Tag Archives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

AOC Backed Progressive Wins Over Democrat Incumbent in NY

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by Daveda Gruber:

A progressive  challenger who was backed by some big names in that field such as, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and the first term Representative from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has won an important race and taken out an incumbent.

Jamaal Bowman is a former middle school principal and first-time candidate and he ran against Representative Eliot Engel, who was the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

The primary election took place on June 23rd but was really close and it took until Friday, almost a month later, to call the result.

Bowman defeated Engel by a roughly 15-point margin in the primary in New York’s 16th Congressional District.

The district covers parts of the New York City borough of the Bronx and portions of neighboring southern Westchester County.

Many of the votes in the primary were cast by mail, and some still haven’t been counted.

Associated Press analysis of absentee ballots that had been counted so far indicate that Bowman’s lead is too far from Engel to overcome.

AP Politics tweeted this:

After the call was made by AP, Bowman tweeted this:

The victory by Bowman is being compared to the victory by AOC in 2018. She defeated Democratic Representative Joe Crowley.

Engel had been under attack because he spent more time at his home in Potomac, Maryland than at his apartment in the Bronx.

He was also caught on a hot microphone saying that “if I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care” about speaking, while he was at an event in his congressional district.

Engel is a White man while Bowman is Black. So much for assuming White privilege.

Engel landed endorsements from prominent establishment figures while he was fighting for re-election. Some of his donors include the former senator from New York and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, some top House Democrats, and the political wing of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Engel is one of the original sponsors of the House Democrats’ sweeping police reform bill and he played a significant role in this year’s impeachment efforts over President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine

The bill is moving through the chamber at this time.

More and more progressive candidates are appearing on the scene. Some are doing better than was anticipated.

If the Democrats have a large progressive field, there is a certain type of Democrat that they appeal to.

Personally, I categorize progressives as Socialists.

Progressivism is a political philosophy in support of social reform. It is based on the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition.

Modern social democrats would have you believe that they tend to reject revolutionary means accepted by the more radical socialists.

They also contend that another difference is that some social democrats are mainly concerned with practical reforms within capitalism, with socialism relegated to the indefinite future.

I don’t seem to see the differences.

If more of these progressive candidates get into power, America is going down.

I have an easy alternative. Vote Republican and you won’t have to worry about the U.S. becoming a Socialist nation.

My take on it is, VOTE RED DOWN THE LINE wherever you are.

Why is AOC Silent on Sri Lanka Massacre?

 
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by Daveda Gruber:

In the wake of the terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, while most people in the free world mourned over the loss of human lives, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was silent on social media.

The horrific attack on Christians had the Islamic State group taking credit for the bloodshed. The government also confirmed that the attacks came from Islamic fundamentalists. The gruesome explosions left 359 people dead to date.

In all, three churches and three hotels, were targeted by seven men who posed for a picture before committing the deadly deed.

In March, Ocasio-Cortez was quick to comment on the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand but stayed unusually silent on the Sri Lanka terrorist attack.

American citizens died in the holy day massacre of Christians.

Following the attack in New Zeland, Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter and tweeted several times on the terror attack to criticize the Trump administration while proposing tougher gun control measures in the U.S.

At the time, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted this:

Many Twitter users found this odd and asked her about it. I felt the need to convey this message to Ocasio-Cortez so, I tweeted this:

I wasn’t making up anything. I wrote the truth. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted 14 times about the terror attack on Muslims in New Zealand, but has posted nothing about the terror attack on Christians by Muslim extremists in Sri Lanka.

I guess Ocasio-Cortez has different standards for Christians and Muslims. It appears that AOC believes that Muslims being attacked deserve her attention but Christians being attacked by Islamic terrorists doesn’t.

Did Pelosi Take Aim at Herself While Trying to Jab AOC?

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by Daveda Gruber:

On Monday Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, made it clear that more praise was due to Democrats who flipped Republican seats in the 2018 midterms rather than to give that praise to representatives like herself and freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who carried districts where “glass of water” with a “D” next to it could win an election.

