Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

STATE OF THE UNION
Published 1 hour ago
Peggy Noonan says Ocasio-Cortez has ‘rare bad night,’ freshman rep responds


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., center, listens as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to criticism from a top columnist on Tuesday that she had a "rare bad night" during President Trump's State of the Union speech.

Peggy Noonan, the Wall Street Journal columnist, tweeted that the 29-year-old Democrat looked "sullen, teenaged and at a loss" during a night where the freshman rep kept mostly silent and refused to applaud president Trump's remarks as he touted his administration's low unemployment numbers and efforts to cure AIDS and stop sex traffickers.

Full story, tweets, video, pics, and comments at:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/u-s-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-responds-to-criticism-she-wasnt-warm-and-spirited-during-trump-address

She's thinking.. Did I bring an extra plug?? Cuz somsing no feel right.

That bitch has an IQ of about 90...If she had to think to breathe...she would be dead..

 ~~~~>  https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-website-taken-everyone-makes-fun-stupid-ideas

From The Wall Street Journal:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/wsj-writer-slams-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-says-it-looks-like-dem-parody-bill-written-by-gop

Questions after Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend gets congressional email acct.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing ethics questions after revelations the freshman lawmaker's office gave her boyfriend a congressional email account.

The democratic socialist waded into the issue in response to a tweet alleging boyfriend Riley Roberts had been put on staff. The tweet included a screenshot of an official House email address. Ocasio-Cortez insisted that he was only given the email account so he could access her calendar.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-faces-questions-after-her-boyfriend-gets-congressional-email-account

Quote :

Well isn't this nice...and what business does he have in needing such an e-mail account?

I call BS on her "excuse" imho it is a way for her to pass on confidential info to this "boyfriend"

Poor people not allowed in AOC's luxury apartment complex
by Alana Goodman | February 19, 2019 02:43 PM |  Washington Examiner


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., recently moved into a luxury apartment complex in Washington, D.C. that does not offer the affordable housing units that were a key plank in the New York congresswoman’s campaign platform.

Ocasio-Cortez, 29, who said in November that she was concerned about being able to afford rent in D.C., now earns a $174,000 annual salary and is living in a newly built high-rise in the city’s Navy Yard area, the Washington Free Beacon reported last week.

The freshman congresswoman, a self-described socialist, campaigned on a platform to expand affordable housing, and her controversial Green New Deal proposal promises “Safe, affordable, adequate housing” for all.

But Ocasio-Cortez’s new building — built by leading D.C. developer WC Smith — is part of a luxury complex whose owners specifically do not offer affordable units under Washington, D.C.’s Affordable Dwelling Units program. The Washington Examiner is not naming the building or complex.

In 2018, a civil rights attorney sued the Washington, D.C. government for allegedly discriminatory gentrification policies, claiming that development in Navy Yard area and other parts of southeast D.C. encouraged an influx of affluent “millennial creatives” who displaced minority residents.

Ocasio-Cortez, commonly referred to as "AOC," repeatedly criticized luxury real estate developers during her campaign, claiming that their buildings hiked up rent prices and pushed low-income residents out of their neighborhoods.

“We need to kick luxury real estate lobbyists to the curb and defend working people’s way of life,” Ocasio-Cortez said last March. “Skyrocketing cost of living is a national crisis that CAN be addressed. It’s not just an NYC issue - it’s happening in every US metro area.”

Ocasio-Cortez also promised not to take campaign contributions from luxury developers during her campaign. “It’s time we stand up to the luxury developer lobby,” she said in a speech last April. “Every official is too scared to do it - except me.”

Her new apartment complex — which boasts on its website that it vows to take "luxury apartment living" to a higher level — offers over 100,000 square feet of amenities for its residents.

These include: two private massage rooms with state-of-the-art hydrotherapy beds; men’s and women’s saunas; a full-scale demonstration kitchen with wood-fired pizza oven; a 25-meter indoor lap pool; a rooftop infinity pool with panoramic views of the Capitol; a Peloton cycling studio with over a dozen bikes; and a fireside lounge featuring a Steinway & Sons player piano.

