#Trump falsely blames DEI

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Eight minute YouTube video discusses Trump blaming DEI and then Nicole Wallace lists Trump’s actions leading up to the crash. Wallace also discusses Elon Musk’s spiteful role and Charlie Kirk’s racist role. Recommended.

👆👆👆

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Rolling Stone story:

A series of powerful wildfires has turned large swaths of Los Angeles into smoldering ruins. As first responders attempt to control the blazes, heavy winds are quite literally fanning the flames —��to the point that the fires have now been ravaging the city for days. There is a clear link between climate change and the severity of recent wildfires. Climate-denying conservatives are instead blaming the devastation on California’s “woke” politics.

“DEI means people DIE,” Elon Musk wrote Wednesday on X in response to a video of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley discussing how she wants to diversify the department.

Musk also responded “True” to a post from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones about the fires being “part of a larger globalist plot to wage economic warfare and deindustrialize the United States before triggering total collapse” — and then later deleted his response.

Musk has not deleted his promotion of several other posts blaming the destruction on diversity initiatives. “Los Angeles deliberately set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters, and now they don’t have enough firefighters to prevent their city from burning to the ground,” wrote right-wing commentator Matt Walsh in one post endorsed by Musk. “DEI is a cancer that destroys everything it touches.”

Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly accused Fire Chief Crowley and Mayor Karen Bass of prioritizing “DEI” over the city’s fire management capabilities. “In recent years, L.A.’s fire chief has made not filling the fire hydrants top priority, but diversity,” Kelly raged on Wednesday. “Who gives a shit if the fire chief is gay. I’m sorry, but who gives a flying fig about who she likes to sleep with, can you fight the fucking fires, madam? That’s the relevant question.” 

There’s no evidence that the fire department’s push for diversity has any affect on its ability to fight fires. It’s also not true that Bass cut the department’s budget by $23 million, another claim that has spread throughout right-wing media.

Conservatives have also been pushing the false idea California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s water policies have prevented the city’s ability to fight the fires. Trump has long been bashing Newsom over the policies, and has blamed him directly for the fires this week. “One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” the president-elect wrote today. “It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”

On Fox News, host Jesse Watters decided to blame Native Americans for the devastation, as well, claiming that Newsom has “been tearing down dams” because “Indians wanted some of the river back so they could catch salmon. Gavin didn’t just knock down one dam for the Indians, he knocked down all four.” 

“And these dams were a go-to source for firefighters to pull water from to fight fires up north. Gavin’s literally tearing down Western civilization for fish and Indians,” Watters said, repeating the claim in another segment aired on Wednesday.

The fires currently destroying Los Angeles — as well as the fires that have increasingly been devastating the West Coast in recent years — are the result of hot, dry conditions caused by climate change. These conditions are inevitably going to lead to natural disasters that are going to overwhelm any infrastructure, regardless of the race and gender of the people running it. It’s an inconvenient truth for conservatives, who would rather point their fingers at minorities than acknowledge the reality of the climate crisis.

[sanerontheinside]

On the basis of my own comment, "I fully missed this because I cannot handle the news except in ‘weekly postmortem’ format", I've decided to do a write-up of everything I've been reading about the crash over Washington, D.C.

If this isn't the sort of posting you'd like to see from me in the future, please feel free to block "#the post mortem". I'm not sure how many of these I have in me, but if I ever find myself struck by the fancy to do another, that is the tag I will be using.

I'd also like to thank Canary (canary_lux on Discord) for help gathering, scanning, and organizing sources, and for their insight on flight training.

Throughout this write-up, I will refer to the current president by number of term (45 or 47), mostly to differentiate policies enacted during his first term from the present.

Intro

On the night of Wednesday, 1/29/25, 67 people died in a collision between an American Airlines passenger aircraft and a military Blackhawk helicopter. This tragedy was immediately followed by outcry and the usual hunt for someone to hold accountable. This was also the first fatal air crash involving a US airline since 2009—a 16-year safety record.

