#DEI bureaucracies

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/02/20/corporate-diversity-job-cuts/

As DEI gets more divisive, companies are ditching their teams

Zoom and Snap are among companies that have cut roles in recent weeks

By: Taylor Telford

Published: Feb 18, 2024

After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, companies made big pledges about racial equity, hiring teams dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. Now corporate America is pulling back — cutting DEI jobs and outsourcing the work to consultants.

DEI jobs peaked in early 2023 before falling 5 percent that year and shrinking by 8 percent so far in 2024, according to Revelio Labs data shared with The Washington Post. The attrition rate for DEI roles has been about double that of non-DEI jobs, says Revelio, which tracks workforce dynamics.

In recent weeks, Zoom axed its internal DEI team amid broader layoffs, and Snap cut workers who worked on retention and engagement efforts for employees from underrepresented groups. Meta, Tesla, DoorDash, Lyft, Home Depot, Wayfair and X were among major corporations making steep cuts in 2023, slashing the size of their DEI teams by 50 percent or more, Revelio’s data shows.

“The overall number of DEI officers has decreased,” said Lisa Simon, Revelio’s senior economist, “but it’s not enough to destroy all the strides that happened after 2020.”

At Zoom, chief operating officer Aparna Bawa told employees that the company would replace its internal DEI team with DEI consultants who would “champion inclusion by embedding our values … directly into our people programs rather than as a separate initiative,” according to a Jan. 29 memo seen by The Post.

Colleen Rodriguez, the company’s head of global corporate communications, said Zoom “remains committed” to DEI work.

Snap made a similar decision in February, according to reporting from Business Insider. Snap did not respond to a request for comment.

Corporate America’s retreat from DEI has coincided with increased legal risk and political animosity toward systemic efforts to boost racial equity. State legislators have introduced at least 65 anti-DEI bills since 2023, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The resignation of Claudine Gay, Harvard University’s first Black president, amid plagiarism allegations in January was billed as “the beginning of the end for DEI in America’s institutions” by the conservative activist who led the campaign to oust her. Mentions of DEI on corporate earnings calls have plunged in the past year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

For companies that were never really committed, “this is the perfect air cover for backing off diversity,” said Joelle Emerson, CEO of DEI consultancy Paradigm.

Not all companies downsizing teams are giving up on the work, Emerson said, noting that some employers overhired when they established their DEI teams.

“I don’t know that it ever made sense to have a 25-person diversity team sitting to the side of a core business function,” Emerson said. “Companies should be able to say, ‘We’ve tried this, it didn’t have an impact, we’re going to try something different.’”

The recalibration is happening under serious legal pressure. Last year, when the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, the decision didn’t apply directly to employers. But the ruling kicked off an effort, driven largely by conservative activists, to dismantle race-conscious policies in other domains of American life.

In July, 13 Republican attorneys general sent a letter urging Microsoft and other Fortune 100 companies to reexamine their DEI policies in response to the ruling. America First Legal, a group backed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, has filed legal complaints over diversity practices at scores of companies, including United Airlines, Kellogg’s, Nike, and organizations such as the FBI, National Football League and Major League Baseball.

Edward Blum, the conservative activist behind the lawsuits that toppled affirmative action in college admissions, is suing venture capital firm Fearless Fund over its grant program for early-stage businesses owned by Black women. Blum’s group has also found success targeting major law firms over their diversity fellowships: Three big law firms — Perkins Coie, Morrison Foerster and Winston & Strawn — opened their fellowships for students of color to applicants of all races and backgrounds after being sued. A fourth law firm, Adams and Reese, ended its diversity fellowship after receiving an Oct. 9 letter threatening litigation.

Even before the tide turned last summer, DEI work was an uphill battle. As companies’ commitments have wavered, DEI professionals have had their work challenged.

“Any time I’d raise something with the word ‘equity’ … I was told it scares people away,” said a former head of DEI for a gaming start-up, who was laid off in January. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid violating his separation agreement.

