January 18, 2019

Harry Truman said "If you can't stand the heat you better get out of the kitchen." Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says...

"It’s not the kitchen that’s popular, or the cooking that’s popular, it’s that I’m engaging people doing something I’m already doing." She was instructing her colleagues on how to do social media.

Here's the background on the Truman quote, from the Truman Library (where, if you click, you'll get a message that the site isn't being updated regularly because of the federal government shutdown, so this might not be the latest on Harry Truman):
One of the results of this system is that it gives the President a good many hot potatoes to handle--but the President gets a lot of hot potatoes from every direction anyhow, and a man who can't handle them has no business in that job. That makes me think of a saying that I used to hear from my old friend and colleague on the Jackson County Court. He said, "Harry, if you can't stand the heat you better get out of the kitchen." I'll say that is absolutely true.
For Truman, "the kitchen" was metaphorical. It meant the hard, complicated, stressful work of politics. For Ocasio-Cortez, it's literally the kitchen. She's talking about her highly successful Instagramming of herself in her kitchen:



And she's comparing herself favorable to Elizabeth Warren, whose stilted get-me-a-beer kitchen performance was so awkwardly wrong:



But AOC does pull out the old Harry Truman metaphor when cornered:



In my previous post, which is also about AOC's advice on doing social media, I focused on her word of wisdom: "If you’re an older woman, talk like an older woman talks." I wonder if she accepts the corollary: "If you’re a younger woman, talk like a younger woman talks." Because "If you can't stand the heat you better get out of the kitchen" is the way an old man talks.

129 comments:

holdfast said...

Other than the cute college era dancing video, does she ever NOT have crazy eyes?

MadisonMan said...

I didn't know Anderson Cooper was on 60 Minutes now. But I don't watch, so how would I know.

chickelit said...

She also goes brainless on occasion.

gilbar said...

holdfast said...Other than the cute college era dancing video, does she ever NOT have crazy eyes?

and the answer is: NO.

mccullough said...

Spinster in the making. She needs a guy. But to get a guy she needs to grow out of this SJW phase. Warren has been married a couple of times and has kids. She’s a fool of an old woman but she must have been alright for a time when she was younger.

O-C is waiting her youth with this SJW stuff. In 20 years, she’ll be uploading cat videos if she doesn’t straighten herself out.

Kevin said...

I'm really surprised the senior members have not been able to shut her down. This is hardly the first time a new member of Congress (or Parliament, or any legislative body in hundreds of years of history) has arrived thinking they were going to change the world. The seniority system has always smothered them in their cribs.

What is different this time? Is it really just the power of the media? It can't be that the senior members really love her and want her to succeed. That kind of fairy tale ending doesn't happen outside of a movie script.

tommyesq said...

Mac n Cheese? Is she doing Instant Ramen next?

chickelit said...

holdfast said...Other than the cute college era dancing video, does she ever NOT have crazy eyes?

Her eyes were up there?

tommyesq said...

She sounds oddly aggressive in asking the men in the room if they like her mac n cheese - almost bullying. #me(n)too?

mccullough said...

Twitter is the seniority system. Trump is president. The old rules and goats don’t control anymore.

O-C is the leader of the House Dems. She’s young and attractive and uses social media well. No one cares what a Pelosi thinks. She’s a has-been hag.

Hagar said...

She is 29 and does not greatly care if she gets a committee assignment or not.

tommyesq said...

If AOC thinks it making mac n cheese is a sign of "be(ing) good at... (dramatic pause) getting things done," the art of governance may not come so easily.

tommyesq said...

"What is different this time? Is it really just the power of the media?"

We are really just getting to the ability of candidates to speak directly to broad swaths of the people, with no media overlords filtering who gets on TV or what they say - I think this is the real revolution on both sides - Trump and AOC would never have had this success in pre-widespread social media days.

Paul said...

Ocasio-Cortez is kind of like Cananda's Trudeau... proof a buffoon can be elected with a stupid enough electorate.

rhhardin said...

Too much makeup.

alanc709 said...

Anderson Cooper is on 60 Minutes now? Wasn't Oprah available?