While it’s tempting to assign blame to various politicians, parties, and policies for the accident—and in fact many do (FAA blames trump, trump blames DEI, FAA, Biden in particular and democrats in general, etc.)—sole political ownership cannot be assigned. The initial outcry drew attention to a hiring freeze for air traffic controllers, and to curt dismissal of FAA personnel, but the problem has been brewing for far longer.

This post mortem seeks to provide some context for the incident at Reagan National Airport by looking back at policies of the last two presidential terms, as well as the reality of local air traffic in Washington, D.C.

.

The Shortage

Before addressing the current shortage of air traffic controllers, it is important to note that since the accident all reports indicate the air traffic controller on duty that night gave proper instructions.

Both planes and military aircraft are equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), but this system is suppressed at low altitudes because of the high likelihood of false alerts. At last reporting, the Blackhawk was at an altitude of 375 ft. For helicopters, the permitted flight ceiling over Washington, D.C. is 200ft.

With that established, however, there is still value in drawing attention to the national shortage of air traffic controllers (henceforward ATC's).

In 2021, the US Bureau of Statistics ranked air traffic control as the 4th most stressful job among all. The position has a high employee turnover rate due to transfers, resignations, removals, deaths, and attrition. An ATC's skills are unique, and costly to replace both in money and time, as candidates go through 2-3 years of training and must pass a rigorous exam.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, lockdowns drove down the volume of daily flights, putting many air traffic controllers out of a job. Agencies worldwide let go of trainees, stopped hiring, and stopped training new hires. In many cases, academies closed outright. Many air traffic controllers were offered early retirement.

Once travel restrictions were lifted, demand bounced back—and the aviation industry suddenly faced a bottleneck. A 2 or 3 year one, in fact. Flights haven't really bounced back perfectly since the pandemic; many airports experience serious delays—not least because they don't have enough ATC's.

In June 2023, the DoT inspector general reported that 77% of air traffic control facilities were understaffed. In December 2023, after a series of high profile near-misses, the FAA named a panel of experts to address air traffic controller fatigue. Reuters reported that air traffic controllers work mandatory overtime and 6-day weeks.

The FAA's response to these findings was to appoint a three-member panel to "examine how the latest science on sleep needs and fatigue considerations could be applied to controller work requirements and scheduling" until more personnel could be hired. Furthermore, the FAA Reauthorisation Act of 2024 expanded air traffic controller training capacity and required the FAA to update the training process.

Unfortunately, the near-misses and flight delays are likely to continue under recent policy changes.

.

The Policy of 45

The main reason for addressing the shortage itself at the top of this write-up is that a lot of early outcry held the 47th President's recent hiring freezes, cuts, and firings responsible for the accident.

Context is critical. Obviously, trump’s hiring freeze in no way helps this issue, and neither does the dismissal of people in leadership positions. Even the panel he dismissed was the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which is geared towards TSA operations moreso than air traffic control.

But on the ground, it's probably his policies as 45 that did the most lasting damage.

In 2018, the proposed budget cut funds to the DoT by 13%, or $2.4 billion. The proposal eliminated funding for the Essential Air Service, a program that guaranteed continued commercial air service to small communities in the US which would not otherwise be profitable. Air traffic control would also be privatized under the proposal.

This 2018 post by Democracy Forward provides a good summary of 45's policies. (It's also an interesting read if you've been following the recent changes in regulation of airline fees. In brief, the struggle to regulate fees and accessibility has been ongoing since before 2013, and trump's policies are unsurprisingly airline company-friendly.)

By contrast, in 2021 the proposed budget for the FAA included $11.4 billion (increase of $432 million from FY21) to oversee the safety of civil aviation, and to provide for the operation, maintenance, communications, and logistical support of the air traffic control and air navigation systems. There were additional requests totalling over $8 billion to improve airfield infrastructure and grants for Aviation Workforce Development programs.

The final 2021 budget, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, passed with $15 billion for airlines and airline contractors for a third extension of Payroll Support Program which would otherwise have expired at the end of March 2021. The extension prevented the furlough of more than 27,000 aviation employees. There was an additional $8 billion for U.S. airports.

