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.

 

[Coldgrip]

View attachment 750762

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.

He looks like the type of faggot that thinks because he's dating a beaner he'll somehow be tolerated by other beaners, goes up to a group of them to ask them something/start a conversation/ask about how much it'd take for them to do his yard work, then gets his ass beat for his shoes and watch.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

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.

If you don't want a child, don't have sex at all, it's as simple as that.

It used to be the mic drop comment when men argued that it is fucked up that they would be liable for child support if a one night stand got pregnant by accident and decided to keep it or if they got bamboozled in some other way. Haven't heard that one in a while though.

The logic is sound, I don't fault it for that, it has loads of pre-packaged rhetoric/zingers as well. I'm pro-abortion but I'm also pro-meltdowns and this line of thinking drove the opposition to insanity.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

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?

Uhhh now hold on a minute...

if a period occurs once a month, roughly... and once the period has occurred the chance for pregnancy has been missed, that means if one ovulated a week early the next time, got pregnant... then you've got a week plus... however late ones period might be within normal parameters... What's that, a week?

Is that where you're getting two weeks? And could an actual woman or someone with a better grasp of their reproductive systems let me know if these assumptions are correct?

Even that's assuming being right on top of it, but from the women I know they definitely get worried after being late, but also, they can be a week late and not be pregnant...

Still, I had always assumed the 1 month + 2 weeks was a valid time window, but now doing the math I see your point.

EDIT: Off topic but weird, this post after I made it said it was made in a minute. As in... in the future. That is weird, why does the forum software even have a text way to convey that information?

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

View attachment 751120
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?

Why wouldn't she be? There are annelids with "heart beats" as defined as you can get from a very early stage fetus and they don't even really have hearts the way we understand it. The Hartley hooligans had heartbeats. The heart is not the seat of anything that makes a person a person. Heartbeat bills are just emotional baiting for soccer moms. Unless you believe in the supernatural it's a really dumb and arbitrary cut off point.

Granted, any cut off point for abortion is going to be arbitrary. That's the nature of law. But at least try to pick one founded on avoiding infanticide instead of pure feels.

 

[It's HK-47]

Why wouldn't she be? There are annelids with "heart beats" as defined as you can get from a very early stage fetus and they don't even really have hearts the way we understand it. The Hartley hooligans had heartbeats. The heart is not the seat of anything that makes a person a person. Heartbeat bills are just emotional baiting for soccer moms. Unless you believe in the supernatural it's a really dumb and arbitrary cut off point.

Granted, any cut off point for abortion is going to be arbitrary. That's the nature of law. But at least try to pick one founded on avoiding infanticide instead of pure feels.

It's as good an indicator of "life" as anyone else is likely to come up with. The line has to be drawn somewhere. My opinion on abortion really falls to neither side of the field because I'm not religious so I'm not inherently against abortion due to moral or spiritual concerns, my concern stems from the absolute dereliction of responsibility so many abortion advocates seem to carry around with them.

Personal responsibility for ones own actions and the repercussions of those actions should be at the forefront of a person's mind, especially when it comes to children. Children and the risk of pregnancy are arguably one of the most-important responsibilities that a person can take on, and I'm deeply concerned at what would happen to a society that favours abortion as a method of birth control rather than a means of preserving health, or to terminate an unwanted pregnancy resulting from sexual assault. Any and all other forms of contraceptives should come before, and I can't back the mindset that all of these advocates have where-in they act as though it's the only available option to prevent pregnancy.

I can't help but notice that over the past few years I'm seeing exceedingly few efforts to push generalized sexual education and safety, and much, much more of a focused effort towards promoting reckless promiscuity and making certain that an abortion is available all the time, 24/7, regardless of the development of the fetus, rather than promoting the enormous number of contraceptives that are currently available.

I don't for a second believe that either side genuinely cares about the children as much as they insist, though, because I have never in my life seen a single politician or political pundit push for more funding for orphanages or for a greater focus to be put on adoption. It's like you said: It's all emotional smoke and mirrors.

 

[bippu_as_fuck_ls400]

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is learning a lot of new things in Washington — including what a garbage disposal is. The 29-year-old freshman congresswoman posted photos and videos on Insta…

nypost.com

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is learning a lot of new things in Washington — including what a garbage disposal is.

The 29-year-old freshman congresswoman posted photos and videos on Instagram showing the apparently “terrifying” contraption at work in her swanky DC apartment and saying she’d never seen one before.

“OK everyone I need your help because I just moved into this apartment a few months ago and I just flipped a switch and it made that noise and it scared the daylights out of me,” Ocasio-Cortez can be heard saying in footage.

