Category: Fairness and Equity

Institutionalized Incompetence. USAID, DEI, and Oregon's Unemployment. Thankfully, at least some of the stupid is ending.
15-06 Paying for Institutionalized Incompetence – In More Ways than One

15-06 Paying for Institutionalized Incompetence – In More Ways than One

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Show 15-06 Summary: This week we look at institutionalized incompetence with two examples. One, is more than 16 years of incompetence at Oregon’s Employment Department, which has been bungling its unemployment system. And seems unable—or unwilling—to fix it. Why? Because we’ve learned to tolerate incompetence. And since no one is fired, nothing is done. Then we look at institutionalized incompetence on the federal level. DEI. Which not only infects the federal government but like a virus has infected state and local governments, schools, and private companies. But wait, it’s worse than you thought.

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Air Dates: February 8th & 9th, 2025 | Guests: Lisa Lettenmaier and Donna Jackson

This Week – Institutionalized Incompetence

The hard fact is, when it comes to institutionalized incompetence, we’ve learned to tolerate it. We’ve become used to stupid. Conditioned to accept inadequate. And, worse, to accept corruption as “that’s just the way it is.” See the brewing USAID scandal. (Something we talked about way back in 2017). 

But USAID is only the very tip of the iceberg. We are fraudulently spending billions, even trillions, on things like Climate Change. And “green” energy. The issue is not the spending. The issue is the institutionalized incompetence that authorized the spending in the first place. That is what needs to change. And, thankfully, President Trump is starting to do that.

We’ll come back around to the incompetence behind USAID when more is known about it. But here’s something to think about. The real incompetence here is the Republicans in Congress. USAID fraud and funding leftwing ideology and pet projects of politicians has been happening for decades. Did the Republicans not know about it? And why did they keep voting for it? Either way, that is sheer incompetence. Again. Thank God for President Trump.

Institutionalized Incompetence – Two Examples

First up, we talk with long-time guest, Lisa Lettenmaier. Usually, we talk with Lisa about some new stupidity in the health care system. (Now there’s a whole ‘nother stream of institutionalized incompetence.) But this week, we talk to her about her letter to Oregon’s Employment Department, the media, and state  and federal legislators about the infuriating problems two of her friends experienced trying to get unemployment. Weeks of runaround, endless hours on hold, no answers, and no help.

Don’t forget, this is an insurance they paid into. That we all pay into. But when you need it most? And this is the “fixed’ system that took the people in charge of updating the computers and software. But it is still broken. As we said, society has become used to stupid.

But, the good news is, some institutionalized incompetence is being fixed. On his first day in office, as promised, President Trump signed executive orders ending DEI. That’s divRemove featured imageersity, equity, and inclusion. Or institutionalized racism. We talk with Donna Jackson about how incredibly important ending DEI is to the Black community. You know. One of the communities it is supposed to help. Tune in to hear how it not only is not helping, it is sabotaging the Black community and Black school children.

Gosh. It’s almost like democrats want a permanent minority underclass. Otherwise known as slaves. Democrats haven’t changed since they lost the Civil War.

Oh. And don’t miss Donna weigh in on the USAID scandal. You’ll love hearing what an accountant has to say about it.

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Show Notes: Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

