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.
 

AOC criticizes world's richest man Jeff Bezos for underpaying Amazon workers. Amazon says she's 'just wrong'

cnn.com

New York (CNN Business)Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for being a billionaire while his company pays its warehouse workers "starvation wages." Amazon says Ocasio-Cortez is "just wrong."

In an interview with ABC News' "This Week," the New York Democrat blasted Amazon, claiming low worker pay contributes to Bezos' status as the world's richest person.

Amazon (AMZN) retorted in a tweetMonday saying the company pays a $15 minimum wage and offers full benefits on employees' first days on the job. The company also noted that it has lobbied to raise the federal minimum wage.

In the interview with "This Week," Ocasio-Cortez said she doesn't care if Bezos is a billionaire if Amazon pays workers a "living wage," along with benefits like guaranteed health care.

"If that's the case and Jeff Bezos is still a billionaire, that's one thing," she said. But if Bezos' billionaire status is "predicated on paying people starvation wages and stripping them of the ability to access health care," she said that's a problem.

ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl pressed Ocasio-Cortez about whether she does think the wages are why Bezos is a billionaire. She "certainly thinks it's part of the equation," she said, adding that she thinks Bezos should pay more in taxes and increase Amazon's benefits, including free college tuition and health care.

"These allegations are absurd," Amazon said in a statement. "Amazon associates receive industry-leading pay starting at $15 an hour. ...Amazon pre-pays 95% of continuing education tuition costs through its Career Choice program for associates who want to pursue in-demand careers."

Bezos net worth is roughly $117 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His vast wealth has come from owning about a sixth of Amazon's stock, which has grown 962% since it made its public debut in 1997. Amazon has paid him an annual salary of just $81,840 since 1998, and he has never received a stock award.

Amazon and Bezos have increasingly come under scrutiny from government officials. Last week, Amazon responded to presidential hopeful Joe Biden about corporate taxes.

"I have nothing against Amazon, but no company pulling in billions of dollars of profits should pay a lower tax rate than firefighters and teachers. We need to reward work, not just wealth," the former Vice President tweeted, linking to a New York Times story about how Amazon got a rebate on its corporate taxes in 2018.

Shortly after, Amazon responded in a tweet.

"We've paid $2.6B in corporate taxes since 2016. We pay every penny we owe. Congress designed tax laws to encourage companies to reinvest in the American economy. We have. $200B in investments since 2011 & 300K US jobs. Assume VP Biden's complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon."

Amazon has publicly pushed to lower the taxes it owes. The company also avoided paying state sales taxes for years until its growing network of physical warehouses prompted it to do an about-face and collect them everywhere.

Last year, Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees. It also said its public policy team will begin lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

--CNN Business' Lydia DePillis contributed to this report.
 
i unironically bet AOC could run a company well if she wasn't beholden to socialist justice memerism (i.e., if she wasn't trying to "win" at politics)

God this bitch hates Amazon. Holy shit, give it a rest, hon.
no, i want them (the SJ Lunatics) to drive amazon out of the US and bankrupt the country. you aren't thinking big enough, hun.
 
i unironically bet AOC could run a company well if she wasn't beholden to socialist justice memerism (i.e., if she wasn't trying to "win" at politics)


no, i want them (the SJ Lunatics) to drive amazon out of the US and bankrupt the country. you aren't thinking big enough, hun.

I wouldn't take that bet.

From the comments she made both before, while and after running, it's clear to me she doesn't GET how anything in corporate America works. Or fundamentally even how capitalism as a system works to even give rise to corporations.

She's clearly of that generation of kids who were aggressively shielded from failure by parents/teachers and have no clue how the world works because their dumb kid-like ideas were never allowed to fail as a teaching lesson. They think that companies are just these bottomless pits of money that come from... somewhere.... somehow.... and their ignorance is so great that they think it almost quasi-magic, like a cargo cult, they are obsessed with looking the part of a congress member, or hipster millionaire, to the degree that they honestly think all they need is an office in a building and an apple laptop, and bam! $150,000/yr in salary..... and if they don't get that.... no matter what their objective "work" is, well, form a union and walkout! Only greed would explain how you aren't getting that cushy salary.... or why nobody voted for your bill, it promised to fix everything.... how? I dunno, but I put "fix eee-veryting, Kthx! " on a bill, and they WOULDN'T PASS IT MOMMMY!!! MAKE THEM PASS IT!!!!
 
I don't think we're going to see many Millennial congresspeople after this whore.

God, I hope we don't see many Millennial congresspeople after this whore...
 
To the shock of nobody, AOC's local polling numbers are horrid. (Link to Beanie-Boy vid)

Being a national woke cheerleader isn't much good when the ones who decide if you keep your position hate your guts. If she's BTFO'd in the next midterms, I can readily imagine the salt from editorial writers in California about how the Racist Patriarchy (tm) is to blame, not the fact she ripped ten thousand jobs away from her own district, you know, to protect them from the excesses of capitalism? And the little people in their cheap seats were just too small-minded and misogynist to see it was for their own good?
 
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AOC criticizes world's richest man Jeff Bezos for underpaying Amazon workers. Amazon says she's 'just wrong'

cnn.com

New York (CNN Business)Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for being a billionaire while his company pays its warehouse workers "starvation wages." Amazon says Ocasio-Cortez is "just wrong."