“I am told this is a garbage disposal. I’ve never seen a garbage disposal. I never had one in any place I’ve ever lived,” she later said.

The “Green New Deal”-touting Bronx Democrat wondered whether the device was “environmentally sound.”

“This DC apartment is bougie and has things I’ve never seen before…,” Ocasio-Cortez captioned the video, later noting: “Is this what social mobility is? Using kitchen appliances you never saw growing up?”

The Bronx-born representative ended her Instagram story by quipping, “All you people telling me to reach in and grab whatever’s there are just Republicans trying to test my health insurance.”

“I’m onto you.”

 

[Coldgrip]

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is learning a lot of new things in Washington — including what a garbage disposal is. The 29-year-old freshman congresswoman posted photos and videos on Insta…

nypost.com

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pqu9n5GUQTo

...Is this a parody? I know she's dumb, but this is far beyond even Palin levels of ignorant.

 

[GentlemanFaggot]

...Is this a parody? I know she's dumb, but this is far beyond even Palin levels of ignorant.

Where I'm from, garbage disposals are pretty rare and when I got an apartment with one, all my friends were like, "But where does the food go!?" and staring at it like it was an alien device.

So people can be like this.

 

[Malodorous Merkin]

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is learning a lot of new things in Washington — including what a garbage disposal is. The 29-year-old freshman congresswoman posted photos and videos on Insta…

nypost.com

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pqu9n5GUQTo

Wait'll she pushes the lever on the refrigerator, and the ice cubes come tumbling out of the door. She'll probably fall to her knees and worship the ice-giver god machine.

 

[Far Queue]

Where I'm from, garbage disposals are pretty rare and when I got an apartment with one, all my friends were like, "But where does the food go!?" and staring at it like it was an alien device.

So people can be like this.

You and your friends aren't in Congress, and if you were you'd probably know better than the post shit like this online.

I wonder if she gets scared of the vacuum cleaner and hides under the bed in the other room when someone turns it on.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Where I'm from, garbage disposals are pretty rare and when I got an apartment with one, all my friends were like, "But where does the food go!?" and staring at it like it was an alien device.

So people can be like this.

Where I'm from they don't exist. But I know what it is, how they work and what they do because I have watched some popular American sitcoms that were made between 1970-2010. If I've learned anything from tired gag setups it's that they're a magnet for wedding rings and jewelry.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

Didn't she grow up rather middle class and well off? I'm pressing X on the idea that she never even heard of a garbage disposal...

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

She should have stuck with the instant pot politics. AOC was always envisioned as being more of a pop star politician than a serious policy heavyweight.

Alas, the road not taken.

Also, I had an ex that was afraid of the garbage disposal and it was kind of pathetic rather than endearing. So yeah. Nice self own.

 

[Jerri's Kid]

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:

View attachment 750937

View attachment 750938

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 think they were trying to create a beatific pose like you see in paintings with saints looking to the heavens, but the context makes her look awkward and dumb instead.

 

[Feline Supremacist]

AOC is confused by a garbage disposal in her DC apartment, blames NYC for making them illegal until 1997 so she didn't have one growing up...except she grew up in Westchester (Yorktown) where it was legal to have one.

AOC baffled by her new D.C. apartment's garbage disposal

Congress rookie AOC (pictured) documented her baffling first experience with the garbage disposal at her new Washington D.C. apartment on Instagram Tuesday night.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Edit, Took too long posting and someone else beat me to it gah

Why she doesn't get hammered with "You're from Westchester" everyday is beyond me.

 

[Compositesludge]

1. This bill was co-authored and sponsored by multiple women, there's no need to be sexist about it.

What AOC did was very politically expedient and one of those things which frustrates me to no end: she didn't list any of the women and only said that "most" of the men involved didn't know anything about women's bodies. In that sense, she's not critiquing the female co-authors and sponsors, but (most of) the men involved in creating this heartbeat bill. Which men? Your guess is as good as mine! She's not necessarily wrong, mostly because she's being too vague either way.

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?

Not necessarily. I can tell from experience with a paranoid ex's late period that periods can potentially be delayed for a number of different reasons. What it comes down to is that it's not always easy to tell what exactly is wrong with you at any given time, which becomes exceptionally worrying when it comes to something like a potential pregnancy.

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?

I think (hope) that in these cases, it wouldn't come down to them being okay with killing a fetus that's developed enough to have a heartbeat, but that the option would be available to them if - God forbid - no other option were available.

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.