Lucid-Ideas said...

Does anybody get the feeling that Althouse is obsessed with AOC? Is she or are we? If it's all of us, why? It seems lots of other blogs/bloggers are too. So's the media. Is it because she's genuinely interesting? Is "puffing" really this effective?

She beat the 4th most powerful dem in the House because - in all honesty - he basically decided to ignore her and not run his race.

He didn't have this pedestal. She didn't construct it. Why are we talking about it.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Good Lord, Who the F cares about this woman? Why does the media do this to us? Push their own agenda.

She’s a 29 year old socialist who got elected to her first term in a NY congressional district. BFD.

Bay Area Guy said...

Our young socialist waitress of color is getting a lot of political buzz.

Generally, that's good for a politician.

She will be pushing the Dems further to the Left, which is probably bad for the Dems, which is good for the country.

Of course, if she and her ilk (ditzy young socialists) ever got power in this country, we'd be in a world of hurt.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The cute Hugo Chavez. Lucky us.

Fen said...

Punch a Nazi? Sure. But kill the Marxists.

Jimmy said...

'The cute Hugo Chavez. Lucky us.' Yes indeed. communism with a pretty face. She is a natural at using the new politics-social media. She is engaging and sincere. She is also a bimbo who actually believes the nonsense she spews. As such, she is the next great hope of the Dem party. BTW, using the term bimbo on twitter will get you instantly suspended.

Chuck said...

I used to fear old age and dying. In a world led by douchebags like this woman, old age and dying sounds like a good deal.

LordSomber said...

Sanpaku eyes are pleased
When you enjoy her mac 'n cheese

rcocean said...

Man, she sure has big teeth and a big mouth (literally).

rcocean said...

Anderson Cooper just loves her. She's so cute.

WK said...

Elizabeth Warren in her video sounds like the women in the SNL NPR skit. She should have discussed making Schweddy Balls in her kitchen instead of having a beer.

rcocean said...

I'll take her 10X over the corrupt Irish Pol she defeated.

The Irishman was just as Left-wing but everyone wanted to believe it was an act.

Better an honest socialist than a dishonest one.

rcocean said...

Harris is looking better everyday. Bet on her. She has NYT and the black vote. Its Obama (female version) all over again.

Birkel said...

Fen,
I attempted a partial answer to your query RE: conservatism.
Happy to engage further on the point.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6329595&postID=5311758976444075889

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

When you can find young and cute to sell old and busted ideology = winning.

mccullough said...

Harris husband is whiter than Banquo’s ghost. Harris is really light-skinned as well.

No one without kids is getting elected. People don’t trust the childless.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

CNN likes the creepy porn lawyer and this girl. We are so shocked.

Fen said...

"does she ever NOT have crazy eyes?"

Begentle. A girl on her knees with her mouth full has to find a way to express her excitement for the guy she is servicing.

More specifically for Alexandria Cortez, all those professors that passed her so she could graduate with an Economics degree without knowing a damn thing.

That wide-eyed look was perfected through many many many of hours of extra credit work via private oral exam.

I'm not kidding.

William said...

"The cute Hugo Chavez" is an accurate put down. Still, she's organically likable, and that's something. In the land of Warren, Hillary, and Pelosi, that's, in fact, a big deal. And even Warren and Hillary are not the worst case examples. Some of the others, like Tlaib and Waters, are actively, aggressively obnoxious as opposed to mildly annoying.........If evolution has taught men anything over the eons, it's that life is better when you entrust your fate to the whims of an attractive woman.

Fen said...

"I attempted a partial answer to your query RE: conservatism. Happy to engage further on the point"

Thsnk you Birkel. Much appreciated.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

...If evolution has taught men anything over the eons, it's that life is better when you entrust your fate to the whims of an attractive woman.


At least in the short term. Ultimately, it will end in tears.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

..., from the Truman Library (where, if you click, you'll get a message that the site isn't being updated regularly because of the federal government shutdown, so this might not be the latest on Harry Truman):

This made me laugh. Althouse has a very wry sense of humor sometimes :-D

chickelit said...

mccullough said...No one without kids is getting elected. People don’t trust the childless.

