Diversity Thursday

Another DivThu that is somewhere between a Rorschach test and "it speaks for itself."

Like so many of these "DEI" conferences, I would first have you note that they in no way actually reflect either "what the fleet looks like" or what the nation "looks like" - two otherwise meaningless measures of effectiveness that they demand of everyone but rarely meet themselves. They are some of the least diverse and inclusive gatherings you can find.

Though they can be found almost anywhere leaching funds from various location in DOD, the most cringy are usually found at the service academies where institutional capture or fear lets their branch of the diversity industry pretty much do what they want.

As you ponder this two-day event, think about the costs to make this happen. Not just the opportunity costs of everyone attending this fried air, but the facilities, support, and travel. Just worthy of a note next time some barracks maintenance or travel funds run short, that's all.

The latest at USNA - the third (yes, this started in the Trump Administration, so do be careful trying to make this a partisan thing - it is a Potomac Flotilla project through and through) has a couple of interesting twists. 

First, the subtitle for this year, "Challenging the Status Quo."

I'm sorry, but complete fealty to the Cultural-Marxist structures of the DEI industry is about as status quo as can be. 

Second, there is actually about 50-minutes of real substance here, the panel on "Evacuating Saigon" in the middle of day-2. Heck, I'd show up for that. Looks like a good, substantive panel discussion, but ... what does that have to do with "diversity" and what does that have to do with "challenging the status quo?"

Sure, anyone can force mode almost any topic in to their religion --- but this is a bit of a stretch. Just, no.

I guess they had to find something to draw people in...but they want to kick things off with an insult and an assumption. The religious undertones are - again - hard to avoid. Original sin is alive and well, "Overcoming Your Bias"

Anyway, you're paying for it. So pull up a chair sinners, at least check out the POA&M.

Diversity Thursday

This is one of those DivThu that could be a, in a word, tome.

As such, I am only going to pull a small portion of the things I normally would. You will have to do some reading yourself.

Trust me on this, depending on your areas of concern, you will find many items worse than I will pull out on today's post.

Poison wrapped in a few nice marshmallows...but poison nonetheless.

The focus of this week's DivThu is what is going on at the US Naval Academy. I've had all sorts of people, from active duty to retired USNA alumni (and others...ahem) reach out to me - a NROTC guy - because they want to get the word out concerning what is going on.

Not only do they love their school, they know how important USNA is to the Navy writ large. What starts, or stops there, is brought in to the fleet. Good or bad, it comes in.

As we have covered over the years, the diversity industry, their fellow travelers and useful idiots, have had USNA in their sights for a long time. As it is military, you have a high degree of control over the student body. As it is - wrongly - trying so hard to compete with other universities, it has brought on faculty who are true believers - or want to be seen as true believers - in all the latest fads in academia. No one has stood in the way of their push to bring to Annapolis what they find in Oberlin.

The quasi-woke religion as promoted by the CNO provided all the supporting fires they needed and the commissariat decided to make hay while the sun shines.

You know the drill.

Do you want Political Officers, USNA's own Zampolit? You'll get them.

Want blue and gold Red Guards? You're going to have them.

You want red in tooth and claw racism, quotas, and different standards based on self-identified racial groups? You're going to have more of it.

First let's pull some nice bits from the governing document; COMDTMIDNINST 1500.5, the "Diversity Education Program" from February of this year. You can read it at the link, or below the pull quotes;

BEHOLD!

1. Purpose. To provide guidance and designate responsibilities for implementation of the Diversity Peer Educator (DPE) Program. 

...

b. DPEs support moral development at USNA by facilitating small group conversations that educate and inform midshipmen, faculty, and staff and foster a culture of inclusion across the Yard, resulting in cohesive teams ready to exert maximal performance and win the Naval service's battles. 

I'm not sure you could get more Orwellian ... but they're going to try;

4. Responsibilities

a. USNA Chief Diversity Officer. The Chief Diversity Officer is the final approving authority for all matters pertaining to the DPE Program and will ensure the program is in line with Department of the Navy and Superintendent's guidance in reference (a). 

a. DPE Program Manager. The program manager for DPE is an active-duty officer appointed by the Chief Diversity Officer. Faculty/staff from the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, the Naval Academy Athletic Association (NAAA), or other cost-centers on the Yard will aid the program manager. 

Yes, the football booster organization will "help" the Zampolits. Huh. You see that, yes? Pull that thread...

c. Brigade Dignity and Respect Officer. Reference ( c) delineates the roles and responsibilities of the Brigade Dignity and Respect Officer (BDRO) who is accountable for the training, development, and qualification of the DPEs. However, the DPEs are organized and managed by the Midshipman DPE Lead.

d. Midshipmen DPE Lead. A midshipman selected annually by the DPE Program Manager and confirmed by the USNA Chief Diversity Officer. The Midshipmen DPE Lead is typically a  First Class Midshipman. Responsibilities include:

    (1) Work with the DPE Program Manager to ensure the mission of the program is met.

    (2) Provide feedback and keep the DPE Program Manager informed regarding anything that may impact the DPE program.

    (3) Serve as the senior DPE, and as the program representative to the BDRO.

