Jennifer WE LOVE YOU!


GOP ex-chair: Republicans Are Making AOC More Popular

Former GOP National Chairman Michael Steele warns at The Hill that Republicans’ continuous pounding of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “could make her more a political martyr to be embraced as the second ­socialist coming of Franklin Roosevelt than a member of Congress whose proposals are out of step with mainstream of America.” Granted, she “presents a target-rich environment,” given all her “ill-thought-out comments.” But “there is a time and place for everything, and the political firepower ­already expended on her can be costly — not to her, but to Republicans,” who “have c . . . in a way that’s more personal than policy focused.” Better to “pivot to an argument less focused on her personally and more about the flaws of her policy proposals.”

Now back to her accent?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2019 08:49AM by riverhousebill.

Jennifer your attacks On AOC- more personal than policy focused.” Better to “pivot to an argument less focused on her personally and more about her policy proposals.”

How desperate the GOP Taliban attack on AOC accent? first Slanderous dancing now her accent, these racist are comical!

Five Reasons Why People Code-Switch
April 13, 201312:26 PM ET
MATT THOMPSON


A sign in English, Chinese, and Vietnamese in Chinatown, Los Angeles.
Calvin Ho/Calvin Ho
Monday, April 8, marked the launch of Code Switch, our new blog covering race, ethnicity and culture. To commemorate the blog's launch, all week we solicited stories about code-switching — the practice of shifting the languages you use or the way you express yourself in your conversations.

People sent us hundreds of stories illustrating the many ways we code-switch and the many reasons for doing it. Five of those motivations came up again and again in the stories we read:

Eventually, I started code-switch-screaming English profanities.

Lisa Okamoto

1) Our lizard brains take over: The most common examples of code-switching were completely inadvertent; folks would slip into a different language or accent without even realizing it or intending to do it. One such story came from Lisa Okamoto, who told us she was born and raised in Los Angeles by two parents from Japan, a place she's visited all her life. This trip was particularly memorable (warning, profanity euphemisms ahead):

If you ever watched the original Ring movie, I think you will understand this: the Japanese take horror stories pretty seriously, but in a very creepy quiet way. I find Japanese horror movies and haunted houses to be ten times scarier than the American counter-part.

I went back to Japan with a friend during the summer of 2009, the height of haunted house season in Japan. (The Japanese have this concept that the summertime is the best time to tell scary stories, because the chill you feel from fright will cool you down during the humid months.) My friend loves scary stories, and she wanted to go into a haunted maze when we were visiting Yokohama. I protested and protested but eventually she convinced me to go through the haunted maze, instead of making her go through it alone.

The premise of the haunted maze was the following: The setting was a haunted middle school, where a little girl named Mi-chan died a tragic death. She died so suddenly that she didn't properly enter the after world, and her spirit was still lingering at the school. You were supposed to go through this maze with an amulet, find Mi-chan, and place it on her so that she can properly enter the afterlife.

We were handed a flashlight and an amulet prop, and entered into the maze. I already knew I was getting myself into trouble, but I didn't expect how scary it was going to be. It was terrifying. Periodically, you would hear quiet scratches and taps on the walls of the maze, with a voice saying, "Watashi wa Mi-Chan" - translation: I am Mi-Chan.

I was talking in Japanese when entering the maze, but I started losing control because I was just so scared. Eventually, I started code-switch-screaming English profanities — "OH MY F-ING GOD, GET ME THE F OUT OF HERE!" — etc., etc. You can fill in the blanks with your imagination. I consider myself fully bilingual, but I realized at this moment that, when I'm in a fight or flight/survivor instinct situation, my mind switches to English. (This is probably because I've lived in the US all my life, and never lived in Japan.)

I was yelling and screaming in English throughout the whole maze, and still hearing the "watashi wa Mi-Chan" voice here and there. But suddenly the voice said, "Watashi wa Mi-Chan... watashi wa... I am... My name is Mi-Chan," in the most awkward, Japanese-accented English possible. The staff had taken such pity on my rude profanity-stricken fear that they also code-switched for me. When I heard that awkward English, I literally fell to the floor and cried and laughed at the same time. I was so scared, but the English took me by such surprise, and I felt the oddest combination of release.

2) We want to fit in: Very often, people code-switch — both consciously and unconsciously — to act or talk more like those around them. While this can be effective, it can also be perilous, as John Davis told us:

I am a Spanish teacher in a high-needs school in Nashville. I grew up in a homogenous town in rural Pennsylvania. Foreign languages came easily for me, so I majored in Spanish and minored in French at the University of Pittsburgh. When I moved to my school in Nashville, I had to learn another language: Southern, African American English. I entered my learning experience with fervor. My students taught me almost as much as I taught them in my first years. Now that I am well versed in the language, I have trouble code switching back to Standard American English.