Also included is a PGA-grade golf simulation lounge with a wrap-around screen and viewing bar that allows residents to play virtually at dozens of the world’s most exclusive golf courses with the touch of a button. Last week, Democrats mocked President Trump for installing a new golf simulator at the White House — updating with his own money one originally installed by former President Barack Obama.

Apartments in the building currently start at $1,840 per month for a 440 square foot studio, and range up to $5,200 for a three-bedroom. The average rent in Washington D.C. is $1,340 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,550 for a two-bedroom, according to the most recent data from Apartment List.

W. Christopher Smith, 66, the Annapolis-based CEO of WC Smith, is a Democratic donor who contributed to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and the Senate campaigns of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-M.D., Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA., and Jane Raybould, who lost a 2018 Senate race in Nebraska.

Smith donated to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., in 2017, and 11 employees of WC Smith gave $6,900 to the campaign of Muriel Bower, the Democratic mayor of D.C. In 2018, WC Smith's vice-president of communications Ann-Marie Bairstow gave over $1300 to Act Blue earmarked in small amounts — $100 or less — for various candidates, including $50 to Ocasio-Cortez.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/poor-people-not-allowed-in-aocs-luxury-apartment-complex

edit:  Bwahaha, another one!!! - YouTube censored a video that makes fun of AOC

Ocasio-Cortez’s Financial Records Expose Her As A Total Fraud, Green Pipe Dream Pusher Is A Total Hypocrite Frequent Flyer
By Myron Cohen, on February 14, 2019

OPINION| THE LIBERALLY-BACKED GREEN NEW DEAL HAS BEEN ALL OVER THE NEWS LATELY.

Conservative Tribune reports that some “Democratic announced and expected 2020 presidential candidates have begun touting the plan, first publicly unveiled last week by freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”

Ocasio-Cortez called it an “example to the world.”


The Hill

@thehill
.@AOC unveils #GreenNewDeal: "Today is also the day that we choose to assert ourselves as a global leader in transitioning to 100% renewable energy and charting that path... We should do it because we are an example to the world." http://hill.cm/mSvMrgx

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be taking initiative and lead the way to act in an environmentally friendly fashion if she’s going to push others to do so.

Conservative Tribune explains, “One of the things the Green New Deal calls for is for air travel to be replaced with the use of rail travel.”

Why is Ocasio-Cortez traveling by air so much then?

“Her campaign filed a report with the FEC. There are 2,293 entries in the report. That may seem overwhelming to review, but filtering can be used in searching. Filtered searches from the time period of Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2018, contained some interesting revelations,” Conservative Tribune reports.

Ocasio-Cortez and the “Green New Deal” want to create a giant train to replace planes.

Conservative Tribune explains that “When it came to using the existing network of Amtrak, AOC’s campaign filed four charges with the company as ‘Fare,’ one as ‘RR Fare,’ four as ‘Tickets’ or ‘Amtrack tickets,’ and one as ‘Travel.’”

The cost ended up being $2,605.07, which is around 10 Amtrak trips.

Her campaign’s air travel was ridiculous.

Conservative Tribune gives a rundown:

Delta airlines had 17 listings under “Tickets,” “Plane tickets,” ‘Travel,” and “Airfare.” The total cost was $7,004.25.

With Allegiant there were four charges for “Airfare,” “Fare,” “Travel,” and “Tickets” totaling $1,161. Spirit Airlines showed up five times with “Fare” and “Travel charges”totaling $465.02.

There were seven “In Flight Service” charges with United Airlines, but only two charges for “Airfare” or a “Ticket.” Those two charges totaled $1,231.13.

Southwest only appeared once, with a $245.96 charge for “Airfare.”

American Airlines, misspelled in the report as “Americcan Airlines,” has 20 listings for “Airfare” and “Travel.” The total for those charges was $9,323.88.

The grand total for all the airfare was a whopping $19,431.24. That’s more than seven timesmore money spent on air travel than the $2,605.07 for rail travel with Amtrak.

Amtrak isn’t cheap, even though traveling by plane generally costs more. 49 charges for tickets to travel by plane is not a small price tag, especially comparing it to the 10 tickets purchased for rail travel.

It’s pretty clear that the amount of trips conducted by air were significantly more than by rail.

