Another spot on article. The biggest fear I have is the reaction Oregon (add CA and WA) will have on Trump’s famous victory - and that is to pull further left, to hell with the majority of American voters. Chasing Oregon into the ground seems to be Kotek’s priority. What an embarrassment.
Yes, the Democrats that control government in left coast states will no doubt double down on their support of DEI and transgender ideology, but before long the provisions of Trump's Executive Orders opposing DEI and protecting women's sex-based rights will result in federal regulations that tie federal funding for state and local govt activities to adherence to the principles in those executive orders. Medicare in woke states will no longer be able to pay for "gender affirming" services. Schools will no longer be able to "socially transition" children by staff referring to them with "preferred pronouns". The federal govt has a very big stick to bring about conformity in state and local governmental practices in being able to withhold funding that contravene federal laws and regulations. This will take quite a bit of time because each agency has to scrutinize its documents and regs, and draft and propose new ones, go through the required public comment period, etc. But the Executive Orders mandate that this be done quickly.
Also, Dem elected officials who are not stupid will realize that if they want to get re-elected they need to pay attention to how public opinion has and still is shifting to oppose DEI and transgender ideology. Even better, this will encourage pragmatic Dems to run against the woke folks in Dem primaries. That's what's been missing: Dems willing to speak out against woke orthodoxy and run against woke candidates. The fact that voters in SF voted out the work DA and voters in Multnomah County just voted out our woke DA should encourage us!
Right, by getting drunk and beating on her often. We literally have mentally ill people running our state. That's SO NICE...I just don't understand the liberal mentality! And I think I truly do not want to.
If Salem doesn't capitulate, there's always America First Legal, the brainchild of Stephen Miller. Yes, THAT Stephen Miller. Miller is now headed towards his apotheosis and possible Götterdämmerung, but America First Legal is busy soliciting whistle blowers with an axe to grind against DEI:
As part of our new AFL® Center for Legal Equality, America First Legal is creating a new digital HOTLINE for citizens to report violations of their rights. If you have been victimized by woke politics in the workplace or at school, if you have been illegally discriminated against in the workplace or in search of a contract or government benefit under the Orwellian guise of “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” please contact us TODAY.
America First Legal is a civil rights organization, committed to defending the principle of FULL EQUALITY under the law. We will not tolerate the conversion of our workplaces into Marxist propaganda centers. We will not permit our schools to become training grounds for radical race-and-gender-based ideology. We will not allow a new segregation, separatism, and destructive racial essentialism to corrupt our civic institutions. We will not watch from the sidelines as our government agencies – local, state, or federal – determine eligibility for government aid, relief, protection, or support on the basis of skin color, sex, or other protected trait. We will not let “equity” replace “equality” or let “woke” replace truth, justice, reason, sanity, and basic human dignity. We will expose and fight this systemic rot of our country, our institutions, and our culture.
But we cannot win this legal battle or reclaim our institutions in the name of equality and justice without your help. If you have experienced, suffered, witnessed, or discovered “woke” conduct at a corporation, school, or government agency that violates citizens’ rights – or advances an illegal “equity” scheme – contact us RIGHT NOW.
It is so tempting to report the City of Portland and Multnomah County for playing fast and loose with the nondiscrimination provisions of the Fair Housing Act. Let's see what America First makes of the County's claim not to discriminate on the basis of race when "around 97% of the 79 shelter participants last fiscal year were people of color, while 1% were white and another 1% were 'unknown' " in a county that is about 5.6 percent black. https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/12/multnomah-county-to-lease-65-room-motel-shelter-to-help-black-people-experiencing-homelessness.html
What's holding me back is the knowledge that the enemy of my enemy is not otherwise my friend in any respect. The personal blowback is the known unknown. And then there are the unknown unknowns.
America First Legal has already shown it means business. Earlier this week, OregonLive/The Oregonian ran a story titled: "Oregon governor to stand by sanctuary law despite Trump-allied group’s warning of ‘serious consequences.’ "
Gov. Tina Kotek said on Friday her administration will continue adhering to Oregon’s sanctuary law despite receiving a letter from a nonprofit allied with President-elect Donald Trump warning of federal prosecution and civil lawsuits for doing so.
