The new It Girl for the Libs - The Face of the Democratic Socialist Party

Washington Post Fact-Checking - video at the link -

Fact-checking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s media blitz

[www.washingtonpost.com]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year-old self-described “democratic socialist” who unexpectedly toppled a top Democratic incumbent in the primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District, is a sudden media star even though she has not been elected to Congress. (She has no real competition in the general election.)

With celebrity comes scrutiny. Ocasio-Cortez has come under fire for dismissing concerns about the anticipated costs of her proposals and offering too-glib answers.

For instance, in an appearance on CNN on Monday, when challenged on the costs of government-financed health care, she answered: “Why aren’t we incorporating the cost of all the funeral expenses of those who died because they can’t afford access to health care? That is part of the cost of our system.”

Huh?

Several readers have asked us to vet some of her claims and, because of summer vacation schedules, we’ve been a bit slower to follow up than our fact-checking colleagues. So here’s a quick roundup of some of her recent eyebrow-raising claims, though to be fair to Ocasio-Cortez, the average member of Congress might easily make many bloopers over the course of so many live interviews.

(Read the article for details on a few of the lies she's told. Many aren't here of course; too numerous to list all of them.)

*******

I actually feel sorry for her now. She must realize she's a laughingstock and that she's out of her league. Then again, being a Lib woman - probably not ...

Early life and education
Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, New York City,[8] on October 13, 1989, to Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez) and Sergio Ocasio. Her father, an architect, was also born in the Bronx, while her mother was born in Puerto Rico.[9][10] Until age five, Ocasio-Cortez lived with her family in an apartment in the neighborhood of Parkchester.[10] The family then moved to a house in Yorktown Heights, a suburb in Westchester County.[10] Growing up, Ocasio-Cortez regularly visited the Bronx to visit extended family.[11]

From 2003 to 2007, Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School,[12] where she won second prize in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a research project on microbiology. As a result, the International Astronomical Union named a small asteroid after her: 23238 Ocasio-Cortez.[13][14] In high school, she took part in the National Hispanic Institute's Lorenzo de Zalvala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session. She later became the LDZ Secretary of State while she attended Boston University. Ocasio-Cortez had a John F. Lopez Fellowship.[15] During college, she was an intern in the immigration office of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.[16] She graduated cum laude from Boston University's College of Arts and Sciences in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in economics and international relations.[15][17][18]

Ocasio-Cortez has described her background as working-class, and relates many of her political positions to it. When her father died intestate of lung cancer in 2008,[19] she became involved in a long probate battle to settle his estate. She has said that the experience helped her learn "firsthand how attorneys appointed by the court to administer an estate can enrich themselves at the expense of the families struggling to make sense of the bureaucracy."[20] She credits seeing the treatment of her cousin by law enforcement, as well as her Catholic faith, for her desire to overhaul mass incarceration in the criminal-justice system.[21]

Early career
After college, Ocasio-Cortez moved back to the Bronx, while she worked as a bartender in Manhattan and as a waitress in a taqueria. Her mother, meanwhile, cleaned houses and drove school buses. After her father's death, Ocasio-Cortez and her mother struggled to fight foreclosure of their home.[22][23] With financial backing from Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator, she established a publishing firm, Brook Avenue Press, that specializes in children's literature which portrays the Bronx in a positive light.[24] She worked as lead educational strategist at GAGEis, Inc.[25] Ocasio-Cortez was also an educator at the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute,[26] in which role she served as the Educational Director of the 2017 Northeast Collegiate World Series, where she participated in a panel on Latino leadership.[15]

After finding out she had been purged from the New York voter rolls and could not vote in the 2016 primary, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign.[27] After the general election, she traveled across America by car, visiting places such as Flint, Michigan, and Standing Rock, and speaking to people affected by the human rights violations related to the Flint water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline.[28] In an interview she recalled her visit to Standing Rock as a tipping point, saying that before that she had felt that the only way to effectively run for office was if you had access to wealth, social influence, and power. But her visit to North Dakota, where she saw others "putting their whole lives and everything that they had on the line for the protection of their community," inspired her to begin to work for her own community.[29]

2018 House of Representatives campaign
Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2018 § District 14
Ocasio-Cortez was among a slate of nationwide Justice Democrats/Brand New Congress candidacy announcements livestreamed on May 16, 2017.[30] In August 2017, she attended the Netroots Nation Conference in Atlanta, appearing on a panel with fellow candidates on "how to run a grassroots campaign that puts people above party".[31][32]

Ocasio-Cortez was the first person since 2004 to challenge the Democratic Caucus Chair, Joe Crowley, in the Democratic primary. She faced a significant financial disadvantage, but said, "You can't really beat big money with more money. You have to beat them with a totally different game." Nearly 75 percent of her donations were small individual contributions, while less than 1 percent of Crowley’s contributions were.[20] The Ocasio-Cortez campaign spent $194,000 to the Crowley campaign's $3.4 million.[33]

Ocasio-Cortez has not previously held elected office,[9] and her campaign video began with her saying "Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office."[34] She held several debates with Crowley, who was criticized for not showing up to one debate and sending a surrogate instead.[35]

Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by progressive and civil rights organizations such as MoveOn,[36] Justice Democrats,[37] Brand New Congress,[38] Black Lives Matter,[39] and Democracy for America,[27] and by gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who, like Ocasio-Cortez, is also challenging a longtime incumbent, Andrew Cuomo, in the 2018 New York gubernatorial election.[40]

