I was standing and cheering his words in the video. And I have zero doubts that he means every word and will be hyper focused to see the removal of the DEI industry thru starting on January 20.
In that case, the umbrella specter of DEI emboldened those officers (GEN and LTC) to create an inappropriate fraternizing relationship, which likely became sexual, according to direct observers. However the resulting investigation concluded that while inappropriate fraternization did occur, there was "insufficient evidence of sexual activity".
Hamilton's bio information with the General Officer Management Office (GOMO) already lists him as a MG. MG is the last permanent rank an officer is appointed to hold; any higher rank is directly tied to their appointment to certain positions. Whether or not they are allowed to retire at the higher rank (LTG or GEN) is determined at DA/ SECARMY level.
Anybody who asserts that the selection process for battalion commanders “fails to account for the psychological effects that systemic bias, discrimination, and overt racism can have on prospective officers” needs to be gone like yesterday.
The administrative state has to be dismantled and the way to cut that Gordian Knot is to reserve the passing of laws to Congress and a responsibility which cannot be delegated to any agency. The entire Code of Federal Regulations all 50 Titles needs to be scrapped. A bonfire in Judiciary Square.
Of course you have to consider race and ethnicity along with other factors like geographic distribution in service academy and other officer program admissions. The officer corps has to roughly reflect the enlisted force. The enlisted person should encounter someone whose background is similar to theirs somewhere in their training or their chain of command.
That is a military necessity, especially with a volunteer force.
What would your pure, "race-neutral" admissions criteria be? Test scores and grades? Student and community leadership? Athletic ability? Subjective interview evaluations? If you consider all of the above you still come up with an excess of qualified candidates from all races, whom you can pick from. How many points on the SAT is athletic or community leadership worth? Some candidates are potential Navy nukes, others are Supply Corps, others are infantry leaders.
And anything but test scores requires the application of someone's subjective judgment or environmental factors beyond the candidate's control like school quality and community resources. There is no possible list of objectively "best" candidates.
We've had "affirmative action" in the military for more than 50 years. Can anyone who has spent time in the military say that they haven't seen outstanding leaders AND incompetent duds from all racial groups? I didn't see a qualitative difference in NCO and officer quality in the aggregate between racial groups.
I'd be amused if you got your way with a so-called "race-neutral, objective" standard like test scores and we ended up with the academies being 80% Asian-American.
In other words, DEI says it's OK to discriminate against Asian-Americans. Sounds like Animal Farm to me ...some are more equal than others. Meritocracy should rule the day.
Do you see what you've done here? You start out defending DEI on the basis of "military necessity" (although under the implied threat of racial division and disorder if not adopted). You end up, one comment later, with a straight-up racist statement. So, you're a racist, pure and simple. You'll want to think about that.
You'll also want to consider more carefully the indicia of merit. There are certainly qualification standards for entry, but there are also performance standards once candidates are selected and given tasks in which they will exhibit qualities which were likely untested by the entrance examinations and interviews. Something else for you to think about.
I don’t see why that is a problem if that is the mix of the most qualified. Do you have a problem with 60-70% of the NFL being African-American? I don’t.
Another way to say it 80% of Americans that happen to be of Asian descent. If they share the fighting spirit of their ancestors and assumedly work like hell to master their craft then I'm all in.
People will never be assumed to be of equal talent if they are not required to have demonstrated themselves to so be. As many others here have asserted over the years, issues need to be addressed in earlier education so that uniform standards can be applied.
Most of us are polyglots of some sort, but we are supposed to bow down to the selling power of one race when candidates like Obama (Kenya-Kansas) and Kamilla (Indian-American-Black) are sold as the antidote to white privilege?
The way to stop discriminating is to stop discrminating.
The turn around in Hegseth's nomination chances is testament to the incoming administration's ability to shape the information environment. Going after Hegseth "in the same old way" via a Kavanaugh Esque style smear campaign has apparently failed because the incoming administration DID NOT respond "in the same old way". They aggressively attacked the attackers (eg. Iowa and South Carolina senators) convincing them very publicly that the personal cost was too high. Trump has clearly learned A LOT via bitter experience during the first term, election "loss", and endless persecution and prosecution in the media and court system. OBTW a lot of senior officers and government officials (active and retired) participated in the circus because it was 100% in their own personal interest to do so. That "interest" is now under grave threat, and they know it. Question is what is their next move? It ain't over, but the initial exchanges of fire have had atypical results from the usual GOPe history. The screening scout forces have made contact, there is a series of major engagements (confirmations) coming, and the overall campaign is about to rapidly unfold. Fingers crossed...