    (4) Lead and provide guidance to the DPE Midshipmen.

    (5) Appoint and manage DPE leads in each battalion, company, varsity athletic team and club sport team. 

I'll let you do the math on how many bodies "each" means. That is a lot of Zampolits. I guess MIDN have a lot of extra time.

Again, I want you to ponder the opportunity cost of this across USNA and how it relates to professional development.

g. DPE. Midshipmen who have attended DPE Education, completed all DPE qualification requirements including Personnel Qualification Standards (PQS) and who are designated in writing by the DPE Program Manager. Responsibilities include:

(1) Conduct a minimum of two small group discussions within their company each semester. These sessions should include fewer than 15 participants per session when possible. A session will consist of an open conversation about leading a diverse group of people, ensuring that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and feels a sense of belonging in the group.

(2) Conduct a minimum of one small group discussion per varsity/club sports team per semester.

(3) DPEs have the ability to hold additional sessions or events at the discretion of their Company Officer, Senior Enlisted Leader, or Coach.

(4) Participate in at least one Diversity and Inclusion Program event per semester. These include, but are not limited to: Cultural Affinity Group/Extra Curricular Activity events, Midshipmen Diversity Team events, etc.

(5) Attend the USNA Diversity and Inclusion Conference.

(6) Participate in any continuing education as prescribed by the DPE Program Manager.

(7) Assist with the planning and execution of Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) led events at USNA. 

As all Zampolits must do ... one must have a record of events and who is at them;

6. Records Management

a. Records created as a result of this instruction, regardless of format or media, must be maintained and dispositioned for the standard subject identification codes (SSIC) 1000 through 13000 series per the records disposition schedules located on the Department of theNavy/ Assistant for Administration (DON/ AA), Directives and Records Management Division(DRMD) portal page at httpsl://portal.secnav.navy.mil/orgs/DUSNM/DONAA/DRM/Recordsand-Information-Management/ Approved%20Record%20Schedules/Forms/Allltems.aspx.  

If you just need an explainer as the full document is just too much, the Salamander Underground helped you out. Just click here. 

I know you are dying to see the training material - or at least some of it. 

Sal's spies have not failed you. Here you have the "Diversity Peer Educator Study Guide" to help the blue and gold version of the Red Guard.

Review the whole thing at the link above, but here's a few of slides to make you proud to be an American. I'm not sure how our Navy survived without this until now, TBQH. 

I can't wait until this structure is implemented Fleet wide:

Like I said, Zampolit. Everywhere.

...and no, going to the fleet is not hyperbole ... no one is hiding the ball here. (NAAA pun not intended)

Who will be the first person to have, "...a walking safe space..." as a FITREP bullet?

One positive thing here is that they are no longer denying that this is all political. They are daring you to say there is anything wrong.

You'll be put on a list.

This would not be complete without the official Diversity and Inclusion Plan of March of 2021. Go ahead click the link and read page four. 

Orwell blushes.

This is full of problems, but here is where they let the mask slip for those still holding out for something benign and worthy of our republic;

Action 3d. Bring equity to the leadership and training opportunities for all populations. 

Step 3d1. Intentionally develop selection panels with representation from different populations. Intentionally use different panel members from underrepresented populations to include multiple perspectives in the selection process.

That is a quota system. We know what the Navy's definition of "equity" is - it is not equality or equal opportunity; it is equal outcomes.

This whole effort isn't just about bureaucratic growth or supporting more paid positions for otherwise unemployable "diversity and inclusion" nomenklatura, no ... it is much worse.

This is about developing a system of indoctrination normalizing a system of incentives and disincentives to provide advantages and disadvantages to individuals based upon their membership in self-identified sectarian blocks - and inculcating and then enforcing ideological support for enforced sectarianism.

Recall, they are doing this starting with a cohort of young men and women most of whom were in 1st and 2nd Grade when Obama was sworn in as President.

This is about identifying people who are opposed to racial discrimination and encouraging their disfavor or better, elimination from the Navy.

There you are.

Diversity Thursday

Most who have had their kids enter college in the last couple of decades - especially the last decade - have seen the sociopolitical indoctrination of our kids in the world view of the diversity industry. They don't just get informed about how racist their nation is, they are told that their college, their classes, even they themselves are "problematic."

For many who have not been in the military recently, you might think that this issue is mostly a problem at civilian liberal arts colleges and maybe it creeps in to STEM programs at public universities, but surely our nation's service academies are not wasting time injecting disunity and division in to our military's next generation of leaders?

If you think that ... I am so sorry.

As we have been told over and over, if you are not all in - an open postalizing "anti-racist" - then you are, well, 

I think two quotes from one of the Chief of Naval Operation's favorite authors will set the tone.

As we've documented often here, Kendi did not show up on the CNO's reading list by accident. Even though earlier this year he took it off the list after a firestorm in Congress ... the point was made.

You have to buy in. You know what happens if are not an "anti-racist."

Let's look at what is going on at the US Naval Academy. 

Thanks to the well documented work by Legal Insurrection's project Critical Race Training in Education, they've done all the hard work for us.