“I remain focused on delivering results for the issues Oregonians care about most,” Kotek said in a statement. “I stand by Oregonians’ state-guaranteed protections and civil liberties.”
Days before Christmas, the Washington, D.C.-based America First Legal Foundation sent a letter to Kotek stating the group had “identified your jurisdiction as a sanctuary jurisdiction that is violating federal law,” and obstructing immigration law carries “serious consequences.”
“Such lawlessness subjects you and your subordinates to significant risk of criminal and civil liability,” an attorney for the group, James Rogers, wrote in a Dec. 23 letter to Kotek posted online. “Accordingly, we are sending this letter to put you on notice of this risk and insist that you comply with our nation’s laws.”
American Legal's six-page, six-section demand letter to Tina Kotek, which is chock full of legal citations, can be downloaded by clicking on the "Read Our Letter" button on American Legal's "Oregon Sanctuary" page here: https://aflegal.org/sanctuary/oregon/
Litigators might thrive on this stuff, but it's enough to make a lawyer with an office practice, blanch, sway in his seat and grab for the antacids.
Love it 😍 This looks like you filed this in 2021...no response yet??? We know the government moves VERY slowly...Hopefully you'll hear something in 2025!! 🤣
I doubt that will go anywhere but I like where your head is at. One of the more amusing things to do, as a person who is obviously not intended to be a beneficiary of these policies, is cook up ways to use the infrastructure and policies of these stupid projects to make the people who designed them regret doing so. One of the best ways to do that is to find a way to benefit from them.
For example, I had a friend who couldn't get an interview despite applying for dozens of jobs. He is highly qualified but white and male. I had him start marking down that he is bisexual in the demographics section, which is "voluntary" and is illegal to use for screening or even bring up with the applicant. He had 3 interviews within 2 weeks and is now gainfully employed at a large corporation. Nobody asked him about it, but I'm sure internally they are satisfied with maintaining eligibility for certain government grants. It's not even something one can prove. All he did differently was say he was bi and wear a pink shirt. He is married with 3 kids lol.
What you did is not so devious, but that is because you are a mature adult. DEI is an unfair system that deserved to be mocked and cheated if we are powerless to end it. If we aren't going to go back to merit based employment then people need to learn to cheat. It's never good in the long term to reward this kind of behavior but when it comes to putting food on the table, I see no reason for otherwise honest people to feel bad about lying and cheating if thats the only way to win.
Yep, they set these things up as political statements and don’t really intend them to function in the way they are set up, legally. It’s because, like it or not, they operate in our constitutional system and can’t be as overtly discriminatory as they’d like (but they try).
It gets worse. A crank caller from Washington Free Beacon contacted the hotline and complained that his neighbor had an Israeli flag in front of his house, causing him extreme stress. The OR employee advised him to record all of his interactions with his neighbor and offered him free mental health counseling at state expense. The incident was also recorded in a state database of bias incidents despite the fact that there was no crime. https://freebeacon.com/policy/inside-state-run-bias-response-hotlines-where-fellow-citizens-can-report-your-offensive-joke/
Maybe not just political posturing. I think the official's response to OR being a "one party" consent state (at 2:17) is wrong. In an instance of a private conversation between two people in a nonpublic place, my understanding is that it is two-party consent. So is an OR official advising this person to break the law?
whistling past the graveyard, but what else can you do? Michelangelo created the Sistine Chapel ceiling one brushstroke at a time. it took a bit of time, but we have the result now. keep on keepin' on.
Thank you! The Oregon Government's bias needs to be thoroughly investigated and dealt with.
How can government entities in Oregon uphold DEI and non-discrimination statements in hiring, among other things? I've never understood how one can discriminate in hiring while not discriminating in hiring.
