Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued a sweeping new legal opinion declaring that “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs rooted in race- and sex-based preferences are unconstitutional in the public sector and expose private companies to significant legal liability.
The 74 page opinion argues that government policies awarding opportunities or benefits based on “skin color or sex” cannot survive strict constitutional scrutiny and should be dismantled across Texas.
An attorney general opinion is a formal written interpretation of the law issued by the state’s top lawyer, typically in response to a legal question about how existing statutes or constitutional provisions should be applied.
Paxton’s office said the opinion targets decades of DEI frameworks embedded throughout state and local government, including programs in public institutions and schools. The attorney general framed the action as a return to equal opportunity and a rejection of what he called “woke, race-based favoritism.”
“This action to dismantle DEI in Texas helps fulfill the vision articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr. when he dreamed that his children would one day live in a nation where they were judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” Paxton said. “America is waking up to the egregious unfairness of DEI policies. People should be judged based on merit and the quality of their character and qualifications, not their race, sex, or any other inherent characteristic conferred at birth.”
Seems like apt phrasing for a decision issued on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Paxton added that “it’s imperative that all private-sector employers, schools, and state and local government entities—based on this legal opinion—immediately abolish any DEI, affirmative action, or unconstitutional discrimination programs under their authority.”
In the opinion itself, Paxton’s office contends that DEI has evolved into a system in which immutable traits have become “the currency of advancement,” spreading through academia, government, and private industry.
While an AG opinion can carry significant weight for state agencies and local governments—often shaping how officials administer programs and avoid legal risk—it does not, by itself, change the law, repeal statutes, or carry the force of a court order.
It does, however, signal how his office will treat DEI going forward.
If you read the decision, it goes into considerable detail not just on how racial preferences violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, and Paxton cites the words of American Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine and George Mason.
It also fiercely critiques the reintroduction of official support for racial preferences and the introduction of racial quotas under President Lyndon Baines Johnson in the name of “affirmative action,” as well of the slight-of-hand by which temporary solutions to address past discrimination have been transformed into permanent “diversity” bureaucracies. “The rhetoric that diversity is essential for ‘business survival’ continued to take form and brought with it a cottage industry of diversity training programs, networking, and mentoring programs that fixated on the advancement of women and minorities.”
The legal opinion concludes that race- and sex-based preferences in public institutions “cannot survive strict scrutiny and are therefore unconstitutional.”
It also warns that many private-sector DEI practices could trigger liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, and federal civil rights law, including Section 1981, as well as potential exposure under state and federal securities laws.
A major focus of Paxton’s opinion is Texas’ historically underutilized business (HUB) contracting framework, which Paxton describes as a “pervasive, discriminatory regime” that violates both the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the Texas Constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment.
The opinion argues the state’s HUB structure defines eligibility and access to government benefits by race and sex, triggering strict scrutiny and creating what it calls de facto quotas through race- and sex-based “targets.”
Plus a slam at current Senate race rival John Cornyn for failing to address DEI when he was Attorney General.
Our nation was founded on the radical notion that all are created equal. Though we have often failed to live up to that promise, it remains as a constitutional lodestar—both in the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. The race- and sex-based, public sector preferences discussed in this opinion cannot survive strict scrutiny and are therefore unconstitutional. Furthermore, a large body of DEI practices in the private sector triggers liability under Title VII, the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, and Section 1981 in addition to state and federal securities law.
That should be the proper death-knell for DEI in Texas. The question remains how much resistance will Democrat-run blue locales like Austin and Houston, who desperately want to continue discriminating on the basis of race, put up against the ruling, and long will it take private sector entities to fall in line to limit their legal liability?
I had to disable the ancient Word Press Stats package that stopped working and was screwing up my dashboard. So I lost all my blog hit history, which is irksome, as I received more than five million hits. On the plus side, it seems to save drafts much more quickly, and it also seems to be recording more views than the old stats did. I also wonder if the old stat package was responsible for some of the slow load times people occasionally experienced.
This week: More Charlie Kirk assassination fallout, more Ukrainian oil infrastructure strikes, Fani Willis gets permabanned, Planned Parenthood want to trans your children, the Democrat party’s racism problem, Lina Hidalgo calls it quits, more of that voting fraud that doesn’t exist, and YouTube screws up, then refuses to admit it
Tyler Robinson, the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk, was living with his transgender romantic partner in the leadup to the assassination, Utah Governor Spencer Cox confirmed to CNN.
The roommate was “a male transitioning to female,” Cox said, noting that “this partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea this was happening, and is working with investigators right now.”
Snip.
While officials have not yet released the name of the roommate, public records show that Lance Twiggs, a 22-year-old, reportedly in the process of transitioning from male to female, lives at the same address as Robinson. The Post reported that a family member of Twiggs confirmed they were living together.
Cox told the Wall Street Journal that the suspect was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”
Robinson was also evidently a furry. So a gay tranny-loving furry killed Charlie Kirk. Some things are beyond parody…
“Anyone Who Blames ‘Both Sides’ After Charlie Kirk’s Murder Is A Liar And Coward.”
the Official Party of Wanton Assassination is busy making the case that there is extreme political violence “on both sides.” Immediately after the shooting, buffoonish Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren marched out to the microphones with convoluted messages about coming together and stopping violence on both sides.
By now, the drumbeat of bothsidesism in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination has become a cacophony. “Bothsidesism” is what I am calling the irresistible urge for morally corrupt politicians (on both sides!) and journalists to lay half the blame for Kirk’s brutal murder at the feet of the right.
In fact, the worst Bothsiders — even worse than the sneering Democrats who can barely contain their glee that Kirk is dead, even as they scold us for not being interested in “unity” — are sniveling Republicans and so-called conservatives.
“There are monsters in your midst too,” intoned The New York Times’ David French, who persists in claiming to be conservative.
As proof, they will present their list of “right-wing violent attacks.” To give this barebones list more heft, they will go as far back as the Oklahoma City bombing, as that cretinous GOP Sen. James Lankford did on CNN. Lankford even had the gall to open his interview with Dana Bash by bringing up “white supremacy.” On Fox and Friends, Ainsley Earhardt tried to bait Trump into conceding that there are extremists on the right, too. Thank God he refused to take it.
This outrageous formulation must be crushed into dust, immediately. There is no moral equivalency. The Bothsiders are on the wrong side.
Why are Bothsiders wasting time blaming the right after a vicious murder committed by a leftist? Shouldn’t they be vociferously defending the innocent? The answer is that they’re cowards. They are too scared to call out Democrats for creating, supporting, and ignoring the evil that has taken root in their party.
Instead of courageously calling out their friends, colleagues, coworkers, and media allies, these pathetic Republican Bothsiders will spout long lists of examples of “right-wing political violence.” This allows them to avoid doing what has to be done: laying bare the left’s deep hatred of conservatives that has been allowed to fester for decade after decade.
By insisting that “both sides” are guilty of violence, they are giving the vicious left a way out. It’s a lifeline — a magical force field that immediately exonerates them. Democrats can then neatly avoid having to address the malevolent violence and hatred in so many of their voters. When it’s “both sides,” you get to escape accountability. When it’s “both sides,” the guilty get to escape a hard look in the mirror.
And just to belabor the point, here is why nearly everyone on the right is so united about political violence as a left-wing problem. First, Matt Walsh posted a short list of all the left-wing violence the right has had to endure in just the past few years:
BLM riots
Antifa
Church shootings
Trump assassination attempt [two of these!]
Pro life pregnancy center fires
Tesla vandalism
Attacks against ICE agents
Attacks against police
Attacks against federal courthouses
Allow me to add to this: multiple transgender shootings and threats by transgender activists. Plus, don’t any of these Bothsiders remember that our cities turned into a nightly warzone of fires, shootings, and Molotov cocktails from 2020-2021? It got so bad outside the White House that the president had to be moved to a secure location.