I completely agree that we need to encourage responsibility and proper education when it comes to having safe sex. To me, this could be best accomplished by moving away from abstinence-only sex education in the United States. There's no reason to preclude young students from receiving accurate and pertinent information out of fear that they won't act like puritans or whatever reason underpins its contemporary pursuit, and the idea that however many (hundreds of) thousands of unwanted pregnancies are caused by this deliberate withholding of information sickens me. However, I am not sure how this bill addresses that issue, or how getting an abortion, in general, is indicative of abdicating responsibility. Medical reasons do exist as reasons for women to pursue abortions (eg, if the pregnancy isn't viable or if serious risks of death in childbirth arise), and warning signs might not always be present for parents who planned to have a child to make an informed choice or prevent it from becoming a serious problem.

I can't help but notice that over the past few years I'm seeing exceedingly few efforts to push generalized sexual education and safety, and much, much more of a focused effort towards promoting reckless promiscuity and making certain that an abortion is available all the time, 24/7, regardless of the development of the fetus, rather than promoting the enormous number of contraceptives that are currently available.

I don't for a second believe that either side genuinely cares about the children as much as they insist, though, because I have never in my life seen a single politician or political pundit push for more funding for orphanages or for a greater focus to be put on adoption. It's like you said: It's all emotional smoke and mirrors.

This is something that I completely agree with. The complete disregard for providing more support for orphans, children, parents who have just had a child, pre-natal care, etc. is one of the greatest shames and failures of our country. Endorsing abortion as the only effective means of birth control or a way to have consequence-free sex is barbaric, as is forcing women to have unwanted children and then force themselves into medically hazardous or economically unviable situations as a result. We, as a society, need to take more responsibility for our future, simple as that.

I apologize if I came off as curt or impolite during any part of this post. This is an issue that hits particularly close to home for me, and I want to be sure that my consternation does not lead to me being unfairly rude in response to your posts.

 

[GrungyLawnChlorinate]

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

Ocasio-Cortez blown away by first experience with a garbage disposal

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is learning a lot of new things in Washington — including what a garbage disposal is. The 29-year-old freshman congresswoman posted photos and videos on Insta…

nypost.com

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pqu9n5GUQTo

Imagine being so unworldly and ignorant that at the age of 29 you flip your shit upon discovering a garbage disposal. It's not some fancy appliance, its often included in even cheap-ass housing.

Didn't she grow up rather middle class and well off? I'm pressing X on the idea that she never even heard of a garbage disposal...

Good point! If sincere then the only explanation is idiocy.

I am conflicted as to whether she is as dumb as she seems to be. That doesn't look like an act, but how can she be 30 and be so dumb?

 

[It's HK-47]

I completely agree that we need to encourage responsibility and proper education when it comes to having safe sex. To me, this could be best accomplished by moving away from abstinence-only sex education in the United States. There's no reason to preclude young students from receiving accurate and pertinent information out of fear that they won't act like puritans or whatever reason underpins its contemporary pursuit, and the idea that however many (hundreds of) thousands of unwanted pregnancies are caused by this deliberate withholding of information sickens me. However, I am not sure how this bill addresses that issue, or how getting an abortion, in general, is indicative of abdicating responsibility. Medical reasons do exist as reasons for women to pursue abortions (eg, if the pregnancy isn't viable or if serious risks of death in childbirth arise), and warning signs might not always be present for parents who planned to have a child to make an informed choice or prevent it from becoming a serious problem.

Oh, the bill doesn't handle it in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I'm staunchly in favour of "pumping the breaks" because it's at least something. The "other side of the fence" doesn't have an argument, it's just wall-to-wall chaos and a literal celebration of abortion without any rhyme or reason behind it. If they were sincere in their argument that their advocacy for abortion was purely out of concern for the mothers' health or the termination of pregnancies due to sexual assault, they wouldn't behave like that.

I'm also nowhere near being in-line with the Fundamentalists when it comes to abortion being completely criminalized due to spirituality, but bills like this are in the very least presenting some sort of structure and order. The crux of the problem is that both sides of the aisle have entrenched themselves so deeply into concern over abortion that they're not understanding the fundamental flaw, which is that abortion isn't even the core problem in the first place.

The entire chalkboard that the argument's scrawled across needs to be smashed into pieces so we can start all over. The argument should be about sexual education again, but sometime over the last decade it mutated into an argument about whether or not it's okay to terminate a pregnancy. I don't think either of them are aware of the fact that they've been screaming at each other so long that they've both become immovable, but the whole thing needs to be scrapped, and both sides need to shut the fuck up.

I realize that I run the risk of repeating myself, but personal responsibility, education concerning the plethora of available contraceptives, and education concerning sterilizing yourself if that's what you desire be should be what the argument centers around. If you absolutely 200% never want children, have your ____ removed/tied. Why not just do that? This isn't the 1950's anymore, you can't just throw your junk all over town and not expect something terrible to happen if you're doing it without any form of caution, and in more than a few instances winding up on either side of a pregnancy is really one of the least terrible things that could happen to you.