Allow me to also add, thank you Elon. If you hadn't bought Twitter / X at a significant loss and turned it into a much more balanced "public square" where challenge / response discourse was allowed, we would be suffering under "the same old GOPe response".
I have a different take. It fells more like Pete planted those “anonymous “ sources to rally POTUS & the base to him.
It certainly has had his desired effect to keep this about his SJW credentials. He’s totally been unchallenged not had to articulate anything beyond the his DEI SJW bonafides.
Not a word from him on issues from NAVSEA to Basing right & agreements. Even zero on DOD green policies.
Sorry but still haven’t seen he has the chops to pivot the nation to the fight West of International Date.
He’s a great social justice warrior but the job needs someone bigger than just that issue. We have had 30 years of Land dominance in thr halls of DOD & don’t need 4 more.
The real question in 2024 is - is her photo untouched or AI enhanced? Given it is so easy to clean up digital photos with AI why is DVIDS still posting ships showing rust streaks? Its not like any Congressman or Congresswomen is going to pop up on a pier unannounced, and the Flags know but clearly don't care. AI - with this one simple trick Big Navy could eliminate a lot of public criticism about the fleets material condition.
As a person who has sat on a significant number of NROTC selection boards, test scores are not the only or even the best measure of merit. In high school, merit can relate to those attributes beyond Chemistry grades and SAT scores...like what kind of an environment did the student grow up in? One or two parents? Rural high school in Kansas farm community, Prep school in Massachusetts or lower tier inner city school? Here, like opportunity, race and inevitably creeps into the picture, like it or not. I always looked for things that indicated *strength of character* and personal attributes that point to leadership qualities. I want a wingman who has known some adversity, how to pick himself up and figure an alternate path to success, not whether he scored 1600 on his SATs.
That’s not what the Left has in mind when they say diversity. Their goal is divide people into groups and set the groups against each other. Marx did this on the basis of class. Modern marxists do this on the basis of skin color.
Prep school and Ivy League educations are not exactly showing "strength of character" lately. To quote a NROTC GSGT from long ago: "They're SAT monsters, but I wouldn't necessarily give them a sharp pencil"
Don’t you just love the folks that say you gotta make the military and service academies ‘look’ properly skin-colored and racially-balanced, use race as a decider; then call you a racist if you notice it?
Yeah, making judgements based on color of skin is EXACTLY what MLK envisioned. One can only hope these people don’t further humiliate themselves by pointing to MLK as justification for THEIR racism.
When we first met, my Asian-born foreigner wife-to-be said much later that part of her attraction to me was my skin tone. My generation worshiped the sun, and I was very heavily tanned for someone of my Euro ancestry. At the time, she thought I was Mexican. Didn't matter to her what my race or national origin was. All that mattered was that she loved me. Sure, my physical attributes mattered somewhat to her, but her overall good judgement prevailed. How or why should it otherwise. Circa 1976?
Of the Naval Academy’s 1,183 current first-year students.....642 are white, 178 are Hispanic, 132 are Asian American and 70 are African American. Another 137 are multiracial or multi-ethnic.
In 2020? US population was White: 60.1% (Non-Hispanic) Hispanic: 18.5% Black: 12.2% Asian: 5.6%.
Perhaps, just perhaps our Progressive friends should start fixing our education system and do a better job of pushing the Academies at the high school level while providing an education that provides entry without quotas.
The numbers here, despite some protestations else in this thread leave a few races underrepresented. I for one would like to see the stats for applicants by race and gender.
To serve an agenda, good or bad, a case might be made for bias or racism based on the numbers of those denied admission to the service academies because of their demographic. An agenda usually isn't too picky about how it uses and manipulates data. I applied for 6 officer programs and only got picked for 3. Using the above stats and folding Hispanic & White in together, shouldn't I have been picked 5 times? Nope. I was a young drunkard and not fully mature at 19 and 20 the first two times and on my first LDO application I misnumbered the paragraphs on my application and had a paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5. instead of the prescribed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Not being able to proofread or follow directions proved that application had no merit. That same application with corrections merited me CWO the next year. Merit, with its true meaning rigorously defined and enforced, is the fairest way. Best for the person, for the Navy, for civilization.
From the Hispanic perspective? You could have Hispanics who have been in the US for literally two or three hundred years who are ethnically 100% European descent and are as Blanco as can be. Is a Tejano who is 100% European still Hispanic? Technically yes if their antecedents migrated from Mexico.