Governor Cuomo endorsed Crowley, as did both of New York's U.S. Senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, 11 U.S. Representatives, 31 local elected officials, 31 trade unions, and progressive groups such as the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, the Working Families Party, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, among others.[41] California representative Ro Khanna, like Ocasio-Cortez a Justice Democrat,[42] initially endorsed Crowley, later also endorsing Ocasio-Cortez in an unusual dual endorsement.[43]

Following her win, Ocasio-Cortez explained her campaign strategy:

"I knew that if we were going to win, the way that progressives win on an unapologetic message is by expanding the electorate. That’s the only way that we can win strategically. It’s not by rushing to the center. It’s not by trying to win spending all of our energy winning over those who have other opinions. It’s by expanding the electorate, speaking to those that feel disenchanted, dejected, cynical about our politics, and letting them know that we’re fighting for them."[44]

Primary election
On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez received 57.13 percent of the vote (15,897) to Joe Crowley's 42.5 percent (11,761), defeating the 10-term incumbent by almost 15 percentage points.[45] Time magazine called her victory "the biggest upset of the 2018 elections so far";[46] CNN made a similar statement.[3] The New York Times described Crowley's loss as "a shocking primary defeat on Tuesday, the most significant loss for a Democratic incumbent in more than a decade, and one that will reverberate across the party and the country."[27] The Guardian called it "one of the biggest upsets in recent American political history".[47] Her victory was especially surprising as she was outspent 18-1.[48] Merriam-Webster reported that searches for the word "socialism" spiked 1500 percent after her victory.[49] In a sign of her outsider status, as of 11 p.m. on election day Crowley had not phoned Ocasio-Cortez; she believed he did not have her phone number and stated that she did not have his. Earlier in the evening, however, Crowley, an amateur guitarist, did play a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" at his election night watch party as a way of conceding defeat, dedicating it to Ocasio-Cortez.[50]

Bernie Sanders congratulated her, saying, "She took on the entire local Democratic establishment in her district and won a very strong victory. She demonstrated once again what progressive grassroots politics can do."[6] Noam Chomsky saw her victory as "a quite spectacular and significant event." He believes her win shows a split in the Democratic Party and he thinks that "she was right in saying that the policies she’s outlined should have broad appeal to a very large segment of the population."[51]

At 28 years old, Ocasio-Cortez is one of the youngest nominees for Congress. If elected, she would be the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. That distinction is currently held by New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who was elected at age 30 in 2014.[52] Ocasio-Cortez will be 29 at the start of the 116th Congress.

Several commentators noted the similarities between Ocasio-Cortez's victory over Crowley and Dave Brat's 2014 victory over Eric Cantor in the Republican primary for Virginia's 7th congressional district.[53][54] Like Crowley, Cantor was a high-ranking member in his party's caucus.[55] Since her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed several progressive primary challengers to Democratic incumbents, leveraging her fame and spending her political capital in a manner not usually seen even in unexpected primary winners.[56]

Without campaigning for it, Ocasio-Cortez won the Reform Party primary as a write-in candidate in a neighboring congressional district, New York's 15th, albeit with a total vote count of nine. She said she appreciated the show of support, but would decline the nomination.[57][58][a]

Criticism of media coverage
Many journalists faulted the traditional national news media (with a few exceptions such as CBSN) for not identifying, or even recognizing, the newsworthiness of Ocasio-Cortez's campaign.[60][61] Brian Stelter wrote that progressive media outlets such as The Young Turks and The Intercept "saw the Ocasio-Cortez upset coming".[54] Margaret Sullivan said that traditional metrics of measuring a campaign's viability, like total fundraising, were contributing to a "media failure".[61] Wikipedia did not have an article on her until her electoral win,[62] and Ocasio-Cortez was barely mentioned in print-media coverage until around the same time.[63]

Post-primary media attention
After her primary win, Ocasio-Cortez quickly garnered nationwide media attention, including numerous articles and TV talk-show appearances. She appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert[64] and The View in the first few days after the primary[65] and later on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.[66] Conservative Allie Stuckey also aired a fake interview.[67]

Ocasio-Cortez also drew a great deal of media attention when she and Bernie Sanders campaigned for James Thompson in Kansas in July 2018. A rally in Wichita had to be moved from a theater with a capacity of 1,500 when far more people said they would attend. The event drew 4,000 people, with some seated on the floor. In The New Yorker Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote that while Sanders remains "the de-facto leader of an increasingly popular left, [he is unable to] do things that do not come naturally to him, like supply hope." Wallace-Wells suggested that Ocasio-Cortez has made Sanders's task easier as he can point to her success to show that ideas “once considered to be radical are now part of the mainstream.”[68]

General election
Ocasio-Cortez will face Republican nominee Anthony Pappas in the November 6 general election.[69] Pappas, who lives in Astoria, is an economics professor at St. John's University. According to the New York Post, Pappas has not actively campaigned, and because the 14th has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+29 and contains six registered Democrats for every Republican, "Pappas' bid is a long shot."[70][71][72]