As a result of 45's budget cuts, the FAA was forced to lay off many people. “He slashed our budget and a lot of people, including myself, were laid off. So, we’re just waiting to see what programs will continue,” a longtime FAA contractor, rehired under the Biden administration, told What A Day.

Former House Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Peter DeFazio also notes, "The unnecessary government shutdown [in 2019] shut down the Aviation Academy, and a number of people did not come back after the academy closed down." He cites this as a crucial interruption that was then followed by a yearlong closure due to the lockdown.

.

Congested Airspace

In his interview with Politico, DeFazio puts Congress front and center: "Every senator in particular wants a nonstop flight to and from wherever they live. As you saw, [Kansas Sen.] Jerry Moran said this was a flight which he had encouraged or otherwise supported. The last FAA bill, [Texas Sen.] Ted Cruz said he needed a direct flight to [San Antonio], so he engaged in a lengthy battle."

The bill referenced here is S. 1939, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which contained many positive items. This was the bill that required air carriers to provide a full refund for a cancelled or significantly delayed flight; it expanded air traffic controller training capacity and required the FAA to update the training process.

This bill also increased the number of daily round-trip flights allowed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), despite protests from the airport authority. (Though it should be noted that the new flights added to the airport's schedule by this bill have not yet been fully implemented.)

DeFazio has words for the military, as well: "And it’s one thing, when there’s an urgent need or a security issue, to move people by military helicopter to the White House or from one base to another in the D.C. area. It’s another to do it for convenience for generals and “very important people” who don’t want to sit in traffic. […] for training, they should be doing that in the hours when there are way fewer flights coming into National Airport."

The flight rules over Washington, D.C. are very complex, developed to manage civilian, military, and government traffic. It is simultaneously the most restricted and the most congested airspace in the country. Pilots have been complaining about the complexity of flight rules for years.

This stretch of the Potomac in particular is designated a Special Flight Restricted Area. In the words of Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), "You don't get to fly in that without additional flight training." All crew members aboard the Blackhawk were experienced, having logged 500-1000 hours. Transcripts of the air traffic control instructions and responses from the pilots in the minutes before the accident show that the Blackhawk crew twice confirmed visual of the plane with the ATC, including approximately 25 seconds before impact.

But in multiple stories published since the crash, there are quotes from pilots who had similar experiences in that area, and recall near-misses with passenger aircraft coming in to the same runway. One retired Army National Guard helicopter pilot recalls that he lost sight of the jet in the city lights and descended to an altitude of 50 feet to avoid collision with an unseen flight. There are at least two reports of near-misses under very similar conditions from 2013 and 2015.

.

The Post Mortem

The President's flurry of executive orders, hiring and funding freezes, have dominated the news cycle for the last 12 days. There isn't currently evidence to support that various budget and staffing cuts, including those attempted by 47 two days before the accident, directly contributed to the incident on January 29th.

However, cutting personnel, funding, and abolishing positions once vacated will increase the risk of accidents going forward. Many US government services have not recovered from the combination of 45's policies and effects of the pandemic. They are presently in a state where funding and personnel cuts will result in direct consequences to the American people, and likely very quickly.

As for the Washington, D.C. crash itself, it is indeed a tragic loss of life. In all likelihood, it could have been prevented by appropriate response to prior near-misses, addressing concerns voiced by pilots and professionals, or perhaps a less entitled Senate.

.

Sources

https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20250120173159/https://simpleflying.com/us-atc-shortage-analysis/

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/panel-review-us-air-traffic-controller-fatigue-after-near-miss-incidents-2023-12-20/

https://www.tumblr.com/gunsandfireandshit/774138773393063936?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/huffy-the-bicycle-slayer/774137554059575296?source=share

https://democracyforward.org/work/sidebar-airlines-and-the-trump-administration/ (published 2018, edited 2022)

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/31/defazio-plane-crash-blame-00201767

