‘Thumbs-up’ to AOC for recent actions

I don’t often find myself agreeing with New York’s outspoken congresswoman, but I’ll have to give Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, better know as AOC, some congratulations and a thumbs-up for a couple of her actions as of late.
As of Sunday night and after just four days, the Democratic representative from New York’s 14th district had already raised nearly $5 million to help Texas after that state was hit with a severe winter storm this month. The unusual, extreme cold weather, ice and snow caused the Lone Star State’s power grid to fail.
    “I think this is just something that we should be able to do whenever there is an area in our country that’s in need,”  she told a reporter from The Hill.
    A Houston newspaper reported the funds she’s raising will be earmarked for the Houston Food Bank, Family Eldercare, Feeding Texas, the Bridge Homeless Recovery Center and Corazon Ministries (they serve the homeless), among others. AOC even traveled to Texas over the weekend and helped at the food bank.
    On another issue, while some have said she should have spoken out sooner on Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, AOC has now made her voice heard on the issue. She, like many others, are calling for a full investigation, which apparently is going to include the feds.
    A March 25, 2020 order from Cuomo said nursing homes couldn’t refuse entry to residents based on COVID-19 infections, likely adding to the spread of the virus in facilities with older populations, who are highly vulnerable. That’s been know from the very beginning of COVID-19.
    Gov. Cuomo, with no surprise, denied any wrongdoing, saying he was only following guidance from the Trump Administration. His actions only exacerbated the controversy when, in a report from Cuomo’s own Attorney General, it was learned his administration was also under-counting the nursing home deaths by as much as 50%. More than 15,000 nursing home residents in New York have died from COVID.
    It may have caused AOC to twinge a bit to join Republicans in calling for Cuomo’s investigation. But many from her own party are also pushing the investigation.
    There are rumors that AOC is considering a challenge for fellow New Yorker Chuck Schumer’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Both of her recent efforts make for some good PR.
    Regardless, AOC still needs congratulated on both of her recent actions.