I'd rather have ten children than live the rest of my life HIV+ because I did something that could have easily been prevented were I more responsible. If everyone passed down that list and took every available precaution then we wouldn't even need to have the abortion argument in the first place.

 

[Compositesludge]

Oh, the bill doesn't handle it in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, I'm staunchly in favour of "pumping the breaks" because it's at least something. The "other side of the fence" doesn't have an argument, it's just wall-to-wall chaos and a literal celebration of abortion without any rhyme or reason behind it. If they were sincere in their argument that their advocacy for abortion was purely out of concern for the mothers' health or the termination of pregnancies due to sexual assault, they wouldn't behave like that.

I can definitely understand where you're coming from, but I would disagree slightly on the lack of rhyme and reason. It looks like the big conflation there is between getting an abortion ("if women embrace the fact that they control life...") (From Vox's coverage of that performance by Michelle Wolf, the two deserve one another) and female empowerment, which I find to be an exceptionally frightening reason! It seems like it's derived from a need not only for parity, but for dominance over those who should depend on them. I sincerely hope that's a point of view that hasn't spread*, there's a huge difference between desiring bodily autonomy and wanting to wantonly cause pain.

*Of course it has, who am I kidding?

I'm also nowhere near being in-line with the Fundamentalists when it comes to abortion being completely criminalized due to spirituality, but bills like this are in the very least presenting some sort of structure and order. The crux of the problem is that both sides of the aisle have entrenched themselves so deeply into concern over abortion that they're not understanding the fundamental flaw, which is that abortion isn't even the core problem in the first place.

The entire chalkboard that the argument's scrawled across needs to be smashed into pieces so we can start all over. The argument should be about sexual education again, but sometime over the last decade it mutated into an argument about whether or not it's okay to terminate a pregnancy. I don't think either of them are aware of the fact that they've been screaming at each other so long that they've both become immovable, but the whole thing needs to be scrapped, and both sides need to shut the fuck up.

I completely agree, that really is the problem. This is such a critical and immediately divisive issue that the immediate reaction is almost predicated upon the need to scream. On the one hand, if you're pro-life, the people you're arguing with are arguing for killing babies. On the other hand, if you're pro-choice, the people you're arguing with are arguing for the destruction of women's bodily autonomy - it's become such an incendiary topic that it demands that people take the strongest and most immovable stances possible. Maybe it's not that they aren't aware, but that this is their desired form of discussion abortion.

I realize that I run the risk of repeating myself, but personal responsibility, education concerning the plethora of available contraceptives, and education concerning sterilizing yourself if that's what you desire be should be what the argument centers around. If you absolutely 200% never want children, have your ____ removed/tied. Why not just do that? This isn't the 1950's anymore, you can't just throw your junk all over town and not expect something terrible to happen if you're doing it without any form of caution, and in more than a few instances winding up on either side of a pregnancy is really one of the least terrible things that could happen to you.

I'd rather have ten children than live the rest of my life HIV+ because I did something that could have easily been prevented were I more responsible. If everyone passed down that list and took every available precaution then we wouldn't even need to have the abortion argument in the first place.

Absolutely! Support should be focused around providing family planning, information on how to have safe sex and properly use contraceptives, pre and postnatal care for expecting mothers, and heck, considering the perspective endorsed by Michelle Wolf, maybe more of a discussion on empowerment and consent. Something to drive home the fact that equality and empowerment as it relates to sex doesn't have to come from terminating pregnancies, but from the equitable treatment of men and women. There's no better way to illustrate that we have a significant problem than that line I quoted, imagine viewing female empowerment as predicated upon the ability to control life by ending it. Shit's crazy!

I don't think we're ever fully going to move away from the abortion argument - there will always be those who have medical reasons to need it, nonviable pregnancies, etcetera. That, however, is most certainly not an argument for continuing to pursue inaction out of fear of offending people or whatever. We had over 600,00 abortions in 2015 alone, and that number only reflects the ones that were reported to the CDC. I think that's a statistic that gets lost in the shuffle far too frequently, that we've torn an entire generation's chance to experience life in any meaningful way in a matter of years.

Do I like or agree with the Georgia heartbeat bill? No, I don't think it's going to solve anything and will only lead to further entrenchment of people's political inclinations. But I absolutely cannot blame them for trying to do something, anything, to try to make that abortion statistic go down.

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

I wonder what Alexandria Ocasio-Chandler is doing right now? Probably posting dumb shit on the internet.