How a Trump knockout punch can take out the federal DEI Craziness on Day 1

 

This is a guy

There is a great clanging and clamoring around the offices in Washington, DC, and Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Political operatives, policy wonks and opposition figures are all planning for the arrival of the second Donald Trump administration.

I’ve spoken with many of the people in the president-elect’s orbit who are planning how to staff Cabinet departments and set a new tone on the administration’s first day. Much of our discussion has focused on the approach to DEI, or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

While the officials in Trump world are all committed to abolishing DEI in theory, they have yet to settle on a practical approach for doing so.

Here’s how they can shut down DEI — and win the fight for public opinion.

DEI bureaucracies became embedded in the federal government as a result of actions by two presidents: Barack Obama, whose Executive Order 13583 laid the groundwork for many national “diversity” initiatives; and Joe Biden, whose Executive Orders 13985 and 14035 entrenched DEI principles into every federal department and routed billions of dollars toward advancing this ideology throughout American society.

Given this history, Cabinet officials must work with Trump to rescind those executive orders.

In their place, he should sign an order advancing the principle of colorblind equality, stating that the government shall treat all individuals equally according to their merit, rather than unequally according to their ancestry.

The second task is harder. It’s one thing to issue an executive order, and another to make it a reality across the sprawling federal bureaucracy.

On this score, Trump’s Cabinet should swiftly shut down all DEI programs and terminate the employment of all policy officials responsible for those programs — effective immediately.

There is an enormous advantage to acting quickly and aggressively on the first day, when the public is most willing to grant the new administration discretion.

Every president has the right to shape his own administration according to his principles, and DEI principles are diametrically opposed to those of Trump, Vice President JD Vance and the Cabinet writ large.

I have experience implementing such a policy as a trustee at New College of Florida, which became the first institution in America to abolish the DEI department.

As expected, this led to frenzied headlines and a fierce public debate. But we were able to cut that debate short because we acted decisively and effectuated our policy immediately.

The policy was issued, the department was terminated and the director was pink-slipped — all in one fell swoop.

Cabinet officials in the second Trump administration should pursue a similar course of action. They have important work to pursue, and the federal DEI bureaucracy, if not dispatched immediately, will prevent that work from being done effectively.

Cabinet secretaries should task their aides with creating a list of all DEI programs, departments and policies, and, if the president issues an order along the lines I’ve outlined, terminate them within hours of the decision.

The third step is to win the fight in the press. Here again, our policy at the New College of Florida is instructive.

Progressive media outlets tried to turn our elimination of DEI into a negative news cycle, but we outwitted them by speed and substitution.

Working quickly ensured that stories about our policy were part of a single news cycle. Simultaneously, we paired our abolition of DEI with a replacement policy that advanced the principle of colorblind equality.

This created an immense narrative advantage, as it allowed the public to weigh one approach against another. And public polling data indicate that Americans support a colorblind society over a race-conscious one by a nearly 70-to-20 margin.

If Cabinet officials publicly emphasize the concept of colorblind equality, they will ground their case against DEI in popular opinion — and cast their opponents into the fringes.

Finally, Cabinet members should take advantage of the inevitable frenzy that will surround the new administration’s various policies and personalities.

Abolishing DEI, while important, will register as a secondary headline, and a clean break means these diversity programs need never be addressed again.

The principle underlying this course of action is simple: America doesn’t need a permanent DEI bureaucracy, but an effective administration that treats its citizens in a fair manner without regard to race.

This is broadly popular, morally just and, with this administration, achievable as public policy for the first time in a generation.

My lasting hope is that Trump can disband the DEI bureaucracy — forever.

Such a prospect may sound unlikely, but supplemented with legislation in Congress, this administration can persuade the American people never to go back to discrimination under the guise of “equity.”

So prepare for the opening salvo. The fight to abolish DEI has arrived.

Adapted from the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.

Rep Mike Lawler & Rep Mills tell off Blinken in a Congressional Hearing

 

Pocahontas sympathizes with UnitedHealthcare CEO killer

 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren outrageously sympathized with the killer of former UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — and others who cheered the murderer on — claiming “people can only be pushed so far,” before condemning the violence.

“The visceral response from people across the country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system,” Warren (D-Mass.) told the Huffington Post in an interview.

“Violence is never the answer, but people can only be pushed so far.”

In a subsequent statement, the Massachusetts senator added: “Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”

Last Wednesday morning, a gunman shot Thompson, 50, in the back of his head outside a Sixth Avenue hotel.