Don’t forget “Punch a Nazi” and “Punch a TERF” rhetoric either. Yes, men who identify as transgender, some of the most violent of the various Democrat shock troops, have attacked women as TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminists, for years.
And we endure plenty of ancillary political violence. It was left-wing violence that forced Kyle Rittenhouse into a trial for self-defense. It was left-wing violence that forced Daniel Penny into a trial for being a hero. It was left-wing violence that wrecked countless statues, monuments, and businesses.
Just days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the left is working overtime to hide the truth and create fantasies about his death.
Specifically, leftists alleged that conservatives were going to “pounce” on the death to wage protests and boost radical agendas in the manner of what followed George Floyd’s death.
Here are some of the lies that such a ridiculous narrative entails.
One, Charlie Kirk is not conservatives’ George Floyd. There were no mass riots after his death of the sort that followed Floyd’s demise.
Floyd’s death was used by the left to justify five months of rioting, arson, murder, looting, and attacking police officers.
The postmortem respect for Kirk’s singular life was not characterized by $2 billion in property damage, the torching of a police precinct, a federal courthouse, and an iconic church, 35 deaths, and 1,500 injured law-enforcement officers.
Instead, thousands of people peacefully joined his Turning Point USA organization and promised to redirect their lives toward peaceful political engagement.
Two, after Kirk’s death, no prominent Republican or conservative is encouraging ongoing mass (and often violent) protests in the manner of high-profile leftists like Kamala Harris.
Snip.
Three, Charles Kirk was not George Floyd. He was a law-abiding, religiously devout, political organizer, happily married with two children. Kirk was a media figure and head of a huge 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose brand was calmly debating students who disagreed with him.
Floyd should not have died while in police custody. But Floyd’s comorbidities were many. When arrested, he was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine, with a heart condition and recent Covid infection.
He was a career felon, with eight previous criminal convictions, who had in the past staged a violent home-invasion robbery and pointed a knife at the abdomen of one of the female occupants.
In contrast, when Kirk was killed, he was not on drugs. He was not resisting police officers. And he was not trying to pass counterfeit currency. Instead, he eschewed violence and tried to engage in polite dialogue with students of different views.
Four, Kirk was not, as alleged by the left, murdered by a right-wing shooter. His death was not an example of right-on-right violence. Just the opposite was true. The shooter, Tyler Robinson, was on record with his family expressing hatred for the conservative Kirk.
Robinson engraved his bullets with both Antifa-like “anti-fascist” messaging and transgender references. He lived with his transgender partner, who was a leftist. Robinson’s aim was to end Kirk’s peaceful conservative career because he hated his politics and popularity and feared his influence.
Five, the left used the death of Floyd to promote its hard-left and otherwise unpopular agenda—defunding the police, cashless bail, decriminalization of theft, and DEI mandates. It manipulated outrage, chaos, and months-long violence to ram through radical cultural and top-down legal changes that otherwise had little popular support.
“The Fake News Media, Democrats and Radical Left are Lying about Charlie Kirk. They use their lies to justify and excuse Charlie Kirk’s brutal murder and their culpability for it for winding up the radical leftist fringe with their violent rhetoric.”
Leftist political violence is on the rise with Fake News Media, Democrat politicians, activists and the far left using more and more radical, violent rhetoric. I wrote about the violent rhetoric (and leftist political violence) on this substack, several times (see also here and here). I also observed previously that the far left consider political violence a tool and that the violent rhetoric serves to “trigger” the radical leftist fringe into acting out violence. The visceral response Americans had to the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk only days ago made the media, Democrats and their enablers “circle the wagons” and start fabricating lies and misinformation about Charlie Kirk. I debunk a couple of the nastier lies in this article.
Snip.
AT NO TIME did he say “black women” lack brain processing power. He said several prominent liberal women who admitted they were assisted by affirmative action were admitting they lacked the “brain processing power to be taken really seriously.”
The comments at issue were made on the July 13, 2023 episode of Charlie Kirk’s podcast. During the show, Charlie discusses affirmative action. Affirmative action was a particularly hotly debated topic at the time due to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard wherein SCOTUS found the use of race-based affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
After the Supreme Court’s opinion in Harvard a number of prominent black Democrats publicly supported affirmative action and stated they were personally assisted in their careers by affirmative action. Among these were the late Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat Congresswoman from Texas, former First Lady Michelle Obama and former MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid.
Snip.
The Charlie Kirk Called for Stoning Gay People LIE
Literally hours after his murder, prominent leftists started circulating false claims that Charlie Kirk advocated for or supported stoning gay people to death. Chief among the purveyors of this misinformation was famous author (and radical leftist) Stephen King.
Snip.
Did Charlie Kirk “Advocate” for Stoning Gays?
No, of course not. In fact, Charlie Kirk advocated repeatedly for caring for gay people and encouraged and supported gay conservatives. (This link is to a gay conservative Charlie supported. His video is worth watching and includes video of Charlie Kirk answering questions from gay people.)
Charlie Kirk was a Christian and believed in the Bible. Based on Scripture, Charlie knew homosexuality was a sin. Naturally, this enraged the far left. To justify or excuse Charlie’s murder the far left FABRICATED the claim that Charlie Kirk “advocated” for “stoning gays.” All Charlie Kirk did was reference Scripture. Here is what happened.
Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec hosted a podcast called Thoughtcrime. During a Thoughtcrime episode on June 8, 2024, Jack and Charlie (along with a couple of other frequent conservative contributors to the show) discussed a social media personality named Miss Rachel and her endorsement of Pride month (gay pride). Miss Rachel’s social media and blogging content focuses largely on kids and parenting. Miss Rachel made a post about suppoting Pride month and invoked the Bible in the process, citing the admonitions on the Book of Matthew to “love your neighbor.” Miss Rachel implied, but did not expressly say, anyone who is against Pride Month, is not being a good Christian.
In response, Charlie Kirk pointed out you love someone by “. . . by telling them the truth and not by confirming or affirming their sin.” He then suggested Miss Rachel read the rest of the Scriptures and pointed out the Book of Leviticus calls for a man who lays with another man to be stoned, making the point Miss Rachel was cherry-picking Bible verses. He also pointed out the Bible says to love God, one must love his law and that the Book of Leviticus lays down God’s law about sex.
“Stephen King himself agreed his own post was untrue and apologized for the post.”
The Fake News Media, the Democrats and the left generally are in panic mode working to spread lies about Charlie Kirk in an effort to blunt public opinion against their radical, violent rhetoric and leftist violence. These two lies are the worst in my view. There are many more other lies being spread about Charlie Kirk by the left. Keep that in mind as you read any media reports.
Florida’s Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas reminded teachers and administrators that they can be fired for violating the state’s code of ethics. “An educator who is designated with ensuring the health, safety and welfare of students in schools making comments celebrating violence at a school is very concerning.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
More transtifa news: “The man who pleaded guilty to attempting to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh identifies as a transgender woman, according to newly revealed court documents. In a recent court filing, Nicholas Roske’s defense attorneys call their client “Sophie” and explain in a footnote that they will use female pronouns to refer to him ‘out of respect.'”
A few years back we got really serious about studying cash transfers, and rigorous research began in cities all across America. Some programs targeted the homeless, some new mothers and some families living beneath the poverty line. The goal was to figure out whether sizable monthly payments help people lead better lives, get better educations and jobs, care more for their children and achieve better health outcomes.
Many of the studies are still ongoing, but, at this point, the results aren’t “uncertain.” They’re pretty consistent and very weird. Multiple large, high-quality randomized studies are finding that guaranteed income transfers do not appear to produce sustained improvements in mental health, stress levels, physical health, child development outcomes or employment. Treated participants do work a little less, but shockingly, this doesn’t correspond with either lower stress levels or higher overall reported life satisfaction.
Homeless people, new mothers and low-income Americans all over the country received thousands of dollars. And it’s practically invisible in the data. On so many important metrics, these people are statistically indistinguishable from those who did not receive this aid.