One day my principal walked into my room and asked me, "Mr. Davis, I didn't receive your editions to the School Improvement Plan." I replied, "Nah, you flaugin' bruh, I put that on your desk yesterday." My boss froze, with his jaw dropped and one eyebrow raised. After a moment he shook his head and said, "you're spending too much time with the kids." "My bad."

In our pitch to users for stories about code-switching, we asked jokingly whether anyone learned Farsi to eavesdrop on their in-laws. And sure enough, in came this story from Amy Proulx:

Yes, I actually did secretly learn Farsi to snoop on the in-laws. I married an Iranian-Canadian, and after torturing myself trying to learn through the standard language tapes and computer programs, I sort of gave up, and instead, started watching Iranian soap operas. Oh the drama, the intrigue, the suspicion and suspense! What a way to learn Farsi, through the vice of sappy television.

My bad habit lead to good Farsi skills, but my handle on slang and colloquial language was the real kicker. When at a memorial ceremony for my late-father-in-law, I proceed to intone a rather dramatic, but reasonably common Shi'ite prayer (courtesy of my TV watching). My brother-in-law, in the middle of this most dramatic and somber moment, nearly fell over laughing. He declared that I proclaimed this Shi'ite prayer with perfect diction and pronunciation, and that I was a model of a perfect daughter and sister-in-law. I was in the in-crowd with the in-laws, thanks to soap operas.

3) We want to get something: A lot of folks code-switch not just to fit in, but to actively ingratiate themselves to others. We can not tell you how many dozens of stories we got from people who work in service industries who said that a Southern accent is a surefire way to get better tips and more sympathetic customers. Apparently everyone who works in a restaurant picks up "y'all" immediately upon arriving at their job. If you can pull off the right accent in the right context, you can get all kinds of favors, as this story from Patti Hollingshead illustrates:

We lived in Ireland some years ago and noticed there were often two prices for goods and services — reasonable prices for the locals and much more expensive costs for others (Americans). It was not easy, but I practiced my Irish accent until we qualified for 'local pricing'. Still, they would often ask me where I was from, as my accent was anything but flawless. But I'd come up with the name of some obscure town hundreds of miles away, which explained my 'odd' Irish accent and usually satisfied them. Once, to my, "Ack, I'm from dahn twards Clara Bog," the guy responded in Gaelic.

I had no idea what he was saying. I continued to smile, laugh, and nod at what I hoped were appropriate times as he excitedly talked on and on. Finally, another English speaking customer entered the shop and he flipped back to English then whispered to me, "We need to be careful here (in Northern Ireland) about speaking Irish." "Oh, aye," I replied.

I pulled my wallet out to pay for my my flowers and he held up his hands, "No, me lass, keep yer money. 'twas a pleasure speakin' to ya."

4) We want to say something in secret: We collected many sweet stories of people code-switching in order to hide in plain sight, a habit most common among people in love. Because this tactic often relies on assumptions, it can get one in trouble, as Veronica Rodriguez can attest:

I am from Venezuela and speak Spanish and English fluently and without an accent in either language. However, I look what most would describe as "Middle Eastern," this means that not only do people assume that I am from Turkey or Lebanon and try to speak to me in Farsi or Arabic and become very disappointed when I don't, but many times Hispanic people assume that I don't speak Spanish. This ultimately leads to someone speaking very candidly around me thinking that I cannot understand what they are saying.

I also speak French fluently enough to get myself into trouble. Living in Chicago during college I encountered lots of interesting people on the L. We often chose to comment on some of these people in French rather than English or Spanish since it was far less likely that someone would understand us. One rainy afternoon a very nice-looking man ran into the train, and my friend and I made some comments to each other in French about how handsome he was. To our surprise, he answered back, "Merçi!" — in perfect French.

Suffice to say,we were both extremely embarrassed and decided that maybe we would keep our comments to ourselves from then on.

5) It helps us convey a thought: Certain concepts need that perfectbon mot to come across effectively. Many people switch languages or employ colloquialisms to express particular ideas, as in this story from Jennifer Monahan:

I ... work in a bilingual school, and my coworkers and I code-switch constantly. Here ... code-switching centers around lexical gaps: Nonprofit fundraising is a very American idea, so the French speakers tend to switch to English when that's the topic. Same with technology; if I learned about a piece of equipment or software in English I have a hard time discussing it in French. It's not just a language proficiency issue, my coworkers who are native French speakers follow the same pattern. So we tend to talk about "le smartboard" or "un programme de planned giving." And some concepts just don't translate. French kids eat lunch in the school cafeteria; the notion of bringing lunch from home is, well, foreign. So is the notion of having a designated container to bring your lunch from home. So we all refer to "le lunchbox."

