For some time (before I succeeded in getting them to stop), I received bulletins from "AOC." I don't know how I got on the list, but these bulletins were arriving in my email inbox with some regularity. The bulletins were usually kind of "right wing," at least so I would characterize them, and I didn't, actually, pay too much attention to them, to tell you the truth. I get about one thousand emails per day, and I definitely don't click on every one! Here's the graphic that adorns the bulletins I was receiving from AOC:
Awhile back, with time on my hands, I decided to track down "AOC." I was pretty confident that these AOC bulletins did NOT come from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who is commonly known as AOC, and about whom I have rather positive views. I say this even though the only clue to the "AOC" sending me the right-wing bulletins was the following mailing address, provided on each edition of the bulletins I received: P.O. Box 26352, Alexandria, Virginia 22313.
I took the mailing address in Alexandria as a mere coincidence, and not as a clever backdoor reference to one of my favorite members of Congress.
"AOC" might have referred to the "Architect of the Capitol." I concluded it did not. What about AOC home and office products? Same! I ruled them out. How about the AOC Wine Bar, located in West Hollywood? I saw no evidence that the wine bar has any particular interest in the kind of political issues discussed in the bulletins that came into my inbox. AOC Resins, likewise. That company just didn't seem a likely origin of the bulletins that come my way. There is an "AOC" that provides AIDS outreach services in Fort Worth, Texas, and Kentucky has an "AOC" that is the acronym for its "Administrative Office of the Courts." Mississippi has one of those, too.
Basically, my internet searches, asking for references to "AOC," resulted in nothing but strike-outs.
I decided to try to track down the organization through its address in Alexandria. Bingo!
Or (maybe) Bingo!
I did not find any organization that confesses to using the Post Office Box in Alexandria, Virginia that accompanies the AOC bulletins sent to me. But there IS an organization (rather "right wing," I'd say) that operates out of Alexandria Virginia, called the "Association of Old Crows." Click that link for a Wikipedia writeup. Click this link for the AOC website, which boasts pictures like the following:
As it turns out, the Association of Old Crows (AOC) is "an international nonprofit professional organization specializing in electronic warfare, tactical information operations, and associated disciplines headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Its mission is to "advocate the need for a strong defense capability emphasizing electronic warfare and information operations to government, industry, academia, and the public (emphasis added)".
I am still not absolutely certain that this "electronic warfare" AOC is the same "AOC" that sent me the bulletins I frequently received in the past - and I still have no idea how I got on its list, if this is, in fact, the group responsible.
What I do know, however, having now tracked down the Association of Old Crows, and having deduced that this Old Crow Association is the "AOC" which was sending me the periodic advisories I was receiving, is that I am going to stick with the "AOC" pictured below, when I want political and policy advice!
I advise the same for you!
(2) - https://www.crows.org/
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