The childless like open borders most of all for obvious reasons. And open borders is winning -- so far.

James K said...

“She beat the 4th most powerful dem in the House because - in all honesty - he basically decided to ignore her and not run his race.”

He spent $3.4 million vs her $200,000. But with all that money he didn’t bother to show up to a debate. And then she got all the far left activists to endorse her.

Now she wants more like her to do the same in other districts. It could work. The death rattle of the Democrats.

rehajm said...

it’s that I’m engaging people doing something I’m already doing

Questions lefties need answers to before tweeting:

What if the thing I'm doing is boring?

What if the thing I'm doing doesn't photograph well?

What if the thing I'm doing is an underage girl on Orgy Island?

rhhardin said...

It's not the heat, strictly speaking. It's the temperature, the ratio between heat and entropy.

tcrosse said...

She's young, so her hyphen is still intact.

Nonapod said...

She's far more dangerous than many people may realize. There are few things more destructive than a charming fool with power. History has shown this.

This is how an era of human misery begins. First you have a loss of trust with the existing system due to corruption. Then you have division. Then you have a bad idea that's perpetuated by a likeable fool that spreads like wildfire through the minds of the younger generation. The warnings and concerns from older people with are dismissed and ignored, they're the ones that gave us out current unworkable system after all. This sort of thing has happened time and time again throughout history.

rhhardin said...

If you can't stand the entropy get out of the china shop.

traditionalguy said...

She is channeling Joe Stalin. In her kitchen every one else will get cooked and thrown out.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Turns out Truman was gay.

traditionalguy said...

FTR: Captain Harry Truman made more good decisions in just 1945 than any other person ever to go to Washington.

Fernandinande said...

word[s] of wisdom: "If you’re an older woman, talk like an older woman talks."

I recall in 2nd grade that a teacherette instructed us to act like 3rd-graders and I thought "we should act like 2nd-graders because that's what we are."

Ann Althouse said...

"Does anybody get the feeling that Althouse is obsessed with AOC? Is she or are we? If it's all of us, why? It seems lots of other blogs/bloggers are too. So's the media. Is it because she's genuinely interesting? Is "puffing" really this effective?"

I'm interested in interestingness. I'm interested in the way other people have latched onto her. The phenomenon. I'm interested in political styles and how they work. The hostility to her also means something.

Generally, I'm very bored by politics. I don't do policy at all. I wish wise decisionmakers advised by highly competent experts would work on all the policy problems without any supervision from me.

rhhardin said...

AOC means add one with carry to me.

Curious George said...

"tcrosse said...
She's young, so her hyphen is still intact."

Awesome

Birkel said...

Althouse wishes something that cannot and will not happen.
It's nice to daydream.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

OT: Best. Tweet. Ever.

Fernandinande said...

If you buy fast-food, er, Fast Food hamberders you don't even need to get near a kitchen.

William said...

Re childless: George Washington was childless. The wartime leaders FDR, Churchill, and Stalin had this in common: they were very bad parents.......The Bush family seems to have the knack of happy marriages that produce successful kids. Trump is undoubtedly a bad husband, but he seems successful as a father. AOC looks like she'd make a good mother.

William said...

Bush was a better father than Reagan.

stlcdr said...

Women and kitchens.

Nonapod said...

One thing that is (somewhat) new here is people's reactions to people's reactions to people's reactions to a figure like AOC. I think it's a good thing that people are willing analyze something a few orders down like that. Being more aware of what other people are feeling and why they're feeling it is only a good thing. This level of meta analysis can probably only exist in the Blog universe, because you have comments to immediately react to, those commentors can react back immediately.

You might argue that you can get something similar on Twitter or Instagram, but in reality those formats discourage thoughful discourse and reward quick, thoughtless, snarky retorts. They're designed to trigger dopamine reward centers of the brain as oppossed to the regions responsible for reasoning and creativity like the inferior frontal gyrus or temporal lobe.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

If women can't take the heat of politics, they should go back to their kitchens.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Fair enough.

Also, "...without any supervision from me."

