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.

 

[The Assyrian]

I never thought I’d say this, but Nancy Pelosi seems far more sane. I thought Nacy Pelosi was bad, but Ocasio-Cortez is far worse. She’s one of the worst things to happen to the Democrats as far as I can tell. Her policies will only further divide the party and her insistence on doubling down on the GND is one of the most exceptional things I’ve seen. She’s the youngest person elected to Congress and it shows. She has little to no understanding of economics, picks fights across the aisle or within her party, and her plans are so ideological to a point that they could not be implemented in practice without driving the US into a nearly 100 trillion dollar debt. On top of this, she is hung up on identity politics the rest of her party espouses and in turn, alienates almost everyone, except liberal college students,in the process. On the flip side, for how disastrous she is of a politician, she’s one of the best things to happen to the Republican Party. She’s the kind of person people hang around with to look smarter by comparison.

Ocasio-Cortez behaves exactly like you would expect from someone Kirsten Gillibrand mentored. She's always ready to throw a fellow Democrat under the bus for even the slightest advantage.

 

[Nacho Man Randy Salsa]

As much as Pelosi and the veteran Dems despise her, I'm willing to bet Cortez feels the same way about them.

 

[Maxliam]

Ocasio-Cortez behaves exactly like you would expect from someone Kirsten Gillibrand mentored. She's always ready to throw a fellow Democrat under the bus for even the slightest advantage.

Pelosi isn't as dumb as some would think. She's a very savvy politician who's been doing this longer than ocasio has been alive. The girl's poking the gorilla in the monkey house.

 

[Kaiser Wilhelm's Ghost]

Yes. And when the native population won't stand for it, you import millions of people who are used to living like that and won't be too much against it.

I swear, when I watched Elysium, I thought it was hilarious that they were trying to say it was Republicans who would bring about that future (by not providing universal healthcare or letting William Fichtner own a business, I don't know).

That was such a terrible movie. All I could think while watching it, is you have a mediocre film, where the US has been turned into LA on steroids. And you literally have free technology being denied to 3rd worlder's because of some bullshit population narrative. Then you have a republican wet dream space colony, invaded by border jumpers in search of free stuff, and it didn't even have any effective defenses to stop them freeloaders.

Well she did go to Boston College. So she is clearly well educated in all the different environs of America!

There is a great piece floating around today from one of the lead "renewable energy" guys, who admits it is not actually possible. And that renewable sources such as Wind and Solar are actually far far worse than fossil fuels because of how low they are in energy density. He says the only way to actually meet the goals of the Global Warming Greenies is to start building nuclear plants. Which fools like AOC would never allow.

Everyone fingers Cherynobl, Three Miles Island, and the recent Fukushima reactor as reasons not to use nuclear energy, but it is all in all a very safe and clean when compared to other forms of energy.
The cost of creating reactors in the US hiked with Three Miles Island, even though the Americans had at the time and have had for a long time the ability to build safer reactors.

They even tested one in a Cherynobl style failure, and the reactor simply shut itself down, the problem was is that those type of reactors, this type is the ones the French and South Koreans ended up using and improving were always more expensive in the immediate future in terms of ROI.
The disadvantages to nuclear were always the costs of developing large infrastructure, increased safety measures in the wake of additional scientific knowledge, and also public opinion.

The American public always oscillated between nuclear energy or anti nuclear energy, and a lot of greens you talk to get glassy eyed when you mention the subject, as all they can see if mushroom clouds.
With the technology that the Russians have been developing in terms of fusion reactors and smaller sizes means that there will be a possibility in the future to have smaller localized nuclear power plants. Fusion is a cleaner method as it creates less nuclear waste. But again, any time you ever try and put it in the category with the other renewable energies, Greentards throw a fit.

The issue with solar is that it's not 100% effective, it does not meet all energy requirements, less so if your in the northern hemisphere where light is limited, and the production of solar panels is actually quite heavy in terms of pollution, especially when decommissioning old panels, something that the Chinese do for us with their oh so careful environmental protection laws.

Wind in terms of individual usage can be effective, but it depends on the position and wind patterns, and the large scale wind turbines aren't super effective at capturing energy, some of them even use more than they put in if there is no prevailing winds. Bird strike is also a major problem, these things kill tons of birds.

Hydro electric is an interesting energy proposition, but again it depends on the location and the use. Tesla had a really revolutionary idea to use the base of Niagra Falls for hydro electric, but the idea was never formally put beyond theory. Small scale or low flow hydro can work effectively, but it only meets the basic needs of electrical output.