After stepping into the role in 2020, he said he was disheartened by resistance from executives to pay-transparency policies and employee resource groups. The DEI budget kept facing cuts, he said, and he was constantly under pressure to show a “return on investment.”

When it comes to DEI, businesses are “interested until they’re not,” he said. “These positions are going away every day.”

Some groups have been imploring companies to maintain their DEI focus. On Monday, the executive board of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus sent a letter to CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, inquiring about efforts to improve Asian American diversity and encouraging them to stay the course amid growing attacks on DEI. The group noted that Asian Americans remain “severely underrepresented at the senior-most levels of the largest U.S. corporations.”

“Without executive leadership representation at Fortune 100 companies, AANHPI employees have fewer role models and fewer internal champions to guide and mentor them,” the letter reads. “Corporate leaders also have fewer internal resources to guide them in fully understanding the needs and aspirations of AANHPI consumers.”

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent a similar letter in December to acting labor secretary Julie Su, inquiring about tech layoffs that were disproportionately affecting Black workers.

“Tech companies who previously agreed to address bias and discrimination and create greater opportunities in the workforce are now quietly defunding diversity pledges,” the letter reads, according to TheGrio.

Some companies are bucking the trend. J.M. Smucker, Victoria’s Secret, Michaels, Moderna, Prudential and ConocoPhillips were among big corporations that expanded their DEI teams by 50 percent or more in 2023, according to Revelio’s data. Packaged-food giant Conagra Brands and NASA both doubled the size oftheir DEI teams.

With 30 years’ experience in diversity work, Cristina Jimenez, head of DEI at RHR International, a leadership consulting firm, says she has “watched the pendulum swing back and forth” between support and resistance. But this moment seems particularly fraught, she said. Her clients feel like “they’re in a battle zone all the time.”

“They’re not sure what to do next,” Jimenez said, “but they understand if they don’t do something, their talent strategies, their culture, their ability to succeed is all at risk.”

==

Many of the organizations that took on DEI ideology did so as True Believers. Disney is infested with it from top to bottom, resulting in billions lost at both the box-office and in stock price, and vandalized franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel where fans have gone from annoyed to no longer caring. Your paying customers no longer caring is worse than them being angry.

But many more took it on either as a "wokescreen" - to cover and distract from their far greater sins, such as Disney thanking a concentration camp in the credits for Mulan. Or as a form of Woke Passover, painting DEI blood over the door and hoping the activist plagues will pass over them and attack someone else.

[its-suanneschafer-author]

Continuing my review and summarization of Project 2025, Chapter 16 covers the Dept of the Interior.

1. Increase leasing of federal lands for oil and gas production, including fracking

2. Reverse Biden’s placing of federal lands as off-limits to economic and recreational usage and his climate initiatives such as increased solar and wind energy

3. Reinstate offshore oil drilling to the maximum extent

4. Abandon withdrawals of lands from leasing in the Thompson Divide of the White River National Forest, Colorado; the 10-mile buffer around Chaco Cultural Historic National Park in New Mexico; and the Boundary Waters area in northern Minnesota 

5. Approve the 2020 Willow EIS, the largest pending oil and gas projection in the United States in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and expand approval from three to five drilling pads

6. Construct a new 211-mile roadway on the south side of the Brooks Range, west from the Dalton Highway to the south bank of the Ambler River, and open the area only to mining-related industrial uses

7. Repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906 and reduce the number of national monuments 

8. Remove grizzly bears and gray wolves from the endangered species list

9. End federal mandates and subsidies of electric vehicles

[circleandsquarecomic]

Circle Abhors a Vacuum

[namistrella]

I'm gonna say it until I'm blue in the face

Right now, it doesn't matter that our federal programs and institutions need reform. YOU CAN'T REFORM SOMETHING ONCE IT'S GONE. It will take WAY more work (and harm way more people in the meantime) to rebuild from scratch than to work to save these programs now.