Pelosi should use this and tell AOC to shut up and do her job "....". How's that for 'talking like an older woman should talk Sandy?' Now go to your room.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

And make me a sammich.

Bay Area Guy said...

Up-thread: "AOC is a cute Hugo Chavez"

Cugo Chavez

PM said...

So Truman's "kitchen" remark was a metaphor. Who knew?

rcocean said...

Yeah, the only interesting thing about AOC is that everyone finds her interesting.

Her power in the House of Representatives = Zero.

She isn't just young and cute, she's vapid.

I can tell you why Conservative Inc. finds her so interesting. Finally, they can talk about Socialism and that 70% tax rate and why its so awful. That's near and dear to their wealthy donor's hearts. As opposed to conservative social issues, getting better trade deals or enforcing the immigration laws.

rcocean said...

All Conservative Inc. really cares about is Globalism and reducing tax rates on the rich. When the Democrats are in power, they can spend all day attacking them, and pretend to be Right-wing.

Then Trump came along and tore off the mask.

Mark Jones said...

Nonapod said, "She's far more dangerous than many people may realize. There are few things more destructive than a charming fool with power. History has shown this.

This is how an era of human misery begins. First you have a loss of trust with the existing system due to corruption. Then you have division. Then you have a bad idea that's perpetuated by a likeable fool that spreads like wildfire through the minds of the younger generation. The warnings and concerns from older people with are dismissed and ignored, they're the ones that gave us out current unworkable system after all. This sort of thing has happened time and time again throughout history."

Yeah, if the socialists like AOC ever gain real power, she won't look so cute when she's ordering millions of deplorables sent to gulags or mass graves. Or when she herself is put up against the wall as a no-longer-useful idiot when someone worse seizes power once she's laid the groundwork for dictatorship.

The butcher's bill for socialism/communism is over 100,000,000 so far. But sooner or later they'll accumulate enough bodies to fill the gulf between naive political theory and the reality of human nature, and then the good work of building the socialist paradise can truly begin at last!

Skeptical Voter said...

I wondered why this post; then I get to the last line and see that our host finally sank her harpoon.

You'd like to think that AOC is sort of like a shooting star--and will soon burn out. On the other hand you look at the Jesse Jacksons, the Al Sharptons and the John Lewis's of this world and see that some folks can hang on well past their sell by date.

jaydub said...

“She beat the 4th most powerful dem in the House because - in all honesty - he basically decided to ignore her and not run his race.”

I think folks are discounting the fact that she only got 15,000 or so votes in the primary because no one cared about the primary. Had the district not been a Dem lock in the general election, she would not have stood a chance. The media loves commies and she's hot right now because congress is on vacation and nothing of substance is happening on the hill. When there's business to be done in the congress her self promotion is going to get really tiring. Remember how Beto was going to be president?

Anonymous said...

Way off topic but I haven't had another opportunity to say how much I enjoyed Trump denying Pelosi transportation for her PR trip to Europe. Nancy knows how to play hardball, but she's still down in AA, while Trump's in the "show"!

Steve M. Galbraith said...

She's a very silly person. Yes, she has likeable qualities but she doesn't have a serious thought in her head.

Bay Area Guy said...

Nonapod said, "She's far more dangerous than many people may realize. There are few things more destructive than a charming fool with power. History has shown this."

I agree that her horrendous ideas are dangerous and destructive. But whether she is the vehicle to promote said ideas remain to be seen.

Robert Cook said...

"There are few things more destructive than a charming fool with power. History has shown this."

And also true with uncharming fools with power.

Virgil Hilts said...

"The cute Hugo Chavez." LOL. I think she is boring but by personifying the wackiest ideas of the left and actually pushing them, maybe she will more quickly drive to the right intelligent young people. So, maybe it is good that she is attractive and therefore gets attention far out of proportion to her ability to say something intresting.

Big Mike said...

Because "If you can't stand the heat you better get out of the kitchen" is the way an old man talks.

Do you have a problem with old men, you young, punk whippersnapper?

Seeing Red said...

She beat the 4th most powerful dem in the House because - in all honesty - he basically decided to ignore her and not run his race.”