The big issue with the green alternatives is that they only work on a smaller scale in terms of total energy availability. Great if your a homesteader or want to meet your personal energy needs, but in terms of a large scale society, not so effective. We've been trained now as a society to leave the lights on, or to put it more plainly full energy availability 24/7 on demand, and it would take a huge step backwards to expect people to be on more limited electrical outputs, especially in terms of industrial energy usage.

His main realization was the land use and deforestation required for the renewables was obscene. Wind Farms have a far far bigger negative impact on the environment than cow farts, and provide less energy per square meter.

Yeah AOC seems to have just cherry picked stuff she thinks sounds good instead of actually coming up with a cohesive plan for environmental impact reduction. I also find it really sly how she threw in all the soc-jus shit in with it, as if people wouldn't read it and actually criticize if for being factually incorrect. (Although we know from AOC that doesn't matter as long as it's morally correct.)

 

[Dante Alighieri]

They even tested one in a Cherynobl style failure

Best part about Chernobyl being mentioned as a failure of nuclear power- those reactors are still in use.

Nuclear is the safest power generation method.

SOURCES: WHO, CDC, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

They don't see the irony it is environmentally and economically viable to go nuclear. The Simpsons and the China syndrome have made a few generations of exceptional individuals terrified of nuclear power.

It is such a sad waste and a shame that we can't develop nuclear further because these ignorant pearlclutchers fear a thing they don't understand. Every discussion I get into I can barely get a word out because they're mourning for all the people who died at Fukushima (hint: it killed zero people) or they're terrified of what will happen if the US opens a nuclear plant (surprise: there are nearly 100 operational plants in the US, including 3 in my state, and these have been operating for quite a long time without issue). And for people who claim they care about world income inequality and the conditions the first world imposes on developing nations, they give zero consideration for the number of rare earth materials that would be required for widespread solar implementation, the pollution and environmental damage that acquiring these materials causes, or the fact that it would make the slave labor we use to produce our precious smartphones look like peanuts.

If I told you that spent nuclear fuel worsened the earth's climate by 5% but solar panel production worsened it by 80%, which would you choose? Well it's a trick question when you stick your fingers in your ears and call me a nazi.

 

[Nacho Man Randy Salsa]

Pelosi isn't as dumb as some would think. She's a very savvy politician who's been doing this longer than ocasio has been alive. The girl's poking the gorilla in the monkey house.

The question becomes, what is it going to take for Pelosi to start metaphorically choke a bitch?

 

[JosephTX]

Best part about Chernobyl being mentioned as a failure of nuclear power- those reactors are still in use.

Nuclear is the safest power generation method.

View attachment 681305
SOURCES: WHO, CDC, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.

No they were only in use until 2000, then shut down

 

[Tealeaf]

Though Chernobyl itself has been decommissioned, the majority of RBMK (Chernobyl type) reactors built are still in operation (as of 2017).

Wikipedia, IAEA

 

[Maxliam]

It is such a sad waste and a shame that we can't develop nuclear further because these ignorant pearlclutchers fear a thing they don't understand. Every discussion I get into I can barely get a word out because they're mourning for all the people who died at Fukushima (hint: it killed zero people) or they're terrified of what will happen if the US opens a nuclear plant (surprise: there are nearly 100 operational plants in the US, including 3 in my state, and these have been operating for quite a long time without issue). And for people who claim they care about world income inequality and the conditions the first world imposes on developing nations, they give zero consideration for the number of rare earth materials that would be required for widespread solar implementation, the pollution and environmental damage that acquiring these materials causes, or the fact that it would make the slave labor we use to produce our precious smartphones look like peanuts.

If I told you that spent nuclear fuel worsened the earth's climate by 5% but solar panel production worsened it by 80%, which would you choose? Well it's a trick question when you stick your fingers in your ears and call me a nazi.

They are trained seals to bark like that. Seals ate trash mammals, everyone knows that! In bay city Texas there is a nuclear plant if I'm not mistaken. Seeing as how close it is to Houston, the 4th largest city in the USA, I'm not surprised.

The question becomes, what is it going to take for Pelosi to start metaphorically choke a bitch?

Cortez will end up dead in a suitcase in a hotel room tub and it'll be ruled a suicide.

No they were only in use until 2000, then shut down

Still hilarious it was operating for do long after the disaster.

