Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

[Anastasis 23468]

24 minutes ago, F250 said:

Yeah, that was a pretty shitty answer. Part of the Blue Wave message was that Dems were going to restore some semblance of responsible governance. Saying we will pay for it the same way we pay for the Space Force doesn't sound like someone who has a plan. They sound like Trump.

 

Death spiral, imo. 

[Aqua Buddha 14586]

For those who laugh at Cortez's video and youthful tomfoolery, how do you explain this?  He was 42 and a candidate for vice president:

 

[CooterBrown 18005]

For those who laugh at Cortez's video and youthful tomfoolery, how do you explain this?  He was 42 and a candidate for vice president:
 

Every time I see that pic, the first thing that pops into my mind is “Stop! Collaborate and listen!”

[Hanrahan 1306]

I would have sexual relations with this chick, head full of dummy or not.

[F250 28766]

8 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

For those who laugh at Cortez's video and youthful tomfoolery, how do you explain this?  He was 42 and a candidate for vice president:

 

That's a DVD cover for a gay porno. Ain't nothing inherently wrong with that.

[williemackgarza 1826]

Id love to see a debate with aoc, palin & the beauty queen for such as the iraq chick.
Or a porn movie threesome.
Both would be highly entertaining.

[troph 24783]

If we're going to seriously push for fewer college degrees and more technical certifications/community college then we really need companies to stop valuing a college degree so much, or perhaps even better (and I know some businesses have basically been forced to do this) companies have paid long-term apprenticeships. I get a gross feeling from hearing so many boomers, not necessarily y'all, whine about the waning allure of community college/technical school when in reality they would have never considered such a path when they were young.

Anecdotally my oldest son has wanted to be an architect for a while now. I’m not pushing him away from college but I am gently asking him to consider moving from architecture after a year or two into actual building as a GC. There’s more money in GC work than architect work but what’s interesting to me is I’m not so keen on skipping college all together which he certainly could.

Same for starting a service company - shortages in skilled labor but I’d still want him to get a BBA first.

Letting go of the notion that “my” kid should go to college even though other work options could be more lucrative is a very hard thing to let go of for middle class and upper middle class folk.

[Anastasis 23468]

24 minutes ago, williemackgarza said:

Id love to see a debate with aoc, palin & the beauty queen for such as the iraq chick.
Or a porn movie threesome.
Both would be highly entertaining.

I’d like to see AOC and Justin Amash debate.  

[Fozzz 152]

Interesting that she’s an MMT fan. 

https://www.thisisinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-biography-2019-1

[Longhorn_Fan68 33868]

Is that a tabloid site, because that reads like a tabloid

[Patrick Bateman 3911]

49 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Yes it is.  

How do we pay for all of these other things?

I think the concern is while it's an answer, it's not a coherent plan... it's not a strategy which may have enduring success.  It's the same "whataboutism" the left rails on the right about simply reversed.  What about Space Force?  What about the military?  What about this?  What about that?  The same mechanisms she speaks with such smugness about is partly what's failing this country.  So it's an answer... and it's a shitty one.

[Fozzz 152]

2 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

Is that a tabloid site, because that reads like a tabloid

I’m not familiar with that site, but that’s an informative profile of her. 

[Guest Lobo]

The next headline down from her apparent breakdown of modern monetary theory and how she doesn’t think governments really ‘owe’ they money is about princess Kate Middleton’s little brother is starting a new career.

to think I still get my shit from brookings. 

[Fozzz 152]

of course you would be a fan of that worthless fucking think tank. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

4 hours ago, Brew said:

Which isn’t an answer.

You’re right.  She should have said Mexico will pay for it.

[Celery Man 20934]

well well well 

[elfenix 34229]

54 minutes ago, Lobo said:

The next headline down from her apparent breakdown of modern monetary theory and how she doesn’t think governments really ‘owe’ they money is about princess Kate Middleton’s little brother is starting a new career.

to think I still get my shit from brookings. 

or you could just listen to UT's own james galbraith

Edited January 7, 2019 by elfenix

[bad_teammate 13193]

58 minutes ago, Fozzz said:

of course you would be a fan of that worthless fucking think tank. 

