70 Comments

Somehow, I'm quite sure that the PLA political bureau (like in all communism/authocratic regimes - don't criticise the government, don't speak against the great leader, etc.) at least doesn't downplay and denigrate the state. In this respect, DEI seems worse to me.

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Well, at least they are advertising their racial and gender discrimination up front.

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Thanks for keeping this issue in the open for everyone to see. The military is not the proper place for DEI, if there is any proper place.

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any program whose goal is to favor or advantage one gender, race or lifestyle creates an equal and opposite disadvantage for others.

We call that discrimination and it's both immoral and against the law...

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And results in resentment in the unfavored “groups” who are subsequently excoriated for their natural reaction. All the result of treating folks as groups and not individuals. I told my paratroops: “if you want diversity, visit the zoo. “

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my line was:

I only see green

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There is no proper place. It needs to be flung live in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone.

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And the people responsible for implementing it anywhere.

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Probably has as Much Credibility as a Report from ...MISSISSIPPI...or ALABAMA ???

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What's your point?

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Read MITCHELL'S Reply . Asking " What's Your Point " is just so Worthless .

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He hasn't got one. #ConcernTrollAlert

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You want a report from … where, exactly?

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Somewhere that does Not have a Political Agenda . See MITCHELL .

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I asked you a question, not him. His reply to you doesn't answer my question. So … answer my question.

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I am NOT in Your Chain of Command & if I was ...I will Not type here what I Wood Tell You to go do . MITCHELL'S reply Actually Does Expound on the Sourcing Issue Bias . Have a Nice Day .

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I have no chain of command anymore, cupcake. What you meant to say was "You are not in my chain of command." If you're going to try to sound like you're in the military, you'll have to work harder, Wumao.

Now show us all that you possess a pair of descended gonads larger than cherries, and answer the question that I asked you.

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I Did Not Claim to be in the Military . Chain of Command is Not Unique to the Military . I was in the Military . Are you that Bored with Life you need to bother People on this Thread ? Really ? You got the Final Answer Previously . You Know what to go do Now without a Suggestion from anyone else .

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Agreed. None of these authors have published any studies before. One was previously fired from their post as a Lt Col for publishing a book about how Marxism has already conquered the military. Another is a Republican gubanatorial candidate, and I can't even find anything about the last author.

Additionally, every study I've ever looked at has had numbers to support their assertions. This article simply seems to state the military is doing DEI and that it's awful and terrible, but has no evidence to demonstrate the effect of any of this.

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Thank You 4 the ' Illmination ' .

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Jul 26Liked by CDR Salamander

Lt Col Lohmeier had DOD permission to write his book. After the fact they terminated him after 18 years service with no benefits. What he wrote in his book is all true. There are thousands upon thousands of testimonials to its truth at multiple sites, STARRS, Calvert Task Group, MacArthur Society and many others. DEI is damaging readiness, discouraging people from joining the military and harming readiness. Hundreds of articles have been published on the subject. Do a little research. John Cauthen is a Naval Academy grad and taught there for 3 years and can testify to the rot that has gotten into USNA with emphasis on DEI, affinity groups, erosion of the honor concept, race preferences for admissions. He has written on the subject extensively. I have written extensively on this politicization of the military in dozens of articles. Since you are a follower of CDR Salamander have you missed his years of Diversity Thursday columns that document this?

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Thank you for sharing and keeping this topic on the forefront. This rot needs to be gone.

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If you don't get at the root, the weeds that are cut down will just come back or spread elsewhere. The k12 public education system is where the root exists. If we don't fix that, the important work being done at the university level and beyond will be for naught. Deprogramming over a decade's worth of bad "programming" about how racist and how bad your nation sucks is not easy. It may not be doable at all, which indicates how serious a problem we have. The personnel DoD has drawn upon recently (say, 20 years) and will draw upon in the near future reflects the attitudes they have learned in K12. Toss in some "uniparty" policies (don't mistake effective conservative for Republican, they are not the same). The odds of fixing the attitudes of the rank and file and the bureaucracy towards effectiveness are daunting.

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so true.

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Jul 25·edited Jul 25Liked by CDR Salamander

On page 23, in 2020

"Secretary Esper ordered a redesign of professional military education to teach service members about implicit bias, including trainings that included “scenario-based learning.” DOD also added to its violence prevention programs a crackdown on microaggressions through bias training and bystander interventions “in response to improper remarks or other communications made by peers or superiors."

The DEI bureaucracy exploded following this announcement.

In December 2020, Secretary Esper established a Department of Defense Board on Diversity and Inclusion tasked with identifying new polices and a federal advisory committee, the Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, to provide review and assessment. Many of the recommendations concerned affirmative action and equity (tracking data on performance evaluations toward an examination of potential biases, for example) and standardizing data collection and analysis to assess whether policies were producing the intended outcome. DEI material would now be integrated into the core leadership curricula in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and at the service academies, rather than treated separately: diversity leadership is a “core competency.”