UnitedHealthcare is the largest private health insurance provider in the US.;

Since then, authorities have apprehended tech whiz Luigi Mangione, 26, as the suspected assassin.

Investigators have speculated that Mangione may have had a grudge against the healthcare industry as evidenced by an X-ray photo on his X account and the fact that he had books involving chronic back pain on his Goodreads account reading list, sources previously told The Post.

Strikingly, an outcry of netizens has cheered the slaying of Thompson, ripping into the US healthcare system. This included former Washington Post media journalist Taylor Lorenz taking “joy” in the killing.

“This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone,” Warren added to the outlet.

The Massachusetts senator has long decried the US healthcare system and advocated for a Medicare for All-style program.

She championed this during her failed 2020 Democratic presidential primary bid, though critics argued that her pay-fors in the program were very dubious.

Mangione has since been charged over the assassination of Thompson, including one count of second-degree murder. Bullet casings near where the shooting took place reportedly had “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” written on them.

That’s an apparent reference to the 2010 book, “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it,” authored by former Rutgers Law professor Jay Feinman.

Amid the populist uproar over the assassination of Thompson, several Democrats have decried the positive reaction as perverse.

“The public execution of an innocent man and father of two is indefensible, not ‘inevitable.’ Condoning and cheering this on says more about YOU than the situation of health insurance,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) wrote on X in response to a New York magazine headline.

“The cold-blooded murder of the United Healthcare CEO is not cause for celebration or an ‘opportunity to vent.’ It is barbarism for which there should be no tolerance. Any civilization that celebrates cold-blooded murder is sowing the seeds of its own downfall,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) wrote on X.

NY’s Phony Fake legal costs hit a staggering $89B, as NYC ranked second-worst ‘judicial hellhole’ in US

 New York’s clogged and bloated legal system is costing taxpayers and companies a whopping $89 billion a year in excessive litigation expenses, according to a report released this week.

Lenient liability laws and lawsuit-friendly policies have fostered an environment where greedy attorneys can make bank, often off the backs of local businesses and city government, the report, conducted by the American Tort Reform Association, suggests.

“The City’s courts are a playground for fraudsters and opportunistic trial lawyers, while honest New Yorkers foot the bill,” said ATRA President Tiger Joyce.

As a result, the Big Apple ranks No. 2 on the group’s list of Top 10 worst judicial hellholes in the country, with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Pennsylvania Supreme Court tied for first.

The tort reform report cites a study conducted by the economic consultancy the Perryman Group last year to estimate the economic impact of excessive litigation. In New York, the group estimates, businesses spent a massive $88.6 billion dealing with frivolous lawsuits.

“The state’s liability environment and lawsuit-friendly policies drive up costs and are a major factor driving businesses and residents to greener pastures in other states,” said Ashley Ranslow, the New York State director for the small business advocacy group National Federation of Independent Business.

ATRA points to several key policies it says are especially responsible for driving up costs — including the state’s scaffold law, which holds construction companies entirely liable for injuries on work sites, even if an employee was negligent.

Critics say the law has been weaponized by dubious litigation lenders who front costs for plaintiffs — sucking millions of dollars out of businesses and municipal governments, many of which settle claims instead of bearing the costs of letting them languish in court.

The ATRA report also cites New York’s high auto insurance rates as a policy that encourages and increases the cost of fraudulent claims.

And it notes a vague statute that allows people to receive compensation in court for ambiguous and undefined “pain and suffering.”

“Lawsuit abuse isn’t just a courtroom problem – widespread fraud is an economic and social crisis that costs jobs, drives up prices, and exploits vulnerable communities,” said Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.

“Lawmakers must step up by passing stricter laws to punish staged car and construction site accidents and by increasing transparency around third-party funding of lawsuits,” Stebbins wrote in a statement.

ATRA places a large amount of blame for the excessive tort costs on New York’s powerful trial lawyers groups.

The New York Trial Lawyers Association maintains a robust lobbying presence in Albany. Top law firms and political groups aligned with the association have pumped millions of dollars into Democrats as well as Republican campaigns statewide.

The organization — one of the largest and most robust trial lawyers groups in New York — has been pushing an expansion of the state’s wrongful death statute that critics argue could be a driver of excessive litigation costs on healthcare providers if passed.

Also referred to as the Grieving Families Act, it would allow people to seek emotional damages in wrongful death cases, among other changes.

“If we are serious about making New York more affordable for businesses and consumers alike, tort reform is a great place to start, including a veto on the wrongful death bill,” a spokesperson for the Business Council of New York wrote in a statement.

