UT Lawmakers Pass Ban On College Diversity Programs

let’s be honest, what this is really about.  Racism, bigotry, and misogyny.  What do diversity programs do?  Diversity programs promote acceptance of non-white non-straight non-cis people in the workforce and work to open the work force to those people.  Yes it is so that work places become more accepting of those who are different from white straight cis men.  

Which means people against diversity and inclusion are simply trying to promote a white straight cis male only in schools, higher education, and the white collar workers in the US, which means upper level income management positions.   Notice these same people don’t seem to mind that the lower income labor positions are filled by the very people that the diversity inclusion programs are designed to lift up to better jobs and education.   Weird that.   Hugs.  Scottie

Quotes from the linked article.

Under the Utah bill, universities and government would not be allowed to have offices dedicated to promoting diversity. They also could not require employees to submit statements of commitment to DEI.

The chamber’s six Democrats voted against it. Among them was Sen. Luz Escamilla, who cited statistics showing much lower college enrollment rates for Native American, Hispanic and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students compared to white students.

The board that oversees Iowa’s public universities in November directed schools to eliminate staff positions focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. In December, the board overseeing Wisconsin’s university system agreed to shift dozens of DEI positions to instead focus on “student success” and freeze hiring for DEI staff in exchange for lawmakers releasing state funding for pay raises and campus construction projects.

Like last year, this year’s bills have a heavy focus on higher education. But Republicans also are sponsoring bills seeking to limit DEI in K-12 schools, state government, state contracting and pension investments. Some bills also would bar financial institutions from discriminating against those who refuse to participate in DEI programs.


 

NBC News reports:

Utah’s legislature became the latest in the U.S. to pass a bill Friday prohibiting diversity training, hiring and inclusion programs at universities and in state government. The bill that cleared the state House and Senate by wide margins now heads to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who has said he is likely to sign such a bill into law.

I can assure you, after this legislative session, it will not be happening in the state of Utah, these diversity statements that you have to sign to get hired,” Cox said in a Dec. 20 news conference. Such initiatives are “awful, bordering on evil,” he added.

Under the Utah bill, universities and government would not be allowed to have offices dedicated to promoting diversity. Last year, Republican-led Florida and Texas were first to enact broad-based laws banning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education.

Read the full article.

 

Nice job working on the important things. Now. what are you going to do about school debt, wages, healthcare costs anx so on.

Lower the wages, and increase the debts. Negative wealth is still wealth!!111/s

Of course. Our principles demand conformity, inequity and exclusion of minorities. The party of the cis, White, Xtian male.

76.7% White only per the last census.

Republican lawmakers in Utah: We need to get that number UP!

I just hate this.
Why is it “evil” to try to treat others like you would want to be treated? Why is it evil to try to open up our society to give others the same opportunities that were hoarded by white people since before the founding of this nation?
The “Golden Rule” of the Christianity they claim to follow is right in line with this, yet they call it “evil.”
I guess the only positive here is that they’ve stopped hiding their racism. Now we know just who the problem really is.

Two years ago right wing propagandists had to be crafty when pushing this agenda. They had to use terms like Critical Race Theory to make these programs seem evil. Now they don’t have to hide it anymore. They can openly challenge the ideas of diversity, equity and inclusion. They’ve convinced people that these ideas are the real racism. Their messaging has been extremely effective and now they are getting their laws passed. This is what fascism looks like.

And soon DEI will mean anything other than straight white men. Everyone else will be expendable.

Biden should sign an executive order requiring colleges and universities applying for federal research grants have a diversity program in place.

All colleges and universities receive federal FAFSA student grants. It would be reasonable

This is something Biden could do, but not even a peep out of him or any Dem for that fact.

When our party leadership doesn’t even have a comment about these things, it signals to voters they don’t even care.

More red states will do this and still nothing from our side.

 

“And I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!!” – then again, changed it back in 2024. – Book of Mormon, The Musical.

You know, in Germany before the camps were built, the government made it legal to discriminate against Jews

Now the red states are making it legal to discriminate against LBGTs

If they take over the government they will build camps, and guess who will be first in, but definitely not last

CisHet white conservatives are terrified of losing their position of supremacy. They’ll do whatever they can to keep everyone else down to maintain the status quo.