Read it all, but here are a few nuggets that your next nugget will have injected in to their brainstem;

As part of the Naval Academy's Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, the academy will "develop and maintain a comprehensive cultural awareness and bias literacy training framework that includes annual training for all USNA leadership, faculty, staff, and midshipmen with specialized modules for key areas of emphasis as they concern admissions, leadership positions, and members of selection panels."

It is the end part that is important. We know what they mean by "equity" and you can follow the bouncing ball to what that means for who gets in (admissions), who get's the best positions (leadership positions), and who gets selected for competitive programs/positions (selection panels). There it is; red in tooth and claw.

USNA’s Center for Teaching and Learning has several faculty resources including PowerPoint Presentations on topics such as “You Don’t Have to Go Far: Cross-Cultural Competence through Experiential Learning” and “How to Create an Anti-Racist Classroom: Developing and Implementing an Anti-Racist Pedagogy,” Video Presentations on “Teaching Race,” and books such as “How to Be an Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi and “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo.

So balanced. Such unity.

The USNA Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) supports the Naval Academy’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan Imperative One, which is “to recruit, admit and graduate a diverse and talented Brigade of Midshipmen by providing an inclusive community and environment with a number of diversity events, trainings, and resources."

Not everyone at USNA is supposed to bring people together to unite as one it appears, but some are to remind everyone at every turn their differences.

According to The Hill, Task Force One Navy's final report recommended "using artificial intelligence to reduce potential bias when selecting sailors for promotion."

Oh...and what variables will this "AI" be programed to consider?

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards consist of a couple of dozen awards which are bestowed annually based on many types of affinity groups.

"Affinity groups" are organizations based on separating people based on race, ethnicity, etc. Again, promoting sectarianism.

Oh, did I mention that the leadership at USNA thinks the Naval Academy is racist?

The Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy said, "In short, diversity, equity, and inclusion are more vital than ever to our mission here at the Naval Academy of developing leaders to serve our Nation." The superintendent also announced, "Our Faculty Senate recently passed a resolution with overwhelming support to investigate and address any practices at the Naval Academy that perpetuate systemic racism."

I encourage you to read the whole thing and then ponder this statement;

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in June 2021, "We do not teach critical race theory, we don’t embrace critical race theory and I think that’s a spurious conversation...We are focused on extremist behaviors, and not ideology, not people’s thoughts, not people’s political orientation."

The clawback from this unacceptable mindset will be hard and ugly. 

What Happens When the SAPR Knob Goes to 11?

Well ... I think over at the Severn School for Wayward Boys and Girls at the end of November, I think we found out.

I'm not sure more commentary on my part is needed or wise ... I'll just say BZ to the MIDN who gave the feedback in bold. We need more pushback like that.

---

---

...and yes, I think we'd all like to see the 13 suggested topics...for scientific purposes, of course.

Diversity Thursday

After a summer where more and more people’s eyes have been opened to the divisive, sectarian, and even racist nature of Critical Race Theory and have risen in opposition to it and similar race-essentialist world view in to our schools, the next logical step is how people feel about it becoming an essential part of taxpayer supported public education.

As we’ve discussed it in detail here, we know there is a problem in the US Navy where the Chief of Naval Operations has enthusiastically supported the works of one of the most high-profile advocates of the most cancerous forms of Critical Race Theory, Ibram X. Kendi. With that top cover, it was only a matter of time until its advocates came out of the shadows to inject it elsewhere in our Navy.

As we covered last week, one of the fellow travelers of Kendi has become rather popular at the United States Naval Academy. Could it get worse? 

Of course it could get worse. With the Diversity Industry, that is their job. Remember, they have paychecks and world views to justify. No one wants to solve anything – indeed – the goal is to not only continue the crisis they describe, but to create it if it does not exist and to grow it if they can.

What would you think about USNA, 

“…integrating Claudia Rankine’s work into the USAN teaching and learning community?”

Oh yes … and there will be theater.

BEHOLD!

Sadly, we missed it and there doesn’t seem to have been a recording made of this glorious event. If any readers here saw it, drop me an email … I’d love to hear how it went.

I can’t seem to find a full reading, but I have something better. Here is the author discussing her play.

Is this really the mindset we want Midshipmen to bring to the fleet? Is this how we foster good order and discipline?

 

I'm not sure what is in her heart, but it isn't healthy.

Diversity Thursday

If you think Critical Race Theory in high schools is of questionable utility, then you will love what has come to the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen.

With the CNO endorsing one of the most high-profile race essentialists, Kendi, to the Navy at large there are no guardrails to the most divisive, and in many ways racist ideas from being brought into all levels of our Navy.

You can call it “racial essentialism,” CRT, or just plain racism … but what we’ve tried to warn everyone about for over a decade and a half is here with bells on.

There is bad news, and there is good news.

First, the bad news; do you know who Claudia Rankine is? Neither did I until a little birdie dropped this jewel in my lap.

Before we go further, I want to have this bouncing around your head while we go into the details. A response we often see in such circumstances is that this is simply part of exposing people to “new ideas and perspectives.” That this is part of expanding the conversation and to challenge them with different view, etc … you know the drill.