Conservative Tribune reports, “As an aside, the Green New Deal attacks car use, too. Car service charges appeared 534 times in Ocasio-Cotez’s campaign filing with the FEC. What that filing shows is that the actions, the choices, of AOC and her campaign arguably do not reflect the Green New Deal. Some would say that is just another example of Democrat hypocrisy.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Getting Her Own Comic Book
by Sam Stone – on Feb 22, 2019 in Comics, Comic News



In office for less than two months, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is already making her presence felt throughout Washington, D.C. Now, she will star in her own comic book.

Devil's Due Comics has announced Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force, a one-shot special commemorative issue, will be released on May 15. Featuring an all-star lineup of creators, including Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) and Jose Garibaldi (The LEGO Movie 2), the issue will feature an anthology of short stories as the Congresswoman takes on the GOP in heroic, satirical adventures. The variant cover illustrated by Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash) is below:



"It’s no secret that AOC has become the unofficial leader of the new school, and has sparked life back into Washington and that’s reflected in the enthusiasm on display by the men and women contributing to this project," Devil's Due Publisher Josh Blaylock observed. "While we all don’t agree on everything, we share a common excitement for the breath of fresh air the new Congress brings. I hope this is as much a cathartic release for readers as it has been for us creators."

A portion of the proceeds will go to support the USO and RaicesTexas.org, a nonprofit organization committed to providing legal services to immigrant families and refugees.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force by Jill Thompson, Dean Haspiel, Jose Garibaldi and more is scheduled to go on sale on May 15 from Devil's Due Comics.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s latest climate fix – No children for you
Ying Ma By Ying Ma | Fox News | Published 39 mins ago

The Democrats’ lurch toward socialism got even crazier over the weekend.

The party’s brightest star, Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., questioned whether it was moral for young people to have children due to climate change.

In an Instagram Live video, she warned, “Our planet is going to face disaster if we don’t turn this ship around. And so it’s basically like, there is a scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult and it does lead, I think young people, to have a legitimate question. You know, should – is it ok to still have children?”

Of course, crazy is part of socialism’s DNA. As it turns out, Communist China, a stalwart practitioner of socialism, has already beat Ocasio-Cortez to pondering the link between childbirth and climate change.

In fact, Zhao Baige, a former vice minister of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission, used to tout forced abortions as her country’s contribution to saving the planet.

At a UN climate change conference in 2009, she declared that a strong correlation existed between population growth and climate change, and that China’s implementation of a one-child policy for over 30 years lowered the world’s carbon emissions.

Official Chinese figures indicate that the country’s birth rate declined from more than 1.8 percent in 1978 to around 1.2 percent in 2007. The result of 400 million fewer births, according to Zhao, converted “into a reduction of 1.83 billion tons of carbon dioxide emission in China per annum.”

Most Americans would be horrified by the cruelty and tragedy of government mandated abortions as Zhao described. China’s Communist government, however, does not concern itself with those cumbersome details of basic human dignity.

While Ocasio-Cortez is in no way advocating that America fight climate change by forcing state violence upon its citizens, other climate warriors have proudly advocated not having children as their way of cutting carbon emissions.

Ocasio-Cortez’s musings over the weekend were somewhat different: Would life on earth be unsuitable or too difficult for children in 10 years? Regardless, her answer was the same: Do not have children.

In her video she further stated, “We need a universal sense of urgency… A lack of urgency is going to kill us.”

Socialism always comes with grand aspirations and demands tremendous sacrifice.

A sense of urgency certainly runs through the “Green New Deal” – her proposal for ridding America of the consumption of fossil fuels.

Among other things, it calls for the upgrade or replacement of every building in the country “for state-of-the-art energy efficiency,” “high-quality” health care, “healthy food,” adequate housing, clean air and water, “access to nature,” and economic security even for those “unwilling” to work. Furthermore, the plan wants to make farting cows and air travel obsolete.

The entire plan requires a massive government takeover of the economy, but that appears to be just cumbersome quibbling to the socialist representative from New York imbued with a sense of urgency.

For everyone else, it is worth remembering that China’s one-child policy came with a great deal of urgency as well, and was implemented to thwart a population explosion in the 1970s. Yet after more than three decades, the disastrous effects of the policy were plain for all to see.