Read on for more detailed methodologies, but the results (or lack thereof) are consistent with all other experiments of this type, all the way back to the SIME/DIME experiments of the late 1960s. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)
The State Department announced Wednesday its decision to close the remnants of the Global Engagement Center, an office the Biden administration rebranded last year after it came under scrutiny for contributing to the censorship of conservatives online.
“The United States has ceased all Frameworks to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation and any associated instruments implemented by the former administration,” principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement, referring to the Global Engagement Center’s new title.
“The Framework, initially launched by the GEC to counter so-called disinformation, devolved into tools for political censorship instead of protecting Americans from foreign adversarial propaganda,” he added.
“Through free speech, the United States will counter genuine malign propaganda from adversaries that threaten our national security, while protecting Americans’ right to exchange ideas.”
The Biden administration reshuffled the GEC into the Frameworks to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation after congressional Republicans defunded the GEC in 2024. Republican lawmakers shut down the GEC after widespread backlash among conservatives against the agency over the pressure it put on social media companies to censor disfavored points of view.
The State Department’s move followed through on Secretary Marco Rubio’s directive earlier this year to close the unit and end the practice of government-sponsored censorship.
Disgraced Georgia DA Fani Willis permabanned from prosecuting Trump. “The denial of certiorari to Ms. Willis’s appeal of her suspension from the election interference case she brought against Mr. Trump and 18 others is a decisive victory for the 47th president. The high court’s four-to-three decision ends Ms. Willis’s time atop the case, which was terminated because of her secret romance with her special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.”
More food inflation? Except for beef, I’m not seeing price spikes the way I saw 2020-2022.
There’s a rare public spat going on between Governor Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick over THC regulation.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has responded to Gov. Greg Abbott’s hemp-derived THC executive order (EO), saying that “on this issue, we disagree.”
A staunch supporter of an outright ban on THC in Texas, Patrick said in his Friday press release that via the EO, Abbott “intentionally or not, has sent a signal to the THC industry that they have a state seal of approval on the current THC market.”
Abbott’s EO, which comes after his veto of the THC ban in Senate Bill 3 at the end of the regular session and then two special sessions where the Legislature was unable to come to an agreement on regulation, directs the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and Department of State Health Services (DSHS) with prohibiting the sale of hemp-derived THC products to “minors” — but does not explicitly state a specific age.
The EO also directs DSHS to conduct a review of existing agency rules that deal with total THC content in products, labeling requirements, and record-keeping.
Abbott told The Texan in July that he wants to see a 21-year age limit on the sale of hemp-derived THC products, an age he had mentioned in his veto proclamation.
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller joined Vice President JD Vance, who hosted The Charlie Kirk Show earlier, following Kirk’s assassination last Wednesday by what has been described as a “radical left, ANTIFA-adjacent creep” with a radicalized transgender partner.
Miller told Vance, “Which is that we need to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country.”
It appears that Miller has correctly identified the dark-money-funded NGO world as fueling this madness, and that an urgent all-of-government approach is necessary.
More on the subject from Jason Curtis Anderson of One City Rising:
It’s encouraging to see the White House focus on the violent, revolutionary arm of the radical left, but targeting small organizations alone won’t solve the problem.
We need a multi-agency coordinated effort, and it must confront the dark-money network of foundations that prop them up.
We also must begin ruthlessly regulating and enforcing the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) system, where the revolution against the West operates. To qualify for tax-exempt status, a group is supposed to serve the public good.
Yet many qualify on flimsy claims of promoting social, racial, or climate justice and then devote themselves to protests and flag-burning.
They are a cancer on society, and the longer we wait, the more it will metastasize.
It’s also alarming how closely far-left radicalization mirrors Islamist radicalization. The stages are strikingly similar: Introduction to ideology, Obsession with ideology, Belief that violence is justified, Acts of violence on behalf of the ideology.
Planned Parenthood’s online “gender affirming care” lesson for students as young as middle-schoolers suggests using “liquid filled condoms” to mimic a penis and provides instructions on how to circumvent safeguards if “you’re looking for hormones without extra gatekeeping.”
Sex Ed To-Go is an online program with free sex-education lessons in Spanish and English developed by Planned Parenthood for teachers and students, ranging from topics like sexually transmitted diseases to “handling break-ups.” The new module titled “Gender Affirming Care,” created by Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, is designed for students in eighth grade and above. The lesson plan explains gender-related terminology, explores “types of things people can do to help their body and appearance match their gender identity,” directs students on finding “resources,” and details “how to support someone who is transgender, non-binary, or transitioning.”
Conversely, University President Mark Welsh is out at Texas A&M.
Mark Welsh, president of Texas A&M University, is stepping down effective September 19. Announced by Chancellor Glenn Hegar and the Board of Regents, the news follows weeks of mounting controversy over Welsh’s leadership.
Welsh’s resignation caps a period of public uproar sparked by his handling of a children’s literature course that included instruction on introducing LGBT and gender identity material to children as young as three.
The situation came under public scrutiny after State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Midlothian) released audio of a student objecting to the curriculum and subsequent allegations that the student was kicked out of class for expressing concerns about transgender indoctrination. Initially, Welsh defended the professor involved but later reversed himself—firing the instructor and removing the department head and dean from their posts.
Despite these actions, criticism intensified from lawmakers and activists, who accused Welsh of ambivalence and being slow to address the controversy.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick publicly called for further accountability, stating Welsh “did not handle the recent situation … as he should have,” while Harrison said Welsh “must be fired for forcing radical trans indoctrination on students.”
Sadly, trans indoctrination in education is something squishy Republicans dragged their heels on fighting in the past. That’s no longer the case, and I suspect that anyone in Texas who thinks its a good idea to use trans indoctrination on kids is soon going to find themseleves on the receiving end of a pink slip.
“We got too progressive, I believe,” said JoJo Burgess, the black Democratic mayor of Washington, Pennsylvania, a small city in steel country. He’s also a steelworker trying to claw back some of the steel country for Democrats.
Burgess argued that the Democrats’ problems are Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and identity politics, including gender ideology. Clairton Mayor Rich Lattanzi, also a Democrat and a former steelworker, basically agreed.
“It’s almost like the Democrats forgot the people they are representing,” Lattanzi told the Washington Examiner.
In 2000, Al Gore won Fayette, Washington, and Greene counties, all steel and coal country south of Pittsburgh, by 10 points, which was the norm. More recently, President Donald Trump carried all three counties by 30 points.
Burgess told the Washington Examiner he believes steel country Democrats were done in by a one-two punch. First, former President Barack Obama won the presidency, and Burgess said he believes white rural Democrats didn’t want to be in a party headed by a black man. He said the second blow was self-inflicted in 2016, adding “one of the biggest problems that we had with the Democratic Party — that’s Bernie Sanders.”
Burgess said he believes Sanders got so much attention that party leadership felt they had to tack left to embrace it.
“We got too progressive, I believe. And you got the progressives that picked up on that, like the AOCs [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and people like that,” Burgess said. “Listen, I’m not gonna say that they’re bad, but sometimes some of the shit that some of these guys say: it’s just it’s too extreme and it don’t make sense.”
He added that one example is “gender stuff.”
“Whenever the LGBQTIA community comes out and says, ‘We’re getting treated just like black people,’ no, you’re not,” Burgess said. “As black people, we have no choice. In that community, you do have a choice, and you do know what you sign up for when you take on that role. Do I believe that you’re discriminated against? Yes. Do I believe you should be protected against it? Absolutely.”
However, Burgess totally rejected the idea that boys who identify as girls should be able to compete as girls, and he said he believes Democrats harm themselves by taking the other side.
Lattanzi said when the Democratic establishment hosts an event in steel country, it plays its identity-politics games and tries to stay away from the working-class white guy who stereotypically embodies this region.
“They’re out there looking for minorities, gays, and lesbians,” Lattanzi said.
Lots of interesting takeaways there, but this was a big one: “white rural Democrats didn’t want to be in a party headed by a black man.” Emphasis added. And that’s in 2008, which suggests racism lingered on in the rural Democratic Party much longer than in the Republican Party or America as a whole. See also: The Myth of the Southern Strategy.
