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The New Normal/Political Correctness Run Amok Thread


Muda69

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California's New Animal Welfare Law Could Mean The End Of Bacon

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/02/1023708278/bacon-california-animal-law

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Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic.

That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California.

"Our number one seller is bacon, eggs and hash browns," said Kim, who for 15 years has run SAMS American Eatery on the city's busy Market Street. "It could be devastating for us."

At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market.

....

Yet another reason to stay the hell away from California.

 

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Federal Court In Texas Goes Woke

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/state-of-the-union/federal-court-in-texas-goes-woke/

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Here’s a pretty astonishing public notice for the appointment of a Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas:

Screen-Shot-2021-08-02-at-1.19.35-PM-700

Got that?

The essential function of the Court is to dispense justice and create and maintain diversity in the court system. A community’s belief is heightened when the Court dispenses justice that reflects the community’s racial, ethnic, and gender diversity.”

As of publication, the post is still up on the official website of the Court. You can access it here.

We’ve reached the point in the woke religion where it’s no longer enough for our civil institutions to promote diversity. Doing so is now explicitly defined as the essential function of a U.S. District Court.

The second sentence of the notice is nearly as remarkable. One would hope that a “community’s belief” [presumably in the efficacy of the justice system, although the belief’s object is conspicuously left undefined] would be heightened by justice dispensed with perfect impartiality. In other words, a Court that dispenses justice without regard to the racial, ethnic, and gender “diversity” of the community is the only Court worthy of trust. Our country’s history is littered with foreboding examples of a justice system that dispensed justice with far too much regard for the racial and ethnic make-up of defendants. Why is the woke Left seeking to return to a similar system?

One genuinely fears where this could lead. Lady Justice, a common symbol on courthouses throughout America and the broader West, has been depicted wearing a blindfold since at least the 16thcentury. Think about that: so central is the idea of impartiality to a functioning judicial system that a blindfold has become ingrained in the system’s marquee symbol. But now, not only is impartiality apparently obsolete, it’s antithetical to the very function of the court. After all, Lady Justice would be hard-pressed to “create diversity” blindfolded.

It’s worth noting, too, that this isn’t the historically progressive 9thCircuit Court in San Francisco. This is a District Court in Waco, the heart of Texas, and home of Baptist Baylor University. Indeed, McLennan County, of which Waco is the county seat, voted for Trump 60-37% in 2020. It hasn’t gone for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1976.

Notices like this from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas are a reminder that for all the many, “conservative” judges appointed in the Trump administration, our woke ruling class persists unabated. Our country’s elite institutions, the gatekeepers to power in every sector of our society, demand complete obedience to the woke agenda. And they enforce it unceasingly.

In this light, perhaps it’s not surprising that the MAGA rioters from January 2021 and the BLM rioters from June 2020 have met very different fates in our legal system. It’s not hypocrisy, it’s hierarchy. No matter which president appoints the judges, the justice system moves forward, seeking to fulfill its “essential function” of “creating and maintaining diversity.”

It's distressing to see this occurring in our federal justice system.

 

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9860535/Bostons-acting-Mayor-Kim-Janey-compares-vaccine-passports-slave-papers-birtherism.html

Boston’s acting Mayor Kim Janey likened vaccine passports to the papers that newly-freed slaves had to carry around after the civil war as she dismissed the idea of implementing them in her city. 

Janey - who became the first black woman to serve as mayor in the city when her predecessor was tapped to be US Secretary of Labor earlier this year - made the comments on Tuesday after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that indoor businesses will soon have to require customers to show proof of vaccination or otherwise turn them away.  

Janey acknowledged the importance of encouraging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 but said that requiring proof harkened back to a 'long history in this country of people needing to show their papers'. 

'Whether we're talking about this from the standpoint of ... during slavery, post-slavery, as recent as what our immigrant population has to go through here,' Janey said.

She seemed to compare vaccine passports to freedom papers, documentation showing that a black person was free of bondage and allowed to travel as they please before the end of slavery in the United States.  

'We heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense,' Janey added, referencing when Donald Trump in 2012 offered $5million to charity if President Barack Obama released his college and passport applications. 

During Barack Obama's presidency, Donald Trump was a leading proponent of the 'birther' theory, at one point offering $5million to a charity of Obama's choice if the president showed his papers

Janey said she wants residents to have 'every opportunity' to get vaccinated, but that she was concerned the passports would be 'difficult to enforce' for businesses and would place an undue burden on certain communities, she told WCVB.

'Here we want to make sure we're not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact BIPOC communities.'

On Tuesday, Mayor de Blasio announced a 'first-in-the-nation' plan that will require customers to show proof of vaccination for indoor dining, performances and gyms starting August 16.

'If you want to participate in our society fully, you've got to get vaccinated. It's time,' de Blasio said.

During her comments on Tuesday, Janey also alluded to Arizona's SB 1070 law, a 2010 law signed by then-Governor Jan Brewer that was widely known as the 'show me your papers' bill. 

The law, parts of which were eventually struck down by the US Supreme Court, faced fierce backlash and constitutional challenges after it was accused of empowering local law enforcement to stop immigrants and ask for their documentation regardless of legal status.

'These hurdles should not be excuses, but we must consider our shared history as we work to ensure an equitable public health and economic recovery,' Janey clarified in a statement later on Tuesday.

The sheer lunacy of the left during this mess is amazing to witness.  While I am in agreement with her on the NY/DeBlasio thing, she had to bring DJT into the argument over "Obama & birtherism".  

In the middle of all of this there are over 1 million (so far this year) "catch & release" illegal immigrants in the US and the left is still wondering how and/or why Covid isn't going away but actually spreading since the US has hit 70% vaccinated.......Amazing.....

But again -lest we forget - Covid DID cure the flu!!

 

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On 8/3/2021 at 12:27 PM, Muda69 said:

Federal Court In Texas Goes Woke

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/state-of-the-union/federal-court-in-texas-goes-woke/

It's distressing to see this occurring in our federal justice system.

 

Wow. I live in Waco (moved here from Indiana 15 yrs ago) and had no knowledge of this. I echo the sentiments of this piece saying that justice be dispensed in accordance with the law - just the law. To go further than that is over stepping their authority. Similar to legislating from the bench. But I guess that's what the left is willing to do.

BTW, even though TX and Waco are red (for now), there are many blue "pockets" locally that are slowly increasing in size. Partially fuelled by Baylor University. A conservative, Christian college in name only (IMO). My daughter graduated from there, and some of what she was taught was unbelievable to me, for the kind of school I thought they were.

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The Culture War In Four Minutes

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/gonzo-transgender-the-culture-war-in-four-minutes/

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I was on a panel at the MCC Feszt in Esztergom at which I was asked if the culture war was real? I have found it difficult to express to Hungarians how very real it is. I find that those who don’t pay a lot of attention to American culture struggle to imagine that it’s as insane as it is. It’s always good to have a fellow American present for these conversations, to back me up. It is a sign of how sane Hungary is as a country that Hungarians — even liberal ones — can’t grasp that something so insane could actually happen in America.

