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.

 

Alabama Carries Out Nation’s First Nitrogen Execution, Witnesses Say Prisoner Writhed In Agony For Minutes

is this what a civilized nation does?  Other advanced countries have done away with the death penalty.  It is proven not to be a deterrent for others committing crime, it is often carried out on the wrong people, and it is the state sanctioning murder done in the most painful way.   It is revenge and vengeance only.  Also, with so many overdose deaths, why not give him an overdose of fentanyl or morphine?   Too humane?   Hugs.  Scottie

`


 

The Birmingham News reports:

Alabama Death Row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday night became the first prisoner to die using a new untested method of execution in the United States—suffocation by nitrogen gas. The 58-year-old was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. In announcing the execution had been carried out, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated: “I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”

Smith and his spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeff Hood, had issued this joint statement prior to the execution: “The eyes of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse. Our prayer is that people will not turn their heads. We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other.” Hood said he has witnessed five lethal injection executions over the past year or so. “Lethal injection is preferable every single day,” over nitrogen, he said. “What we saw was minutes of someone struggling for his life,” he said.

The Associated Press reports:

 


Officials said Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. at an Alabama prison after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation.

The execution took about 22 minutes from the time between the opening and closing of the curtains to the viewing room. Smith appeared to remain conscious for several minutes.

For at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints. That was followed by several minutes of heavy breathing, until breathing was no longer perceptible.

 

 

Exactly the news I was expecting to hear. They suffocated him. Why not just come up behind him and put a plastic bag over his head.

The death penalty is archaic, barbaric, primitive, and grotesque.

The Pro-Life crowd sure does love killing the living.

It’s the Republican way, silly boo…

The only way this could have taken 22 minutes is if they totally – deliberately? – botched it.

Too bad he wasn’t a fetus.

Because cruelty is the whole point

What’s disturbing to me is that there are people out there who are not satisfied that he is being put to death. They also anticipate and crave his suffering.

They did something wrong with the gas. It should just cause them to sleep and stop breathing.
This shouldn’t be allowed. Find a better way.

How is this not “cruel and unusual punishment”?

GQP: We’re ‘Pro-Life’, as long as you’re a ZEF.

Zygote/embryo/fetus

They were bound and determined to kill him. This was extra cruel. DOn’t tell me they couldn’t find enough Fentanyl floating around Alabama to use instead. Just make him go to sleep. Probably too peaceful for them.
It’s like they wanted him to go through all of the extra suffering.

 

Let’s talk about banners, paths, and 2 unrelated news stories….

Political Violence is Ruining Democracy

Use my code LEEJA to get 20% off for all consumer plans: https://joindeleteme.com/Leeja | Christmas swatting targeted the homes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jack Smith, and others. Election workers are quitting in droves because of ongoing threats to their safety. More and more people are willing to embrace violence to get their way. And this all has dire consequences for democracy.

Florida Advances Bill Forcing Public Schools To Set Aside Time For Student Recruiting By “Patriotic Organizations”

This is known as the foot in the door bill / law.  Once this gets passed, then the next year a bill / law is introduced to add more right wing groups.  Notice parents are not to be notified and from what I read students can not opt out, which totally wipes out parents rights.  Think on it, any parent can keep an entire school from reading a book with LGBTQIA characters, but no parent can keep their child from right wing indoctrination in public schools.   Just mull over what groups the new approved list might include?  The local mega / hate church?  The RNC?  All military branches, which I think most schools allow but students need permission from parents, that permission no longer required.   However written into the law is not available to other groups, such as left leaning or science groups.  No Satanic Temple for science stuff, no equality groups, no pro abortion groups, no other religion but the “good” one Christianity, right?  By law, only right wing indoctrination 1950s society groups may have this right to brainwash kids without the parents being told.  Let the public reeducation camps begin with public schools.   They will wipe all that progressive modern acceptance and tolerance shit out for good, right?   Hugs.  Scottie


 

Florida Politics reports:

The House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee is advancing a bill that would give some groups certain rights in K-12 schools.

Rep. Wyman Duggan’s bill (HB 1317) would allow representatives of so-called “patriotic organizations” time to meet with students and distribute recruitment materials, with schools providing designated time for these groups to pitch their attendees.