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Proponents of the legislation say its a timely update to the statute, which hasn’t been updated in decades.

“After losing my partner in childbirth, I’ve watched insurance companies use the pain of families like mine to justify their greed. While we struggle to rebuild our lives after real, devastating losses, they cry ‘lawsuit abuse’ to defend their skyrocketing premiums and record profits. It’s not the lawsuits that are breaking the system—it’s the insatiable greed of these insurers,” Bruce McIntyre, an activist involved in the coalition Justice for Grieving Families, wrote in a letter reported on by POLITICO, this week.

Gov. Kathy Hochul — who received over half a million dollars from the top law firms and trial lawyer PAC’s since 2017, according to the ATRA report — has vetoed the bill twice in the last two years.

Donald Trump named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ after ‘historic comeback’: ‘Unparalleled in American History’

 

President-elect Donald Trump was named Time’s “Person of the Year” on Thursday after his stunning political comeback — which the magazine described as “unparalleled in American history.”

“It’s been an honor. And every time, it’s an honor” Trump said about being named Person of the Year, again.   

Trump also joked that Time coordinated their pick to line up for his trip to the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning to ring the opening bell. 

“They brilliantly picked them both at the same time… and it only takes me one trip,” he said of his return to his native New York.  

Sam Jacobs, Time’s editor in chief, announced earlier on NBC’s “Today” show that Trump was selected as the  magazine’s 2024 Person of the Year because “for better or for worse, [he] had the most influence on the news in 2024.”

“This is someone who made an historic comeback, who reshaped the American presidency and who’s reordering American politics,” Jacobs said.

“It’s hard to argue with the fact that the person who’s moving into the Oval Office is the most influential person in news.”

Jacobs noted that while “there’s always a hot debate” about who Time will honor every year, the decision was simple this year given Trump’s Election Day victory. 

In his interview with the magazine published Thursday, Trump touted his final campaign blitz as an indication that the nation was frustrated with the Biden Administration and demanded change. 

“I called it ‘72 Days of Fury,’” Trump said of the weeks leading up to the election. 

“We hit the nerve of the country. The country was angry,” he added. 

Trump was among the finalists announced for 2024’s Person of the Year alongside his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, X owner Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate, Princess of Wales. 

This is the second time Trump was named Time’s Person of the Year following a stunning campaign victory, the first being in 2016 when he beat Hillary Clinton. 

Trump’s victory comes on the same day he’s expected to be on Wall Street to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. 

Voters hope that Trump’s return to the White House will bring a positive swing for their wallets as the soon-to-be 47th president has vowed to usher in a “golden age” for the US economy.

Thursday’s event at Wall Street was Trump’s first time ringing the opening bell, an honor given to celebrities and business leaders who have made their mark on culture and politics. 

During the first Trump administration, his wife, Melania, was given the honor to ring the bell during her “Be Best” initiative. 

Last year, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the NYSE opening bell to unveil the magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year, Taylor Swift.

Now both those honors went to Trump this year.

Alexander brothers charged with sex trafficking conspiracy dating back over a decade

 

Police arrested Oren and Tal Alexander, as well as a third brother, for sexual assault.

The Alexander brothers were arrested on Wednesday on federal charges of sex trafficking. Prosecutors accused the siblings of operating a "long-running sex trafficking scheme," according to an unsealed indictment.

The New York prosecutors said in the indictment that Tal and Oren — who are among the nation's top luxury real estate agents — and their brother, Alon, collaborated for more than a decade with others both "known and unknown" to "repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of victims."

Shas did not sign letter calling for A-G's dismissal

 

Shlomo Karhi

Frum Jews had better start voting for the Dati Leumi parties. Chareidie parties have to be dismantled they are useless, and they cannot be counted on! In this respect, I agree with the Satmar Rebbe who prohibited Chareidim from joining the Knesset! This is a disgrace! Shas is run by a corrupt individual an ex-con called Deri, who tried getting his brother in as Chief Rabbi! 

Communications Minister Dr. Shlomo Karhi (Likud) on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the refusal of ministers from the Shas Party to sign a letter he initiated calling for the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.

"Unfortunately, the Shas ministers did not sign this letter. They claim that the party leader should make this decision, and apparently, he has not yet made that decision," Karhi said in an interview with Radio Kol Chai.