In an interview with ABC News' "This Week," the New York Democrat blasted Amazon, claiming low worker pay contributes to Bezos' status as the world's richest person.

Amazon (AMZN) retorted in a tweetMonday saying the company pays a $15 minimum wage and offers full benefits on employees' first days on the job. The company also noted that it has lobbied to raise the federal minimum wage.

In the interview with "This Week," Ocasio-Cortez said she doesn't care if Bezos is a billionaire if Amazon pays workers a "living wage," along with benefits like guaranteed health care.

"If that's the case and Jeff Bezos is still a billionaire, that's one thing," she said. But if Bezos' billionaire status is "predicated on paying people starvation wages and stripping them of the ability to access health care," she said that's a problem.

ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl pressed Ocasio-Cortez about whether she does think the wages are why Bezos is a billionaire. She "certainly thinks it's part of the equation," she said, adding that she thinks Bezos should pay more in taxes and increase Amazon's benefits, including free college tuition and health care.

"These allegations are absurd," Amazon said in a statement. "Amazon associates receive industry-leading pay starting at $15 an hour. ...Amazon pre-pays 95% of continuing education tuition costs through its Career Choice program for associates who want to pursue in-demand careers."

Bezos net worth is roughly $117 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His vast wealth has come from owning about a sixth of Amazon's stock, which has grown 962% since it made its public debut in 1997. Amazon has paid him an annual salary of just $81,840 since 1998, and he has never received a stock award.

Amazon and Bezos have increasingly come under scrutiny from government officials. Last week, Amazon responded to presidential hopeful Joe Biden about corporate taxes.

"I have nothing against Amazon, but no company pulling in billions of dollars of profits should pay a lower tax rate than firefighters and teachers. We need to reward work, not just wealth," the former Vice President tweeted, linking to a New York Times story about how Amazon got a rebate on its corporate taxes in 2018.

Shortly after, Amazon responded in a tweet.

"We've paid $2.6B in corporate taxes since 2016. We pay every penny we owe. Congress designed tax laws to encourage companies to reinvest in the American economy. We have. $200B in investments since 2011 & 300K US jobs. Assume VP Biden's complaint is w/ the tax code, not Amazon."

Amazon has publicly pushed to lower the taxes it owes. The company also avoided paying state sales taxes for years until its growing network of physical warehouses prompted it to do an about-face and collect them everywhere.

Last year, Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour for all US employees. It also said its public policy team will begin lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

--CNN Business' Lydia DePillis contributed to this report.
As someone who has actually worked for Amazon, I can confirm that Cortez is a complete fucking idiot. Amazon pays $15 per hour at minimum and you get all these benefits including the ability to get Grade A health insurance.
 
P.J. O'Rourke, upon the election of Dan Quayle as VP, once referred to the man as the one person who would finally answer a long-held question: "Can someone be too dumb for politics?"

But looking at AOC...I wonder, was he really the "only" one?
 
i unironically bet AOC could run a company well if she wasn't beholden to socialist justice memerism (i.e., if she wasn't trying to "win" at politics)


no, i want them (the SJ Lunatics) to drive amazon out of the US and bankrupt the country. you aren't thinking big enough, hun.
Just because you can (sometimes) manage to correctly see a flaw in neoliberal capitalism doesn't mean you aren't a retard.
Case in point: every communist, ever. Minus the quip about neolib flavor if we go further back.
Also, if you disagree with this, you are probably a communist and therefore a retard too.
 
i unironically bet AOC could run a company well if she wasn't beholden to socialist justice memerism (i.e., if she wasn't trying to "win" at politics)
There is actually a video of her demoing her print company using public fund (lol) that didn't succeed (cuz she went to bartending later on) so if I were a betting man, I wouldn't bet on her business savvy.

If I remember correctly, she started the company as part of the community participation or contribution.

You'd think her failures as a company owner would have educated her about the Nativity of her ideals but alas.
 
Amazon (AMZN) retorted in a tweetMonday saying the company pays a $15 minimum wage and offers full benefits on employees' first days on the job. The company also noted that it has lobbied to raise the federal minimum wage.

In the interview with "This Week," Ocasio-Cortez said she doesn't care if Bezos is a billionaire if Amazon pays workers a "living wage," along with benefits like guaranteed health care.

"If that's the case and Jeff Bezos is still a billionaire, that's one thing," she said. But if Bezos' billionaire status is "predicated on paying people starvation wages and stripping them of the ability to access health care," she said that's a problem.

Hahahahahah. Amazon refutes her claim, she doubles down and essentially adds that IF they didn't, THEN...

She's gone full Thot Quixote.
 
What's funny is that nobody will ever attack Amazon for wanting a higher minimum wage, even though that will massively benefit Amazon to the detriment of every small company in the country.
 
What's funny is that nobody will ever attack Amazon for wanting a higher minimum wage, even though that will massively benefit Amazon to the detriment of every small company in the country.
It will put illegals out to work.

They should just raise it to $20 and save the trouble.
 
I hope AmberLynn runs for congress, i would steal the identity of dead people to help out

Orange cheekin, choker extensions, and free sparkly journals for everyone! (as decreed from high a top Pillow Mountain or the Air Force One scootypoof)

But it does make one wonder if she'd actually be any worse than AOC.
 
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