The bill also clarifies that certain groups can use school buildings even after the instructional day is over, and stipulates that other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.”

Read the full article. Duggan is a freshman.

“Patriotic groups” is right wing speak for “terrorist militias”. He wants to use the school to let terrorist groups recruit kids.

That might be what he wants, but this bill won’t get him there.

Foot in the door …

Attending children get complimentary brownshirts.

I think that’s compulsory brownshirts.

Isn’t this how Hitler recruited the youth groups?

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G R O O M I N G

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Where are the Cubans who scream about the dangers of Castro and forced government stuff at on this?
Oh wait, they’re fine if it’s people they like doing it.
Biggest bunch of hypocrites around.

Heney I live in the hood with them.. Its fuck biden flags and bumper stickers all over the place . The show their hatred for freedom and the constitution everytime they scream for trump

Nations – and the citizens that come from them – who have never tasted a history of being a democratic republic really don’t understand how it’s done. I think we’ve got plenty of migration around the world now to recognize that.

Sadly, we’re witnessing how easy it is for even a nation like ours – WITH said history – to easily lose it once history is no longer considered an important topic in classrooms. No wonder MAGAts hate an educated population.

Castro’s revolution was against the semi-fascist regime of Fulgencio Bautista (who eventually took refuge in exile with Franco!). The original people who fled Castro were allied with / members of / happy under a semi-fascist regime.

It is entirely on brand for them to support Trump.

Yep. Let’s see – Catholic Priest Altar Boy Appreciation Society – check!
Hitler youth – check, check!
Baptist Attractive Young Male Interns International Pimpery – check, check, checkity-check!

They’ll find a way to lock out the Girl Scouts.

The Girl Scouts are on the conservative S-list. They don’t kick out lesbians and trans girls. They teach girls skills that help them become successful as independent women holding good jobs. They may teach health that includes accurate information about their genitalia and those of men.

 

Wait – I thought they hated the Scouts now since the girls promote lesbianism and feminism, and the boys allowed the icky gays in.

I will not be surprised to see the FL legislature and governor coming up with a State of Florida designation of “patriotic and national organizations” to include many favored groups.

The bill also clarifies that certain groups can use school buildings even after the instructional day is over, and stipulates that other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.”

 

I like when they include clearly unconstitutional poisoned pills into their legislation.

They anticipate taking it up to the high court (state and federal Supreme Courts) and castrating the First Amendment.

Children can’t read or do arithmetic, don’t understand civics, but let’s take time out of the day and do this and sing the National Anthem. What fucking morons.

Grooming is alive and well in Florida.

The bill also clarifies that certain groups can use school buildings even after the instructional day is over, and stipulates that other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.”

I don’t think that’s allowed.

It’s allowed if SQOTUS says it’s allowed

Hey kids! Don’t be stupid, be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party!!!

GLSEN and Gay-Straight Alliances are “patriotic organizations,” right?

BZZZZT!!!! Wrong. GLSEN would be one of the organizations specifically excluded.

“………… other groups don’t have the legal right to “equal time.” “

Yeah, that’s the new Patriotic American way !

The GOP has hijacked the word Patriot and made it a foul word.

Conservatism has become a cancer on our society.

The way Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) won the right to meet in schools is through the federal Equal Access Act (EAA) of 1984. Any school that permits non-curriculum related student groups must provide equal access to all student groups, and that includes equal access for GSAs. I’m no lawyer, but I wonder if this law can be used in this way.

I’m thinking that if they allow access to the John Belch Society, for example, a strong case could be made for, say, the local LGBT+ Outreach Center.

 

Let’s talk about Pennsylvania, rhetoric, and believing it….