Well, if the views of the author below are inside the Overton Window for discussions and the academic goal is to broaden the minds of MIDN on such issues … then when is USNA going to invite someone with an opposing view, and who would that be on the other side of the Overton Window? Who is defining the Overton Window? 

Something to ponder … so go get a pillow to put on your desk where you will be pounding your head shortly and … 

BEHOLD!

…poet Claudia Rankine—author of 2014's award-winning Citizen, a meditation on everyday racism—received a MacArthur Fellowship and announced her plans for the $625,000 stipend: helping establish the Racial Imaginary Institute, a New York City space for art exhibits, lectures, and films that will investigate whiteness. 

Of course.

O: Does the term whiteness make white people defensive?

CR: They'll anxiously insist, "I'm not racist." Well, yes, you are. We all have biases—only I don't have power behind mine. If we can understand that racism is an active force, we can figure out how we got here. Think about sexism. Until some men could admit that it existed, men and women couldn't have a dialogue about it.

O: So white people need to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

CR: Yes. 

Do you need to read more? You can read more at the link above if you so desire – or read her books or other writings. We have her book Just Us where, 

…Claudia Rankine invites us into a necessary conversation about Whiteness in America.  

or Citizen where she,

… recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. 

or Don’t Let me be Lonely where Midshipmen can ponder, 

I forget things too. It makes me sad. Or it makes

me the saddest. The sadness is not really about

George W. or our American optimism; the

sadness lives in the recognition that a life can

not matter.

 or the unifying “play” titled, of course, White Card,

…a play which illustrates how White people play “The White Card”. By so doing, she beautifully illustrates how Whites turn Blacks into “things” or “objects”, denying their real humanity. 

We could do more – but for the purposes of a blog I think we have enough to run with.

Yes, Claudia has some issues, and it appears the leaders at the USNA want MIDN to hear them.

Though not widely advertised outside the walls of Annapolis, it appears that Ms. Rankin was invited.

Once that joyful session was over, the conversation left the walls of Annapolis and in to the public space via social media where the birdie sent it to me.

I think this MIDN did a nice job thanking everyone.

However … it appears that “not the greatest” was carrying a lot of weight.

Now the good news. Let the unity begin!

There is a clear disconnect between the faculty – uniformed and civilian – at USNA and the MIDN.

I ask this simple question; after this visit, was there more unity or less? Was there a more cohesive body of MIDN, or less? Did it produce good order or bad? More sectarianism, or less?

Last month over on twitter, I put out a little note about what is going on at many of our war colleges. You can say the same thing about our service academies as well.

Will anyone ask the hard question who invited Rankine and why? What was their goal? Did they achieve their goal? Who will come to offer a different perspective?

Are Midshipmen Dying for Sport?

Why are Naval Academy football players dying? 

In the last seven years, three Midshipmen who played at least two years of football at the US Naval Academy and the Naval Academy Prep School have died of natural causes.

2014: Will McKamey, 19, 5-9, 170-pounds: died after collapsing and falling in to a coma during practice. History of brain injury.

2020: David Forney, 22, 6'3" 305 pounds: died of cardiac arrest in his room.

2021: Michael Myles James, 22, 5'11" 230 pounds (2018): unspecified natural causes in his sleep. Recruited to play football, went to NAPS, played freshman year. 

I have kids the same age as these MIDN, that is what first caught my attention. I cannot imagine getting that phone call, or walking it to that room ... it is a living nightmare I would not want to see happen to anyone.

In life, death can happen to anyone and no activity is safe. Football is known to be more dangerous than most sports, and at each level the players and the hits get larger and harder.  Still, in a college as small as USNA and with people so young, those numbers seemed unusually large. That got me to start pulling a string.

The Capital Gazette has some interesting numbers we should look at:

This is the 14th midshipman death in eight years, and the second in a year’s time at the academy, according to previous Capital reporting. Midshipman 1st Class John Johnson died in December while on leave.

Johnson is the first midshipman to receive his posthumous degree under a new policy that allows midshipmen who have met the academic requirements for their degrees and are approved by the academic board.

Midshipman 1st Class David Forney and Midshipman 3rd Class Duke Carrillo died in February 2020. Forney, of Walkersville, Maryland, was found unresponsive in his dormitory room Feb. 20. Carrillo, 21, collapsed while taking a physical readiness test Feb. 8 and was later pronounced dead at Anne Arundel Medical Center.

The midshipman will be the fourth off-duty/recreational death in 2021 for the United States Navy, according to the Naval Safety Center statistics. Nine members of the Navy, including Johnson, died while off-duty in 2020.

This is an incomplete dataset that could be improved, but there is more than enough here to start asking some questions. For instance;

- While in the eight-year period there were 14 deaths, it is difficult to break out how many were from accidents. Ideally they should be pulled out of the dataset. If they were, the numbers would be even worse. If I could get a list - I asked a few USNA alumni if there was a memorial page or such that listed MIDN who died while at Annapolis but it appears there isn't - I could pull the name/names off year 8 so as to be the same period of time of 7 years of the football player deaths. That would make the football player percentage even larger as well. We'll stick with what we have and run with it anyway.