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_federal_budget

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Rescue_Plan_Act_of_2021

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-pros-cons-privatizing-air-traffic.html

https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/asac-charter-september-2022.pdf

https://www.wdsu.com/article/pilots-worried-dc-airspace-crash/63626297

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/experts-ask-why-black-hawk-helicopter-may-have-been-flying-above-allowed-altitude/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tammy-duckworth-american-airlines-crash/

https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1910&context=jaaer

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Los Angeles Firestorm - II

January 10, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

My family and I remain safe in Los Angeles, although the apocalyptic feel is growing. New fires continue to erupt in the foothills with alarming regularity. Air quality is unhealthy everywhere. Billowing plumes blot the sun. Though the winds have slowed, the scale and number of the existing fires have stretched emergency services to the breaking point. Schools are closed, so traffic is eerily light. New evacuation orders are issued hourly. Power outages have stretched into their third day.

Although the winds are abating, the storm of disinformation is growing—fanned by the President-elect and his billionaire handler. For those dealing with the loss of homes, injuries, dislocation, and fear, disinformation adds insult to injury. Sadly, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, and a recent candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, billionaire developer Rick Caruso, have contributed to the wave of disinformation.

Firefighters are having success in knocking down new fires, but three established fires (Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst) remain largely uncontained. Although the winds have moderated, even moderate winds can spread existing fires with surprising speed. Embers can land a mile ahead of an existing fire, creating new emergencies every minute.

President Biden held a cabinet-level meeting on live television to discuss the federal response to the fire. Biden refuted the silly and ignorant claim by the Trump-Musk axis of disinformation that Los Angeles has “run out of water.” False. Although firefighters are experiencing low or no pressure in some hydrants, that situation is caused by power outages that have disabled pumps that help create pressure in pipes (by filling elevated water storage tanks).

It is also false that Los Angeles cut the budget for its fire department last year. That falsehood was given flight by Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer, who recently ran for mayor of Los Angeles. During a Fox News interview, Caruso apparently referred to a preliminary budget that did not include all funds that were anticipated to be allocated to the fire department. That misinformation was repeated by the owner of the Los Angeles Times.

Caruso, who runs pristine and wildly successful shopping developments in the City of Angels, likened his hometown to a “third-world country.” It is fortunate that Los Angelenos did not elect Rick Caruso as their mayor, given his willingness to trash the city at the first opportunity.

The truth is that the final budget increased the LA Fire Department budget by $50 million (to approximately $870 million). See MSN, Widespread Online Claims Proven False as Report Shows LA Fire Department Budget Actually Increased by $50 Million Last Year. Online sources that claim otherwise are ignoring the increase in firefighter salaries granted in a separate union contract—funds that were not included in the proposed “budget” but are included in the actual allocation of funds to the fire department.

Trump, Musk, and their followers continue to claim that efforts to diversify LA’s almost exclusively male fire department are to blame for the catastrophic losses. LAFD met its racial diversity goals two decades ago; the current diversity efforts relate to increasing the number of women on the force.

In 2022, women accounted for only 4% of LAFD’s workforce, and former Mayor Eric Garcetti started an initiative to increase that percentage. So, when Trump and Musk complain about “diversity,” they are describing efforts to include more women in a workforce that is 96% male. See HuffPo, Trump Calls On Newsom To Resign; Republicans Blame DEI For Inability To Contain Wildfires.

Personal anecdotes are rarely helpful in settling disputes over policy, history, or contested facts. But as a native Angeleno, I can say that after 68 years in Los Angeles, the windstorm on January 7 and 8 was the first time in my life that I was worried by the force of the winds. It felt like a hurricane and sounded like an earthquake as the winds thrummed our rooftop. Imagine trying to control a brushfire in the face of such winds. The notion that attempting to expand the number of women employed by the LAFD is responsible for the losses is insulting to women, to firefighters, and to all Angelenos.

For a brief period on Thursday, the historic observatory atop Mount Wilson was threatened by the flames—which advanced to the boundaries of the facility. But the 100-inch Hooker Telescope was spared. That is the telescope used by Edwin Hubble to determine that the universe extends beyond our own Milky Way Galaxy and that the universe is expanding. See photo below of the 100” Hooker Telescope.

