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Government United States Politics

Fired Covid-19 Data Manager is Now Running for Congress (orlandoweekly.com) 214

Florida's fired Department of Health data manager Rebekah Jones lost access to her 400,000 followers on Twitter last month — which she'd been using to criticize Florida governor Ron DeSantis for downplaying the severity of the state's Covid-19 crisis. Then Jones announced she'd be running for Congress. "This also means, under Desantis' recently signed social media law, I get to fine Twitter $250K per day until my account is restored starting July 1."

Orlando Weekly reports: After a media frenzy, Jones deleted the post. She said she was attempting to point out Gov. Ron DeSantis's "hypocrisy" in writing a law that allowed political candidates to sue media companies that ban them, while still celebrating her Twitter suspension...

The bit became real when she filed to run as an Independent in Florida's 1st congressional district on June 25...

On her campaign website, she lists eight issues on her platform: protecting Florida's environmental systems, promoting government transparency, fighting for media accountability in disinformation, giving access to representatives, ensuring the district's veterans are taken care of, scrutinizing restrictive voting laws, funding science and research, and boosting support for all levels of education. Jones says there's still room for other issues on her platform, after she talks to more residents.

Jones' GoFundMe account ("DefendScience") now directs visitors to her official campaign site if they want to make campaign contributions. (And the GoFundMe page also notes that her campaign has been endorsed by 90-year-old Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistleblower who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret government study on the Vietnam War.)

But the last six weeks have been a wild ride for the data scientist:

Yesterday the official coronavirus coordinator for the White House reported that one in five of America's Covid-19 cases this week have come from Florida.


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Fired Covid-19 Data Manager is Now Running for Congress

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  • by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Sunday July 18, 2021 @06:42AM (#61593859) Homepage Journal

    Honestly, this girl is playing by the rules.
     
    Twitter has set up rules to avoid abuse by people trying to anonymously game the system. What's happening here is she's put her name and reputation on the line. I think she deserves whatever notoriety she brings upon herself.
     
    If you can beat the system and play inside of the rules... Honestly, if I lived in Florida, I'd vote for her simply to defend her right to do exactly what she's doing. This is an important display and test of freedom of speech and freedom of thought. Whether she wins or loses, kudos to her.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Entrope ( 68843 )

      What part of creating new accounts to evade bans do you think is "playing by the rules"?

      • by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        What part of creating new accounts to evade bans do you think is "playing by the rules"?

        The part where political candidates are allowed to create proxy accounts for their campaigns and are not subject to numerous Twitter rules because they've become "notable."

        And it's "avoidance," not "evasion," but buy does it make you salty.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 )

      Honestly, this girl is playing by the rules.

      No, she's abusing reactionary policy incited and inflamed by equally absurd pendulum swinging on the other side that wishes to suppress and censor any viewpoint not aligned with their own.

      Sensible logical rules will eventually emerge, but not before corrupt politicians pound each other with stupid ones for a while (as if anyone has a fucking chance with a lawsuit against a mega-corp). The pendulum eventually dies down to find a sensible middle ground to base real action on.

      Either that, or the Political Ci

      • by zlives ( 2009072 )

        So politics as usual, or perhaps the last several years didn’t happen and all is well.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday July 18, 2021 @09:07AM (#61594165)
        You should Google the phrase Overton window. It refers to the acceptable ideas and political discourse. It's been shifting hard to the right since the 1970s. So in the seventies the idea of enough unemployment insurance to pay for rent and food wasn't a radical idea. In the year 2021 it's stalinist communism, and a group of right-wing extremists stormed the capital in an effort to overturn election results they disagree with and we're just kind of shrugging it off. Not to mention the 400 plus voter suppression laws working their way through various state legislatures as template laws.

        Someone is bending the pendulum in One direction. Now this is partisan politics which is guaranteed to rile people up on slash Dot. So I'll ask you a question. Given it the pendulum is shifting far to the right, do you think that you'll always agree with the right wing party heads? Think Liz Cheney, mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell. Will the policies those people push always be the policies you agree with? Because remember those voter suppression bills? The window is closing for you to decide, because if you ever disagree with the party apparatus those bills will be used against you.
        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by geekmux ( 1040042 )

          You should Google the phrase Overton window. It refers to the acceptable ideas and political discourse. It's been shifting hard to the right since the 1970s. So in the seventies the idea of enough unemployment insurance to pay for rent and food wasn't a radical idea. In the year 2021 it's stalinist communism, and a group of right-wing extremists stormed the capital in an effort to overturn election results they disagree with and we're just kind of shrugging it off. Not to mention the 400 plus voter suppression laws working their way through various state legislatures as template laws. Someone is bending the pendulum in One direction. Now this is partisan politics which is guaranteed to rile people up on slash Dot. So I'll ask you a question. Given it the pendulum is shifting far to the right, do you think that you'll always agree with the right wing party heads? Think Liz Cheney, mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell. Will the policies those people push always be the policies you agree with? Because remember those voter suppression bills? The window is closing for you to decide, because if you ever disagree with the party apparatus those bills will be used against you.

