Wednesday Potpourri

First, another sign that DEI initiatives are being rolled back by corporate America. The New York Post has the story:

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing in 2020, investor Mellody Hobson recalls frequent calls from directors at Fortune 500 companies for references to diverse candidates for boards. Now, she says, it’s “very sporadic.”

“During the George Floyd days there were dozens and dozens of them,” said Hobson, the co-CEO of Ariel Investments who also serves on the boards of JPMorgan and Starbucks. “Those requests have dramatically dropped.”

Over the past year, Reuters and other media have reported that a backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies by some conservative activists has sapped corporate enthusiasm for them.

Among Russell 3000 companies, the number of new black directors fell to 12% in 2024 from 26% two years ago, according to the study by business research group the Conference Board and data firm ESGAUGE. At the same time, the number of new white directors bounced back to 69%, up from historic lows of 52% in 2022.

Second, speaking of ineptitude, the Biden administration has achieved the highest level of foreign policy incompetence. Its effort to be even-handed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas obviously prolonged the warfare and the pain.

Legal Insurrection reports, via the New York Times:

U.S. Secretary of State Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Saturday made a stunning admission explaining how U.S. pressure on Israel emboldened the terrorist group Hamas and made it toughen its stance on the issue of hostage release.

Whenever there was open disagreement between the U.S. and Israel, Hamas backtracked on hostage release, the outgoing secretary of state acknowledged.

“Whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel,” he said an interview with The New York Times. 

“[W]e’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a ceasefire and the release of hostages.”

Now they tell us.

Third, Sean Davis of The Federalist offers some pithy commentary on the passing scene:

Fidel Castro’s bastard son was forced to resign as prime minister in Canada, America is about to snag Greenland in the transfer portal, and Donald Trump’s election victory was just certified in Congress. 2025 is going to be awesome!

Fourth, the educational apocalypse is upon us. American schoolchildren continue to fall behind. David Goldman explains:

Unbelievable. In 2009, 34% of US eighth graders tested at “proficient” (26%) or “advanced” (8%) on the National Assessment of Education Progress test. By 2020, that had fallen to just 24%, with 20% at “proficient” and 4% at “advanced,” according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Fifth, in Once-Great Britain the debate over Pakistani rape gangs is proceeding apace.  Apparently, there is plenty of blame to go around.

June Slater offers this summary:

The Labour government under the leadership of Gordon Brown claimed that under aged girls who were the victims of degenerate Pakistani controlled child rape gangs had made a lifestyle choice. How does anyone at 11 or 12 choose to be gang raped, urinated in for refusing sex and raped with a broken bottle as a punishment for begging them to stop, leaving her unable to have children make a lifestyle choice? Votes matter more than ruined lives?

“We believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it is not for your police officers to get involved"

The Home Office circulated this memo under Prime Minister Gordon Brown in respect to the victims of the rape gangs.

Sixth,  Martin Daubney offers this summary:

The scandal is already reshaping British politics. It’s not just about the heinous nature of the crimes. It’s that every level of the British system is implicated in the cover-up.

Social workers were intimidated into silence. Local police ignored, excused, and even abetted pedophile rapists across dozens of cities. 

Senior police and Home Office officials deliberately avoided action in the name of maintaining what they called “community relations.” 

Local councilors and Members of Parliament rejected pleas for help from the parents of raped children. Charities, NGOs, and Labour MPs accused those who discussed the scandal of racism and Islamophobia. 

The media mostly ignored or downplayed the biggest story of their lifetimes. Zealous in their incuriosity, much of Britain’s media elite remained barnacled to the bubble of Westminster politics and its self-serving priorities.

They did this to defend a failed model of multiculturalism, and to avoid asking hard questions about failures of immigration policy and assimilation. They did this because they were afraid of being called racist or Islamophobic. They did this because Britain’s traditional class snobbery had fused with the new snobbery of political correctness.

All of which is why no one knows precisely how many thousands of young girls were raped in how many towns across Britain since the 1970s."

Seventh, the blame also extends to the Tory party leadership.

Mario Nawfal reports:

Labour suppresses inquiries while Conservatives dodge responsibility. For 14 years, the Tories had power to investigate rape gangs targeting children. They didn't. 

Now Starmer, who was Director of Public Prosecutions during the crisis, blocks a statutory inquiry. This isn't incompetence - it's institutional cowardice. 

Eighth, as for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he offered a series of rationalizations for his own delinquent behavior. Carl Benjamin reports:

This is Keir Starmer's response to @elonmusk calling out his part in covering up the rape gang scandal. Listen to it carefully and think about what he's saying here. 

1. Starmer doesn't seem to know why Tommy Robinson is in jail. He seems to be referring to a previous conviction from 6 years ago in Huddersfield, which in itself was certainly a politically motivated reason to put Tommy behind bars then. This happens so often it's easy to get them mixed up. 

2. Starmer dismisses these valid critiques as merely the "playbook" of the "far right". He did the same thing after the fear and frustration boiled over after the Southport Massacre, where a Muslim radical stabbed 8 children, killing 3. He has no sympathy whatsover for the English working class, and stigmatises them with the "far right" label as outside of the bounds of his consideration. 

3. Starmer plays the victim for both himself and Jess Phillips. Instead of accepting that he and his government have done wrong here, he instead claims that "threats" have been sent and this means he doesn't have to tolerate any criticism of his handling of the rape gangs. 

4. Starmer finishes by saying that the government will "will get on with the job of protecting victims, including child sexual abuse, mandatory reporting, accelerating the process", but this would not have been necessary if it wasn't for their own attempt to cover up the story and dismiss the victims in the first place, which is essentially an admission that Elon and Tommy are right, and if they hadn't kicked up a fuss about this, nothing would have changed. 

The entire way Starmer has handled this is disgraceful, in my view. He is acting as if preventing the rape of children, and bringing justice to those victims of rape gangs, is somehow a partisan issue that only the "far right" would be concerned about and that this is a "bandwagon", and not a legitimate crime that has happened against the British people. Utterly vile.

Ninth, as for a good summation, consider these words, by MP Robert Jenrick:

… to sustain order in multicultural Britain, the state considered it necessary to apply the law selectively. For decades the most appalling crimes from diaspora groups were legalised and actively covered up to prevent disorder. The rule of law was abandoned to sustain the myth that diversity is our strength, destroying the lives of thousands of working class white girls in the process. This scandal starts with the onset of mass migration. This appalling affair is the final nail in the coffin for liberals who cling to the argument that Britain is an integration success story. Mass migration must end immediately and the foreign nationals prosecuted for their monstrous crimes must be deported - no ifs, no buts”.

Naturally, many on the right have been suggesting that Jenrick should be expelled from the Tory party.

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