It is one of the MANY welfare projects funded by billionaires intended to give some veneer of intellectual credibility to absolute stupidity.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13509]

17 hours ago, elfenix said:

my best friend is an AF mechanic, and finish his 20 next year.  he could make plenty good money working as a mechanic for a big airline (all his experience is on heavies - E-4, C-17, C-5, KC-10, etc.).  but his body can't take it.  he expects to be 100% disabled when he gets out.  so he'll have to do something else that probably won't pay near as well. 

Not to derail but I don’t understand this.   Your friend is currently an AF mechanic but is basically unable to work, or is somehow planning to become 100% disabled between now and when he retires next year?  

Wtf is the AF doing to their mechanics that allows their jobs to disable their mechanics?  Or your friend allowing himself to get hurt to game the system to get retirement and disability checks in the future?

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

5 hours ago, Celery Man said:

well well well 

 

Went to high school with a girl named Alexandria who went by Sandy as well, so this hits close to home.

 

 

[DaysOff 7947]

The VA encourages this type of behavior. I won't call it fraud on the airman because it's often the VA that tells them the disability rating they can get them. Some Delta pilots recently got in trouble for falsifying their FAA medical forms. They've been receiving disability payments, yet have been flying for the airlines for years. So which is it? Your disabled and flying when unfit or your VA rating is bullshit. I'll go with the latter.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13509]

11 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

The VA encourages this type of behavior. I won't call it fraud on the airman because it's often the VA that tells them the disability rating they can get them. Some Delta pilots recently got in trouble for falsifying their FAA medical forms. They've been receiving disability payments, yet have been flying for the airlines for years. So which is it? Your disabled and flying when unfit or your VA rating is bullshit. I'll go with the latter.

Working the system isn’t fraud by itself.  IMHO.  But if you’re performing the job that you’ve been trained to perform, I would classify it as fraud if you’re claiming that you’re too disabled to perform it.  As you write, you can’t have it both ways.

Of course I understand that many go down similar paths because they feel they’ve “earned” the right because they were mistreated or under paid for years.  

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

[Aqua Buddha 14586]

7 hours ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I think the concern is while it's an answer, it's not a coherent plan... it's not a strategy which may have enduring success.  It's the same "whataboutism" the left rails on the right about simply reversed.  What about Space Force?  What about the military?  What about this?  What about that?  The same mechanisms she speaks with such smugness about is partly what's failing this country.  So it's an answer... and it's a shitty one.

No, really, that IS the answer.  She's saying we pay for it the same way we pay for these other things.  The only difference is she's saying we chose one thing over the other.

[Aqua Buddha 14586]

6 hours ago, Celery Man said:

well well well 

This changes everything......

The obsession runs wide and deep.  The only thing that it rivals is Aggy's obsession with Texas and the football board's obsession with officiating....

[Brew 3049]

7 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

No, really, that IS the answer.  She's saying we pay for it the same way we pay for these other things.  The only difference is she's saying we chose one thing over the other.

So we’re cutting those other things? Or we’re raising taxes? Or we’re running deeper into debt? It’s not an answer, it’s a political non-answer that I would hope at this point people are getting tired of but clearly not.

I’m going to run on the platform of giving every individual a $50k check a year. We’ll pay for it the same way everything is paid for. Hopefully, people are smart enough to realize the math doesn’t work, but I doubt it.

At some point someone on one side or the other is going to have to figure out how we pay for all this bullshit on an ongoing basis rather than constantly rolling the ball forward to the next group. We know our revenue, lay the expenses out to match it. If we exceed revenue, then there is more next year. If we fall short, there is less next year. If we need more, then we have to raise taxes. It’s not that far fetched and saying we’ll pay for things the way we always do is not an f-ing answer.

[Aqua Buddha 14586]

1 minute ago, Brew said:

So we’re cutting those other things? Or we’re raising taxes? Or we’re running deeper into debt? It’s not an answer, it’s a political non-answer that I would hope at this point people are getting tired of but clearly not.

I’m going to run on the platform of giving every individual a $50k check a year. We’ll pay for it the same way everything is paid for. Hopefully, people are smart enough to realize the math doesn’t work, but I doubt it.

At some point someone on one side or the other is going to have to figure out how we pay for all this bullshit on an ongoing basis rather than constantly rolling the ball forward to the next group. We know our revenue, lay the expenses out to match it. If we exceed revenue, then there is more next year. If we fall short, there is less next year. If we need more, then we have to raise taxes. It’s not that far fetched and saying we’ll pay for things the way we always do is not an f-ing answer.

