@serenity said in Trust the science:
@bi4smooth Prayers! They did well for centuries too. And if you died, at least you came in heaven, because you prayed
For people who don't want SCIENCE (what with it's constantly CHANGING of what's right theory and what's wrong theory), there is always FAITH!
And as you point out, FAITH HEALING has a 100% success rate at sending souls to heaven! Yippy Skippy!
For me, though... and it's just a personal choice... I'll stick with the science...
@raphjd said in CDC now says Vaccinated are the ones spreading the new Delta variant.:
The CDC and NIH are purely political.
Fauci said that gain of function research was worth s few global pandemics. He lied before both Houses of Congress. Jim Jordan did a great job of showing the timeline of Fauci's flip-flops and lies.
I also find it completely strange that you claim to be a libertarian, who believes that everyone must act in unison (ie; Another Brick In The Wall video), at the whims of a POS liar.
The US banned gain of function research, so he paid to have it done by a 3rd party in China. We won't even go into the incestuous relationship Fauci had with Bill Gates and BG's Eco Health, when he funded them
The CDC and the NIH didn't USED TO BE political. They were made so by Trump because he (stupidly) thought that he could "overcome" science with politics. Dr. Faucci has led the NIAID at NIH for nearly 40 years, and only in the past 2 has his position ever been considered political.
Again, I ask you this: is it really reasonable to think that world leaders from around the globe are all conspiring against Trump Republicans by making up facts about deaths and COVID-19's impacts to their own countries?
If you truly believe this, then you must get dizzy when looking in the mirror, what with the entire world spinning about you and just you!
If I called you a LIAR every time you were simply wrong, you'd have booted me out of the forum long ago! Dr. Faucci hasn't LIED about COVID-19, he has been shown WRONG (quite a bit) in the past 2-years WRT COVID-19... but he's really the MOUTHPIECE of the NIH's NIAID... he's not doing the research HIMSELF!
For someone espousing Conservatism routinely, you sure have difficulty with RICH people: George Soros & Bill Gates are evil incarnate - yet no complaints about the Koch brothers spending their billions on Conservative causes!
If you believe in Capitalism, then you believe that rich people are entitled to spend their money how they see fit! Whether it's for Green shit, Liberal shit, Conservative shit... you made it, you get to decide how to spend it!
Mind you: just because I think they (all) have the right to spend their money they way they want to, doesn't mean I agree with any of them! Not even the Koch brothers! I DO think money plays too big a role in politics... but equally I don't have any idea how to get it out and keep it out!
Kinda like having anal sex: sometimes you're gonna get a little "dirty"... it's all part of the risks of the playground! (ewww, right?) If we want Capitalism, then we have to also have wealthy (and super-wealthy) capitalists! If we want Freedom, then we have to also have people we disagree with exhorting their freedom too!
@serenity said in Trust the science:
@bi4smooth I don't think that "science" change, but the results do, when we get smarter. And what is wrong about getting smarter. Some people have always had a problem with science, because it conflicts their world view. It has been that way for centuries.
Absolutely science changes... Heisenberg changed how we measure things. Newton changed our understanding of mass vs. weight (they are NOT the same). Hawking changed how we think of and measure time.
But separate from how science itself changes, the conclusions we make from scientific studies changes... especially when we base our conclusions on limited data... and we got that in spades with COVID-19: everyone was clamoring for answers, so the scientists gave them what they had: knowing the data was incomplete. And that made them wrong... wrong far more often than we like hearing that scientists are wrong!
There is an acronym often used in computer science: GIGO
Garbage in / Garbage out
When you have small sample sizes, your conclusions can be thrown off by the smallest of anomalies... but that is the beauty of science - we LEARN from our mistakes! We (scientists) challenge our assumptions and SEEK to prove our theories WRONG! (You can seldom prove a theory is valid, but you can often prove it wrong! The more people try - and fail - to prove a theory is wrong, the more accepted as "probably right" it becomes!
@raphjd said in Mayo Clinic says the vaccines CAN prevent you from getting C-19.:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mis-c-in-kids-covid-19/symptoms-causes/syc-20502550
Scroll down to PREVENTION
A vaccine can prevent you or your child from getting the COVID-19 virus.
Umm, I thought literally no one was saying this?!
So who is lying? (no pun intended)
It's just a language choice...
No vaccine prevents you from getting a virus - if someone with polio breathes on you, you'll get the polio virus. If you've been vaccinated, you won't get SICK from polio.
The same here: if you have been vaccinated and are exposed to COVID-19, you will get the virus inside you... it's not like the vaccine creates some invisible barrier around you! What won't happen tho is that you'll get sick and need hospitalization from the effects of the virus.
ALL vaccines do the same general thing: TEACH YOUR BODY to defend against the "bad thing" (virus, in this case). Your own immune system is still doing the ACTUAL work... the vaccine just gave your immune system a "cheat sheet"...
