Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI 🤦‍♀️

The Calibri font is the latest government worker to be fired from the Trump administration for its association with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility

Marco Rubio bans Calibri font at State Department for being too DEI 

What’s he going to do when he finds out that Times New Roman is a sans-serif font, as well? /s

Related:

Understanding Accessible Fonts and Typography for Section 508 Compliance

Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

Since the election of Donald Trump, a growing body of research has examined the role of digital technologies in new right wing movements (Lewis 2018; Hawley 2017; Neiwert 2017; Nagle 2017). This article will explore a distinct, but related, subject: new right wing tendencies within the tech industry itself. Our point of entry will be an improbable document: a German language dissertation submitted by an American to the faculty of social sciences at J. W. Goethe University of Frankfurt in 2002. Entitled Aggression in the Life-World, the dissertation aims to describe the role that aggression plays in social integration, or the set of processes that lead individuals in a given society to feel bound to one another. To that end, it offers a “systematic” reinterpretation of Theodor Adorno’s Jargon of Authenticity (1973). It is of interest primarily because of its author: Alexander C. Karp.

Moira Weigel — Palantir Goes to the Frankfurt School

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Bangladesh’s Constitution reform: Sweeping changes in the constitution

Source

Constitution reform: Sweeping changes in constitution

Expanding the fundamental rights to include food, clothing, shelter, education, internet, and vote, the Constitution Reform Commission proposes replacing nationalism, socialism, and secularism with equality, human dignity, social justice and pluralism as fundamental principles of state policy.

Modifying, the much discussed article 70, the commission recommends that parliamentarians be allowed to vote against party line except finance bills.

The constitution commission recommends deletion of the constitutional provision that stipulates inclusion of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s speech of March 7, 1971, his declaration of independence and the proclamation of independence, which are included in the 5th, 6th and 7th schedules respectively.

FYI, it was written by International IDEA, which is funded by USAID, Open Society Foundations, and several Western governments.

Related:

Leaked files expose covert US government plot to ‘destabilize Bangladesh’s politics’

Atlantic Council’s Ali Riaz to lead commission on constitutional reforms for Bangladesh

Bangladesh and Kenya document

Trump taps Hegseth as defense secretary, vows ‘no Marxism, no communism’ in military

YouTube

Trump taps Hegseth as defense secretary, vows ‘no Marxism, no communism’ in military

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Pentagon report warns of threat from white supremacists inside the military

A Defense Department report highlights disturbing examples of white supremacy inside the military, calling for changes in how the department screens recruits for possible ties to domestic extremism.

The report, which the Trump administration drafted last year before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, was sent to Congress in October, but it has not been made public until now.v

Purge at the Pentagon! 

Purge at the Pentagon!

Purge at the Pentagon! Reuters reports that the incoming Trump administration is drawing up a list of generals to be fired. These are generals associated with former Chairman of the JCS Mark Milley and anyone else branded with a scarlet “W” for woke. The current Chairman, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, may also be fired, as some within the Trump camp suspect he may have been a DEI hire.

As Army officer Paul Yingling famously wrote (“A Failure in Generalship”), a private is severely punished for losing a rifle but generals get promoted for losing wars. I doubt this is going to change. Instead, under Trump it appears the firing of generals is another leg of his vengeance tour, a purge of those who are perceived as disloyal.

H/T: Der Friedensstifter

A brief, weird history of brainwashing

On an early spring day in 1959, Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.” It was the kind of opportunity he relished. A war correspondent who had spent considerable time in Asia, Hunter had achieved brief media stardom in 1951 after his book Brain-Washing in Red China introduced a new concept to the American public: a supposedly scientific system for changing people’s minds, even making them love things they once hated.

But Hunter wasn’t just a reporter, objectively chronicling conditions in China. As he told the assembled senators, he was also an anticommunist activist who served as a propagandist for the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services — something that was considered normal and patriotic at the time. His reporting blurred the line between fact and political mythology.

A brief, weird history of brainwashing

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Free Speech Experts Realizing Just How Big A Free Speech Hypocrite Elon Is

Jan 16th 2024

On Monday, Elon Musk tweeted “To fear parody or criticism is a sign of weakness.”

If true, then this is Elon admitting to an astounding level of weakness. I mean, we’ve been chronicling for nearly two years now how Elon Musk talks a good game on free speech, but at every opportunity he’s had, he has not embraced actual free speech. Instead he’s worked hard to silence or punish those who say things critical of himself. This includes filing ridiculous lawsuits against two vocal critics.

Free Speech Experts Realizing Just How Big A Free Speech Hypocrite Elon Is

MO Republicans reenact Fahrenheit 451 [with cardboard boxes]

MO State Senators Eigel (R) and Schroer (R) burned the “liberal agenda” with flamethrowers in effigy this weekend. Today, Eigel, who is running for governor, vowed to burn books: “Those woke pornographic books … I’ll burn those too – on the front lawn of the gov’s mansion.”

These Republicans weren’t burning books with their flamethrowers

Related:

GOP lawmakers hold symbolic book burning with flamethrowers