The reasons people code-switch and the ways in which they do it are far more numerous than the few examples we've listed here. While many people told us they code-switched to fit in, for example, several also told us they did it to stand out. What the stories reiterated most of all, though, is what our colleague Gene Demby pointed out in his inaugural post: No matter your race, ethnicity, class or cultural background, you probably do it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2019 05:04AM by riverhousebill.

Creep shots My dear!

washington Post

Now it’s possible that in some subconscious way, conservatives are both drawn to and repelled by Ocasio-Cortez, even when they aren’t literally following her around to take creepshots of her. After all, she’s a compelling young woman in a town full of bland old white guys in charcoal suits. It kind of reminds me of the time Sean Hannity did an entire week’s worth of segments devoted to “investigating” the deplorable debauchery of spring break in Florida, a moral outrage that just happened to require endless shots of attractive young women in bikinis.


Of course, there are substantive reasons why conservatives wouldn’t like Ocasio-Cortez, because she proposes a set of policies that would significantly enhance government provision of services and increase taxes on the wealthy, the latter being the single idea most likely to make Republicans break out in hives. But so do plenty of other Democrats who haven’t garnered as much attention.

So with AOC in heavy rotation on conservative media, it didn't take long before the audiences for those programs learned that this is the person they're supposed to hate. Which in and of itself is fine, I suppose. But it's a reminder that the right is in possession of a very effective machine that can be used to shape the beliefs of a substantial portion of the country. That machine can be activated quickly, as it will for whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is in 2020.

For instance, you might not recall this, but there was a period in 2007 and early 2008 when conservatives were over the moon for Barack Obama, both because he was giving Hillary Clinton a hard time and because they thought he was the non-threatening black candidate they had been waiting for. “He never brings race into it. He never plays the race card,” William Bennett gushed. “He has taught the black community you don’t have to act like Jesse Jackson; you don’t have to act like Al Sharpton.”


But once it became clear that Obama could actually become the Democratic nominee, they turned on a dime and decided he was some kind of black nationalist revolutionary out to seek vengeance on white people. “You start getting some sense of who he is, and it’s not the Obama you thought. He’s not the Tiger Woods of politics,” GOP consultant Alex Castellanos said just a couple of months later. Eventually, nearly every Republican in America was taught to hate Obama with an incandescent fire.

The lesson in that story is that it doesn’t matter which of the Democratic candidates for president now looks as though they might be able to appeal to Republicans, because none of them will. It won’t matter who they are or where they come from or what kind of talent they have. Once they’re run through the conservative media wringer, everyone on the right will despise them.

Which suggests that Democrats should do something radical and pick the candidate they like the best, not the candidate they think other people will like. Most Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez, so they shouldn’t be worried if Republicans hate her. Likewise, they shouldn’t freak out when Fox News and the rest of the conservative media start going to town on their nominee and whatever negligible approval that person has among Republicans disappears. It’s inevitable.


And don’t forget: All the vilification of Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was supposed to help Republicans stave off disaster in 2018, but it didn’t work because Democrats were too energized. The same thing could happen in 2020.

Lets see her my dear did we miss anything?
Your post shows the Fear and smear! Fear of AOC Id say a very good sign.
so far list of panic AOC post. but but her accent!

AOC Job Failure.

AOC pulled a Hillary.

Unpopular AOC.

Idiotic AOC.

AOC's Absurd Grren New Deal.

AOC OMG.

Democrats Have a new jack ass Macot.

AOC Chief of staff ran one million $ slush fund by diverting campaign.

Funny Fake news story fake Hate Hoax commited this week involving AOC.

AOC questions for Cohen required major behind the scenes work bu her staff and
committee staff.

Green New Deal revails the naked thruths of Agneda 21.

AOC Green Idiotic.

Lib Fake news narrative about AOC designed to smear republicans.

Jennifer my dear WE LOVE YOU! Please keep firing CREEP SHOTS, it turns people off, and are making her very popular, Im laughing my ass off watching spectacular backfire after spectacular backfire with these Pathetic AOC smears, How desperate the GOP Taliban and klan has become.
Ok you left off on Job performance, NEXT Go back to your RT News sorce RUssina Times you quoted from you know that 100% Funded Ruusain news net work, they must have more CREEP SHOTS for yo to post.

If Trumpites must be personal, they ought to aim their fire at far more powerful politicians. Engaging in fearmongering about a new member of Congress only makes them look desperate to tear down a phenom, which winds up building her up.

Remember who else that happened to?