  • Lisa Lettenmaier’s website is HealthSourceNW.com
  • Oregon moves forward with long-awaited Employment Department software upgrade (`)
  • Computer Upgrade Triggers Problems for Oregon Unemployment (Government Technology, March 14, 2024)
  • Donna’s organization is CFACT.org 
  • Project 21 members on the end of DEI: Rolling Back DEI Rewards Black Americans Instead of Crippling Them (Project 21 Commentary, Jan 27, 2025)
    • Donna Jackson: ”President Trump’s executive order ending federal DEI initiatives is the right move for Black America. … DEI programs were never designed to benefit black Americans. In fact, within the DEI industry, 76% of DEI professionals are white while less than 4% are black. Equity wasn’t even practiced within the DEI profession.”
  • Heritage Foundation Experts Analyze Trump’s Executive Orders (The Daily Signal, January 22, 2025)
  • Check out Donna’s recent article on Daily Caller – “Trump Cabinet Nominee Plans On Taking Sledgehammer To Homeownership Prices” (Daily Caller, Jan 26, 2025).
  • Video on X: Prior to the 2024 election Donna Jackson discusses the  straw that broke the camel’s back: illegal immigration (X.com, via Dustie Dahl, October 14, 2024)
    • “Something has changed and I am receiving MORE phone calls from ‘Elite Black Liberals’ than I am from Conservatives. Illegal Immigrants are getting ahead of BOTH black & white Americans economically at the hands of the Democrat Party.”
  • EYE ON THE TARGET: Major Corporation Turns on Woke and the LGBTQ Mafia (The Daily Signal, January 24, 2025)
  • Thomas Sowell Warning about DEI (Thomas Sowell TV, Feb 3, 2025)
  • Donald Trump’s ‘DEI Firestorm’ (Victor Davis Hanson, via Daily Signal YT Channel, Feb 5, 2025)

 

 

13-38 Get Educated – School Choice, Woke in Corporate Boardrooms

13-38 Get Educated – School Choice, Woke in Corporate Boardrooms

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Show 13-38 Summary: This week, it’s about getting an education – and pushing back on the woke society is pushing on us. In our school systems and pushing back on woke corporations, like Disney, that think they know better about what society needs than what we Americans think. But what happens in those board rooms? And just how much power do activist shareholders have — who want to make a company go woke or, conversely, stop a company going woke? We also catch up with the effort to get real school choice on the ballot here in Oregon. And how a terrible personal accident has reignited the effort.

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Original Air Dates: September 23rd & 24th, 2023 | Guests: Donna Kreitzberg and Scott Shepard

This Week – Get Educated on Woke

This week, we are talking about woke in the corporate boardroom. And its negative impact on a corporation’s share prices and profits. So why do they do it? And when it comes to going woke even when it hurts shareholders, there is no better example of Bob Iger’s transformation of Disney and marching to the Left’s ideology. And did he set up his hand-picked successor, Bob Chapek — only to swoop in and clean up the mess he himself left?

But first, we talk about real school choice. We catch up with Donna Kreitzberg to hear how things are going to get real school choice on the ballot for Oregon’s 2024 general election. Education Freedom for Oregon just came through their summer events. So how did they do? How far along are they in their petition drive?

Have you signed one yet? Head to this link to download a signature form — then print it, sign it, and and mail it back.

We also wanted to talk to Donna because she recently had a horrible accident, that required her to be life-flighted out of the Montana wilderness. Hear how this personal tragedy has reignited her passion to get this on the ballot and to help kids get out from schools where they feel trapped.

And did you know real school choice will not only help kids trapped in bad schools but it can help free teachers too. Tune in to find out how.

Get Educated: On Woke Corporations and their Boardrooms

The Supreme Court recently overturned affirmative action as a gate for higher education. But what impact with that ruling have on woke corporations and their DEI initiatives? DEI being “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” DEI also being Leftist codespeak for, “exclude people who don’t share our political ideology.”

Yes, Bud Light gets the attention when it comes to “go woke, go broke.” But Disney is the true leader when it comes to going woke. Think about it. Did Bud Light ever have the pro-family, pro-America reputation that Disney once had. And Disney is now actively pushing a woke, transgender ideology at kids. Bud Light isn’t exactly pushing their products at kids.

Woke for thee but not for me. Disney reports DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusiveness for its employees but not its own board members or executives
Disney’s DEI for employees—but not the board? (click image for full size). Source.

We talk with Scott Shepard, the director of the Free Enterprise Project, which is the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life. Disney is back in the news as its revenues continue to crater, losing money on woke, box office flops, and bleeding Disney+ subscribers. And even at its parks, its one source of profits, attendance is down.

Could it be because they’re pushing transgender at kids even at their parks? Nah! Couldn’t be that!