This clip is making the rounds. It is a pure distillation of the culture war — and due to foul language, it is doubleplus Not Safe For Work! Here’s the set-up. In working-class Aberdeen, Washington, the elderly owner of a Star Wars memorabilia shop had a sign up denying that trans women are women. A trans woman (that is, a man who presents as a woman) came to the store with a confederate to confront the old man, film the confrontation, and post it to social media to show what a horrible man the old fellow is. Not wanting trouble, the old man removed the sign when he spotted the trans in the store. But that wasn’t enough. The trans got all up in his business — and he (verbally) punched back, hard.

Keep in mind that this confrontation was filmed by the partner of the trans person. They think it makes the old man look bad. I think it makes him look heroic. And I think this old man speaks for many of us. In fact, I know he does.

Aside from the obvious culture war clash, what is especially interesting to me is how this trans troll went out of his way to track down this old guy to not only tell him off, but to have the telling-off filmed so that the trans troll could become a hero to online Social Justice Warriors. The persecutorial aspect of wokeness is perhaps its most distinctive characteristic. They can never let any sin go unpunished. All sinners must live in terror of the woke virtuous.

We are an insane country, though, so crotchety old storekeepers in working-class towns have to live in fear of being attacked by Social Justice Warriors, and having their name and business destroyed.

Here’s how sick and evil these creeps are. Disney — Disney! — is now grooming little children for sexual identity problems. They’ve turned the Muppet Baby Gonzo into a cross-dresser. I’m not kidding:

They really are coming for our children. And so, let us reflect on how in Hungary, thanks to a law passed by the Fidesz government this summer, this kind of thing would be illegal. Hungarian parents know that their government is on the side of their family, not the side of major corporations who seek to poison the minds of little kids. Hungary is ruled by a man. America’s men won’t even fight these corporate freaks on behalf of our own children.

 

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https://www.analyzingamerica.org/2021/08/639345/?fbclid=IwAR2qpgtlFvYsmAL9XrhLXX-eEo9t5Pjpw7N78JvsPS0eZ6VYZOoteW0Jlwk

Female Inmate Now Pregnant After Women’s Prison Is Forced to Accept Transgender Men

By
 David Rufful
 -
August 9, 2021

At least one female inmate has become pregnant following California’s law that allows men to identify as women and get sent to a women’s prison, according to Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) via Daily Wire.

In California, where predominately left-leaning politicians enforce the rules, women’s prisons are forced to accept biological male prisoners claiming to be women without any questions asked — including if they were in prison for violence against women.

The Los Angeles Times reported that around 300 male prisoners filed requests to transfer with the state, and only 20 have been processed so far.California has even begun handing out condoms and Plan B to female inmates who were forced to accept sharing a prison with biological men claiming to be transgender.

At the time, the WoLF released a statement about what was being handed out in prisons:

The statment reads: “Women incarcerated in California’s largest women’s prison are describing the conditions as “a nightmare’s worst nightmare” after the introduction of new pregnancy resources in the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) medical clinics. The new resources are a tacit admission by officials that women should expect to be raped when housed in prison with men, where all sex is considered non-consensual by default within the system.”

The statement continues, “New posters recently appeared in medical rooms outlining the options available to “pregnant people” in prison, including prenatal care, abortion, and adoption. The poster also declares that women have the right to “contraceptive counseling and your choice of birth control methods by a licensed health care provider within 60-180 days prior to scheduled release date.” However, the only methods available to incarcerated women to prevent pregnancy are condoms, which appeared shortly after the men, and Plan B emergency contraceptives.”

More from Daily Wire:

“Does anyone care that we are being forced to house with 6’2, 250+ lbs men with penises that are here for brutally raping women?” the female inmate added. “We have been warned by the officials in this prison, more are coming with worse charges. Where is the safety concern for us? If we say we are in fear, we are the ones locked up.”

WoLF tweeted last week that “seven different people inside CCWF” have said “at least one woman, possibly more, is now pregnant after being housed with a male felon who was transferred to the women’s prison under” the new law.

“Our connections tell us that at least 3 of the men have now been moved to Administrative Segregation. (Because this is private health data, we’re not currently able to confirm any more than this,)” the organization added.

Amber Jackson, an inmate at CCWF, told the Santa Monica Observer that some of the “transgender” inmates who were transferred still had penises and were having sex with female inmates.

“Call yourself a ‘woman’ all you want,” Jackson said. “But when you have man, with a penis, that works as it was designed to do, that’s a problem in a women’s prison group shower room. That’s a problem.”

The new resources are a tacit admission by officials that women should expect to be raped when housed in prison with men, where all sex is considered non-consensual by default within the system.”

OK - so while SF normally has little sympathy for the incarcerated guilty, this one has me SMH.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Warning About The Woke Workplace: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/warning-about-woke-workplace/

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I hear from time to time from readers who have suffered persecution, or at least harassment, at work from the woke. This one, though, got to me. I have removed the name of the institution from this letter at the writer’s request. I looked him up online and he is who he says he is:

[Recently] I was terminated by [university], found guilty of a Title IX violation against a protected class. A few months prior, I had recruited a lesbian to come work for our department. I had known her for some time in other contexts and knew the quality of her work, so I heavily recruited her. None of that mattered, however, when on the first day she turned to me and said, “Elephant in the room: you’re a former pastor, I’m a married lesbian. What do you think about that? I believe I’m a Christian; do you think I’m a Christian?

I highly respected her, and so I saw no alternative but to place my career literally in her hands and honor her with a gentle but honest answer. A week later a Title IX investigation began. A month later I was gone.

I asked the reader if he wanted me to put him in touch with a religious liberty lawyer. He said that he had already consulted an attorney, who gave him 50/50 odds of prevailing in federal court. The reader added that he prayed about it, and felt that it was not God’s will that he pursue the case. He adds:

Feel free to write in general about this if you believe it will help wake believers up, but I don’t believe God wants me fighting with the university so please leave the name of the university out. Justice belongs to the Lord.

I could tell you so many incredible stories about what I am seeing God doing. The way He is working in my life makes the suffering my family is going through worth the loss, but I must say, it is still hard. Today, I interviewed for a job selling suits at our local Macys for $17/hr. That’s a long step down, and God will have to perform miracles to make it work even for a family with only one car and no debts outside a mortgage. But He is faithful and always will be.

The reader had a very good job at the university. He was not an academic, but was in administration. He should never have answered that woman’s question, obviously, but what a cruel, spiteful woke creature she is. Why would you even do that to your co-worker, especially one who helped you get hired? This is the kind of thing that makes it risky to have any contact beyond what is strictly necessary with a woke person. They will destroy you for the sake of Social Justice™, and won’t even think twice about it.