Did the grant freeze scare anyone?? It should have!! Yes, it's been temporarily blocked, BUT EVEN IF IT STAYS BLOCKED, IF THERE'S NO ONE TO ADMINISTER THE GRANTS, WE STILL DON'T GET FUNCTIONING PROGRAMS

Snyder's On Tyranny, #2: DEFEND INSTITUTIONS. All Americans should be throwing their backs behind civil service right now and calling their reps until the reps actually DO something to keep our workers in their jobs. We NEED good people in the agencies and offices that are being targeted!! Or we are going to lose programs, resources, and data we worked for generations to build!

Don't think for one second it's going to be fucking ICE that shuts down because of this... ICE won't be touched. It'll be research, welfare, disaster assistance, land protections, environmental protections, even access to core data that we take for granted, is what we're going to lose. With the grant freeze, and the DEI purge, we've already seen just how FAST resources can be ripped away

FEDERAL WORKERS ARE NOT YOUR ENEMY. We need to stand together on this, as they are building a resistance to defend the constitution against ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC, because if anyone's the enemy here it's the fucking fascists. And, like it or not, bureaucracy (filled with stubborn, dedicated people) is our first line of defense.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

My brother works at a VA hospital. Due to Trump's hiring freeze on federal employees, the hospital had to rescind job offers for new doctors and other healthcare workers. I am in agreement of not hiring new fed workers for bullshit DEI agencies but I wish there would have been an exception made for the people who want to take care of our veterans.

There are always unfortunate side effects to even the best policies, but you can't always wait around for a perfect solution to every problem. I don't know why there wasn't an exception made for VA doctors, but I do support the hiring freeze because there were probably a lot of DEI hires and other suspect hires waiting to finalize that need to be vetted. It sucks for the VA, and I hope the freeze gets resolved before any veterans suffer for it, but that's also just a natural problem of government run healthcare. It's subject to the whims of bureaucracy.

[philosophicalconservatism]

DEI

The political Left's desire for power is far greater than its desire for inclusion. This is why it has been forever opposed to the policy with the most potential to bring about meaningful and lasting inclusion: the policy of school choice. Rather than artificially elevating unqualified candidates because of race or sex, why not simply assure that these individuals have a solid foundation of early education that enables them to become qualified candidates? The answer is because it would take away too much power from the education bureaucracy. It would destroy their unconditional control over the education curriculum to which millions of children are subject. The market would now make clear which approaches work and which do not, and parents would be empowered to act on that knowledge.

[vague-humanoid]

The federal government is going MAGA — fast.

Why it matters: President Trump has only been in office a week, but the departments under his command are moving with blazing speed to transform the federal bureaucracy into an army of loyalists.

The new administration immediately moved to freeze nearly all foreign aid, root out DEI programs, remove officials and whole offices deemed ideologically suspect, and muzzle public health agencies.

"We're getting rid of all of the cancer ... caused by the Biden administration," Trump told reporters while signing a Day One executive order that stripped employment protections from civil servants.

Driving the news: Late Friday night, the White House fired 17 inspectors general — independent agency watchdogs responsible for identifying fraud, waste and corruption.

The mass firings, relayed via email, appear to violate a federal law that requires the administration to notify Congress 30 days before removing inspectors general.

Amid outrage from Democrats and ethics experts, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — a Trump ally and longtime advocate for whistleblowers — called on the president to explain his decision to Congress.

Zoom in: DEI offices and programs have been shuttered across the government, including at the CIA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Army and Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Federal workers have been ordered to report colleagues who may seek to "disguise" DEI efforts by using "coded language."

And Trump directed federal agencies to each identify "up to nine" major companies, universities or non-profits to investigate over their DEI practices.

There have been hundreds of staff removals or reassignments, including at the State Department, where far more career officers were asked to resign than in past administrations.

The Department of Justice reassigned at least 15 senior career officials, including a top counterintelligence attorney involved in the FBI's investigation of classified documents Trump stashed at Mar-a-Lago.

