We do a lot of DEI work at my university and I appreciate the effort here to specify the various different things that DEI mean in practice. Almost none of it, in my experience, had to do with racial quotas.
Can't say that I do follow these cases. Perhaps because I am hopelessly a sociologist, I have a fairly expansive view of what constitutes "merit" for admissions and so don't view "bias" against certain types of accomplishments the same as the court. In fact, I just received a solicitation from Solomon Admissions Consulting which says their clients have a 5.3x success rate at Ivy Plus Schools, including a 7.2x acceptance rate at Harvard (above the university acceptance rate of 3.5%) and a 7.4x acceptance rate at Stanford (28.8% vs. 3.9%). So we're hardly working on a level meritocratic playing field. But maybe I'm reading this the wrong way?
Disgruntled Duke students got a hold of the admissions statistics from UNC and Harvard, probably mostly to troll UNC to be honest which you'll understand being in ACC country, and did an analysis that showed that regardless of what the extracurriculars actually were, Asians were subjected to a 100 to 200 point ding on their SAT scores for being Asian, on a side by side comparison, in order to make way for DEI slots in the admission process. On discovery, the anti-AA lawyers had emails from the Harvard admission staff literally talking about how to keep Harvard from accepting too many Asians in particular. They did a comparison and showed that based on quantitative merit, white admissions to Harvard were lower by around 3% or 4% due to DEI but Asian admissions were down something like 30%. It was all very numbers based, but then backed up by emails provided in discovery. There's a great podcast on Year Zero which interviewed one of the attorneys on the anti-AA side, which was a fascinating watch if you have an hour to spend. I'll dig up a link if you need it.
Personally loved how many insults you managed to slip in here about the office of VP. While reading it felt as if every 3rd sentance was an insult to anyone who'd ever held or run for the office of VP.....
First of all, I am not thrilled about you disparaging my ultimate career goal! Seriously. 4 years for a lifetime pension and never having to wait in line on vacation? Sign me up.
Usually you do thorough research. I assume you know that the potatoe incident was partially the result of an erroneously prepared cue card? Granted Quayle was a lawyer, not an engineer, and presumably should have been certain of the spelling of potato. As an engineer, I rank spelling quite a bit lower than other abilities. Critical thinking, being able to find the debate podium without directions, not gaining advancement by serving as a bratwurst bun for Willie Brown.
The last sentence from WAPO is telling. At 12 years old, I had no interest in whether the VP was a dunce. It was almost certainly a set up with the kid coached on what to say. Of course it did require that Quayle fall for a trap set by a mind as cunning as the roadrunner painting a tunnel on a wall... That said, I wonder how the people who have criticized him would have performed in a similar situation. I think it's natural to blindly trust the cue cards without thinking.
For the lazy...
A minor slip-up by Vice President Dan Quayle hatched a frenzy and a long-running joke. Quayle led a spelling bee for sixth-grade students while visiting an elementary school in New Jersey in 1992. Working from an inaccurate flash card prepared by a teacher, he corrected William Figueroa, 12, when the child spelled "potato" on the blackboard – making the boy add an unnecessary "e" at the word's end.
Quayle would never hear the end of it. The media assault for this goof was truly relentless. The young Figueroa crystallized the effects of this incident on Quayle's public image when he said that it "showed that the rumors about the vice president are true – that he's an idiot."
Barrack Obama believed and still believes that the US is and always will be a racist country. That was part of the background of his campaign speech in Pennsylvania when he was running for the presidency, when he referred to white people clinging to their guns and Bibles. He knew that he needed an old white guy as his running mate, so he chose Biden, his DEI hire. The pattern continues. The Democrat party emphasizes differences to create wedges where they don’t need to exist - much like the British in 18th century India - to divide and conquer.
Harris’ credentials? Not all college degrees, even in the same major, are created equal. Some are much harder to get, and receive recognition for that difference. I submit that an election to District Attorney or Senator, where the race was won primarily in the basis of race, is less an accomplishment than one won on the basis of past accomplishment and advertised intent.
Incorrect. We have someone, or a team of someones, performing the presidential duties in the shadows. They are even less accountable than an ordinary president because we do not know who they are. Operating from the shadows means the people wielding presidential power are not subject to even the minimum level of accountability our system theoretically provides. We have a president, either one individual or a committee. Simply because we do not know who is filling the position does not mean it is unfilled.
Of course we need a president. Congress refuses to do their job, and we now seem to operate primarily thru executive orders. Unless, of course you are referring to the unelected committee now occupying the Oval Office, in which case I would agree.
