this state, which is why promising up-and-coming Dems, especially ones trying to grate against the status quo, have historically had problems dealing with more-conservative encumbants. That's kind of important because she actually makes the Democratic establishment break out in hives.

With some of her ideas posted so far including banning gasoline-powered vehicles within the next decade, completely ripping out and replacing our power infrastructure with no clear-cut path of doing so or means of replacing it, shit that even the most crazy of motherfuckers would deem complete non-starters, at this point I am fucking convinced that the Democratic establishment let her happen so they could consolidate control against the proles next cycle against by kicking her ass out.

 

[Kamov Ka-52]

When a representative is making one have bad flashbacks of Michelle Bachmann's crazy, you know you got someone special, Kiwis.

Thankfully, knowing what I do of NY politics, I find it unlikely she lasts past 2020.

NY has a history of going hard blue, but there is such a thing as "too far left" in this state, which is why promising up-and-coming Dems, especially ones trying to grate against the status quo, have historically had problems dealing with more-conservative encumbants. That's kind of important because she actually makes the Democratic establishment break out in hives.

With some of her ideas posted so far including banning gasoline-powered vehicles within the next decade, completely ripping out and replacing our power infrastructure with no clear-cut path of doing so or means of replacing it, shit that even the most crazy of motherfuckers would deem complete non-starters, at this point I am fucking convinced that the Democratic establishment let her happen so they could consolidate control against the proles next cycle against by kicking her ass out.

I don't know, if we're going to assume there's 4D chess going on, I'd argue she makes a pretty good tool for quieting the progressive wing of the party. Plus, if utilized correctly AOC could serve as an asset to attempts by the establishment of the party to interact and negotiate with Republicans. With respect to the first point, AOC gives the progressives a darling to tout to the world, and a figurehead for the moderate establishment types to make a token effort to embrace for optics. Further, the progressives throwing their weight behind her is good for the establishment, as she also happens to be a complete retard who stands no chance of rising above her station as "designated empowered progressive POC millenial wahmen" both in the context of the DNC's internal politics or in the broader electoral sense. As such, keeping her in place and at least nominally supporting her distracts and subverts any attempts by the progressive wing to agitate for more substantial changes in the internal structure of the DNC.

As to the second point AOC's continued presence in office makes a good negotiating tool for old guard Democrats with Republicans. They can point to AOC and say: hey, we may talk a lot of shit, and you may not like us, but at least we're willing to work with you and negotiate. At the end of the day, it is far better to keep us around rather than deal with those little shits who know fuck all about life on The Hill right? This budget line-item/amendment/bill is really important to my district so help a colleague out a bit, and I'll return the favor. This is tacit quid-pro-quo allows the establishment/moderates to talk a big game for their constituents and, more importantly, allows them to bring back plenty of budgetary turkeys for their districts, and gives them projects to point to when a (competent) Brianna Wu with a half-way decent campaign manager tries to carpet bag into their district.

Finally, having someone like AOC, assuming she continues to flail around like a retard, makes more moderate candidates appealing in statewide/national primaries (gubernatorial. senate, presidential). So again, her continued presence is a boon for them.

Edited for spelling/grammar

 

[Jaimas]

I don't know, if we're going to assume there's 4D chess going on, I'd argue she makes a pretty good tool for quieting the progressive wing of the party. Plus, if utilized correctly AOC could serve as an asset to attempts by the establishment of the party to interact and negotiate with Republicans. With respect to the first point, AOC gives the progressives a darling to tout to the world, and a figurehead for the moderate establishment types to make a token effort to embrace for optics. Further, the progressives throwing their weight behind her is good for the establishment, as she also happens to be a complete exceptional individual who stands no chance of rising above her station as "designated empowered progressive POC millenial wahmen" both in the context of the DNC's internal politics or in the broader electoral sense. As such, keeping her in place and at least nominally supporting her distracts and subverts any attempts by the progressive wing to agitate for more substantial changes in the internal structure of the DNC.

As to the second point AOC's continued presence in office makes a good negotiating tool for old guard Democrats with Republicans. They can point to AOC and say: hey, we may talk a lot of shit, and you may not like us, but at least we're willing to work with you and negotiate. At the end of the day, is far better to keep us around rather than deal with those shitheads who know fuck all about life on The Hill right? So, help me out here, this budget line-item/amendment/bill is really important to my district so help a colleague out a bit, and I'll return the favor. This is tacit quid-pro-quo allows the establishment/moderates to talk a big game for their constituents and, more importantly, allows them to bring back plenty of budgetary turkeys for their districts, and gives them shit to point to when a (competent) Brianna Wu with a half-way decent campaign manager tries to carpet bag into their district.

Finally, having someone like AOC, assuming she continues to flail around like an exceptional individual, makes more moderate candidates appealing in statewide/national primaries (gubernatorial. senate, presidential). So again, her continued presence is a boon for them.

Good counterpoints both.

 

[bippu_as_fuck_ls400]

Ocasio-Cortez slammed for 'hypocrisy' after her campaign fined for not providing worker's compensation coverage

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/oc...r-not-providing-workers-compensation-coverage

Published January 11, 2019
By Lukas Mikelionis

The campaign of rookie U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been fined by the state for not providing workers’ compensation coverage for a month last year.

The failure to provide the coverage to campaign staff is particularly awkward for Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic socialist who rose to stardom after unseating top Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley with a campaign theme of improving conditions for the working class.

“The employer did not have the required workers’ compensation coverage from March 31, 2018, to April 30, 2018, and was issued a final penalty of $1,500, which was paid,” state Workers Compensation Board spokeswoman Melissa Stewart told the New York Daily News.

“This coverage is vital to ensuring workers are protected for on-the-job injuries,” she added.

Republicans jumped on the revelations, telling the newspaper that the episode reveals “hypocrisy at its finest” by Ocasio-Cortez.

“The so-called champion of workers, when given her own responsibility, is not following the law. It’s unbelievable,” said state GOP spokeswoman Jessica Proud.

This isn’t the first time the congresswoman’s pro-working class credentials have been called into question.

She remains under scrutiny after avoiding answering questions on whether she will follow through with her own advice to fellow lawmakers to “have some integrity” and forgo their paychecks during the partial government shutdown.

Last year, Ocasio-Cortez was also mocked after lamenting the shuttering of a coffee shop in New York, even though it closed its doors thanks to the wage hike in the state – a policy that she supports.

“The restaurant I used to work at is closing its doors,” she wrote in a tweet. “I’m a normal, working person who chose to run for office, because I believe we can have a better future.”

The owners blamed the minimum wage hike for the closure. “The rents are very high and now the minimum wage is going up and we have a huge number of employees,” Charles Milite told the New York Post last month.

Around 150 people lost their jobs as a result of the closure of the coffee shop.

 

[CatParty]

I find it unlikely she lasts past 2020.

just like trump! lol