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affirm 3 DEI diversity equity

new term 2 23

SEE FOUR 1 25

merri ok

see affirmative ACTION

see vp harris attacks

see racism

SEE CRM eg LA wildfires

see kirk clarence

see white grievance

// woke corps, pretty much any fail eg Sil V bank, boeing door blamed

merri ok

see blum students for fair admission

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“Consoler-in-chief”: Fox News panel gushes over press conference during which Trump linked diversity to deadly aircraft collision

01/30/25 12:48 PM EST

  1. ### Fox News praises Trump's presser where he used plane crash to rant about DEI: “Think about how quickly we received tangible answers”

01/30/25 12:44 PM EST

  1. ### CNN aviation correspondent on Trump's plane crash presser: “It is just unhinged that he could even say with any sort of certainty that diversity, equity, and inclusion policies had any part to play”

01/30/25 MMA

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DEI BS basis for budget freeze?

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an 1 25

A group of Republican attorneys general — including Kentucky’s Russell Coleman — is pressuring Costco “to end all unlawful discrimination imposed” by the retailer’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

The 19 attorneys general sent a letter to Costco CEO Ron Vachris this week citing Republican President Donald Trump’s executive order that encouraged “all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”

Writing that Costco “should treat every person equally and based on their merit, rather than based on divisive and discriminatory DEI practices,” the attorneys general asked Vachris to either repeal Costco’s DEI policies or explain why the company is keeping them in place within 30 days.

Costco shareholders recently rejected a proposal from a conservative think tank to examine risks posed by its DEI policies. Nearly 98% ofshareholders voted against the measure. Costco’s board had recommended rejection of the proposal.

At the Jan. 24 shareholders meeting, Costco board chair Tony E Curtis said the company’s commitment to inclusion “does not and has never included quotas or systematic preferences, nor does it mean compromising merit. The demands of our business and our steadfast commitment to serve our members mean that we cannot afford to do anything but hire and promote the most qualified individuals.”

Costco has not publicly responded to the letter. A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Kentucky AG Coleman said in a statement, “Costco has a motto to ‘Do the right thing,’ but their DEI business practices are all wrong. By pushing a DEI agenda, Costco is out-of-step with the Kentuckians who just want affordable prices.”

Costco hasfour storesin Kentucky, according to its website.

Nationwide, some companies are rethinking their commitment to DEI, while others are standing by their diversity practices. Brands like Walmart and Meta have rolled back DEI policies while tech giants Microsoft and Apple reaffirmed their policies within the last week. Last year, Kentucky-based whiskey makerBrown-Forman suspended its DEI policies.

DEI policies are often aimed at removing bias and promoting fairness in areas like employment and education.

Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron crusaded with other Republican attorneys general to curb DEI in the private sector, including issuing a letter to Fortune 100 CEOs calling on them to use “race-neutral principles in your employment and contracting practices” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of affirmative action in higher education.

After losing a race for Kentucky governor in 2023, Cameron became CEO of the 1792 Exchange, a group that aims to “steer public companies back to neutral on divisive, ideological issues.”

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recently defended private sector decisions to maintain DEI policies. If companies think encouraging a diverse workforce helps them, Beshear said, “the state that you’re working with should support you.”

Read the letter below

FINAL Costco Lettet (1)

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

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SEE MERITOCRACY BS from trust fund nepo babies

AN 1 25

Trump issued an abundance of executive orders after returning to the White House, some of which aggressively attack DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs in the federal government. This marks a major reversal from the Biden Administration, which ended when Trump was inaugurated on Monday, January 20.

Two days later, according to NBC News' Megan Lebowitz, federal government employees received an e-mail "warning that they could face repercussions if they do not report on co-workers who work in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility positions that might have gone unnoticed by government supervisors."

A January 22 e-mail, Lebowitz reports, read, "We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language."

READ MORE:'It's a free country' — but some White House staffers are facing these new rules: report

Government employees were also warned, "There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences."

Meanwhile, reporting from Washington Post journalists Julian Mark, Taylor Telford and Susan Svrluga details the extent the Trump Administration is going to in its anti-DEI, anti-affirmative action efforts.

"The flurry of executive orders was meant to put a hard stop to diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) throughout the federal government," the Post reporters explain in an article published on January 23. "The (Trump) Administration ordered U.S.-run diversity offices to close and scores of their workers to be put on administrative leave by Wednesday. It also suspended dozens of contracting programs aimed at minorities and women, some of which have been operating for decades."

Mark, Telford and Svrluga continue, "But the orders go far beyond the federal government. Trump also directed agencies to draw up lists of public companies to investigate over their DEI policies — a move that legal experts said could send chills through the private sector."

READ MORE:'I don’t care': Trump ripped for ignoring economy to rant about Biden during Hannity interview

The Post journalists note that that Trump even revoked a 60-year-old executive order from the late President Lyndon B. Johnson.

In 1965, LBJ directed federal contractors to take "affirmative action" to end discrimination in their firms.

Noah Feldman, who teaches constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School in Massachusetts, told the Post, "The Trump Administration is trying to give the death blow to diversity in legal and in political cultural terms."

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aha DEI is useful BS reductionistic explanation for a various more comlpex and various and inconvenient ideologically problems? go to BS for blue state problem

mma 1 25 deflection?

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro responds to New Orleans attack by calling the police chief “a DEI hire”

01/03/25

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TRUMP IANAUG // AM CARNAGE, MERITOCRACY

an 1 25

The World Economic Forum begins its 54th annual confab of CEOs and billionaires this week in Davos, Switzerland. Among its attendees are some who attended Trump’s inauguration yesterday to kiss his derriere, and then promptly private-jetted to the Swiss Alps.

Since its inception, the Davos confab has justified itself — and thereby sought to justify global corporate capitalism — by embracing “corporate social responsibility.”

The basic idea is that big global corporations can — and should — be good for everyone. Sure, they may make a few CEOs and big shareholders fabulously wealthy. But they can and should also protect the planet and spread their financial gains.

Hence, Davos attendees’ annual commitments, in myriad sessions and presentations, to “ESG” (environmental, social, and governance — that is, sustainability), “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and global and social responsibility in general.

In recent years, Davos has become a choice venue for splashy corporate announcements of such commitments.

In 2020, Marc Benioff of Salesforce issued a goal to plant a trillion trees. The same year, Larry Fink of BlackRock (which manages more than $10 trillion in investments) announced a series of initiatives to invest in ways that better protect the environment. The CEOs of JPMorganChase and Goldman Sachs trumpeted their Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

Other corporate poobahs have used the venue to make grand promises to share profits with their workers, their communities, and the less fortunate around the world. Jamie Dimon, then head of the Business Roundtable, touted his and the Roundtable’s pledges to their workers, their neighborhoods, and the nation as a whole.

But wait. These are exactly the goals Trump and MAGA have railed against, calling them “woke” capitalism.

Now that CEOs of the largest corporations in the world are demonstrating cringe-worthy cowardice when it comes to all things Trump, what’s to become of corporate social responsibility?

Presto! Davos has gone through an ideological cleansing. This time, few if any sessions will be devoted to ESG or DEI. The perennial theme of “corporate social responsibility” has almost vanished.

The CEOs who used to trumpet their corporate social responsibility won’t be doing so this year. (BlackRock’s Fink has already expressed regret over becoming the face of ESG). JPMorganChase and Goldman Sachs have departed their Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

Instead, after years of calling for “responsible” global corporate capitalism, the CEOs gathering in Davos are now openly focusing on their bottom lines.

In other words, the jig is up. The pretense is over. The blather about corporate social responsibility is revealed for what it really is and always has been — PR designed to make the public believe that big global corporations care about anything other than making as much money as possible, as soon as possible.

I, for one, think this is a good thing.