Crowley also remains on the ballot, as the nominee of the Working Families Party (WFP). Neither Crowley nor the party is actively campaigning, with both having endorsed Ocasio-Cortez after her Democratic Primary victory.[73] On July 17, former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who himself won reelection on a third-party line after losing the Democratic Primary in 2006 (see United States Senate election in Connecticut, 2006), expressed hope that Crowley would actively campaign on the WFP ballot line in a column in the Wall Street Journal.[74] Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the WFP, wrote an endorsement of, and apology to, Ocasio-Cortez for the New York Daily News, and called on voters not to vote for Crowley if his name remains on the general election ballot.[75]

Political positions
Ocasio-Cortez is a self-described democratic socialist.[76] She supports progressive policies such as Medicare for All, a job guarantee,[77] tuition-free public college, ending the privatization of prisons, and enacting gun-control policies.[78]

Education
Ocasio-Cortez campaigned in favor of tuition-free universities and public schools,[79] saying that "[f]or the cost of the GOP’s tax bill, we could forgive ALL the student loan debt in the United States."[79][80]

Environment
Ocasio-Cortez is a self-described hardliner on climate issues. She advocates for the United States to transition by 2035 to an electrical grid running on 100% renewable-energy production and end the use of fossil fuels. She also calls for a Green New Deal in the United States, in which the federal government would invest in the construction of large-scale green-infrastructure projects.[81]

Healthcare
Ocasio-Cortez supports transitioning to a single-payer healthcare system, calling healthcare "a human right".[82][79] She says that a single government insurer should ensure that every American has insurance, while reducing costs overall.[77] On her campaign website, Ocasio-Cortez says "Almost every other developed nation in the world has universal healthcare. It's time the United States catch up to the rest of the world in ensuring all people have real healthcare coverage that doesn't break the bank."[79]

Immigration
Ocasio-Cortez supports a "path to citizenship" for immigrants who entered the United States legally and illegally.[83][84] She supports abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), calling it "a product of the Bush-era Patriot Act suite of legislation" and "an enforcement agency that takes on more of a paramilitary tone every single day".[85] She has called immigration detention centers operated by the Department of Homeland Security "black sites", citing limited public access to those locations.[86] Two days before the primary election, Ocasio-Cortez attended a protest at an ICE child-detention center in Tornillo, Texas.[87] Ocasio-Cortez said in 2018 that ICE was required to meet a quota of 34,000 detainees, which The Washington Post and PolitiFact described as an "urban legend" and "false", respectively.[88][89]

Impeachment of President Trump
On June 28, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez told CNN she would support the impeachment of President Trump, saying, "I think that, you know, we have the grounds to do it." She cited Trump's violations of the Emoluments Clause.[90][91]

Israeli–Palestinian conflict
After 60 Palestinian protesters participating in the 2018 Gaza border protests were killed on May 14, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Israel Defense Forces' use of deadly force,[92] tweeting, "This is a massacre. I hope my peers have the moral courage to call it such. No state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters. There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else. Democrats can't be silent about this anymore."[93] In a subsequent interview, she said, "The idea that we are not supposed to talk about people dying when they are engaging in political expression just really moved me", and noted that many constituents, including Jewish Americans, had thanked her for taking that position.[94] In an interview with the PBS series Firing Line, Ocasio-Cortez clarified that she is "a proponent of a two-state solution."[95]

After her primary victory, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami expressed his support for "a new generation of candidates who are more outspoken about their opposition to the policies of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition and are eager to see the US play a more constructive role in making life better for both Israelis and Palestinians".[96]

Puerto Rico
Ocasio-Cortez calls for "solidarity with Puerto Rico." She has advocated for granting Puerto Ricans further civil rights, regardless of Puerto Rico's legal classification. She also advocates for both voting rights and disaster relief. Ocasio-Cortez was critical of FEMA's response to Hurricane Maria and the federal government's unwillingness to address Puerto Rico's political status.[97] She believes the federal government should increase investment in Puerto Rico.[78]

Social issues
Ocasio-Cortez is supportive of the LGBT community, thanking its members for their role in her grassroots campaign.[98][78] She spoke at a Black Lives Matter rally in 2017.[99]

Awards and honors
Ocasio-Cortez was named the 2017 National Hispanic Institute Person of the Year by Ernesto Nieto.[15]

Personal life
Ocasio-Cortez has family in Puerto Rico: her grandfather lives in a nursing home there.[97] After Ocasio-Cortez's father's death in 2008, her mother and grandmother relocated to Florida due to financial hardship.[9][22]

Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has an asteroid named after her - ...
[uk.businessinsider.com]

How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Misunderstands American Poverty

[mises.org]

Democratic socialism is in the news again. Following Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning victory, helping her become a darling of the mainstream media, Americans are becoming interested in democratic socialism again – a philosophy that involves voting to steal your stuff. Two key planks of democratic socialism are to rail against the rich and promise everything for free, which then leads to the next question: Who’s going to pay for all that free stuff?

Building upon her national spotlight, Ocasio-Cortez recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss her political brand and a wide array of issues important to her and socialists everywhere. But there was one moment in the interview that opened a can of worms.

She told the alleged comedian:

“For me, democratic socialism is about — really, the value for me is that I believe that in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no person in America should be too poor to live.

I think that no person should be homeless. If we can have public structures and public policy to allow for people to have homes and food and lead a dignified life in the United States.”