Aside from having inflicted grave human suffering, the forcible limitation of population growth also created a demographic crisis for the second largest economy in the world. As a result, China began easing its one-child policy in 2013 to allow two children per family.

Yet it does not matter if the urgent goal is climate change or population control. Socialism always comes with grand aspirations and demands tremendous sacrifice.

Ocasio-Cortez’s musings that young people should not have children offer a timely reminder that a modern socialist regime has already forcibly prevented its citizens from having the number of children they wished to have, and touted such brutality as a contribution to the fight against climate change.

As President Trump rightly said in a speech last week:

“Socialism is about one thing only: power for the ruling class. And the more power they get, the more they crave. They want to run health care, run transportation and finance, run energy, education – run everything. They want the power to decide who wins and who loses, who’s up and who’s down, what’s true and what’s false, and even who lives and who dies.”

In the name of climate change, the Democratic Party’s unofficial leader seems eager to help everyone else decide who lives and who dies. She might not be interested, but history is littered with catastrophes and injustices created by socialist policies and their diktats.

______________________________________________________________

Note: I had to look up the word "diktats":

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=diktats

Never heard that word before!!!

Ocasio-Cortez lashes out after pics surface of hamburger dinner, slams ‘stalkerish’ restaurant photog
FEBRUARY 27, 2019
BY MARTIN WALSH

Less than a week after raging against cow farts and urging Americans to stop eating so many hamburgers, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was caught oozing with hypocrisy.

On Tuesday night, an image scorched across Twitter showing Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, sitting down for dinner together.

While sitting no more than a foot away, Ocasio-Cortez watched as Chakrabarti ordered a hamburger and chowed it down right in front of her.



Story and more pics at
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/ocasio-cortez-lashes-out-after-pics-surface-of-hamburger-dinner-slams-stalkerish-restaurant-photog/

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lays groundwork for more subpoenas against Trump, attributing Cohen questioning to bartending experience
Chris Riotta,The Independent 5 hours ago

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was busily writing notes throughout Michael Cohen’s explosive testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, as the progressive newcomer awaited her chance to cross-examine Donald Trump’s former lawyer about the president’s alleged lies and criminal conduct.

When the time came, prosecutors and Washington attorneys on both sides of the political aisle said the Democratic lawmaker displayed a unique effectiveness in asking investigative questions that get to specific answers: “Does that treasure trove of documents still exist?” she asked. “Who else knows that the president did this? … Where would the committee find more information on this? Do you think we need to review [the president’s] financial statements and tax returns in order to compare them?”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez “didn't grandstand,” NPR wrote. “Rather, she used her time to appear to make a case for subpoenaing Trump's tax returns.”

Her cross-examination, which arrived near the close of Cohen’s public testimony during a three-day stint on Capitol Hill that featured other hearings with lawmakers behind closed doors, immediately became a viral sensation on Wednesday afternoon.

The New York Democrat thanked supporters for their praise on Twitter, attributing her “razor sharp BS detector” to her experience working in the service industry in New York City.

“Thanks!” the congresswoman wrote to a Twitter user who said her line of questioning was “pretty amazing”.

“Bartending + waitressing (especially in NYC) means you talk to 1000s of people over the years,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Forces you to get great at reading people + hones a razor-sharp BS detector.”

The young Democrat has celebrated her working class roots in office, sharing the story of how she worked at a bar near Union Square in New York City while spearheading a campaign that went on to defeat a 10-term incumbent.

“Just goes to show that what some consider to be “unskilled laboor” can actually be anything but,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez added on Wednesday, ending the tweet with a wink emoji.

Other fact-finders lauded Ms Ocasio-Cortez for her “good questioning” of Cohen, who detailed several alleged crimes the president has committed, from asset inflation to paying off women he had affairs with during the 2016 presidential election.

“Some lessons that other lawmakers could learn from [Ms Ocasio Cortez’s] good questioning of Cohen: a) follow-up on previously asked questions that still need answers b) be precise and detailed and c) avoid much grandstanding,” Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post’s fact-checker, wrote in a tweet after the Wednesday testimony.

“You might elicit news,” he added.

