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Ayanna Pressley's office reveals a disturbing detail discovered during the Capitol siege

Meaghan Ellis

January 13, 2021

Disturbing details are emerging about the state of Rep. Ayanna Pressley's (D-Mass.) office amid the U.S. Capitol riots that took plac

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/keep-yelling-democratic-rep-ayanna-pressley-shouts-down-protesters-while-exposing-abusive-migrant-camps/

also AOC (did not feel safe w/ guards, laughed at them?)

no lnx an 8  23

'Feeding their denial like a servant': Ramaswamy slammed by scholar he called 'modern KKK' wizard

Maya Boddie August 29, 2023

Biotech entrepreneur and 2024 GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, during a recent Iowa appearance, referred to author, historian and scholar Dr. Ibram X. Kendi as a modern-day KKK grand wizard.

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According to NBC News, the Republican candidate quoted Kendi's bestselling book "How To Be Anti-Racist," saying, "Here's what it says. Opening lines: 'The remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."

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Ramaswamy went on to say, "These are the words of the modern grand wizards of the modern KKK."

During Monday's episode of MSNBC's The Reid Out, host Joy Reid interviewed Kendi, saying, Ramaswamy is "basically saying anti-racism is the reason for racist incidents. He named you. Your thoughts?"

Kendi replied, "It is a very old white supremacist talking point. White supremacists have been saying for decades that anti racist's code for anti white. What is also ironic is the only reason why we're even talking about him, the only reason why he even has political standing is because he has brown skin, he's attacking black people. That is really his job. It is the job of Republican candidates of color to go out to white republicans and say they are not racist and the real racists are the people who are challenging them. so, he is doing his job. He's feeding their denial like a servant."

United States Representative Ayanna Presley (D-MA), who Reid interviewed along with Kendi, was also criticized by Ramaswamy during the same Iowa appearance.

READ MORE: 'Blatant fanboying': Why the GOP base is 'eating up' Vivek Ramaswamy’s 'showmanship'

When a voter asked the GOP hopeful whether "critics would blame him for white supremacy or call him part of white supremacy," NBC notes, Ramaswamy replied, "Ayanna Pressley, she's in the Congress today. She's a member of 'the squad.' Her words, not mine: 'We don't want any more black faces that don't want to be a black voice. We don't want any more brown faces that don't want to be a brown voice.'"

According to The Hill, Presley spoke with Reverend Al Sharpton earlier this week, saying, "The verbal assault lobbied against myself and Dr. Kendi is shameful. It is deeply offensive. And it is dangerous. It is not that long ago that we were besieged by images of white supremacists carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville. It was not that long ago that a white supremacist mob seized the Capitol, waving Confederate flags and erecting nooses on the West Lawn of the Capitol."

Watch the video below or at this link.

The Reid Out (8.28.2023) Dr. Ibram X. Kendi slams Vivek Ramaswamy for calling him 'modern KKK'

www.youtube.com

READ MORE: Pardoning Trump will 'move our country forward': Vivek Ramaswamy

NBC's full report is available at this link. The Hill's report is here.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayanna_Pressley

Ayanna Soyini Pressley[1] (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, her district, which was once represented by John F. Kennedy and Tip O'Neill, includes the northern three-fourths of Boston, most of Cambridge, parts of Milton, as well as all of Chelsea, Everett, Randolph, and Somerville.

Pressley defeated ten-term incumbent Mike Capuano in the primary election and ran unopposed in the general election. She was previously first elected as an at-large member of the Boston City Council in 2010. Pressley is the first black woman elected to the Boston City Council; she also is the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.[2][3]

Early life and education

Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio [4] but raised in Chicago, Illinois, the only child of mother Sandra Pressley (née Echols),[5] who worked multiple jobs to support the family and also worked as a community organizer for the Chicago Urban League advocating for tenant's rights,[6] and father Martin Pressley, who struggled with addiction and incarceration throughout Pressley's childhood,[7] but eventually became a college professor.[8] The marriage ended in divorce.[5]

Pressley grew up on the north side of Chicago[8] and attended the Francis W. Parker School.[9] While at the prestigious private school, she was a cheerleader, did modeling and voice-over work, appeared in Planned Parenthood bus advertisements, and was a competitive debater. During her senior year of high school she was voted the "most likely to be mayor of Chicago" and was the commencement speaker for her class.[10]

Her mother later moved to Brooklyn, where she worked as an executive assistant, and later remarried.[5] When Pressley was elected to the Boston City Council, her mother would often attend the public meetings, wearing a hat that said "Mama Pressley."[5]

From 1992 to 1994, Pressley attended the College of General Studies at Boston University, but left school to take a full-time job at the Boston Marriott Copley Place to support her mother, who had lost her job. She took further courses at Boston University Metropolitan College, also known as MET.[6] [10]

Earlier political career

After leaving Boston University, Pressley worked as a district representative for United States Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, for whom she had interned during college.[6] The work included assisting constituents with Social Security claims and working with senior citizens and veterans and people with disabilities. Pressley became Kennedy's scheduler, then worked as constituency director, before becoming the political director and senior aide for Senator Kerry.[8]

During 2009, Pressley served as United States Senator John Kerry's (D-Mass.) political director, responsible for managing his relationships with elected officials at the city, state and federal level and with various community leaders.

