Category: ALEXANDRIA OCASIO CORTEZ

Rotten Tomatoes Declares Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Netflix Documentary Best Rated Film of 2019

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends the Knock Down The House movie premiere during the 2019 SXSW conference and Festivals at the Paramount Theatre on March 10, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP) (Photo credit should read SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images)

By Ben Kew

The Netflix documentary Knock Down the House, which follows the campaigns of female Democratic hopefuls in the 2018 election cycle, and highlights Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), is so far the highest rated film of 2019, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

The documentary, which had its rights purchased by Netflix for a whopping $10 million, has a 100 percent approval rating among Rotten Tomatoes users, eclipsing the likes of Amazing Grace, Apollo 11, and Ash is the Purest White. 

Knock Down the House follows the campaigns of female Democratic hopefuls Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin as they campaigned for Congress during the 2018 midterm elections.

“At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, these four women decide to fight back, setting themselves on a journey that will change their lives and their country forever,” notes Rotten Tomatoes. “Without political experience or corporate money, they build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Their efforts result in a legendary upset.”

In February, the film won the coveted audience award at the Sundance Film Festival and a five-minute standing ovation. Ocasio-Cortez, who was the only one of the four women featured to win her election, was not in attendance but sent a message to the audience via video link.

“I’m just so glad that this moment for all four of us was captured and documented not just for the personal meaning of it but for everyday people to see that yes, this is incredibly challenging, yes, the odds are long but also that yes, this is worth it,” she said.

The film, which premiered on Netflix in May, also drew gushing reviews from left-wing critics. The Guardian‘s Jordan Hoffman wrote described it as “inspiring and a “classic David and Goliath scenario.”

“Everyone likes an underdog story, and when the underdog is as eloquent, passionate and righteous as these four women are, the final reels of this film feel like a Rocky movie,” he wrote at the time.

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Pope Francis Urges Carbon Penalties to Avert Climate ‘Catastrophe’

VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - DECEMBER 25: Pope Francis delivers his Christmas Urbi Et Orbi blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on December 25, 2017 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

By Thomas D. Williams, PHD.D.

ROME — Pope Francis warned of disastrous consequences if humanity does not immediately react to the threat of climate change, since the world has reached a “critical moment” and there is no time to waste.

“Dear friends, time is running out!” the pope told a group of participants in a Vatican-sponsored conference on energy transition Friday. “We cannot afford the luxury of waiting for others to come forward or of prioritizing short-term economic benefits. The climate crisis requires decisive action from us, here and now.”

Despite the pontiff’s frequent denunciation of a “politics of fear,” he seemed determined to paint as frightening a picture as possible of an impending climate apocalypse in order to incite people to action.

This conference “takes place at a critical moment,” Francis said. “Today’s ecological crisis, especially climate change, threatens the very future of the human family, and this is not an exaggeration. For too long we have collectively ignored the fruits of scientific analysis, and catastrophic predictions can no longer be viewed with contempt and irony.”

The pope’s words Friday went beyond sounding a general alarm and scorning climate-change skeptics. They also urged specific political action, most notably regarding penalties for carbon usage such as a carbon tax.

“A carbon pricing policy is essential if humanity wants to use the resources of creation wisely,” he said. “The failure to manage carbon emissions has produced a huge debt that will now have to be repaid with interest from those who come after us.”

The cost of carbon usage must be paid here and now by those who use it, and not deferred for future generations to cover, he proposed.

“Our use of common environmental resources can be considered ethical only when the social and economic costs of their use are recognized in a transparent manner and are fully sustained by those who use them, rather than by other populations or future generations,” he said.

The pope reiterated the popular belief that “the effects on the climate will be catastrophic if we exceed the 1.5ºC threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement goals,” for which we have “only a little over a decade.”

“In the face of a climatic emergency, we must take appropriate measures, in order to avoid committing a grave injustice towards the poor and future generations. We must act responsibly well considering the impact of our actions in the short and long term,” he said.

“Future generations are soon to inherit a very ruined world,” the pontiff stressed. “Our children and grandchildren should not have to pay the cost of the irresponsibility of our generation.”

Appearing to take a page from AOC’s Green New Deal, Francis expressed his conviction that an energy transition from fossil fuels to a low-carbon society “can generate new employment opportunities, reduce inequality, and increase the quality of life for those affected by climate change.”

Today “a radical energy transition is needed to save our common home,” he warned. “There is still hope and the time remains to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, provided that there is prompt and resolute action.”

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Pelosi Gives Up on Pay Raise For Congress After Backlash

Democrats wanted to increase the already hefty annual salary for members of Congress.

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Democrats are poised to cave on a proposal to increase the annual salary for members of Congress.