Pray for this man. He is not young. He and his family are paying a price. Don’t ever think you are safe among the woke, not even if you have been kind to them, and helped them out.

What a sad story.

 

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Cancel Culture Is Ruining Jeopardy!

https://reason.com/2021/08/24/cancel-culture-is-ruining-jeopardy/

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Longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek was fond of saying he was not the star of television's foremost quiz program: That distinction belonged to the contestants. But following the beloved showman's death from cancer last year, a series of surprisingly divisive guest-host controversies are undermining Trebek's maxim.

For the last several weeks, Jeopardy! has felt more like a reality TV contest with the permanent hosting gig as the ultimate prize. The show cycled through a seemingly unending list of guest hosts, each of whom were granted one or two weeks' worth of episodes to prove their bona fides. The quality of these would-be replacements varied wildly: Jeopardy! all-time champion Ken Jennings gave a competent performance; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was unexpectedly delightful; TV doctor (and charlatan) Mehmet Oz should not have been given the opportunity in the first place.

But the winners, according to CBS, were Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards and The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik. The latter was selected to host special tournaments, while the former would host the show on a daily basis.

This outcome did not sit well with some members of the media and Jeopardy!'s fan community, however, so cancel culture did its thing. Last week, following the publication of a hit piece in The Ringer accusing him of all the usual moral failings—chief among them, derisive comments he made on his podcast—Richards abruptly resigned. Bialik is filling in for the meantime, but she, too, has faced attempted cancellation, namely for being a self-described "liberal Zionist" who believes that both Israel and Palestine deserve to be "autonomous, free, and safe" nations.

For many longtime fans—myself among them—this turn of events is embarrassing and insulting to Trebek's memory. CBS certainly deserves some of the blame here: The network could have simply passed the torch to Jennings, who understands the game better than anyone else on earth and was reportedly Trebek's top choice to succeed him, without forcing him to endure this gauntlet. It also appears to be the case that Richards participated in the search process from behind the scenes as executive producer, which made the whole thing look rigged when he was chosen. These were self-inflicted wounds.

But social media's venomous reaction to Richards' casting lacked any sense of proportion, with many people apoplectic at the idea that a generic-looking white person had beaten out prospective hosts of color like former Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton, Twitter's runaway favorite choice. The Ringer threw everything it had at Richards, frequently quoting anonymous former colleagues at Jeopardy! and The Price is Right, where Richards worked as a producer, who found him to be an abrasive and conniving self-promoter. The article mixes fair criticisms, like Richards internally maneuvering himself into contention, Dick Cheney style, with low blows—the offensive podcast comments—and unverifiable gossip.

Barely acknowledged in the article, or by the online critics, is the fact that Richards was undeniably compelling in the role. He read the clues with skill, rarely stumbling, and he inserted just the right amount of quick, additional commentaryThat was Trebek's talent: finding the correct rhythm, and only pausing to interject a short remark when the situation really called for it. It's a skill that Bialik also has in spades, which is why the network's eventual selections aren't actually that surprising. Richards and Bialik were the two guest hosts who really nailed it, so they won.

Yes, it's largely a matter of personal preference. Burton and Katie Couric were both a bit stiff for my tastes; Anderson Cooper clearly knew what he was doing; Rodgers, as I previously mentioned, really shined in a star-athlete-is-also-smart kind of way.

But this acrimonious process has really undermined Trebek's legacy. Trebek's Jeopardy! was a serious intellectual contest first and a game show second. It was nonpartisan, and did not change with the tides of public opinion. As I wrote in Reason's February issue: "The show mercifully avoided the relentless politicization that has wormed its way into so many facets of modern entertainment. Jeopardy! is something that Trump-loving grandparents and liberal Gen Zers can enjoy together with nary a feud. Whoever takes over for Trebek should endeavor to keep it that way."

At present, the forces of cancel culture are getting in the way of this noble purpose. Note that Richards and Bialik are not the only ones to face unfair scrutiny for past comments; Jennings, a progressive Democrat, has drawn criticism from conservatives for unfavorable remarks he made about Republicans. Jennings apologized for the tone of those comments, and that ought to be enough. If everyone who ever said something they now regret is disqualified from hosting Jeopardy!, then the network might as well give the job to Watson.

Agree that Mr. Jennings was the obvious choice from the start, although Mr. Rodgers really surprised me.

 

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The Nevermind baby is suing Nirvana for child pornography: https://www.avclub.com/the-nevermind-baby-is-suing-nirvana-for-child-pornograp-1847552866

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There are few album covers more iconic than Nirvana’s Nevermind. Heck, there are few album covers more recreated than Nirvana’s Nevermind. But while the cover has long been considered a statement about capitalism, the now-grown infant from the cover of Nevermind has a new interpretation of the photo: child porn.

Spencer Elden, better known as the Nevermind baby, now a 30-year-old man, is suing the surviving band members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and the Kurt Cobain estate, among others, for the use of his image for the cover of their landmark album. He filed suit against the band Tuesday in Los Angeles, accusing them of violating child pornography laws, and is seeking damages, legal fees, an injunction that would prohibit the distribution of the photo, and a trial by jury. The suit says that the inclusion of the dollar makes the infant look like a “sex worker grabbing for a dollar bill,” describing the photograph as a “sex trafficking venture” that forced Elden to “engage in commercial sexual acts while under the age of 18 years old.”

According to Variety, the suit states:

Defendants intentionally commercially marketed Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense. Defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly utilized in the music industry to get attention, wherein album covers posed children in a sexually provocative manner to gain notoriety, drive sales, and garner media attention, and critical reviews.

....

Spencer Elden claims “lifelong damages” due to the cover and seeks $150,000 from each defendant, including the band members, Courtney Love, various record labels, and the executor and managers of Kurt Cobain’s estate. He also names former Nirvana drummer Chad Channing, who didn’t play on the album. All told, Nevermind sold more than 30 million records to date, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.

 

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

The Nevermind baby is suing Nirvana for child pornography: https://www.avclub.com/the-nevermind-baby-is-suing-nirvana-for-child-pornograp-1847552866

 

FTA:  Elden has long stated that he had a complicated relationship with the album cover. However, as noted by Variety, he’s recreated it several times, posing in the water for 10th, 17th, 20th, and 25th anniversaries.

 

He's 30 now, probably tired of living in his parent's basement and must not want to have to get a REAL JOB.......

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  • 3 weeks later...

https://nypost.com/2021/09/09/media-ignore-racial-attack-on-larry-elder-because-hes-republican/

Media ignore racial attack on Larry Elder because he’s a black Republican

By 
September 9, 2021 6:39pm 

Do a search for “Larry Elder” and gorilla on the CNN website and nothing comes up. Washington Post? Zilch. Nothing comes up on The New York Times site either, although if you make it to the 15th paragraph of a story titled “The Vice President pushed back against the effort to recall Newsom in the Bay Area,” you will find a bland passing reference to Wednesday’s disgusting incident.