Ocasio-Cortez warns of 'list' for moderate Dems who vote with Republicans: report
By Bradford Betz | Fox News | 7 hours ago

New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin says Democrats who are ‘breaking rank’ don’t view Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as their boss.

After more than two dozen moderate Democrats broke from their party's progressive wing and sided with Republicans on a legislative amendment Wednesday, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reportedly sounded the alarm in a closed-door meeting Thursday and said those Democrats were "putting themselves on a list."

The legislation that prompted the infighting was a bill that would expand federal background checks for gun purchases, the Washington Post reported. But a key provision requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified if illegal immigrants attempt to purchase guns saw 26 moderate Democrats side with Republicans.

According to the Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolded her wayward center-leaning colleagues, telling them: "We are either a team or we’re not, and we have to make that decision.”

But Ocasio-Cortez reportedly took it a step further. She said she would help progressive activists unseat those moderates in their districts in the 2020 elections, the report said. Her spokesman Corbin Trent told the paper that she made the "list" comment during the meeting.

“She said that when activists ask her why she had to vote for a gun safety bill that also further empowers an agency that forcibly injects kids with psychotropic drugs, they’re going to want a list of names and she’s going to give it to them,” Trent said, referring to ICE.

Ocasio-Cortez has vehemently denounced ICE since bursting onto the political stage -- but has also raised concerns among fellow Democrats that she's picking fights with her own party.

“I’m sure Ms. Cortez means well, but there’s almost an outstanding rule: Don’t attack your own people,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told Politico earlier this year. “We just don’t need sniping in our Democratic Caucus.”

Her star status and outsize influence bringing Democrats on board with controversial policies like the Green New Deal have rankled some long-time members. But the freshman congresswoman appears unfazed by the pushback, often hitting back at her critics on Twitter.

In response to criticism earlier this year from former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a snarky: “New party, who dis?”

The gun bill on the floor earlier this week would expand the scope of background checks and require nearly all gun buyers to undergo one – including if they bought at a gun show, online or in a private transaction.

Before Alexandria Was Known As AOC, There Was A Movement That Recruited Her To Run



Note: "Comments are disabled for this video."

People Search Garbage Truck For Food In Socialist Venezuela – Ocasio Wants Socialism For America –
Published on February 27, 2019 • By Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Venezuela has turned into a horror flick over the last couple of years. People are starving to death – there is no food and they’ve already gone through their pets. Now, starving Venezuelans are rummaging through garbage trucks for something to eat. All of this after the wealthiest country in South America collapsed because of socialist policies foisted upon the citizens there by not one, but two, insane socialist dictators.

Read the rest of this article (long), with pics and videos at:

https://rightwing.news/people-search-garbage-truck-for-food-in-socialist-venezuela-ocasio-wants-socialism-for-america-watch/

Damn, she is totally bonkers:

______________________________________________

Published 4 hours ago
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks ICE as a 'dangerous agency'
By Liam Quinn | Fox News

<snip>

The comments came after Ocasio-Cortez made a speech against immigration laws and promised to abolish ICE.

"[ICE] do not deserve a dime until they can prove that they are honoring human rights, until they can make a good faith effort to expand and embrace immigrants … Until they can prove good faith to an American ideal, they do not deserve any resources for their radical agenda,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

The call was backed by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

Full story here: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-attacks-ice-as-a-dangerous-agency

Published 45 mins agoLast Update 40 mins ago
Ocasio-Cortez responds after report accuses her of 'Green New Deal' hypocrisy: 'I also fly & use A/C'
By Louis Casiano | Fox News

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded Saturday night after a published report excoriated the freshman congresswoman for pushing her Green New Deal initiative while still traveling on airplanes and using ridesharing services -- instead greener travel methods such as public transportation.

The piece mentioned the New York Democrat’s call in January for more sustainable energy solutions: "The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,” she said at the time.

"But the woman who boasts of a “razor-sharp BS detector” seems to have trouble sniffing out her own,” the New York Post reported. “Since declaring her candidacy in May 2017, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign heavily relied on those combustible-engine cars — even though a subway station was just 138 feet from her Elmhurst [Queens] campaign office. She listed 1,049 transactions for Uber, Lyft, Juno and other car services, federal filings show. The campaign had 505 Uber expenses alone.”