Boston City Council

Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council in November 2009. Upon being sworn in on January 4, 2010, she was the first woman of color to serve in the 100-year history of the Boston City Council.[2][11] The only woman in a field of 15 candidates, Pressley earned one of four at-large spots on the city's 13-member council with nearly 42,000 votes.[2]

In her first year as a City Councilor, Pressley formed the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities, which addresses issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, and human trafficking. She worked collaboratively with community members to develop a comprehensive sexual education and health curriculum and update the expectant and parenting student policy. Both were successfully implemented into Boston Public Schools.[12]

In the council election of November 2011, Pressley faced a competitive re-election, and finished first among at-large candidates with 37,000 votes. She won 13 of the city's 22 wards and finished second in three others. Pressley won Boston's communities of color and many progressive neighborhoods. In all, Pressley placed first in more than half of Boston's 22 wards.[13] Pressley topped the ticket again in November 2013 and November 2015, and placed second in November 2017.[14][15][16]

U.S. House of Representatives

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts, 2018 § District_7

In January 2018, Pressley announced her challenge to incumbent United States Representative Michael Capuano in the 2018 Democratic primary nomination for the Massachusetts's 7th congressional district.[17] No Republican even filed, meaning that whoever won the primary would be all but assured of victory in November.

The 7th district is traditionally Democratic and is the state's only district where the majority of residents are not white. Capuano received endorsements from civil rights veteran and U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia as well as U.S. Representative Maxine Waters of California.[18]

Pressley was endorsed by The Boston Globe[19] and locals of the hotel workers and the electrical worker unions,[20] Grassroots movements including Democracy for America, Brand New Congress and the Justice Democrats supported Pressley.[21] She received the endorsements of former Massachusetts Democratic Party chair John E. Walsh,[22] Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey,[7] former Newton mayor Setti Warren[23] and Boston city councilor Michelle Wu.[24] The nomination win in New York's 14th congressional district of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over long-time representative Joseph Crowley increased the visibility of Pressley's campaign.[25][26] While some political commentators distinguished Pressley's campaign from that of Ocasio-Cortez in that Capuano was understood to have one of the most progressive records in Congress, the incumbents both represented districts in which the majority of voters are not white.[27]

Like Capuano, Pressley campaigned as a staunch progressive; indeed, she admitted that her voting record would likely be almost identical to that of Capuano. However, Pressley contended that a reliably liberal voting record was not enough to meet the needs of a district whose demographics and character had changed over the years. She also claimed that the district needed to be represented by someone who would take a more aggressive role in opposing the presidency of Donald Trump. She campaigned with the slogan "change can't wait", and promised that she would bring "activist leadership."[28]

In the September 4, 2018, Democratic primary election, Pressley defeated Capuano by a margin of 59% to 41%.[29] The primary victory was a surprise,[30] as the last poll before the election showed Capuano with a significant lead, 48% to 35%.[31] Part of the reason the polls may have been inaccurate was a surge in the number of primary voters. According to Boston NPR station WBUR, 24 percent of primary voters in the 7th District primary had not voted in the five previous primaries. The percentage of new voters included a disproportionate number of Hispanic and Asian voters.[32] As mentioned above, no Republican even filed, effectively assuring Pressley of being the district's next congresswoman. She won the general election unopposed.[33] However, the 7th is so heavily Democratic that any Republican challenger would have faced nearly impossible odds in any event. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+34, the 7th is by far the most Democratic district in New England. Indeed, the Republicans last put up a challenger in this district during Capuano's first run for it 1998, when it was numbered as the 8th District. The GOP has only nominated a candidate in this district five times since longtime Speaker Tip O'Neill retired in 1986.

Tenure

Pressley is the first African-American woman elected to represent Massachusetts in Congress.[34] With the November election victory of Jahana Hayes in Connecticut's 5th congressional district,[35] they are the first women of color to be elected to Congress from New England.[36][37]

In May 2019, Pressley gave the commencement address to the graduates of University of Massachusetts Boston, saying they are "President Trump’s worst nightmare." In her speech she said, "Represented here today are dreamers and doers, immigrants, people of every race identity, every gender identity and sexuality, sisters rocking Senegalese twists and hijabs."[38]

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Political positions

Honors and awards

Personal life

Pressley lives in Dorchester with her husband, Conan Harris,[55] and her stepdaughter.[2] Pressley does not drive an automobile and has never learned how to drive.[56]

Pressley has been public about being a child survivor of sexual abuse.[57][not ^in ^citation given] She was also sexually assaulted while a student at Boston University.[58]

Electoral history

Boston City Council election results

2009 candidatesPreliminary election[59]showGeneral election[60]
2011 candidatesshowGeneral election[61]
2013 candidatesPreliminary election[62]showGeneral election[63]
2015 candidatesshowGeneral election[64]
2017 candidatesshowGeneral election[65]

 write-in votes

See also

References

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/how-post-offices-can-beat-payday-lenders/

The fight to curb payday loans has reached one of America’s oldest institutions: the Postal Service. Democratic representatives Bill Pascrell of New Jersey and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts recently introduced an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act authorizing post offices to provide small loans, savings accounts, and other financial services. The amendment sets aside $1 million to cover any overhead. It passed the House of Representatives on June 25.