          Most of the "leaders" today, are not leaders. They're corrupt greedy humans representing themselves, not the People. I don't care of the name you toss is Pelosi, Bush, Trump, or Biden. Doesn't matter. There's a reason a man became a leader by beating a Drain-the-Swamp drum. The best way to fix the current political "system", is to get rid of all of those who have corrupted it. Which means most of them.

          And voter "suppression" bills, are not what they are being touted by the MSM. There is nothing, and

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        Remember, thank a politician when that shit happens.

        No, thank our own stupid selves, these people wouldnt be politicians if we didnt vote for them.

    • by tomhath ( 637240 )

      RTFA

      "for violations of the Twitter Rules on spam and platform manipulation."

  • She seems like the left's version of Marjorie Taylor Greene. I 'm looking forward to hearing about whatever the opposite of Jewish space lasers is.
    • Muslim subterranean lasers at exactly 180 degrees out of phase?

    • The opposite of Jewish space lasers, is sanity and being grounded in reality and informed by facts.

      The opposite of crazy isn't a different form of crazy, the opposite of crazy is sane.

      Though as a Jew, I'm rooting for the space lasers tbh.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      Except instead of going on about secret Jewish space lasers, she made allegations that have at least shown enough evidence that she has been granted whistle blower status.

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday July 18, 2021 @06:55AM (#61593883)

    In reality you get to burn taxpayer money on a pointless lawsuit which will be ruled in favour of Twitter on First Amendment grounds.

    Just a reminder: Not all government whistle-blowers are level headed people with your good interests at heart.

    • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday July 18, 2021 @07:13AM (#61593917) Homepage Journal

      In reality you get to burn taxpayer money on a pointless lawsuit which will be ruled in favour of Twitter on First Amendment grounds.

      It's not pointless, the system is badly designed. In order to get rid of the pointless law, we need pointless lawsuits, and an endless string of appeals.

      Just a reminder: Not all government whistle-blowers are level headed people with your good interests at heart.

      But this one appears to be.

      • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday July 18, 2021 @09:11AM (#61594175)

        But this one appears to be.

        By running for congress just so she can overrule the first amendment protected privileges of a private company by forcing them to carry her language? Just because she blew the whistle on the government doesn't make her any less unhinged.

        It saddens me to see what Americans think of "freedom" these days. Free to force other people to do what *you* want.

    • by ufgrat ( 6245202 )

      Last I heard, the law had been put on indefinite hold until a court rules it unconstitutional.

  • This should be fun (Score:3, Informative)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Sunday July 18, 2021 @07:40AM (#61593971) Journal

    A warning for our notoriously horny congress-critters ... don't try it, guys [wikipedia.org]!

    Jones has had prior criminal charges in Florida. At the time of the police raid, Jones was facing an active misdemeanor charge for allegedly cyberstalking a former student and romantic partner and for publishing sexual details about their relationship online. She was fired from her Florida State University teaching position for threatening to fail her estranged romantic partner’s roommate.[44]

    She had also faced prior charges, including felony robbery, trespass, and contempt of court, stemming from an alleged violation of a domestic violence restraining order related to the same ex-boyfriend, but those charges were dropped. Prior to that incident in 2017 Jones had been arrested and charged with criminal mischief for vandalizing her former romantic partner’s SUV, but those charges were later dropped, as well.[44][45][46][4]

    Jones also faced criminal charges in Louisiana in 2016, where she was arrested and charged by the LSU Police Department with one count each of battery on a police officer and remaining after forbidden and two counts of resisting arrest after refusing to vacate a Louisiana State University office upon being dismissed from her staff position.

  • by stabiesoft ( 733417 ) on Sunday July 18, 2021 @08:21AM (#61594081) Homepage
    The R's were desperate to force twitter to allow them to speak unfettered. They got their wish. But that meant anyone running for office could not be denied. It was stupid. So now a D, possibly a nut, is gaming their law. TX and other currently red states are trying to pass laws to make it harder to vote. Note to R's, this may end up backfiring as your voters are dying, and more D's are coming into these states. If the D's take control, they will use the same mechanism, call it votemandering, just like both parties use gerrymandering if they have control now.
  • It's not as though those social media companies disagree with her agenda. Heck, they've been disappearing opinions opposed to hers.

    So, they are "on her side", so to speak. And kicking her off certainly isn't going to do them any favors in their preferred social circles. It's not going to get them any kudos from the sources they want kudos from.

    Therefore, her violations of their terms must be super egregious to get them to kick her off.

  • Will the con artist come to her defense to show the bias of Twitter against a political candidate? Will DeSantis?

  • I keep reading that this woman left her job in Florida because she was asked to report incorrect Covid data. What was incorrect about the data? What is Florida publishing now? In what ways does her data differ from what Florida is officially posting? I can only find accusations, but no information. And it has gotten hyper-political. It is quite frustrating to be overwhelmed with political articles when what is being debated is a matter of objective fact.

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