Things that make you go “Hmmmm: “The EU Paid-Off €600,000 To Friendly Media Outlets Right After European Elections.”
One European politician, MEP Petr Bystron, has revealed that the EU commission has provided Financial support to the American investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) right after the 2024 EU elections. Major German news outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung belong to the group, which is the world’s largest network of investigative media.
These outlets are known for their hit pieces on conservative and right-wing parties, often at opportune times. Notably, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung’s reporting in 2019 on the Ibiza Affair scandal — which involved an undercover video of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) party’s leader — led to the toppling of the Austrian government at the time, which included the FPÖ. Many critics believed that due to the sophistication of the operation, which included an undercover actress, intelligence services may have played a role.
The OCCRP group was founded in 2006 and is most well known for publishing the “Panama Papers” and the “Azerbaijan Laundromat” evasion scandals.
After a massive flow of U.S. money was cut off to key European establishment outlets and NGOs, Brussels is stepping in to fill the gap. Namely, the Trump administration ended the massive levels of funding headed towards foreign organizations, particularly from USAID, which allowed them to pump out pro-EU and left-wing content to wide swathes of the population across Europe.
The OCCRP group has received an extraordinary amount of money from U.S. taxpayers and other U.S. sources. According to French outlet Mediapart, the group received nearly $50 million from U.S. sources, but these funders were not just generous donors. They also could dictate editorial agendas and veto staff appointments.
Two journalists from NDR, a German state media network, questioned just how independent the OCCRP is in a 2024 report.
The two determined that a significant portion of the money was coming from American funds, particularly from USAID. OCCRP was funneling content and material to German media outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Since the revelations, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Petr Bystron has officially requested the EU Commission to provide information about whether it also provides financial support to OCCRP. The response revealed that the organization has received €600,000 since November 2024 as part of an EU project to “strengthen” journalism.
Known as the NEXT-U project, it aims to support European journalists and media organizations with training and tools for investigative journalism. The commission defends the grants, stating that the taxpayer money is transparently distributed and adheres to journalistic standards.
Bystron argues that the ample amount of money amounts to an influence operation.
“OCCRP media outlets like Der Spiegel received over 600,000 euros from the EU directly after the EU elections. These very media outlets manipulated the last EU elections through massive campaigns,” he said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung, which published the exclusive story first.
The AfD MEP stated that the aim was to discredit conservative, right-wing politicians who are critical of the EU.
I first met Charlie Kirk when he was just 18 years old, in my friend’s living room. Fresh out of high school, even then, he had a vision for Turning Point USA—a dream to energize young people, inspire them, and get them involved. He started in his parents’ garage, and that vision grew into something extraordinary.
From the beginning, Charlie stood out. He was brilliant, bold, courageous, and joyful. He was a happy warrior.
Like so many across the country, I struggled to comprehend the news of his death.
He was assassinated for speaking the truth, for sharing his heartfelt beliefs, for daring to open conversations across the political spectrum. And his absence leaves a gaping hole in our nation’s soul.
Snip.
When I think back on Charlie’s life and all that he accomplished by the age of 31, I’m struck by how profoundly he influenced our nation. He had a gift, and few have done more for America’s youth.
Yes, he encouraged young Americans to go to the polls. He engaged in open discussion. He wanted to know young people’s hearts.
But most importantly, he was good for our country because he wanted to revive the souls of Americans.
Charlie wanted people to know the Lord, and he wanted to be remembered most for his courage in faith. He was one of the most important Christian evangelists and apologists of modern times.
Charlie sought out those who disagreed with him, and he was happy to listen to their arguments—respectfully and civilly—and to engage them on substance.
And he made an unbelievable difference in the lives of young people, inspiring millions across America and across the world.
The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday permanently banned Judge Matthew J. Elkin of Howard County from judicial service following findings of judicial misconduct.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush wrote the rare decision to oust a county judge, and the other four justices on the Indiana Supreme Court agreed.
Elkin, a Republican who served in Howard Superior Court in Kokomo, was found to have engaged in misconduct by failing to disqualify himself from cases involving former clients, making inappropriate comments to court participants, and favoring certain litigants over others.
Yeah, the failure to disqualify is a huge no-no. Never let it be said that I don’t report actual Republican corruption when it happens.
Aw, how does it feel? “Rolling Stone Hit With Layoffs Amid Ongoing Staff Reductions at Penske.”
According to [Oliver] Darcy, among the affected Rolling Stone staffers are executive digital director Lisa Tozzi, chief television critic Alan Sepinwall and copy chief Steven Pearl. As of this writing, none of them have commented publicly.
Following months of speculation about her future plans, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced this week she will not seek a third term as chief executive of Texas’ largest county.
“I am still in office until December 2026, and I’ve got the work cut out for me and that’s not even, knock on wood, counting any emergencies that might arise,” Hidalgo said during an interview with ABC 13 in Houston. “After that, I don’t know. I don’t know what I will do. I know that I’m not running for office this cycle. I can say that with confidence, and I know that I will stay in public service.”
First elected in 2018 in the down-ballot “Beto wave” of victories for Democrats, Hidalgo won with less than 50 percent of the vote against incumbent Republican Judge Ed Emmett. Prior to taking the reins as chief executive of Harris County, the 27-year-old had worked as a medical interpreter at the Texas Medical Center in Houston and volunteered for the Texas Civil Rights Project. A graduate of Stanford University, Hidalgo previously worked for international media group Internews in Indonesia.
Hidalgo’s surprise victory handed Democrats control of the commissioners court, with whom she initially worked well to usher in a slew of reforms to the county’s management of flood mitigation, infrastructure, and criminal justice systems; an administrative restructuring of county government; and the launch of new social programs. Lauded as a rising political star, the young judge drew the attention of national media for her promotion of progressive policies in a reliably Republican state.
Despite multiple controversies during her first term — including her efforts to release violent criminal suspects from the county’s jail during the COVID-19 pandemic and indictment of several staffers over an alleged vaccine outreach bid-rigging scheme — Hidalgo narrowly won a second term in 2022, but has since increasingly clashed with fellow Democratic commissioners and often exhibited erratic behavior.
During a swearing-in ceremony after the 2022 election, Hidalgo accused fellow Democratic commissioners of trying to cut her out of the program. Later that year she alleged that she had been “groped” in the commissioners court meeting room. Months later, Hidalgo took a lengthy leave of absence while she sought in-patient treatment for depression.
Since returning to her office Hidalgo has increasingly clashed publicly with Commissioners Adrian Garcia (D-Pct. 2) and Lesley Briones (D-Pct. 4), while largely maintaining her alliance with Commissioner Rodney Ellis (D-Pct. 1).
The fractures on the commissioners’ court erupted earlier this year when Garcia and Briones joined the lone Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey (R-Pct. 3) in support of raises for law enforcement but refused to support Hidalgo’s proposal for a tax increase to continue a pilot daycare program launched with federal COVID-19 relief funds in 2022.
Good news for the exit of an unqualified leftist who did much harm while she was there.
Jimmy Kimmel yanked off the air indefinitely for Charlie Kirk comments, mainly implying the shooter was MAGA rather than a lefty and for using Kirk’s death as an excuse to segway into still more Trump bashing. Evidently affiliate stations and advertisers stated they would no longer air or advertise on the show after that. I think media companies are finally figuring out just how tired ordinary Americans are of the far left, social justice hatefest on late night TV.
Analysis: True. “The Left is angrier about Kimmel getting fired for lying about an assassination than the assassination itself.”
A woman accused of running an illegal ballot harvesting scheme during the 2022 General Election was arrested in Starr County, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday.
A grand jury indicted Modesta Vela of Roma after a yearlong investigation into ballot harvesting operations targeting numerous senior citizens in South Texas. She was arrested on September 4, marking her fourth arrest since 2010.