The DOJ also rescinded job offers to recent law school graduates who were placed through the Attorney General's Honors program.

Trump's National Security Council sent home around 160 staffers while Trump officials conducted loyalty screenings to ensure they're aligned with his agenda.

One of the administration's highest-profile firings so far was Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military. She was accused of leadership failures and an "excessive focus" on DEI at the Coast Guard Academy.

Between the lines: Trump loyalists have also moved to centralize control around public messaging, particularly when it comes to public health.

The Department of Health and Human Services ordered an unprecedented "immediate pause" on all health reports and social media posts through at least the end of the month, leading scientists to cancel CDC meetings on the escalating bird flu outbreak.

The Pentagon also ordered a global pause on all official social media posts until the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has promised a radical culture shakeup across the U.S. military.

The new administration is also moving quickly on issues including LGBTQ and civil rights.

The State Department froze all passport applications with "X" designated as the gender.

DOJ ordered a freeze on civil rights litigation and is weighing a potential reversal of police reform agreements negotiated by the Biden administration.

It also ordered federal prosecutors to investigate local and state officials in so-called "sanctuary cities."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon moved to abolish an office set up during the Biden administration focused on curbing civilian deaths in combat operations.

Zoom out: Trump made no secret of his intentions to build a MAGA-aligned federal workforce during the campaign, and he quickly imposed a hiring freeze after taking office.

The vast majority of federal workers are career employees, not political appointments, but the president has made clear he wants them all to board the Trump train.

His administration is currently testing the ability to email the entire federal government workforce from a single email address.

What to watch: Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, will be a key architect of the White House's efforts to re-engineer the administrative state.

Vought has assailed "the woke and weaponized bureaucracy," and said in a 2023 speech to his conservative think tank that he wants to put federal bureaucrats "in trauma," ProPublica reported.

"When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains," Vought said — comments he defended during his confirmation hearing.

[rochenn]

hi! perhaps 🍒 or 🍑 for the ask thing?

PERHAPS I WILL DO BOTH

🍒 What’s your favorite character dynamic to write? (Can be romantic or platonic, specific or general!)

Ohhh man Star Wars is so full of good stuff. Dooku & Asajj, Dooku & Maul, Dooku & Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan & Ashoka... those last two have been particularly fun to write together in Gone with the Light. I think I'm weak for lineage interactions ig.

But yeah, I'm writing Rifle atm and Codywan (especially the middle-aged veteran version) is just such a blast to figure out. But that aside, no matter what era they're in, the constant pressure of their circumstances creates perfect friction... These two are incredibly similar in some aspects and not always in a good way; I think they're uniquely capable of bringing out each other's worst. Both are proud, principled, emotionally repressed for one reason or another and so focused on a greater goal (win the war) that their equally shared kindness can get lost and has to be manually retrieved.

Also uhh the power imbalance (outside of Rifle because things are a little different there) and how they both maneuver within it is what makes the ship so entertaining to me. 20+ year age difference 💥 experience gap 💥 superior-subordinate job dynamic 💥💥 Cody has no human rights and has been conditioned to obey the Jedi since day 1 💥💥💥 I swear figuring this shit out is SO fun. They are horrible and they are everything. I love putting them in Situations that mitigate their differences (like on a mission) only to thrust them back into the sterile bureaucracy-governed "peace" aboard their star destroyer or on Coruscant. Idk I think Codywan is just so versatile and could go a million different ways depending on context and that's what's beautiful about them, I think <3

🍑 If you could make a connection between your favorite character and another work you care about (whether a crossover/fusion or a wonderfully “pretentious” literary reference) what would it be? How would it work?