While Pelosi downplayed her own win she said, “When we won this election, it wasn’t in districts like mine or Alexandria’s. [S]he’s a wonderful member of Congress as I think all of our colleagues will attest. But those are districts that are solidly Democratic.”

To put emphasis on her claim, Pelosi then picked up a water glass that was next to her and said, “This glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name in those districts.”

The phrase “Dumb as a Rock” comes to mind as I try to compare Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez to a glass of water. A rock is an inanimate object as is a glass of water. Both don’t seem to have a brain.

Pelosi made the statement while making an appearance before the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This week Pelosi is traveling in Europe with a congressional delegation.

Is Pelosi seeing that the progressive wing of the Democratic party needs to be explained even if it means downplaying the significance of her own win in California?

Well, let’s analyze what Pelosi said on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night to  Lesley Stahl. Pelosi described the influence of the Democrats’ progressive wing as being “like five people.”

Who are the five people? Well, I can pull a few names out of the air but then I seem to get a much larger number than five.

I also find that saying the word “like” a lot seems to be what Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez have in common aside from winning in easy to win Democratic districts.

Ilhan Omar: Hurtful Words or Anti-Semitic?

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by Daveda Gruber:

A delay looms over the consideration of a resolution condemning antisemitism over comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar D-Minn..

Democratic leaders will put forward a vote on the House floor Wednesday to denounce antisemitism. The text of the resolution and whether Omar would be mentioned by name were left hanging but the latest text being circulated in the House does not mention Omar.

The argumentative environment  could jeopardize bringing up the measure this week because there’s a risk it might not pass.

Over the weekend Omar held her ground and tweeted:

No one had demanded that Omar should have allegiance/pledge support to Israel but she tweeted that she would refuse to “have allegiance/pledge support” to Israel as a condition of serving in Congress.

The Freshman from Minnesota has only been in Congress since January. Yet, she has been the center of controversy over numerous remarks she’s made that have been labeled anti-Semitic, as you can see from her tweets.

Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt said in a recent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Omar’s suggestion that Jews have a divided loyalty between the U.S. and Israel is “a vile anti-Semitic slur that has been used to harass, marginalize and persecute the Jewish people for centuries.”

Greenblatt did not leave out but did condemned the attacks Omar has faced for her own Islamic faith. A resolution would “send the unambiguous message that the United States Congress is no place for hate.”

There are some lawmakers who are pushing for Omar to lose her role on a key House committee.

On Tuesday, House GOP Whip Steve Scalise tweeted:

On Tuesday, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the planned resolution, saying other lawmakers weren’t reprimanded after controversial comments.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:

GOP leaders finally removed Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) from all committees for having promoted white nationalism and ¬supremacy, Democrats should insist on Omar’s expulsion from the Foreign Affairs Committee.

The House Democratic leadership would like to treat the resolution as a “suspension” measure which means that the House can bring the plan to the floor quickly with limited debate. It would need a two-thirds vote to pass.

We all have our own opinions on this matter but I do see that even I got into a little twitter debate on the subject.

I responded to Jack Murphy’s tweet:

One Twitter user was not happy with my opinion. She and I tweeted back and forth:

I didn’t answer the last response to me; should I?

Are Babies and Children the Enemy of Democrats?

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by Daveda Gruber:

Penny Nance, the leader of a women’s group, Concerned Women for America, came down hard on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez D-N.Y. and other Democrats.

The CEO was reported to have said, “What’s is old is new again. AOC questioning if it is still okay to have children because of climate change is the same apoplectic anti-child rhetoric we’ve heard before.”

Nance also reportedly said,  “We heard about this in the late 1960s with zero population growth crowd who warned that we needed to limit our families or doomsday would come. Now, we worry about replacement rates.”

In an Instagram Live stream last weekend, Ocasio-Cortez spoke about climate change and the ever mounting student loans. She then told her 2.5 million followers these issues have led “young people” to question whether or not they should bring more children into the world.

