Enough “Woke,” Already!

 

                                  Enough “Woke” Already

 

One of the worst things that social Liberals have done recently is to give the Far Right a trigger word which they can use to rouse the deplorables. First off, it sounds like slang, which diminishes its effect in use and worse yet, it is used as a pejorative by morons who have no idea whatsoever of the concept involved. Of course, that word is “Woke.”  In English, a person can be awakened or socially aware. We have given the Far Right a word which, although many of them couldn’t actually define it generates a negative response in the vast unwashed. I have even seen a full sized roadside billboard on US 441 proclaiming that a law firm was "Fighting Woke Corporations" (WTF?)

        Persons who should know better simply don’t care. When GOP House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky blamed Silicon Valley Bank’s calamitous collapse on the institution being “one of the most woke banks,” his point, while nonsensical, was entirely clear. He was certain many would ignore factual analysis and simply nod sagely as if Socrates had spoken. For the record, Comer’s statement is diametrically incorrect. Deregulation of the banking system, specifically the Volker amendment widened the scope of how commercial banks can invest their depositor’s money. Following the housing bubble debacle, the Dodd-Frank legislation, of the Obama administration, noting the shenanigans that firms like Bear, Stearns and others had engaged in by falsely valuing bundled mortgages, passed the Volker amendment to limit how Investment/Commercial bankers could risk clients’ funds. Volker was seriously weakened in the last Trump year. To the mind of Congressman Comer, Silicon Valley Bank was operating in a “woke” fashion.

        Now for the truth. While SVB did fund startups and some were environmentally (there’s that word) oriented, the place they invested, other than startup loans, was to buy Government bonds and T-bills. Pretty woke huh? What went wrong was that they actually over-valued the impact of those very ordinary and usually safe, investments even though they were at low interest when purchased. When the Fed raised interest rates to combat inflation, those securities were at such low interest that no one would buy them because the yield was too low. Not “Woke,” just economics and a management error which had zero to do with the concept.

        Always eager to seize any opportunity to use the “W” word, GOP partisans greeted SVB’s downfall with musings on, of all things, the evils of diversity, equity and inclusion. Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler called out the composition of its board (“I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but …”); Note that the Board of SVB currently consists of three women and four men, all Caucasian. The board chair, Kay Matthews, spent 36 years at Ernst and Young which typically apportions political contributions about 50/50, party wise.

Eric’s dumber (if that’s even possible) sibling. Donald Trump Jr. also summoned causal relationships out of thin air (“SVB is what happens when you push a leftist/woke ideology and have that take precedent over common sense business practices”). Recalling a phrase from Gertrude Stein, “There is no there, there.” Check out this helpful definition from former president and hopefully future inmate, Donald Trump: “You know what woke means, it means you’re a loser. …Everything woke turns to shit.”  Social justice turns to shit? Actually, as far as Trump is concerned, I think he believes that.

        Of course, as shown above, none of this has anything to do with the actual cause of the bank collapse — rising interest rates, overinvestment in long-term government bonds or bank deregulation — but, of course, solving the problem isn’t the goal. The goal is to blame the liberals. Case in shameless point: Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin (R-Wis.) insisted wokeness was to blame for the massacre of nineteen young children in Uvalde, Tex. He said in part, “Apparently, we’ve stopped teaching “values” in our schools, and we’re teaching “indoctrination” instead.” Really, indoctrination? In Texas?

As for any male named Trump criticizing another entity’s business practices, note that the Trump organization has had six bankruptcies, all while Trump Sr. was CEO, all the result of over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York: Trump Taj Mahal (1991), Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (1992), Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump Castle Hotel and Casino (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009). Additionally, he has had six Trump branded businesses/products fail.

 It is noteworthy that his perpetual over-stating the value of the Trump “brand” is one of the charges the first New York financial charges were based on. Eric who manages the Trump winery has gotten reviews such as “tastes of Welch's Grape Jelly with Alcohol.” Genius, huh? I’ll pass.

Through all the unfounded name calling, one is reminded of monkeys in a zoo flinging feces. “Woke” has become the GOP’s simian poop.