ON BEING ANTI-WOKE

Bogeymen in Blue Suits and Red Ties

Malevolent men and women have always used fear to control us. Without the anxiety they try to induce in us, they are only paper tigers. A bogeyman is one who is evil or unpleasant and makes others afraid. A paper tiger is one who is outwardly powerful and possibly dangerous, but inwardly weak and ineffectual. Now that we have the terms of this game, let’s try to figure out why these creatures have glommed onto the term “woke.”

The timeworn African American slang term “woke” once referred to someone who was alert to racial prejudice and discrimination, but just as people grow up and change, so do words, phrases and slogans. Today, there are those who characterize a woke person as “hip” or “open-minded.” Therefore, it follows that an anti-woke person is CLOSE MINDED. This background, however, doesn’t answer the question about why so many politicians and mouth-breathing zealots have decided to force this term into the malicious column. If I am aware of cultural discrimination, while being open-minded enough to see beauty in every culture and tribe, why am I the enemy?

A “woke monster” is born when she or he puts down others, then rallies people around their criticism and attack. With the power of social media, it takes mere minutes for a stupid policy, statement or action motivated by self-profit to be consumed and believed. Every time Donald Trump, Jr. opens his mouth, all the pundit putdowns, comedic ridicule and digital abuse will not make him smarter. He will always be enormously close-minded and far from hip.

But why do the bogeymen label those who disagree with them as “woke?” It’s an incorrect term for a putdown. A person who is “alert,” “awake” or “hip” is trendy, cool and up on the latest things. Such a being doesn’t warrant a repugnant response from an elected official. One who attacks another person or group using the term “woke” means they are discouraging critical thought on any level. And guess what; that is exactly what they want to do.

I remember Richard Nixon used to call protesters against the Vietnam war, “outside agitators.” This was always offensive to me, a protester, because I was just as much a citizen as anyone else. Regardless of what I chanted while marching, I was still an American. Positioning us as OUTSIDERS, who the White House claimed were bused in for protesting, was an US and THEM tactic. We were protesting a corrupt and unjust war, and gee, we eventually discovered that was a hundred percent true.

What gets my goat are these self-serving hypocrites who run around the country talking about how they support the First and Second Amendment with no true understanding of what those articles even mean. The governor of Florida constantly claims grievance from an invisible foe of “woke culture,” but introduces and promotes laws to restrict school books, courses and curricula that he personally disagrees with, even when educators tell him he’s wrong. Once anyone tells Ron DeSantis he is wrong, they are moved onto his Enemies List and classified as “radical.” I honestly believe not teaching students about the true history of America is unamerican.

There have been some interesting characters throughout US history. Remember Senator Joe McCarthy? He wanted to round up all the commies in the country and put them in jail. Then there was Governor George Wallace, who genuinely believed in segregation and used racist tropes to gain power in the south. Now we now have about twenty people in Congress who are using lies, misinformation and conspiracy theories to raise money, defraud their constituents and disrupt the normal business of Congress. They need you to believe in woke scapegoats to move their narrow, dogmatic vision of America. They work tirelessly behind the scenes to devalue the vote of minorities and disenfranchised citizens. Why?

The divide makes Rupert Murdoch and Fox News billions of dollars, because they feed back misconceptions and lies to their eagerly misled audience. What a country! They box up a term like Critical Race Theory (CRT), demonize it, slap it and push it as evil by saying they want to protect the feelings of white students. Oh really, isn’t that fake wokeness? CRT is fundamentally an advanced college concept proposing that systemic racism and the way our laws are written place people of color at a disadvantage.

Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis and Margorie Taylor Greene say they are aiming for clarity, but they’re just manipulators in search of attention and fame at any cost. If you took all the money out of Congress, all three would be working other jobs.

We liberal thinkers and writers are not the bad guys. Those are the men in blue suits with red ties who hate immigrants, colleges and criticism. They want to “take their country back.” But to where? 1950?

Derrick Bell

For every book that is banned, smart kids will be motivated to independently search the internet to get at truthful information. I once cracked, “I agree we shouldn’t teach CRT in public schools because most white kids are not smart enough to understand the concept.” But seriously, what is the big deal? Derrick Bell, whose views formed the foundation of CRT, wasn’t as angry as white politicians want you to believe.

When states ban teaching CRT in schools that receive taxpayer money, they are simply proving Mr. Bell was right. It’s white people making laws that disadvantage Black people. It’s socialized racism that gerrymanders the boundaries of what can be taught and closes the door on critical thinking. It’s a mystery why Ron DeSantis, who attended Yale and Harvard, believes he can erase history and whitewash the truth. His malevolent social engineering causes minority, gay and trans kids feel bad about themselves, and he must stop.