“Due to the findings of this investigation, a grand jury issued a true bill indictment against Vela for intentionally and knowingly influencing a Texan’s vote in the presence of the ballot during the voting process, which is an offense punishable as a state jail felony,” according to Paxton’s office.
Ballot harvesting—sometimes referred to as “ballot trafficking”—typically involves a third party illegally collecting and handling voters’ ballots in order to influence elections.
In South Texas, these third-party ballot harvesters are known as politiqueras.
Investigators with the Office of the Attorney General said Vela’s activities focused on Texans over the age of 65, a group often targeted in such cases due to their automatic eligibility for mail-in voting.
Paxton reiterated his longstanding position that election fraud is an ongoing threat in Texas.
“Though liberals and the left-wing media like to pretend otherwise, we know that election fraud is real and a serious threat,” said Paxton. “Criminals trying to steal our elections and rig the democratic process will be found, arrested, and prosecuted. Modesta Vela was trying to take advantage of voters and broke the law by illegally ballot harvesting and targeting a Texan seeking to engage in our elections. Now, it’s time for Vela to answer for her actions in court.”
The investigation followed a complaint filed in late 2022 by Project Red Texas, alleging Vela was involved in ballot harvesting operations in Starr County.
A popular Ohio barbecue restaurant is facing major backlash after one of its co-owners called conservative activist Charlie Kirk a “piece of s—” in a social media post after his assassination.
Shortly after Kirk, 31, was shot Wednesday while speaking at a campus event in Utah, Aaron Sharpe, co-owner of Lucius Q in Cincinnati, commented on a Facebook post from someone offering prayers for the husband and father of two.
“Good riddance,” Sharpe wrote in a post that is no longer publicly visible but has been circulated widely online in screenshots. “What a piece of s—,” he added.
On Wednesday evening, Sharpe doubled down on Facebook, posting, “Don’t you dare come at me with your hypocrisy. … If you think that threats of social media attacks on me or my business will in any way keep me silent about what I believe, you are sorely mistaken….”
On Thursday, several of Lucius Q’s business partners announced they had cut ties with the restaurant. Lucius Q later announced it had parted ways with Sharpe.
Remember how everyone swore that the idea Democrats were going to use the Pacific Palisades fire as an excuse to build public housing was just a conspiracy theory? Guess what?
Bill Maher had Charlie Kirk on his Club Random podcast.
Originally I was going to post just a snippet of it, but that seems to have been deleted from YouTube, so here’s the whole thing:
I just wanted to highlight this:
Charlie Kirk: “We we have different jihadis that want to kill me. The purple-haired jihadis. The woke guys.”
Bill Maher: “They want to kill me just as bad.”
CK: “You’ve been very outspoken on the woke stuff.”
BM: “Just the way, within a religion, they hate their own apostates more, I would say they hate me more, because I’m supposed to get on the short bus to crazy town with them, and I won’t.”
BM: “I feel like there’s liberal and woke are two completely different things.” That’s certainly true when it comes to classical liberalism, the kind that came out of the enlightenment. But progressives abandoned that kind of liberalism a long, long time ago. FDR was a big proponent of the censorship Maher says he decries, and the post-Port Huron Statement New Left has seldom shied away from trying to silence dissidents and opponents. If the “good liberals” had actually attempted to stop the woke from taking over the Democratic Party one cancel culture issue at a time, then we might be having a different conversation, but they didn’t, many because they were too afraid of being labeled racists. They always hated Republicans too much to breach the “no enemies on the left” dictum, so now the Democratic Party is the party of men in women’s bathrooms and mass importation of illegal alien criminals. Maher just wasn’t paying enough attention to it while it happened.
BM: “Woke is something completely different. It’s very often the opposite of it. You know, liberalism is let’s live in a colorblind society. That’s the goal. Woke’s goal is we see race everywhere.” Bill, there’s only one party pushing a colorblind society, and it’s not the Democrats. Indeed, it’s been that way at least since Reagan. Democrats have long been the party of Affirmative Actions and quotas.
BM: “Liberal is a two-state solution. Woke is river to the sea.” The Democratic Party’s ideological core has been institutionally hostile to Israel since at least the Six-Day War. That hostility was plainly visible on college campuses in the 1980s. Well, guess what? All those keffiyeh-wearing red diaper babies are now firmly in control of the Democratic Party’s foreign policy establishment. Social justice warriors view Israelis as the ultimate white colonial oppressors and Palestinians as the ultimate victims, and therefore Hamas gets imbued with absolute moral authority no matter how many Israeli women they rape and how many Jewish babies they decapitate. Again, these trends have been visible in the Democratic Party for a long time for anyone looking for them. Maher obviously didn’t.
BM: “You got off the F train. You fell asleep and you got off 20 stops too far. And don’t blame me for that .” We don’t blame the Bill Mahers of the world for that, but we do blame them for not pulling the emergency cord until they were 18 or 19 stops down the line, instead of four or five.
“The Short Bus To Crazy Town” is a great phrase to describe where the Democratic Party is going today. It’s great that Maher has finally recognized it. But conservatives noticed these trends a long, long time ago and were ridiculed by the MSM (and the Bill Mahers of the world) for pointing it out.
The Trump administration took a sledgehammer to progressive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives Tuesday night with executive orders designed to root racialist ideology out of the federal government and American institutions at large.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order overturning President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 executive order creating race-based hiring requirements for federal contractors. Paired with that is a memo from the office of personnel management placing all DEI employees on leave and shutting down DEI programs and offices.
LBJ’s executive order was clearly unconstitutional and counter to the founder’s vision of individual equality under the law, but was thought at the time to be a necessary expedient to overcome decade of Jim Crow discrimination against black Americans. But there are few things more permanent than a “temporary” government program. Rescinding LBJ’s racist edict was long overdue, but expect the withered vine of Never-Trumpers to scream about “mah sacred norms and practices!” (At least I’m assuming that’s what they’re screeching. There’s too much real news to bother hunting for their reflexive pearl-clutching reactions. If a tree grifts in a forest when no one is around, does it make a sound?)
“President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit based society where people are hired based on their skills, not for the color of their skin.
I seem to remember hearing a quote like this before.
This is another win for Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Promises made, promises kept,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In addition to overturning affirmative action for contractors, Trump’s executive order declares DEI illegal and advises corporations and federally funded universities to end all illegal discrimination, with DEI falling under that umbrella.
Likewise, Trump took action to rid the Federal Aviation Administration of DEI hiring practices and return the agency to a merit-based system. Trump instructed the Secretary of Transportation and FAA administrator to end preferential hiring protocols for certain demographic criteria and revoke DEI programming inside the agency.
On Monday, Trump’s first day in office, he signed executive orders directing agencies to terminate DEI programs and review employment practices to root out DEI in all its forms. He also repealed the Biden administration’s “equity” executive order for the federal workforce and other executive actions meant to advance “equity” for minority groups.
Live by executive order, die by executive order. Die, DEI.
Trump’s executive actions have the potential to significantly reshape federal civil rights law and could spell the end of DEI across American institutions. Large corporations, elite universities, news organizations, and many other powerful facets of American business and culture adopted DEI during the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter riots and racial reckoning.
It was a grossly stupid and irresponsible decision then and it’s completely indefensible now.
Over the past few years, conservatives have waged a legal and political battle against DEI that started gaining traction after the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that race-based college admissions programs violated the 14th Amendment. Conservative groups have filed a flurry of lawsuits alleging that corporate DEI programs violate anti-discrimination laws by explicitly creating programs for people with certain racial and gender characteristics.
And numerous courts have frequently and correctly ruled against such discriminatory behavior.
Numerous red states have also passed legislation outlawing DEI from universities and other public institutions.
More broadly, conservatives believe DEI programs obsessively focus on people’s immutable characteristics and assign blame to certain groups, rather than prioritizing individual character and meritocracy. DEI practitioners and proponents assert that it is necessary to make up for historical injustices to support people from marginalized backgrounds and train others to hold their same views.
