I want to begin by saying that I search, every day, for misbehaving and unethical conservatives and Republicans to try to balance the flood of outrageous conduct and rhetoric by “the resistance” and Democrats lately. This is how I end up writing about the comments by the Governor of Kentucky relating to an event I never heard about. I also try to find any source other than Fox News when the story involves a Democrat or progressive, except that so often such stories go unreported in the mainstream news media. When I get the inevitable complaint that I am picking on AOC for this story because of my right-wing bias, I will ask for the name of any Republican House member who has done something like this. Count on it.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a 5k in Queens yesterday that she billed as “a Family Fun Run supporting U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal on the Saturday following Earth Day.”
That was sort-of true, but not true enough. In fact, the proceeds of the run went directly into Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign account. The Fun Run raised money for her.
This is deceit, bordering on fraud. “We’re getting together for our own health, for our planet’s health … and to fight for the Green New Deal together,” the freshman Democrat told the participants before they began fun-running. Still not good enough: many of the joggers, if not most of them, believed their money was going to save the planet. “It’s going to help raise awareness and educate people,” a female runner told The New York Post. Brian Schwartz of Long Island said, “I think it’s really for this particular New Green Deall. No question.” “It’s to help the environment. To support the Green New Deal,” another woman said. “It’s a good cause.” Others, told of how they were deceived, shrugged it off. After all, their end of the political spectrum believes that the end justifies the means.
Nonetheless, the runners and donors were deceived. If I am a candidate for the House who promises to strengthen government ethics, I can’t tell participants in a “Run for Ethics” that the money will go to efforts to make government more ethical when it will really go into my re-election fund. That’s a lie. If OAC was a supporter of more cancer research, could she call this campaign fundraising stunt a “Run to Eliminate Cancer”?
No.
I’m sure the young Congresswoman or her legal staff will point to notices on her Facebook page saying that the run would support “U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & the Green New Deal,” but that’s also intentionally deceptive language. The fine print on an event-related website was correct…if runners and contributor saw it: “Registration fees are contributions to AOC for Congress,” followed by the Federal Election Commission rules that donors must follow.
Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent that the Fun Run was a campaign fundraiser, meaning that not one cent of its proceeds would go directly to support the Green New Deal—that’s the other part of the deception, since there is no such thing, the GND having only “aspirations,” and no programs—and that the event was a classic bait and switch. A scam. A sting.
The fact that the money thus separated from the gullible marks consisted of a paltry $11,000 is irrelevant to what the episode reveals. Ocasio-Cortez is a con artist. She cannot be trusted.
Ethics Alarms 
”Environmentally conscious supporters — who jogged through Astoria Park alongside a beaming, strolling AOC — believed their money was going to help save the planet.
“ ‘It’s going to help raise awareness and educate people,’ a female runner told The Post.
“ ‘I think it’s really for this particular New Green Deal,’ said Brian Schwartz of Long Island. ‘No question.’ ”
Yoikes! Gordon Gekko said it best:
A Fool And His Money Are Lucky Enough To Get Together In The First Place.”
When you believe you are a Marvel comic superhero for the environment she probably believes that contrubutions to her campaign will help save the planet.
Almost certainly. After all, she is a Democrat.
Please tell me a non-citizen/non-resident ran and paid for a ticket, breaking federal election law. And make an example of him/her.
Fair disclosure: campaign volunteers on both sides have tried to get me to contribute and insisted on me doing so after I explain to them that we would be breaking the law and that I would happily roll over and give them up to avoid jail time.
Parents paid for their children to participate – which would also constitute a campaign finance issue as parents are not allowed to donate to political campaigns in their children’s name.
…but only conservatives and Republicans have to obey those rules… and sometimes the GOP swamp dwellers get away with it too.
The Elites ignore the law when they commit the crimes. Else Comey would be in prison, not to mention Hillary.
I’m divided. On one hand, yes, I agree with everything Jack is saying. But on the other hand, the “Green New Deal” is a fantasy that exists purely inside in Ocasio Cortez’s head and nowhere else. If you’re funding something that only exists in Ocasio Cortez’s brain (where it resides tax free and rent free) then it seems obvious that the money you’re giving should be spent by Ocasio Cortez on Burger King and Arby’s in order to keep nutrients and blood flowing to Ocasio Cortez’s brain and keep the Green Deal fantasy alive. If you give money to support her fantasy, that money is hers to do whatever she needs to do to keep her fantasy (and now YOURS) alive. She’s offering you the opportunity of a life time to share in her delusion. You COULD go see the latest Marvel movie this weekend… OR… for the low price of a ticket to a fun run, you can enter a world of intrigue and mystery where clean energy has the potential to simultaneously solve climate change AND inequality. Personally, I had no idea that the climate was discriminating against marginalized groups and it offends me to the core. If there’s one thing I cannot tolerate, it’s racist weather patterns.
Actually, what I find MOST troubling about Ocasio-Cortez’s event isn’t that she is mischaracterizing how the funds will be spent. It’s that she has grievously mischaracterized the act of running as “fun.” Evidence supports that running releases endorphins and dopamine into your bloodstream– just like cocaine or methamphetamines or opioids. It’s not that these people “enjoy” running– they’re ADDICTED to running. Cancer, AIDS, Green New Deal– it doesn’t matter to these junkies what they’re running in support of. As long as they’re getting their fix, they’d run in support of sex change procedures for pandas.
These people need help. Not enablers like Ocasio Cortez.
Oh, yeah!
It’s not the weather that is discriminating; rather it is “marginalized groups” who have the fewest resources to mitigate its impact on them.
I don’t know, Rich in CT. The weather may not be acting out of malice the way I do when I spend my afternoon haphazardly scattering shopping carts all over Walmart’s parking lot or swapping canned vegetable labels with canned cat food labels just to mess with their customers (happy to solve those mysteries for you)– but the fact is that whether the weather KNOWS what it’s doing or INTENDS to discriminate is immaterial. The weather IS hurting marginalized groups. And that, my only friend from CT, is institutional racism. That’s right. The Weather Underground is BACK and bringing a torrential downpour on Friday that’s going to unfairly soak a good many homeless people. And watch out for earthquakes too. Waves of terra-rism and weather related racism are on the rise. Grab an umbrella and get out in FRONT of it, Rich.
The snark is strong with this one.
I like it
Where does one go around here to report stolen thunder?
Even though Leslie missed the residual effect: these run junkies go until their knees and hips crap out and need replacing, or at least “work”, which is too often when they are Medicare age and we all get to share in the “benefits”.
You go to Ocasio-Cortez to report stolen thunder. That sounds like a climate change problem that can be solved with the Green New Deal.
We had Big Tobacco, now we’ve got Big Opioid. I know who we ought to go after next, Mike: Big Nike.
To borrow from Sarah Hoyt, “This is my shocked face.”
Anyone who imagines this woman to be anything but a statist, opportunistic, ethically-ignorant wolf in sheep’s clothing is daft as well as blind. All those that got fleeced deserve their fate. Maybe it will teach them a lesson worth remembering.
She strikes me as a sock puppet or a ventriloquist’s dummy. Or a marionette. A whole group of people are giving her her lines and pulling her strings.
She’s probably more than that, but I’d hardly call her a intellectual. She’s not qualified at any level to represent anyone but herself.