She beat him because white upper class urbans wanted to make a point. They turned out.

Nonapod said...

And also true with uncharming fools with power.

People lacking charisma can't achieve power through the people. The charmless can only acquire power by either swaying the military to their cause or by inheritance. And power through those pathways is less likely to occur (but certainly not impossible) in modern, afluent first world countries with free markets and an educated citizenry.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Two things.

First, the "cute" thing. Maybe for a politician, but I don't think so. To each their own but A) she's getting a lot of help and B) that won't last.

Second, if she lasts at all it will be until she really screws up because something escaped her idiot filter in the megaton range. Trump and AOC's idiot-filters are different. Trump's idiot-filter is us. He/we hate-fights the media. AOC's idiot-filter IS the media. Said escaped megaton-gaffe will be picked up by both us AND them, then they will find someone else to "puff".

She will then end-up like Claire McCaskill with a sweet gig on MSNBC. This is her TRUE calling, joining the ones that made her.

Nonapod said...

I agree that her horrendous ideas are dangerous and destructive. But whether she is the vehicle to promote said ideas remain to be seen.

Oh I agree. Only time will tell if she's merely a flash in the pan or if she has real staying power. I'm just warning people not to totally dismiss her just because the ideas she's promoting are demonstrably horrible.

gahrie said...

Generally, I'm very bored by politics. I don't do policy at all. I wish wise decisionmakers advised by highly competent experts would work on all the policy problems without any supervision from me.

Which is why your positions on feminism, abortion and gay rights are such a mystery to us all.

narciso said...

So who selected her

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/antiisrael_fanatic_ilhan_omar_appointed_by_pelosi_to_the_house_foreign_affairs_committee.html

President-Mom-Jeans said...

I hope they keep this horse toothed gibbering retard the face of the democrat party for the next two years. Why anyone is asked to pretend she is either attractive or has a fucking brain in her head boggles the mind.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I'm interested in interestingness. I'm interested in the way other people have latched onto her. The phenomenon. I'm interested in political styles and how they work. The hostility to her also means something.”

The hostility to her and any Democratic woman that gets a blogpost here and elsewhere are subject to Derangement Syndrome. The really ugly, nasty, over the top things that Trumpists are saying on these threads directed toward Democratic women candidates are very telling. “Deplorables” isn’t accurate, there has to be a more apt term which encompasses the derangement seen on a daily basis in these threads. It’s not just hateful behavior, it’s hateful and sick, it sounds pathological.

Michael said...

PPPT and Inga love the bartenderess. Bet she makes a mean Moscow Mule.

Not Sure said...

AOC is meeting much wealthier men as a politician than she ever met as a bartender, or on Tinder. Excellent career move.

Unclear how posting videos suggesting she's into two-guy threesomes works for her, thought, Maybe a move for the cuck vote?

tommyesq said...

"... by personifying the wackiest ideas of the left and actually pushing them, maybe she will more quickly drive to the right intelligent young people."

In my job, I have worked with a number of very intelligent Millenials, most of whom were Bernie supporters. On the whole, they did not express a belief that socialism would solve the world's troubles; instead, they felt that the older generations had screwed them over with insanely high college costs (combined with the demand from most employers that applicants have a college degree), the insane cost of housing, and the insane amount of government debt that they would be stuck with, thanks to our profligate borrowing and spending, and meanwhile when something goes wrong (e.g. housing bubble), those who are at fault get no punishment and generous bail-outs from the government, adding yet more to the burgeoning debt. Since they are already thoroughly screwed, they are looking for their cut. I had trouble arguing against many of their points.

tommyesq said...

"The hostility to her and any Democratic woman that gets a blogpost here and elsewhere are subject to Derangement Syndrome."

I am not sure the reaction to AOC would have been much different had Trump not come along - I think people vastly overestimate his influence in what middle America actually thinks and believes. Instead, I think his example merely led to more people speaking their minds.

Jake said...

George Washington had a pretty good recipe for egg nog. I wonder whether he would have promoted himself similarly had the technology existed for him.

Nonapod said...

Since they are already thoroughly screwed, they are looking for their cut. I had trouble arguing against many of their points.

