Yes, and of course there’s the irony of DEI hires typically being better at their jobs, because they know they’re being doubted. And so what do so many do in response? They get all their shit together, and they make damn certain they’re doing their jobs right. None of this bumbling, “No problem, I’ll just figure it out as I go along” confidence of the mediocre white man, right?
I’m reminded of reading how RFK Jr’s Harvard admission essay was just his name printed on it. And he was admitted.
(image not mine)
Executive orders are the new tweets apparently. Apparently, more white men could have prevented this from happening.
ETA: And here it is…
What utter dipshittery
Yes. I hope he dips, too.
(When looking up this gif, I tripped over someone saying that “Oh dip” is an anglicisation of a Filipino curse which is an adaption of Spanish hijo de puta. TMYL)
Asked why he believed DEI (policies promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion) had anything to do with the crash, Trump said: “Because I have common sense. OK. And, unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”
Trump’s new secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, was on hand to add his own bigoted view. “The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department,” he said, “and we need the best and brightest — whether it’s in our air traffic control or whether it’s in our generals or whether it’s throughout government.”
Not to be outdone in the bigot department, Vice President JD Vance piped up: “When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand you’re not getting the best people in government. But on the other hand, it puts stress on the people who are already there.”
What is America to make of this? That the underlying cause of last night’s tragedy was that not enough white people were in charge? That “competent” people — the “best and the brightest” — “the best people” — are not Black or Latino?
Is it now open season for such racist bullshit?
No. We will not allow neo-fascists to scapegoat people of color.
We know what they’re doing, and why.
They want to divide us. They want white people to blame Black and Latino people for every tragedy, every problem, every harm. And they want Black and Latino people to react not only with hurt but with justifiable anger.
It’s part of Trump’s strategy of divide and conquer: Get us so riled up against one another that we don’t look upward and see where all the wealth and power have gone.
I don’t know the cause of last night’s tragedy, but I do know that the air-traffic control system has been hampered for years by inadequate funding, like so much else the public depends on.
I also know that a big reason for inadequate funding is that the average working family can’t afford to pay more in taxes because their pay has been stagnant for 40 years, while the wealthy — who have a record percentage of the nation’s total wealth — have lobbied for and gotten huge tax cuts (the latest being from Trump himself in his first term of office).
I’m not blaming the rich. I’m blaming a system that continues to underfund what the vast majority of Americans need.
Speaking of the rich, Elon Musk — the richest person on the planet — forced Michael Whitaker to step down as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration immediately after Trump’s inauguration. That was because the FAA fined SpaceX for failing to get approval for launch changes. Whitaker’s absence left a power vacuum at the agency. Just sayin’.
Again, I don’t know what caused last night’s crash. But shame on Trump and Vance and Hegseth for blaming it on people of color.
What are your thoughts?
ETA
The bigotry on display in this administration has reached almost unprecedented levels. Now they’re saying that even if white people were responsible for this crash it was still DEI programs to blame because the programs were “stressing them out.”
No - not slowly turning right, economically. Doing that quite fast. As you said:
“…realized that the only way they were going to get elected was by also kowtowing to corporate interests … So the two parties are essentially serving the same masters…”
Since Thatcher, Labour govts, while they may have been more left-leaning on social policies, were very much closer to Thatcher economically. The latest lot even more so - far too much pandering to corporate interests than the people’s.
@catsidhe’s full reply nailed it.
Maybe they are just getting ready to paint their own mural.
I wonder what words they will paint on their walls.
“Delay, Deny, Defend”?
“Drill Baby Drill”?
“We’re from the Government, and We’re Here to Help [Ourselves]”?
“They Sleep, We Live”?
“Tora Tora Tora”?
Maybe just a giant poster of this?:
ETA:
added more artistic mural options