All the artifice about corporate responsibility, echoed year after year at Davos and by the Business Roundtable and in business schools, gave lawmakers who wanted one an excuse to sit on their hands, because, they’d say, big global corporations can be trusted to do what’s right.

The truth is, they can’t. They never could. They won’t sacrifice shareholder returns to tackling climate change or social injustice.

Anyway, these are jobs for governments responsible to the people, not for corporations responsible to shareholders.

The Trump regime won’t do a damned thing about these problems, of course. If anything, it will take us and much of the world backward. (Trump is expected to appear at Davos via videoconference, and god knows what he’ll say.)

But at least we will know where the blame lies. And we will have the chance in future years — I fervently hope — to elect governments that tackle them head-on.

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rww 1 25

jack Hibbs Says The Founding Fathers Would Hang LA Mayor Karen Bass Christian nationalist pastor Jack Hibbs says that the Founding Fathers would hang Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for dereliction of duty over the wildfires.

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omg // maui fire BS? MMA

Greg Gutfeld calls DEI “a death sentence”

01/13/25 6:23 PM EST

  1. ### Fox News' Jeanine Pirro questions whether or not California deserves federal disaster relief money

01/13/25 5:57 PM EST

  1. ### Angelo Carusone tells MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin the right-wing playbook for LA wildfires and other crises

01/12/25 1:01 PM EST

01/12/25 12:08 PM EST

  1. ### Jesse Watters: “Martial law might have to be declared” in California

01/10/25 9:10 PM EST

  1. ### Greg Gutfeld justifies smearing qualified minorities as a “DEI hire”

01/10/25

  1. ### Jesse Watters says “there’s a good chance the homeless started” the California fires

01/09/25 6:21 PM EST

  1. ### On CNN, Rep. Jasmine Crockett pushes back on baseless right-wing media claims that DEI has hindered the LAFD wildfire response

01/09/25 1:46 PM EST

  1. ### Charlie Kirk says Donald Trump should threaten to withhold federal assistance to California

01/09/25 1:10 PM EST

  1. ### Charlie Kirk says California Democrats are “living in the tragedy of your own making”

01/09/25 1:06 PM EST

  1. ### Charlie Kirk: “I sure hope that Pam Bondi and President Trump open a **robust criminal investigation into Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bass”

01/09/25 12:36 PM EST

  1. ### Right-wing media figures baselessly claim LA wildfires are burning out of control because the fire chief is an LGBTQ woman who supports DEI

01/09/25

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GREG KELLY SILVER LINING

MMA

January 8, 2025, edition of Newsmax'sGreg Kelly Reports

There are a couple of silver linings here. I hate to say it, but what this fire means is Gavin Newsom, for sure, is finished in politics. The scheming, the conniving, the obsession with image. We can all see it. And it's — America is never buying this guy.

And Mayor Bass. I don't think she can hold on to the job for much longer. You know, when you're the mayor of a big city, why would you ever leave that city? Why would you ever go anywhere else? I mean, if you want to go, you're in California. I don't know, go to Catalina Island or something if you really want to get away from it all. But she went to Africa. She went to Ghana. And when this fire broke out, that's where she was. What in the world would you be doing over there? I think she regrets it now. Looks like a reporter caught up with her shortly after she returned, and she had very little to say about the situation.

...

KELLY: Yikes. She actually seems like she might be genuinely ashamed. She's not talking about pro-choice values or the community thing, and the Latinos and the Black. Just, all that gibberish that got her elected, it's useless now. That fire is still raging. Still not contained.

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an 12 24

Milwaukee State Rep. Ryan Clancy readily admits he was the odd one out last week at a Washington, D.C., meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC, a nonprofit that brings together state lawmakers and corporations and drafts model legislation, describes its point of view as “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” It has produced state policies embraced almost solely by Republicans — drafted with input from corporate members of the organization.

Clancy is neither a Republican politician nor a corporate official. “To the best of my knowledge, I would be the only Democrat — and almost certainly the only socialist” at the States & Nation Policy Summit ALEC held Tuesday through Thursday, Clancy said in an interview. But as a state legislator, he was technically welcome at the event.

On the last day, however, Clancy was summarily kicked out and told his registration would be withdrawn and the fee refunded. While declining to explain how, an ALEC spokesman said Clancy was being “disruptive” — something Clancy categorically denies.

Attending an ALEC event was important to him, said Clancy, who is just wrapping up his first term in the Assembly after being elected in 2022. He wanted to see the process by which ALEC drafts model legislation and distributes bill proposals through its member lawmakers to statehouses around the country.

Clancy said that in his first term in Madison he has seen a lot of legislation circulate that originated in ALEC proposals. Those included more than a dozen bills putting restrictions on trans and nonbinary people, such as preventing gender affirming medical care for people under 18, he said.

“My oldest child is trans,” Clancy said in an interview. “It was just horrific to have to bring together the community to push back on those. But it was also good to know about them in advance.”

Clancy said the anti-trans legislation points to priorities that he believes ALEC has beyond the talking points it makes about individual liberty, free markets and limited government.

“Even more economic-seeming policy discussions were often peppered with anti-trans and anti-DEI comments behind the scenes,” Clancy said.

While his attendance was cut short, he said, his time at the session offered a preview of ALEC-inspired legislation that he expects to see in the coming session of the state Legislature, and an opportunity for his fellow Democratic lawmakers to “figure out how we can push back on that.”

Democratic tradition...

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MMA

Dozens of right-wing media personalities suggested Kamala Harris’ political success is due to DEI

07/31/24

Since Vice President Kamala Harris became the likely Democratic presidential nominee, many right-wing media figures have tried to make her the face of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. At least 40 right-wing personalities have claimed that she is a “DEI candidate” or insinuated she owes her success to her race, ethnicity, and/or gender.

Right-wing media have a long record of attacking race-conscious policies and studies such as critical race theory and DEI efforts, including suggesting DEI stands for “Didn’t Earn It.”

Now, rather than focusing on Harris’ years of experience and advocacy on a number of key Democratic issues, many in right-wing media have chalked up her likely nomination to “racial idolatry issues,” claimed that she took a “DEI-based path” to the vice presidency, suggested that she will “be the first DEI president” if elected, and said she “literally ‘Didn’t Earn It.’”