Prima facie based on those numbers I'd like to look at the rejection rates for the Asians and African-American applicants. And for different reasons.
But let's remember that this Pope (my Pope) is a Jesuit. That pretty much makes him a member of the "Interntionale", even if he doesn't have an I.C.P. membership card. Being a Commie trumps any consideration of race or ethnicity, Pete.
Parentage recorded on birth certificates is not always 100% accurate. Only a DNA test will tell. I am authentically Texas by birthright. Never lived there. I was born there as my parents were passing through. Both sides of the family have done genealogy searches back to the late 1700's and affirm that I am a "Euro". But without a DNA test how do I know some ancient female Okie, Ozarker of Appalachian antecedent didn't jump the fence when a traveling circus came to town? I could be Tejano and not even know it. Absent proof otherwise, I affirm today that I am Tejano. I used to claim Cherokee blood because everyone knew that my paternal grandfather was half Cherokee. But several of my cousins took those 23andMe DNA tests and it revealed no Indian ancestry. Looks like Grandpa was German and Brit, the swarthy variety. Gracias, Jet, por arrojarme algo relevante que puede anclarme firmemente en los Estados Unidos modernos. Similarly, we being mostly sailors here, some may have unknown "American" offspring abroad. These things happen.
I was standing and cheering his words in the video. And I have zero doubts that he means every word and will be hyper focused to see the removal of the DEI industry thru starting on January 20.
Here’s a firing that is somewhat tied to DEI
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-general-fired-hamilton/
In that case, the umbrella specter of DEI emboldened those officers (GEN and LTC) to create an inappropriate fraternizing relationship, which likely became sexual, according to direct observers. However the resulting investigation concluded that while inappropriate fraternization did occur, there was "insufficient evidence of sexual activity".
There is insufficient EVIDENCE of sexual activity between me and my wife. Still, three kids...
If there was better evidence, they'd have to punish her too, thus, there is not.
Hamilton's bio information with the General Officer Management Office (GOMO) already lists him as a MG. MG is the last permanent rank an officer is appointed to hold; any higher rank is directly tied to their appointment to certain positions. Whether or not they are allowed to retire at the higher rank (LTG or GEN) is determined at DA/ SECARMY level.
They should make him suffer his indignation by making him take a new updates General Officer photo in his new rank.
AMF...good riddance!
Anybody who asserts that the selection process for battalion commanders “fails to account for the psychological effects that systemic bias, discrimination, and overt racism can have on prospective officers” needs to be gone like yesterday.
The administrative state has to be dismantled and the way to cut that Gordian Knot is to reserve the passing of laws to Congress and a responsibility which cannot be delegated to any agency. The entire Code of Federal Regulations all 50 Titles needs to be scrapped. A bonfire in Judiciary Square.
I'm happy to hear Pete wants to take Zampolits to tea.
Cookies too.
To a tea party with lead weights?
No, tea needs only to be spilled on the deck. ; )
Of course you have to consider race and ethnicity along with other factors like geographic distribution in service academy and other officer program admissions. The officer corps has to roughly reflect the enlisted force. The enlisted person should encounter someone whose background is similar to theirs somewhere in their training or their chain of command.
That is a military necessity, especially with a volunteer force.
What would your pure, "race-neutral" admissions criteria be? Test scores and grades? Student and community leadership? Athletic ability? Subjective interview evaluations? If you consider all of the above you still come up with an excess of qualified candidates from all races, whom you can pick from. How many points on the SAT is athletic or community leadership worth? Some candidates are potential Navy nukes, others are Supply Corps, others are infantry leaders.
And anything but test scores requires the application of someone's subjective judgment or environmental factors beyond the candidate's control like school quality and community resources. There is no possible list of objectively "best" candidates.
We've had "affirmative action" in the military for more than 50 years. Can anyone who has spent time in the military say that they haven't seen outstanding leaders AND incompetent duds from all racial groups? I didn't see a qualitative difference in NCO and officer quality in the aggregate between racial groups.
You make several good points. Unfortunately, you come to the wrong conclusion based on those points.
Racism is good because racism is necessary?
I'd be amused if you got your way with a so-called "race-neutral, objective" standard like test scores and we ended up with the academies being 80% Asian-American.
In other words, DEI says it's OK to discriminate against Asian-Americans. Sounds like Animal Farm to me ...some are more equal than others. Meritocracy should rule the day.
Meritocracy is more than test scores. Fortunately, Pete Hegseth does not share your bias.