Instead of embracing cheaper, less green travel methods, Ocasio-Cortez logged 66 airline transactions during her 2018 campaign while only using Amtrak 18 times, according to the Post.

Cortez responded on Twitter, arguing that "living in the world as it is isn't an argument against working towards a better future."

“I also fly & use A/C," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “The Green New Deal is about putting a LOT of people to work in developing new technologies, building new infrastructure, and getting us to 100% renewable energy.”

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1102021054363586561

The Green New Deal is an economic stimulus package designed to address income inequality, health care and climate change. The concept – modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal package through public works programs – could be funded through a 70 percent tax on America’s top earners.

Ocasio-Cortez has been a fierce advocate for addressing climate change. She recently questioned whether young couples should have children given the devastating consequences facing Earth unless an unprecedented effort is made to reduce carbon gas emissions by 2030.

Video at https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ocasio-cortez-responds-to-criticism-of-travel-methods-while-pushing-to-address-climate-change

AOC Admits Fellow Dems May Be Looking to Remove Her From Politics

During a recent interview, Democrat Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admitted that her own party may be looking to use district zoning against her.

The young Democrat socialist has taken the party by storm, alienating older Democrats while resonating with younger, far-left millennial liberals, and has caused a rift among the already-fractured Democratic Party.

Ocasio-Cortez admitted that it is “entirely possible” for her own party to work in an attempt to make changes to her district which would effectively eliminate her influence over the party.

Appearing to acknowledge the possibility that the move would likely come from opponents within her own party, Ocasio-Cortez said New York’s districts have been “historically gerrymandered.”

From The Intercept:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is prepared for the possibility that Democrats in New York could redraw her district after the 2020 election, she told The Intercept in an interview.

Following the 2020 census, every state will draw new district boundaries to reflect changes in the population, the political implications of which will stretch for at least the next decade. In 2014, New York approved a constitutional amendment establishing a nonpartisan redistricting commission, which is set to take over the redistricting process starting in 2020. The 10-member commission, meant to be independent from the legislature, is made up of individuals selected by leaders from the state Senate and Assembly, and the original eight members pick two additional members.

But Ocasio-Cortez’s most determined adversaries are not partisan Republicans, but Democrats who say that she has been a disruptive influence. The Hill recently reported that at least one member of Congress has been urging New York party leaders to recruit a Democratic primary challenger to Ocasio-Cortez. But the news led to a surge of donations to Ocasio-Cortez, suggesting that a more efficient means of ousting her might be simply to eliminate her district.

The 29-year-old congressperson noted (accurately) that it’s generally expected that New York will likely lose a seat, despite the city itself growing at a consistent pace. “I don’t know if that means that all of our districts are going to be redrawn dramatically, because they have been historically gerrymandered, or what will happen, but there’s certainly a possibility, if not a guarantee, that my district in the coming years will not look like my district today,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “So I think it’s entirely possible, and New York politics being what it is, we have no idea where things are going to go."

Michael Knowles: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading Democrats to defeat in 2020
By Michael Knowles | Fox News


The 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have served a combined 48 years in the Senate. They’ve served an additional 27 years in various mayoral offices and governor’s mansions across the country. Their total time in the House of Representatives adds another three decades of service. When you factor in likely candidates who have not yet declared or formed exploratory committees, those numbers rise to 108, 73, and 76 years, respectively. Yet who leads this historically broad and experienced presidential field? A 29-year-old bartender just wrapping up her first month in office.

To be sure, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is too young to launch her own bid for the White House. Nevertheless, the freshman congresswoman controls an entire primary pack of candidates too craven and opportunistic to offer any ideas themselves.

What major piece of legislation has Cory Booker, D-N.J., ever sponsored? What precisely constitutes the political legacy of Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.? The presidential aspirants have played it safe their entire careers. This cautious strategy has served them well – so well that now they hope to follow a first-term radical all the way to the Oval Office.

Last November, Ocasio-Cortez cooked her dinner live on Instagram. Within weeks Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, followed suit and opened their kitchens to the masses. A couple of months ago, a video emerged of Ocasio-Cortez dancing on a rooftop in college. As soon as the mainstream media covered the clip, Harris tweeted her own video shimmying back and forth in a chair. “I’m for *more* dancing in politics,” she beamed. Harris may dance, but Ocasio-Cortez calls the tune.