Prior to Trump’s resounding electoral victory this past November, several large corporations including John Deere, Tractor Supply, Ford, and Lowe’s walked back DEI initiatives following conservative pressure. The slow corporate retreat from DEI continues after the election, with McDonald’s and Meta being among the companies to abandon DEI ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
Hopefully Trump’s executive order will spark the end of DEI’s slow retreat and begin its swift and complete rout.
Another half year gone. In one way, it seems impossible that it’s flown by so quickly. In another, I certainly feel tired enough for that, and then some…
There’s a zillion Biden corruption links I could have added to this week’s LinkSwarm, so feel free to share your favorites in the comments.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss wanted to bring charges against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden in Washington, D.C., IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley said on Friday — and when he was reportedly barred from doing so, he told six witnesses.
Shapley testified on the matter last month, telling the House Oversight Committee that Weiss revealed in an October 2022, meeting that he had actually wanted to charge Hunter Biden in two federal districts but that he had been denied — and when Attorney General Merrick Garland denied that had ever happened, Shapley publicly named the witnesses he said Weiss had told.
“He surprised us by telling us on the charges, ‘I’m not the deciding official on whether charges are filed,’” Shapley told the committee when he testified in late May. “He then shocked us with the earth-shattering news that the Biden-appointed D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves would not allow him to charge in his district.
Shapley explained that by not allowing Weiss to file charges in D.C., Graves had effectively barred Weiss from seeking charges on crimes allegedly committed during 2014 and 2015 — including “foreign income from Burisma [Holdings] and a scheme to evade his income taxes through a partnership with a convicted felon … The purposeful exclusion of the 2014 and 2015 years sanitized the most substantive criminal conduct and concealed material facts.”
It was at that same meeting in October 2022 that Weiss said his request for special counsel authority had been denied, Shapley said. He was instead told to go through the regular process — which would have once again pitted him against a Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the race-conscious admissions policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the six-justice majority.
However, universities may still consider an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. Roberts clarified that this does not mean universities can simply establish through application essays or other means the regime declared unlawful by the Court. It means, explained Roberts, “the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race.”
Of course our elite liberal institutions are furious, since they desperately want to discriminate the basis of race.
Paragraph 2: National Geographic magazine (now owned by Disney) laid off its last remaining staff writers. Paragraph 14: “Among those who lost their jobs in the latest layoff was Debra Adams Simmons, who only last September was promoted to vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at National Geographic Media.” Usually it takes longer for DEI to destroy a company… (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Speaking of Disney disasters, Indiana Jones and the Dial Up Internet of Depravity: “What a fucking incomprehensible calamity of a film this is. I mean, I’d be lying if I said I went into it expecting great things, but Jesus Fucking Mother of Christ, this was worse than anything I could have imagined.”
“7 Simple Ways To Get Away With A Massive Foreign Bribery Scheme.” “Get one of your immediate family members elected to a powerful office: Like your father, for one completely random example.”
And those are just the ones with over 100 employees. There are much more with fewer (including Gordon Ramsay North America, which has a chain of restaurants, which has moved its headquarters to Irving, despite having no restaurants in Texas). (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
For the past few years, Atlanta has been roiled by corruption scandals centering on the city’s decades-old program to favor minority-owned businesses in government contracting. The troubles started when Elvin “E. R.” Mitchell, Jr., a black contractor, began paying what became more than $1 million in bribes to city official and friend of the mayor Reverend Mitzi Bickers. Mitchell and his associates wanted to ensure that they could keep winning city-favored contracts and subcontracts for minorities, despite submitting bids higher than their competitors’. Mitchell also helped Bickers bribe officials in Jackson, Mississippi, so that she could secure minority-favored contracts on some of that city’s projects. Meantime, Larry Scott, head of Atlanta’s Office of Contract Compliance, which ensures that minority firms win contracts, started a side gig to help such businesses get favorable deals with the city—receiving over $220,000 in unreported income and partnering with the mayor’s brother and sister-in-law in the scheme. Mitchell, Bickers, Scott, and several other city officials have been sentenced on federal charges ranging from bribery to wire fraud.
Affirmative-action plans in schools or workplaces get the headlines, but the practice of favoring minorities in government contracts is almost as old, and even more far-reaching. Such favoritism—in the form of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE), or Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) programs—exists across all levels of government and in states and cities of every political hue.
The subject of government contracting, or procurement, may not seem exciting, but its importance can’t be overstated. Nearly 10 percent of the U.S. economy goes through government contracts. The federal government spends over $600 billion yearly on contracts, making it the largest buyer of goods and services on the planet. State- and local-government spending on contracts totals about $1.3 trillion annually. Government contracts and purchases range from aircraft carriers and highway construction projects to office supplies and human-resources software. Favoritism to minority-owned companies pervades this vast universe.
Minority contracting was never a coherent way to make amends for the nation’s long, lamentable history of racism. Instead of righting historical wrongs, the policy has enriched a small subset of already-wealthy businesses, bred corruption and fraud, deepened racial divisions, and cost taxpayers countless billions of dollars—while doing nothing to help the truly disadvantaged. Indeed, minority residents of urban areas pay the highest price for lackluster and expensive services caused by such programs. One underappreciated reason for the unparalleled costs of American urban and infrastructure projects is that the government too often picks contractors based on their sex or race, not the quality or cost of their bids.
Snip.
Today, governments use several methods to favor minority contractors. At the federal level, Congress has stated that “not less than 5 percent” of all contracts should go to “disadvantaged” businesses. Regulations clarify a “presumption” that “Black Americans; Hispanic Americans; Native Americans,” and “Asian Americans” are disadvantaged. Government treats the goal as a floor, not a ceiling: in recent years, the true share of contracts going to disadvantaged firms has been around 10 percent, and politicians have urged the bureaucracy to push the total higher. The SBA then sets goals for individual agencies—recently demanding, for example, that the Department of Transportation offer 21 percent of all contracts to disadvantaged enterprises. It also requires that federal “prime contractors” (the lead contractor on a project) create subcontracting plans to maximize minority participation.
State and local governments set even higher goals for minority procurement but usually focus on encouraging large businesses to subcontract out to minorities. Chicago insists that 26 percent of all construction dollars go to minority companies and 6 percent to women-owned businesses. But a city-funded report noted that “almost all City funded construction projects require M/WBE” goals for subcontractors and that “project goals should exceed the ‘baseline’ goal.” Maryland has a target of 29 percent of contract dollars to minority firms. New York City and State have set a goal of 30 percent of all contracts going to MWBE, and the city itself goes into more detail, setting precise contracting goals for each race and business category (for instance, black-owned businesses should get 11.81 percent of all city professional-service contracts).
Agencies have various ways of meeting these benchmarks. Federal agencies can directly award contracts to minority firms, without a normal bidding process and through a no-bid deal, if they cost less than $5 million. This arrangement, of course, has caused abuse. After 9/11, the federal government, hoping to accelerate security purchases, expanded awards to “Alaska Native Corporations,” which had a special exemption that allowed them to get no-bid minority contracts of unlimited amounts. Federal contracts to these corporations increased 20-fold in the decade ending in 2009, when spending totaled almost $6 billion. The army’s infectious-disease center at Fort Detrick, in a no-bid deal, shifted the management of all its contracts to an Alaskan Native Corporation, whose most significant former venture was a failed cruise-ship line. Another such corporation won a port-scanning deal and then subcontracted it out to traditional defense companies; only 33 of the corporation’s 2,300 employees were Alaskan Natives. Though Native Americans are the smallest “disadvantaged” group assisted by the federal government, they get 2.7 percent of all federal contracts—more than twice the proportion of any other group.
Snip.
The City of Austin Disparity Study for 2022, conducted by Colette Holt & Associates, a large disparity-study firm started by a lawyer who had previously worked for Chicago’s city government, is typical. It approaches 300 pages and contains a recitation of every supposed ill that has befallen a minority business in the Texas capital. The report uses only anonymous quotes that make accusations against unnamed individuals about racism or sexism. “There is no requirement that anecdotal testimony be ‘verified’ or corroborated,” the report notes.