Money funded by the department of labor by the previous administration fund state ran DEI programs. What a waste of taxpayer dollars. While they cannot force you to hire, atleast in construction, they can denie or even fine you for not following their guildlines. Let me be clear is is based on state funded jobs which is atleast partially funded by The US government. Sad political state to live in
Is Portland still racist? Keith Wilson is white. Rene Gonzalez, Carmen Rubio and Mingus Mapps are all established politicians and lost to a white guy that hopped into the race last minute with no real plan. If this Mayoral race occurred in 2020, Portlanders would have called Wilson racist for even trying to run for mayor. Just saying...
There needs to be a freedom of information request on this program. Have you ever done that? Are they keeping records on people who are not breaking the law but just expressing opinions the ODOJ does not like? Also, we need all the emails of the people involved with setting this program up.
Where you aware of this before the Washington Free Beacon broke this story on January 22, 2025? I found out when Greg Lukianoff, who is the CEO of The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, posted it his substack, "The Eternally Radical Idea." He linked to the Free Beacon story. Am I correct and there has been a local news blackout on this story?
Well, I was aware of Oregon’s DEI plan (and wrote about it last year), the bias hotline, and the fact that Kotek threw more money at it recently. I’m not sure what news Free Beacon broke, other than that the hotline advocate said a bunch of dumb but predictable stuff in response to the reporter’s fictional fact pattern.
Another spot on article. The biggest fear I have is the reaction Oregon (add CA and WA) will have on Trump’s famous victory - and that is to pull further left, to hell with the majority of American voters. Chasing Oregon into the ground seems to be Kotek’s priority. What an embarrassment.
We’ll see. Not sure moderate Dem/NAVs will go along for the ride this time.
I pray this is true.
Yes, the Democrats that control government in left coast states will no doubt double down on their support of DEI and transgender ideology, but before long the provisions of Trump's Executive Orders opposing DEI and protecting women's sex-based rights will result in federal regulations that tie federal funding for state and local govt activities to adherence to the principles in those executive orders. Medicare in woke states will no longer be able to pay for "gender affirming" services. Schools will no longer be able to "socially transition" children by staff referring to them with "preferred pronouns". The federal govt has a very big stick to bring about conformity in state and local governmental practices in being able to withhold funding that contravene federal laws and regulations. This will take quite a bit of time because each agency has to scrutinize its documents and regs, and draft and propose new ones, go through the required public comment period, etc. But the Executive Orders mandate that this be done quickly.
Also, Dem elected officials who are not stupid will realize that if they want to get re-elected they need to pay attention to how public opinion has and still is shifting to oppose DEI and transgender ideology. Even better, this will encourage pragmatic Dems to run against the woke folks in Dem primaries. That's what's been missing: Dems willing to speak out against woke orthodoxy and run against woke candidates. The fact that voters in SF voted out the work DA and voters in Multnomah County just voted out our woke DA should encourage us!
Well said Holly and I pray that God’s hand will return the left coast to normalcy.
That's what I pray for daily!
Exactly
Her wife, I’m sure, gives her lots of encouragement.
I agree.
Right, by getting drunk and beating on her often. We literally have mentally ill people running our state. That's SO NICE...I just don't understand the liberal mentality! And I think I truly do not want to.
If Salem doesn't capitulate, there's always America First Legal, the brainchild of Stephen Miller. Yes, THAT Stephen Miller. Miller is now headed towards his apotheosis and possible Götterdämmerung, but America First Legal is busy soliciting whistle blowers with an axe to grind against DEI:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFL Center for Legal Equality
As part of our new AFL® Center for Legal Equality, America First Legal is creating a new digital HOTLINE for citizens to report violations of their rights. If you have been victimized by woke politics in the workplace or at school, if you have been illegally discriminated against in the workplace or in search of a contract or government benefit under the Orwellian guise of “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” please contact us TODAY.
America First Legal is a civil rights organization, committed to defending the principle of FULL EQUALITY under the law. We will not tolerate the conversion of our workplaces into Marxist propaganda centers. We will not permit our schools to become training grounds for radical race-and-gender-based ideology. We will not allow a new segregation, separatism, and destructive racial essentialism to corrupt our civic institutions. We will not watch from the sidelines as our government agencies – local, state, or federal – determine eligibility for government aid, relief, protection, or support on the basis of skin color, sex, or other protected trait. We will not let “equity” replace “equality” or let “woke” replace truth, justice, reason, sanity, and basic human dignity. We will expose and fight this systemic rot of our country, our institutions, and our culture.