[Worth noting here that Esper was previously chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation as well as an army officer and "director for national security affairs" for Senator Bill Frist. If a guy like that, with an unimpeachably "conservative" background, willingly and eagerly made DEI the cornerstone of armed forces PME, who exactly could Trump pick to reverse all this nonsense and dismantle DEI? Where do you find a guy who is willing to take on DEI if it's not a guy like Esper?]

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author

Never forget - this is a bipartisan problem.

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To make sure I understand that let me ask, do you mean that to move back toward meritocracy we need the Dems to (somewhat or mostly) agree in law, regulation, ect.?

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author

No, what I am saying is (R) are as responsible for this as (D).

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That is what it appeared you were saying but I don’t see how unless you mean seniors did not passively or actively resist strongly enough early on. To my mind this is a result of political efforts over 2-3 decades by progressives to as Schumer said, “change America.”

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This results from the political pressure from the President to Secretary Austin (most) to SECNAV. SECDEF Austin surely believes it....read they are going to look at MOH awardees appropriateness from Indian conflicts. Imagine the MOH of your GGGF being taken away.

OMG. Is there not enough on their plate wrt national security issues already before adding more decisiveness? I've heard SECNAV knows better but has to go with the flow. Reverse thrust starts next January hopefully.

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At this point, the only solution I see is to seek out some old Orthodox Rabbi to make an army of Golems. Have no skill at haggling over prices, but I am willing to donate funds.

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DEI is modern day Baal worship. Baal was the supreme god of Canaan and Phoenicia, whose worship infiltrated Jewish religious life during the Judges and became popular in Israel during Ahab's reign. Baal means “lord.”

DEI is todays "lord," worshipped by so many. It has become their god. Our military men and women have lost the ability to think for themselves allowing their puppet master's to control their everyday thought processes.

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It bears repeating. We need an army of golems, Paul.

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Friends, we have been diagnosed as suffering from a severe and virulent cancer destroying the host from within. The tumorous points of concentration of this cancer are clearly identified, and they are known to metastasize rapidly. If left untreated, this will continue to spread and infect every part of the host, destroying the ability to perform its vital functions.

This cancer must be excised entirely. Surgery to remove the identified tumors by removing the billets, and revising any instructions or directives which created them to eliminate any excuses for them to reappear. Every report, event, celebration, logo or celebration created or endorsed by the cancer must be eliminated.

Every part of the host which unconsciously supports the hostile and divisive climate for "affinity groups" or promoting identification with or as exclusionary ideology must be excised and excoriated.

Any person who identifies as anything other than "a sailor in the U.S. Navy, or civilian supporting the DON's readiness to fight and win battles at sea" has no place in the U.S. Navy and should not be getting a pay check, occupying a workspace, or wearing the uniform.

This report is excellent intelligence work and provide a priority target list. First, we need political leaders who see this cancer for what it is and will exterminate it, not spread it.

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"Any person who identifies as anything other than "a sailor in the U.S. Navy, or civilian supporting the DON's readiness to fight and win battles at sea" has no place in the U.S. Navy and should not be getting a pay check, occupying a workspace, or wearing the uniform."

I understand what you're asking for here, but you should know that this is impossible. It has never been this way, will never be this way, and CAN never be that way. What you are asking for are machines - bots and drones, and no more.

And individual's identity is a complex, varied, and essential part of who they are. It is very likely what drove them into the military. But people are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, members of specific cultural groups that can be as wide-reaching as a gamer to an outdoorsman. There is no possible way to excise all the parts that make a person up - to cut them down to size to fit a mold that you think is appropriate. Especially not in the length of time alloted for bootcamps.

America is about taking all of these disparate parts and synthesizing them into a greater whole. About taking the many and turning it into a person dedicated to serving, protecting democracy and freedom, and leaving this world a better place.

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The Navy is an all volunteer outfit. It is not impossible to make volunteers team players. We do it in fire & police departments, the military, sports teams, even Congress. And, we can easily get 1 team or 2 disparate teams. Some organizations need a unified team with all members marching to the beat of the same drum. They do that or fail. Such is the criticality of teamwork and good leadership. We can attrite those who cannot or will not keep cadence. We volunteers serve willingly. Mao built a team. Himmler did it. Patton did it. George Washington did it. It's possible. We just need to choose goodness.

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founding

Excellent (though immensely depressing) read, thank you. I do hope that Congress staffies will review it in detail. Of course the problem is that this crap starts at the very top, and the current very top is root and branch for DEI no matter what. If we don't change the people at the top there is zero chance of corrective action.