Try as they might, these studies have had little success proving racism or sexism in contracting. They typically use a “disparity ratio” to show the difference between the number of available minority firms and the number of government contracts going to these firms, though these ratios rarely account for the ability of different firms to perform government jobs. Yet studies conducted by Austin and Washington State found that MWBE firms were more likely to get contracts than were those owned by white men. A Missouri disparity study found that minority firms were more likely to get contracts than nonminority firms. A Chicago disparity study found that black and Hispanic firms were about twice as likely to get construction contracts, and Asian firms four times as likely, relative to their availability.
These reports’ surveys of minority firms find that most aren’t worried about discrimination. Of those MWBEs responding to a survey in Austin, 75 percent said that they had not experienced barriers to contracting based on race or gender. Over 85 percent agreed that they did not get different prices or terms because of their race or gender. Disparity studies ignore such data and argue that the minority of minorities who report unspecified discrimination need assistance.
When studies admit that there is no discrimination in contracting, politicians refuse to abide by them. Miami-Dade County made the mistake of employing a legitimate accounting firm, KPMG, for a disparity study, which determined that companies owned by blacks and Hispanics were not underused. The Miami mayor rejected the study. Los Angeles’s city council rejected a study that found that black firms did not suffer discrimination in contracting. The occasional lawsuit will surface, challenging these disparity studies when they provide no evidence of discrimination. But in such cases, governments will simply look for another minority contractor to conduct another study calling for more minority contracting.
Minority-contracting programs are a magnet for fraud. No-bid contracts represent an obvious avenue, but the most common kind of MWBE fraud is simple: contractors with subpar bids either lie about being run by minorities or lie about involving other minority businesses in the contract. The Wedtech scandal in the 1980s involved such fraud; though John Mariotta, a Puerto Rican immigrant, had started the company, it was partially run by Fred Neuberger, a Romanian Jew who escaped the Holocaust in Europe but did not count as “disadvantaged” for the purposes of the 8(a) program. Similar issues arose with the recent Atlanta scandals: while contractor Charles Richards was white and won many “prime” contracts, he promised to subcontract work to Mitchell’s minority firm, and then paid Mitchell without asking his firm to do any work. A 2016 Department of Transportation presentation stated that more than one-third of its contracting-fraud cases involved minority contracting and that, over the preceding five years, cases involving minority-contracting fraud had led to $245 million in financial penalties and 425 months of incarceration for offenders.
These cases tend to follow a certain playbook. A minority-owned front company wins the government contract, takes a small cut, and issues a pass-through contract to a white-owned firm. The largest such case in American history involved Schuylkill Products, a Pennsylvania firm that manufactured concrete bridge beams but had used a Filipino-owned front company for 15 years to win more than $130 million in contracts. The federal investigation led to several prison sentences in 2014. Front-company and pass-through fraud has dogged construction work at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and New York casinos. According to the New York State inspector general, the minority firms in the casino-fraud case did little more than submit invoices. A former Dallas councilman, meantime, went to prison for his role in setting up minority front companies for government contracts. Sometimes, the fraud is even more direct: in Seattle, the owner of a company that was paid to clean up homeless camps falsely identified as black on city forms. She also happened to be a city employee.
Target has repeatedly boasted about efforts to support the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, also known as GLSEN, an entity which helps teachers place LGBTQ books in school libraries and hide their students’ so-called gender transitions from parents.
Conservatives have launched a boycott against Target after the retail behemoth marketed a female swimsuit as “tuck-friendly” and with “extra crotch coverage,” as well as hired an artist who creates Satanic items to make various designs for the company. Links between the company and GLSEN, which supports “affirming learning environments for LGBTQ youth” and activates “supportive educators,” resurfaced amid the backlash against Target.
The retail behemoth boasted last year about donating more than $2.1 million to GLSEN over the past decade, lauding the group’s mission to create “affirming, accessible, and antiracist spaces for LGBTQIA+ students.” Target also actively promotes GLSEN on its online store.
Strangely enough, having a DA who will prosecute criminal and not lawful citizens defending themselves makes a difference. “San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins follows the law and the evidence and does not make decisions based on what may be politically expedient.”
Speaking of Soros-plagued cities: “Citywide Youth Curfew Begins In Baltimore As Mayor Strives To Restore Law And Order.”I doubt Mayor Brandon Scott’s policy will make that much of a difference, though maybe with Soros-tool Marilyn Mosby out of office and awaiting trial on federal perjury charges, maybe there’s a chance of Baltimore improving. But remember:
Of course. “Just Stop Oil’s Hollywood Patron Has Holiday Home in Ireland That he Jets Off to ‘When the Going Gets Tough.'” “Oscar winner Adam McKay, whose films include The Big Short and Don’t Look Up, is one of a group of multi-millionaires behind the Climate Emergency Fund. The Beverly Hills-based fund raises cash from its mega rich supporters and distributes it to ‘disruptive’ activists, including handing almost £1million to help Just Stop Oil wreak havoc in the U.K.” Being a Democrat means never having to apologize for your hypocrisy.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Atlanta Police Department (APD) arrested Marlon Scott Kautz, age 39, of Atlanta, Savannah D. Patterson, age 30, of Savannah, Ga., and Adele Maclean, age 42, of Atlanta, on Wednesday on charges of money laundering and charity fraud in association with fundraising efforts for the domestic terrorists who are currently in jail.
“The GBI, along with the Atlanta Police Department, have arrested three people on charges stemming from the ongoing investigation of individuals responsible for numerous criminal acts at the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center and other metro Atlanta locations,” reads the GBI’s press release.
The trio ran a non-profit called Network for Strong Communities, which worked with another group called the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which, at least on paper, was a bail fund for the thugs who attacked the training center property and other areas in Atlanta.
Given that, it might be time to take a look at Worth It or Woke for honest movie reviews.
Dwight has a good look at the Battleship Texas, and (for Memorial Day) seaman Christen Christensen, who was killed in combat during the bombardment of a German shore battery off Cherbourg.
Don’t let JinJin eat poop off San Francisco’s street, or they may end up tripping balls.
At first I was suspicious this might be a Photoshop, until I noticed it linked to a Washington Post story. (The Post hasn’t quite stooped to Photoshoping fake news, but I wouldn’t put it past them around, say, October 2020…)
In addition to the DNA test, she released employment documents over the summer to show she didn’t use ethnicity to further her career. And in a speech a year ago she addressed her decision to call herself a Native American, though she didn’t offer the apology that some wanted at the time.
But as Warren undergoes increased scrutiny as a presidential candidate, additional documents could surface to keep the issue alive.
Using an open records request during a general inquiry, for example, The Post obtained Warren’s registration card for the State Bar of Texas, providing a previously undisclosed example of Warren identifying as an “American Indian.”
Warren filled out the card by hand in neat blue ink and signed it. Dated April 1986, it is the first document to surface showing Warren making the claim in her own handwriting. Her office didn’t dispute its authenticity.
Snip.
Warren filled out the card after being admitted to the Texas bar. Warren was doing legal work on the side, but nothing that required bar admission in the state, according to her campaign.
The date coincided with her first listing as a “minority” by the Association of American Law Schools. Warren reported herself as minority in the directory every year starting in 1986 — when AALS first included a list of minority law professors — to 1995, when her name dropped off the list.
Warren also had her ethnicity changed from white to Native American in December 1989 while working at the University of Pennsylvania. The change came two years after she was hired there.
Several months after Warren started working at Harvard Law School in 1995, she okayed listing her ethnicity as Native American. Harvard listed Warren as Native American in its federal affirmative action forms from 1995 to 2004, records show.
Warren, of course, has been swearing up and down, at least since her successful Senate run in 2012, that she never used fake Indian roots to get ahead by Affirmative Action. This additional bit of evidence, along with evidence about claiming to be an American Indian in college application processes, suggest that Warren is indeed a damn liar.