The arguement that it's better to loot the building while it burns is a tough one. But you have to offer them the chance to think in longer terms. If you destroy your economy by making horrible ideas official policy (like, for example, full student loan debt forgiveness) you may get some short term relief, but the resulting long term disaster would be far, far more devistating, in particular to the middle class.

Bilwick said...

AOC: "If you can't stand the heat, give 'em the old Crazy Eye Death Stare until their heads explode."

tommyesq said...

"But you have to offer them the chance to think in longer terms. If you destroy your economy by making horrible ideas official policy (like, for example, full student loan debt forgiveness) you may get some short term relief, but the resulting long term disaster would be far, far more devistating, in particular to the middle class."

The problem is, they believe we are already at the resulting long-term disaster.

n.n said...

It was common for women to bake in the kitchen, while men would bake in the sun. Sometimes, but not often, they would reverse roles, but each time, every time, there would be a request to stay out of the kitchen.

Chuck said...

jaydub said...
“She beat the 4th most powerful dem in the House because - in all honesty - he basically decided to ignore her and not run his race.”

I think folks are discounting the fact that she only got 15,000 or so votes in the primary because no one cared about the primary. Had the district not been a Dem lock in the general election, she would not have stood a chance. The media loves commies and she's hot right now because congress is on vacation and nothing of substance is happening on the hill. When there's business to be done in the congress her self promotion is going to get really tiring. Remember how Beto was going to be president?


Also; her district— the NY 14th — is very close to being majority Latino. That part of the Bronx is now only about 18% white.

Speaking of Beto... I have a confession. I have a degree in political science and I follow political and legal news pretty closely. And before the Texas U.S. Senate race, I had never heard of Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

Nonapod said...

The problem is, they believe we are already at the resulting long-term disaster.

If they believe things couldn't get a lot worse, then they clearly don't know their history. As bad as things may seem they should still be made aware that human beings in 2019 United States of America are generally living longer, healthier, violence free lives than at any other time in human history. There's reasons for this.

But you don't even need to go far back into history. You could even offer contempory examples of what can happen government goes horribly wrong (ie Venezuela)

gahrie said...

The hostility to her and any Democratic woman that gets a blogpost here and elsewhere are subject to Derangement Syndrome.


Tell that to Sarah Palin, Sarah Sanders, Kellyanne Conway and Nikki Haley.

William said...

Both Palin and AOC are attractive women. If any person in public life attacked AOC with the vitriol used against Palin, their careers would be over. We are free, however, to dump on her in the comments section here,

bagoh20 said...

Cortez might make a great president. What I see as the great negotiating strength of Reagan is a quality that Trump also possesses. Their enemies think they are stupid and crazy, so you can't risk a game of chicken too far. Cortez has that shit down cold, but she's much more convincing.

Jim at said...

Tell that to Sarah Palin, Sarah Sanders, Kellyanne Conway and Nikki Haley.

No kidding.

The list is long of pure, unadulterated hate spewed by leftists towards conservative/Republican women. But stupid people think the hate only goes one way.

bagoh20 said...

I don't find Cortez attractive unless it was a one night stand where she never learned my name.

bagoh20 said...

I wonder if Cortez spent much time studying this famous historic figure. She seem to emulate him.

https://youtu.be/y8Kyi0WNg40

bagoh20 said...

Sarah Palin, Sarah Sanders, Kellyanne Conway and Nikki Haley never said anything as foolish as the things Cortez has in the last few months. Criticism of Cortez is often valid due to the vapid.

Drago said...

LLR Chuck: "Speaking of Beto... I have a confession. I have a degree in political science and I follow political and legal news pretty closely."

LOL

Drago said...

Inga: "The hostility to her and any Democratic woman that gets a blogpost here and elsewhere are subject to Derangement Syndrome."

Lefties, with the quiet and silently nodding acquiesence of their LLR lap poodles, literally call conservative women "fake women" or "female imposters" and the lefties and the LLR allies literally go after the children of these women with glee.

As we have seen on this very blog site.

bagoh20 said...

