Continuing Ruminations of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

On 7 August Ms. [soon-to-be Representative] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [AO-C] educated her way-too-conservative Democrat fellow politicians:

"The whole country is further left than Congress. The whole country, . . . The electorate is way further left than Congress, and we have low voter turnout."

AO-C  noted the average age of a House Democrat is 65 and complained: "We have not had a party that has been investing in its own future.  There's no investment in future leadership."

She proceeded to further educate her doddering soon-to-be fellow Democrat Representatives:

"I think that politically, [the] upper middle class is probably more moderate, but that upper middle class doesn't exist anymore in America, and thanks to the continued deregulation of Wall Street, thanks to the continued gutting of working- and middle-class people, we need stronger champions."

Ms. AO-C is, of course wrong, . . . again:

". . . the size of the upper middle class grew from 12.9 percent of the population in 1979 to 29.4 percent in 2014. In terms of shares of total income, the middle class controlled a bit more than 46 percent of all incomes in 1979, while the upper middle class and rich controlled 30 percent. By 2014, the rich and upper middle class controlled 63 percent of all incomes, while the middle class share had shrunk to 26 percent."

Ref: Urban Institute

DonDiego hopes that AO-C ignores advisers who suggest she temper her speechifying.  The more she says, the more entertaining poor old DonDiego finds her.

The shrinking middle class and exportation of working class jobs is likely the primary reason Trump won the election.   Rust belt workers decided to give Trump a chance over his opponent whom they (fairly or unfairly) blamed for NAFTA which they (fairly or unfairly) blamed for losing the primary industries in their communities.

Unftunately, The policy they got upon his election was just another round of massive tax cuts for the wealthiest people with the same impact on their lives as when Bush did it.    

Good luck in November.  Based on recent activity I suspect DonDiego might not find the midterm election results so entertaining.

Just as an aside - I'm not sure getting into a "she said what?!?!?"  war with Ms Cortez is a sound strategy for Republicans in the context of the man sitting in the White House.

I believe he said recently,  "North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat."    

I'll be honest - I dont find that level of ignorance very entertaining considering it came from the leader of the free world.     

PJ Stroh opines: "I suspect DonDiego might not find the midterm election results so entertaining."

Pshaw !

PJ Stroh knows little of poor old DonDiego's entertainment preferences.

Why there's not much more entertaining than a good disaster movie.  Why little DonDiego was enthralled watching the motion picture  The Last Days of Pompeii  on the first TV his family owned.   It was the 1935 version with Preston Foster, . . . not the Steve Reeves remake of 1959. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was thrilling, . . . and waiting for it made it all the better.

PJ Stroh fails to find ignorance entertaining.

DonDiego recommends PJ Stroh Always Look on the Bright Side of Life .

Don just posted stats that the middle class is growing & pj immediately posts the liberal fallacy that it is shrinking 

I told everyone here she was going to be a rock star and they scoffed. Now she is the current obsession of the right-wing media and even our very own conservatives here at the LVA. She even has the thread with the most replies in the history of the new LVA forums.

...a thread where almost 25% of the posts are yours...! You must be so proud! 

Uh-OH !

The Washington Post (WP) Fact Checker just checked some facts, . . . . 

__Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's claims addressing citizens working 80 hours a week and unable to support their families was rated FALSE.  (The WP used the word "poppycock, but DonDiego is not that insensitive.)

__Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's claim that the Immigration and Customs agency (ICE) is required to fill 34,000 beds with detainees every single night and that the number has only been increasing since 2009 was rated FALSE.  (The WP employed the term "urban legend".)

__Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's claim that the Upper-Middle-Class does not exist anymore in America was rated FALSE.  (See DonDiego's earlier post for the explanation.) 

__Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's claim that a Koch brothers study showed that Medicare-For-All is actually cheaper than the current system that we pay right now was rated FALSE.  (The WP stated they would award this claim 3 Pinnochios.)

__Ms.Ocasio-Cortez's statement: "The reason that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is because they ruled that each of these monthly payments that everyday Americans make is a tax.  And so, while it may not seem like we pay that tax on April 15th, we pay it every single month or we do pay at tax season if we don't buy, you know, these plans off of the exchange." was rated FALSE.  (Technically it was actually just meaningless, non-sensical drivel. The wrong part was not identifying the "individual mandate" as a tax, as the Supreme Court had ruled, . . . in spite of the Obama Administration position that it was not a tax. )

Ref: The Washington Post

Regretably, poor old DonDiego is forced to agree with The Washington Post.

Mark    4  1  4  1  3  2  4  0  3  4  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  2  1  3  =  46

Doc     4  3  4  3  3  2  1  3  1  0  0  3  2  0  3  1  0  0  1  2  =  36

Bob     1  0  0  0  0  0  1  1  0  1  6  1  1  2  0  0  3  3  1  0  =  21

Don     1  0  0  0  0  0  1  1  3  2  0  1  1  4  1  2  0  0  0  0  =  17

PJ        0  3  2  2  2  3  2  4  2  3  1  3  4  1  1  2  2  3  4  0   =  44

lvfritz 0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  =   02

Tom     0  2  0  2  2  3  1  0  1  0  2  1  0  1  2  2  2  2  3  1  =  27

jatki99 0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  =  01

Boiler  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0  =  03

There were 197 Total posts by 9 users. There were two liberal posters and 7 conservative posters. The percentage breakdown is as follows. 

Mark     23.3% 

PJ       22.3%

Doc      18.3%

Tom      13.7%

Bob      10.7%

Don      08.6%

Boiler   01.5%

Fritz    01.0%

jatki99  00.5%

54% of the posts were by conservatives and 46% by liberals.  

I am proud.  When there are seven people talking at you, you tend to talk a lot more than the person that only has two people talking at them.