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Thread: Democratic Socialists Openly Calling For Communism

  1. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post
    BG forgot to work one of her stances into this cartoon:

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the insurgent firebrand who Tuesday toppled the No. 4 Democrat in the House of Representatives, is a strong critic of Israel who denounced the killings of Palestinian protesters as a “massacre.”

    BTW, were both Cortez and Trump hoping to see incumbent Dem Crowley lose?





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  3. #32
    Rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explains how US ‘could advance 10 years’ by backing progressives in midterm elections

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8441361.html

    From long shot hopeful to rising political star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had quite a few weeks. But she has her eyes fixed on the future – believing that American politics is poised to “advance 10 years” in the crucial November midterm elections because of the progressive wave she helped usher in.

    Ms Ocasio-Cortez beat the Democrat veteran Joe Crowley on 26 June in a stunning primary election victory. And while even she was surprised at the result, she is not shocked it started a “national conversation” about the direction of both the Democrats and Republicans, she told The Independent.

    There’s a spark in Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s eyes when says her main goal now is to ensure that her victory and the “whirlwind” of attention “isn’t just a flash in the pan moment”. She believes that President Donald Trump may not make it to 2020 and the next presidential election given the number of issues he faces, including the investigation into Russian election meddling and any possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russia.

    “We’ll see if he survives to 2020 politically ... There’s a lot in the air right now,” she said. But the bigger issue is her own party.

    She argued the new Democratic party, even 10 years from now, cannot define itself as simply being against Republicans. She said she wants it “to really inspire” people – beginning with November.

    “I think right now in 2018 ... We’re in a very special political moment where we can advance 10 years in our politics in this year’s midterms elections,” she said.

    Ms Ocasio-Cortez said the country is “a lot closer to that change than we think we want but it’s all about whether we’re going to mobilise” voters in 2018. “[Her primary victory] is still fresh, we just won ... But now we’re starting to refocus on getting back to work and organising in our community,” she said.

    The 28-year-old Democratic Socialist remains committed to abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, and backs universal healthcare and free higher education for all.

    But, her focus is not only on her race in New York. She is thinking nationwide, a rarity in House politicians which is likely to have boosted her popularity. She said she is just a “toehold” for a progressive wave within the Democratic party, a wave she hopes will make it “more connected to their communities than it has ever been before”.

    Her campaign and platform – focusing on taking corporate influence out of politics, student loan forgiveness and climate change action through an economic plan – has helped to blunt some of negative connotation surrounding the term “socialist” in the US.

    Ms Ocasio-Cortez said she hopes the new wave of progressives will make the party a “really strong counter” to the Trump administration but not just in adversarial terms. She pointed to her own district, representing the largely minority, immigrant, and working-class boroughs of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, which has been scared by Mr Trump’s hardline policies. Beyond political in-fighting in Washington, communities like Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s need to be protected.

    As for her primary win, Ms Ocasio-Cortez explained how her team “expanded the electorate 68 per cent over the last off-year”. That meant they “mobilised people who had never voted before or don’t usually vote in an election like this – and that takes a lot of shoe leather and a lot of on-the-ground physical presence”.

    Her newfound fame does not appear to have gone to her head. She is well aware of what it means for her and others running for public office and seemed to have the same passion, if not more, than when The Independent spoke with her before the primary.

    Ms Ocasio-Cortez promotes so many other progressive Democratic candidates – like Michigan candidate for governor Abdul El-Sayed, who could become the first Muslim-American to lead a state, Ayanna Pressley running for Congress in Massachusetts in John F Kennedy’s former seat, former nurse Cori Bush vying to unseat Republican incumbent Roy Blunt to represent Missouri, and several others. The aim is not just to build up a caucus of like-minded advocates but to also make sure they get attention.

    “People told me I would have to run three times [in primaries] before I would win,” she said, an attitude she previously called “Trumpist defeatism” as part of a troubling trend in politics. She wants to rid people of that notion and encourage socialists like herself to change the government from within.

    What has helped that perceived optimism, in part, was her campaign team and volunteers, many of whom are first-generation Americans and first-time voters. “The advantage of running a campaign like that is that all the commonly held wisdom is kind of up for questioning,” she said.

