Jim Hightower's Lowdown
Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown
Shhhh! Anti-WOKE Right-Wingers Want to Put You to Sleep
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Shhhh! Anti-WOKE Right-Wingers Want to Put You to Sleep

It’s always useful in a moment of national urgency to have level-headed experts explain what’s happening. Experts like extremist right-wing politicos.

For example, when two high-flying banks crashed this month, these screechers flocked to blame it all on their latest ideological bugaboo: “Wokeness.” Their loopy contention is that everything bad in our country is happening because such institutions as schools, libraries, corporations, and even banks are responding to America’s long history of systemic inequality by pursuing “politically-correct” policies promoting liberal values like fairness, equality, and diversity.

Hello – oppression of the many by the few is in fact a reality in America. Two, pursuit of those liberal values is what makes America historically important. And… banks? You’re actually asserting that high-finance is now motivated by a liberal, share-the-wealth mentality?

Yes indeed, squawk these self-proclaimed knowledgeable ones, singling out the recently-failed Silicon Valley Bank. “They were one of the most woke banks,” moaned a GOP lawmaker who specializes in conspiracy theories. Gov. Ron DeSantis piled on, barking that “this bank, they’re so concerned with [diversity]… and all kinds of stuff.” Then Donald Trump offered his usual deep assessment, lecturing that the collapse “is what happens when you push leftist/woke ideology.”

Bovine Excrement! As has now been documented, these bankers were not woke, but greedy, incompetent, and reckless. Worse, our bank regulators had been intentionally put to sleep by a 2018 law that specifically let such banks escape careful public supervision. Guess whightower hat? Trump was the one who initiated this disastrous regulatory exemption, Ron DeSantis cheered and voted for it, and the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank led a lobbying campaign to ram it into law.

Stay alert folks – these politicos and profiteers are the ones who crashed the bank – and now they’re trying to put us to sleep with their hokey “anti-woke” PR stunt.


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Discussion about this episode

Thank you Jim--my day needed a dose of “cut the crap a-ready”, and lo, you appeared!

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SAME OL'

Not "new"; merely a retread on the good ol' racist bus. Remember who got blamed for the '08 crash? Certainly not the Wall St. econopathic vultures stripping the carcasses of what was a middle income working class. Instead, the right wing claim was oh-so-wonderful oh-so-responsible banks had been FORCED by lefties (Where? D neolibs sure ain't) to make subprime loans to...well, you know.

/Those people./

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It seems the brainwashed zombies are terrified of people with critical thinking skills. Woke , those who are not motivated by hate, fear, or greed.

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Don'tya KNOW folks, that the 1929 Stock Market Crash was ALSO the result of ..... "WOKE policies!!???

And while Jim says "bovine excrement," I say (in German) - "KUHSCHEISSE!!!!!" That's why I have ALWAYS done ALL my financial transactions at my local CREDIT UNION!!!

;-)

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Don’t waste breath replying to liars like Trump and DeSantis. Demand they be held accountable for their crimes and indicted. Then join the fight to defeat fascism and its traitorous supporters.

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