Now imagine republicans in total control.

terrified of losing their privilege

So, does that mean ‘diversity’ in UT will consist of white Mormons who do or don’t wear glasses?

Utah diversity: do you have one sister-wife or four?

And the foreign students, who pay the most money, will go elsewhere. I hope the Utah students who are left to make up that money enjoy their larger student loans…

The SLC Redevelopment Agency is a for profit business unit of City government. I have sat on the Advisory Panel for several years. DEI is mentioned in the charter and governing documents in mission statements and strategies. I don’t see this changing and there is very little that the legislature can do about it. The only way this city will grow and prosper is to make sure all of it grows and prospers. It means that investments in less well to do neighborhoods will create a path toward generational wealth, lift populations out of poverty and build a tax base.

I don’t understand how GOPers can’t understand that a rising tide raises all the ships in the harbor.

…a rising tide raises all the ships in the harbor.

It excludes the people who don’t have ships.

Which is why part of our strategy is to build some more boats. 😉

But they don’t WANT some of those ships to rise! They think they can figure out a way to raise their own, and leave selected others aground.

Religious monocultures enshrined in government are so attractive.

City government has been openly at odds with the LDS owned state legislature for decades. As the blue stain has grown, the faithful have become alarmed. They are losing their cherished Deseret to inbound migration and young people leaving the church. Only 42% of residents identify as LDS, the church would have you believe that number is over 70%. They lie to us but they also lie to themselves.

 

Millennials and Gen Z LDS seem to be following the same national pattern that other organized religions are facing. They are just doing it a bit later than their contemporaries. Much of this is due to family pressure and the complete isolation that happens when a young person leaves the church. Often they lose everything. That’s why we see more LDS youth breaking away in their mid 20s. Here’s a good piece from the SLC Trib. Enjoy.

https://www.sltrib.com/ampl…

They have also passed a bathroom bill for government buildings which will require trans people use the bathroom of the gender assigned at birth until “fully transitioned” and changed on ID.

How and who will police this is unknown. It sounds like a violation of people’s medical privacy on its face.

https://www.deseret.com/uta…

Yes, those diversity statements are evil. The nerve of being forced to act Christ-like. The horror of following the Golden Rule must be stomped out in the name of Murican Freedumb. Fucking Nazi trash.

 

Florida Advances Bill To “Legally De-Trans” Individuals

Remember it started with protecting children, first by stopping trans girls from playing on female teams so they wouldn’t take trophies from daughters that don’t earn them.  Then they moved on to protecting kids from having mutilation surgery at 9 years old, as they are convinced is happening.  Then to protect kids they had to remove any mention of trans kids from schools and libraries.  But now it is not enough hate yet.  These people never stop, give them an inch and they will take a mile while still wanting more.  So now red states are forcing trans adults to detransition, forcing younger adults to delay their needed treatment until 25 or 26 years old, forcing insurance companies to pay for conversion therapy which is well known to be a fraud and sham.   It can not work, it will not work, it causes more medical problems, and the major medical organizations are totally against it.  But fundamentalist religious politicians know far more about medical issues than the very doctors who went to medical school and study those same issues.  When the doctors say puberty blockers are safe and reversible, the right wing politicians say only for cis kids, but for trans kids they are deadly dangerous.   WTF?  I would suggest you read the linked article, the plan the republicans are pushing to remove trans people from society is more than Joe quoted.   

This is simple, wipe out trans people, remove them from society.  Then go after the rest of the LGBTQIA and wipe them out, remove them from society.   It is about returning the country to the same public society of the 1950s.  It is about rejecting the modern age, the modern society.  It is about wanting a return to a time when their prejudices were acceptable, their hates tolerated.  We must not only reject them, we must fight back against what they are doing.  We may not win in all red states, and I fear that Florida is going to remain a maga paradise for some time, the rest of the country is savable. 

These are people that refused to issue mask or vaccine mandates for public safety because it was against people’s freedom, yet these people feel free to regulate every aspect of other people sexual / gender lives even though that doesn’t affect anyone else.   Freedom for them to hate and control, freedom for you is to obey them, doing as they tell you.   Hugs.  Scottie


 

CBS News reports:

A Florida House panel has backed a measure that would require state-issued identification cards to reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth and impose requirements for insurers who cover gender-affirming care.