Leave Your Rifle by the Door is already Cody in the most Disco Elysium predicament I could feasibly wedge him into, except his Dolores Dei is not an ex-wife but his bygone days on the front. Lmao. He has a very "my wife left me :(" attitude about the job he lost

I've been struggling with art over the past weeks but I very desperately want to find the sauce to create Star Wars art in a DE style. With the swirling thoughts and messy painterly vibe and everything. It is my dream <3

[tomorrowusa]

Couch-loving Sen. JD Vance has been overshadowed lately by Donald Trump's racist insults to Latinos and creepy comments about women.

But JD has felt the need once again to remind voters what an ignorant asshole he is.

JD Vance Roasted After Unbelievable Claim About “Normal Gay Guy Vote”

JD Vance claimed that he and Donald Trump could likely win the votes of “normal” gay men because they “just want to be left the hell alone.” [ ... ] But one of the wildest moments in the interview came when Vance told Rogan he believed he and Trump would win the “normal gay guy vote” due to the “extremist religion” of “wokeness.” “Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if me and Trump won just the normal gay guy vote, because again, they just want to be left the hell alone,” Vance said. “And now you have all this crazy stuff on top of it that they’re like ‘No, no … we didn’t want to give pharmaceutical products to 9-year-olds who are transitioning their genders.’” Rogan then went on to discuss how it’s actually the transgender movement that’s homophobic, pushing some of his most outlandish anti-trans views yet. Americans everywhere had the same question: What exactly is a “normal” gay man to Vance? “If there’s one thing gays love, it’s being classified by straights as either ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal,’” YouTuber JJ McCollugh tweeted.

Vance suggests upper- and middle-class kids ‘become trans’ for college admissions, says Trump may earn ‘normal gay guy vote’

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance suggested in an interview that aired Thursday that White upper- and middle-class children are incentivized to identify as transgender to gain admission to elite colleges. “Think about the incentives,” Vance told prominent podcast host Joe Rogan. “If you are a, you know, middle-class or upper middle-class White parent and the only thing that you care about is whether your child goes into Harvard or Yale, like obviously, that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper middle-class kids, but the one way that those people can participate in the DEI bureaucracy in this country is to be trans, and is there a dynamic that’s going on where, if you become trans, that is the way to reject your White privilege.”

Who gave some neo-fascist lickspittle of Trump from the party of "don't say gay" the authority to speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community?

Transphobia has become just as prominent as immigrant bashing in the Trump-Vance campaign.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Douglas Murray

What’s in a word? ‘Equality’. ‘Equity’. It’s the sort of thing that Channel 4 newsreaders find impossible to understand. Surely they’re the same thing, aren’t they? And even if they aren’t then what kind of pedant would keep trying to point it out? What difference does it make anyway?

Well, quite a lot. Potentially the difference between your home burning down and it not burning down.

In the past couple of weeks residents of some of the most ‘progressive’ neighbourhoods in America have had, in real time, an unfortunate crash course on the difference between these two words and are now raising questions on which has been prioritised. The wildfires that have destroyed the Palisades and other upmarket areas of Los Angeles seem to have been caused by many things. Locals report repeated sightings of arsonists, though the authorities seem to have taken a forgiving approach to the odd homeless – sorry, ‘unhoused’ – person walking around with a blowtorch. The winds have certainly whipped matters along. But the real story of the disaster, which has already caused billions of dollars worth of damage, is the response to the fires. Or rather the non-response, specifically from the people whose job is meant to be putting out fires.

Residents who have lost their homes and belongings have told me in the past week that they didn’t see even one firetruck in their neighbourhood from the moment the fires got close to the moment their whole area burned to the ground. Now it seems that people are finally putting two and two together and reaching that unfair, deeply inequitable number of four.

Now residents are looking to the people in charge of their safety. Were they the best qualified folks? The mayor of Los Angeles is Karen Bass. During her election campaign in 2021, she promised that she wouldn’t leave California or travel abroad once she became mayor. Unfortunately for her, she was in Ghana when the fires broke out in her neighbourhood. She had gone there despite fire warnings already being in place.