Ocasio-Cortez, may be a politician with good intentions. But that's the most dangerous type of politician. She suggested two interesting things: the poor are destitute, and poverty can be cured with even more government.

Let’s explore further.

What Is Poverty in America?

There are three points that the left likes to make: the poor are getting poorer, the U.S. has the highest childhood poverty rate, and 32 million Americans are impoverished – higher than when the first bullet in the War on Poverty was fired.

How dare the U.S. create such horrific conditions that are reminiscent of Charles Dickens novels.

If you’re indigent in the U.S., then you’re better off than most people in the world. A hipster sporting a Che Guevara t-shirt and drinking a Starbucks latte would scoff at this assertion, but it is the truth.

Income inequality is a myth , while income mobility is still a thing. Yes, it is true that the top 1% are getting richer, but the poor and middle-class are becoming prosperous, too. Why is this a debated fact? The problem is with how the data is compiled and analyzed.

When we study Census Bureau data or any other information emanating from the government, we simply compare rich Americans to poor Americans in one year and the next. The better route is to examine the data over an extended period. When you do, the bottom 20% witness their incomes rise, and most Americans will see their income status change throughout the years – half of the country will be in the top 10% of incomes for at least one year, while two-thirds of Americans will park themselves in the top 20% for at least two years.

Now, are American children worse off than Asian and European kids? Not quite. When Sanders and others make that claim, it can easily be disputed if you take a look at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures. The U.S. is ahead of Russia, Israel, China, Spain, and several others – Denmark and Finland have the lowest.

But how could the biggest economy in the world not eradicate poverty for both adults and children?

Well, perhaps it is time to examine what being poor in America is like compared to other places.

It is correct to state that the U.S. has a higher poverty rate than other developed nations. However, the American poor have higher median incomes than in other countries, and the poverty income in the U.S. matches the median income in Spain, the U.K., and Japan. Plus, American living standards are higher for the poor than the impecunious residing in the U.K., New Zealand, France, and Japan.

Let’s look at what it’s really like to be poor in the Land of the Free:

80% have air conditioning.
94% have Internet access.
75% have an automobile – a third have two or more vehicles.
Half of poor families have a video game system.
66% have cable television.
What about the basic essentials, like food and housing? That’s easy enough:

83% of poor households reported having enough to eat.
96% of underprivileged families reported their children were never hungry at any time.
42% of poor households own their homes.

Moreover, the average poor American has more living space than the average middle- or high-income person in the U.K., France, and Sweden. Also, consumption of vitamins and minerals is the same as the those in the wealthier brackets.

Should an American fall on hard times, they have access to a generous welfare system, paid for by the private sector. Despite claims that the U.S. allows the impecunious to perish on the streets or starve in their homes, the government has spent trillions of dollars over the last 50 years on entitlements, healthcare, and social-benefits programs.

The rectitude and efficacy of welfare can be debated, but the government gives citizens money to purchase unhealthy food and smartphones – and a basic income guarantee is all but inevitable. That’s how wealthy the U.S. is.

Things are looking good for the blue wave in November.

Wow The kluckers still freaking over Obama, Now freaking over Cortez Im lovin it.

Now we have Two Muslem women running for U.S. Congress -

Cortez is a Movement! trump is a cult, and we all know cults never have a good ending.

'Congress has never heard a voice like mine': Native American woman seeks to make history
New Mexico
Deb Haaland’s New Mexico candidacy aims to change US politics and take on Donald Trump

Lauren Gambino
Lauren Gambino in Washington DC

@laurenegambino
Thu 26 Jul 2018 11.00 BST Last modified on Thu 26 Jul 2018 15.27 BST
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Deb Haaland, New Mexico’s former Democratic state party chair, hopes to become the first Native American woman elected to Congress.
Deb Haaland, New Mexico’s former Democratic state party chair, hopes to become the first Native American woman elected to Congress. Photograph: Juan Labreche/AP
Deb Haaland, the former New Mexico state Democratic party chair who is seeking to make history as the first Native American woman elected to Congress, had just one question before running: could she win?

Yes, she thought, she absolutely could.

“As a 35th-generation New Mexican, I felt I had a lot at stake,” Haaland said in an interview at a coffee shop near the US Capitol in Washington. “So I decided to run.”

Haaland is a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe and one of a record number of Native American women running for office this year. None have served in Congress – and the possibility of a landmark election is galvanizing voters in New Mexico.

“Congress has never heard a voice like mine,” Haaland says in a campaign ad that emphasizes her working-class background and progressive platform.

Last month, she soundly defeated five Democratic opponents to win the primary for an open congressional seat in a district that includes Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.


'Trump doesn't understand history': Native Americans tell their story in DC
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In November, she will face the Republican Janice Arnold-Jones, a former state lawmaker, and Lloyd Princeton, a Libertarian candidate, in a general election race that is expected to center on immigration, healthcare – and Donald Trump.

“Trump has given many people the courage to be bold in their racism. He gives the white supremacists and the far-right folks cause to be,” she said.

The president, Haaland says, is completely ignorant of Native Americans’ place in the country’s history. His repeated attacks on the Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, whom he mockingly refers to as “Pocahontas”, are “disgusting and disgraceful”, she said. At a recent rally in Montana, Trump mused that he might “toss” a DNA test at the Massachusetts senator, challenging her claims to Native American ancestry.