But we cannot win this legal battle or reclaim our institutions in the name of equality and justice without your help. If you have experienced, suffered, witnessed, or discovered “woke” conduct at a corporation, school, or government agency that violates citizens’ rights – or advances an illegal “equity” scheme – contact us RIGHT NOW.
https://aflegal.org/hotline/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is so tempting to report the City of Portland and Multnomah County for playing fast and loose with the nondiscrimination provisions of the Fair Housing Act. Let's see what America First makes of the County's claim not to discriminate on the basis of race when "around 97% of the 79 shelter participants last fiscal year were people of color, while 1% were white and another 1% were 'unknown' " in a county that is about 5.6 percent black. https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/12/multnomah-county-to-lease-65-room-motel-shelter-to-help-black-people-experiencing-homelessness.html
What's holding me back is the knowledge that the enemy of my enemy is not otherwise my friend in any respect. The personal blowback is the known unknown. And then there are the unknown unknowns.
America First Legal has already shown it means business. Earlier this week, OregonLive/The Oregonian ran a story titled: "Oregon governor to stand by sanctuary law despite Trump-allied group’s warning of ‘serious consequences.’ "
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2025/01/oregon-governor-to-stand-by-sanctuary-law-despite-trump-allied-groups-warning-of-serious-consequences.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gov. Tina Kotek said on Friday her administration will continue adhering to Oregon’s sanctuary law despite receiving a letter from a nonprofit allied with President-elect Donald Trump warning of federal prosecution and civil lawsuits for doing so.
“I remain focused on delivering results for the issues Oregonians care about most,” Kotek said in a statement. “I stand by Oregonians’ state-guaranteed protections and civil liberties.”
Days before Christmas, the Washington, D.C.-based America First Legal Foundation sent a letter to Kotek stating the group had “identified your jurisdiction as a sanctuary jurisdiction that is violating federal law,” and obstructing immigration law carries “serious consequences.”
“Such lawlessness subjects you and your subordinates to significant risk of criminal and civil liability,” an attorney for the group, James Rogers, wrote in a Dec. 23 letter to Kotek posted online. “Accordingly, we are sending this letter to put you on notice of this risk and insist that you comply with our nation’s laws.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Legal's six-page, six-section demand letter to Tina Kotek, which is chock full of legal citations, can be downloaded by clicking on the "Read Our Letter" button on American Legal's "Oregon Sanctuary" page here: https://aflegal.org/sanctuary/oregon/
Litigators might thrive on this stuff, but it's enough to make a lawyer with an office practice, blanch, sway in his seat and grab for the antacids.
This kind of thing is needed. Oregon practices, or at least espouses, blatantly unconstitutional/illegal discrimination.
Love it 😍 This looks like you filed this in 2021...no response yet??? We know the government moves VERY slowly...Hopefully you'll hear something in 2025!! 🤣
Filed it yesterday. Oregon adopted the DEI Action Plan in Aug 2021z
I doubt that will go anywhere but I like where your head is at. One of the more amusing things to do, as a person who is obviously not intended to be a beneficiary of these policies, is cook up ways to use the infrastructure and policies of these stupid projects to make the people who designed them regret doing so. One of the best ways to do that is to find a way to benefit from them.
For example, I had a friend who couldn't get an interview despite applying for dozens of jobs. He is highly qualified but white and male. I had him start marking down that he is bisexual in the demographics section, which is "voluntary" and is illegal to use for screening or even bring up with the applicant. He had 3 interviews within 2 weeks and is now gainfully employed at a large corporation. Nobody asked him about it, but I'm sure internally they are satisfied with maintaining eligibility for certain government grants. It's not even something one can prove. All he did differently was say he was bi and wear a pink shirt. He is married with 3 kids lol.