Los Angeles has many tough and heartbreaking days ahead. I continue to hear from readers and friends who have lost their homes or have family members who have lost their homes. Many readers have asked for advice about contributing to recovery efforts. I suggest waiting a few days. Los Angeles is still trying to control the fires, and relief efforts have not begun in earnest. Please exercise caution to ensure that any organization you recommend to others is legitimate and will deliver the donations to those who need them.

Stay safe and take care of friends, family, and complete strangers!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

Below is a picture of the Hooker 100-inch Telescope, used by Edwin Hubble to determine that the universe expands beyond the Milky Way and that the universe is expanding. The Hooker Telescope sits atop Mount Wilson and was briefly threatened by the Eaton Fire on Thursday.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Paige Skinner at HuffPost:

Vice President JD Vance backed up President Donald Trump’s claim that diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies led to Wednesday’s plane crash in Washington, D.C., telling Fox News that white people have been discouraged from applying to be air traffic controllers because of what he referred to as the “DEI regime.” On “Sunday Morning Futures,” Vance argued that the “DEI policies” of the Biden and Obama administrations “contributed to where we are.” “We have a massive shortage of air traffic controllers. And in fact, there have been a number of lawsuits from people who would like to become air traffic controllers against the Obama and Biden administrations, who basically said, ‘We were told not even to apply because of the color of our skin,’ because they were white people who wanted to be air traffic controllers,” Vance said. “And under the DEI regime of the Biden administration, they weren’t welcome.” Vance then brought up his time with the Senate Commerce Committee, where he said, ”We knew for years that we had a shortage at air traffic control.”

Appearing on Fox Noise’s Sunday Morning Futures yesterday, VP JD Vance gave credence to Donald Trump’s false and racist claim that “DEI” policies caused the DC midair collision.

From the 02.02.2025 edition of FNC's Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo:

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Trump blames workers as military operations lead to deadly air crash

By Gary Wilson

At a White House briefing, Trump blamed “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies — a baseless and bigoted claim. Vice President J.D. Vance went even further, falsely suggesting that qualified white air traffic controllers had been denied jobs due to affirmative action policies.

These statements are pure racism and bigotry, meant to be divisive and divert attention from the real issues. The actual cause of the tragedy was the combination of military flights, air traffic controller understaffing, and government inaction on safety concerns.

[meret118]

"I think we have to say first and foremost that there is zero evidence whatsoever that anything to do with the FAA's efforts to hire people of diverse backgrounds, people with disabilities, had anything to do with this tragedy.

. . .

First of all, at that press conference, president Trump read out a sentence from the Biden-era FAA website about the FAA's desire to hire people with so-called targeted disabilities. Those are significant disabilities like psychiatric and intellectual issues, paralysis, missing extremities, and so on. What he did not mention was that that exact language was on the FAA website under president Trump the entirety of his own administration. We grabbed a screenshot from December 2020 late in his first term, so this was not something Biden invented. In fact, it's been on that website at least since 2013."

. . .

"No. 2, this was not just language on a Trump-era website," Dale added. "In fact, in 2019, under president Trump, the FAA launched a pilot program specifically to hire people with these so-called targeted disabilities – intellectual, psychiatric, etc, in air traffic control roles, so they emphasized at the time, these people would have to meet all criteria in terms of medical criteria, qualifications, security criteria. But regardless, this was not something the Biden administration invented, as he suggested."

For years, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority warned Congress that the region’s airports were at capacity, DeFazio said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine. But their pleas for restraint fell short among lawmakers, who voted to add more flights to an airport already struggling with its heavy load and a shortage of air traffic controllers caused by previous government shutdowns and pandemic-era hits to its workforce.

“Every senator in particular wants a nonstop flight to and from wherever they live,” said DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat.

. . .

This is an incredibly congested airspace. First off, if the military wants to run training missions, they could run them between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when Washington National has noise reductions in place and traffic is dramatically reduced. I don’t see any reason to be running training missions during peak hours.

. . .

Secondly, it’s unbelievable that the president of the United States and three of his minions — Secretary [Sean] Duffy, Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, and Vice President [JD] Vance — immediately blamed DEI. I mean, let’s be real here. All air traffic controllers go through the same training. They have to pass the same unbelievably rigorous test. It’s a very, very stressful job.