While you are correct, the American people do not want that.  We all know we can't afford what we have and that didn't start recently.  The American people want low taxes and big government spending.  You can fault her for lack of specifics all you want but the American people have proven time and time again that they don't care about specifics.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

15 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

No, really, that IS the answer.  She's saying we pay for it the same way we pay for these other things.  The only difference is she's saying we chose one thing over the other.

No man, don't you understand?  It is okay to have massive deficits for military spending, walls, and trips to Mar a Lago, but healthcare for all needs to run in the black. 

[bolverk 29659]

Just moments before making that statement, she advocated for a 70% tax rate for income above $10 million. Maybe that's what she had in mind as a means for paying? I dunno.

[Celery Man 20934]

we could use some of that usmca money

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

3 minutes ago, Brew said:

So we’re cutting those other things? Or we’re raising taxes? Or we’re running deeper into debt? It’s not an answer, it’s a political non-answer that I would hope at this point people are getting tired of but clearly not.

I’m going to run on the platform of giving every individual a $50k check a year. We’ll pay for it the same way everything is paid for. Hopefully, people are smart enough to realize the math doesn’t work, but I doubt it.

At some point someone on one side or the other is going to have to figure out how we pay for all this bullshit on an ongoing basis rather than constantly rolling the ball forward to the next group. We know our revenue, lay the expenses out to match it. If we exceed revenue, then there is more next year. If we fall short, there is less next year. If we need more, then we have to raise taxes. It’s not that far fetched and saying we’ll pay for things the way we always do is not an f-ing answer.

It’s a gotcha question to get her to say we’ll raise taxes which is a misleading answer with respect to people keeping more of their own money.

Americans ALREADY pay more for healthcare than any other country.  Healthcare that isn’t even that great if we’re going by life expectancy.

If the average American is currently paying 8K+ a year for medical bills but could get the same level of care for 2K while paying an extra $2,000 in taxes, how is that not in their best interest?

This isn’t a radical idea.  It’s how most of the developed world does it. We’re so well programmed to have an immediate negative reaction to higher taxes that it becomes taboo to even suggest it.

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

3 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s a gotcha question to get her to say we’ll raise taxes which is a misleading answer with respect to people keeping more of their own money.

Americans ALREADY pay more for healthcare than any other country.  Healthcare that isn’t even that great if we’re going by life expectancy.

If the average American is currently paying 8K+ a year for medical bills but could get the same level of care for 2K while paying an extra $2,000 in taxes, how is that not in their best interest?

This isn’t a radical idea.  It’s how most of the developed world does it. We’re so well programmed to have an immediate negative reaction to higher taxes that it becomes taboo to even suggest it.

We are so well programmed to think that anything that is of tangible benefit to we the people rather than the .01 percent we have an immediate negative reaction to it.

 

We are a nation of whipped dogs. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

1 minute ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

We are so well programmed to think that anything that is of tangible benefit to we the people rather than the .01 percent we have an immediate negative reaction to it.

 

We are a nation of whipped dogs. 

Truth

[MaybeACoordinator 8349]

4 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Truth

I lived in the UK for three years with my ex, and they are similar. Compared to countries like France and Germany, they've got it rough. Their gov't / ruling class is always trying to take more and more away from the rabble, privatizing rail, not giving extended vacation time like they get on the continent, trucking in boatloads of Poles to work cheap at semi-skilled jobs. And they finally snapped -- Brexit. I guess Trump is our snit-fit version of Brexit, but he is only making shit worse, and I fear what is coming next when the people find out that he lied. 

[Francisco 2.0 32389]

 

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

8 hours ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I think the concern is while it's an answer, it's not a coherent plan... it's not a strategy which may have enduring success.  It's the same "whataboutism" the left rails on the right about simply reversed.  What about Space Force?  What about the military?  What about this?  What about that?  The same mechanisms she speaks with such smugness about is partly what's failing this country.  So it's an answer... and it's a shitty one.

Sure it is.  I'd rather she say the Russians will pay for it.  And their collaborators, with all the money confiscated from sanctions and asset forfeiture from convictions of the current administration.  That's closer to happening than Mexico paying for the wall.  I mean if we are going to both-sides it, why not go big?

