I have a feeling the following line has become evergreen; it’s been another gaffe filled week for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
I also have a feeling I’m being a bit too generous in calling her ridiculous comments “gaffes” when they seem to be the norm rather than the exception.
Creating Fake News – And Other Hypocrisy
Twitter managed to spark another faux controversy early in the week that generated venom reminiscent of when Covington Catholic high school student Nicholas Sandman committed the crime of smirking. In this case a group of young men were spotted with a cutout of AOC (gasp!). In this case, a group of teenagers volunteering for “Team Mitch” (Mitch McConnell’s campaign arm) posed next to a card board cutout of AOC.
Below you can see teenagers behaving like teenagers pictured, and some feminist who thought it was newsworthy.
Pictured: seven young white men in “Team Mitch” T-shirts, gathered round a distressed looking cardboard @AOC, groping and kissing her. The caption, “break me off a piece of that.”
Future federal judges of America. pic.twitter.com/t877J7Pcye
— feminist next door (@emrazz) August 5, 2019
Eventually “Team Mitch” replied to the “controversy” (i.e. barrage of comments from angry leftists) that followed, giving a tongue-in-cheek apology, that “Team Mitch in no way condones any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cutouts of any gender similar to what we saw from President Obama’s speechwriting staff several years ago.”
Newsweek reported that this response amounted to “essentially” saying that “boys will be boys.” AOC, not knowing how quotation marks work, then pretended that was a direct quote from Team Mitch before going off on a tirade.
“Boys will be boys.”
Is that also the reason why you’ve chosen to block the Violence Against Women act too, @senatemajldr?
It prevents dating partners w/ records of abuse + stalking women (also an early warning sign from many mass shooters) from obtaining a gun. https://t.co/shWCRmEv60
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 6, 2019
Some pointed out (as Team Mitch did) that no one cared when it was Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau “groping” a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton.
McConnell said “Team Mitch ***in no way condones*** any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cut-outs of any gender in a similar manner to what we saw from Obama’s speechwriting staff.”
But Obama Bros will be Obama Bros…https://t.co/qP2LoHDq8w pic.twitter.com/cmbIcq9pD3
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) August 6, 2019
Regardless, I’m sure AOC would never associate with someone like that and enthusiastically express interest in meeting them.
Or not:
Let’s do it!
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 29, 2018
The Dayton Blame Game
AOC’s outrage is also selective when it comes to rhetoric. As it seems, she believes it’s only everyone else’s rhetoric capable of causing harm.
According to The Hill:
AOC late Monday said that President Trump‘s divisive rhetoric on immigration was “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left at least 22 people dead.
The freshman New York congresswoman made the comments while speaking at a vigil in Brooklyn for the victims of the shooting in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, according to the New York Daily News.
“I’m tired of the questioning if the president is racist. He is,” Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd of about 500 people, the newspaper noted.
Two can play at that game.
Remember the Antifa member who was killed attempting to storm an ICE facility with a rifle and firebombs back in July? He repeated AOC’s rhetoric verbatim, which should mean she’s responsible according to her own logic.
The Democrat Dayton shooter endorsed the ANTIFA terror attack on an ICE facility.
That terrorist used @AOC’s concentration camp rhetoric to justify his attack.
READ: https://t.co/JwoluVcD3w https://t.co/B6EQxrPqcP
— Big League Politics (@bigleaguepol) August 5, 2019
And the same goes for the Dayton shooter (though there is no political motive proven for his attack).
DAYTON SHOOTER
* Supported Antifa
* Used AOC "concentration camp" language
* Loved socialism
* Hated ICE agents
* Retweeted Bernie and E. WarrenClearly, the problem is Trump and his rhetoric.
— Razor (@hale_razor) August 7, 2019
Reading Past the Headline
AOC tweeted out praise of her fellow democratic socialists after the city of Denver revoked $10.6 million in contracts to two for-profit prison companies. The charge against the for-profit prisons was led by Candi CdeBaca, a Democratic Socialists of America backed candidate. Nowhere was any acknowledgment of the tangible effects this would have for the prisoners AOC pretends to care about.
Good. https://t.co/BIRrDr06lQ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 8, 2019
Not included in this tweet?
The fact that Denver ending the contract with the for-profit company could also means shutting down half-way houses.
As many as 500 people could lose parole and be forced back into prison. https://t.co/YrdHC6JLe9
— Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 8, 2019
What she didn’t mention was that 500 people out on parole at halfway houses may be forced back into prison as a result. Regardless of your position on the issue, AOC was framing this move as a win for prisoners (and also in the fight against ICE), which it clearly is not.
As the Intercept article noted:
THE COUNCIL’S VOTE was all the more remarkable because there were credible and sympathetic arguments against taking radical action. Some 500 people are currently in the four halfway houses run by CoreCivic and two run by the GEO Group, and are now at risk of being returned to prison. That’s not their certain fate, however, as parole is an additional option.
“If we renew the contract, we’re supporting organizations that provide valuable services to more than 500 people and 140 employees,” said council member Chris Hinds, spelling out the dilemma. “We’re also supporting organizations that put kids in cages, run concentration camps.”
CdeBaca acknowledged the moral quandary. “I am very concerned about the 500 beds that we jeopardized by this vote, and I want to see a plan to make sure that we transition out of these contracts in a way that is just for the residents of these facilities,” she said, arguing that a transition could be made in six to 10 months, but the power to do it was in the hands of the mayor and the firms. “There’s essentially a monopoly emerging here, not just in Denver but nationally with CoreCivic and GEO and that is a problem.”
What does she have in store for us next week? Stay tuned to find out.