Disability employment law, she says, requires "that the person with a disability must be able to perform the essential functions of the job."

. . .

"To scapegoat people with disabilities for this tragedy just seems inconsistent with the facts," Katy Neas, chief executive officer of The Arc of the United States, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, told NPR.

"It's very sad that this stigma against people with disabilities continues to be used as a reason why qualified people can't be hired."

[gwydionmisha]

This is so disgusting.

Yet neither Obama nor Biden deliberately gutted the FAA. 47 did.

[stevishabitat]

Baltimore bridge collapse: The decline of Twitter as measured by disasters - Vox

https://www.vox.com/technology/24113765/twitter-x-misinformation-baltimore-bridge-collapse

The same conspiracy-theory-peddling personalities who spammed X with posts claiming that Tuesday’s Baltimore bridge collapse was a deliberate attack have also called mass shootings “false flag” events and denied basic facts about the Covid-19 pandemic. A Florida Republican running for Congress blamed “DEI” for the bridge collapse as racist comments about immigration and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott circulated among the far right. These comments echo Trump in 2019, who called Baltimore a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” and, in 2015, blamed President Obama for the unrest in the city.

As conspiracy theorists compete for attention in the wake of a tragedy, others seek engagement through dubious expertise, juicy speculation, or stolen video clips. The boundary between conspiracy theory and engagement bait is permeable; unfounded and provoking posts often outpace the trickle of verified information that follows any sort of major breaking news event. Then, the conspiracy theories become content, and a lot of people marvel and express outrage that they exist. Then they kind of forget about the raging river of Bad Internet until the next national tragedy.

I’ve seen it so many times. I became a breaking news reporter in 2012, which means that in internet years, I have the experience of an almost ancient entity. The collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge into the Patapsco River, though, felt a little different from most of these moments for me, for two reasons.

First, it was happening after a few big shifts in what the internet even is, as Twitter, once a go-to space for following breaking news events, became an Elon Musk-owned factory for verified accounts with bad ideas, while generative AI tools have superpowered grifters wanting to make plausible text and visual fabrications. And second, I live in Baltimore. People I know commute on that bridge, which forms part of the city’s Beltway. Some of the workers who fell, now presumed dead, lived in a neighborhood across the park from me.

The local cost of global misinformation

On Tuesday evening, I called Lisa Snowden, the editor-in-chief of the Baltimore Beat — the city’s Black-owned alt-weekly — and an influential presence in Baltimore’s still pretty active X community. I wanted to talk about how following breaking news online has changed over time.

Snowden was up during the early morning hours when the bridge collapsed. Baltimore’s X presence is small enough that journalists like her generally know who the other journalists are working in the city, especially those reporting on Baltimore itself. Almost as soon as news broke about the bridge, though, she saw accounts she’d never heard of before speaking with authority about what had happened, sharing unsourced video, and speculating about the cause.

Over the next several hours, the misinformation and racism about Baltimore snowballed on X. For Snowden, this felt a bit like an invasion into a community that had so far survived the slow death of what was once Twitter by simply staying out of the spotlight.

“Baltimore Twitter, it’s usually not as bad,” Snowden said. She sticks to the people she follows. “But today I noticed that was pretty much impossible. It got extremely racist. And I was seeing other folks in Baltimore also being like, ‘This might be what sends me finally off this app.’”