Do you see what you've done here? You start out defending DEI on the basis of "military necessity" (although under the implied threat of racial division and disorder if not adopted). You end up, one comment later, with a straight-up racist statement. So, you're a racist, pure and simple. You'll want to think about that.
You'll also want to consider more carefully the indicia of merit. There are certainly qualification standards for entry, but there are also performance standards once candidates are selected and given tasks in which they will exhibit qualities which were likely untested by the entrance examinations and interviews. Something else for you to think about.
I don’t see why that is a problem if that is the mix of the most qualified. Do you have a problem with 60-70% of the NFL being African-American? I don’t.
or the NBA
Another way to say it 80% of Americans that happen to be of Asian descent. If they share the fighting spirit of their ancestors and assumedly work like hell to master their craft then I'm all in.
No. Why does the officer corps have to reflect anything?
In fact, why does race have to be considered at all? Do doctors have to reflect nurses or corpsmen?
Horse puckey like this makes it obvious how USNA turned into the DIE sh!t-show that it is.
People will never be assumed to be of equal talent if they are not required to have demonstrated themselves to so be. As many others here have asserted over the years, issues need to be addressed in earlier education so that uniform standards can be applied.
How do you determine who is white/black/chartreuse?
Just by what box they checked on a form?
Is Colin Kaepernick Black or White?
How about Angela Davis?
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collections/angela-y-davis
Neither. Colin and Angela are Red all over.
Most of us are polyglots of some sort, but we are supposed to bow down to the selling power of one race when candidates like Obama (Kenya-Kansas) and Kamilla (Indian-American-Black) are sold as the antidote to white privilege?
The way to stop discriminating is to stop discrminating.
The list is going to be long. Can’t wait.
I was clapping all the way with the video. Good counsel, Sal. Let's stay the course and maintain our awareness.
"Make sure the standards are high and applied properly." Works for me.
The turn around in Hegseth's nomination chances is testament to the incoming administration's ability to shape the information environment. Going after Hegseth "in the same old way" via a Kavanaugh Esque style smear campaign has apparently failed because the incoming administration DID NOT respond "in the same old way". They aggressively attacked the attackers (eg. Iowa and South Carolina senators) convincing them very publicly that the personal cost was too high. Trump has clearly learned A LOT via bitter experience during the first term, election "loss", and endless persecution and prosecution in the media and court system. OBTW a lot of senior officers and government officials (active and retired) participated in the circus because it was 100% in their own personal interest to do so. That "interest" is now under grave threat, and they know it. Question is what is their next move? It ain't over, but the initial exchanges of fire have had atypical results from the usual GOPe history. The screening scout forces have made contact, there is a series of major engagements (confirmations) coming, and the overall campaign is about to rapidly unfold. Fingers crossed...
Thanks, fixed it. 👍
Allow me to also add, thank you Elon. If you hadn't bought Twitter / X at a significant loss and turned it into a much more balanced "public square" where challenge / response discourse was allowed, we would be suffering under "the same old GOPe response".
We are the new media.
The "righteous" side also now has a powerful advantage with the ability to get the truth out on X
I have a different take. It fells more like Pete planted those “anonymous “ sources to rally POTUS & the base to him.
It certainly has had his desired effect to keep this about his SJW credentials. He’s totally been unchallenged not had to articulate anything beyond the his DEI SJW bonafides.
Not a word from him on issues from NAVSEA to Basing right & agreements. Even zero on DOD green policies.
Sorry but still haven’t seen he has the chops to pivot the nation to the fight West of International Date.
He’s a great social justice warrior but the job needs someone bigger than just that issue. We have had 30 years of Land dominance in thr halls of DOD & don’t need 4 more.
Thanks CDR…..Always Forward! REDHORSE!!
I thought this was going to be an article about Megyn Kelly's rouge-accentuated high cheek bones, but, I am always looking for deeper meanings.
The real question in 2024 is - is her photo untouched or AI enhanced? Given it is so easy to clean up digital photos with AI why is DVIDS still posting ships showing rust streaks? Its not like any Congressman or Congresswomen is going to pop up on a pier unannounced, and the Flags know but clearly don't care. AI - with this one simple trick Big Navy could eliminate a lot of public criticism about the fleets material condition.
Discrimination is discrimination. It is still wrong whether it is by public-private universities or the service academies.