I'd like to know when was the better time in history for minorities, the poor, the rich, the middle and the world in general. In fact the only places that are experiencing bad things right now are those that have rejected traditional western values, and or capitalism, and the more they reject them the worse off they are. Most everything people like Cortez and Bernie spew is exactly backward, and that's why it's dangerous.

cubanbob said...

Generally, I'm very bored by politics. I don't do policy at all. I wish wise decisionmakers advised by highly competent experts would work on all the policy problems without any supervision from me."

Althouse must have never heard of The Best And The Brightest. Indeed it's almost always that The Best And The Brightest that have caused almost all of the policy calamities. The Great Depression and it's continuation, bad decisions that lead to WW2, Korea, Vietnam the insane national debt due to social spending, the banking crises of 2008 and so many more. The people on their own are generally not as stupid in resolving policy problems as our so-called betters.

cubanbob said...

bagoh20 said...
Cortez might make a great president. What I see as the great negotiating strength of Reagan is a quality that Trump also possesses. Their enemies think they are stupid and crazy, so you can't risk a game of chicken too far. Cortez has that shit down cold, but she's much more convincing."

She's convincing because she really is that stupid and crazy. Occam's Razor would seem to apply in this instance.

narciso said...

And halberstam got things substantially wrong in that case, because he relied on a vietcong asset who steered him wrong, he also misrepresented the role of the China hands in that exercise. As well as the nature of ho chi Minh, much of this was clarified in victory forsaken.

tommyesq said...

"As bad as things may seem they should still be made aware that human beings in 2019 United States of America are generally living longer, healthier, violence free lives than at any other time in human history."

I think they view this is like the "prisoner's dilemma" from game theory - if the older generation and younger generation work together, everyone's future is better; if either one acts in their immediate self-interest, they do not as well but still better than the other; if both act in their immediate self-interest, everyone is screwed - and they believe (again, correctly at least up to present) that the older generation has already decided to act in their own self-interest, making the optimal result unachievable. I guess what I am saying, if we end up as another Venezuela,don't blame the millenials/AOC's of the country - they are simply living in the world that we have left them.

PM said...

I know one thing about women: Nancy Pelosi does NOT want to be photographed next to Cortez. It's about skin.

walter said...

A phrase that would suit her better:
"We'll cross that bridge after we burn it."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

People lacking charisma can't achieve power through the people.

I don’t know. How do you explain Chuck Schumer who has amassed power within the D party despite having the charisma of a scorpion and the wit of a dung beetle?

walter said...

Schumer is magnetic compared to Harry Reid.

walter said...

Blogger mccullough said...Spinster in the making. She needs a guy.
--
She has one.

narciso said...

in and of themselves the millennial sjw's can't fundamentally transform the country, and this congress is too small a margin by itself, unlike 1964 or 1975, they will wreak a small degree of damage currently,

Molly said...

I said in another comment stream:
"A big part of AOC's attractiveness is that she always seems so happy in the photos. Compare to HRC or Elizabeth Warren."

Fen said...

Inga: "The really ugly, nasty, over the top things that Trumpists are saying on these threads - "

Then how do you explain how Cortez got a degree in economics when she states that unemployment is only lower because people are working a 2nd job?

She obviously fucked her way through college.

As for being nasty, you taught us well.

bagoh20 said...

Let's say you were going away for 5 years, but returning. Would you trust Cortez to have complete control of your finances without any guidance until you returned?

Fen said...

But truly, you know how you can being working a jigsaw puzzle and a character has a wild expression in reaction to an unfinished section? But once you put all the pieces in place the wild expression makes perfect sense?

That's Alexandria Cortez. Whenever I see her Googly Eyes I just imagine she has a cock in her mouth and it all falls into place.

Try it. You'll see what I mean.

Tinderbox said...

When I look at her I see a bulimic, crazy-eyed woman.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I think it's most unlikely that Kamala Harris will be the Dem nominee, because she's from CA, a state any Dem is guaranteed to win anyway. (Yes, HRC ran from NY, but her carpetbagging exercise began back when she wanted to be Senator. By the time it would've been cool if she were once again from Arkansas, it was too late to carpetbag back.)

