‘The 2024 election was widely viewed as a referendum on diversity, equity and inclusion and, once in office, President Donald Trump wasted no time in dismantling programs in the federal government and pressuring the private sector to follow suit.

With DEI programs under attack from the administration, many companies scaled back or eliminated them. Others had already rolled back diversity commitments after facing anti-DEI campaigns from activists.…’ (uthor: Jessica Guynn via USA Today)

‘As BBC Sport reports, President Trump is now the proud recipient of the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, an award that definitely existed before this week and wasn’t just invented by his close ally Gianni Infantino. The ceremony took place at the Kennedy Center before the 2026 World Cup draw, where

Trump received a large golden trophy, a medal, and a certificate — the full participation trophy experience.

“This is your prize, this is your peace prize,” Infantino told Trump, in case anyone was confused about whose prize it was. Trump called it “truly one of the great honors” of his life. And who wouldn’t be honored by getting a shiny medal from an organization famous for bribery, racketeering, and money laundering?…’ (Ellsworth Toohey via Boing Boing

‘CNN’s KFile unearthed multiple appearances where the then-Fox News contributor warned that service members had a duty to refuse illegal commands. “The military’s not gonna follow illegal orders,” Hegseth said on Fox Business. “You’re not just gonna follow that order if it’s unlawful,” he said on Fox & Friends.…’ (Ellsworth Toohey via Boing Boing))

‘The post-modern philosopher Jean Baudrillard infamously argued in 1991 that the Gulf War did not take place, by which he did not mean that no fighting had actually occurred, but that the real events were something entirely separate from the carefully choreographed presentation the world saw thanks to the novel phenomenon of 24-hour cable news.

It’s tempting to wonder what Baudrillard would have made of the current US military buildup targeting Venezuela, a campaign that often appears to be driven by narratives with only a tangential relationship to actual events taking place.

Take, for instance, President Donald Trump’s dramatic announcement on his Truth Social platform a little over a week ago: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”…’ (Joshua Keating via Vox)

‘The Court’s Republican majority… plans to remake the separation of powers among the three US branches of government into a kind of hierarchy. Under this new vision, Congress’s power to create “independent” agencies that enjoy some insulation from the president must yield to a more powerful executive. And the executive’s authority over these agencies must, in turn, yield to a more powerful Supreme Court.…’ (Ian Millhiser via Vox)