- While MIDN James was not on the team this year, he went to NAPS where he played and he played his 4th Class year. Two of his four years he was playing. He counts.

That gets us to the numbers:

- Plus or minus a hundred or so, there are ~4,576 MIDN at Annapolis.

- The last USNA football roster has 104 players. That means 2.3% of the MIDN population is on the football team. If you include people who were once on the team but are not on the roster, a bit more, but not that many more.

- In this eight-year time span football players represented 3/14 deaths. That is 21.4% of the deaths.

That number should concern everyone. That should give pause. 

That brings up all sorts of questions:

- In other colleges across the nation, is there a difference between the death rate of football players relative to the rest of the student population? More or less, especially for natural causes?

- If we looked not just as this 8-yr time period at USNA, but further, 15, 20, 25 years, do these numbers hold, or is this simply a "rough spot" in time?

If this is not just a "rough spot in the numbers," then what do you do with this knowledge?

Claude Berube: Teaching, Legacy, Mentorship, and Opening a New Chapter

Known to all on and considered to be part of the Front Part is friend to the blog, Midrats, and me personally, is Dr. Claude Berube; reserve Naval Officer, author, professor, and all-around good guy.

After a long record of service teaching political science and history at the United States Naval Academy and director of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Claude is moving on to start a new chapter.

In a highly enjoyable retrospective of his time in Annapolis, Claude becomes a guest on the podcast he started, Preble Hall, as interviews by Dr. Marcus Faulkner. 

Enjoy.

Diversity Thursday

There are but a few options here, none of which speak well of our Navy or its leadership – but we have to look at where this is with clear eyes.

I have tried to be as clean-slate optimistic as possible with the CNO, Admiral Gilday. On a lot of actual Navy issues, I find him incredibly well informed, intelligent, and thinking in the right direction – but that is only part of his job. 

Another part of his job is to be a good steward of the position of the CNO, the Navy’s apolitical stance in line with our national traditions, and to ensure that all his Sailors can expect fair and equal treatment and consideration under his command. In the last respect, I can no longer give what I otherwise consider good man and exceptional officer the benefit of the doubt. 

He has become a willing accomplice to division, sectarianism, and the radicalization of our Navy. He has positioned himself and his Navy as supporters of sectarianism and division for one of a few reasons:

1. He is trying to keep the worst people circling around the Beltway – the diversity industry and its DOD/DON embedded nomenklatura – at bay, sated, and leaving him alone so he can pursue “the important things.”

2. He is terrified that he will find himself in the center of some Star Chamber trial for not being “part of the solution” and being made another example of leading a systemically racist organization, not being an ally, and needing to be removed.

3. He is a true believer. In the zero sum game that is accessions and promotions, he believes that one of the primary considerations need

What ever reason, the results are the same and the negative effects on our Navy will be long lasting.

I don't really have to say all that much more, I'll let the CNO tell you for me.

He is looking at offering Navy advancement exams in multiple languages.

He is open to different standardized testing requirements based on self-identified race.

That sets a hell of a precedent. 

Go to the 51:15 mark.

He knows this, but I'll put it here anyway: if he goes forward with this, he is laying a minefield for himself and his Navy in the future. Here's why.

For a simple example: if you have three cohorts and they are approved based on different gate requirements for objective standards that predict performance (they do). Group-1 has to break 100. Group-2 break 90. Group-3 only 75.

At every point and milestone, if they are evaluated and promoted based on performance and objective criteria, Group-1 will always do better, be selected more often, and simply do their job better ... on average ... than Group-2 and Group-3. 

The "crisis" of difference not only never ends, the ongoing crisis is baked in at the very beginning. As a byproduct, your organization will also perform less well because you have more people with lesser ability to do the needed job dragging average performance down.

If you set up different standards you also encourage an already existing problem to get worse; identification fraud by people who should be in Group-1 trying to be evaluated as Group-2 or 3. You also force the growing number of mixed-race people to "pick a side" when they are not one or the other. Forcing people to classify themselves like this in order to position themselves for advantage is cancerous and unethical ... but it is encouraged by this system. This doesn't make one from many ... this makes many from one.

If people who promote this evil are allowed to expand their world view, it metastasizes throughout the system. 

Since the middle of the '00s I've warned here about the growing number of billets being dedicated to the diversity industry nomenklatura - growing in number and power. They have no desire to fix any problem, only to keep them active. That is how they justify their paycheck and very existence. 

Well meaning leaders have given in year after year to their demands for more billets and more power out of fear, fellow travellership, or at worst - simply to make them go away and be someone else's problem.

They advance and advance with little to no pushback. They wait for a ripe time - and then they push extra hard.

There was no time since the early 70s where racial tension was higher than this summer. As the "time was ripe" the embedded diversity bullies made their move across a wide front. 

Another example made it my way this month, this time from USNA. What do you notice about this?

Fully in line with the CNO's efforts in the first part of this post; meritocracy is identified as a barrier. 

How much longer will we allow this cancer to go unopposed?

I will finish this DivThu with this reminder: this is Trump's Navy doing this. This is Trump's CNO. This is Trump's diversity and inclusion nomenklatura. Except for his last few months, his government did nothing to push back against this cadre driven by sectarianism and feeding off of division.