According to our nation’s media leaders, it’s not a story that a white person wearing a gorilla mask attacked Larry Elder, a black man seeking to become the first non-white governor of California, by hurling an egg that touched his head.

If Elder were a Democrat, the attack would have been instantly and with good reason dubbed racist. It would not only be front-page news, it would be just about the only news you were hearing about today on CNN and MSNBC. Charles Blow, Perry Bacon and Jamelle Bouie would each be writing the first in a series of angry columns about it. So would Gail Collins, Jonathan Capehart, Jennifer Rubin, Michelle Goldberg, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Dana Milbank and Ezra Klein.

We would be treated to multiple news analyses about the history of the usage of gorilla tropes against blacks. Joy-Ann Reid, Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon would be doing hour-long broadcasts on the attack, convening panels discussing just how the attack pulls the scab off racism in America, and proves we have so much work left to do in dealing with the problem. Vox would commission a series about California’s grim history of racism dating back to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Asian-American and Latino writers would hasten to explain that California’s historic hostility to all sorts of persons of color is as traditional as its Tournament of Roses parade.

Three-thousand-word essays about the brutal, unknown history of lynchings in the Golden State would be published in The Atlantic and/or The New Yorker. Al Sharpton, exhibiting a combination of exhaustion and despondency, would be a guest on half a dozen cable TV shows.

The woman who threw the egg at Elder would find her picture, her name, and everything she’d ever said on social media scrutinized at great length and on the home pages of the leading news sites. Her appearance would be mocked by late-night comedians. Dozens of reporters would be sent out to learn this woman’s story, to check out where she lived, where she worked, and where she went to school.

Remember what happened when a white woman in Central Park told a black man she would mention his race in the course of reporting his threat to her dog on a 911 call? That was a huge nationwide news story, despite having happened the same day as the murder of George Floyd, and even though the people involved were just ordinary New Yorkers — neither of them an ­important candidate a step away from one of the highest offices in the country.

If Elder were a Democrat, we’d be told there is a vast and wide-ranging racist plot to stop California from electing its first black governor. The stakes are a bit higher than “white dog lady calls cops on black bird-watcher.” Isn’t our democracy itself imperiled when a white person in a gorilla mask tries to leverage racism against a popular black candidate?

To its credit, the Los Angeles Times did mention the attack on Elder, although its headline eluded the nastiness of what occurred in what smacked of victim-blaming: “Larry Elder cuts short Venice homeless encampment tour after hostile confrontation.”

If Elder had been a Democrat, I suspect the headline would have been “Racist attacker in gorilla mask lobs egg at Larry Elder.” After burying the lede — the California paper mentioned the attack in the second graf, the race and costume of the person attacking him in the fourth — the report did say “ape characterizations have been used as a racist trope for centuries.”

But that was it, the sole reference to racism in the story. The LA Times didn’t bother to investigate Elder’s attacker, nor even provide her name.

Please do not insult me by pretending that you do not understand the context and history of black folks being subjected to gorilla references. Please do not tell me that a person wearing a gorilla mask who targeted a Democrat would not be tagged as guilty of the most vicious variety of racism. Please do not tell me that progressives can’t be racist.

Pause for a second, just a second, and consider what might have happened in this country if a white person wearing a gorilla mask had nearly hit Barack Obama with an egg during his 2008 campaign. (And then punched a member of his security detail who intervened, as the California woman did.)

Do you think perhaps that CNN might have been able to squeeze in a mention or two? Is there any possibility at all that some New York Times columnists might have weighed in on the matter? Do you think The Washington Post might have noticed?

SF can't think of a better example of political media bias than this.  A black man has an egg thrown at him by a white lady (wearing a gorilla mask) who then literally attacks a black member of his security detail.  But there is no mention of this incident ANYWHERE.  

 

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31 minutes ago, swordfish said:

SF can't think of a better example of political media bias than this.  A black man has an egg thrown at him by a white lady (wearing a gorilla mask) who then literally attacks a black member of his security detail.  But there is no mention of this incident ANYWHERE.  

 

To the progressive msm a black conservative republican like Mr . Elder is akin to a race traitor. Of course he isn't going to get the sensationalist treatment in the press. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

National Cathedral Will Replace Confederate Stained Glass With Racial Justice Imagery: 

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/23/1040088768/national-cathedral-confederate-stained-glass-windows-racial-justice-marshall

Quote

Washington National Cathedral announced Thursday it has chosen contemporary artist Kerry James Marshall, renowned for his wide-ranging works depicting African American life, to design new stained-glass windows with themes of racial justice that will replace a set with Confederate imagery that were removed in 2017.

The landmark sanctuary said in a statement that the four windows will tell "a new and more complete" story of the nation's racial history. Poet Elizabeth Alexander will write a poem to be inscribed in stone tablets alongside the windows, overlaying older ones that venerated the lives of Confederate soldiers.

The project is expected to be completed by 2023.

The windows will replace a set that honored two Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, with saint-like reverence and had included a Confederate flag. The cathedral removed them in 2017, prompted by a larger national reckoning over Confederate imagery and white supremacy in the wake of deadly right-wing attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, that year and in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. The window openings have been covered with plywood since 2017.

The setting is particularly significant in the massive neo-Gothic cathedral, which is filled with iconography depicting the American story in glass, stone and other media, with images ranging from presidents to famous cultural figures and state symbols.

....

 

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https://www.wlfi.com/content/news/West-Lafayette-to-not-recognize-Columbus-Day-575460001.html

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West Lafayette will no longer celebrate Columbus Day.

Instead, the city will refer to the Holiday as Indigenous People's Day.

The measure was sponsored by council-women Kang and Parker. It passed unanimously.

According to the sponsors of the resolution, around 185 cities across the country, including Bloomington, Indiana, have made similar declarations.

The council feels honoring Christopher Columbus is disrespectful to indigenous people in our country.

West Lafayette Mayor Johns Dennis says he supports the council making this change.

"It was basically genocide of the indigenous people of America," Dennis told News 18. "To celebrate that individual who was responsible for it seems to be disrespectful those whose relatives suffered."

The City Council hopes that the West Lafayette Community School Corporation, Purdue University, and the state Government will also make this change in the future.

 

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Michigan schools cancel Halloween, Valentine's Day due to concerns over inclusion: https://www.foxnews.com/us/michigan-schools-cancel-halloween-valentines-day-inclusion

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Michigan's East Lansing Public Schools announced this week that elementary schools will drop Halloween and Valentine's Day celebrations.

In a letter reportedly sent to parents and shared by WLNS, officials wrote that the decision was made due to concerns over hurt feelings and uncomfortable families.