Here are some of the tweets that got attention in the hours after the collapse: Paul Szypula, a MAGA influencer with more than 100,000 followers on X, tweeted “Synergy Marine Group [the company that owned the ship in question] promotes DEI in their company. Did anti-white business practices cause this disaster?” alongside a screenshot of a page on the company’s website that discussed the existence of a diversity and inclusion policy. That tweet got more than 600,000 views. Another far-right influencer speculated that there was some connection between the collapse and, I guess, Barack Obama? I don’t know. The tweet got 5 million views as of mid-day Wednesday. Being online during a tragic event is full of consequential nonsense like this, ideas and conspiracy theories that are inane enough to fall into the fog of Poe’s Law and yet harmful to actual people and painful to see in particular when it’s your community being turned into views. Sure, there are best practices you can follow to try to contribute to a better information ecosystem in these moments. Those practices matter. But for Snowden, the main thing she can do as her newsroom gets to work reporting on the impact of this disaster on the community here is to let time march on. “In a couple days, this terrible racist mob, or whatever it is, is going to be onto something else,” Snowden said. “ Baltimore ... people are still going to need things. Everybody’s still going to be working. So I’m just kind of waiting it out,” she said “But it does hurt.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Nathalie Baptiste at HuffPost:

Less than 24 hours after a midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter left dozens of people dead on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump pointed the finger at the right’s favorite boogeyman: diversity efforts. After briefly offering condolences to the victims’ loved ones, Trump quickly blamed “DEI” — diversity, equity, and inclusion — efforts for the tragedy. The investigation had barely begun, yet Trump falsely claimed that the Obama administration had decided the Federal Aviation Administration was “too white” and subsequently had hired scores of unqualified people of color. When reporters asked him for evidence of his claims, Trump responded, “Because I have common sense.” Since his return to the White House on Jan. 20, Trump has sought to purge government agencies of employees who do diversity work. He fired National Labor Relations Board officials in a move the president of the AFL-CIO labor federation told HuffPost was “illegal.” Trump also fired two Democratic-appointed commissioners at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an agency tasked specifically with combating discrimination at work. And he also revoked a 1965 executive order from Lyndon B. Johnson that banned federal contractors from discriminating based on race, sex, religion and sexual orientation. Trump’s war on the “diverse” hires within the federal workforce will disproportionately affect workers of color. In many cases, “DEI” has become a barely disguised euphemism for Black people. The federal government has long been a reliable source of economic security for Black people and other people of color who have been historically discriminated against in the private sector. Over the last 100 years, the federal government has hired Black people at a higher rate than the public sector. Stable government jobs have been one of the keys to upward mobility for Black families and other workers of color, thanks to the government’s robust anti-discriminatory practices.

[...] Targeting DEI programs is not the only way Trump has been looking to shrink the government. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s policy plan for the administration, calls for drastically reducing headcount at many agencies. [...] There’s evidence that such massive cuts will disproportionately harm workers of color. During government shutdowns, when the federal government ceases operations because Congress could not come to an agreement on funding, Black people and other workers of color frequently bear the brunt of being furloughed.

Bigot 47’s hateful and extreme executive orders targeting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs in the federal workforce coming from the Project 2025 playbook are all about purging people who aren’t cis White male conservatives from the federal government.

See Also:

Let's Address This (Qasim Rashid): Racist President Blames DEIA For Own Incompetence

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sebastian Murdock at HuffPost:

Former President Donald Trump accused Vice President Kamala Harris of happening “to turn Black” while he answered questions at a convention for Black journalists in Chicago on Wednesday. In a Q&A with Rachel Scott, a senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, Trump was asked about recent attacks against Harris by Republicans, who’ve accused her of being a “DEI hire.”

[...] Trump responded by falsely accusing Harris of hiding her Black identity until it was politically beneficial. “I’ve known [Harris] a long time indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. And now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Loud groans and boos could be heard from the audience. “She has always identified as a Black woman,” Scott corrected Trump. “I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t,” he responded. “I think somebody should look into that.” Harris was born in California and is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.

While attending the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention in Chicago today, Donald Trump totally embarrassed himself on the stage, including by making false and racist insinuations about Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s ethnicity and race with his “is she Indian or is she Black?” remark.

For the record, Harris is biracial, meaning that she is BOTH Black and South Asian (Indian).

See Also:

Daily Kos: Trump unleashes his racism on Harris in front of Black journalists

Daily Kos: Trump campaign scrambles to blame Black journalists for Trump’s racism

MMFA: Trump attacked Kamala Harris’ ethnicity while at a conference for Black journalists. Right-wing media have spent years doing the same.