    1. Fox News host Laura Ingraham dismissed concerns about calling Harris a “DEI candidate.”Ingraham: “People have called Kamala the DEI candidate, but Democrats, they don't like that.” After playing one criticism of the attack she asked, “That's it?” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [7/23/24]
    1. Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed “the only reason” Harris is vice president is because of “the DEI deal Biden cut with [Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] to seal the nomination.” He also said “many people believe Kamala Harris is being promoted because of what she looks like and nothing else.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/23/24]
    1. OutKick’s Clay Travis called Harris “DEI personified.”Travis: “Kamala Harris, not that bright, not that accomplished, doesn't have a family of her own, never had kids, got her scarred start in politics as the side chick of a Democrat San Francisco mayor. She is DEI personified.” OutKick, *OutKick the Show*, [7/21/24]
    1. Fox News contributor Leo Terrell posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “Kamala is the choice of the DEI Party.” He also described the Democrats as the “Race Card Party,” “Affirmative Action Party,” and the “Critical Race Party.” Twitter/X, [7/21/24]
    1. Fox News contributor Ben Domenich said Harris took the “DEI-based path” to the vice presidency.Fox News, *Life, Liberty, & Levin*, [7/21/24]
    1. Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka called Harris “literally a DEI hire” and said she will be the nominee because her “skin color is the correct DEI color.” Gorka later added, “So this choice, this trap they [Democrats] have created for themselves of Kamala, the DEI hire, it's not going to be very popular with the average American. So keep up, keep it up, keep on going, Kamala.” Newsmax, Newsmax broadcast, [7/21/24]
    1. Later in that segment, Newsmax anchor Bob Brooks agreed with Gorka, saying, “She very well might be the first DEI president.” Newsmax, Newsmax broadcast, [7/21/24]
    1. In a social media rant, Newsmax host Chris Plante said Harris is “a woman of color” and “that’s why she was chosen in the first place.” Twitter/X, [7/23/24]
    1. On Jesse Watters Primetime, podcast host Jason Calacanis discussed Harris as the nominee, telling Watters, “I think what they are going to learn is that the DEI candidate concept is just not going to work.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/21/24]
    1. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk repeatedly mispronounced Harris' name while calling her “deeply scary” and “a DEI candidate.” Kirk told his audience, “He chose her based on the same criteria of DEI that got Trump shot, that has been destroying this country. The very same DEI ideology that has been sweeping the nation is now the standard bearer of the Democrat Party, and I think that is perfect.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [7/22/24]
    1. Daily Wire host Matt Walsh called Harris “the DEI vice president.”He added, “It's quite fitting that the first Black — well, sort of Black — female presidential nominee was handed the job and didn't earn it.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [7/22/24]
    1. Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro claimed “the only reason” Harris is vice president is “because of her sex and her race.” “If she were a white man,” Shapiro continued, “she never would have even been a senator from California let alone vice president of the United States. Everyone including Democrats knows this.” The Daily Wire, *The Ben Shapiro Show*, [7/23/24]
    1. Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said “there’s no doubt” that “Harris is a DEI hire” on Sean Hannity’s radio show.O’Reilly was responding to Hannity’s comment that “I don’t like the DEI argument. … I think that is ridiculous.” O’Reilly claimed, “I don’t think it’s a ridiculous argument, but I don’t think it advances the cause of the election. Kamala Harris is a DEI hire; there’s no doubt about it. Now, if you want to state this as a fact, I don’t have a problem, because it is a fact. But that’s not going to get voters mobilized.” Premiere Radio Networks,*The Sean Hannity Show*, [7/24/24]

27. BlazeTV’s Glenn Beck claimed that Democrats “took [Harris] on for DEI purposes.” Beck: “You [Democrats] took her on -- you know you took her on because of DEI. You took her on for DEI purposes and now you're not going to let her go because you say she's not qualified?” BlazeTV,*The Glenn Beck Program*, [7/23/24]

    1. The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said Biden picked Harris as his running mate “because she's a Black woman.” Knowles said, “She was picked for VP, it would seem, based on the way that she ran in 2020. Now, of course that’s not true. As Joe Biden told us, she was picked for VP because she's a Black woman. … The way it was all pitched, after the fact, was that Kamala was picked based on her campaign, based on her ability to be president should anything happen to Joe Biden.” The Daily Wire, *The Michael Knowles Show*, [7/24/24]
    1. Right-wing host Steve Deace claimed that Democrats are coalescing behind Harris because of “racial idolatry issues.”BlazeTV, *The Steve Deace Show*, [7/22/24]
    1. TimCast IRL’s Ian Crossland said Harris was made vice president because of her skin color. Crossland: “I don't see leadership material in the woman, but they put her in as the vice president because she was Black. She's not even Black — I hate that term — but like because of her dark skin.” *TimCast IRL*, [7/24/24]
    1. Right-wing host Jesse Kelly said, “She's a DEI hire. She's a disgrace. Every part of her career has been an embarrassment.” The First, *I’m Right w/Jesse Kelly*, [7/24/24]
    1. Dinesh D’Souza called Harris a “walking ad for like DEI” on his podcast. His guest, Turning Point USA’s Caitlin Sinclair, called Harris “100% a DEI hire.” Salem Podcast Network, *The Dinesh D’Souza Podcast*, [7/22/24]
    1. Rudy Giuliani called Harris the “first DEI pick for president” on his podcast.He claimed Harris was unqualified and her rise is based on “gender and race.” YouTube, *America’s Mayor Live*, [7/23/24]
    1. On her podcast, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said that the Democrats are stuck with Harris as a “DEI hire.” Trump added, “That’s exactly who she’s always been.” *The Right View with Lara Trump*, [7/24/24]
    1. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his latest show: “They have to go with Kamala because she’s sorta Black, sorta Indian, and a woman – for DEI reasons.”He added, “She’s a moron, in a job she doesn’t deserve. That’s the whole point of DEI is to elevate people who don’t deserve their jobs to positions of power.” Tucker Carlson Network, *The Tucker Carlson Show*, [7/22/24]
    1. On Carlson’s show, far-right personality Jack Posobiec agreed with Carlson’s attribution of Harris’ success to DEI, saying “it’s tough” for Democrats to “pass her over” because of DEI.Tucker Carlson Network,*The Tucker Carlson Show*, [7/22/24]
    1. Right-wing podcaster Dave Rubin called Harris a “diversity hire who nobody likes.” Twitter/X, [7/21/24]
    1. Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson said that if Harris picked Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as her running mate it would be the “full DEI presidential ticket.”He continued, “There you go. You have … the full victimhood, class presidential ticket.” *The Benny Show*, [7/21/24]
    1. Daily Wire host Jordan Peterson called Harris “DEI Barbie'' on social media.He posted, “My new grandson and me giving the thumbs up to the news that @thedemocrats most qualified candidate is DEI Barbie.” Twitter/X, [7/22/24]
    1. On Fox News, Project 2025 contributor Monica Crowley said former first lady Michelle Obama will run for president because she “squares the Kamala Harris circle: being a minority and a DEI hire.”Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [7/21/24]
    1. The Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo posted a screenshot of a CNN article about Biden considering selecting a Black woman for his running mate in 2020, calling it the “definition of DEI.”He wrote on X: “Selecting on ancestry and anatomy, rather than talent and virtue, is the definition of DEI.” Twitter/X, [7/24/24]
    1. Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter called Harris a “cackling DEI hire.” He called her “incompetent” and added, “She is the personification of every idiot promoted over more worthy people that you have ever encountered in you daily life.” Twitter/X, [7/24/24]
    1. Conservative podcaster Bill Mitchell claimed Biden had better options to pick for his running mate in 2020, adding, “Does anyone doubt he chose Kamala because she's a black woman?”Twitter/X, [7/24/24]
    1. Right-wing personality Rob Smith, who has been a Turning Point USA contributor, called Harris the “DEI soon-to-be nominee for President.”Twitter/X, [7/22/24; Fox News, accessed 7/22/24]
    1. Newsweek senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer cited DEI as the reason Kamala Harris “gets leapfrogged from a dud of a candidacy in 2020 to now being the nominee.”Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [7/25/24]
    1. Washington Examiner’s Zachary Faria wrote an editorial titled “Democratic challenges to Harris are DEI’d on arrival.”Washington Examiner, [7/22/24]
    1. Senior editor at the Federalist David Harsanyi wrote on X, “Kamala Harris was definitely a DEI hire.” Twitter/X, [7/25/24]
    1. Daily Caller contributor Carly Atchinson Bird claimed Harris was picked as Biden’s VP “because of her identity as a black and South Asian American woman.”Her op-ed o misleadingly stated, “The Democrat machine successfully circumvented millions of primary voters in what has become, essentially, a coronation of Harris just over 100 days before November.” The Daily Caller, [7/23/24; PBS, 7/24/24]
    1. Right-wing figure James Lindsay responded “Definitely DEI all along” toformer Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)pointing out Harris’ credentials on social media.Twitter/X, [7/25/24]
    1. Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro: “She really is running a DEI campaign.”He posted in response to a fundraiser called “White dudes for Harris.” Twitter/X, [7/26/24]
    1. Right-wing comedian Terrence K. Williams wrote, “Kamala Harris is DEI!” adding that “She literally ‘Didn’t Earn It.’”Twitter/X, [7/26/24]
    1. Right-wing social media account Amuse wrote, “Sadly Kamala is a DEI hire plain and simple.” Twitter/X, [7/28/24]

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an 7 24

Since the Saturday, July 13 rally shooting that left former President Donald Trump injured, one attendee and the suspected shooter dead, several Republican leaders have placed blame on President Joe Biden and the Democrats.