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“First of all, he doesn’t get to decide who’s native,” Haaland said. “And it is extremely disrespectful for him to continue to use the name Pocahontas as a racial slur.”

But she said Trump’s policies, even more than his words, posed an urgent threat to Native American land and traditions. Haaland pointed to the administration’s plan to enforce Medicaid work requirements for Native Americans, a move that tribal leaders say would restrict access to healthcare and undermine their sovereignty. She is also alarmed by the administration’s decision to shrink national monuments and roll back federal land protections.

The daughter of military veterans, Haaland attended 13 schools before she graduated high school. To pay her way through college, she decorated cakes and started a salsa business. She earned a law degree while raising a daughter as a single mother and working part time at an antique auction shop. At times, her family relied on food stamps, a reality she said many New Mexicans face as the state has one of the highest poverty rates in the country.

Deb Haaland.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘As a 35th-generation New Mexican, I felt I had a lot at stake.’ Photograph: Russell Contreras/AP
A longtime activist, who protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock and marched with women in Washington, Haaland is running on a progressive platform that includes Medicare for All, a $15 federal minimum wage and universal childcare and pre-K. She also supports calls to eliminate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency and to impeach Trump.

If she wins, Haaland says her top priorities in Washington would be protecting the environment and growing a clean energy economy. She would also fight for more funding and resources to combat violence against women, a scourge that disproportionately affects Native women.

Her Republican opponent says voters in the district are more pragmatic than progressive – and that Haaland’s “extreme” positions on border security, oil and gas, and abortion will alienate moderates there.

“Quite frankly, the Democratic primary made this a very different election,” Arnold-Jones said. “My opponent is much further left than the district.”

Political analysts view it as safely Democratic. Hillary Clinton won the district by more than 16 percentage points and Democrats have held the seat since 2009.

Arnold-Jones anticipates Democrats will try to tie her to Trump, but she believes the president’s popularity is on the upswing in New Mexico thanks to a growing economy and the GOP tax cut plan.

“It has taken a little bit of time for the state to warm up to him but the result of his policies have been exceptionally positive,” she said, adding: “I actually think if the election were held today, the president would win.”

Haaland is part of a broader trend of Native Americans increasingly running for national office, after centuries of systematic persecution, marginalization and disenfranchisement.

The United States did not grant citizenship to Native people until 1924. But New Mexico, where Native Americans represent nearly 11% of the state population, did not fully enfranchise them until 1962. There are currently only two members of Congress who are Native American: the Oklahoma Republicans Tom Cole and Markwayne Mullin.

“Since 1789, we haven’t been able to elect a single Native American woman to Congress,” said Mark Trahant, the editor of Indian Country Today. “That it could finally happen is incredibly important.”

Partly driven by opposition to Trump and the #MeToo moment, dozens of Native American women are running for local, statewide and congressional office this year, a cohort that far outpaces past cycles, said Trahant, who is tracking the data.

It remains possible Haaland won’t be the only Native American female elected to Congress this year. Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk nation, is running in a competitive Democratic primary in a swing district in Kansas, and Amanda Douglas, a member of the Cherokee nation, advanced to a runoff election in the Democratic primary for a deeply conservative Oklahoma congressional district.

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Unlike many of the female candidates running for office in the wake of Trump’s election, this is far from Haaland’s first foray into politics. She worked for years in Democratic politics before an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2014. She then served as the state party chair.

The US government should cede territory back to Native Americans
Timothy Snyder
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The historic nature of Haaland’s candidacy probably helped distinguish her in a race with little divergence on policy, said Joe Monahan, a longtime New Mexico political blogger. He recalled that New Mexicans elected the Republican Susana Martinez after she reminded voters that she would be “the nation’s first Hispanic female governor”.

“People like to make history. I don’t think that should be underestimated,” he said.

But Haaland’s primary success was not a marginal one, Monahan added. She sailed past her opponents in what was expected to be a competitive race by turning out a coalition of progressive voters that agreed with her on issues such as climate and healthcare.

In a Democratic district, she is positioned favorably ahead of the general election. A victory in November would seal her place in American history.

“It hasn’t really hit me,” she said.

“But every now and then I’ll get a sense from someone else and it makes me emotional because I realize that, for some people, they never thought they would see someone like them in Congress.

One year ago, @Ocasio2018 was working at a craft cocktail bar in Manhattan -- their website still has an image of her mixing drinks. From the bar, to destroying the Queens Democratic machine, in one year.

Let's not forget this guy; he's a shoe-in with the Libs, cause transgender is the new gay as far as cool goes -

Transgender candidate Christine Hallquist wins Democratic nomination for Vermont governor

[www.washingtontimes.com]

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A former Vermont utility executive on Tuesday became the first transgender candidate from a major political party to be nominated for governor, and she’ll face the Republican incumbent, who survived a bitter backlash from his base over gun restrictions he supported.

GOP Gov. Phil Scott defeated a challenge from Springfield businessman Keith Stern in his quest to win a second term. He will face Christine Hallquist, who won the Democratic primary to run for the state’s highest office in November, when she would become the nation’s first transgender governor if elected.

Scott said he expected the race to be closer than it was.

“I know there are some who are still upset with me who may not welcome tonight’s result but there’s so much more that unites us than sets us apart,” Scott said. “And no one agrees with their friends all the time, but as our success shows we can make a lot of good progress when we have clear priorities and we pull in the same direction.”