The Republican-controlled House Select Committee on Health Innovation approved the bill (HB 1639) along party lines, despite opposition from transgender people and their allies.

Under the bill, insurance companies and health plans that cover such treatments as hormone-replacement therapy and surgeries for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria would additionally be required to cover the cost of “de-transitioning,”

Read the full article. My first report on the bill is here.

 

Republican supermajority in Tallahassee heard their constituents wanted solutions to the insurance crisis in this state and this is what they’re proposing.

Vote these fucking idiots out already….oh wait it is Florida…so many residents are FUCKED in the head

Most of the legislation you are seeing pop up all over the country is a product of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. The create boilerplate legislation like this and push it to the ultra conservatives in various state legislatures. No lack of any of that in Floriduh or here in Utah. Those that sponsor the bills are normally looking for that unique “LOOK AT MEEEEE!” media moment so they can get some air time and remind everyone of who to hate and what to hate about them. They are admittedly devout christians and that should surprise absolutely nobody.

You got that right. Since trump was prez all the qanaon and maga followers have flooded into the state. Its a cess pool and will not be blue or purple ever for generations and generations to come.

Yup, I can tell you all the Republican rats here in NY fled to the “free” state of FL and you and others are sadly worse off for it.

They all want to live where their Messiah lives. It is their version of Mecca.

Floridians appear to be perfectly fine with Republican bs. I barely even hear about protests or pushback. It’s amazing to see a state move from semi-purple to dark red so quickly.

South of Orlando was not the South. Now it is.

Don’t think that Trump living here isn’t the Nexus of much of this current wave of Crazy

But are they? Or is the media not reporting on the public pushing back. Notice. We don’t hear a lot of people complaining about the skyrocketing insurance cost in the media either. That’s not impossible with the conservative takeover of most of the media in the United States.

I’d swear this sounds like one of those super evil “regulations” that the GOP is always complaining about… what ever happened to the “invisible hand of the free market” that they praise?

Yeah all that hand ever did was steal from the poor and middle class, and give to the rich.

Invisible hand became Citizens United.

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If you want to know what republicans are doing, listen to their accusations against liberals. Projection is a republican thing. They do it but don’t seem to know it.

OK, so we’re all agreed that this is genocide now, right?

 

Why exactly is Florida at war with a community that is probably one of the smallest minorities in the nation?

Now I know the answer…it is just performance while doing NOTHING

 

And they have to have an out-group, an enemy to rail against, and the trans community is small, and has the least support. They’re an easy target.

 

Because being cruel is what gets them off

 

Because they don’t have abortion or gay marriage to use in riling up an emotional fervor in their base.

Othering a scapegoat alway works to whip the followers into a frenzy.

When will the Southern Poverty Law Center declare the entire GOP a hate group? It’s about time.

Sad thing is it wont stop here. And it seems like we have no recourse. Our federal gubment is shocked and awed and seems to not know how to respond. Now that TX has blatantly said they will defy the FEDS and the SCOTUS red states know they are free to do what they want.

The other point is that these GOP goobers ain’t got nuttin’ else but sex, gender, and pregnancies on their minds. International diplomacy? Bah! National debt? Pfff! National infrastructure? Nah! Equality for all per the Constitution? Nuh-uh, spurshally not for women, ick! Improving First Nations people’s well-being? Fuck that!

These cruel mutherfuckers…what happened to having politicians between your and your doctor? For that matter, what happened to the liberty these fuckers are always talking about?

Assholes.

Bears repeating: for Repukes, it’s liberty for me, not for thee.

Republican Liberty means you’re free to be a reactionary asshole.

When a republican talks about liberty or freedom they refer to THEIR liberty or freedom to deny it to others they hate.

Another step towards full ban on being anything but straight and cis. GET OUT NOW!

GOP won’t OK mandates for vaccine.. but “re-de-sexualize” you against your will is Just OK with GOP ?! Whaaaaot?!? – well kids, this is it.. this IS the GOP on parade rain or shine.. FL IS the GOP End Goal “town with the parade” on parade.. sad it is that GOP patterns get set in like this, as if rehearsal.. GOP Kock Bro. plays in WI for rehearsing Dark Money influence, GOP Abbot in/with TX as rehearsal in Cruelty, GOP states follow in with Trigger Laws and stair steps to the GOP 6-3 supreme court (no, I don’t capitalize that anymore).. and GOP base so Warped and manipulated and trained to distraction the GOP base cannot see the ways this plays out against them down the road.. Gads, Work for DEM WINS Ahead !