Palestinian children describe nightmarish treatment at Israeli detention center

Please notice the date.  Two years ago.   These were children, 50% being held in pre-trial detention, but already convicted and serving harsh sentences.   Even though the boys were 17 at the time of the interview they were younger when picked up, and we have seen younger kids in each video I have shared.  Every single thing the Israeli soldiers did to these kids was to induce pain and fear.  It is the shit interrogators at Gitmo did to adults, and that was called a war crime then.   They are doing this to hurt, be cruel, to break these kids, and terrorize both them and their parents.   All because they are Palestinian.  This is the government the US has supported unequivocally, and this is why the attacks on Israel happen.   In the US some states have made it illegal to protest Israel, to support the BDS movement.  What is BDS? Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.  The republicans in congress are trying to equate the protesting what Israel is doing with antisemitism.   That is stupid.   Don’t fall for it.  This is a short clip, all the words are in big print on the screen.  Please watch, and then spread the word.  Help these kids.   Hugs.  Scottie


 

Palestinian teenagers Ahmad, and Abdulkareem, both 17, describe their harrowing experiences being interrogated and ill-treated by Israeli forces in the Huwwara Interrogation and Detention Center near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Ron DeSantis Crew Stomps Out Sociology Core Class in Florida Public Universities

https://themessenger.com/politics/ron-desantis-crew-stomps-out-sociology-core-class-in-florida-public-universities

Wow, the rush to the past is not slowing down even as Florida reaches the edge of the cliff.   Anything that threatens right wing fundamentalist Christian world view must be banned, removed, buried along with the regressive indoctrination taught.  What is the republican idea of real history?  That slaves benefited by being slaves?  Rapes and beatings were free for them, I guess?  How did we get here, to this point? 

The US was not always a backwards country.  We started out with a radical idea, a representative democracy.  Let the people have a say in how things are run.  Other countries took this idea and made it great for the public.  The future US kind of tried to pull it together, had a major set back with entrenched racism, which we are still dealing with today.  Then a period of growth for some, oppression for others.  Then the Enlightenment of the New Deal where again the people, the public welfare mattered.   Yes we struggled as each generation challenged the generation before them to expand and grow, open up society so more people could share in it equally.   Then we had a pivotal moment.  A black man was voted in to the highest office in our country, the Presidency.  The right / those that couldn’t accept equality lost their collective minds.  And overnight racism became vogue again, became acceptable to be publicly voiced by some people.  Leaders of political groups on the right, and religious leaders also on the right rallied their followers to push the idea that racism is not wrong as was held true for 40+ years and these people pushed back on the gains in equality of the blacks.   

Well that worked so well for them that racism was extended back to mean anyone not white.  Yes all brown people were deficient and inferior along with basically born bad, especially brown people at the southern border who wanted only to come to the US to work and share the “American dream”.    Well that got a mob boss thug wannabe elected president who gave his followers permission to throw all decency away and revert back to the lowest common denominator they could be.  Racism was joined by bigotry against anyone different, openly being crude, rude, and thuggish became OK for them.  As long as it was towards others, not them.  They demanded they and only them be given back the celebrated highest position in society / the country with everyone else being made lessor with many fewer rights.  They want a return to a distant past before enlightenment, and with the added boost of recreating a fictitious history that never was, which is that the US was founded as a Christian country.  With a racist bigoted moron leading the way, the right surged into office propelled by the idea of taking back the country to something worse for most people but great for a minority.  The minority that was to be given a higher station loved it, and with the majority not paying much attention, managed to get into positions of authority over schools.

 Now they used that authority to attack all areas with the full force of racism, bigotry, and forced religious indoctrination.  Christianity only though, no other religion was acceptable.  They removed books or media that had any member of society they disliked, they did the same for any ideas expressed they disagreed with.  Freedom became only for them, white cis straight Christians, all others had no freedom.  Parent’s rights were twisted to mean only the rights of white cis straight Christian racist bigots, and those rights included forcing every child to be indoctrinated with the right wing racist bigoted Christian teachings regardless of the child’s parents wishes.  A complete authoritarian take over was what they tried.

It was noticed because like all bigots they were not quiet about the damage they were doing once they got the authority to do it.   They aggressively rammed their backwards oppression on everyone.   History has shown when they tried this same shit in the past, it was quickly stopped so they tried to create laws cementing their ideas in place.  But the public which was still a progressive majority woke up, and started fighting back.  They took back a lot of the school boards, they took back as many positions as came up for vote.   The only ones they couldn’t fix were the ones not yet up for vote, like Governor and state officials.  Which brings us to now, today in Florida where educational classes on subjects long thought important for the growth of students is being removed to further the forced indoctrination of right wing political racism, bigotry, and Christianity along with a made up fictional history.   Hugs.  Scottie

Two quotes from the article.

