[Peace-discuss] NYT: AOC Has Never Spoken to Joe Biden. Here’s What She Would Say.

Tue Apr 28 04:30:43 UTC 2020

Both AOC & Krystal Ball are market actors and shapeshifters, have been for
their entire adult lives. That is, they are progressive neoliberals. They
are manipulative and untrustworthy. AOC's trauma-based appeals are
particularly repellant, even when they are not blatantly hypocritical as in
this case.

On Mon, Apr 27, 2020, 8:15 PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> Robert Naiman quoted the New York Times recent interview with Alexandria
> Ocasio-Cortez (AOC):
> >
> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/us/politics/aoc-progressives-joe-biden.html
> >
> > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Has Never Spoken to Joe Biden. Here’s What She
> > Would Say.
> > In an interview, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she intended to support the
> > presumptive Democratic nominee, but the “process of coming together
> should
> > be uncomfortable for everyone involved.”
>
> Jimmy Dore had a show that responds to this:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ -- footage of AOC talking
> about sexual
> assault at a rally which (I understand from the description Dore provided)
> featured
> Anita Hill. Presumably this video was made well prior to AOC's statement
> of support
> for Biden.
>
>
>
>
> Here's the transcript of what AOC said from a clip played on the video
> above:
>
> > Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Sexual assault is not a crime of passion. It
> is about
> > the abuse of power. And that is precisely why it is one of the most
> serious,
> > serious allegations anyone who cares to be a public servant can be
> accused of.
> > Sexual assault is about the abuse of power. It is always women who are
> > marginalized, it is the young, it is the interns, it is the immigrant,
> it is the
> > trans. They are always most at risk, because society listens to them the
> least.
> > And that is why a man believes that an elite education, a high income
> and his rich
> > friends can get away with sexual assaults. That is why I want to thank
> every
> > survivor that is here today that is allowing themselves and everyone in
> this
> > country to be re-traumatized over and over, because people and people
> like Dr.
> > Anita Hill, I mean people like Anita Hill and Dr. Ford have to sit there
> in front
> > of panels of eleven men. Could you imagine if Brett Kavanaugh had to sit
> in front
> > of a panel of eleven women of color, deciding his fate? Could you
> imagine? Could
> > you imagine?
> Jimmy Dore was interviewing Aaron Maté when he played the video containing
> the above
> speech. Dore and Maté chatted about this video afterwards.
>
> > Jimmy Dore: So I don't know if you saw the pickle she just got herself
> into,
> > Aaron, and I'll just recap -- she's sitting there screaming about sexual
> assault
> > and she's thanking survivors for allowing themselves to be retraumatized
> to come
> > out and tell their story and then she points to Anita Hill who was
> obviously
> > traumatized by Joe Biden and now she's supporting Joe Biden now. Aren't
> you
> > retraumatizing women, AOC, by supporting a guy who did that to Anita
> Hill and now
> > has a credible allegation against him? Who are you supporting? You're not
> > supporting the victims! You're not supporting the wom-- you see the
> pickle she's
> > in, right Aaron?
> >
> > Aaron Maté: She is in a pickle. Has she endorsed Biden yet? I thought
> she gave
> > this interview to the New York Times saying that Biden needs to appeal
> to the
> > progressive movement but I could be wrong.
> >
> > Jimmy Dore: Here's what I tweeted, I tweeted out here: "Alexandria
> Ocasio-Cortez
> > said she intended to support the presumptive Democratic nominee, but the
> “process
> > of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved. That's
> how you
> > know that it's working.” [Maté responds affirmatively] What I tweeted
> out was
> > "According to @AOC: Having to support & vote for a war-mongering, WallSt
> puppet
> > who's also a pathological liar & obviously demented, is how you know the
> "process
> > is working"! #CantMakeThisUp #PartyHacks".[1] [Dore and Maté laugh] So
> she's in a
> > pickle: she has to know she's supporting-- she said she's gonna support
> him and
> > but she might not do a rally for him. That's what she said.
> [1] https://twitter.com/jimmy_dore/status/1249719461487079424
>
>
>
> There's more to this discussion:
>
> - how Maté was initially "excited" about AOC's candidacy but:
>
> > Aaron Maté: [O]n all the issues I personally care about [Maté found her]
> > disappointing on some of them. For example, when she praised John McCain
> for his
> > "unparalleled example of human decency" when he died and when the Trump
> > administration launched a coup in Venezuela and she said 'I'm gonna
> defer to the
> > Democratic Party leadership on this' the same leadership that is headed
> by Nancy
> > Pelosi who was getting up at Trump's State of the Union and giving a
> standing
> > ovation to the puppet whom Trump is trying to install in Venezuela. So
> that's been
> > disappointing. But on other things I think AOC deserves a lot of credit
> and on
> > this one, yes, she's in a pickle and I'm just happy I'm not a member of
> Congress
> > and a member of the Democratic Party who has to rally behind Joe Biden
> with his
> > horrible record and his allegations of sexual assault. [...]
> - Dore & Maté don't point out what a reputation-ruining hypocrisy this is
> for AOC