Hallquist said her campaign would focus on improving the state’s economy, yet she acknowledged the symbolism of being an openly transgender candidate.

“The whole world is looking at this as a historic moment for a transgender candidate, but that’s not what Vermont looked at,” Hallquist said. “Vermonters looked at, ‘What’s Christine and her team going to do for Vermont?’”

“Look to Vermont,” she said. “We continue to demonstrate leadership in civil rights and how to honor and work with each other. We can be a beacon for the rest of the world.”

Scott, first elected in 2016, faced a rebellion from his base due to his support for a series of gun restrictions that, while mild by national standards, angered many members of Vermont’s avid hunting community. The restrictions, which Scott signed into law in April, came after the arrest of a teenager on charges he was plotting a school shooting.

They included raising the age to buy firearms from 18 to 21, restricting the size of gun magazines and requiring background checks for most private gun sales.

Scott will seek re-election by continuing his pledge to make the state more affordable, not raise taxes or fees, foster a better environment for businesses and attract newcomers to the state.

Hallquist defeated environmental activist James Ehlers; dance festival organizer Brenda Siegel; and 14-year-old student Ethan Sonneborn, who was on the ballot because a quirk in state law doesn’t require candidates to be of voting age.

Democratic state Sen. John Rodgers, from Vermont’s remote and conservative Northeast Kingdom, failed in his bid for a grassroots write-in campaign, largely motivated by his displeasure with firearms restrictions.

***********
Better use the proper pronoun or you'll be politically incorrect - it's against the law in Lib Canada to use the wrong pronoun for transgenders.

CANADIANS COULD FACE HATE CRIMES OVER USING THE WRONG GENDER PRONOUNS

[dailycaller.com]

Canada passed a law Thursday making it illegal to use the wrong gender pronouns. Critics say that Canadians who do not subscribe to progressive gender theory could be accused of hate crimes, jailed, fined, and made to take anti-bias training.

Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-16, which puts “gender identity” and “gender expression” into both the country’s Human Rights Code, as well as the hate crime category of its Criminal Code by a vote of 67-11, according to LifeSiteNews. The bill now only needs royal assent from the governor general.

“Great news,” announced Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. “Bill C-16 has passed the Senate – making it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression. #LoveisLove.”

“Proud that Bill C-16 has passed in the Senate,” said Jody Wilson-Raybould, the country’s attorney general and minister of justice. “All Canadians should feel #FreeToBeMe.”

“[There’s an argument] that transgender identity is too subjective a concept to be enshrined in law because it is defined as an individual’s deeply felt internal experience of gender,” said Grant Mitchell, a conservative senator, in November 2016. “Yet we, of course, accept outright that no one can discriminate on the basis of religion, and that too is clearly a very deeply subjective and personal feeling.”

Jordan Peterson, a professor at the University of Toronto, and one of the bill’s fiercest critics, spoke to the Senate before the vote, insisting that it infringed upon citizens’ freedom of speech and institutes what he views as dubious gender ideology into law.

“Compelled speech has come to Canada,” stated Peterson. “We will seriously regret this.”

“[Ideologues are] using unsuspecting and sometimes complicit members of the so-called transgender community to push their ideological vanguard forward,” said the professor to the Senate in May. “The very idea that calling someone a term that they didn’t choose causes them such irreparable harm that legal remedies should be sought [is] an indication of just how deeply the culture of victimization has sunk into our society.”

Peterson has previously pledged not to use irregular gender pronouns and students have protested him for his opposition to political correctness.

WATCH:

(Video of Jordan Peterson's First Protest At The University of Toronto)

“This tyrannical bill is nothing but social engineering to the nth degree, all in the name of political correctness,” Jeff Gunnarson, vice president of Campaign Life Toronto, a pro-life political group in Canada, told LifeSiteNews.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to the director of communications for the House of Commons, but received no comment in time for publication.

***********

[www.ccsu.edu]

Trump ushered in the age of Celebrity Politicians - Oprah is the next president - and now we have our They/Ze/It politicians.

So after the Washington Post Fact Checked Cortez' lies, she's crying "Sexism"...

FFS! Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blaming SEXISM for people calling out her lies now?

[twitchy.com]

Ocasio-Cortez isn’t happy with one other fact check in particular, and has already diagnosed the problem:

Sexism -

"1st time female candidate makes small slip on a budgetary figure during extemporaneous interview: “This girl is SO uninformed! She needs to stay quiet until she knows everything!”

Incumbent male Congressman brings a snowball to Congress to “disprove” climate change"

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) August 11, 2018

Cortez again playing the Libs' Sexism Card -

Ocasio-Cortez: Ben Shapiro offering to debate me is like men catcalling women on the street

[legalinsurrection.com]

What a freaking insult to women who have actually experienced harassment. Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro asked to debate Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, even offering $10,000 to her campaign or for charity.

The congressional nominee likened the offer to catcalling.

Quote
riverhousebill

One year ago, @Ocasio2018 was working at a craft cocktail bar in Manhattan -- their website still has an image of her mixing drinks. From the bar, to destroying the Queens Democratic machine, in one year.

Lol - the only thing she's destroying is her credibility and humiliating herself.