Yeah, beat up on a group with little political power.

They know this will go down well whenever someone is stopped by law enforcement. Same goes by some employers.

We got enough problems to deal with. Now these bigots want to add cruelty.

The right and Christians scream about their want for freedom, but really want to control others

Boy, they are like a dog with a bone when it comes to harassing the “very least of us.” Jesus would be so proud…

The party of individual rights is now determining a person’s past, present and future all for Jesus.

My day, cat food cans, Ron sick

So we are taking care of three cats.   One full inside fat diabetic cat Named Odie, one inside / outside cat who is sort of gray with white paws also a white tiny mustache, who is named Tupac.  Then there is the totally feral untrusting outside cat we all call Smokey.  

We feed the inside cat three times a day as he wants with wet food.  At night we leave him with what ever wet food he did not eat to finish.

Tupac we feed as many times as he wants when he is in the house, he is very tiny and slim, we give him drops but if we miss them for a few days he starts to spot on stuff.   Often Tupac will come in and go straight to the bedroom rather than eat.  But he tends to spend most days inside with us, and nights unless it is really cold, outside with smokey.

Smokey seems to be a nearly feral female who distrusts most people or close quarters.   She has gotten to trust Ron and I enough to come with in a foot or so of our legs.  She will respond to our voice and come very close to us as long as we make no sudden movement.  She startles very easily.  So she eats her food, both dry and wet, on in the family room Ron built out of the carport.  The dance all these cats play is amazing to watch if you care for them.  

So while Ron and I pay for the vet bills for Tupac and Odie we have not gotten Smokey into a carrier to do so.  But to feed these three every time they demand food takes 90 cans of wet food plus a bunch of dry food.  

While Ron was getting Meow Mix for the family room dish, inside we have been giving Odie Fancy feast and mixing both for Tupac.  But today Ron came home and said he got two bags of food made by the companies that make the treaties we give the cats.  Temptations.  

I looked at the ingredients and stuff and it seems OK to me, but both / two bags were about the same amount we paid for one of the bags of Fancy Feast.   Hey if they eat it I am OK with that.  

So here is the real point of the post.  We go through about 3 cans a day which means is 90 a month.  Depending on how many days in the month or when we order, we sometimes order two of the 90 cans a month.  Each order costs us $78.74.  We get Fancy Feast Poultry and Beef Feast Classic Pate - (30) 3 oz. CansPurina Fancy Feast Seafood Classic Pate - (30) 3 oz. CansFancy Feast Poultry and Beef Feast Classic Pate Collection Grain Free Wet Cat Food Variety Pack - (30) 3 oz. Cans

So, to the point of the post.  Are you not glad I am finally getting to it?  When the cases come in we have to wait until the old cans are gone and then do the “CAT FOOD CAN SHUFFLE”   Ron prefers to put it off until I do it.  Below is the pictures of the cat food can shuffle.   Hugs.   Scottie

This is the place we store the cans and where after the shuffle they go.

IMG_0669IMG_0670

First I have to open each of the three boxes of 30 cans each and put them on the counter.

IMG_0665IMG_0664

Then I start shuffling them.  This is the part Ron hates and why he leaves it to me.  If you look at the first pictures you will see the cans well mixed, so the cats don’t get the same can of food at any two feedings.  I would get bored if every meal was the same as the last.  Ron will keep opening cans until he finds something the cats like and will eat. So below is the rest of the photos.   Hugs.  Scottie

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War on Women

Between Nikki Haley enthusiastically supporting a national abortion ban, to Donald Trump’s rape case, to the GOP’s entire personality, the Republican Party has declared war on women, and we just can’t be ok with it.