We also talk with Scott about a broader view of corporations and their boardrooms. If, say, an activist shareholder wanted to take a corporate woke, could they? Just how much power do they have? Or what if a shareholder wanted to protect a pro-America company from an activist board?

You never knew corporations and free enterprise could be so interesting and entertaining.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

Donna Kreitzberg’s Segments (1–3)

Scott Shepard Segments (4–6)

Articles from National Center and the Free Enterprise Project
Disney’s Corporate Wokeness
Bob Iger: Determined to Take Disney to Ideological Ruin
  • Disney CEO Bob Iger: Marvel Diluted Audience’s Focus and Attention by Making So Many Disney+ TV Shows (Variety, excerpt via Slashdot.ord, July 17, 2023)
  • Bob Iger Reveals His Master Plan to Restore the Magic at Disney (Bloomberg, Feb 9, 2023)
  • Bob Iger Isn’t Having Much Fun: Eight months after returning as Disney’s CEO, he is straining to put out fire after fire, including streaming losses, an activist investor and TV woes (WSJ, July 14, 2023)
  • Is Bob Iger screwed up at Disney because of woke content, the removal of Disney+ content, and the possible sale of Lucasfilm? (David Mullich, via Reddit, June 15, 2023)
  • Politicization of Disney Gives Bob Iger Path to White House (Real Clear Politics, May 14, 2022)
    • Iger is (or was) considering a run for the presidency.
  • Bob Iger Lambasted For CNBC Comments About Strike: “He Came Out Of Retirement To Make $54 Million In Two Years And Says This” (Deadline, July 13, 2023)
    • One tweet: “Hollywood writers, on average, are paid $69,510 a year. Bob Iger is paid $74,175 a DAY.”
  • Disney Is in a Death Spiral and I Don’t See Bob Iger Reversing It (The Street, July 14, 2023)
    • A marked decline in attendance for Summer 2023 at Disney World and Disneyland
    • “According to boxofficemojo.com, Disney only has three of the top 10 grossing films thus far in 2023.”
Related
13-06 Killing Title IX Protections in the Name of Woke | Plus Part 4: Choosing New Schools

13-06 Killing Title IX Protections in the Name of Woke | Plus Part 4: Choosing New Schools

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Show 13-06 Summary: This week on I Spy we continue our mini-series on parents rights in education. We are looking at what the Biden administration’s abandonment of Title IX means (it used to mean protection and equal access for girls and women) and what real school choice looks like — when parents make the choice to find a better school. What are the options and how to decide? How to even know if it’s the school or the child? And what about funding — should taxpayer dollars really go to private schools? And is it protected from frivolous parents? Are schools accountable top meet competency and proficiency standards? Maybe if the public schools had such standards, parents wouldn’t be looking elsewhere…

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Original Air Dates: February 11th & 12th, 2023 | Guests: Kimberly Hermann & Marc Thielman

This Week – So Much for Equality

If there’s one thing elected democrats say, it’s that they want equality. But if there’s one thing they do it’s remove equality. Which is why they are all for racial discrimination in the name of equality. Like affirmative action. Where, in their “logic” it makes sense to discriminate against Whites in favor of other races. Which is a bit like saying a little slavery is okay, as long as it’s done to the right kind of people.

Hint to democrats: discrimination is discrimination.

But maybe this mindset explains why the Biden administration thinks removing protections for girls and women in education is a good thing.

The Biden Administration: Killing Title IX

Title IX was intended to give girls and women an equal footing in education. Prior to Title IX, schools could discriminate against women and, perhaps most famously, not fund women’s sports. But now, the Biden administration’s new “guidance” would remove such protections. How? By doing away with the concept of women and girls. And making anyone who identifies as a woman a woman in their view.

Basically, if there are no women as a distinct entity, there are no women to protect.

To try to make sense of the nonsense, we welcome Kimberly Hermann. She is the chief legal counsel for Southeastern Legal Foundation and they have file da brief in support of states pushing back against the Biden administration’s guidance.

Visit SLFLiberty.org to find out more about the great work Southeastern Legal Foundation is doing to defend your constitutional rights. You can even submit a case they might be interested in.