Before praising the Washington Post for digging out this nugget during investigative reporting, we have to ask: why now? The controversy has been dogging Warren for seven years. Why did no one from the Post ever dig this deep into these allegations before?
For one thing, Annie Linskey, one of the two reporters bylining the story, only joined the Post in November. Guess where she came from and what she reported on?
We are very excited to announce that Annie Linskey is joining The Post as a national politics reporter. Annie is the first of seven additions to our campaign team that we will be announcing in the coming weeks as we expand our team for the 2020 presidential race. She will focus on the Democratic field, covering the campaign from the trail while also reporting on the backgrounds and records of the major contenders.
Annie joins us from The Boston Globe’s Washington bureau, where she has worked for the last four years, and most recently served as deputy bureau chief. Annie distinguished herself as an authority on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, landing deeply reported stories on Warren’s legal career and the issue of Native American heritage. Annie covered the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and has covered the Trump administration and the politics of immigration.
But I suspect the real reason is the same reason Linskey was brought on in the first place: the mainstream media is in the tank for Kamala Harris to be the 2020 Democratic nominee. All other female and non-white candidates must be damaged or knocked out early to better clear Harris’ “lane.” Thus the same media that relentlessly boosted Warren when she advanced their policy goals now become hostile to her because she threatens their anointed choice.
Live by social justice warrior politics, die by social justice warrior politics…
We’ve known, from the drips and dabs that slipped out, that the UT admissions scandal was worse than the Kroll report actually let on. But we didn’t know it was ten times worse:
At least 764 applicants initially denied admission to the University of Texas were admitted thanks to a backdoor program for the wealthy and politically connected administered by former president Bill Powers.
More than 200 of those applicants were admitted despite having their applications cancelled by the Admissions Office.
The total is more than 10 times the 73 applicants widely reported from an investigation paid for by the university and conducted by Kroll Associates. Kroll withheld the full findings from its 107-page final report.
More:
The Kroll investigation confirmed what had been common knowledge in the wealthy Dallas-area community of Highland Park, which includes UT Regent Wallace Hall and House Education Committee chair Dan Branch: students were getting into UT at extraordinary rates, despite bad grades.
UT admitted seven Highland Park students with grade point averages below 2.0 and SAT scores below 800.
Also this:
The very worst of the students UT admitted, the investigation showed, were clustered in the districts of Branch, House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), and Sen. Kirk Watson, (D-Austin).
Straus has gone to even greater lengths than UT to cover up the abuses. He authorized a special committee operating behind the scenes in an effort to impeach Hall for asking too many questions about the admissions process.
A very cynical part of me wonders if this is the root of Straus’ stranglehold on the Speaker’s office: his power as the go-to fixer for getting unqualified students into UT.
If you hadn’t heard, Wallace Hall, who uncovered the scandal, is suing UT chancellor William McRaven for access to the documents Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has already said he’s entitled to.
Indeed, UT’s dishonest coverup may be a big factor in the Supreme Court in agreeing to hear an appeal on Fisher vs. University of Texas, “a 2008 lawsuit brought by a white student claiming the university’s diversity-seeking admissions system had unfairly deprived her of admission.”
The Dallas Observer‘s Jim Schutze (who, unlike myself, favors affirmative action) explains:
The court did receive a blistering friend-of-the-court brief (see copy below) from the Cato Institute, a conservative think-tank, in support of Fisher’s request to be heard again. The Cato brief called the court’s attention to an investigation of admissions at UT that grew out of the Hall disclosures. Cato told SCOTUS the investigation proved that UT’s “claimed diversity rationale is a sham.”
That would be new evidence, maybe. But if it goes to the university’s core integrity – if the university has been lying to the courts about why it handles admissions the way it does – then maybe it’s not so new. Maybe it goes right to the heart of the existing case.
We have talked here often before about revelations brought forward by Hall showing that the former president of the university and some of the regents were handing out undergraduate admissions to sons and daughters of influential state legislators the way favors of love are distributed in a bawdy house. But does that kind of corruption go to the affirmative action question?
Nobody knows if the Cato amicus brief played any role at all in the high court’s eventual decision to rehear Fisher. But if it did, this would be why: When the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 to send Fisher back down to the 5th Circuit, the court said the lower court needed to take a tougher look at the university’s admissions policies. The Supreme Court told the lower court not to just take the university at its word but to examine the university’s admissions closely under a doctrine called “strict scrutiny.”
The 5th Circuit basically said yeah, yeah, OK, we strict scrutinied them, and we still trust them. So the 5th Circuit upheld the university. Fisher appealed back to the Supreme Court saying the 5th Circuit hadn’t really done the strict scrutiny strictly enough.
Then along comes the Wallace Hall evidence of an under-the-table secret admissions program the university forgot to tell the courts about. In fact, Hall’s investigation found evidence of lying, destruction of documents, coercion – enough story lines for an entire season of The Sopranos, all having to do with UT admissions.
A Supreme Court case is likely to bring national attention to a scandal the local mainstream media has tried to downplay or bury. And if it turns out UT actually lied to the courts, well, that sort of thing tends to make federal judges a mite testy…
Conservatives and libertarians have a very simple position on racial discrimination:
“All men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.”
Individuals should “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (I’m going to assume that you recognize theses first two, slightly paraphrased quotes on their own.)
“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” — Justice John Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” — Chief Justice John Roberts, in Ricci v. DeStefano, 2009
The liberal position can be paraphrased thus: “Racism requires racism, because racism.”
What, you think that’s a bit reductio ad absurdum? Fine. How about:
“Because the lingering effects of institutional racism continue to hold back historically disadvantaged groups*, the federal government must continue to impose preferential treatment for members of those groups.”
“*Historically disadvantaged groups” are those that in pre-PC speak were referred to as “minorities.” Except of course, the Democratic Party’s current formulation excludes Asians from preferential treatment, resulting in systematic discrimination against them by colleges that practice Affirmative Action compared to less qualified black and Hispanic candidates.
Left unsaid is when do we stop discriminating against people based on their race due to the “lingering effects” of racism? Why should someone born in 1996 (as those entering college this fall) be discriminated against due to laws scrapped three decades before they were born?
It is also obvious that Affirmative Action sets up minorities to fail by mismatching them with institutions desperate for “diversity” where they will be at a disadvantage compared to brighter students. So someone who could have been in the middle of their class at, say, Texas Tech, is instead at the very bottom of the class at Harvard or Yale.
Affirmative Action is a racist relic of bygone days and should be eliminated from a free, colorblind society.
Also, former Democratic state Rep. Jim Solis has been debarred for professional misconduct. “Solis pleaded guilty in April 2011 after admitting to involvement in the extortion scheme of former state District Judge Abel C. Limas, who pleaded guilty to racketeering in March. Solis’ sentencing is scheduled for August.”
I may have posted this before, but it bears repeating: the “Texas only creates low-paying jobs” myth debunked. “It turns out that the opposite is true. Since the recession started hourly wages in Texas have increased at a 6th fastest pace in the nation.”
Warren is playing an important role in our political discourse: she is the ghost of liberalism future. Warren’s alleged use of affirmative action, if true, would have to be the most egregious abuse of the system at the expense of minorities we’ve seen yet. Elizabeth Warren is, as a white woman, statistically speaking very much a member of this country’s majority. The only category in which she is a true minority is wealth: Elizabeth Warren is very, very rich… If Warren, a rich, white, Harvard professor, is a victim, everyone is.
Why does this matter? Because it reveals that the left thinks affirmative action is a joke, another cudgel with which to attack political opponents at the expense of minorities who might, thanks to liberalism’s insistence on keeping students in failed school districts, actually put the policy to some good use. And because if Elizabeth Warren is unable to advance coherent liberal policy arguments, then there may be none to advance.
There’s a Tea Party Express event in Austin on the south Capitol steps at 2 PM Sunday, May 6th, with Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, and Rep. Ron Paul. I will try to attend if my busy schedule permits.