House Democrats agreed Monday night to remove a provision from an upcoming government funding bill that would increase congressional salaries by $4,500. Members of Congress are already paid a generous $174,000, earning well above what the average American makes in a year.

A battle was set to emerge in the Democratic caucus over the proposed pay increase. Some Democrats in battleground states were opposed to the raise, seeing it as poor political optics, whereas other members of the House Majority were inclined to go ahead and help themselves to even more. Members of Congress are paid considerably more than even the most senior government employees.

Steny Hoyer, the Democratic House Majority Leader, was quoted by Politico as stating that the pay raise provision is being pulled from the government appropriations package while Democrats hash out a consensus on the issue internally.

Upstart New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is thus far one of the few Democrats to go on record in support of the proposed pay raise, describing it as a necessary move to counteract the Congress-to-lobbyist pipeline. It’s unclear why the democratic socialist can’t find an alternative way to deter the influence of corrupt lobbyists without paying overpaid government employees even more money.

Many Democrats seem to genuinely believe they’re being underpaid and can’t afford to take up residence in the expensive Washington D.C area with their current income, despite being handed a large salary that many middle and working-class Americans would consider themselves immensely fortunate to receive.

It’s not entirely impossible that the few crucial Democrats opposed to the raise will take their commendable opposition to a congressional cash grab a step further- by announcing their support for a pay cut of the hefty and bloated annual $174,000 congressional salary.

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Cortez Runs From Conservative Opponent – AOC’s Dumb #17

Published on Jun 11, 2019

UPDATE! We reached our fund raising goal late last night, much faster than I predicted! Thanks so much guys. I’ll leave the Go Fund Me up for a couple more days in case anyone else still wants to chip in but, otherwise, we will be moving forward with the trip/project soon. More details to come and, thanks again 🙂

Screen Shot 2019-06-11 at 10.35.57 AM

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MEDIASnopes Fact Checks Viral Satire Article About Woody From ‘Toy Story’ Being Bisexual The

Snopes Woody Bisexual

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After years of fact checking the popular Christian conservative website Babylon Bee, the once-respected fact checker is now spending its resources fact checking NPC Daily.

NPC Daily, a viral new right wing satire website using the popular non-player character meme, recently published an article titled “Disney announces that Woody will be ‘openly bisexual’ in Toy Story 4”, which prompted Snopes to inform readers that the children’s movie character will not, in fact, discuss his sexuality on the big screen.

Snopes referenced a clearly fake tweet used in the NPC Daily article by Disney, and wrote that “This report was not a genuine news account, nor was such a tweet issued by Disney.”

Apparently unable to determine the difference between “satire” and “fake news”, Snopes condemned the article as “fake” in its article. In fact, Snopes only begrudgingly admits the article is satirical in nature twice, first in the subheading of its article, and again at the tail end.

“A niche genre of ‘satire’ sexualizes animated characters,” according to the Snopes article subheading. It then concludes, “This isn’t the first time that a piece of ‘satire’ has sexualized animated characters.”

Snopes has a habit of deriding conservative satire as “fake news”, and reached great acclaim when it condemned The Babylon Bee for a 2018 article claiming CNN purchased an “industrial sized washing machine” to spin the news before it could be broadcast. This was initially believed to be used against Babylon Bee’s Facebook rankings, and after a massive backlash, Facebook clarified that the so-called fact checkers’ article would not be used to punish Babylon Bee.

Big League Politics reported:

Now that the election is over, it seems that they have enough extra time on their hands to fact check Christian satire website, Babylon Bee. Any reasonable person who takes a cursory glance at the site will see the satire, but Snopes still finds it necessary to fact check them.

Perhaps their most ridiculous fact check was on an article where Babylon Bee claimed that CNN purchased an “industrial sized washing machine” so they could spin news. Most people would find the article hilarious, despite being fake, but Snopes instead found it important to make it known that the claim was false.

Snopes also fact checked an article where Babylon Bee claimed that Planned Parenthood defended Bill Cosby, because “sexual assault is only 3% of what he does.” The satirical article was obviously poking fun at Planned Parenthood, who claims that abortion is only 3% of what they do.

Snopes also fact checked Babylon Bee when it published another satirical article, this time suggesting the disgraced Jussie Smollett would be given a job at CNN after “fabricating a story out of thin air.” Smollett committed what is largely considered to be a hate crime hoax in which he is believed to have paid two brothers to attack him while wearing red hats in an attempt to secure better compensation for his work on “Empire” and stoke hate against supporters of President Donald Trump.

The formerly respected website does not stop at fact checking satirical articles. In April, Snopes fact checked a viral meme mocking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, suggesting the freshman congresswoman appeared on “The Price Is Right” and guessed “free” as the price of every item.

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