Pascrell is a longtime supporter of the Postal Service. In an April 2019 article for this magazine, he argued that the USPS is an essential institution that has been bogged down by privatization efforts. Rather than take away money from the agency, Pascrell said that Congress should expand its functions. Post offices, he noted, could bring loan and ATM access to unbanked Americans, many of whom rely on payday lenders that charge exorbitant interest rates. problem ... ;in the United States. In 2017, 6.5 percent of U.S. households were “unbanked” (no bank access), and 18.7 percent were “underbanked” (reliant on financial institutions that were not banks). Almost half of the country could not pull together $2,000 within thirty days in the event of an emergency (or at least they would struggle greatly to). Many of these people would have to take out payday loans to deal with such a shock.

“They turn to the unregulated predatory payday lenders, to check cashiers,” Pascrell told me. These lenders, he said, “keep families in poverty.”

Typical payday lenders charge interest rates of 390 percent per year, a figure so high that one out of five recipients default. A recent move by the Trump administration to slash regulation around payday loans risks making this problem even worse.

Pascrell’s solution is not wholly new. Several large countries—including China, India, Italy, and France—currently offer loans and savings accounts at post offices. American post offices offered loan and deposit services from 1911 to 1966, when millions of low-income individuals relied on them. In 1947, the post office managed $3.4 billion, the equivalent of $35 billion today, making it one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S.

But Lyndon Johnson cut the project in the 1960s as a part of a larger effort to trim government agencies. Afterwards, predatory lenders stepped in to fill the gap, offering small loans that commercial banks often avoid. To turn a profit, this new crop of lenders set sky-high interest rates that have left poorer Americans trapped in debt.

The postal service still offers one banking service: postal money orders. An inspector general report estimates that it provides roughly $21 billion of these orders—which operate like prepaid checks—to those who have no other place to store their money. The report also noted that “ZIP Codes with higher population, more poverty, and lower education levels sold more money orders.”

Pascrell and Pressley’s legislation—which also had the support of Nevada Republican Mark Amodei—would greatly expand this banking system, making post offices install new ATMs, set up deposit accounts, and hand out low-interest loans to customers. Its odds of passing the Senate are slim. But if the bill were implemented, it would offer low-income Americans inexpensive access to the U.S. financial system. A USPS inspector general study found that postal banking could provide loans at a 90 percent discount compared to what payday lenders charge.

Given its vast reach, Pascrell argued that the Postal Service was uniquely prepared to help solve America’s payday lender problem. “It’ll be a little push from us,” he said. “But they’re basically ready to do this.”

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https://www.ecowatch.com/new-green-deal-ocasio-cortez-2621867003.html

many lnx

Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal Proposal Now Backed by 15 House Democrats

Calls for a Green New Deal are gaining traction in the two short weeks after the young climate activists of the Sunrise Movement and Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stormed Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Hill office.

Fifteen members of Congress have now backed Ocasio-Cortez's proposal to establish a "select committee" in the House of Representatives to develop a plan to—basically—reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to transition the U.S. to 100 percent renewable energy sources within 10 years of passing the Green New Deal legislation.

Supporters in the House include John Lewis, the civil rights leader and Democratic congressman from Georgia, and trailblazers Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress.

no lnx

As ThinkProgress reported, Democratic congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine joined the growing list of backers on Tuesday.

"We don't need another report to tell us climate change is a threat to our health, environment and economy," she said in a statement on her website. "We must take urgent action to end our nation's reliance on fossil fuels and stop the damage greenhouse gases have done to our way of life."

Pingree, an organic farmer and member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment, said the effects of climate change have greatly impacted her state.

"Look no further than Maine's lobster industry to see the looming economic crisis facing our state due to rapidly warming waters," she said. "Meanwhile rates of asthma and tick-borne illness in Maine have dramatically spiked because of fossil fuel emissions and rising temperatures. I see the crisis of climate change every day in my state and believe a new committee dedicated exclusively to this crisis can support the long-standing work of other House committees and help to fast-track solutions."

Here are the 15 House Democrats supporting the measure:

Jared Huffman (CA-02)

Ro Khanna (CA-17)

Ted Lieu (CA-33)

John Lewis (GA-05)

Joe Neguse (CO-02)

Chellie Pingree (ME-01)

Jamie Raskin (MD-08)

Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)

Rashida Tlaib (MI-13)

Ilhan Omar (MN-05)

Deb Halland (NM-01)

Carolyn Maloney (NY-12)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14)

José E. Serrano (NY-15)

Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)

The proposal also has the support of nearly 100 environmental, economic and social justice organizations, according to the Sunrise Movement.