As a person who has sat on a significant number of NROTC selection boards, test scores are not the only or even the best measure of merit. In high school, merit can relate to those attributes beyond Chemistry grades and SAT scores...like what kind of an environment did the student grow up in? One or two parents? Rural high school in Kansas farm community, Prep school in Massachusetts or lower tier inner city school? Here, like opportunity, race and inevitably creeps into the picture, like it or not. I always looked for things that indicated *strength of character* and personal attributes that point to leadership qualities. I want a wingman who has known some adversity, how to pick himself up and figure an alternate path to success, not whether he scored 1600 on his SATs.
That’s not what the Left has in mind when they say diversity. Their goal is divide people into groups and set the groups against each other. Marx did this on the basis of class. Modern marxists do this on the basis of skin color.
And plumbing.
OEM or aftermarket plumbing?
Yes.
Prep school and Ivy League educations are not exactly showing "strength of character" lately. To quote a NROTC GSGT from long ago: "They're SAT monsters, but I wouldn't necessarily give them a sharp pencil"
Don’t you just love the folks that say you gotta make the military and service academies ‘look’ properly skin-colored and racially-balanced, use race as a decider; then call you a racist if you notice it?
Yeah, making judgements based on color of skin is EXACTLY what MLK envisioned. One can only hope these people don’t further humiliate themselves by pointing to MLK as justification for THEIR racism.
When we first met, my Asian-born foreigner wife-to-be said much later that part of her attraction to me was my skin tone. My generation worshiped the sun, and I was very heavily tanned for someone of my Euro ancestry. At the time, she thought I was Mexican. Didn't matter to her what my race or national origin was. All that mattered was that she loved me. Sure, my physical attributes mattered somewhat to her, but her overall good judgement prevailed. How or why should it otherwise. Circa 1976?
https://imageshack.com/i/poicTwaKj
No, no! No one cares what you look like. We want to see her.
Of the Naval Academy’s 1,183 current first-year students.....642 are white, 178 are Hispanic, 132 are Asian American and 70 are African American. Another 137 are multiracial or multi-ethnic.
In 2020? US population was White: 60.1% (Non-Hispanic) Hispanic: 18.5% Black: 12.2% Asian: 5.6%.
Perhaps, just perhaps our Progressive friends should start fixing our education system and do a better job of pushing the Academies at the high school level while providing an education that provides entry without quotas.
The numbers here, despite some protestations else in this thread leave a few races underrepresented. I for one would like to see the stats for applicants by race and gender.
To serve an agenda, good or bad, a case might be made for bias or racism based on the numbers of those denied admission to the service academies because of their demographic. An agenda usually isn't too picky about how it uses and manipulates data. I applied for 6 officer programs and only got picked for 3. Using the above stats and folding Hispanic & White in together, shouldn't I have been picked 5 times? Nope. I was a young drunkard and not fully mature at 19 and 20 the first two times and on my first LDO application I misnumbered the paragraphs on my application and had a paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5. instead of the prescribed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Not being able to proofread or follow directions proved that application had no merit. That same application with corrections merited me CWO the next year. Merit, with its true meaning rigorously defined and enforced, is the fairest way. Best for the person, for the Navy, for civilization.
From the Hispanic perspective? You could have Hispanics who have been in the US for literally two or three hundred years who are ethnically 100% European descent and are as Blanco as can be. Is a Tejano who is 100% European still Hispanic? Technically yes if their antecedents migrated from Mexico.
Prima facie based on those numbers I'd like to look at the rejection rates for the Asians and African-American applicants. And for different reasons.
Is the Pope Hispanic because he’s from Argentina?
Yup
But let's remember that this Pope (my Pope) is a Jesuit. That pretty much makes him a member of the "Interntionale", even if he doesn't have an I.C.P. membership card. Being a Commie trumps any consideration of race or ethnicity, Pete.
Parentage recorded on birth certificates is not always 100% accurate. Only a DNA test will tell. I am authentically Texas by birthright. Never lived there. I was born there as my parents were passing through. Both sides of the family have done genealogy searches back to the late 1700's and affirm that I am a "Euro". But without a DNA test how do I know some ancient female Okie, Ozarker of Appalachian antecedent didn't jump the fence when a traveling circus came to town? I could be Tejano and not even know it. Absent proof otherwise, I affirm today that I am Tejano. I used to claim Cherokee blood because everyone knew that my paternal grandfather was half Cherokee. But several of my cousins took those 23andMe DNA tests and it revealed no Indian ancestry. Looks like Grandpa was German and Brit, the swarthy variety. Gracias, Jet, por arrojarme algo relevante que puede anclarme firmemente en los Estados Unidos modernos. Similarly, we being mostly sailors here, some may have unknown "American" offspring abroad. These things happen.