HuffPost: Five Wild Moments From Trump's Trainwreck NABJ Interview

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gideon Taaffe at MMFA:

After the January 29 mid-air collision between a commercial airliner and a military helicopter that left over 60 people dead, President Donald Trump baselessly insinuated that the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring policies could be responsible for the disaster — and right-wing media were quick to follow his lead. Fox News hosts said Trump’s “suspicion” to blame DEI was “fair” and claimed the crash was evidence that “DEI can be dangerous.” This latest example is yet another in a list of tragic incidents when right-wing media has used diversity policies as a boogeyman.

The right-wing media push exploitative lies about DEI to falsely blame diversity initiatives for the DC midair collision.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

Former President Donald Trump thrilled his right-wing media propagandists when he followed them into the gutter on Wednesday with a sustained, racist assault on Vice President Kamala Harris’ identity. But there are obvious perils to running a political strategy that appeals largely to the right’s weirdo-wing during a general election campaign — normal people don’t want to hear that crap. Trump’s interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention came as his campaign has struggled to find its footing since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the likely Democratic presidential nominee. With Trump’s once-formidable polling lead having evaporated, the rollout of his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in shambles, and his supporters casting about for someone to blame, the former president pivoted to racism. Trump, responding to a question about whether he agreed with many of his supporters that Harris is a “DEI hire,” accused Harris of misleading voters about her race. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” he said. “I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black.”

The argument that Harris, who attended a historically Black university and pledged a historically Black sorority, only recently decided to “turn Black” is false and depraved. Indeed, Trump’s 2020 campaign had cited his campaign donations to Harris in 2011 and 2013 as evidence that he was not racist against Black people.  But this wasn’t just a one-off comment, however despicable; it was the launch of a new talking point. Trump doubled down on social media, his campaign projected purported evidence of Trump’s claim at an event Wednesday night, his surrogates went on TV to defend his comments, and Vance — who once described his running mate as potentially “America’s Hitler” — told reporters Trump’s remark was “hysterical” and that the former president “pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris.”

Right-wing media figures have long targeted Harris’ identity, and her ascension to the top of the ticket revived those attacks and spread them to GOP congressional delegations. As House Republican leaders warned their caucus to stay away from attacks about the vice president’s race and gender, some conservative pundits begged Trump and his supporters to keep the focus on policy. Their desperate pleas have not been answered. Trump’s loyal propagandists are delighted that he’s joined them in the sewer. Prominent MAGA influencers like Laura Loomer, Charlie Kirk, and Catturd2 circulated bizarre opposition research that they suggested showed Harris’ racial duplicity. On Fox News, star hosts like Jesse Watters cheered how “Trump told Kamala, ‘you ain't Black’” and thus proved he’s “not afraid of Kamala Harris and is not going to avoid issues.”

Right-wing propagandists are back to their usual tactics of dragging the 2024 Presidential race into the gutters of insult-flinging instead of policy debates, and that’s thanks to Donald Trump throwing the kitchen sink at Kamala Harris with racist and sexist innuendo.

[meret118]

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is raising alarms over what actions Donald Trump will be urged to take in the aftermath of the New Orleans attack that left 14 dead and dozens injured as the country continues to grapple for answers.The warning came Thursday as Republicans – led by Trump – continued to falsely claim that President Joe Biden’s “open border policy” is to blame for authorities missing signs that could have thwarted the attack. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) suggested that diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives also played a role.

“In the coming days, watch for autocracy-fetishizing MAGA figures who call on Trump to use ‘emergency powers’ or ‘domestic war powers’ (i.e. some form of martial law) to confront domestic terrorism,” Murphy told his X followers on Thursday. “They aren't out to destroy terrorists. They're out to destroy the rule of law.”

. . .

“Trump is intentionally lying about the attacker being an immigrant - he wasn’t,” Murphy wrote above a social media post from Trump. “Why does it matter? Because he is going to use episodes of violence to justify his crack down on immigrants and his attack on dissent - whether the facts line up or not.”He added: “This is just the start.”

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I've said all along he'll use the national emergencies act to suspend the rule of law. Everything they disagree with will become illegal.