She spouted lies, got fact-checked, then blamed 'sexism' for her stupidity, then accused Ben Shapiro - who is way out of her league - of some kind of sexism when he offered to debate her. She's making a fool of herself.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tries To Blame Sexism For People Calling Out Her Claims

[www.dailywire.com]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the self-described “Democratic socialist” running for congress in New York, has apparently decided that crying sexism is the way to win debates and endear oneself to the Left. Considering how Democrats often play the victim card, she may be on to something.

On Saturday morning, Vox’s Matt Yglesias commented on Twitter that coverage of Ocasio-Cortez on budget matters — meaning, the fact that she doesn’t have a response to how she would pay for any of the welfare programs she wants — is “scoldy” and “condescending.” He also claimed coverage of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was “credulous-verging-on-worshipful.”

Let’s set aside the absurdity that anyone in the left-leaning media worshipped Ryan. Anyway, Ocasio-Cortez added to Yglesias' tweet by playing the woman card.

“1st time female candidate makes small slip on a budgetary figure during extemporaneous interview: ‘This girl is SO uninformed! She needs to stay quiet until she knows everything!’” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Incumbent male Congressman brings a snowball to Congress to 'disprove' climate change: [white male shrug emoji]”

Secondly, Ocasio-Cortez’s default response appears to be to cry sexism. She’s essentially saying: “It’s my first campaign! Why are you being so mean to me?” and suggesting she's only being treated this way because she's a girl. Well, she's being treated this way because she was immediately latched on to by the left-leaning media as a new star because she beat the number four Democrat incumbent in the House, she would be the youngest person to be elected to Congress, and she’s Latina. She’s just a bunch of boxes to the Left.

Third, she condescendingly pointed out to people that she had a degree in economics from Boston University. The fact that she appears not to know much about economics is going to draw attention. She can talk about the Gini Coefficient all she wants, but if she can’t answer simple budget questions, her degree isn’t going to matter.

By the way, her inability to answer how she’ll pay for her welfare programs (something many politicians get asked about), is not her only problem. On Friday, The Washington Post published a lengthy fact check of five statements made by Ocasio-Cortez, and rated each as false.

So no, it was not a “small slip,” it’s a prolonged issue for her, as is crying sexism.

Cortez and the network she works with is empowering women.

There is a disinformation program literally for everyone. No matter who you are - what your interests are, what your beliefs are, which way you're focusing - there is a website set up just for you to take you in and to vector your thinking and your attention into thinking the way that they want you to think.

¬ Laura Knight-Jadczyk



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2018 02:31AM by riverhousebill.

1st time female candidate makes small slip on a budgetary figure during extemporaneous interview: “This girl is SO uninformed! She needs to stay quiet until she knows everything!”

Incumbent male Congressman brings a snowball to Congress to “disprove” climate change:

Quote
riverhousebill
1st time female candidate makes small slip on a budgetary figure during extemporaneous interview: “This girl is SO uninformed! She needs to stay quiet until she knows everything!”

Incumbent male Congressman brings a snowball to Congress to “disprove” climate change:

Right - I just addressed her playing the Sexism Card that you posted here - by her Tweet/comment above, she's playing the Sexism Card. When the Washington Post Fact Checked her and found she was lying tons, she cried "Sexism" by her Tweet above.

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]

*********

Here's one article where she played the Sexism Card when she was called out by the Washington Post as being either stupid or a liar or both -

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tries To Blame Sexism For People Calling Out Her Claims

[www.dailywire.com]

**********

Here's the second time she played the Sexism Card when the Great Ben Shapiro offered to debate her and she accused him of being Sexist - this is shameful and makes her look so desperate, but you Libs still stick up for her and defend her - lol

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]


********

It's great that you and the Libs think she's so brilliant and is the Face of the Democrat Socialist Party now, because she's going to keep on saying stupid things and getting called out on her ignorance/lies by the other side and you guys will have to keep defending her - it'll be fun.

November is going to be a lot of fun yes

Yeah, the Blue Wave that never was. Like the way Hillary was 100% guaranteed to win the Election, but then she didn't. Oh, yeah, that's because of the "Trump Colluded With Russia" Greatest Conspiracy Theory of the Century that the Libs Own - lol

Quote
riverhousebill
November is going to be a lot of fun yes

haha -

Ben Shapiro REKS Ocasio Cortez

[www.youtube.com]

*********

[www.youtube.com]

The Libs are hilarious - if they weren't so annoying, dangerous and violent



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2018 02:17AM by Jennifer.

This highlights Cortez' ignorance - and as usual, the Conservative/Libertarian has to call the Lib out on her Lies and provide the proper FACTS!

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Economic Genius

[www.youtube.com]

Everyone's working two or three jobs "and can barely feed their kids." Wrong! Everybody feeds their kids just fine, thanks to Welfare and FoodStamps.

Quote
riverhousebill
November is going to be a lot of fun yes

[/quote]

Hey Jenifer, maybe we are far apart on political front I still think you are a caring human thats all peace

I pray we can all find common ground

Quote
riverhousebill
Hey Jenifer, maybe we are far apart on political front I still think you are a caring human thats all peace

I pray we can all find common ground

Wow, are you sick or something...

But I know we're both 'anti-war' to a certain degree.

And I always thought like me the Libs didn't trust the Government, the FBI and the CIA in relation to foreign policy. Now I'm not so sure.