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” the association said in a statement to the New York Times.

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness,” it added.


 

Students should be focused on learning the ‘truth,’ rather than be ‘radicalized by woke ideologies in the college classrooms,’ said education commissioner

Published 01/26/24 10:05 PM ET|Updated 01/26/24 10:05 PM ET

Mary Papenfuss

Ron DeSantis: On a mission to reshape education.Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called “anti-woke” crusade has now removed sociology as a core class from all 12 of the state’s public universities.

The Board of Governors voted to make the change on Wednesday. A core sociology course was also removed earlier this month from all 28 Florida public colleges, meaning that Florida students will no longer be able to chose sociology to fulfill their core class requirements.

What the board refers to as a “factual history course” is replacing Principles of Sociology in the universities in what is widely seen as the start of a general rout of sociology classes.

When discussing sociology late last year, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. said that “students should be focused on learning the truth about our country instead of being radicalized by woke ideologies in the college classrooms.” He also said the subject had been “hijacked by left-wing activists.”

The Board of Education has promised the history curriculum will include an examination of the “horrors” of slavery, even though the same board pressed lower schools to teach that slaves — who lost their freedom, were beaten, raped and forced to labor for their masters — benefited from slavery because they learned work “skills”

Educators warned that students will flee Florida’s universities to obtain legitimate educations required for careers and by employers elsewhere.

Florida has one of the country’s largest public university systems, with more than 430,000 students.

The latest change is part of a sweeping reorganization of education in Florida from top to bottom. Under DeSantis’ sweeping book censorship, at least one district has banned dictionaries from their schools’ libraries because they contain the word “sex.”

The American Sociological Association called the decision to dump the core sociology class “outrageous,” and one informed by a “gross misunderstanding” of sociology as somehow “radical.”

“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers,” the association said in a statement to the New York Times.

 

“Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida’s commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness,” it added.

 

If I was an employer outside Florida, I’d be side eyeing the diplomas from there.

But it’s not “cancel culture” by the party of “small government”…

Factual history of Florida will show blacks were hung from telephone poles for being found by white folk that hated them.

And much much worse – yet we can’t talk about those things, it’s “woke”…

But….. but…. those white people just found them hanging like that. /s

FOOLS…my sociology course in school required us to float theories in class, while using statistical databases to prove them. It was like two courses in one, and highly illuminating for dispelling old assumptions.

Dispelling old assumptions — exactly what DeSadist and co. DON’T want.

I don’t know why universities or any school for that matter needs any kind of curriculum other than bible studies anyway.

Think how expensive it will be to change all the road signs from Miles to cubits

They will start listing them furlongs per fortnight.

I refuse to believe in a book that SUPPOSEDLY has all the answers to life that was written by a bunch of people who didn’t know where the sun went at nigh…

I like the chapter in the “factual history” textbook where Jesus and George Washington free all the babies in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, lock up Hillary Clinton and then travel to Kentucky to comfort the citizens of Bowling Green in the wake of Al Sharpton’s horrific massacre.

That was before they flew into the airport and took over the landing strip.

I heard that the Colonials sank a British airport with a submarine.

The helicopter was in the shop so they needed an airstrip. There were some wooden teeth smashed into the air intake valve and the repair parts were still on order at the time of the attack. Everyone knows this is the reason helicopters didn’t get used again until after WW2.

 

Let’s talk about Biden’s Senate border deal….

How a Palestinian boy was blinded in Israeli prison

Again look at the date.  A year after the last video of a boy abused by Israeli authorities, and they blinded another boy.   If you were his parents, wouldn’t you want justice?  The Israelis kept him in a prison and denied him needed medical care.  Even his doctor couldn’t convince them to help the boy.   They let him go blind, they wanted to hurt him as an example of what happens if you don’t obey your masters.  I am angry!  I have lost online “friends” after saying that Gaza was an open air prison.   So-called critical thinkers couldn’t see that constant mistreatment will drive people to lash out any way possible.  Hugs.  Scottie   



23,973 views Jul 19, 2018

Israeli prison authorities denied Hassan Tamimi his medication, which made him fall into a coma and lose his eyesight.