I can see your point. However, that will not prevent me from being the last person still trying to put brakes on the devolution of our country. But then, I also understand that things will get very ugly indeed prior to the Second Coming. But I have to do what I have to do. If not me, then who? If not now, then when? <shrug>
Pertaining to Boeing. I believe what was ment by people blaming DEI was that the company,instead of focusing on safety and QC which should be the most important thing in a company like that. They made it a point to focus on hiring,and making a very public show of it,DEI employees. I don’t believe the DEI employees themselves were being blamed. The company is being blamed for having its priorities in the wrong place. At least that’s the way I always took it. But I could be completely off base and wrong also.🤔 I do know this. To me it feels right to hire the very best and capable person for the job you want done,no matter what color,gender,or sexuality you are. Someone under qualified should never get a job before someone who is qualified. Therefore maybe 90% of our politicians should be shit canned and qualified replacements found!🤣
I think it depends more on who is listening. Some people hear dog whistles all the time. Often when they are allegedly directed at people of my viewpoint, I don't get them. At the same time, they will hear an elected official say "we need to eliminate Trump" and even when he gets shot at, they "can't" see the issue. The dog whistle I hear most often is that anyone that disagrees with the current administration is a "threat to democracy" and that the FBI and the military are the "guardians of democracy." That seems like an open threat to use said institutions to to put an end to disagreement.
"The truth of the matter is that VP picks aren’t jobs at all, they’re just placeholders in case someone shoots the president, which is a necessary position in the USA because we shoot our presidents quite a bit. "
And this is why JD Vance is more important than most, because if any US president is going to get shot (again) It's Donnie Trump.
Every invader who enters the country illegally - that is, in flagrant defiance of the laws passed by the democratically elected legislature - both disenfranchises, and diminishes the patrimony of, every American citizen.
Why do you hate democracy and actively seek the immiseration of the American working class?
People from over 100 countries have entered illegally across the southern border this year. Many are military age males from countries that are not friendly to the US, notably China and Iran. Without doubt some were sent by their home nations for nefarious purposes.
The universal opinion is that Kamala is not fit to be president. I submit her primary performance in 2020 as evidence that this is the left wing position as well.
We do a lot of DEI work at my university and I appreciate the effort here to specify the various different things that DEI mean in practice. Almost none of it, in my experience, had to do with racial quotas.
Did you follow the AA SCOTUS case much David? Or the analyses done by mathematicians at Duke quantifying the anti Asian bias in the Ivy's?
Can't say that I do follow these cases. Perhaps because I am hopelessly a sociologist, I have a fairly expansive view of what constitutes "merit" for admissions and so don't view "bias" against certain types of accomplishments the same as the court. In fact, I just received a solicitation from Solomon Admissions Consulting which says their clients have a 5.3x success rate at Ivy Plus Schools, including a 7.2x acceptance rate at Harvard (above the university acceptance rate of 3.5%) and a 7.4x acceptance rate at Stanford (28.8% vs. 3.9%). So we're hardly working on a level meritocratic playing field. But maybe I'm reading this the wrong way?
Disgruntled Duke students got a hold of the admissions statistics from UNC and Harvard, probably mostly to troll UNC to be honest which you'll understand being in ACC country, and did an analysis that showed that regardless of what the extracurriculars actually were, Asians were subjected to a 100 to 200 point ding on their SAT scores for being Asian, on a side by side comparison, in order to make way for DEI slots in the admission process. On discovery, the anti-AA lawyers had emails from the Harvard admission staff literally talking about how to keep Harvard from accepting too many Asians in particular. They did a comparison and showed that based on quantitative merit, white admissions to Harvard were lower by around 3% or 4% due to DEI but Asian admissions were down something like 30%. It was all very numbers based, but then backed up by emails provided in discovery. There's a great podcast on Year Zero which interviewed one of the attorneys on the anti-AA side, which was a fascinating watch if you have an hour to spend. I'll dig up a link if you need it.
P.s., I also meant to say nice work!
Nice analysis. I have another (snarkier) one. I really think DEI perpetuates racism and should be backed away from fast. Here's why: https://hamannature.substack.com/p/dei-is-racist-and-sexist-and-im-tired?r=2u0knv
Great insights!
Personally loved how many insults you managed to slip in here about the office of VP. While reading it felt as if every 3rd sentance was an insult to anyone who'd ever held or run for the office of VP.....
The bar begins at the spelling of potato.
First of all, I am not thrilled about you disparaging my ultimate career goal! Seriously. 4 years for a lifetime pension and never having to wait in line on vacation? Sign me up.
Usually you do thorough research. I assume you know that the potatoe incident was partially the result of an erroneously prepared cue card? Granted Quayle was a lawyer, not an engineer, and presumably should have been certain of the spelling of potato. As an engineer, I rank spelling quite a bit lower than other abilities. Critical thinking, being able to find the debate podium without directions, not gaining advancement by serving as a bratwurst bun for Willie Brown.
Anyway, courtesy of Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/quayle3.htm
The last sentence from WAPO is telling. At 12 years old, I had no interest in whether the VP was a dunce. It was almost certainly a set up with the kid coached on what to say. Of course it did require that Quayle fall for a trap set by a mind as cunning as the roadrunner painting a tunnel on a wall... That said, I wonder how the people who have criticized him would have performed in a similar situation. I think it's natural to blindly trust the cue cards without thinking.
For the lazy...
A minor slip-up by Vice President Dan Quayle hatched a frenzy and a long-running joke. Quayle led a spelling bee for sixth-grade students while visiting an elementary school in New Jersey in 1992. Working from an inaccurate flash card prepared by a teacher, he corrected William Figueroa, 12, when the child spelled "potato" on the blackboard – making the boy add an unnecessary "e" at the word's end.