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

It is such a sad waste and a shame that we can't develop nuclear further because these ignorant pearlclutchers fear a thing they don't understand. Every discussion I get into I can barely get a word out because they're mourning for all the people who died at Fukushima (hint: it killed zero people) or they're terrified of what will happen if the US opens a nuclear plant (surprise: there are nearly 100 operational plants in the US, including 3 in my state, and these have been operating for quite a long time without issue). And for people who claim they care about world income inequality and the conditions the first world imposes on developing nations, they give zero consideration for the number of rare earth materials that would be required for widespread solar implementation, the pollution and environmental damage that acquiring these materials causes, or the fact that it would make the slave labor we use to produce our precious smartphones look like peanuts.

If I told you that spent nuclear fuel worsened the earth's climate by 5% but solar panel production worsened it by 80%, which would you choose? Well it's a trick question when you stick your fingers in your ears and call me a nazi.

Whenever I have a discussion with an anti-nuker, they almost always go to "Three MIle Island" as a failure of nuclear power. I ask them if they think it was a good thing that the plant was shut down after the accident happened. Without fail, the answer is always along the lines "Yes! Absolutely! They had to shut it down!"

I love the looks on their faces when I inform them that the plant was never shut, and it's still in operation today. They have that look like a dog when you fart in its face.

Note- Three Mile Island is going to be shut down this year. Not because it's unsafe, it's license to operate was actually extended to 2034, but because cheap natural gas from fracking has made running the plant unprofitable.

 

[ObeseScreamingBlackMan]

Get woke, go out in a hilarious blaze of autistic glory and take your whole party with you.

 

[Nykysnottrans]

can remember watching an interview with this ex-socialist who had been over in Cuba right after the revolution and was part of the journalistic block in America that reported favorably on places like the Soviet Union, despite the gulags. He went into detail about how the entire group he was with the entire time was constantly praising socialism, despite the fact that they could see that the system had introduced injustice and politically motivated killings. Even after all these years some of the same people in the group, have denounced him because he at some point became disillusioned with the left and couldn't support the lie anymore.

People like AOC are dangerous not because they want to switch America over to a socialist system, but because I honestly believe that she is of the same mold as other socialist authoritarian dictators. These types of people would not mind eliminating part of the population by hook or crook if it meant solidifying their power and pushing their political ideas onto people regardless of the cost in human suffering.

At least the person you are referring to here had actually been to Cuba. Has Ocasio-Cortez been to Cuba?

The only example I could find of AOC having any experience abroad was this, her going abroad when she was still studying medicine instead of international relations or economics:

Ocasio-Cortez had natural confidence when speaking to crowds. When she traveled to Niger for a junior-year semester abroad, she didn't know any French. At the end of the four months, she delivered a speech in French to the faculty.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: The inside story of how, in just one year, Sandy the bartender became a lawmaker who triggers both parties

At 29 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress. This is the story of how her climb began, and where it's going next.

www.thisisinsider.com

As an undergraduate at Boston University, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez followed her interest in medicine to Niamey, Niger, where she did rotations at a maternity clinic outside the capital city. Niger, a country that hosted only six study abroad students from the US in 2017, has one of the highest rates of infant mortality worldwide. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was so struck by her experience overseas that when she returned home, she changed her major to economics. She focused on policy, so she could better understand and act on the issues that affected her own community.

Studying abroad literally shifted her worldview enough to change the course of her career, putting her on the path to Congress.

Why aren’t we talking about this?

Working in international exchange, I see the direct effects educational and cultural programs have on our students’ careers and lives every day. Life changing and transformational are two of the most common descriptors alumni use to talk about their experiences, whether they were spending a semester mastering the Tajik language or interning in biodiversity conservation for a summer in Armenia. I wondered how Ms. Ocasio-Cortez described her experience and, after some digging, I found her perspective in a 2010 edition of the Boston University student newspaper.

“Young students who make the commitment to spending four months in the Sahel of West Africa tend to have a thirst for adventure that is not easily quieted by concern,” she said of the program in Niger. “I was able to communicate and learn with people in a very new way and begin to understand what life is like in a developing country.”

AC Insights: Why My Admiration for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Isn't About Politics

AC Insights: Why My Admiration for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Isn't About Politics | After a decade in DC, I’ve learned that politics are everywhere: in newspapers, overheard conversations on the metro, even the graffiti. So I wasn’t shocked to see a feature on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Bon...

www.americancouncils.org

Microfinance Practitioner and Maternal Health Study - Niger, West Africa

Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez | New York City Campaign Finance Board

www.nyccfb.info

I don't know what the hell a "microfinance practitioner" is, sounds made up and pretentious. How does someone study international relations without ever having to practice creating or maintaining international relations? She got this degree without even thinking about how she was going to apply it in any practical sense.