The nearest to a leader among the presidential aspirants is the 77-year-old socialist Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to whom progress means nothing more than rehashing the failed economic policies of the 1930s. Insomuch as he successfully pushed the Democratic Party toward the radical left in 2016, Sanders has accomplished more than his competitors. Still, three years later, even Bernie follows AOC’s lead on selling socialism to the people.

Ocasio-Cortez’s thrall over the 2020 race extends beyond style to specific matters of public policy. As she tells it, just a dozen years remain before air pollution extinguishes life on earth. To forestall Armageddon, we must pass the freshman congresswoman’s radical “Green New Deal.” This eco-socialist overhaul would outlaw planes, trains, automobiles, private health insurance, and 88 percent of the American energy industry before demolishing and rebuilding every edifice in the country, sticking the U.S. taxpayer with a $40 trillion tab. Nevertheless, as if in lockstep, Senators Gillibrand, Harris, Sanders, Warren, and Booker all signed up to co-sponsor the plan.

Advocates of Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal insist the plan enjoys wide support among all Americans, from liberal Democrats (92 percent) to conservative Republicans (57 percent). They fail to mention that virtually no one knows anything about it. According to the same Yale Center for Climate Change Communication study they cite, a full 82 percent of respondents knew “nothing at all” about the Green New Deal before answering the survey questions, all of which described the proposal in positive terms.

Presidential campaigns shed intense light on candidates and the policies they propose. One suspects support for the Green New Deal might crack once the American public learns the program will cost them their jobs, cars, doctors, flights, homes, heat, and electricity, among other pleasures.

Then the 2020 candidates will face an unpleasant choice: reverse course, thereby revealing themselves as the empty-suited opportunists that they are, or else persist in following an ignorant 20-something bartender down the path to electoral ruin. Leadership entails difficult decisions. The Democrats who would lead the free world will soon regret not making those decisions sooner

It's already Speaker Ocasio-Cortez
by Washington Examiner | March 04, 2019 12:00 AM


Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., floated the idea of dramatically changing the way the House works. Having lost two recent votes known as "motions to recommit" — minor votes, but stinging for any House leader — she basically wants to prevent the House minority from its traditional right to force votes to change legislation before it passes.

This is a terrible, cynical idea which, had it been in place for the last 25 years, would have silenced House Democrats almost the entire time. But more importantly, it's an idea that Pelosi is only considering because it's easier than actually asserting control of her own party in Congress — which, if you haven't noticed, she has nearly lost to a politically artless but media-savvy House freshman after less than two months.

The rules of the U.S. House, unlike those of the Senate, give the minority party few rights. It cannot stop or even meaningfully delay legislation on which the majority party is intent. But one thing the minority has always been able to do is force a couple of protest votes at the end of the process that put the majority on the spot. On the rare occasions where these motions to recommit succeed, they send bills back to committee for specific changes.

After losing two such votes on gun rights because dozens of Democrats defected, Pelosi is considering abolishing one of the very few rights that the House minority has. That she would even consider this is rather surprising, given her historical respect for the speakership and the House as an institution.

But it is less surprising given the weakened position in which she now finds herself.

To be sure, Democrats' numerical majority in Congress is solid. Yet from Southern California to Maine, from Iowa to Texas, and from downstate Virginia to upstate New York, the party's 2018 House takeover depended on wins in competitive, Republican-leaning districts in rural and suburban areas all over the country. A whole class of vulnerable freshman Democrats entered Congress this year with the understanding that they needed to project a moderate image back home and maintain voter support.

Yet to their horror, the party's most visible and apparently most powerful figure turns out to be not the speaker they elected, but rather, a member of the party's socialist cuckoo-bird wing.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is now setting the Democratic agenda in both houses of Congress. You don't believe us? Witness how, with the aid of a friendly media that seems to enjoy her ignorant tongue-lashings as much as it bristles at President Trump's, Ocasio-Cortez lured six Democratic senators running for president into a trap that could well cost the party their White House. They committed to her insane, embarrassingly half-baked Green New Deal proposal and will soon be forced to vote for a resolution supporting it.