[Brew 3049]

37 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Just moments before making that statement, she advocated for a 70% tax rate for income above $10 million. Maybe that's what she had in mind as a means for paying? I dunno.

If that’s her plan she brought up on TV what does that impact, 10k-12k taxpayers that pay somewhere around 20% of total tax collections already. They will tax plan their way right around that issue. Let’s adjust capital gains and qualified dividend  rates back to something reasonable where all in that group are paying equitably first. Do away with this stupid pass through deduction too and force people to go to C corps if they want lower rates where it is more expensive to get the money out.

Put out a plan that has a shot and makes sense. When tax collections and budget numbers come out for 18/19, someone needs to be ready for a plan to turn this because I don’t see any way it isn’t way worse than projections. Add a recession to the backside of it later this year and next year and we’re f-ed.

[atomheartbevo 89643]

1 hour ago, Aqua Buddha said:

This changes everything......

The obsession runs wide and deep.  The only thing that it rivals is Aggy's obsession with Texas and the football board's obsession with officiating....

Are you saying the officiating isn’t bad or crooked?

[Bozo_Casanova 26441]

Anecdotally my oldest son has wanted to be an architect for a while now. I’m not pushing him away from college but I am gently asking him to consider moving from architecture after a year or two into actual building as a GC. There’s more money in GC work than architect work but what’s interesting to me is I’m not so keen on skipping college all together which he certainly could.

 

Same for starting a service company - shortages in skilled labor but I’d still want him to get a BBA first.

 

Letting go of the notion that “my” kid should go to college even though other work options could be more lucrative is a very hard thing to let go of for middle class and upper middle class folk.

I -feel-the same way, but we can afford to exit a kid from college in a way that makes the degree cost effective. Almost by definition that’s not middle class. If you can afford a home, reliable transportation, healthcare, college and vacation while putting something away for retirement you aren’t middle class in this country anymore.

 

And that’s the core issue in our politics: the destruction of the middle class and the end of the American dream.

 

[Anastasis 23468]

4 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

If you can afford a home, reliable transportation, healthcare, college and vacation while putting something away for retirement you aren’t middle class in this country anymore.

Those qualities are precisely what defines the middle class.  Your point, which is of course correct, is that middle class is not attainable by low and middle income Americans. 

[TwiceHorn 31446]

On 1/5/2019 at 7:43 PM, longhornmatt said:

She is left wing lady Trump.  Granted, she’s not old and overtly hateful in that old person DGAF way like Trump is, which is worth something.  But she is:

1. A complete lightweight who uses media attention and simplistic, fantastical populist nonsense applause lines as substitutes for realistic substantive ideas and policy positions. 

2. Often wholly ignorant of the actual facts, but never lets that stand in the way of delivering a red meat line to elicit an emotional response from her supporters. 

3. Willfully deceptive, but her supporters always find a reason to excuse the ignorance and the falsehoods.  She’s young and unpolished!  She’s still learning! (Trump is a businessman not a politician! He’s still learning!)

4. Funnier / hipper than most politicians, which results in her delivering nice put downs and twitter troll smack.  This is, apparently, the key to political success now in both parties.  Yay America!

5. Benefiting from an emerging cult of personality among people who want to believe in her ridiculous promises of making everything great (and how easily and cheaply it can be done!), and among people who just enjoy owning the pubs and tasting right wing tears.  And the lengths the supporters will go to in order to hold her up as a champion ... I was always amazed at the conspiracy theories people would concoct to justify support of Trump, and now apparently we get to see the mirror image of how ACO is going to drain that Harvard Skull & Bones swamp.  Oh, and the whataboutisms!  But Hillary!  But Louis Gohmert!

It is depressing to think we are going to just swing back and forth from loud mouth idiots on one side of the aisle to the other, ad nauseum.  I really hope some moderate normal candidate beats Trump in 2020 and people decide twitter smack from politicians is so last decade.

 

While I am not convinced that she is an actual insincere lightweight, I do believe her tactics and the reception to same are every bit what you say.  And that her popularity is quite similar to Trumps. 

 

Great grim post. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by TwiceHorn

[TwiceHorn 31446]

6 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Those qualities are precisely what defines the middle class.  Your point, which is of course correct, is that middle class is not attainable by low and middle income Americans. 