Next time those who support a color blind nation where people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin decide to back a candidate, pick better. Demand better. Demand action early and continuous. 

Diversity Thursday

Like most struggle sessions, no further commentary required - except if you can only take so much, go to the end for the explanation.

Just a Retired 2xFOS'd LCDR, eh?

Perhaps this should have been a FbF ... but sometimes you have to wonder - what are the universal constants of our Navy culture?

Who can make the best use of it?

When it too late to make any meaningful use of it?

Who defines a failed officer or a successful career?

Not who ... but what?

Pondering over at USNIBlog ... just make sure and bring your facemask and grass skirt.

Measuring Grit

Do you want to go to war with a Rhodes scholar on watch with you, or a rugby player?

How do you measure what is hard to make in to a metrics slide?

I'm pondering a few things they've found out over at West Point.

Come on by USNIBlog and see.

Diversity Thursday

Of course.

It was only a matter of time.

The below is ligit, it seems.

Even as an unchurched Evangelical, I firmly believe that certain Catholic priestly vocations are in the best position to discuss how Satan and his teaching would best serve ship, Shipmate and self at the Naval Academy and the fleet.

There are some additional details on the - dare I say - devilish goings on with this little treat over at TAC that I would recommend you give a read.

It is all rather farcical, just a step over from "Lean-in-Circles," but serious as well. These are not neo-pagans doing what neo-pagans do with very harmless whatever they do with ... whatever. Regardless of what they say otherwise; Satanism is a different kettle of fish. Satan has a little track record. Again, I'll let the Catholics take it from here.

The good news? It also appears that the good folks at Annapolis still have a sense of humor.

Good afternoon Brigade,

Starting this semester Traditional Aztec Cosmology Club will be sacrificing the last place Flag Football team to Huitzilopochtli, and their hearts displayed on our new cuauhxicalli!

Sign up for our MO to Huexotzingo!

— The LOG (@TheLOGYearly) October 8, 2019

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UPDATE: For those so interested, here's the response from USNA;

An internal email was sent to the Brigade of Midshipmen Oct. 8 announcing that “satanic services” would start this week. This email was sent without the review and approval of the Naval Academy’s Command Chaplain, as required by command policy; it did not represent the U.S. Naval Academy’s Command Religious Program.

Recently, a group of Midshipmen with beliefs aligned with those practiced by The Satanic Temple (a nontheistic religious and politically active movement based in the U.S., recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service), requested a space where they could assemble to discuss and share their common beliefs. The request was for a "study group" space, not for holding “satanic services," as stated in the email.

The USNA Command Religious Program provides for the exercise of diverse beliefs. Arrangements were being made to provide the Midshipmen with a designated place to assemble as chaplains facilitate for the beliefs of all service members, a responsibility outlined by Navy instructions (SECNAVINST 1730.7E and BUPERSINST 1730.11 CH-1).

Americans embrace a wide array of beliefs, life philosophies, and opinions, and our Constitution guarantees to all the right to hold those beliefs and to freely exercise such beliefs (modified by unique requirements accompanying military life). The Command Religious Program at the Naval Academy facilitates the opportunity for the free expression of diverse beliefs, but without endorsing any particular belief.

Midshipmen have the right to assemble to discuss their beliefs as they choose, but, to be clear, in accordance with Department of Defense Policy, military members will not engage in partisan political activities, and will avoid the inference that their activities may appear to imply DoD approval or endorsement of a political cause.

This does beg a few questions.

As described above, "...The Satanic Temple (a nontheistic religious and politically active movement..." - let's unpack via dictionary.com.

Let's have some word fun.

First, "nontheistic" derives from:

theism[ thee-iz-uh m ]
noun
1. the belief in one God as the creator and ruler of the universe, without rejection of revelation (distinguished from deism).
2. belief in the existence of a god or gods (opposed to atheism).

So, nontheistic is just "atheist" using a less well known and loaded word.

Nontheist is equivalent to the broader definition of atheist (anyone who lacks a belief in gods.). The term "nontheist" isn't popular though. All atheists fall under this definition, no matter their stance on the claim of the nonexistence of any or all gods.

So, we are just dealing with atheism.

Next, "religious."

religious[ ri-lij-uhs ]
adjective
1. of, relating to, or concerned with religion:
a religious holiday.
2. imbued with or exhibiting religion; pious; devout; godly:
a religious man.
3. scrupulously faithful; conscientious:
religious care.
4. pertaining to or connected with a monastic or religious order.

Sure, you can stretch definitions more, but contradiction here is clear. You cannot have a "nontheistic" organization based on a spiritual being, "Satan." Satan only exists in various different confessions of the Abrahamic religions ... and a few others by different names. This specific concept of "Satan" comes from the Christian branch. If Satan has ideas and concepts worth having a "temple" for, then "Satan" must exist. If Satan exists, then G-d must exist. OK, fine, then you have a religion. We can discuss that.

If, however, you state that G-d doesn't exist, then Satan does not exist. If Satan does not exist, then you are just making things up - or you might as well have a temple based on a fictional character out of a Hemingway novel. You have something, but it isn't religious and should not fall under any Command Religious Program. If followers of Ayn Rand have an Objectivist Club, do they fall under the Command Religious Program? Heck, at least Objectivists believe Rand existed.