Who will it actually be? Probably no one now in the first rank. Biden, Warren, Sanders, O'Rourke, Booker, I'm (not) looking at you. I'm hoping very much that AO-C decides to run, and no one dares mention the Constitutional age requirement :-)

Fen said...

Inga, still waiting...

..how do you explain how Cortez got a degree in economics when she states that unemployment is only lower because people are working a 2nd job?

(chirp) (chirp)

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

OTOH, Harris would be our first Asian-American President, which is something. Oh, she's black, so she can't be anything else? She's as Indian (as in "mother from India") as Obama is white and George Zimmerman is Peruvian-American, namely 50 percent.

Race in the US looks hellishly complicated, but it isn't. There are really only a few rules:

(1) If you are even a small percentage black, you're black.

(2) If you are half-Asian (like Harris, or Tiger Woods), best to downplay it, especially if it's on your mother's side. Harris really lucked out here, as "Kamala" seems a recently-minted black name like, say, "LaKeisha," rather than an Indian name much like her mother's.

(3) If you look white, you're white, unless you've submitted an authentic Oklahoman crab recipe to "Pow Wow Chow." This is especially true if your surname is something like "Zimmerman." If you look black, you're black, even if your name is Rachel Dolezal and photos show you as a very blonde toddler. That's what tanning booths and hair dyes and extensions are for. And braiding.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Fen, that's by far the least of her errors. What about how Medicare-For-All will free all those poor folks from having to pay funeral expenses? Or the famous $21T "rounding error" in the Pentagon budget? Even the article in The Nation she cited got the facts right, including that (1) this was over 17 years; and (2) the errors went in both directions, therefore largely canceling each other out; and (3) $21T is about the size of the entire national debt (in itself staggering, I know); and (4) $21T is more than has been spent on military budgets -- yes, even after adjusting for inflation -- over the country's entire history?

walter said...

Her facts were inaccurate, but morally correct.
She should call it "Medicare free-for-all"

DavidUW said...

I'm tired of giving commies the benefit of the doubt for their "good intentions."
They're evil. Just like there were plenty of young, good looking Nazis, there are plenty of young, good looking commies.
They're still evil.

Rather than the ultimate truth of American politics being "Conservatives think liberals are stupid, while liberals think conservatives are evil," conservatives need to view them, particularly unreconstructed communists like AOC and Bernie as what they are: evil, murdering (if they could get the chance) thieves.

Fen said...

Agreed.

Punch a Nazi? Sure. But kill the Marxists.

Gk1 said...

What would Harry Truman make of this ditsy broad? Not much I would imagine.

veni vidi vici said...

She's nice to look at and has a terrific rack but that scratchy-voice thing she does all the time is a major league boner-wilter.

I like to think of her this way: the only way she loses her seat is if successfully primaried from the left, and she knows (and so do you) that this will never happen.

Therefore, consider the following: Nancy Pelosi has been in Congress for 30 years, and is currently somewhere around 78 years old. By the time AOC has served as long as Pelosi, she will only be 58.

Think about that for a moment. Then think about the amount of power Pelosi has, and place that in the context of whether Cortez need ever act on "larger ambition" to seek a Senate seat or the presidency (hint: she need not).

So AOC will be here for most of the rest of our lives. She's bound to season with time, if only in terms of rhetoric, or perhaps she'll keep the rhetoric and temper/moderate her voting; it'll likely be one or the other, especially if she wants Pelosi-type power in the long run (a safe bet).

Ultimately, this makes her no more or less interesting than a Maxine Waters or Sheila Jackson Lee, which is just fine. She's young; give her a term or two before writing her off completely, since she knows nothing at the moment but will learn lots in due course.

But lordt, I wish she'd do something about the cloying scratchy-voice thing...

Bilwick said...

"Inga, still waiting...

..how do you explain how Cortez got a degree in economics when she states that unemployment is only lower because people are working a 2nd job?

(chirp) (chirp)"

Remember, Fen, that Inga called me a "Trump Cultist" because I referenced Ludwig Von Mises. That alone shows you Inga's intelligence and grasp of facts, particularly facts about economics.