According to NBC News, US Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) wrote on social media that Butler County's GOP attorney general should "file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination," while US Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) "wrote that 'Democrats and liberals in the media have called Trump a fascist. They’ve compared him to Hitler.'"

However, according to a Monday report published by WIRED, other MAGA supporters are blaming the shooting on something else: women and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) practices.

READ MORE:**Militias ramp up recruitment after Trump rally shooting: 'Become strong'**

Per the report, "Hundreds of posts on X" written by right-wing pundits and influencers strongly criticize "a number of female Secret Service agents who were part of Trump’s close protection detail on Saturday," and call for Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle to be fired.

"Dozens" of the posts "have more than 1 million views, according to a review conducted by WIRED and researchers at Advance Democracy, a nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research," the report notes.

WIRED also notes that several social media posts include a video clip from a CBS interview earlier this year with Cheatle, "where she discussed increasing the number of female agents in the service to 30 percent as part of a diversity initiative."

Chaya Raichik, founder of the far-right and anti-LGBT Libs of TikTok account X account, wrote, "This female agent couldn’t even holster her gun today during the attempted assassination of Trump. DEI hire?"

READ MORE:**'Extremely disgusting': Fox News contributor unleashes examples of GOP’s violent rhetoric**

The conservative Washington Times reported that some photos from the incident "seemed to show the female agents were too short to properly shield the Republican front-runner once he stood up. Mr. Trump stands 6 feet, 3 inches tall."

The right-wing newspaper added, "As Mr. Trump was loaded into his getaway vehicle, one of the female agents was seen struggling to holster her pistol."

*Wired's full report is available at this link.

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“DEI got someone killed”: Right-wing media blame diversity initiatives for Trump rally shooting}:

07/15/24

DEI got someone killed”: Right-wing media blame diversity initiatives for Trump rally shooting

WRITTEN BY EMMA MAE WEBER, CHARIS HOARD & BUSHRA SULTANA

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ZACHARY PLEAT

PUBLISHED 07/15/24

After former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on Saturday, right-wing media attacked diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s emphasis on hiring more women in the force to suggest that such initiatives “compromised” the caliber of the agency. Conservative media are arguing that “there should not be any women” in the Secret Service, and claiming that “DEI got someone killed.”

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an 7 24

Appearing on CNN Thursday to discuss President Joe Biden's struggles after a poor debate performance more than two weeks ago, a Republican party strategist found herself having to explain away an ugly racist attack on Vice President Kamala Harris made by one of Donald Trump's closest allies.

On Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Wednesday, the host asked Sebastian Gorka, "Do these donors really think that Kamala Harris is going to do better in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania than Joe Biden would?"

Gorka, who served as Trump's deputy assistant in 2017, shot back, "Stop it, alright? :{She's a DEI hire, right? She's a woman. She's colored! Therefore she's gotta be good."}:

On Thursday, CNN host Sara Sidner put Maura Gillespie, who served as press secretary to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), on the spot by asking, "Is this line of attack going to backfire? To try to use that kind of language against Kamala Harris?"

"I don't see right now where he was on, but I'm assuming that because of the fact that he was on a far-right network, no, it's not going to backfire on him," Gillespie offered.

"A lot of what most people in the Trump world say and do actually gets some positive reactions, which for me as a woman is infuriating because my worth is not based on my body part. It is my intellect and it's who I am and who I bring to the table and what I bring to the table."

Still not addressing the offensive "colored" remark, she continued, "It's really frustrating when this is the kind of comment we hear across the board. We hear it — I've been hearing this my entire career.

"But, that being said, it doesn't mean that just because she is a woman or if she weren't, that she is the next best person to be in the White House," she added. "I think we take things based on her work, her merit and again, she is staying behind Joe Biden and she's staying with him and has not said that she is trying to lead ahead of him or anything like that."

Watch below or at the link.

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mma 7 24

Right-wing media have spent years attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as fundamentally unqualified for the office she holds

Right-wing media have claimed she is a “DEI hire” and launched sexist attacks

WRITTEN BY JACK WINSTANLEY & PAYTON ARMSTRONG

PUBLISHED 07/11/24

Right-wing media figures have spent years attacking Vice President Kamala Harris with unfounded claims that she is a “DEI hire,” assertions that she is uneducated or sounds intoxicated, and other racist and sexist attacks.

As 2024 campaign coverage zeros in on a hypothetical Harris run, right-wing media are continuing their drumbeat of attacks against the VP

{ Right-wing media have claimed that Harris was a “DEI hire” for vice president or that her selection was “based solely on diversity criteria”}:

related

  1. ### Tomi Lahren previously pushed the same sexist smear about Kamala Harris on Fox Nation

08/01/19

  1. ### Fox News ramps up attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris

07/03/24 1:23 PM EDT

  1. ### Tucker Carlson defends racist smear of Kamala Harris

07/02/19

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aha get rid of racism by cutting it from history textbooks, and stop collecting data:

an 4 24 tom disp

First Up: Stop Discriminating Against Discriminators

I’m sure you won’t be shocked to learn that the opening salvo of that chapter is an attack on federal measures to reduce employment discrimination based on race or sex.

Its author, Jonathan Berry of the Federalist Society, served in Donald Trump’s Department of Labor (DOL). He begins his list of “needed reforms” with a call to “Reverse the DEI Revolution in Labor Policy.” “Under the Obama and Biden Administrations,” Berry explains, “labor policy was yet another target of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) revolution” under which “every aspect of labor policy became a vehicle with which to advance race, sex, and other classifications and discriminate against conservative and religious viewpoints on these subjects and others, including pro-life views.”

You may wonder what it means to advance “classifications” or why that’s even a problem. Berry addresses this question in his second “necessary” reform, a call to “Eliminate Racial Classifications and Critical Race Theory Trainings.” Those two targets for elimination would seem to carry very different weight. After all, “Critical Race Theory,” or CRT, is right-wing code for the view that structural barriers exist preventing African Americans and other people of color from enjoying the full rights of citizens or residents. It’s unclear that such “trainings” even occur at the Labor Department, under CRT or any other label, so their “elimination” would, in fact, have little impact on workers.

On the other hand, the elimination of “racial classifications” would be consequential for many working people, as Berry makes clear. “The Biden Administration,” he complains, “has pushed ‘racial equity’ in every area of our national life, including in employment, and has condoned the use of racial classifications and racial preferences under the guise of DEI and critical race theory, which categorizes individuals as oppressors and victims based on race.” Pushing racial equity in employment? The horror!

Berry’s characterization of CRT is, in fact, the opposite of what critical race theory seeks to achieve. This theoretical approach to the problem of racism does not categorize individuals at all, but instead describes structures — like corporate hiring practices based on friendship networks — that can disadvantage groups of people of a particular race. In fact, CRT describes self-sustaining systems that do not need individual oppressors to continue (mal)functioning.

The solution to the problem of discrimination in employment in Project 2025’s view is to deny the existence of race (or sex, or sexual orientation) as a factor in the lives of people in this country. It’s simple enough: if there’s no race, then there’s no racial discrimination. Problem solved.

And to ensure that it remains solved, Project 2025 would prohibit the Equal Economic Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, from collecting employment data based on race. The mere existence of such “data can then be used to support a charge of discrimination under a disparate impact theory. This could lead to racial quotas to remedy alleged race discrimination.” In other words, if you can’t demonstrate racial discrimination in employment (because you’re enjoined from collecting data on the subject), then there’s no racial discrimination to remedy. Case closed, right?

By outlawing such data collection, a Republican administration guided by Project 2025 would make it almost impossible to demonstrate the existence of racial disparity in the hiring, retention, promotion, or termination of employees.

