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

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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.
 
Aphabetisation is going down, and the results of highschoolers are pathetically low. Don't get fooled by the few excellent mathematicians going out of prestigious schools, the plebeans are kept as ignorant as possible, and public schools are malfunctionning as possible. Doesn't help that the taxes actually go to private schools (including christian, jewish or muslim ones) just as much as they go to public school. There's a reason why the education ministers DON'T send their children to publich school.

They actually do. Lycée Henri IV, Louis le Grand etc. are consistently ranked as the most prestigious / best high schools in France, and they're public. And get at least several sons / daughters of ministers and CEOs per year.

In France, it's not so much about the money as it about social connections and prestige. Sure, there are some dumpster fires of public schools, mostly located in ZEPs (Zones of Priority Education), and many do not get as many funds as they need, but in general they are pretty damn good here.

I don't know where you're taking the illiteracy rate from, but the number of people graduating from high school across all fields (general & professional aka vocation schools or whatever) has actually been consistently increasing these past years. It's at 88.3% for the past school year, which is more than the US with a national average of 84.6%. Now sure, the US is way bigger, and has more discrepancies between states, but there's really no reason to shit upon French public education without proof.

So you're saying european health care is very similar to US health care, except you're even more forced to buy it there, and they can directly take your money from your bank account?

Weird nobody ever mentions that while singing the praises of europe's socialized medicine.

Pretty much. Everyone gets the universal healthcare, but it covers very little, and when it does, it's as I said 30 to 50% of the cost.​
Just as another example - if you go to the government-owned polyclinic, none of those private practices, the visit costs 27€ ($30). The universal healthcare covers only 12€ of those, for doctors that are supposed to be "free".​
And unless you can provide proof of a working "mutuelle" / private insurance, you'll be forced to shill out the rest out of your own pocket. And that's for national polyclinics in Paris, where the wait can be up to 3-6 months.​
If you want to see a private practician, the visits range from 60€ to 150€, aren't covered by the universal healthcare, and the private insurances only reimburse you 30% of the sum of the visit.​
And yes, the government is very diligent when it comes to serving themselves in your bank account as soon as you don't pay. And the banks cooperate fully and charge you additional fees for the privilege of being plundered.​
The general delay for health related issues is a month. After that, the Tresor Public (Public Treasure, French tax organs that also take care of the hospital bills and any government-related payments) will just force the bank to hand them the money directly.​
 
So you're saying european health care is very similar to US health care, except you're even more forced to buy it there, and they can directly take your money from your bank account?

Weird nobody ever mentions that while singing the praises of europe's socialized medicine.

I can confirm that you (at the very least, as a long-time foreign visitor) do need to buy a plan from a private company and that those plans generally do not cover dental. Thankfully, the hospital bills aren't too egregious. I went to the ER a few months ago and got billed something like sixty euros for the entire visit.
 
So you're saying european health care is very similar to US health care, except you're even more forced to buy it there, and they can directly take your money from your bank account?

Weird nobody ever mentions that while singing the praises of europe's socialized medicine.
It's a bit more complicated (because we have to pay some sum for healthcare each month/year based on earnings), but yeah. Anecdotally, everyone I know with enough money to pay for private practitioners (completely outside of public health insurance scheme) does so. For instance - need to see your GP? IME average time spent waiting is several hours, and I am hardly the only one with such an experience.
 
It's a bit more complicated (because we have to pay some sum for healthcare each month/year based on earnings), but yeah. Anecdotally, everyone I know with enough money to pay for private practitioners (completely outside of public health insurance scheme) does so. For instance - need to see your GP? IME average time spent waiting is several hours, and I am hardly the only one with such an experience.

Several hours seems wonderful, here it is not unusual to wait several weeks depending on what it is. That's if you are sick and the only reason to go to a doctor is to get a note that absolves you of missing work and to get that sweet socialist compensation*. If you want treatment they suggest going to the ER. There's also so much else that is fucked, like if someone gets ill in another city they can get fucked and go home or go to the absolutely terrible ER. People get private health insurances for a reason, especially those that travel for work.

Håkan makes $10 an hour, Sweden doesn't have a minimum wage so this isn't strange, he works 40 hour weeks and after three hours on Monday, day 1, he gets sick and he continues to be sick the next day(Tuesday). His daily salary is $80 and he loses five hours to sickness day 1.