Could it be that she has actually travelled to Latin America but is covering up that fact because she doesn't want to be accused of being a shill for Latin-American socialists? I am trying to find her official stated political positions on Latin American countries (Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico) and I can't find anything. I find this a rather glaring oversight from someone who is running a campaign on them being "the Latina the GOP fears".

If she's such a Latina with an international relations degree, why doesn't she have any official public positions on international relations with Latin countries? All those immigrants she advocates for are coming from those countries. Seems rather strange to me, the way she is avoiding the topic in favour of empty sloganeering like "abolish ICE" and other emo anarchist crap. How are you going to stop illegal migration without international relations with the countries the illegal migrants are coming from?

She says she's working class so maybe she was too poor to travel beyond her year abroad as a student, but it all seems fishy to me. I can't find any officially stated policy on Russia, Asian countries or China either. Only on Palestine, which she backtracked. No experience travelling to Europe either, but she supports "pediatric transition" (ie castrating minors) in the UK, a country she has never even been to.

 

[The Assyrian]

The question becomes, what is it going to take for Pelosi to start metaphorically choke a bitch?

She's not going to bother killing this poor wretch when she's dead set on destroying herself anyway. Have you ever heard of a freshman Congresswoman being under so many investigations? Her local office isn't even open yet!

 

[Dante Alighieri]

I don't know what the hell a "microfinance practitioner" is, sounds made up and pretentious.

Microfinance is a category of financial services targeted at individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services.

 

[Nykysnottrans]

Microfinance is a category of financial services targeted at individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services.

I see, she must've pulled an Elizabeth Kucinich then in Africa (which is really interesting because Bernie Sanders, for whom AOC canvassed, was considered to be "just another Kucinich"):

In June 2007 Elizabeth Kucinich and Lydia Bakaki went to Uganda. They were supposed travel with Joe, Director of International Partners in Mission and with Marcia Odel, founder of WORTH, a microfinance project that is works in developing countries but they were not able to travel at that time due to schedule conflicts. The aim of the trip was to complete the Appreciative Inquiry workshop that Lydia started on in January 2007 and investigate the WORTH microfinance method for replication. We also planned to visit policy makers at the level of government for visibility.

Elizabeth traveled before Lydia and visited the WORTH Microfinance groups in Mbale in Eastern Uganda. As a result of her visit and prior briefing, Elizabeth found out that the women pool their money and have the members with viable projects borrow the money at a small interest. The group profits are shared by whoever put money into the pool.

A-Z Narrative progress report till September, 2007

A project report from Providing land and housing to 100 women in Uganda on GlobalGiving

www.globalgiving.org

 

[HeyYou]

I like how it didn't even take her a few months in office to become a corrupt politician with multiple suspicious financial decisions, she did it from the get-go.

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

"Microfinance" AKA "Microcredit" is one more progressive dogoodnik pipe dream that sounds wonderful in theory, but backfires spectacularly in application.

The theory is you spread lots of little loans around, and it stimulates economic growth when the local poors create cottage industries, and mom and pop businesses. In application, it creates a little bit of business, and a whole pile of debt.

Why am I not surprised that "microfinance" was a flavor of Kool Aid that AOC guzzled? That nitwit has never met a bad idea that she hasn't fallen in love with.

 

[JosephTX]

They are trained seals to bark like that. Seals ate trash mammals, everyone knows that! In bay city Texas there is a nuclear plant if I'm not mistaken. Seeing as how close it is to Houston, the 4th largest city in the USA, I'm not surprised.

Cortez will end up dead in a suitcase in a hotel room tub and it'll be ruled a suicide.

Still hilarious it was operating for do long after the disaster.

You know what's weird, despite living in Houston I've always been oblivious to us having nuclear power plants since we have so much natural gas and oil

 

[Far Queue]

She's not going to bother killing this poor wretch when she's dead set on destroying herself anyway. Have you ever heard of a freshman Congresswoman being under so many investigations? Her local office isn't even open yet!

You don't get into a direct fight with a crazed mongrel like Cortez. You'll only get bitten and draw further attention to the whole sordid mess.

The DNC is eliminating the district that Cortez ran in so by default she's going to be a single term representative. They can't stop her from running in another district, but she'll have to go through another primary, and there's no way the DNC doesn't put a lot of weight behind the incumbents.