"Each year, along with the fun of Halloween parties and parades, we also have students whose families do not celebrate or feel comfortable with their children participating in Halloween festivals," it reads

"Valentine's Day is another day in which school parties and the exchange of valentine cards leads to unintended consequences," the Elementary Principal Team said, noting that the exchange of valentines sometimes leads to classroom drama and teasing and that some families and students "do not feel comfortable with the idea of boys and girls exchanging valentines or participating in a celebration that focuses on ‘love.'"

"For these reasons and more, the ELPS administration has decided not to celebrate Halloween or Valentine's Day in our elementary schools moving forward," they wrote. "While this may be a disappointment and/or an adjustment for some of our students/families at first, we promise to continue to offer alternative days throughout the school year that are full of fun and learning, for everyone." 

"We’re striving hard at East Lansing Public Schools to be a district that is equitable and inclusive for all families," Assistant Superintendent Glenn Mitcham later told The Associated Press, noting that it's not uncommon to see students crying on Halloween "because they don’t have the same kind of costumes that other kids have or they didn’t bring the same amazing valentines that other kids do."

Halloween, he said, could still be observed through teaching practices.

East Lansing Mayor Jessy Gregg, who was sworn in in August, took to Facebook on Thursday to comment further on the move. 

"East Lansing families received a letter from the school district recently regarding the district's decision to stop using school time for Halloween and Valentine's Day. A mention of me in the City Pulse article on the subject has led some people to believe that the City is planning to [do] something similar so I would like to clear that up," she said. 

"I have mentioned to several staff members that I think our seasonal programs would be more welcoming if we didn't include things like pictures with Santa or the Easter Bunny. Yes, Christmas and Easter have become mainstream commercial holidays but they are religious traditions and including them in City sponsored programs makes those events unwelcoming to large segments of our population. We can host a beautiful winter themed festival without including religion," Gregg added. 

The mayor assured that "no events are being canceled."

Mitcham told the Lansing State Journal on Thursday that Halloween and Valentine's Day will continue to be celebrated at MacDonald Middle School and East Lansing High School in the school district, but to a lesser extent.

 

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Inflating Grades For Social Justice: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/inflating-grades-for-social-justice-racism/

 

Quote

At a party over the weekend I was introduced to a college professor, and fell into conversation with him about teaching and Covid. Then I asked about how wokeness affects his teaching. I had no idea of the man’s politics, but I would bet the farm that he is a liberal, given that his academic field skews heavily to the left.

He told me that there is a lot of stress on professors at his university regarding grading students of color. He said everyone is afraid of being accused of racism if a black student doesn’t like his grade. The anxiety around this is deep, he said.

I tweeted out something about it, and received this e-mail today from a reader who asks to be anonymous. I slightly changed a couple of things to make it harder to identify her husband:

My husband teaches philosophy at an American university, and while he likes the work, he misses our original home, ([European country]).  We moved to the United States [deleted] years ago.
 
My husband and I both never saw ourselves as “left” or “right” until his university experience started. The level of political correctness here is just out of control: special rules for “trans students,” an expectation that someone’s deviant sexual practices be not only tolerated, but CELEBRATED. And as far as fairness goes, forget about it. Last semester, my husband gave one of his black students a B on a writing assignment. The student reported him to the Dean, claiming racism, saying that she was an A student and didn’t deserve a B. She didn’t even specify why her paper was so good! She just essentially said everyone else gave her A’s. The Dean called my husband in, and essentially bullied him into changing the grade, reminding him of the students’ “legacy of being oppressed.”
 
I’m sorry, but this is all too much. My husband felt humiliated. He’s wondering if he should look for another job. We feel trapped. Please feel free to publish, as we both get tired of people claiming to you that this kind of political correctness is “fake.”
I know a lot of academics read this blog. Please comment below or e-mail me (rod — at — amconmag — dot — com) to share your experiences with this phenomenon. Is it happening in your institution? Your department? How do you deal with it? Grade inflation has been a problem for a while, but it takes on a nasty, and potentially career-destroying dimension, when allegations of bigotry are brought into the mix.

UPDATE: A reader e-mails:

I read your post and call for others to report their experience in college grading. If you quote me, please do not use my name. I could be identified as “a professor in one of the natural sciences at a large public university in the west with a liberal reputation.” The student body is mostly white, with a growing contingent of Hispanics, a good many Asians, and a relatively small number of blacks.

In my department, we offer an “intro” course that is a “gateway” — some would say “weedout” — course mainly for students hoping to go on in some kind of health or biological sciences pathway. I’m one of the senior professors who steps up to teach this course — few people do it for pure pleasure — and I teach hundreds of these students at least one term per year. While grade inflation is always a concern, our median grade is generally C+/B- which is not so high given that the majority of the students need a C or better to continue in their program. We give plenty of D’s and F’s. It is not a fun course for most students, though some find it very interesting.

As for feeling pressure to give unmerited good grades to black or other minority students — I just have never experienced this. I certainly don’t give minority students any special breaks — though I’m always looking for a good reason to give any student a break if they manage to redeem themselves on the final exam.

I certainly try to encourage all students to do the things that will help them succeed, including coming to “office hours” for help, advice, inspiration, whatever.

I do kind of keep track of how various groups perform. I’ve found that the minority students who follow my advice generally do better than the class average. I’ve had classes where the black students did a little better than average, and classes where they did worse. I guarantee, if the black students always did what I recommend, they would come out ahead. The same goes for the other students. Hard work, interest, and discipline matter!

If my department head or dean ever pressured me to use different grading standards for the black students or any other group, I would refuse.

So, my experience is not like that of your correspondent. I hope this may be a helpful perspective.

Another professor writes:

One of your lefty profs here.

I teach at [deleted]. We serve 30,000 undergraduates (and I am writing on my institutional account so you can trust what follows). Most of our undergrads are first-generation college students (as am I). We have the highest percentage of minority students of any non-HBCU campus in [my state’s public university] system. I am also a rigorous grader.

I have been accused of racism after giving students the marks they earned, but over 30 years plus of working here, my Chairs and Deans have always had my back. Always. I am grateful for that. I should also add that I have won multiple teaching awards despite being well known as a tough grader.

My biggest concern about grades is the dismal performance of men in our classes (without regard for race and/or ethnicity). While young women of all backgrounds do well in our classes, the performance and engagement of males is abysmal. They have totally checked out and I have no idea how to reach and motivate them.

For every 25 women we induct into our discipline’s Honor Society, there my be one or no males in the cohort.

For all the obvious reasons, this troubles me greatly.

 

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https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/battle-of-virginia-in-the-wokeness-war/

Quote

....