:{Right-wingers in my state of California tried something similar in 2003 with Ballot Proposition 54, known as the Racial Privacy Initiative. In addition to employment data, Prop. 54 would have outlawed collecting racial data about public education and, no less crucially, about policing. As a result, Prop. 54 would have made it almost impossible for civil rights organizations to address the danger of “driving while Black” — the disproportionate likelihood that Black people will be the subject of traffic stops with the attendant risk of police violence or even death. Voters soundly defeated Prop. 54 by a vote of 64% to 36% and, yes, racial discrimination still exists in California, but at least we have access to the data to prove it.}:

There is, however, one group of people Project 2025 would emphatically protect from discrimination: employers who, because of their “conservative and religious viewpoints… including pro-life views,” want the right to discriminate against women and LGBTQ people. “The President,” writes Berry, “should make clear via executive order that religious employers are free to run their businesses according to their religious beliefs, general nondiscrimination laws notwithstanding.” Of course, Congress already made it clear that, under Title VII of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, “religious” employers are free to ignore anti-discrimination laws when it suits them....

no lnx judd 4 24 see kirk 4

senate nominee bankrolled by far-right activist trashing MLK and the Civil Rights Act

JUDD LEGUM, TESNIM ZEKERIA, AND REBECCA CROSBy

APR 18

Founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, speaks on July 15, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Last month, Bernie Moreno won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Ohio. Moreno benefited from an early endorsement from Turning Point Action, the far-right activist group founded by Charlie Kirk. On May 10, 2023, Kirk posted on X that he was "proud to support Bernie," and Moreno had Turning Point Action's "full endorsement."

In response, Moreno wrote that he was "honored to be endorsed by Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Action." Moreno said that "[f]ew have done more to fight back against the radical left than they have," and he looks "forward to working with them to defend for our America First conservative values in the US Senate."

In 2023, Kirk repeatedly featured Moreno as a guest on his popular podcast and consistently promoted Moreno's candidacy to his 2.9 million followers on X. At the end of 2023, Kirk donated the maximum legal amount of $5,000 to Moreno's campaign through the Turning Point PAC.

At the same time, Kirk, known for his embrace of fringe views and conspiracy theories, launched a sustained attack on Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy. At a December 2023 convention hosted by Turning Point USA, Kirk said that King "was awful" and "not a good person." Kirk's critique extended not just to King himself but to the civil rights movement itself. "We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s," Kirk declared, trashing the legislation that outlawed segregation in public places and many businesses.

In his convention speech, Kirk blasted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as an effort to “re-found the county” and “get rid of the First Amendment.” He criticized courts for enforcing the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. "Federal courts just yield to the Civil Rights Act as if it's the actual American Constitution," Kirk complained.

A spokesperson for Turning Point USA, Andrew Kolvet, defended Kirk's attacks, saying respect for King's legacy was based on "fake history."

Kirk announced he was "gonna tell the truth about MLK Jr" on MLK Day in January 2024. According to Kirk, a podcast episode attacking King and the civil rights movement was being put together by his producer, Blake Neff. In 2020, Neff was forced to resign from Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News after it was revealed Neff was posting racist comments online under a pseudonym.

The episode, titled “The Myth of MLK,” kicks off with Vince Everett Ellison – a right-wing activist who claims that voting for a Democrat will send you to Hell. Ellison describes King as “despicable,” “immoral,” and “perverted.” Kirk repeatedly suggests that King’s legacy has harmed “Black America.” He asks Ellison if the lives of Black Americans have improved “the more that we have worshipped MLK.” Kirk also invites Ellison to talk about how “MLK's narrative and political activism led to the modern welfare state.” Ellison responds by accusing the civil rights community of keeping Black people poor, adding that the devil “rest[s] his head at the DNC” and that the DNC “use[d] MLK and all of those perverts with him.”

“I could say declaratively this guy is not worthy of a national holiday. He is not worthy of god-like status. In fact, I think it's really harmful,” Kirk says after the conversation with Ellison ends. Then Kirk, alongside Neff, spends roughly 30 minutes attempting to demonize the Civil Rights Act. According to Neff, the Civil Rights Act is “directly against this colorblind world that conservatives think MLK brought.” Kirk tells listeners that “in reality the language and the application of the Civil Rights Act…is a color preference act, not a color blindness.” Kirk adds that the Civil Rights Act “is making it harder for us to pursue Excellence as a society” because, as Neff puts it, “you have to discriminate against men, against white people.”

On X, Kirk wrote that the "deification of MLK and his proto-DEI ideology marks the exact moment that the progress of black America goes sideways." Kirk suggested that MLK was responsible for the "disintegration" of "their cities," the "collapse" of "their families." Because of MLK, Kirk claims, "they" are "enormously dependent on government support."

Kirk's crusade against King and the civil rights movement did not appear to impact his relationship with Moreno. On March 14, 2024, Turning Point Action donated $100,000 to the Buckeye Values PAC, Moreno's Super PAC.

Buckeye Values PAC is tightly aligned with Moreno's campaign and was responsible for organizing and financing a key rally featuring Trump and Moreno on March 18, the day before the Ohio primary.

The day after his primary victory, on March 20, Moreno appeared again on Kirk's podcast. At the beginning of the interview, Moreno expressed his gratitude for Kirk's support. "Thank you, Charlie," Moreno said. "And thank you for your early endorsement. You were with me from the very beginning."

The Moreno campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Moreno suggested white people should get reparations

Moreno himself has also had controversies involving racial issues. When he launched his campaign for Senate, Moreno floated the idea of reparations for white descendants of Union soldiers that were killed during the Civil War. “They talk about reparations. Where are the reparations for the people, for the North, who died to save the lives of Black people?” Moreno said. “I know it’s not politically correct to say that, but you know what, we’ve got to stop being politically correct.”

"We stand on shoulders of people like John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington… That same group of people later, white people, died to free Black people,” Moreno said. A campaign spokesperson for Moreno told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Bernie was right when he said political correctness is killing our country, and the crocodile tears from the left expose the Democrat hypocrisy he was referring to in the clip.”

Moreno's companies have “faced multiple lawsuits alleging discrimination against employees in the run-up to the sale of his high-end Cleveland car dealership,” the AP reported. One 2017 lawsuit involved “a Black former service manager” at a dealership owned by Moreno, who “alleged that he was targeted for discipline and then demoted after taking concerns to human resources about white peers and a subordinate being paid the same or more than him.” He “claimed racial discrimination led to his demotion and eventual wrongful termination.” The lawsuit was "settled out of court," and the terms of the settlement "were kept private.”

A campaign spokesperson said that “Moreno is ‘a proud minority businessman’ who based his company 'on the colorblind principles of merit and hard work.'” The statement said that “Bernie has always been committed to giving opportunities to all of his workers, regardless of race, color, gender or creed.”

"Didn't Earn It": Right-wing cable news and online influencers amplify the latest attacks on DEI | Media Matters for America

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another erruption on baltimore bridge (guys killed were central am?

On Newsmax, Victor Davis Hanson blames Baltimore bridge collapse on diversity hires | Media Matters for America

1 24 racism erruption border razor wire civil war trucker convoy invasion gr replacement //DEI

Right-wing media have continued to blame diversity, equity, and inclusion measures for theoretical airplane accidents after a widely publicized Boeing 737 Max malfunction, attacking the principles of DEI to suggest that plane failures are the result of airlines hiring Black pilots and employees of color. Some figures have questioned whether Black pilots are “qualified” and have called DEI “racist.”

:{Video

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January 22, 2024 rww

Former President Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday.

It turns out the Florida governor can’t even drop out of the race for United States president right.

At age 22, North Dakota State Reps. Matthew Heilman and Brandon Prichard are two of the youngest state legislators in the country. Elected in 2022, Heilman and Prichard are close friends who espouse far-right views on immigration, LGBTQ rights, and abortion. They also use their official accounts to share, like, and interact with content by white nationalists and other extremists on X.