    She admitted “some of it is out of naivety” but much of it, she said what her campaign did – like eschewing all television adverts – “was out of an intentional desire for innovation”.

    “Both are actually good things. People say ‘well why don’t we try XYZ?,’” she said, adding it allowed them to “question assumptions”. And, that seems to be a theme throughout progressives’ campaigns across the country – challenging what establishment Democrats say can and cannot be done in Washington.

    But, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said she is well aware the Democratic party has a lot of work to do. Although she is reluctant to “measure it in years” because “because change happens so quickly” sometimes, her campaign is evidence of that.

    There have been questions about whether the establishment wing of the Democrat party will truly come together with the more socialist, progressive wing, but Ms Ocasio-Cortez believes the voters are the most important thing.

    “It’s not about what the establishment is going to accept or not accept it’s about [how] voters are going to make happen,” she said.

    When asked about possible challengers within her party to Mr Trump’s 2020 presidential run, she simply said: “I’m like everyone else. I’m sitting here, I’m looking at what’s going on.”

    She and others are “looking for someone ... To consistently lead on the issues instead of it being this kind of horse race,” she added.

    Ms Ocasio-Cortez said it is “exciting” to support all these progressive candidates and “whether people say it’s a movement or ... A fluke, it doesn’t matter, what matters is the work we’re going to do”.



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  5. #33

  6. #34
    https://www.independent.com/news/201...s-fundraising/

    Anthony Bourdain and the Perils of Fundraising

    The Sordid Outcomes of a Quality of Education Based on Property Values


    With the death of Anthony Bourdain last month, the world lost a modern troubadour of the human experience  —  a punk-rock Woody Guthrie, documenting the joyous, tragic, and heartbreakingly truthful. Bourdain did what every writing teacher across America begs of their students: show, don’t tell. His work was a treasure trove of first-hand gonzo journalism that defied conventional ideologies and revealed the human stories behind every dish. Most of all, he insisted we taste it, or else what was the point?


    In May, Bourdain was the special guest at the UCSB Arts & Lectures fundraiser held at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum where I happened into a seat. It was a lavish affair —  free cocktails, auction cards, and at the center of each table a giant woven basket overflowing with fresh produce and baguettes, which no one touched but me, earning elbows from my wife about how centerpieces aren’t for eating.


    After schmoozing hour, where I got to gawk briefly at Christopher Lloyd and remind my wife we have to watch the Back to the Future trilogy (she’s never seen it —  honestly, I don’t know how I left that out of my screening process), we were shown to the dining area. I felt a bit out of place even before learning tables started at $10,000, but I was four bourbons in by then (did I mentioned how free the cocktails were?), which served to anesthetize the simmering Marxian tirade bubbling beneath the surface. Sitting next to me was a representative from a major beverage company that has for a few years now been making its way into Myanmar, unencumbered by the violence. He said it was a growing market and invited me to visit.


    The main purpose of the evening was to raise money for the Arts & Lectures program, a beloved institution and cornerstone of Santa Barbara’s cultural scene. Several private dinners crafted by chefs of high-end, local restaurants were auctioned off in a lively series of escalating bids, earning between $12,000 and $24,000 each. The event proved quite successful.


    Then came the depressing part: The organizers played a video. Set to some Sarah McLachlan-esque music, the somber faces of school-aged children, mostly of color, panned across the screen while a narrator explained that as K-12 funding continues to suffer, the performing arts have been disappearing from public schools (not something these parents have to worry about). It went on to say how important the arts are to childhood development and future success and would they please be willing to fund Arts & Lectures’ outreach program, which provides access to underrepresented students in an effort to offset local inequities. Infinitely more valuable than a dinner, this time the prize would be the knowledge of providing young learners critical access to a good education. Inexplicably, no bidding war ensued. With some effort, the host cajoled several $1,000 and $500 donations.


    This happened. It was cruel and generous at the same time. If the alternative was to give no money toward public education, this was undoubtedly preferable, but a collection of pyrrhic victories is no triumph. The collective voices of those present to hobnob with Bourdain could ensure Santa Barbara schools have the best public education of anywhere in the nation, but it won’t happen with a trickle of donations  —  it happens through policy. Though who could have predicted the sordid outcomes of a system that bases the quality of a child’s education on the market value of their parents’ home?