It is impossible to overstate how significant it is that the woke totalitarians control institutions. Take a look at this new document from the American Medical Association, advising doctors and health care personnel on how to speak. Excerpt:

FC9MTG5XMAMeV7r.png

Do you see what’s happening here? They are jamming up plain language with ideological concepts. They are trying to make clear thinking impossible. This is not the Gender Studies department at NYU. This is the American Medical Association! One of the most fundamental concepts to grasp with totalitarianism is that the control of language is vital to the achievement and maintenance of power. The woke totalitarians keep going from strength to strength because having achieved the high ground of institutional authority, they make everyone else fear for their livelihood if they speak out.

...

And no, that graphic doesn't come from the Babylon Bee.  It's real.

 

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https://gazette.com/news/looting-deemed-racist-term-california-experiencing-organized-robbery/article_0c801ee8-0793-5718-9ab7-2052b8101fa8.html

'Looting' deemed racist term, California experiencing 'organized robbery'

  • Luke Gentile, Washington Examiner
  •  
    • 21 hrs ago
    •  

What happened in California this weekend when over $1 million in luxury goods were stolen was not "looting," authorities said.

Calling it "looting" might be racist, they said.

Instead, what happened was "organized robbery," according to a spokesperson for the San Diego Police Department.

San Diego officials are not alone in this sentiment.

"As the Bay Area grapples with a wave of seemingly organized smash and grab robberies this weekend, policing and journalism analysts are cautioning against the use of the term looting," a report said.

In San Francisco, Louis Vuitton and Burberry stores were burglarized and lost a significant amount of their product, the report said.

Similar incidents occurred in San Jose, Santana Row, Hayward, and Walnut Creek, with waves of people storming into stores, causing extreme losses.

However, these events are not considered looting, according to the California Penal Code, which defines looting as "theft or burglary ... during a 'state of emergency,' 'local emergency,' or 'evacuation order' resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot or other natural or manmade disaster."

Calling the events in California looting carries a racist sentiment, said Lorenzo Boyd, a professor of criminal justice and community policing at the University of New Haven and a former police officer.

"Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something," he said. "We tend not to use that term for other people when they do the exact same thing."

The public should also be wary of drawing a political connection between this weekend's "smash-and-grabs" and the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, Boyd said.

"These types of massive, organized smash-and-grabs were happening before the Rittenhouse situation because it happens cyclically," he said. "It's a false equivalency. It's people trying to politicize crime."

Martin Reynolds, co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education, echoed Boyd's notion that proper media literacy is essential to address the complicated issues facing society.

"People draw their own conclusions if the terminologies that you use are tethered to people's understanding of how they have been used in the past," he said.

So the term "Looting" is now racist?   When SF hears "organized robbery" he is thinking of an Al Capone type or a mobster......

I guess they are probably right that this was not "looting" per se, but linking the term looting to racism is quite a stretch. (IMHO)

AND - Stop using the Rittenhouse verdict as a racist basis for criminal activity........Just an FYI - the Rittenhouse charges and verdict had NOTHING to do with race.  A WHITE guy was found innocent when he shot 3 WHITE guys  previously convicted criminals in self-defence.

Edited by swordfish
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https://nypost.com/2021/12/21/bette-midler-slammed-for-calling-west-virginia-poor-illiterate-and-strung-out/

Bette Midler has been forced to apologize after sparking mass outrage for branding the entire state of West Virginia as “poor, illiterate and strung out.”

The 76-year-old diva used the less than divine choice of words for the Mountain State in a Twitter strop at rebel Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin torpedoing President Biden’s multitrillion-dollar spending plans.

“What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible. He sold us out,” the “Beaches” legend tweeted Monday.

“He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out,” she wrote.

She was quickly ripped by followers and accused of being an out-of-touch elite.

Perfect example of why Bette should stick with her role in show business.  She can remain an elite there.

 

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Disney Drives Conservatives Into Closet: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/walt-disney-conservative-employees-closet-dont-say-gay/

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You see the Daily Variety story the other day about how Pixar has restored a same-sex kiss to its upcoming film Lightyear after a gay employee group denounced its corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, for not taking a tougher line against the so-called Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The story says, in part:

The decision marks a possible major turning point for LGBTQ representation not just in Pixar films, but in feature animation in general, which has remained steadfastly circumspect about depicting same-sex affection in any meaningful light.

These disgruntled employees changed an entire industry that engineers the imaginations of children around the globe. And to be clear, “Don’t Say Gay” is a lie. The bill is called “The Parental Rights In Education Act,” and you can read its details here, in the primary document. 

The thing that has opponents so upset is that the bill forbids classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. That’s it. That’s what liberals are so angry about. So devoted are they to the cause of making little children sexually aware and undermining their psychological stability around sex that they are throwing a massive tantrum over a law that says teachers can’t introduce this stuff to children under the age of ten.

Within Disney, activist employees organized on company Slack channels a staged walkout this week to protest Disney brass, including CEO Bob Chapek, for supposedly not doing enough to fight the bill. The crybullies blame Disney leadership for making its LGBT employees feel, yes, “unsafe” by not fighting the bill Here, from their website, are their demands — which, if enacted, would make Disney even more of a woke-capitalist, culture-war behemoth.

Can you imagine what it’s like to work at Disney as a political, social, or religious conservative under the reign of this mob of tyrants? You don’t have to. Today a group of anonymous Disney employees have released the following “open letter” begging the company’s leadership to keep the company politically neutral. The letter points out that these slacktivists have created a hostile work environment for anyone who doesn’t go along with their demands. Here’s the open letter text (which a Disney employee leaked to me):

 

Disney Employees’ Open Letter in Favor of a Politically Neutral Disney

As employees of the Walt Disney Company, we believe in the dignity of all people. This is why we do what we do. We write stories. We make costumes. We act in parades. We run cruises. We stream movies. We make magic. We do this because our work contributes to a fountain of wonder that inspires joy, awe, and delight in guests and audiences of all ages. We are proud employees of the Walt Disney Company. We love our jobs because we get to share the wonder of life and human experience with millions of people worldwide.

However, over the last few years, one group of cast members has become invisible within the company. The Walt Disney Company has come to be an increasingly uncomfortable place to work for those of us whose political and religious views are not explicitly progressive. We watch quietly as our beliefs come under attack from our own employer, and we frequently see those who share our opinions condemned as villains by our own leadership.

The company’s evolving response to the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida has left many of us wondering what place we have in a company actively promoting a political agenda so far removed from our own. TWDC leadership frequently communicates its commitment to creating an inclusive workplace where cast members feel comfortable sharing their perspectives and being their authentic selves at work. That is not our workplace experience.

Over the last few weeks, we have watched as our leadership has expressed their condemnation for laws and policies we support. We have watched as our colleagues, convinced that no one in the company could possibly disagree with them and grow increasingly aggressive in their demands. They insist that TWDC take a strong stance on not only this issue but other legislation and openly advocate for the punishment of employees who disagree with them.