I am really not sure what “woke” means, but if it means I see right through these spineless bigots and racists, then I guess I am woke. Maybe it’s time for us all to woke up.

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THEY THINK WE ARE STUPID

Government Lies Lead to Death

The real liars are taking over and must be stopped. The people who hold positions in government offices think they can lie and get away with it. They think the public is stupid and that most don’t remember or don’t even care. Following is a case in point.

During the beginning of Covid in 2020, a researcher and data complier for the State of Florida became a whistleblower when she claimed Ron DeSantis’ administration asked her to fudge the state’s Coronavirus numbers to provide cover while the government did all it could to keep Florida open as fully as possible. Her name is Rebekha Jones.

She was harassed, fired, arrested and her computers were confiscated by the State Police in a raid on her house. The authorities claimed she used her home as a private communication system to send messages to the state’s Medical Examiners warning them of these nefarious activities by elected officials. The judges, all Republican appointees, have refused to drop the case against her for one count of “offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices” for some ill purpose. Okay.

Rebekah D. Jones, the woman in this case, is now running against Matt Gaetz for Congress in Pensacola and it seems her political aspirations are being driven by what she experienced while working for the government. She is a bright person who had no reason to lie about what she was doing, and even after they dismissed her she continued to research and publish a Covid data dashboard as a free public service. Graphic below.

The State Inspector General’s report was released on May 18, 2022, and I didn’t take it seriously. The headline read, “A state investigation into allegations that the Florida Department of Health fudged Covid-19 case numbers to support Gov. Ron DeSantis’ effort to reopen the state after a shutdown in April 2020, has found no evidence of wrongdoing.” Since the Covid-19 crisis hit the state and the US, DeSantis has taken full control of Florida’s Department of Health and was able to move out the person running it so he could appoint a department head who is terribly unqualified for the position, given that he is an anti-mask supporter and vaccine doubter. Yes, DeSantis appointed Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD to the position of Florida Surgeon General and Secretary of the Florida Department of Health. Google him if you want to see the corruption in his appointment.

Here are some facts. To date, there have been 6.24 million cases of Covid in Florida, with 74,719 deaths. And while those numbers sink in, consider this headline which just arrived, “Florida botched Covid-19 stats in early months.” Yes, Rebekah, your state’s “official” 2020 counted cases and deaths were fudged.

Here’s a story from the Palm Beach Post, “Florida health officials missed thousands of Covid-19 deaths in 2020, had incomplete information for millions of tests and spent millions of taxpayer dollars on testing that lacked vital data, a state report released has found.”

According to the reporting, the investigation found 3,082 Covid deaths the state Health Department did not include in its official counts. Including those victims would have pushed the state’s reported death toll up 18% higher.

On top of it, Florida investigators “found no evidence” related to the email incident that officials said had triggered the raid at Ms. Jones residence. They had alleged that a chat message was sent to a planning group on an emergency alert platform, urging people to speak out publicly about Florida’s coronavirus strategies. Wow, thinned skinned DeSantis is now confirmed.

A majority of Florida’s 5.5 million-plus Covid test results — 51.5% — lacked information about the race of those tested. About 59% lacked ethnicity information. Hispanic people compose the largest slice of Florida’s population. Boy, that sounds a bit racist, doesn’t it?

By mid-May 2020, 25% of Hispanics and 20% of Blacks tested positive for the virus, compared with about 11% of whites. The Palm Beach Post discovered this after examining nearly 200,000 test results in which individuals reported their race or ethnicity. The Health Department never released those test statistics. Only 38% of a sample of 2,600 tests conducted by three unnamed state-contracted labs returned results.

The reporter who authored the article for the West Palm Post, Christopher Persaud, reached out to me with a succinct but fact-filled review of the whole Rebekha Jones matter: “The State Auditor examined Health Department data. The Health Department internally examined Rebekah Jones’s claims. The state Inspector General is examining Jones’s claim she was wrongfully fired. The State Department of Law Enforcement has charged Jones with hacking a state communications channel. They’re still investigating. I don’t think the case has gone to trial yet. So, the charges remain.” The fact is that the Sunshine State is not very transparent, and it’s challenging to just get statements from the people in power.

I draw a simple conclusion from all this. Florida’s Governor will lie about anything to make himself look good, and worse, will use his power against anyone who disagrees with him. He spent more energy on fighting Rebekah D. Jones than conquering Covid. If anything, his policies based on his uninformed opinions and advice from unqualified people actually killed people. It’s bad enough the pollution in Florida water is killing fish, but the wannabe king in Tallahassee is killing people.

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