    Just then my copy of Das Capital was surely vibrating on the shelf illuminated by a mysterious light from above, beckoning me to jump on a table, grab all the rolls, and scream, “Bread for the masses! Workers of the world unite!”


    Then Bourdain was introduced.


    He spoke for what seems now an indistinguishable amount of time about food and travel, of course, but what I remember most was how excited he was about an upcoming episode of Parts Unknown set in Honk Kong, where he’d be working with one of his heroes —  cinematographer Christopher Doyle. It turned out to be one of the last episodes he would complete. At the end of the event, I went over and said hello. It was late and he looked exhausted. He signed my book to Hobo Drifter, as I requested. I asked if he would go back to Iran again now that Trump had pulled out of the nuclear deal  —  he perked up and said he definitely would. We took a picture; I thanked him and left. That was May 9. He died less than a month later.


    I can’t shake the feeling that there was something utterly disturbing about that night. Having Bourdain at that event felt oddly out of place, like Joe Strummer singing at Buckingham Palace or Che Guevara shaking hands at Davos  —  a sort of time paradox. Given Doc Brown’s presence, one can’t rule out a shoddy flux capacitor.


    In my Media & Politics class at SBCC, the goal is for students to think critically, to seek out good journalism and scrutinize it for insight into the world. On the last day of class I told my students about the fundraiser and asked them how they would choose to organize a society  — whether it makes sense to design a system where the education of underprivileged kids depends on the spontaneous gifts of privileged adults at dinner parties with celebrity guests. Despite my theatrics, the students in the room were not the obstacles to an equitable education but more likely its victims.


    What I’ll miss most about Bourdain are sensibilities only the best journalists possess  —  an unyielding willingness to be outraged at injustice and an ability to observe everywhere the tidal regularity of human life. Tom Waits once described Bob Dylan’s writing, calling each song a universe with its own orbit, with peaks and valleys that would take a lifetime to explore. That, I believe, is the best way to describe Bourdain’s own prolific legacy. He composed, in each of his works, a world to be explored, one that will be mined for gems and rubies, precious and rare glimpses of light, to be unearthed by the handful in cities around the world.


    There are gems to be unearthed in our own city. Genuinely equitable education is a great place to start.







    AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Last edited by dannno; 07-14-2018 at 01:48 AM.
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  7. #35
    What has helped that perceived optimism, in part, was her campaign team and volunteers, many of whom are first-generation Americans and first-time voters.
    Proves my point.

  8. #36

  9. #37



  10. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by phill4paul View Post
    Good. Let's get this on.
    Please.
    "The Patriarch"

  11. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by timosman View Post



    Pfizer Macht Frei!

    Openly Straight Man, Danke, Awarded Top Rated Influencer. Community Standards Enforcer.


    Quiz: Test Your "Income" Tax IQ!

    Short Income Tax Video

    The Income Tax Is An Excise, And Excise Taxes Are Privilege Taxes

    The Federalist Papers, No. 15:

    Except as to the rule of appointment, the United States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations extending to the individual citizens of America.

  12. #40



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  14. #41
    Jan2017
    Member

    Quote Originally Posted by Jamesiv1 View Post
    I suggest she won because she's attractive, well-spoken, earnest and shook hands with everyone in her district.

    It's got nothing to do with her "Democratic Socialism".

    Crowley hasn't lived in his district for 20 years.

    I know nothing about her republican opponent (George Pappas) but I predict she will suffer a rousing defeat if he is a Trump supporter.
    19 year olds voting in a midterm primary election give her a 4000 vote victory after polls had her down by 36 points

    Quote Originally Posted by Jan2017 View Post

    Her BX girl sign to the audience around 2:00 mark on Late Show with Colbert is tacky -
    and kinda reminds me of another NY "gang" . . .

    Last edited by Jan2017; 07-18-2018 at 11:34 AM.

  15. #42
    This girl is the leading edge of the wave that is going to drown the Democratic Party and put and end to it once and for all.

    The younger generation that was trained to believe all the lies that the trainers knew were lies all along... well, they believe the lies still. And now those lies are the very basis on which they will discard their too-male, too-white, too-straight party elders, and make Make Hating Whitey Great Again their new slogan.

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