And I always thought like me the Libs didn't trust the Government, the FBI and the CIA in relation to foreign policy. Now I'm not so sure.

I trust the FBI, I dont trust the Cointeel dept of FBI
(Dirty tricks Dept) we of Northern California Earth First called them.

I was involved with Law suite against FBI Cointell Federal Court Oakland CA.

We won largest judgment in History against FBI.

Earth First activists win case / FBI, cops must pay $4.4 million for ...
[www.sfgate.com]

four hours of taped cointell spin about Judy Bari and myself
where part of evidence at trial.

Ive been an activist since army discharge 1970.
belonged to alliance Of Atomic Veterans ect ect many groups since 70
Ive learned a bit about corruption I have friends in all walks of life
and one who is a retired FBI Agent he was not deep state and most FBI agents are not corrupt , but dedicated to law and order serial killers kidnap murders ect
Ive learned a few things about govt over time like Cointellpro, most of you are have the fantasy version about govt corruption, that enables these dirty trick depts to stay in buzz.


Wow, are you sick or something jenifer you have a good eye,
Not sick but drunk on rice wine,
At family gathering here in Ninh Binh they woild not let me say no to drink toast got smashed I dont drink other wise once every one or two years.
Rice wine talk!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2018 04:07AM by riverhousebill.

Ocasio and Ihan rest of wave will rock the House!
2019 looking up!



Congress is too old. They don't have a stake in the game. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

People get ready a change is coming



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2019 08:59AM by riverhousebill.

And the cultist cry Libs??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
these right wing nuts will try and spin every step!

As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was being sworn in to Congress on Thursday, a video apparently intending to smear the young Democrat was being widely shared on Twitter. But attempts to bash the freshman congresswoman backfired after the clip, which shows a college-aged Ocasio-Cortez dancing gleefully, went viral.

The video originated from a right-wing Twitter account that was trying to peddle an allegedly scandalous video of Ocasio-Cortez dancing. It was watermarked as a LiveLeak video purportedly filmed while the congresswoman was in “high school.”

“Here is America’s favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is,” tweeted AnonymousQ1776, an account with apparent ties to QAnon conspiracy theorists. “High School video of ‘Sandy’ Ocasio-Cortez.”

A video of Cortez dancing was posted on Twitter by somebody or other who was probably on the "Other Side". So what? Is there more to this Non-Story? It means nothing.

That's like if I posted to Twitter a video of Ruth Bader Ginsburg dancing when she was in high school. Yes, I'm on the "Other Side". But so what? Who care. It means nothing.

Now when someone posts a video of Cortez saying something that is a Lie, Fiction, Not-True, False - that is Relevant and Important and Newsworthy because It Means Something - that Cortez either Lies or is Ignorant (that's a nice word for Stupid) and considering she's a Politician, Congressperson, Representative of The People, it is definitely Important, Newsworthy, Relevant, and Detrimental to Cortez and The Libs.

But But But Cortez shes a commie, see her coomie dance shame!
seems Jenner not to happy with midterms,
she has a bad case of the miserbles id say.


OLITICS 01/04/2019 06:16 am ET Updated 8 hours ago
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Shuts Down GOP Haters With 8 Little Words
The youngest congresswoman hit back at Republicans who reportedly booed her.
headshot
By Lee Moran
X


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) had one thing to say to the GOP congressmen who reportedly booed her as she voted for Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to become the new House speaker on Thursday.

“Don’t hate me cause you ain’t me, fellas,” tweeted the 29-year-old, who with her own swearing-in became the youngest congresswoman in history.

Seems like he Nazi and the klan Kluckers are having strokes over Cortez
Trump Cultist like jenneire will try anything to smear.

COMMIE DANCER!

Ocasio-Cortez, who on Thursday was also the subject of a bizarre right-wing smear campaign involving an old video of her dancing, revealed in a further tweet why she wore all-white to the ceremony:

Can the parrot say Libs again>

Quote
riverhousebill

Seems like he Nazi and the klan Kluckers are having strokes over Cortez
Trump Cultist like jenneire will try anything to smear.

COMMIE DANCER!

Ocasio-Cortez, who on Thursday was also the subject of a bizarre right-wing smear campaign involving an old video of her dancing, revealed in a further tweet why she wore all-white to the ceremony:

Can the parrot say Libs again>

Ooh, I like the name "Jenneire". Sounds so French.

Um, one guy posts an old video of Cortez dancing and riverhousebill calls it a "a bizarre right-wing smear campaign."

LOL

THE LIBS are the Smear Campaign champions.

I hear the GOP thinks women dancing are scandalous

Jennifer your so full of right wing ca ca

qoute Jennifer- Um, one guy posts an old video of Cortez dancing and riverhousebill calls it a "a bizarre right-wing smear campaign." LOL

Opps you forgot to mention Jennifer comment that went with aired Video
just some guy yeh right!

Maybe nobody else noticed but I did these exact words are words Jennifer posted Humh?(--acting like the clueless nitwit she is.) Cut and paste jennier???

The video had resurfaced earlier this week in a tweet from the account @AnonymousQ1776, which has since been deleted, along with the caption: "Here is America's favorite commie know-it-all acting like the clueless nitwit she is.

”
Ocasio-Cortez dances all over GOP haters in new video if you have not seen it check it out, Im for more dancing in Govt!