If it isn't religious, then you have to look at the other side of their definition, "political." A Command Religious Program should have nothing to do with a political organization.

If Satanists want to sit in a circle to discuss how great the ideas of the fictional character of Satan are - whatever - but don't put that anywhere under a Command Religious Program where for almost all the different branches where Christian, Muslim, Jewish, & even Buddhist Chaplains have a very real belief in "Satan." That is simply institutional trolling ... which is pretty much what Satanists have been doing since I first ran in to that sad little bunch in the late-80s.

Put them wherever the Dungeons & Dragons Club is. 

Professor Fleming Returns to Annapolis

Regular readers here are familiar with Professor Bruce Fleming from USNA.

He's had a rough run of things the last couple of years, but the wheels of justice have finished grinding ... and he's emerged on top.

Via Lauren Lumpkin at the Baltimore Sun;

A controversial Naval Academy professor, who Navy officials said emailed partially clothed photos of himself to students and used “demeaning” language in the classroom, will be reinstated by the end of the summer, according to a ruling issued Wednesday by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

Bruce Fleming was removed from the Annapolis institution in August after a seven-month long-investigation into his conduct. A tenured civilian professor, Fleming appealed his removal and made the case for reinstatement in front of an administrative judge in May.

The Merit Systems Protection Board, which adjudicates personnel actions for federal employees, reversed Fleming’s removal and ordered back pay. Fleming is one of the Naval Academy’s most senior professors and earned $130,000 a year.

Fleming called the ruling “a moment of triumph."

Read the full article if you wish, but I wanted to share with you some primary source documentation as well.

Here is the decision dated 24 July 2019 from the Merit Systems Protection Board. If you really want to see what was going on at Annapolis and want to decide for yourself, read it.

STEM and the Education of a Navy Leader - on Midrats

The majority of our officers come from two sources, NROTC and the United States Naval Academy. The Navy has a policy a bias towards STEM majors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to the point where 65 percent of USNA Midshipmen major in STEM.

Is this in the best interest of educating future officers of our modern Navy and Marine Corps so they can effectively lead Sailors and Marines at war and peace?

To discuss this and related issues for the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be USNA Midshipman First Class Kirk Wolff. We will use his recent Proceedings Today article, Rethinking the Naval Academy Curriculum as a starting off point.

Kirk is originally from Morristown, Tennessee. He majored in Political Science at USNA and will serve as a surface warfare officer upon commissioning on May 25, 2018.

Join us live if you can, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio or Stitcher. 

If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes button at the main showpage - or you can just click here.

Diversity Thursday

Yes friends, we are well through the looking glass. When you combine the ability to order people to do anything that isn't legal in the military, along with the autocratic control you have over the Midshipmen and Cadets in our service academies - you have in a way an interesting little human terrarium.

Just so you know exactly how the new policy is. Notice the little twist? Some people are more equal than others, natch.

"Good order and discipline." OK. 

Like I've said for a long time; make a clear personal evaluation of your desire for personal liberty in your college years, what you really want. Unless you desire a tightly bound military immersion and limited freedom in your one run at undergrad - consider NROTC.  

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UPDATE: Well, count your blessings; you could be in the USAFA.

Service Academies Corruption by Football Lust is Almost Complete

The old Department of Defense Pro Sports Policy reads:

"Officers appointed from cadet or midshipman status will not be voluntarily released from active duty principally to pursue a professional sports activity with the potential of public affairs or recruiting benefit to the DoD during the initial 2 years of active commissioned service. A waiver to release a cadet or midshipman prior to the completion of 2 years of active service must be approved by the ASD. Exceptional personnel with unique talents and abilities may be authorized excess leave or be released from active duty and transferred to the Selective Reserve after completing 2 years of active commissioned service when there is a strong expectation their professional sports activity will provide the DoD with significant favorable media exposure likely to enhance national recruiting or public affairs."

That essentially meant a service academy graduate would not be eligible to be placed on reserve status for the purpose of pursing pro sports until serving 24 months on active duty. But the policy, which was changed in May, now reads:

"A service member can request to be tendered an appointment in the reserve upon graduation and satisfy their commissioned service obligation in the Ready Reserve."

And so it goes. Wave at it.

This has the tinge of fraud against the taxpayer, a clear waste of a spot at a Service Academy by someone who is actually primarily motivated to serve, and unquestionably an abuse of the integrity of the role Service Academies have in building leaders for our military.

This compromise is for one reason; so alumni can live vicariously through a young man’s game. If they wanted that “college” experience, then they should have gone NROTC.

If you are a football-uber-alles type, this may make you happy – but if you love what the Service Academies are supposed to be, then this should give you pause to think; what price football?

What else will USNA and the other Service Academies sell to feed their alumni's addiction? They sold the soul of NAPS long ago – now it is the service obligation. All for a game. This is not the action of a mission focused military institution.

Out of all 170 professional athletes produced by federal service academies, all of them but two have not fulfilled their two-year active duty commitments: Reynolds and Garrett Griffin.