An internal poll within the company went out a few months ago asking us if we felt accepted in the company. Many of us didn’t complete it because the nature of the questions made us worry that the results of the poll could be used to target us for quietly holding a position that runs against the progressive orthodoxy that Disney seems to promote. TWDC has fostered an environment of fear that any employee who does not toe the line will be exposed and dismissed.

Much has been made of our internal efforts to Reimagine Tomorrow, but as much as diversity and inclusion are promoted, the tomorrow being reimagined doesn’t seem to have much room for religious or political conservatives within the company. Left-leaning cast members are free to promote their agenda and organize on company time using company resources. They call their fellow employees “bigots” and pressure TWDC to use corporate influence to further their left-wing legislative goals.

Meanwhile, those of us who don’t align with this vision keep our heads down and do our work without bringing our personal beliefs into the workplace. We’ve done this without complaint because we don’t want to rock the boat, but the boat is being rocked, and our leadership seems compelled to reward those who are rocking it.

Employees who want TWDC to make left-wing political statements are encouraged, while those of us who want the company to remain neutral can say so only in a whisper out of fear of professional retaliation. The company we love seems to think we don’t exist or don’t belong here. This politicization of our corporate culture is damaging morale and causing many of us to feel our days with TWDC might be numbered.

Furthermore, as this politicization makes its way into our content and public messaging, our more conservative customers will feel similarly unwanted. You can only preach at or vilify your audience for so long before they decide to spend their money elsewhere.

Working for The Walt Disney Company is a dream come true. We love being part of creating the magic that so many people around the world enjoy. Our storytelling is second to none. It resonates with people from all walks of life across the political spectrum. Our parks are the source of joy and inspiration that Walt hoped they would become. Every year, millions of guests escape an increasingly divided world to a place where they can relive fond memories of the past and savor the challenge and promise of the future. They do this alongside thousands of other guests that might not have anything in common with them other than a shared love of Disney.

The unique brand of family entertainment that Disney is known for is an objective good in this dark world. It brings people together and provides cultural touchpoints that even the worst enemies can unite over. At the height of COVID lockdowns in the Summer of 2020 when the country was fiercely divided over a range of issues, Hamilton provided us something to collectively celebrate. At the end of an incredibly contentious election year, The Mandalorian was there to soothe a weary nation with non-political entertainment we could all enjoy no matter who you voted for. When Disney takes sides in political debates, they deprive the world of a shared love we all have in common. TWDC is uniquely situated to provide experiences and entertainment that can bridge our national divide and bring us all together.

CEO, Bob Chapek had the right idea in his original statement that he has since walked back. In Chapek’s own words, “As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds. … Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame.” Disney is far more important and impactful to the world by avoiding politics than it will ever be by embracing a political agenda. By focusing on entertainment that inspires us with stories of universal appeal, we are doing good in the world.

Disney shouldn’t be a vehicle for one demographic’s political activism. It’s so much bigger and more important than that. More than ever, the world needs things that we can unite around. That’s the most valuable role The Walt Disney Company could play in the world at this time. It’s a role we’ve played for nearly a century, and it would be a shame to throw all of that away in the face of left-wing political pressure. Please don’t let Disney become just another thing we divide over.

Why does Disney force its conservative employees into the closet, where they have to live in fear, for the sake of appeasing this woke mob that wants to sexualize children? Has Disney forgotten who and what it is supposed to serve? And what about you, Mom and Dad? Do you really want to support a company that treats its religious and politically conservative employees like this — and that empowers a woke internal mob to compel it to interfere in politics to disempower parents’ control over the sexual education of their children, and to turn popular art into culture-war propaganda?

I stand with the internally silenced and persecuted Disney employees, and with the Florida legislature that is not allowing woke capitalist bullies to tell parents to sit down and shut up and hand their children’s minds over to activist teachers. I hope you will too. Trying to stop activists and woke capitalists from queering little children through the schools is a fight worth having.

Yes, it is.

 

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Patients Beware: Washington Is Pushing Woke Health Care

https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/04/patients-beware-washington-is-pushing-woke-health-care/

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There’s a new front in the woke campaign to control our national institutions: health care. Largely out of sight of the American people, the federal government is pushing to fundamentally corrupt the principles and practice of medicine. Physicians and patients alike are set to suffer from woke health care. In many cases, they already are.

Every American needs to know what Washington is doing. It’s using taxpayer money and unaccountable regulation to embed “critical race theory” and “anti-racism” into every level of health care. The secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, recently made this clear when he declared that “health equity pervades everything” his department does. In making this declaration, he was following the lead of the president he serves. It sounds nice. But ensuring health equity requires taking a divisive and discriminatory approach to treating patients and providing care.

Which is exactly what’s happening. Since the start of this year, Washington has effectively bribed physicians to embrace discrimination on a day-to-day basis by offering higher Medicare- reimbursement rates to physicians who “create and implement an anti-racism plan.” That’s code for recasting everything that happens at the doctor’s office in light of race, including patients’ access to care and specific treatments. Ninety-three percent of primary-care physicians accept Medicare.

 

And with many medical providers still dealing with Covid-induced financial struggles, they’ll probably find it hard to turn down the extra money.

Yet what’s good for physicians’ bottom lines is bad for their profession and for patient health. The goal of anti-racism is to force physicians to make medical decisions based in part, if not entirely, on a patient’s skin color. That’s neither what physicians signed up to do nor what patients expect when they go to the doctor. To see what this looks like in practice, consider the anti-racist pandemic policies that New York recently adopted. The Empire State sought to dole out scarce — and potentially life-saving — COVID treatments on a racially preferential basis.

It’s telling that the Biden administration refused to directly mandate such discriminatory care, though key White House advisers have praised similar policies in the past. Instead, it’s dragooning physicians into doing the dirty work themselves. This underhanded approach to imposing wokeness on health care carries through to the president’s most recent budget, which quietly proposes a variety of health initiatives grounded in critical race theory and anti-racism.

To start, the White House wants to fund “implicit bias training for health-care providers.” Such training, which has been widely condemned and discredited, tells physicians they are inherently biased and pushes them to factor in race when making care decisions. The administration also wants to invest tens of millions of dollars in identifying “barriers to equity” in Medicare and Medicaid, while throwing more than $350 million at research focused on “health disparities and inequities.” This research will lay the groundwork for a new round of federal regulations codifying critical race theory and anti-racism into the heart of health care.

The White House is now working with Congress to pass this funding into law. Though presidential budgets are often largely aspirational messaging documents, there’s ample reason to believe that the Biden administration takes these dangerous ideas seriously and wants them implemented in law. As these policies are enacted, they will move health care further away from its principled foundation of individualized care and equal access for all.