Fortunately, the head of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Kristin Crowley, is a lesbian, which I think we can all agree is the thing we look for most when we make a call to emergency services. ‘Hello, operator here. Which service do you require? Lesbian, non-binary person, or diverse woman of colour?’ Crowley’s appointment in 2022 was called a deeply historic moment for the LAFD. Judging by the interviews she has given since, she too saw it as just such a moment.

As her bio on the LAFD website reads: ‘With her wife and children by her side, Chief Crowley took the oath of office on 25 March 2022 – becoming the first female and LGBTQ Fire Chief in the LAFD.’ It continues: ‘Chief Crowley leads a diverse department. Creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion and equity while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities are Chief Crowley’s priorities.’

Crowley herself has often talked about how important her new bureau would be –  specifically the ‘diversity, equity and inclusion bureau’. In her view it is very important that people who come to your burning home look like you. This is meant to be empowering for everybody. When asked what proportion of LA firefighters she wanted to be women, she said: ‘People ask me, well, “What number are you looking for?” I’m not looking for a number. It’s never enough.’

There has been a lot of diversity-pushing in the LAFD for some years. A video from 2019 that has just resurfaced online shows another wonderful diverse woman of colour called Deputy Chief Kristine Larson talking about the fire departments’ use of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Deputy Chief Larson (annual salary $300,000) is the head of the LAFD’s Equity and Human Resources Bureau. And though she too has been unable to fight the fires that have reduced America’s second-largest city to cinders, she knows what is worth fighting for.

She has been especially scornful of people who ever questioned the introduction of diversity and equity hiring practices and protocols in her fire department and raised concerns such as whether or not female firefighters are as strong as male firefighters. Larson had no truck with such talk. Responding to the idea that some women may not be able to carry a man out of a burning building, she had a zinger of a retort. ‘He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire,’ she shot back. Whoa. Slay them sister. You got this.

The fact is that most people want competence. You can piddle around with diversity and equity in some areas. It is annoying in entertainment. It is wasteful in government. In a fire department it puts lives at risk.

Corporate America has already started turning away from this farce. But I predict that it will be in the flames of Los Angeles that DEI had its Götterdämmerung. Not before time.

[ Via: https://archive.today/V8ndz ]

==

The fact they think that spending their time on building an identity hugbox is the most important thing - rather than, you know, doing their jobs - shows you how captured and corrupt these organizations are.

Make Merit Matter.

[1americanconservative]

@charliekirk11 Make no mistake, Donald Trump has a historic mandate to…

End the woke bureaucracy

Dismantle racist DEI departments

Protect the innocence of children

Remove men from women’s sports

Close the border

Deport millions of illegals

Make the military great again

Stop the surveillance on American citizens

Destroy the censorship industrial complex

End the chronic disease epidemic

Remove poison in our foods and farms

Empower law enforcement to lock up criminals

Unleash American energy

Deregulate the economy

Free the J6 prisoners

End the indoctrination on college campuses

Fortify election integrity

Slap tariffs on unfair trade partners

End the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East

And purge the government of those who have weaponized the levers of power against its citizens.

He needs his cabinet to fulfill this mandate.

We must get each and every one of them confirmed.

[its-suanneschafer-author]

Continuing my review and summarization of Project 2025, Chapter 12 covers the Deep of Energy and Related Commissions.

1) Under Trump, America was energy independent, and Biden’s policies are increasing prices and hurting Americans. NB: The US was never close to being truly independent of foreign energy, and in fact, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in gas prices—and we all know how Trump supports Putin and thus supports the increased gas prices caused by Putin’s war. Also, American imports of Russian energy spiked during the Trump presidency.

2) Repeal the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act which which are subsidizing alternate energy methods

4) Remediate former Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear sites and develop new nuclear weapons—and produce plutonium pits in quantity

5) Focus on studying threats to the electric grid, oil and gas infrastructure and developing strategies and technology to combat these threats

6) Do not allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to regulate climate, in fact eliminate all of the Dept of Energy’s applied energy programs

7) Streamline nuclear regulatory requirements and licensing processes (What could go wrong with that?)