Sick pay is 80% of the salary with a 20% deduction on the sick pay. Here's where it gets fun: The whole sum for the week is deducted from day one. He misses 5 hours, that's $50 in lost income, he's eligible to get 80%, or $40, for that after 20% of 80% of his weekly income is deducted from it. The deduction shakes out to $64. 40 - 64 is negative 24, so the remainder is taken from day two.
Day two: 80% of 10x8 = $64, minus the $24 he still owes = $50.

Result is missing 12 hours of work at $10 an hour gives him a total of $50 before taxes($50/12h = $4/h). Better than nothing but with low wages that still stings.
This is an improvement on the old system, maybe, it's also much more complicated than the old system(multiplying by 0 for the first day was easy).
 
People also forget that the US is absolutely massive and has a much larger population than any individual European country., So things that work for one largely homogeneous country won't work for the incredibly diverse and spacious US.
The best pick for a comparison would be germany, biggest population and some very rural areas outside.
Nobody wants that comparison because the Dems would hate all that mandatory stuff thats part of the social services in germany, they also dont like that the german system is cheaper and way harder to abuse. They also dont like that everybody pays into the system and not just rich people-
the GoP doesnt like that the system works so well.
 
Aphabetisation is going down, and the results of highschoolers are pathetically low. Don't get fooled by the few excellent mathematicians going out of prestigious schools, the plebeans are kept as ignorant as possible, and public schools are malfunctionning as possible. Doesn't help that the taxes actually go to private schools (including christian, jewish or muslim ones) just as much as they go to public school. There's a reason why the education ministers DON'T send their children to publich school.

The mere fact test scores are going down in Western countries can't be taken as meaning anything because (1) we're bringing in huge influxes of foreigners with shitty children who will score badly and (2) dysgenics is starting to show up in empirical measures as the low fertility of high intelligence people is starting to overcome environmentally-driven gains. Which isn't to say the schools don't suck.
 
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This astro-turfed hero-worship crap makes me want to fucking puke. He looks like ten pounds of soy in a five pound bag; fuck off with that shit. Can you imagine the outrage if this article was about a woman, instead? Seriously, try to imagine the headline, "Actually, ____'s Girlfriend Looks Like a Hot Slice of Sexy Pussy Pie" and tell me that an outrage mob doesn't immediately form inside of your brain.

God I hate hypocrisy.
 
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This astro-turfed hero-worship crap makes me want to fucking puke. He looks like ten pounds of soy in a five pound bag; fuck off with that shit. Can you imagine the outrage if this article was about a woman, instead? Seriously, try to imagine the headline, "Actually, ____'s Girlfriend Looks Like a Hot Slice of Sexy Pussy Pie" and tell me that an outrage mob doesn't immediately form inside of your brain.

God I hate hypocrisy.

Ah, barstool sports. From what I understand they're pretty bottom of the barrel as far as content creators go. They've written some pretty awkward stuff about women in the past, too, it's one of those advertising models that only really works if they're able to use their mediocrity to foment some weak outrage.
 
I want to start by saying that I hate you all for getting me curious enough to watch this drivel, although many chortles were had.

I figured out where they got her picture for the cover:

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She's in a shitty elevator, staring blankly at the floor numbers. A fitting image, I think.

It's a good metaphor for the difference between how she sees herself, and reality.
 
I was about to ask what she had going on inside her head, but I realized it was absolutely nothing.
 
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1. This bill was co-authored and sponsored by multiple women, there's no need to be sexist about it.

2. If you're two weeks late on your period, you're four weeks pregnant. Do you actually not understand how your own body works?

3. The bill explicitly protects a fetus once--and only once-- a heartbeat can be detected. You're okay with killing something that's developed enough to have a beating heart?

4. If you don't want to have a child then quit acting like one and mantle some fucking responsibility. Wrap their crap, vet your partners, keep up on your pills and don't do stupid shit and you won't get knocked up. You know what's even scarier than having a baby? Full-blown fuckin' AIDs.
 
3. The bill explicitly protects a fetus once--and only once-- a heartbeat can be detected. You're okay with killing something that's developed enough to have a beating heart?

My dude a significant number of modern abortion proponents have admitted they'd be okay with killing the baby after it's born if that's what the mother decided she wanted. They're not going to be dissuaded from unpersoning a child just because it has a heartbeat.
 
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