Modern Thought Police
AJ Robinson

I’m rather partial to Star Trek novels. I’m a fan of the entire series. That’s no surprise for anyone that knows me.

Scaring truthtellers into silence.

In one book, Gulliver’s Fugitives, Picard and the crew arrive at Planet Rampart. It’s a world where fiction is forbidden and a special police force, much like the Thought Police of “1984, enforces the law. Anyone that dared disagree with what the All Truth Council decrees as “Truth” is a criminal and arrested.

We’re now close to that here in Florida. Rebekah Jones is the new “Enemy of the People” in Florida. The governor, Ron DeSantis, is a good and loyal Trumpster; he kowtows to “The Great Orange” and follows the Republican playbook when it comes to COVID-19.

What does that mean? DeSantis is doing everything in his power to downplay the pandemic, as Floridian die. He blocked dissemination of data on the disease. He works to keep businesses and schools open. He doesn’t allow counties, cities or other municipalities to enforce strict standards, such as mandatory mask wearing.

Everybody in Florida must adhere to what DeSantis feels is enough and nothing more. Floridians must, most especially, not listen to scientists. After all, it’s not like they know anything or that the disease is an issue.

Did I mention that, as of today, Florida has over one million cases of COVID-19? Just recently, my dear wife had the disease. We think she caught it in the hospital, but we can’t be sure.

The point is she got COVID-19. It struck her lungs and kidneys. She went into renal failure. We almost lost her. She’s home now, weak and slowly recovering. We know, up close and too well, how serious the disease.

Our governor does not act as if he believes COVID-19 is serious. No, he’s doing everything in his power to insure no one knows anything about the disease. That’s where Rebekah Jones and the Thought Police come into play.

Police broke down her door and aimed guns at her young children.

Jones tried to get news and information about the disease to people. She tried to help. She tried to ensure people understood what they needed to do to protect themselves.

In the eyes of “Herr” Governor that makes her an enemy of the state. Jones is an enemy of the party and a traitor to him, personally. Thus, the police went to her home in search of contraband.

It also puts me in mind of that book, and movie Fahrenheit 541. The Ray Bradbury story is of a dystopian world, where firemen went to homes, but not to put out fires. No, they searched for books and then burned them.

Well, the Florida law enforcement, police not firefighters, showed up at the Jones home, their guns drawn. They pulled her out of the building, pointed their guns at her two small children and then ordered her husband, who was upstairs at the time, to show himself. All of this filmed on a household security camera.

Just think for a moment if that camera hadn’t been there. The police would have denied everything. It would have been a routine call to the home of a subject to ask her a few questions.

The assault on the Jones home the result of her giving out information on how Florida handled COVID-19. She is a former state official. She refused to censor or alter disease-related information.

Think about that. Normally, something a phone call would be enough to resolve whatever problems existed or simply asking her to come in and talk to someone from the Health Department or some other agency that has jurisdiction over the issue. Even if what she did was a major crime, would the police really need to come to her home in force, seize the entire family and execute a search warrant? She was going out information, not selling guns or trafficking in pornography.

“This was DeSantis,” Jones reported to Yahoo News. “He sent the Gestapo.” The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany. The office, of the governor, did not respond to a Yahoo News request for comment.

It can’t come soon enough.

It’s very creepy and disconcerting, not to mention scary, to think armed officers would arrest someone over dispersing the truth. This is life in Trumplandia. Tell me again how many days he has left until the inauguration.