He added that 13 ministers signed the original letter, and five others subsequently joined as well, following public pressure. "It pains me, it saddens me that this is being removed from the agenda. We have a real opportunity to dismiss her, and for some reason, it’s being delayed," the minister said.

On the possibility of the Attorney General or another public official declaring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incapacitated, Karhi stated, "If they declare the Prime Minister incapacitated and tell the public that their choice in the elections doesn’t matter, no one will accept that. If they declare him incapacitated, we will declare their decision incapacitated."

He added, "Only the citizens can decide they don’t want their leader—not a bureaucrat."

The minister also commented on the Prime Minister’s trial, claiming that "there is nothing here; all the charges are baseless." He added, "I was at the court yesterday and wished the Prime Minister success. The people of Israel are waiting for this case to end with a victory for Netanyahu."

So Far Rebels in Syria avoid confrontation with Israel

 

Criticism is being voiced against the leadership of the rebels in Syria who have so far refrained from mentioning the seizure of territories near the border by the IDF immediately following the collapse of the Assad regime.

One rebel-affiliated channel noted that the rebel leadership just concluded 14 years of fighting in the civil war and has no interest at the moment in opening another front before it strengthens the internal arena.

A spokesman for the rebels' public affairs directorate published updated guidelines for action, with an emphasis on maintaining security and operating public services. Per the guidelines, the Damascus Airport will renew operations in the coming days.

According to the spokesperson, the new Syrian state will be a state of laws, it will reexamine the Constitution, make changes to it, and work for reconciliation between the various sects in the country. He also stressed that there is no justice without punishment, and this process will be conducted in accordance with the law.

According to the plan, the rebel forces will be incorporated into the Syrian army and the phase of armed organizations will end once control is transferred to the new government. The rebel leadership predicts that once the situation in Syria stabilizes, the sanctions on the country will be lifted.

In this regard, the leader of the rebels met in Daraa with the head of the operations room in the south to reestablish the Defense Ministry which would include all armed organizations.

PASSED! Resolution Forcing Knesset To Discuss Firing Attorney-General

 

The fact that the attorney general can have more power than the Prime Minister or any other elected official in the country is absolutely asinine !

This was not always the case. This changed under leftist control when Netanyahu was not in office. There is a reason that Netanyahu was pushing for  Justice reform. Justice reform was causing the left to go absolutely bonkers but it’s necessary otherwise you have an attorney general or judges who decide they don’t like something because they’re leftists and they cancel laws for no reason.

A resolution to force the Knesset to hold a special hearing on firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara was passed in the Knesset on Wednesday evening.

The proposal, “The Conduct of the Attorney-General and the Damage to the Public,” was submitted by Likud MK Avichai Boaron. The opposition boycotted the vote and the resolution passed 51-0.

Boaron said: “The proposal addresses a very sensitive issue on the agenda of Israeli society. This proposal pertains to the governance of the executive branch and its ability to implement its policies. This proposal also raises the fundamental question of whether the people are in control of the state, whether the Knesset is led by elected representatives of the people, and whether it still serves as a principled compass for the Israeli government.”

As the opposition members screamed and yelled their objections to the proposal, Justice Minister Yariv Levin said: “When one side shouts in such a manner, it indicates that it has long ceased to be about professional opinions but rather about political outbursts. This is not how we work, we can’t continue like this. I hope that the government will be able to convene around appropriate decisions to improve the intolerable situation regarding this matter.”

The proposal was first submitted last week but the opposition “tricked” the coalition and the bill failed to pass.

10-Year-Old Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simcha Murdered After Terrorist Opens Fire On Bus

 

A shooting targeting a bus south of Jerusalem left several people injured on Wednesday night, including a 10-year-old chasidish boy, who was critically wounded. The attack occurred in Gush Etzion near the Al-Khader Junction. The bus, which was making its way from the Gush Etzion area to Jerusalem, continued its journey to the Tunnels Checkpoint, where the injured were treated by rescue forces.

Medics report that a woman in her 40s sustained light injuries, while two others with minor wounds were also transported for medical care.

All injured individuals have been taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center for treatment.

The terrorist fled the scene and the IDF is searching for him.

UPDATE: HE HAS JUST SURRENDERED

Tragically, the critically injured boy, a chossid from Beitar Illit who was returning to Yerushalayim with his family from a simcha when the attack occurred, was niftar at Hadassah despite the valiant attempt by doctors to save his life.

The boy has been identified as Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simcha hy”d. His father, Rav Zusha Simcha yb”l, is the menahel of Yeshiva Pnei Menachem in Beitar Illit.