8) Stop using energy policy to advance social agendas

9) Review and consolidate all federal science agencies

10) End the focus on climate change and green subsidies and eliminate the Office of Clean Energy Demonstration and the Clean Energy Corps

11) Eliminate energy efficiency standards for appliances

12) Stop climate reparations (funds provided to developing countries for the harm caused by the developed countries’ use of fossil fuels)

[darkmaga-returns]

Are Trump and His Supporters Ready for a Fight to the Death?

Paul Craig Roberts

In recent articles I have emphasized that President Trump and his supporters are in a life and death fight with cultural marxists who are dedicated to America’s destruction and who are institutionalized in every American institution—media, universities, law schools, Democrat Party, feminists, DEI contractors and corporations, Wall Street as epitomized by Blackrock, and the bureaucracies of every cabinet department and every federal agency.  Essentially, it is President Trump and a few appointees at war with the entirety of the US government and educational and media establishments. Trump has arrived at the fight late in the game when the long march through the institutions is essentially complete. 

In an article in the current issue of the City Journal, “Counterrevolution Blueprint,” Christopher F. Rufo, describes the extent to which the US government is in the hands of the enemy.  In the 2020 presidential election  employees of the Justice (sic) Department, gave 86 percent of their political contributions to Democrats. Labor Department employees gave 88 percent to Democrats. Health and Human Services 92 percent, and Education Department employees gave 97 percent.  Rufo reports that these one-sided political donations are mirrored by tech companies and universities, bastions of left-wing ideologies and activism. 

To give you an idea of just how bad the situation is, the Treasury Department, the task of which is economic policy, financing the debt and raising revenue, during the Obama regime added a new bureaucracy, “The office for Minority and Women Inclusion,” that is totally outside the Treasury’s responsibilities.  This office continued under Trump’s first term, Rufo reports, and proselytized “critical race theory as an operating ideology, hiring consultants to conduct training programs teaching Treasury employees that America is a nation of systemic racism with a 400-year history of racial terrorism” that continues today. 

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Lavietes at NBC News:

Fourteen Democratic senators will introduce an amendment Monday evening to remove language from Congress’ massive defense spending bill that seeks to ban coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members, the office of Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told NBC News. The 1,800-page National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed the House last week by a vote of 281-140, with 200 Republicans and 81 Democrats voting “yes,” and 124 Democrats and 16 Republicans voting “no.” The $895 billion bill authorizes the annual budget for the Defense Department and sets defense policies for the upcoming year. The group of 14 senators, led by Baldwin — who will be the Senate’s sole LGBTQ member in the new term — is seeking to remove a provision tucked into the bill that would prohibit “medical treatment for military dependents under the age of 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria” under the military’s health care program, Tricare.

“Let’s be clear: we’re talking about parents who are in uniform serving our country who have earned the right to make the best decisions for their families. I trust our servicemembers and their doctors to make the best healthcare decisions for their kids, not politicians,” Baldwin said in a statement. “Our amendment would protect military families’ right to make their own decisions and access sometimes lifesaving care for their children.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed publicly and behind the scenes for the provision to be added into the defense spending bill, which was negotiated by senior House and Senate leaders from both parties. In a statement following the House vote last week, Johnson said the legislation prioritizes “military lethality, not radical woke ideology. This legislation permanently bans transgender treatment for minors, prohibits critical race theory in military academies, ends the DEI bureaucracy, and combats antisemitism.”

[...] If the amendment remains in the NDAA, it would mark one of the first times Congress passed a federal statute directed at trans people. President Joe Biden will either sign or veto the bill if it passes the Senate, which is scheduled to vote on it this week before leaving Washington for the rest of the year; the NDAA must pass before Jan. 1.

[...] The amendment to remove the trans health provision from the defense bill will be co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Cory Booker and Andy Kim of New Jersey, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Patty Murray of Washington, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, according to a statement from Baldwin’s office.