The backlash against “wokeism” has led a growing number of states to ban D.E.I. programs at public universities. Thousands of emails and other documents reveal the playbook — and grievances — behind one strand of the anti-D.E.I. campaign.

Activists from a South Carolina chapter of Moms for Liberty — a group best known for opposing LGBTQ rights, pushing for the removal of library books, and fighting racially inclusive curriculum — are starting their own public charter school.

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mma 1 24

Right-wing media figures are systematically attacking a variety of initiatives intended to increase racial equity and inclusion in America’s education system. Since 2021, they have attacked or rebranded certain related concepts in order to vilify them: critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and affirmative action.

Schools in Oklahoma and Florida are even starting to partner with right-wing media’s PragerU and “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty, which spread conservative propaganda in public schools. These ongoing strategic assaults from right-wing figures and outlets are poised to make education a culture war issue for the 2024 election.

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Fox News' Tyrus blames "equity hires" for fatal shooting on movie set | Media Matters for America

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mma 1 24

Right-wing media whine after new Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo discussed diversity and racism at his introductory press conference | Media Matters for America

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mma 1 24

  1. ### Laura Ingraham says diversity initiatives “may mean needless American deaths and a lot of them”

01/12/24 8:31 PM EST

  1. ### Greg Gutfeld says you can “die by DEI”

01/12/24 6:59 PM EST

  1. ### Fox News' Jeanine Pirro: “DEI is just a rebranded version of hating white people, hating people who are part of this country”

01/12/24 6:07 PM EST

  1. ### After a Boeing passenger jet lost a door mid-flight, right-wing media rushed to blame the failure on DEI

01/12/24

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HARV BLK WOMan pres resign plag BS

Fox host blames the "spider-like cancer" that is diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives for antisemitism | Media Matters for America

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Charlie Kirk: "Why are whites taking this? Why are we just sitting idly by and allowing corporate America to give all the jobs to nonwhite people" | Media Matters for America

Charlie Kirk: "We've allowed our beautiful cities to just be captured by the cult of anti-racism" | Media Matters for America

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huh? wtf

mma 1 24

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): The Central Intelligence Agency has been interfering in our elections for years. 1964, 1968, 2016, 2020, just to name a few. And in 2024, Biden's going to need all the help he can get. Black, Hispanic, youth support -- evaporating. And he's losing to Trump in every battleground.

...

But maybe Biden knows something we don't. Maybe he thinks it's in the bag. Maybe it is in the bag. A former CIA analyst says we can expect the intelligence agencies who've been turbocharged by diversity, equity, and inclusion to reemerge this year and subvert the Republican nominee.

...

So the deep state went woke in order to kneecap Republican presidential candidates who threaten their corporate and ideological agenda. That's what DEI has really been about: using inclusivity as an excuse to hire ideological hit men and hit women to do the dirty work. Remember, you're not allowed to ask recruits about their politics. But if you hire DEI-type recruits, you can assume what their politics are without having to ask.

Also, remember, the CIA does the bidding for corporate America. And if a Republican candidate threatens corporate America's agenda by controlling the border, starting trade wars with China, challenging the Green New Deal, they'll be dealt with by the CIA -- especially a CIA stacked with liberal recruits who think they're saving democracy, but they're only saving a CEO's bottom line.

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'Denying career advancement to white straight men': Stephen Miller’s law group targets Macy’s - Alternet.org

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an 1123

the Republican-majority House of Representatives has just ten days to avert a shutdown of the federal government. Far-right Republicans, including those from the Freedom Caucus, are proposing amendments to attach to a funding bill that have little chance of passing in the Senate, like defunding Vice President Kamala Harris’ Office.

If Speaker Mike Johnson does not move forward legislation to fund the federal government that the Senate will pass, and President Joe Biden will sign, a government shutdown could be in effect at 12:01 AM November 18.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a freshman Republican of Georgia, has proposed an amendment “that would halt any funding for Vice President Kamala Harris’ office,” according to The Messenger. Collins has called the Vice President a “Radical” Democrat.

Congressman Collin’s amendment is not the only one proposed to take aim at Democrats and Democratic principles.

“Multiple amendments that were offered targeted funding toward the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, while another by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., proposed reducing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel’s salary to $1,” Fox News reports. Greene recently complained the House was forcing members to vote on legislation at 1:00 AM.

READ MORE: Trump’s ‘Astonishing Admission’ Will Damage Any Potential Appeal: Experts

In March, Rep. Collins suggested on the floor of the House of Representatives that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) were possible culprits in the Norfolk Southern train derailment.

“After seeing another Norfolk Southern train derailed this weekend, I was reminded of the fact that the company wrote to shareholders stating that it is focused on DEI,” Collins said, as The New Republic reported. “This administration’s focus on DEI is forcing private companies to rethink their goals and one has to wonder, was Norfolk Southern’s DEI policies directing resources away from the important things like greasing wheel bearings? Now this insanity must stop.”

During that speech, Collins targeted U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and DEI.

“From his first day in office, he has been more focused on diversity training and identity politics than on building and maintaining America’s transportation system,” Collins said, Fox News reported.

Claiming Buttigieg was “whining about too many white people in construction industries,” Collins said: “His policies have continuously put the wokes before the folks.”

:{:{READ MORE: Trump’s ‘Damning’ Witness Stand Testimony Is Helping AG Letitia James’ Case: Expert}:

Collins earlier this year said: “Democrats follow ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] and DEI like a religion; it is, it’s called wokeism.”

In September, Collins in a committee hearing attacked Buttigieg, saying he is “pushing a far-left, woke, DEI socialistic experiment.”

IFrame Content

Congressman Collins is not the only Republican targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI.

“Two Offices of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (ODEIA) within the Biden administration are the subject of cost-cutting GOP proposals,” Fox News also reported Tuesday. “An amendment proposed by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., specified defunding the Treasury’s ODEIA, and a similar amendment by Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., hit the Office of Personnel Management.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/critical-race-theory/anti-civil-rights-activist-chris-rufo-has-extensive-ties-christian-nationalist

no vid twt

anti-civil rights activist Christopher Rufo has extensive ties to a leading MAGA-aligned think tank led by a Christian nationalist that’s at the heart of several high-profile political battles in Washington, D.C. The think tank, the Center for Renewing America, was founded by Russ Vought, who has called for an “army” of believers with a “biblical worldview” to transform the federal bureaucracy into an ideological weapon to further his hard-right agenda. Vought and Rufo are both conservative media mainstays, and each appears frequently on Fox News and right-wing streaming shows.

Rufo’s ties to CRA are not hidden, but nor are they particularly well-known outside of the cloistered bubble of conservative activism. Although Rufo is primarily known for his rhetorical attacks on critical race theory (which he has admitted he knows nothing about) and LGBTQ people, he shares CRA’s goal of taking over existing institutions and remaking them as supposed paragons of conservatism.

That desire has been most clearly realized in Rufo’s hostile takeover of New College of Florida, facilitated by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to appoint him and several other hard-liners to the school’s board of trustees. Rufo and DeSantis’ scheme bears significant resemblance to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s remaking of Central European University in Budapest, one of many points of overlap between U.S. conservatives and their European counterparts. Rufo is currently spending a month in Hungary, according to his Substack newsletter.

Vought and CRA have been at the forefront of advocating for a policy known as Schedule F,a Trump-era scheme that allowed the administration to sidestep job protections for non-political career staffers. In an appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, Vought and Kirk promoted the idea of implementing “ideological purity tests” for federal civil servants, and Vought estimated that he would need to fire around 10 percent of the workforce at federal agencies and departments. Vought has also argued the House of Representatives should adopt new rules to allow the chamber to target and possibly remove individual civil servants.