What you did is not so devious, but that is because you are a mature adult. DEI is an unfair system that deserved to be mocked and cheated if we are powerless to end it. If we aren't going to go back to merit based employment then people need to learn to cheat. It's never good in the long term to reward this kind of behavior but when it comes to putting food on the table, I see no reason for otherwise honest people to feel bad about lying and cheating if thats the only way to win.
Yep, they set these things up as political statements and don’t really intend them to function in the way they are set up, legally. It’s because, like it or not, they operate in our constitutional system and can’t be as overtly discriminatory as they’d like (but they try).
It gets worse. A crank caller from Washington Free Beacon contacted the hotline and complained that his neighbor had an Israeli flag in front of his house, causing him extreme stress. The OR employee advised him to record all of his interactions with his neighbor and offered him free mental health counseling at state expense. The incident was also recorded in a state database of bias incidents despite the fact that there was no crime. https://freebeacon.com/policy/inside-state-run-bias-response-hotlines-where-fellow-citizens-can-report-your-offensive-joke/
Yes! I saw that. The hotline is supposed to document “incidents” not just crimes. The whole thing is just political posturing.
Maybe not just political posturing. I think the official's response to OR being a "one party" consent state (at 2:17) is wrong. In an instance of a private conversation between two people in a nonpublic place, my understanding is that it is two-party consent. So is an OR official advising this person to break the law?
I wonder if there’s a warning at the beginning that the call may be recorded. You’re right. Oregon’s a double consent state.
It's my understanding that Oregon 'used to be' a two-party consent state... until OMG's James O'Keefe sued the state of Oregon and won. 😉
whistling past the graveyard, but what else can you do? Michelangelo created the Sistine Chapel ceiling one brushstroke at a time. it took a bit of time, but we have the result now. keep on keepin' on.
Thank you! The Oregon Government's bias needs to be thoroughly investigated and dealt with.
How can government entities in Oregon uphold DEI and non-discrimination statements in hiring, among other things? I've never understood how one can discriminate in hiring while not discriminating in hiring.
Money funded by the department of labor by the previous administration fund state ran DEI programs. What a waste of taxpayer dollars. While they cannot force you to hire, atleast in construction, they can denie or even fine you for not following their guildlines. Let me be clear is is based on state funded jobs which is atleast partially funded by The US government. Sad political state to live in
Brilliant!
Include me as a friend of the filer!
Can we make this a class action?
in the meantime, a little more grist for the mill:
https://www.wweek.com/news/2025/01/22/raymond-parenteau-built-a-fortune-from-one-of-the-fastest-growing-government-programs-in-oregon/
someone is doing quite well because of our government's incompetence, and the unions are upset.
Is Portland still racist? Keith Wilson is white. Rene Gonzalez, Carmen Rubio and Mingus Mapps are all established politicians and lost to a white guy that hopped into the race last minute with no real plan. If this Mayoral race occurred in 2020, Portlanders would have called Wilson racist for even trying to run for mayor. Just saying...
Chef's kiss.
Also, they are looking for volunteers to staff their hotline:
https://www.doj.state.or.us/oregon-department-of-justice/civil-rights/bias-and-hate/volunteer-and-intern-program/
It would be interesting to find out what is in their training program.
There needs to be a freedom of information request on this program. Have you ever done that? Are they keeping records on people who are not breaking the law but just expressing opinions the ODOJ does not like? Also, we need all the emails of the people involved with setting this program up.
Where you aware of this before the Washington Free Beacon broke this story on January 22, 2025? I found out when Greg Lukianoff, who is the CEO of The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, posted it his substack, "The Eternally Radical Idea." He linked to the Free Beacon story. Am I correct and there has been a local news blackout on this story?
Well, I was aware of Oregon’s DEI plan (and wrote about it last year), the bias hotline, and the fact that Kotek threw more money at it recently. I’m not sure what news Free Beacon broke, other than that the hotline advocate said a bunch of dumb but predictable stuff in response to the reporter’s fictional fact pattern.
LOL, just wait until Congress - or Trump - outlaws mail-in voting! You KNOW it's coming.