Kimberly walks us through what Title IX is, what it was intended to do, and why Title IX is so important to defend. You’ll also hear how the courts, including appellate courts, are, in fact, defending the notion that there are two sexes. Which is extremely encouraging.

But can you believe this? Has society gone so far down the woke toilet that we will end up needing the Supreme Court to tell the rest of society what a woman is?

Yikes.

Parents’ Rights Part 4: Choosing a New School

This week, we also continue our mini-series on parents rights in education. Last week, we discussed the Real School Choice movement. So far, five states have already adopted real school choice. (This means parents can choose whichever school they want to send their kids and the education dollars attached to that child.) And there are nearly a dozen more close to adopting real school choice and over two dozen in total that have at least some form of legislation on the table.

This is not only a win for parents, it’s a win for education itself. And it’s thanks to exercising free market principles.

Think about it. Parents (consumers) can choose to spend the education dollars how they want and where they want. Funding students not systems, means that the school systems must become competitive to attract consumers (parents). Better up your game or you lose out.

That is what real school choice is all about. Give parents the power, not bureaucrats.

Find out more about Oregon’s real school choice battle. If parents can’t get it in the legislature, they are prepared to go with a ballot initiative

But if you’re a parent and  you exercise your school choice, how do you choose a school? How do you know it’s the school and not your child? What are the signs you should be looking for? And with the dozen-plus types of other schools out there, how do you find the right one for your child.

We talk with Marc Thielman, the former superintendent at the Alsea School district, to answer those questions and more.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

More Info on Title IX

  • Title IX: 50 years later (American Psychological Association, June 28, 2022)
    • “Changes to Title IX regulations dispensed by the U.S. Department of Education in 2020 removed the mandatory reporting requirement. These Trump-era changes also narrowed the definition of sexual harassment, excluded off-campus assaults from the law’s protections, and made a series of other changes that left some Title IX offices scrambling to update their institution’s procedures”
  • Title IX’s Positive Impact on Education Life BEFORE Title IX (Vector Solutions, No Date)
  • 10 Facts Everyone Should Know About Title IX (National Sexual Violence Resource Center, Aug 23, 2017)

More Info on Choosing a School

 

Wake up to woke sabotage
Woke Sabotage: A Path of Destruction on Purpose? Or Just Accidental?

Woke Sabotage: A Path of Destruction on Purpose? Or Just Accidental?

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Show Summary: We all know the Left’s ideology leaves a path of destruction wherever it goes. That’s why people flee Marxist countries on homemade rafts. The latest incarnation of Left ideology is collectively known as “woke” as they seek to enforce their vision of a socialist utopia on elements of American society. Like making race and gender a hiring criteria. Or pushing unlimited, anytime abortion, even “post birth abortion” (i.e., infanticide). But that wide swath of destruction. Is it on purpose or just accidental? It’s time to wake up about woke sabotage.

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Original Air Dates: July 16th & 17th, 2022 | Guests:  Donna Jackson & Ethan Peck

This Week – Woke Sabotage. It’s not an Accident

This week, it’s all about fighting woke policies and ideologies. We have two guests on from two different projects of the National Center for Public Policy Research. Donna Jackson from National Center’s Project 21 to talk about the impact Biden’s economic policies are having not just on Black communities but how the policies developed in democrat-run cities are now being unleashed on the rest of America to weaken us.

And she discusses Black pastors being paid to sabotage Black communities and lead them astray.

Mentioned in the opener: Milton Friedman’s “The Social Responsibility of Business”

Then we talk with first-time guest Ethan Peck about woke impacts in corporations. We talk about his experiences as the Free Enterprise Project attempted to present shareholder resolutions to block woke corporate policies. You won’t believe what happened when he was the only shareholder at the annual shareholder meeting of a woke corporation. And we talk Twitter as the prime example of woke corporations getting a pass from blatantly illegal acts simply because they’re woke. And we talk about how woke CEOs have fallen into a huge trap with their knee-jerk reactions to a post Roe v Wade world. Could they be an accessory to a crime?

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info