Snapshot · The Bulwark Podcast
Hegseth's aides use AI-powered online searches to find any instance where a promotion candidate expressed support for DEI, LGBTQ rights, feminism, or Black history, and use it to deny their promotion.
Where this was said
At 35:05 · chapter starts 34:00
Tim Miller reads from a New York Times report by Michael Bender to illustrate how the anti-DEI campaign operates not through organic outrage but through coordinated astroturf — the Smith College civil rights complaint was filed by Defending Education, a conservative parents' rights group with no affiliation to the school, after they saw a video of a transgender admiral speaking at graduation [1] — Tim Miller "Defending Education filed Smith College complaint: The federal civil rights investigation into gender policies at Smith College was not fil…" 34:00 . Smith then connects this to the military: Hegseth's aides are using AI-powered searches to comb through the online history of every officer submitted for promotion, looking for any instance of positive engagement with diversity, LGBTQ rights, feminism, or Black history [2] — Clint Smith "Hegseth's staff use AI-powered searches to scour the records of every promotion candidate for any positive statement about diversity, femin…" 35:05 . Those findings are presented to Hegseth as justification for blocking the promotion — regardless of the officer's military record or the thorough evaluation conducted by the formal promotion board. The result is a systematic ideological loyalty test overlaid on the meritocratic vetting process the military has relied on for decades, and one designed to produce a senior officer corps that is more homogeneous in both appearance and thought.
The federal civil rights investigation into gender policies at Smith College was not filed by anyone affiliated with Smith — it originated from Defending Education, a conservative parents' rights group, after a trans graduation speaker appeared.
Hegseth's staff use AI-powered searches to scour the records of every promotion candidate for any positive statement about diversity, feminism, or Black history. Those findings are handed to Hegseth and used to deny promotions — not based on military performance, but based on ideological purity. The result is a senior officer corps being reshaped to look and think the same.
There is a good-faith argument for auditing DEI programs for effectiveness. That argument is not what the Trump administration is making. Hegseth's campaign isn't about efficiency — it's about reconstituting a federal and military infrastructure that excludes Black people from positions of power, full stop.
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
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