CRA occupies a divided position in the conservative political landscape at the moment, seemingly straddling the line between the Trump and DeSantis camps. Vought, the organization’s leader, is a frequent guest on Steve Bannon’s War Room, which has taken a pro-Trump, anti-DeSantis editorial position. The think tank more broadly is often described as being aligned with Trump as well. But Rufo is closely associated with DeSantis, for now at least, due to his appointment to the board at New College. And CRA senior fellow Ken Cuccinelli recently launched a pro-DeSantis PAC, urging the governor to run for president.

Probably the most important link between Rufo and Vought came during the Trump administration. When Rufo was able to transform critical race theory from a relatively obscure legal discipline into a right-wing bogeyman — thanks in large part to an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight— it was Vought, then the head of the Office of Management and Budget, who was tasked with carrying out Trump’s order to remove any mention of CRT from federal trainings. Since then, their affinity appears to have grown.

Rufo reportedly recently held a private summit at the Santa Monica, California, outpost of The Manhattan Institute, where he is a senior fellow.The gathering’s focus was “planning for the next White House,” a priority Rufo shares with CRA. In a short video summarizing his thoughts on the event, Rufo praised Vought’s behind-the-scenes efforts in Congress’ ongoing battle over the federal budgetas an opportunity to inject far-right values into final legislation.

in the video, Rufo argued that earlier generations of conservatives tried to win budgeting arguments using dry facts and figures, but that that’s changing now.

“Some people, most notably Russ Vought, who is President Trump’s former OMB director, have pioneered a new approach to talking about the budget that I think has enormous potential,” Rufo said. “Russ talks about the ‘woke and weaponized bureaucracy.’ He talks about defunding $150 billion that is currently being spent to advance left-wing priorities that are antithetical to the values of the majority of citizens.”

“He’s saying, ‘You know what? We want to defund thewoke bureaucrats and DEI commissars who are putting critical race theory in all of the agencies of the government,’” Rufo added. The official CRA Twitter account posted Rufo’s video, and Vought replied, thanking Rufo for the shout-out.   

In the YouTube description of the video, Rufo praisesWade Miller, CRA’s executive director, who apparently attended the private summit. Miller, a former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), describes himself as anti-antiracism in his Twitter bio. He recently posted a racist tweet claiming, without evidence, that Stanford medical school awarded postings to new surgery applicants based on their race and ethnicity, and that those selected probably weren’t the most qualified. [twt]

rufo also has ties to CRA visiting fellow Michael Young, who is prominent on right-wing Twitter under the handle @wokal_distance, primarily for invoking 1990s nostalgia toward reactionaryends. Rufo worked with Young and CRA on his anti-LGBTQ pamphlet “A Parent’s Guide to Radical Gender Theory.” The two interact regularly on Twitter, praising each other’s acumen and execution.

Whether CRA can keep one foot in on either side of the Trump dividing line without drawing the former president’s ire is an open question, as is the impact that DeSantis’falling poll numbers could have on Rufo’s brand and influence. For now, Rufo and Vought are trying to find ways to find a broader audience for their cruel, anti-civil rights proposals, and they’re willing to burn down anything that stands in their way.

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ref by an 3 23

it was the latest stop on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s “where woke goes to die” tour. The focus was on higher education—specifically: diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at Florida universities. The roundtable event featured speakers like Christopher Rufo, the lead architect of the GOP’s crusade against critical race theorywho is now helping to mastermind the ideological makeover of Florida’s New College. The gathering followed the by-now-standard script of education-themed right-wing grievance: DEI initiatives are a scam orchestrated by the “woke mob,” and Florida is not about to submit to them—not if the governor and his brain trust have anything to say about it.

The event would make headlines after an Axiosreporter called the official press release “propaganda” and was fired as a result. But the ensuing furor over journalistic standards sidestepped what’s ultimately at stake in DeSantis’s war on the alleged woke excesses of the education establishment—a drive to deliver colleges and universities back to the rule of white male elites, and thereby turn back the clock on 75 years of progress.And at the center of this crusade is a West Coast bastion of cultural conservatism—the Claremont Institute, which served as a key intellectual recruiting ground for Donald Trump’s rise to power but has now shifted its allegiance to DeSantis.

DeSantis’s agenda was neatly distilled in the title of a new report by Claremont fellow Scott Yenor, who teaches political science at Boise State University: “Florida Universities: From Woke to Professionalism.” The paper was released in conjunction with theDEIroundtable, and claimed to document the unhinged course of DEI initiatives in Florida’s public university system, while also detailing steps the state can take to rein them in. Among Yenor’s recommendations: defund and dismantle all DEI offices in Florida’s colleges and universities, make collecting data on the basis of race and sex illegal, and scuttle any DEI-infused disciplines—education and law are particular targets—in favor of “science.” And that’s just the start. “From Woke to Professionalism” seeks to provide a playbook for Florida to go to war against the “reigning national civil rights regime.”

:{:{This means more than simply targeting the DEI establishment. Yenor also urges state officials to remedy what he sees as a core problem in higher education: too many women.}: State officials, he argues, should conduct civil rights investigations into academic programs, including education and nursing, in which women vastly outnumber men, while also ditching any curriculum or programs deemed “anti-male.” :{Disparate impact theory, a favorite target of the cultural right for its emphasis on systemic discrimination, gets repurposed here to boost the real victims of diversity policies: white men. MIRROR INVERT}:

}:

The report’s pivot away from DEI-bashing to the systematic purge of female students is part of Yenor’s ambitious proposal to correct what he sees as the damage done by feminism. Last year, he gave a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in which he denounced colleges and universities as “the citadels of our gynocracy,” and derided career-oriented women as “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome.” Traditionally male-dominated fields such as engineering, law, and medicine should stop trying to recruit women, he argued. The culture should return to urging women to pursue “feminine goals”—chief among them, staying home and having children in the interest of restoring strong families, and through them, a strong nation. Yenor’s bid to dragoon the nation’s women back into the separate sphere of domesticity and child-rearing is but one key directive he’s undertaken as head of Claremont’s Center for the American Way of Life. Together with Rufo—another Claremont scholar—Yenor has been dispatched to the Sunshine State front lines in what Claremont director Ryan Williams calls the “fight against woke leftism.” He will serve as Claremont’s new senior director of state coalitions, based in the state capital of Tallahassee.

Claremont’s leaders have marshaled so much early support behind DeSantis because they see him as a staunch ally in thwarting the alleged march of “wokeism” through virtually every American institution: the media, corporations, and education, from pre-K through college. They view DeSantis’s legislative assault on diversity and inclusion—including stripping the Walt Disney Company of some state tax breaks, reversing diversity policies, and sharply curtailing discussions of race and gender in Florida schools—as a model for right-wing activism across the country. Claremont and DeSantis both are holding forth Florida as a red-state template—a militant Republican state government providing a “blueprint” for rolling back civil rights across the country.

this tight ideological alliance explains why DeSantis’s brain trust is stocked with Claremonsters, as the think tank’s staff and fellows refer to themselves, who now play an outsized role in shaping policy. Rufo, for example, advised DeSantis on his Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits schools, colleges and businesses from teaching students and employees anything that would cause anyone to “feel guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin. And when DeSantis orchestrated a takeover of New College, he tapped Rufo to lead the effort to remake the school as a “Hillsdale of the south,” referencing the fundamentalist Michigan college long positioned on the vanguard of right-wing culture warfare.