Good news: 14 Democratic Senators, led by Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), seek to introduce an amendment to strike out the anti-trans provision banning gender-affirming care for trans children of military service members on Tricare from the NDAA.

[dertaglichedan]

America’s Largest And Most Expensive DEI Program Is About To Go Up In Flames

The University of Michigan’s (UM) multi-million dollar diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program may soon be dismantled.

The university’s board of regents has reportedly asked UM president Santa Ono “to defund or restructure” the DEI office amid growing criticism and public pressure, according to emails shared on X. The board is expected to vote on the matter on Dec. 5.

“I write to share information with you about impending threats to the University of Michigan’s DEI programming and core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Rebekah Modrak, faculty senate chair, wrote in an email to faculty senate members. “It has been confirmed by multiple sources that the Regents met earlier this month in a private meeting with a small subgroup of central leadership members, and among the topics discussed was the future of DEI at UM, including the possibility of defunding DEI in the next fiscal year.”

NEW: The University of Michigan Board of Regents has asked its president for a plan “to defund or restructure” the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion—according to the UM faculty senate chair. In an email, the chair says the board could vote on the plan early next month! pic.twitter.com/zucRYBzWpM — John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) November 21, 2024

Calls for the university’s DEI program to come to a close surfaced after The New York Times exposed its failures and the vast amount of money being thrown at it.

“In recent years, as D.E.I. programs came under withering attack, Michigan has only doubled down on D.E.I., holding itself out as a model for other schools,” the NYT wrote in an October article. “By one estimate, the university has built the largest D.E.I. bureaucracy of any big public university. But an examination by The Times found that Michigan’s expansive — and expensive — D.E.I. program has struggled to achieve its central goals even as it set off a cascade of unintended consequences.”

Despite UM investing $250 million into DEI since 2016, students and faculty have reported a deteriorating campus climate since the program began and are less likely to interact with people of a different race, religion or political ideology, though these are “the exact kind of engagement[s] D.E.I. programs, in theory, are meant to foster,” the article stated. Attempts to create a more diverse campus also fell flat, with black enrollment at the university remaining a steady 5%.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

That's great, but how does this work when federal contractors and universities with massive federal grant dollars are still following a racialist and, in some cases, racist agenda? Trump's executive order, as it turns out, is much more than an attack on DEI in government; it is a declaration of war against DEI anywhere. Federal contractors must certify they do not adhere to DEI as a condition of holding contracts. (iv)   The head of each agency shall include in every contract or grant award: (A)  A term requiring the contractual counterparty or grant recipient to agree that its compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the government’s payment decisions for purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code; and (B)  A term requiring such counterparty or recipient to certify that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws. Further into the executive order, you find this assignment given to the federal bureaucracy. (b) To further inform and advise me so that my Administration may formulate appropriate and effective civil-rights policy, the Attorney General, within 120 days of this order, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies and in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall submit a report to the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy containing recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI. The report shall contain a proposed strategic enforcement plan identifying:

(i)    Key sectors of concern within each agency’s jurisdiction; (ii)   The most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector of concern; (iii)  A plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or principles (whether specifically denominated “DEI” or otherwise) that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences.  As a part of this plan, each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars; (iv)   Other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and preferences and comply with all Federal civil-rights laws; (v)    Litigation that would be potentially appropriate for Federal lawsuits, intervention, or statements of interest; and (vi)   Potential regulatory action and sub-regulatory guidance.

Read that carefully. Trump anticipates targeting DEI for civil rights violations. He also requires "each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars." When you consider the number of federal agencies, this is nothing less than an all-out effort to eradicate DEI. Couple this with a changed legal environment (Affirmative Action Has a Very Rough, No Good Day at the Supreme Court – RedState), and there is a real possibility that businesses, universities, and non-profits will have to choose between DEI and federal funds.

About damn time.