Quayle would never hear the end of it. The media assault for this goof was truly relentless. The young Figueroa crystallized the effects of this incident on Quayle's public image when he said that it "showed that the rumors about the vice president are true – that he's an idiot."
Barrack Obama believed and still believes that the US is and always will be a racist country. That was part of the background of his campaign speech in Pennsylvania when he was running for the presidency, when he referred to white people clinging to their guns and Bibles. He knew that he needed an old white guy as his running mate, so he chose Biden, his DEI hire. The pattern continues. The Democrat party emphasizes differences to create wedges where they don’t need to exist - much like the British in 18th century India - to divide and conquer.
Harris’ credentials? Not all college degrees, even in the same major, are created equal. Some are much harder to get, and receive recognition for that difference. I submit that an election to District Attorney or Senator, where the race was won primarily in the basis of race, is less an accomplishment than one won on the basis of past accomplishment and advertised intent.
I would argue at this point that the president doesn't need any qualifications either. Apparently we haven't actually needed a president since 2021.
Incorrect. We have someone, or a team of someones, performing the presidential duties in the shadows. They are even less accountable than an ordinary president because we do not know who they are. Operating from the shadows means the people wielding presidential power are not subject to even the minimum level of accountability our system theoretically provides. We have a president, either one individual or a committee. Simply because we do not know who is filling the position does not mean it is unfilled.
Of course we need a president. Congress refuses to do their job, and we now seem to operate primarily thru executive orders. Unless, of course you are referring to the unelected committee now occupying the Oval Office, in which case I would agree.
I argue that no, in fact, we do not because politics is all just show.
https://hwfo.substack.com/p/guns-and-protofascism
In this administration the show includes "Send In The Clowns".
I can see your point. However, that will not prevent me from being the last person still trying to put brakes on the devolution of our country. But then, I also understand that things will get very ugly indeed prior to the Second Coming. But I have to do what I have to do. If not me, then who? If not now, then when? <shrug>
Pertaining to Boeing. I believe what was ment by people blaming DEI was that the company,instead of focusing on safety and QC which should be the most important thing in a company like that. They made it a point to focus on hiring,and making a very public show of it,DEI employees. I don’t believe the DEI employees themselves were being blamed. The company is being blamed for having its priorities in the wrong place. At least that’s the way I always took it. But I could be completely off base and wrong also.🤔 I do know this. To me it feels right to hire the very best and capable person for the job you want done,no matter what color,gender,or sexuality you are. Someone under qualified should never get a job before someone who is qualified. Therefore maybe 90% of our politicians should be shit canned and qualified replacements found!🤣
Depends entirely on who was talking. For some you're correct. And for others it was the dog whistle, because that's how dog whistles work.
I think it depends more on who is listening. Some people hear dog whistles all the time. Often when they are allegedly directed at people of my viewpoint, I don't get them. At the same time, they will hear an elected official say "we need to eliminate Trump" and even when he gets shot at, they "can't" see the issue. The dog whistle I hear most often is that anyone that disagrees with the current administration is a "threat to democracy" and that the FBI and the military are the "guardians of democracy." That seems like an open threat to use said institutions to to put an end to disagreement.
So how exactly would you go about falsifying the idea that something is a dog whistle?
Oooooo. That's a fascinating question, which might be why "Zomg Dog whistle!" accusations are so easy to make
"The truth of the matter is that VP picks aren’t jobs at all, they’re just placeholders in case someone shoots the president, which is a necessary position in the USA because we shoot our presidents quite a bit. "
And this is why JD Vance is more important than most, because if any US president is going to get shot (again) It's Donnie Trump.
Not only that, Trump is old, so is more likely than most presidents to die of natural causes.
Kamala Harris as a CAT 😼?? ... hmmmm ... have to think about that one 🙃
🤪🏴☠️
This post would have helped immensely two years ago when woke bigots took over this local non profit under the guise of “diversity.”
https://sdbikecoup.substack.com/p/the-problem-is?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true
https://sdbikecoup.substack.com/p/a-huge-ask?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true
The right wing opinion here is very clear:
Kamala is not black because she's half Indian:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-kamala-harris.html
But, also, Kamala is not fit to be president because she is black.
Huh? Ms Harris is unfit for leadership because she's a malicious dimwit who presided over the Biden regime's treasonous open borders program.
So what you're saying is you don't hate black people, you hate Mexicans?
Every invader who enters the country illegally - that is, in flagrant defiance of the laws passed by the democratically elected legislature - both disenfranchises, and diminishes the patrimony of, every American citizen.
Why do you hate democracy and actively seek the immiseration of the American working class?
Patrimony? You think we only inherit things of value from our fathers? Why do you hate women?
Derp!
People from over 100 countries have entered illegally across the southern border this year. Many are military age males from countries that are not friendly to the US, notably China and Iran. Without doubt some were sent by their home nations for nefarious purposes.
The universal opinion is that Kamala is not fit to be president. I submit her primary performance in 2020 as evidence that this is the left wing position as well.