In the House, things are just as bad. On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez was giving orders to House Democrats behind closed doors on how they are to vote, lest they face a primary challenge next year backed by her wealthy chief-of-staff and his super PAC.

This should all convey some idea of why Ocasio-Cortez has become Republicans' favorite Democrat to talk about. She's wreaking havoc on her party's cohesion and destroying its palatability for voters. Cynical Republicans would like to make sure her voice is heard. But in fact, her radical politics is going to harm the country and has already proven ruinous for the people living in her own district.

For potentially vulnerable Democrats, the unfolding radicalization of the congressional Democratic Party is scaring the hell out of voters back home. They feel forced to prove that they're independent and put their constituents' interests ahead of their party's on key issues like gun rights. That's why they feel even more compelled to vote against their party on motions to recommit.

Pelosi could rein in Speaker Ocasio-Cortez, but so far she is unwilling, perhaps scared by her popularity on the Left. And so, Pelosi's only other option is to protect her vulnerable members from even having to take difficult votes, like the ones Republicans can currently force with motions to recommit. After all, you can't lose if you don't let the other side play.

Speaker Pelosi, instead of wounding the House as an institution with this cynical power grab, please get control of your party. Stop coddling and empowering crazies in safe, Democratic districts at the expense of the marginal voters and members whom you know you need to remain a governing party. Make it clear to showboat freshmen that they too can face repercussions if they work to endanger their party colleagues.

Otherwise, beware. You let others usurp your role at your own risk.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/its-already-speaker-ocasio-cortez

Ocasio-Cortez’s mom moved to Florida to escape NYC’s property taxes
By Bob Fredericks March 4, 2019 | 6:10pm


Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her mother, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (left)

The mother of soak-the-rich congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that she was forced to flee the Big Apple and move to Florida because the property taxes were so high.

“I was paying $10,000 a year in real estate taxes up north. I’m paying $600 a year in Florida. It’s stress-free down here,” Blanca Ocasio-Cortez told the Daily Mail from her home in Eustis, a town of less than 20,000 in central Florida north of Orlando.

The mother-of-two — who calls herself BOC — said she picked Eustis because a relative already lived there and right before Christmas 2016 she paid $87,000 for an 860-square-foot home on a quiet street that dead-ends at a cemetery.

Her daughter raised eyebrows with her pitch to raise the top marginal tax rate on income earned above $10 million to 70 percent.

She has also gotten behind the so-called Green New Deal, that would see a massive and costly government effort to address climate change the way Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the New Deal to rescue the US economy during the Depression.

Published 45 mins ago
AOC slammed-again-on billboards posted in New York City
By Liam Quinn | Fox News

The writing is on the wall for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Green New Deal - at least according to one business group.

The rising star New Yorker has been targeted in a very public campaign by the Job Creators Network, which on Tuesday put up a new billboard in Times Square criticizing her policies.

“Hey AOC, you’re the ‘boss’?” read one of the billboards, followed by “WE DON’T THINK SO. The American PEOPLE are the boss.”

The JCN explained in a statement the billboard was designed to highlight the danger of socialism and government having too much control.

“The harms of socialism are rooted in the expansion of government power,” Alfredo Ortiz, JCN President and CEO said.

“And when government is in the driver’s seat, the American people are the ones to suffer. As we’ve highlighted many times before: socialism takes and capitalism creates.”


(Job Creators Network)

The new billboards were preceded by others attacking Ocasio-Cortez over her opposition to Amazon building its second headquarters in New York City. The tech giant ultimately canceled those plans amid the backlash.

“Amazon Pullout, Thanks for Nothing, AOC,” the billboard, located on 42nd street near 8th Avenue, reads.

“25,000 lost NYC jobs, $4 billion in lost wages, $12 billion in lost economic activity for NY.”

The socialist star hit back, tweeting: “Few things effectively communicate the power we've built in fighting dark money & anti-worker policies like billionaire-funded groups blowing tons of cash on wack billboards.”

The Job Creators Network, a pro-business group that was founded by Home Depot co-founder and billionaire Bernie Marcus, has advocated against minimum wage increases, partnered with Newt Gingrich to focus Congress' attention on tax cuts in 2017 and pushed to repeal the Affordable Care Act.