There’s a reason such policies are being pushed outside the public eye. The Biden administration seems to fear the broad public blowback to such ideology in education, so it’s moving forward in a way that keeps people from noticing. Yet the subterfuge cannot be allowed to continue. Woke health care is an assault on the physicians who want to improve lives and a potentially mortal threat to patient well-being. The sooner Americans recognize that Washington is introducing the disease of ideology into health care, the sooner we can cure it.

Disgusting.

 

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Native American community condemns Anderson's 'Indian' mascot

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2022/04/15/native-americans-anderson-high-school-indian-mascot-peace-pipe-ceremony/7283327001/

Quote

Appearances of Anderson High School’s Indian mascots — students who dressed up as a Native American "chief" and “maiden” — are on hold as the school reevaluates its use of the nickname and related imagery.

The move comes in response from calls from the Native American community to change the school's mascot. 

The school’s sports teams have used the "Indian" nickname for nearly a century, dressing up students in traditional Native American attire as live mascots to perform before sporting events since the 1950s. The purpose is to honor the native people who once inhabited the region, said Anderson Community Schools Superintendent Joe Cronk. The district has long asserted that it had the blessing of descendants of Chief William Anderson, one-time leader of the Delaware Tribe for whom the city is named.

Chief Brad KillsCrow is the present-day leader of the Oklahoma-based Delaware Tribe. The school does not have the tribe’s support or blessing, he said. He is calling on the school to change its mascot.

What they’re doing, KillsCrow said, is “blatant disrespect.”

“There are so many other ways to honor Chief Anderson,” KillsCrow said, “other than having a mockery of a ceremony going on before a basketball game.

“It’s quite disgusting.”

The school’s website says “the pre-game peace pipe ceremony and ‘war dance’ are unique, long standing traditions that are cherished by all Indian fans.”

A video of the students performing these rituals recently went viral on social media, sparking renewed calls for the district to make a change.

Cronk said he has set up an internal committee to take a “deep dive” into all the ways the school uses the Indian name and imagery. It’s used in the district’s logo, school signage and team uniforms. They’re engaging the community, he said, and plan to have a report done in the coming weeks.

That report will be shared with KillsCrow and the Delaware Tribe. Cronk said they’ve been in regular communication since the controversy erupted last month.

“You know, it's always our intent to honor our Native American tradition and maybe that was ignorant,” Cronk said at a school board meeting Tuesday evening. “Maybe we don't know what we're honoring. Maybe we're not honoring at all.”

Cronk said that while the intent is to honor the city’s Native American legacy, “maybe in the lens of 2022, that needs to change.”

KillsCrow and others in the Native American community say it absolutely needs to change. He wonders what community stakeholders could be more important than the leader of the tribe the school is seeking to represent.

“They feel like this is their culture,” KillsCrow said. “They feel like they own this."

KillsCrow added that the headdress worn by the male student is not something the Delaware Tribe wears. The school is just “picking and grabbing” from random Native American cultural elements, he said.

The district has said that one of Chief Anderson's descendants had given the school their blessing. Cronk has also pointed out that several other schools in the area also use Native themed team names and imagery. Native American tribes, including the Delaware, once populated the area surrounding Anderson before U.S. relocation policies forced them into Oklahoma and Kansas, where many are now.

Advocates for the larger Native American community say that even if one person has said it's OK, that person can't speak for all Native people, the Delaware Tribe or even all of Anderson's descendants. KillsCrow said such an approval must first go through the tribal council, but added that the tribe opposes the usage.

This issue is not a new one. Protests around the use of Native American team names, mascots and iconography in high schools, colleges and professional teams have been happening for decades.  

The NCAA banned their use in championship events back in 2005.

....

Still, thousands of elementary and high schools across the country still use Native American mascots and iconography for their sports teams, as do plenty of other leagues.

Indianapolis’ minor league baseball team has been reviewing its nickname but still uses the “Indians” name in the meantime. The school system in Goshen, Indiana, changed its nickname to the RedHawks in 2015 and Fort Wayne Community Schools changed the mascot of North Side High School to the Legends in 2016. Last year, Manual High School did the same when it merged with Christel House to become the Eagles.

The National Congress of American Indians tracks K-12 schools still using native themed mascots — a practice the organization opposes. Last updated earlier this month, the list includes more than 1,900 schools across the country with team names like “Indians,” “Braves,” “Chiefs” and “Warriors.”

They track changes, too. Last year, 61 schools changed their mascots from Native themes to things like the Sanford Thundering Mustangs and Toledo Riverhawks.

The use of Native Americans as mascots goes beyond cultural appropriation, said Rachel Thunder, a member of the Canada-based Plains Cree Tribe and director of the Indiana and Kentucky Chapter of the American Indian Movement, a grassroots advocacy effort.

It’s blatant discrimination, she said.

“It’s extremely disrespectful,” Thunder said. “By having our people as a mascot, you’re sending a message that we’re less than, that we’re just this fictional fairytale.”

One of AIM’s missions is to stop schools and other organizations from using Native American mascots.

Further exacerbating Thunder’s frustrations, ceremonial performances like the one performed by Anderson students once were outlawed in the United States. Native Americans like Thunder’s ancestors were persecuted and arrested for similar performances.

The usage of native people as mascots can also be damaging, particularly to children, Thunder said.

....

The most recent controversy kicked off last month after a video of the school’s “peace pipe” ceremony, performed during a basketball game against Guerin Catholic High School, went viral on the social media platform TikTok. It’s received more than 750,000 views.

The video starts with the text “I literally hate Indiana” and then zooms in on Anderson’s cheerleaders doing a pre-game routine. A male student is wearing feathered headdress, called a war bonnet, long enough to sweep the ground. A female student, the school’s “Indian Maiden,” is wearing what looks like a buckskin dress and her hair is worn in two braids, hanging over her shoulders.

She hands the boy a “peace pipe” that he holds to his mouth. Later in the video, the mascot and "maiden” perform a dance at center court.

Sarah Holba took the video and posted it to TikTok. She was at the game to watch a family member on Anderson’s team.

“I found it incredibly bizarre,” Holba said. “It made me sick to my stomach a little bit.”

She wondered how events seemingly as egregious as this one could still be happening in 2022.

Holba posted the video to the internet because she feels like small towns like Anderson don’t have enough diversity to have people around who can speak out against it, she said. She wanted more people to know what was happening.

According to U.S. Census Data, nearly 55,000 people live in Anderson and roughly 27% of them are non-white.

“I chose the social media format,” Holba said, “because it really does force their hand to face the music. You can’t push that under the rug.”

The “whirlwind” reaction to the video has drawn unexpected massive support, as well as a few threats, Holba said, leaving her feeling a little worried for her safety and the safety of her family whom she lives with.

But she remains emboldened.

“Those things are not comparable,” Holba said, “to the literal hundreds and hundreds of years of oppression and violence against marginalized groups.”

More snowflakes out looking for something to offend them.  And sacrificing history and tradition in the process. Sickening.

 

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