Eye doctor visit

I just got home about 45 minutes ago and my vision is still more blurry than normal.  I have been for years using an eye doctor at a place we will call company A.   A small eye firm with two shops, great people, good doctor, and a wide selection of frames.   Plus the glasses were a great price, far less expensive than the big companies.   After your exam if you needed glasses you picked out two frames, they only charged you for one of the frames.  Then you selected your lenses.  One with all the features would be put in the frames you selected, the other frames would have just plain prescription lenses so you had an emergency back up pair.    The two pairs of glasses often were half the price of one pair of the big local chains.  

In November, Ron went to the big local chain eye doctors he has seen before because they treat his eye disease, which our small eye doctor did not, and they pushed him hard to get cataract surgery.  Both of us have cataracts so we thought his had gotten worse than mine, even though his developed much later than mine.  When he checked out, his visit was no charge because he had medicare.  So we made an appointment for me, thinking it also would be no charge.  But he needed a follow-up visit for a different test, scheduled a few weeks ago and they hammered him with charges.  Cost us $188 dollars with his medicare paying also.  

But being hopeful that my eye appointment would be covered under Medicare, we kept my appointment, which was this morning.   I wish I had not.  *** edit They charged me nearly $100 for my eye exam ***  So they did some test on me they didn’t do for Ron, but every test they did for me was tests my other eye doctor did, but they did tests for Ron they did not do for me.  But even before they gave me an eye exam they asked if I had watched the video they sent to me as a text.  I said I did not.   Turns out it was a video on cataract surgery choices.  In the check in stuff, they gave us extra forms to fill out again before even examining me about if I were to have cataract surgery what choices I would want.   At this point, they had not examined me to see if I had cataracts.   Remember they had pushed Ron hard to have the surgery.

So when the tech finished, and unlike the other eye doctor I had the tech did all the tests for my eyesight portion where my first eye doctor did the tests themselves, she gave me a video to watch on different choices for cataract surgery.  When the doctor came in, the first thing she asked was about the video, then launched into talking about the cataract surgery and how she wanted me to plan it for next year.   She had not even looked into my eyes yet.  She felt the left was bad and growing bad much faster than the right, so I should plan for next year and what options did I think I might want.  I told her I would need more time to think on it.   Later Ron told me the first option Medicare paid for but the other options ran thousands of dollars. 

Then she quickly did her check in my eye quickly spewing numbers to her assistant operating the computer, saying scaring such and such at such and such in the left eye … but when she was done she went back to talking about the cataract.  But she never talked to me about the scaring in my left eye!   So then they had me sit in the waiting room for a person to go over glasses with me.   I had brought a set of frames with me I liked and wanted any new lenses put in with the frames refitted to me. 

What do you think they quoted me for just the lenses to be put in my own frames? Hold on to something … $920 for the basic / standard lens and $1160 for the preferred / premium lens.   WTF.   Remember at the other eye doctor I got two pairs, two new frames with one set of lenses being fully progressive with the photo gray sunglass thing with computer anti-glare for $650.    

I did not buy the new lenses.  I told them I needed to think on it, and I did not schedule a new appointment next year as they pushed me to do.  I talk to Ron on the way home how I felt very pressured to have the cataract surgery and reminded him how they were pushing him to schedule his right way. They had sent me a video on it before they even examined me, and I felt the exam I got was less than our other doctor did.  

So I am going to see if our other eye doctor is still seeing patients and if so we will both get exams, and as I already know I will need glasses I will get them there.   But also I wanted everyone to know why I have not been doing much online, I am struggling more than normal to see everything.   Best wishes, hugs, Scottie

Sodomites

I would love to see someone call them that to their face along with the explanation, then watch their heads explode.    Hugs.  Scottie

Lucky Ducky in “Dog Show”

This cartoon really shows how the wealthy think.   Hugs.  Scottie 

JESUS 2.0 | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update

Let’s talk about Biden, banking, and overdrafts….

I hate hearing someone say both parties are the same.   Tell me a republican that would try to stop wealthy banks from raking in billions in profits from the poor people?   Those people don’t think both parties are the same, they simply don’t have a good reason to support theirs, so they have to claim the other side is the same thing.   It also is why the republicans are so desperate to impeach Joe Biden.  Can’t let tRump a republican be the only one, we have to falsely claim democrats are just as bad.   Not that tRump was good or correct, but that Biden is as bad!   Hugs.  Scottie

Let’s talk about Trump probably paying more….