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The problem with reviewing this in detail is that there are no details. It summarizes what is already known and established in policy, and points at it saying it's bad with no evidence to say WHY it is bad.

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founding

My sincere hope is that there should be no doubt whatsoever than indoctrinating our military in the belief that the USA is bad, and that people should be judged by their plumbing, skin color and political association is bad and that promoting people on any other basis than merit and fairness is bad. Then again, I am not in academe.

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You were a Navy Captain?

Did you ever, in your whole career, attend a training where you were taught that the USA is bad? Or to treat others in a way other than based on merit or fairness? Did you, as a Captain, direct anything other than that be taught?

If you did, then failure of leadership was on you. But you should know that despite this "study" that has no evidence to support it, none of those things are happening. Just a handful of politicians and people with agendas yelling at clouds.

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founding

Yes.No.No.No.Not. I talk to people who are in/recently were in the Navy. It is real. I retired in 1991--this crap would have gotten you--at the least--an Admin discharge for anything like it.

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Yep. I left in 1975. This stuff wasn't even a twinkle in anyones eye. The units I worked in were very merit driven. No slack was allowed. I cannot remember a single officer from my time in, a few senior NCO's, but no officers. I'm sure they were around.

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It was starting at USNA in the late 80's. I don't recall if they were called "affinity" groups but they existed.

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It is bad if it is pushed by clueless bliss ninny socialists or hardcore Marxist who think that Norman Rockwell's America need to be gassed. Yes, that is some whiny hyperbole I'm spouting, maybe, but factor out the trajectory...where we are heading. Reasonable people can see a bad landing. We haven't even hit bottom yet but can feel the pain.

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There's no way that those who Didn't Earn It can ever win a real war, where bullets are flying around.

Plus, the more white men they drive off, the less bullet stoppers they have around.

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You must understand that they're not trying to win any wars against external enemies. Those are wars they want to lose.

Their targets are internal enemies: American patriots, normal people, Christians. They're creating a military that is prepared and willing to round up, suppress, and kill us.

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Well, they have to put all those otherwise unemployable people with useless degrees somewhere; might as well be the military.

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But don't we want our military to run better than the DMV and the USPS? Me? I want them at BUPERS managing the microfiche Service Records for FOGO selection boards. Years back, going up for E-8 there was a Courts Martial document for some guy named Juan Flores in my fiche. I didn't promote until I got it expunged.

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Didn’t. Earn. It.

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"English major specializing in Post-Colonial Studies"?

"Yes".

"GET IN THE HELICOPTER"!

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Sounds better in Spanish Brett. "¡SÚBETE AL HELICÓPTERO"!

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How amazing it would be if leadership roles, faculty & students naturally reflected the populace as a whole.

Because unconscious bias is unintentional, and results in blind spots, which can be exploited by adversaries - particularly when we have a limited perspective (small homogeneous home town, for example) we do need education to recognize that it exists.

Once we recognize it, we have to act with intention if we want to improve our performance and also broaden our talent pool.

My own hardest one has always been thick accents. I have to remind myself to be patient, ask people to repeat if I don’t understand, ask them to send in writing if I still can’t understand. Much better results than tuning out a peer and complaining.

We *can’t* know what we don’t know.

The biggest problem I found with old sensitivity training that led to the tokenized diversity efforts was that it was surface level - “ don’t make dirty jokes in front of female coworkers” helped zero people and reinforces negative stereotypes. Dont say N word but continue segregation is the same idea.

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Who is segregating?

What you are pushing is the same nonsense I saw in the early 70s. It didn't work any better there either. Military training is supposed to root out the racial problem as it forces the group to act as a group rather than a bunch if individuals. As the military has become feminized, the problem as worsened and until all of the DEI, whether feminist or not, is rooter out, nothing will change.

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"I have to remind myself to be patient, ask people to repeat if I don’t understand, ask them to send in writing if I still can’t understand."

That's not going to work so well if he's trying to communicate "Get down. Somebody is shooting at you!"

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2nd to last paragraph. The thing about the defenestrated of DEI nomenklatura that many people do not understand is that for it to be truly effective, the building should be 4 stories or taller and the impact zone must be asphalt or concrete. There is no actual written spec that I am aware of, but there should be. I don't much worry about the helicopter people. I've known many LAMPS guys, Aviators are the best. They'd kind of intuitively know that 500' works best. Hah! Those troglodyte SeaBees. Trebuchets.

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Once I retire I'd like to build a trebuchet in my back yard, see if I can launch the d@** rabbits as far as the interstate.

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Sounds like doing the Lord's work, Kamas. Please pursue your dream, share the blueprints. And, you know, while rabbits may hit hard and heavy, I think nothing can clear the decks like grape shot gerbils.

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