Even DeSantis’s new speechwriter has Claremont ties. Nate Hochman, a rising star in the intellectual right’s amorphous coalition of culture warriors, self-proclaimed economic populists, and unabashed America firsters, is both a former Claremont intern and a fellow. Hochman, who proclaimed earlier this year that he hopes that the “Republican party agenda is going to cohere around the culture war as its organizing, totalizing force,” now will be able to bring that mandate into the forefront of DeSantis’s campaign messaging.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Claremonsters will continue chipping away at what they see as Florida’s misguided dalliances with the woke. In his road map for higher education in Florida, Yenor holds up as his model the University of California, Berkeley–in the 1950s, before the Free Speech movement and the hippies wrecked everything. The University of Florida, he writes, should be a beacon of academic freedom and meritocracy for the country, just as UC Berkeley was back then. Of course, UC Berkeley was also an elite, and almost entirely white, institution in the 1950s. Some 90 percent of entering freshmen in the 1960s were white, and most hailed from families that were substantially wealthier than the typical Californian. And just one-quarter of students were women. For them, the school offered a 10-week course on marriage, jokingly known to students as “From Courtship to Venereal Disease in Ten Easy Lessons.”

Elsewhere, Yenor has argued more explicitly that returning college to the elites should be the goal. Only 8 percent of Americans attended college as late as 1960, he pointed out in a recent op-ed for the Christian advocacy organization American Reformer. “The United States should move toward 8% from its current 46%.”

“Too many of the wrong sorts of people go to college” is not exactly the stuff of campaign bumper stickers. DeSantis knows this firsthand, thanks to his ill-considered effort to escalate Florida’s assault on AP African American Studies into a full-scale attack on “Advanced Placement, Inc.” No doubt DeSantis and his corps of culture warriors calculated that the entire Advanced Placement program was a ripe target in the rolling war on wokeness, but the move was a political disaster. Parents in Florida regard AP classes not as a manufactory of left-wing ideological conformity but as a crucial path to getting their kids admitted to select colleges—and saving money when they get there. And they’re not wrong—so the politically savvy DeSantis has since moved on to other targets.

nor does Yenor’s wide-ranging campaign against the “gynocracy” seem likely to resonate with the suburban women to whom the GOP tries intermittently to appeal. As Daily Beast columnist Michael Daly pointed out, DeSantis’s wife, Casey, who tweeted enthusiastically about Yenor’s Tallahassee appointment, holds a BA in economics—one of the disciplines Yenor regards as subject to gynocratic infiltration. And her mother is a speech pathologist—another of the female-dominated fields that he wants dismantled.

There are also growing signs that DeSantis’s war on wokeness is losing its luster among Florida voters. A recent poll found that his marquee bill aimed at rooting out diversity efforts in the state’s higher education system is particularly unpopular. Sixty-five percent of voters, including 38 percent of Republicans, oppose it. And as his signature issue—limiting what students can learn and teachers can teach in Florida’s public schools in the name of parent rights—becomes synonymous with book banning, his popularity is likely to dim further.

Of course, the GOP supermajority in the Florida state legislature will continue to rubber-stamp increasingly outlandish bills on gender and diversity, regardless of whether the public supports them. Indeed, the pliant legislative body is a big reason Claremont is so bullish on Florida spearheading the nation’s return to the pre–civil rights era.

When DeSantis officially launches his candidacy, he’ll point to a long list of right-wing policy accomplishments. But using the levers of power to ram through an unpopular agenda is not the same thing as winning over hearts and minds. As he sells a retrograde vision of America with the help of a militant right-wing intellectual cadre, DeSantis is likely to learn that lesson the hard way.

Jennifer C. BerkshireJennifer C. Berkshire hosts the education podcast Have You Heard. She is the author, with Jack Schneider, of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door.

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https://www.alternet.org/trump-biden-marxist-equity-squad/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/brian-kilmeade/fox-host-suggests-equity-efforts-could-be-blame-airplane-near-collisions

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central fla univ

note always defensive, we did not start fight [but will end it]

an bad 2 23

Appearing to confess frustration, far-right Republican governor Ron DeSantis says he is remaking Florida’s education system because even after turning the state’s Democratic Party into a "rotten carcass on the side of the street," the left "can still impose their agenda on my people."

That "agenda," apparently includes so-called Critical Race Theory (CRT), Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG), and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, according to far-right Fox News host Mark Levin who told the Florida governor the right is "in a culture war."

"We didn't start it," Levin told DeSantis. "But what I call the Marxist left, they started it. It is devouring our institutions. It is devouring our politics. It's devouring the private sector."

DeSantis did not disagree.

READ MORE: 'I Struck a Nerve': Robert Reich Makes the Case for Calling Ron DeSantis a 'Fascist'

As he uses the power of his office to pave the road for a likely 2024 run for the White House, DeSantis has not gone unnoticed. He has been accused of being "an Honest-to-God Semi-Fascist," turning Florida into "a laboratory for fascism," running his state "like a fascist," and being a "fascist for our time" and a "one-man civil rights wrecking ball, determined to neutralize any group that doesn't conform to his dangerously narrow view of social order."

All those accusations were before his Sunday night Fox News interview with Levin, who warned that "in the classrooms" there is "the sexualizing of little kids." Levin also said, "Disney, Walt Disney has to be rolling in his grave right now what's happened to Disneyland and Disney World and these other events in the culture."

Asked why he decided to take "the lead in taking this on as far as governors go," DeSantis bragged, "I got reelected November 2022. Largest vote than any Republican governor [in] Florida history has got, largest vote margin any governor candidates ever got. 1.5 million votes."

"I can win by 1.5 million votes. Make the Democratic Party in our state, basically, a rotten carcass on the side of the street. And yet, the left can still impose their agenda on my people if I'm not looking after fighting ESG and other woke companies and some of the stuff going on in the universities and the schools."

"And so I think I have an understanding that these fights are far broader than just one particular election. Yes, you do have to fight the woke in the halls of government and in the legislative chambers, and we have super majorities as Republicans in Florida so we will win all those fights, but you also have to be willing to defend your folks against thisagenda being shoved down their throatfrom all these otherinstitutions,where these people aren't necessarily coming up for election."

DeSantis has infamously veered into pushing his supporters into local school board positions of power.

"So you talk about things with like the young kids and with Disney, and I see that not just through the eyes of a governor but also through the eyes of a dad," DeSantis continued. "You know, we have a six, a four, and a two-year-old at home. And we just believe as parents, we should be able to send our kids to school, have them watch cartoons without having somebody's sexual agenda shoved down their throats."

READ MORE: 'Political Theater': Conservative Rips Ron DeSantis for 'Sucking Up to the Anti-Vaxxers'

"And so when this issue came up, with the sexualization of the curriculum, of course in Florida, we think that that's inappropriate. And you know what? Republican, Democrat, Independent parents agree with us overwhelmingly."

That's debatable. In October Florida Politics reported, "Majorities oppose Ron DeSantis-backed 'Stop WOKE' and parental rights laws," including his "Don't Say Gay" law.

In January, a study by UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute found a large percentage of LGBTQ parents say they are concerned their families will be negatively impacted by DeSantis' laws, including HB 1557, the "Don't Say Gay" law – with some saying they already have been.

"Almost 9 out of 10 (88%) LGBTQ+ parents are very or somewhat concerned about the impact that HB 1557 will have on them and their children, with one in four reporting they have experienced anti-LGBTQ harassment since the law was passed and one in five reporting becoming less out in their communities since the law was passed. Parents have considered a variety of coping strategies in response to the bill, including moving out of the state (56%) and moving their children to a different school (11%). Over 16% of LGBTQ parents have already taken steps to move their families to another state."

Watch a short clip or the full interview below or at this link.

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harvard see blum

Judgment REVERSED. Roberts, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion. Gorsuch, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Thomas, J., joined. Kavanaugh, J., filed a concurring opinion. Sotomayor, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Kagan, J., joined, and in which Jackson, J., joined as it applies to No. 21–707. Jackson, J., filed a dissenting opinion in No. 21–707, in which Sotomayor and Kagan, JJ., joined. Jackson, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case in No. 20–1199. (Opinion also for No. 21-707). VIDED.

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