> (particularly because she built a name for herself on stances like this
> around issues
> like this). Instead they talk about AOC in euphemisms like saying she's
> "in quite a
> pickle" or that "AOC [is] twisting herself in a political pretzel". Maté
> concludes
> that this "is a pickle for all of us" but that's just plain wrong. It's
> not a pickle
> for those of us who remain consistently and firmly against the behavior
> (ranging from
> ill-advised and inappropriate to allegations of rape) Biden has carried
> out against
> some girls & women (some of which we have on video). It's not difficult or
> wrong to
> point out that this is one of many reasons why Biden does not deserve our
> "support"
> or our vote.
>
> - Dore points out some followup posts on Twitter that are quite apropos
> and keep the
> discussion focused on issues that matter including war, sexual abuse, the
> narrow
> scope of allowable debate for the Democrats, and that AOC is (quoting
> Dore) "just
> another politician". Indeed, she's shown that she's nothing special and no
> more
> worthy of her constituents vote than someone else who might vote properly
> when big
> bills come along (Massey, for example, was one of the 'no' votes against
> the CARES
> bill and he rejected a consent vote thus moving that vote to a voice
> vote). After
> all, her constituents might reason, what is the point of AOC if she can't
> be counted
> on to vote the way her district's residents need her to, particularly in
> their time
> of need as so many presumably lose their jobs during the stay-at-home
> order.
>
> - Dore insists (and I think rightly) that AOC voted for CARES and has been
> waging a
> PR effort to try to convince people otherwise (like Krystal Ball who I
> believe is
> probably in-the-tank for AOC -- see
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjXMdFCMDuk for
> its title on YouTube which insists on an entertainingly self-contradictory
> stance of
> "AOC DID vote no on the bailout bill" while Ball simultaneously maintains
> there is no
> proof of how AOC voted). Jimmy Dore, by contrast, made an offer to AOC to
> come on his
> show and correct the record. But she has yet to show up. We know from
> Dore's other
> guests that he accepts guests via VOIP & traditional phone, so there's no
> technical
> reason why she can't contact Jimmy Dore's show and get a short segment
> wherein she
> declares that she did not vote for the CARES bill. I'd be willing to bet
> he'd
> interrupt whatever he was doing and ask her for her vote on this bill and
> not accept
> an unclear PR-driven response. That's just how important and career and
> economy-defining this bill is.
>
>
>
> Relatedly: We recently learned that the Biden campaign has rejected
> putting Nina
> Turner (from the Bernie Sanders campaign) on a "task force" to ostensibly
> identify
> what Americans need now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C49HL0K2qIY).
> Not only is
> that task force a complete waste of time (we already know what we need),
> this also
> shows how important political leverage is -- it stands out that Sanders as
> so little
> leverage right now he can't put Turner on such a time-wasting task force
> even for PR
> purposes (and for all we know, Sanders might be just enough of a sheepdog
> to not even
> care to try). Therefore Biden can afford to stand by his already-stated
> promise to
> veto Medicare for All bills that reach his desk as President, support
> anti-Iranian
> sanctions, and stand behind other horrible neolib/neocon policy
> (continuing the Iraq
> occupation, backing more Venezuelan coup attempts & sanctions, etc.).
> Sanctions are
> war as https://sanctionskill.org/ points out. So war with Iran & war with
> Venezuela
> have been underway for some time now.
>
> The New York Times wrote:
> > [AOC said] I just want to tell the truth and I want to feel good about
> the truth.
>
> Note the difference between AOC's claim there and Jimmy Dore in
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZM_AxFH7bQ
> > Fuck all them. Fuck all them and their career climbing. Go fucking do
> something
> > worth living for. Go fucking tell the truth about something without
> fucking your
> > paycheck hinging on it. Just go fuckin' do it. I had to do it my entire
> goddamn
> > life and I'm still fucking doing it and I do it better than you guys do.
> And
> > that's a fact.
> I quote this including the strong language precisely because we're talking
> about such
> an important matter here -- life & death, people losing their jobs and
> their health
> care at the time they need health care. And all while trillions of dollars
> are added
> to the economy with virtually nothing going to most ordinary taxpayers
> ($1200 ±
> $500/child won't go far to pay for healthcare bills, rent, food,
> electricity, etc.).
> The Democrats spent their leverage supporting the big businesses not the
> people.
> AOC's rhetoric on CARES might be entirely right-headed but that rhetoric
> is not
> policy. Her vote helps make policy. And what we heard in that voice vote,
> and what we
> hear from her tells us that she's not telling the unvarnished truth about
> how she
> voted on that bill.
>
> The truth will encourage AOC's constituents to vote her out but the
> establishment
> media won't have any of that. Instead of asking tough questions, demanding
> clear
> unmistakable answers, and judging elected officials by votes on bills, the
> establishment media wants us to judge AOC's choices by her pre/post-vote
> rhetoric
> which is not policy.
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