Ocasio-Cortez said, “Our planet is going to face disaster if we don’t turn this ship around. And so it’s basically like, there is a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult and it does lead, I think young people, to have a legitimate question. You know, should—is it okay to still have children?”

She went on to say, “Not just financially because people are graduating with 20, 30, 100 thousand dollars of student loan debt so they can’t even afford to have kids in the house, but there’s also just this basic moral question, like, what do we do?”

Ocasio-Cortez continued, “And even if you don’t have kids, there are still children here in the world and we have a moral obligation to them to leave a better world to them.”

A Twitter user tweeted this out:

Conservatives, needless to say, were rather critical of Ocasio-Cortez’s comments.

Nance, while being upset over what Ocasio-Cortez said, also called out Senate Democrats linked them to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez for voting down a bill Monday that would have protected infants that survived abortions.

Nance told reporters, “The common thread in all of this is that the Left is rarely in favor of having babies and certainly never in favor of large families. In fact, in many cases babies are considered the enemy. Sadly, it was this belief system on full display yesterday when 44 Democratic Senators voted against protecting survivors of abortion.”

The bill in question would have protected infants that survived failed abortions. It would have also sent doctors who didn’t try to save these babies to prison.

So, even if a baby survives an abortion, it is still maintained that the child has no rights to have his or her life saved under the law as it stands.

Green New Deal Going to the Senate for Vote?

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by Daveda Gruber:

On Tuesday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Kentucky said that he wants to hold a vote on the “Green New Deal” resolution proposed by and authored by co-sponsors Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez D-N.Y. and Senator Ed Markey D-MA “to see how [Senate Democrats] feel about the ‘Green New Deal’.”

On Thursday the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, slammed Republicans for planning a vote on the “Green New Deal.” Schumer labeled the forced vote a “stunt,” a “cheap, cynical ploy” and “a game of political gotcha.”

Schumer said on the Senate floor, “The Republican leader announced he’s going to bring up a resolution he intends to vote against. Now that is what the American people hate about Congress, the pointless partisan games.”

Schumer, who was joined by colleagues on the Senate floor, said, “Bring it on.” He also said Democrats “believe that we need to do something about climate change” he then added, “Do Republicans?”

The Green New Deal has been endorsed by nearly all top 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

McConnell told reporters, “I’ve noted with great interest the Green New Deal. And we’re going to be voting on that in the Senate. We’ll give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal.”

McConnell wants to force Democrats to officially go on the record for the radical proposal.

The proposal was put forward by Cortez and aims to transform the country’s economy in a bid to combat climate change. It was recently under examination that revealed that a related FAQ document included passages promising a job to “all people of the United States” that includes those “unwilling to work” and suggests that air travel could be made obsolete.

The document that is now deleted, told of getting rid of farting cows and airplanes within ten years. The goal has been changed to get to net-zero rather than zero emissions in ten years because they were not sure that they would be able to accomplish that as fast as they would like to.

McConnell’s move to bring the plan to a vote on the Senate floor would enlighten the public to what Democratic presidential candidates including Sens. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand who are running on the progressive platform in 2020.

President Trump has not thought much of the co-sponsored deal and tweeted this:

Markey said, “Don’t let Mitch McConnell fool you, this is nothing but an attempt to sabotage the movement we are building. He wants to silence your voice so Republicans don’t have to explain why they are climate change deniers. McConnell wants this to be the end, this is just the beginning,”

If this is the beginning, I am not looking forward to more of this rhetoric. Something in my head tells me, “If you like your car, you can keep your car.”

I really don’t see super trains taking the place of airplanes and I don’t see everyone getting rid of their car for an electric one. We can’t stop cows from passing gas. So, no more steaks or burgers? That upsets me, as well. I enjoy a nice Filet Mignon on occasion.

I see these points being brought to light continuously in the 2020 election debates. The Democrats will try to sell the American people on climate change/global warming but I don’t believe the majority of people are ready to accept what the “Green New Deal” proposes.