Well that’s vomit inducing…
Philly-area lawmakers walk out of meeting with Penn president over DEI cuts
A Pennsylvania state senator and state representative left the meeting after they say a university administrator referred to diversity as a “lightning rod.”
UPENN being the assholes, of course.
One of the things that infuriates me (yeah, I know, “just one?”) is the way “DEI” or “diversity” has become a respectable and acceptable replacement for every racial, sexual, gender and queer slur in existence. “We need to get rid of anyone not straight, white, male” sounds bad, but “We need to end DEI” seems to be OK, despite being exactly the same thing! Segregation is reemerging as anti-DEI, where any Black, woman, brown, trans, gay, etc, etc person is seen as less qualified, regardless of actual qualifications, than any straight white man, for anything. I hate this so much.
Earlier in February, some of Andrew Tate’s alleged victims said they were “extremely concerned” by reports that US officials had asked for his travel restrictions to be relaxed.
It came after US special envoy Richard Grenell raised the Tate brothers with Romania’s Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu at the Munich Security Conference.
Hurezeanu said he had not considered Grenell’s approach as a “form of pressure”. Grenell told the Financial Times his support for the brothers was evident.
Before and after bodyguards?
Billionaires being the assholes here. It is heartening that their predatory awfulness is becoming apparent to more people every day.
Robert Reich wrote today,
Friends,
One of the unacknowledged advantages of the horrendous era we’ve entered is that it is revealing for all to see the putrid connections between great wealth and great power.
Oligarchs are fully exposed, and they are defiant. It’s like hitting the “reveal code” key on older computers that let you see everything.
Yesterday, Jeff Bezos, the second-richest person in America, who bought The Washington Post in 2013, announced that the paper’s opinion section would henceforth focus on defending “personal liberties and free markets.”
Anything inconsistent with this view would not be published. “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” (Full statement here.)
The Post’s opinion editor, David Shipley, promptly resigned, as he should.
You’ll recall that Bezos barred the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris in the last weeks of the 2024 election. Subsequently, the paper wouldn’t print its cartoonist’s drawing showing Bezos and other oligarchs bowing to Trump — leading the cartoonist to resign.
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, bought Twitter in 2022, laid off everyone who was filtering out hateful crap on the platform, renamed it X, and turned it into a cesspool of lies in support of Trump.
Mark Zuckerberg, the third-richest person, has followed suit, allowing Facebook to emit lies, hate, and bigotry in support of Trump’s lies, hate, and bigotry.
All three of these men were in the first row at Trump’s inauguration. They and other billionaires have now exposed themselves for what they are.
They are the oligarchy. They continue to siphon off the wealth of the nation. They are supporting a tyrant who is promising them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks that will make them even richer, and destroying democracy so they won’t have to worry about “parasites” (as Musk calls people who depend on government assistance) demanding anything more from them.
When billionaires take control of our communication channels, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for their billionaire propaganda.
When they talk of “personal liberties and free markets,” they mean their own liberties to become even richer and more powerful, as the rest of America slides into worse economic insecurity and fear.
When they speak of “freedom,” what they actually seek is freedom from accountability.
This “reveal code” moment is, in a way, a blessing. It allows everyone to see where the money and power have gone.
It is a prerequisite to the long and difficult but necessary process of creating an economy and democracy for the many rather than for the few.
In other Bezos news
Gavin Newsome needs to fuck off…
So many of our modern politicians only seem to give a shit about selling their fucking brands to make a mint rather than DOING THEIR FUCKING JOBS!!!
If Florida really wants rid of him they have options.
I hear Florida Man is on it too. 
i think those boys need a nice airboat ride out into the Everglades. see the sights, the river of grass, meet a crocodile or, maybe a Micosukee woman who could learn 'em a little.
Narrator: they wouldn’t come back from either.
also: MoRon DeSantis saying that the Tates are not wanted in florida? that may just be the first time he and i are in agreement.
Surprising. I thought Florida was the flaccid peninsula of douchebags.
Mediocre white guys can’t do my job. How do I know? Had one quit about a year ago to take a cushy ‘hardly any actual work’ job. We’re still trying to clean up the mess he left behind.
Fuckers truly fail up to the level of their incompetence.
I have never liked nor trusted Newsom, and he frequently shows his true colors, but centrist and center-left (and even a few leftist) Democrats love him. When he stands in front of a camera, he looks and sounds the part. In other words, he reminds people of Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama. And it’s probably an apt comparison because he’s just another neoliberal politician. Except I don’t think he can win a national election. The DNC will almost certainly push him for 2028. And he will lose.