Griffin is currently in limbo, as he already has his orders for the two-year active duty commitment.

Even Navy's Roger Staubach and David Robinson and Air Force's Chad Hennings served at least two years before turning pro.

"[Service academies] exist to instill young men and women with a mindset of selfless service to the country," retired Army Lt. Tom Slear wrote in a recent Post editorial. "There is no other justification for the significant public expense that supports them.

"Professional football, on the other hand, is about service to oneself. It has its place, but not for academy graduates who haven't fulfilled their obligations to their fellow citizens. Each time one of them leaves early, the ethos diminishes a bit, and the taxpayers are cheated."

The approximate price tag on a service academy education is $400,000.

Does anyone really believe the soul-sucking, sea lawyeresque, slimy spin below?

"My view is we recruit cadets to come to the academy to develop over four years as leaders of character and then go out and serve our nation in the Air Force," Knowlton said. "There are many different ways that cadets can serve our nation."

If so, I feel sorry for you.

War of 1812 in the Chesapeake: A Schoolhouse at Sea - on Midrats

Last month started what we hope will be a regular occurrence in the education of our future leaders; the US Naval Academy took 10 Midshipmen along with a group of instructors on board the topsail schooners Pride of Baltimore and Lynx as part of an elective history course titled “War of 1812 in the Chesapeake: A Schoolhouse at Sea.”

We will have two of the instructors for the cruise with us for the full hour this Sunday, returning guest LCDR Claude Berube, USNR, instructor at the USNA Department of History, Director of the US Naval Academy Museum and organizer of the program, along with USNA leadership instructor, LT Jack McCain, USN who focused instruction during the cruise on naval hero Stephen Decatur.

We will discuss the genesis of the program, the areas of instruction, the experience, along with the general topic of the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake.

Join us live if you can with the usual suspects in the chat room and offer up your questions for our guest, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio or Stitcher. 

If you use iTunes, you can add Midrats to your podcast list simply by clicking the iTunes button at the main showpage - or you can just click here.

Diversity Thursday

Nice article worth your time by our friend Professor Bruce Fleming at The Washington Free Beacon; Trigger Warnings in Annapolis Review: Joanna Williams, ‘Academic Freedom in an Age of Conformity’.

The immediate subject of Joanna Williams’s depressing but compellingly written chronicle of the threats to Anglo-American academia over the last several decades is the concerted attack, first by the professors themselves and now by students, against the academic freedom of the title. Academic freedom is the ability of the professorate to express, explore, and teach even those ideas that don’t happen to be cut to this decade’s fashions.

Thus academic freedom and its enemies may seem initially to be a narrow issue, of interest to few outside the now dwindling number of tenured professors who thought they were free to follow truth, and who discover instead that they can be shouted down by colleagues or students who feel that what the professor is saying “supports oppression.” Even worse, in Williams’s view, are those who self-censor to get their writing published and gain advancement while avoiding disapproval.

However, the issues Williams addresses are of far wider importance than the professional interests of academics. First of all, most of the people reading a review like this will have been students at such institutions, and now may well have children going to them or hoping to do so. Indeed many readers may themselves be associated with such institutions—so central to our national economic health that President Obama suggests that virtually all young people should, for their own benefit and that of the country, go to college. Universities matter to the nation.

Williams suggests that these vital institutions have rejected reasoned discourse and become free-for-alls where individuals don’t take turns at the microphone but instead grab it, or shout down those they disagree with. In Williams’s hair-raising account, those who shout the loudest and are the most destructive are most likely to get what they want.

I've only touched on about 10% of what is going on at Annapolis with the slow but steady advance by the diversity bullies and SJW, but know this: the "trigger warning" and "micro-aggression" people are already in place, pushing their agenda, and infecting the seed corn of our future officer corps.

Most MIDN think it is a joke from what some of them tell me (and I agree), but enough of the motivated and easily convinced do not and are embracing the People's Committee mentality;

At Annapolis, certainly neither students nor faculty enjoy the freedom to pursue truth. Students (and as I have learned, faculty) at Annapolis have to parrot what the brass hand down from on high. What they hand down changes from year to year, decade to decade. In the old days, the party line was anti-gay and misogynistic. Now the winds have shifted and (voila!) we are per diktat just as enthusiastically for the inclusion of out gays and soon, clearly, transgendered individuals, as we were against it before. What civilian schools call “hate speech” (jokes about women, say) is punished at Annapolis with the full force of the military “justice” system. Being able to pursue a radical left-wing agenda with radical right-wing power is a dream of progressive politicians, and at Annapolis it has become a reality. The left wing says it wants to liberate you, but actually it wants to tell you what to do just the way the right wing does.

This is very true. For years I have been in correspondence with MIDN, and they act like they are taking huge risks even emailing me. Once they get over that hump and are comfortable to share more, I learn that they just wanted to let me know that they are disgusted as we are, but they cannot speak out. They cannot write. 

The most upset of my correspondents at the 3rd Wave Leftist cant coming out of Annapolis have been the female MIDN. Based upon what they have told me about the ideology of some of the female officers appointed over them - I don't blame them.