Category Archives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

1/7 News Roundup & Open Thread

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls Trump a racist, outlines ‘radical’ policies on ‘60 Minutes’

Go ahead, “call me radical,” newly sworn-in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Anderson Cooper in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday in which she also called President Trump a racist.

The 29-year-old Boston University graduate, who gained notoriety this past fall after defeating a longtime incumbent in her New York Democratic primary, has become the youngest woman to ever serve in the US Congress. In the interview that aired Sunday night on CBS, Ocasio-Cortez outlined some of her ambitious policy proposals — as well as her frank thoughts on Trump.

Although the freshman congresswoman acknowledged during the interview that she doesn’t often speak about the president — “I think he’s a symptom of a problem,” she said by way of an explanation — she did have choice words to say about him when Cooper asked.

“The president certainly didn’t invent racism. But he’s certainly given a voice to it and expanded it and created a platform for those things,” she said.

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In the “60 Minutes” interview, Ocasio-Cortez also spoke about her progressive policy ideas, as well as how she planned to pay for them. For starters, she floated the idea of a marginal tax in which the very rich would pay as much as 70 percent on a portion of their income to fund her programs, including a “Green New Deal,” which would convert the entire US economy to renewable energy sources.

“People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

When Cooper continued to press Ocasio-Cortez on how she would pay for her proposals, she replied, “No one asks how we’re going to pay for this Space Force. No one asked how we paid for a $2 trillion tax cut. We only ask how we pay for it on issues of housing, health care, and education.”

More news/videos/tweets/etc. in the comments.

12/3 Interview with Bernie Sanders about Climate Change and TH/Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Naomi Klein from The Intercept Interviews Bernie Sanders at the Gathering.

This sets the tone for the Town Hall this evening:

Livestream:

Discuss away…still open thread for this evening.

11/22 News Roundup – John Fetterman On The Issues, Sen. Sanders/Cantwell To Debate Cruz/Scott On Taxes & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Starting off today with John Fetterman (Candidate for Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov) discussing immigration, dreamers, job creation & more:

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments, including:

*Internet Defenders Vow to Fight FCC’s “Scorched-Earth” Attack on Net Neutrality
*Trump’s “Frightening” Pick for Top Census Job Thinks “Competitive Elections Are Bad for America”
*Corbyn Demands End to US-UK Complicity in Yemen’s Suffering
*Keystone Pipeline Permit Could Be Revoked After Last Week’s 210,000-Gallon Spill
*Costa Rica Runs Entirely on Renewable Energy for 300 Days
*Pipeline Updates, Water Protector News & More

(If the comments do not load, try either clicking the comment box or the ‘sort by newest/oldest’ option, and then they should pop up… apologies for the inconvenience!)

11/17 News Roundup – Keystone Leaks 200k Gallons Of Oil In South Dakota, Dems Are Doomed Unless They Start Listening to Millennials & More

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As Predicted—Because ‘Pipelines Are Bound to Spill’—Existing Keystone Gushes 200K Gallons of Oil

Some of the worst fears and dire predictions of opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline came true on Thursday when pipeline owner TransCanada announced that more than 200,000 gallons of oil had spilled from the existing portion of the Keystone system in Marshall County, South Dakota.

While the company reported the spill in a public statement, Buzzfeed notes there was an approximately four-and-a-half hour gap between when the company said the breach was discovered at 6:00 am and when local officials say they were notified at 10:30 am. As a South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources told the news outlet, “We’re not quite sure why there was a time gap in there.”

Outside of the company’s statement, there has been no outside or independent verification of the size of the spill or details about the scale of the possible damage.

Those who had warned against the pipeline’s approval for precisely these reasons and continue to work tirelessly to prevent the construction of the Keystone XL (KXL) project, were among the first to respond to Thursday’s spill.

“With their horrible safety record, today’s spill is just the latest tragedy caused by the irresponsible oil company TransCanada,” said Ben Schreiber, senior political strategist at Friends of the Earth. “We cannot let the world’s fossil fuel empires continue to drive government policy toward climate catastrophe. The only safe solution for oil and fossil fuels is to keep them in the ground.”

Rachel Rye Butler, an anti-tarsands campaigner with Greenpeace, noted that Thursday’s spill comes just days before the Nebraska Public Service Commission is set to decide on state approval for Keystone XL, which was ultimately rejected under President Obama but given a greenlight earlier this year by the Trump administration. “The writing on the wall to reject this pipeline could not be more clear,” Butler said in a statement. “These pipelines are bound to spill, and they put communities, precious drinking water, and our climate at risk.”

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments, including:

*Indigenous Woman Gets San Diego Support For Mexico Presidential Run
*What Democratic civil war? The left already won.
*Two months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are still living in misery.
*‘Say Goodbye to Local Media,’ as Trump FCC Opens Corporate Merger Floodgates
*Pipeline news, Water Protector updates * More

The People’s Guide to Power: How to challenge an incumbent (Ocasio For NY14)

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“The only way you beat an incumbent is by out-working them.”

As part of their 2017 election series “The People’s Guide to Power,” WNYC is releasing a series of reports called the ‘Queens Machine’ from Brigid Bergin that breaks down how the Democratic Party in Queens works, including the story of a group of women going up against one of the last vestiges of New York City’s machine politics (including our very own Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).

Her opponent, Representative Joseph Crowley, accepts three million dollars a year in Wall Street, real estate, and corporate finance industries. He has lived in Virginia for the last 20 years. It’s time for the Bronx to be represented by someone who actually lives there and will champion a progressive vision for the future.

Alexandria’s Brand New Congress Page
Support #Ocasio2018 campaign here.
Ocasio On Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Campaign For Congress (NY-14)

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Official Website has more about her an her platform::

New York’s 14th congressional district urgently needs access to more reliable jobs, increased access to family support services like parental leave and free childcare. I will fight for universal access to quality education from pre-K until college regardless of income and enrollment status because your ZIP code should never determine your quality of life.

Specifics On Issues:

*PROVIDE A TUITION-FREE EDUCATION TO QUALIFIED STUDENTS AT ALL PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES, AND TRADE SCHOOLS
*RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE TO $15/HOUR — AND TIE IT TO INFLATION
*INVEST THE $4.6 TRILLION NEEDED TO REPAIR OUR COUNTRY’S CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE

& to: FIX THE HEALTHCARE MESS:

Everyone knows health care in America is broken. It was broken before Obamacare, and it is still broken. Obamacare forces millions of people to pay for insurance they can’t afford to use because deductibles are so high. Millions are still left without coverage and costs are skyrocketing for everyone.

There has always been a simple solution to our health care mess: cover everyone with Medicare.

Private insurance companies have been allowed by generations of corrupt politicians to become monopolies with the power to extort many hundreds of billions of dollars from the American people each year. The health insurance industry spent $150 billion dollars last year in lobbying expenses alone, to protect their monopolies — money that could have been spent on providing care and saving lives. Our Medicare for All plan will provide all Americans with Medicare, increase the number of doctors and care facilities and stop Big Pharma from gouging American consumers.

PROVIDE ALL AMERICANS WITH HEALTHCARE THROUGH MEDICARE

This will include high-quality general, dental, vision, and mental health coverage. Medicare is more efficient than any private insurance provider and is accepted by 95% of doctors. Under our plan, private insurance companies will be allowed to compete with each other in a truly free market to offer supplemental insurance plans.