The aspirational middle class, yes. The folks under the fat part of the curve, no. 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33868]

Just moments before making that statement, she advocated for a 70% tax rate for income above $10 million. Maybe that's what she had in mind as a means for paying? I dunno.

I think more than anything the last few years have exposed America's selective short term memory. It's almost as if no one can carry one thought while being presented another

[bad_teammate 13193]

11 hours ago, F250 said:

Yeah, that was a pretty shitty answer. Part of the Blue Wave message was that Dems were going to restore some semblance of responsible governance. Saying we will pay for it the same way we pay for the Space Force doesn't sound like someone who has a plan. They sound like Trump.

Taking on debt as investment can be a very sound fiscal policy. Corporations do it. Individuals do it. Nations should also do it.

The question isn't whether or not we should take on debt. That's obvious; we should. The question is whether or not the payoff at the end will be more than the debt itself. (There are other questions, of course, but I'm talking about basic fiscal responsibility.)

We should make those investments.

And absolutely no one on the Democratic side sounds like Trump. No one does.

[ChiTownDoc 21149]

11 hours ago, F250 said:

Yeah, that was a pretty shitty answer. Part of the Blue Wave message was that Dems were going to restore some semblance of responsible governance. Saying we will pay for it the same way we pay for the Space Force doesn't sound like someone who has a plan. They sound like Trump.

 

This is extremely fucking annoying.  Nobody needs the left’s alternative to Trump.  

[ChiTownDoc 21149]

7 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Taking on debt as investment can be a very sound fiscal policy. Corporations do it. Individuals do it. Nations should also do it.

The question isn't whether or not we should take on debt. That's obvious; we should. The question is whether or not the payoff at the end will be more than the debt itself. (There are other questions, of course, but I'm talking about basic fiscal responsibility.)

We should make those investments.

And absolutely no one on the Democratic side sounds like Trump. No one does.

Her policy answer is fine if she says what you did.  She didn’t.  She goes, ‘what about their shitty fiscal ideas?’   

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

6 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Her policy answer is fine if she says what you did.  She didn’t.  She goes, ‘what about their shitty fiscal ideas?’   

Then she goes on to say Americans are already getting screwed on paying for healthcare and college when compared to other nations... which is true. 

She should have answered the question better and I’ve seen her do it in previous interviews.

The whataboutism has some value in illustrating how overly obsessed we are with spending on democrat ideas but don’t give a fuck when Republicans want to spend money on worthless shit. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Hugo Stiglitz

[bad_teammate 13193]

5 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Her policy answer is fine if she says what you did.  She didn’t.  She goes, ‘what about their shitty fiscal ideas?’   

She literally says, "the same way we pay for <list of other things we pay for>". That's the answer, and it's the correct answer. The question was literally how do we pay for it and we pay for it the same way we pay for everything else.

If Anderson Cooper wanted to ask, "How do we make sure everything is either immediately revenue neutral?" then he should've asked that. But he didn't, and others don't, because it's a stupid question.

If he (and others) are fishing for a specific answer, then ask better questions. It's not her job or anyone else's job to imagine what the potential subtext of a question is.

 

[elfenix 34229]

3 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Not to derail but I don’t understand this.   Your friend is currently an AF mechanic but is basically unable to work, or is somehow planning to become 100% disabled between now and when he retires next year?  

Wtf is the AF doing to their mechanics that allows their jobs to disable their mechanics?  Or your friend allowing himself to get hurt to game the system to get retirement and disability checks in the future?

not sure exactly what the job entails; i know he's had several back surgeries and he complains that the hydraulic fluid in the KC-10 is acidic and there's no way to prevent it from getting on you when you're wrenching on the No. 3 engine.  apparently there's a rating of 100% disabled but still able to work.  i don't know what his basis is for expecting (maybe hoping is more the right word) that he gets that.  i would think the AF would do more than look once (right at retirement) and give a rating, but i don't know how that process works, either. 

[Chad Fuck 17668]

56 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

2 hours ago, bolverk said:

Just moments before making that statement, she advocated for a 70% tax rate for income above $10 million. Maybe that's what she had in mind as a means for paying? I dunno.

I think more than anything the last few years have exposed America's selective short term memory. It's almost as if no one can carry one thought while being presented another

You know, it's impossible to reason when you're angry.  Just ask the folks running the circus at Fox.