Kinda like how the Astros won the WS in 2017: when you generally know what pitch is coming ahead of time, it's a lot easier to hit the ball!
When your immune system already knows how to deal with COVID-19 (or Polio, or Chicken Pox, or Measles, etc), then it's much easier to "beat" the infection when it shows up.... but it no way ELIMINATES the infection COMPLETELY!
@raphjd said in 3rd Capitol Cop who responded to 6 Jan commits suicide:
According to some sites, he is the 4th to commit suicide.
I'm sorry, but making fun of 4 federal policemen who suffered from PTSD as a result of the Jan 6 insurrection by claiming that they "had dirt on Hillary" is abusive and disgusting.
These were patriots of the highest measure. And their experiences from Jan 6 were too much for them to bear.
@raphjd said in 3rd Capitol Cop who responded to 6 Jan commits suicide:
Your ID is like crack or meth to a cop.
They aren't interested in helping you, they want to criminalize you.
They are either liars or idiots when it comes to ID laws, despite ID laws are the most common laws police use.
In all but 4 states, you do not have to identify unless you are lawfully arrested. Most cops will unlawfully arrest you for not IDing.
"You are being suspicious" is not a crime, no matter what the pigs claim.
There was a shooting of a young woman, where the police hid the body cam and other evidence for over 2 years. This is not a one-off or an accident. It's a constant problem.
The FBI is extremely dirty, as we saw with the Hillary and Trump cases. Not only that, they have Absolute Immunity and fully believe they are above and beyond the law. Their "Professional Standards" is a fucking joke. You can break someone's arm because you don't like that that person is engaged in lawful activities.
You can be dirty as fuck and the world knows it, but you can always get another job at another PD.
Arizona's Brady law, while a good concept, is useless because dirty cops don't always get put on it, even for the most blatantly dirty one, and "good" cops quite often get put on it in retaliation for whistleblowing.
Policing is the 3rd most common profession for psychopaths, after law and medical.
It's not hard to find evidence of bad cops. But there are also some GOOD cops
But, yes: if you want to find pedophiles, look for jobs that put the sicko's in charge of children!
That doesn't mean they're all pedophiles, just that the jobs are going to be attractive to pedophiles!
Lots of pyromaniacs become firemen - and some of them actually become fire-starters!
And the same goes for bullies and psychopaths: they're drawn to professions where they are given power and authority over others:
You get the point...
@up4 said in 3rd Capitol Cop who responded to 6 Jan commits suicide:
@raphjd That is very kind of you to say. But all my life's experience tells me otherwise. I'm one of those ungrateful angry gay misanthropes that still don't trust the state, the police, the people's majority or anyone pretending they have a say in how I live my life. Like you maybe, I don't know. But that anger almost killed me. I don't want to fit in anymore. I can't fit in anymore. I'm allergic to the city, to the very idea of being a citizen, of being in the world. I have to take medication to prevent my heart from litterally exploding when I'm exposed to the stupidity that drives the weaks' will to power. The best decision I ever made was to make a full Thoreau: run for my life to the woods as a hermit and only allow near me the very few men not afraid to think for themselves. Masturbation is a hermit's best friend in that it prevents him from giving his time and energy to the hordes of unworthy virgins that come begging for attention.
It is our loss - regardless of your point of view, you write well. 
RE: Link
Here it is in short:
I'll leave it to you: was Scott Apley killed, tragically, by COVID-19? Or, was he killed by the mis-information being spread by people who, apparently, think this is a joke and that it's not real - and whose peddling of anti-science bullshit convinced Scott Apley to NOT protect his wife and child from this virus - costing them everything in the process.
Sadly, the misinformation campaigns seem to be aimed at my own political party - the Republican Party. It is no shocker to me that Scott Apley was a Republican. My worry is that stories like his already litter the Internet:
IMHO (and you can call me a conspiracy theorist on this one): this anti-vax and anti-science misinformation is coming from the same foreign adversaries as tried to influence the 2016 & 2020 elections: Russia, China, Iran, N Korea, and likely others. This is a non-traditional war on our country, and the goal is to get us to turn on ourselves - and if a sizeable part of the population can be killed off by the "gift" of COVID-19, then so-be-it!
Their goal is to de-stabilize our country, and we're falling for it: hook, line, and sinker!
I will pray for the family of Scott Apley (there is a go-fund-me page to help support his family, but I believe site rules prohibit THAT link in here - just google his name and gofundme and it'll come up).
@raphjd said in Fact-checkers are fake news:
So called "fact-checkers" are dirty as fuck.
I was fact checked over something I posted on FB. It was decided that I was posting false info.
Here's the situation;
I posted an official statement from the Arizona Senate about the election audit of Maricopa County.
Maricopa County, without proof, said nah-uh.
Instead of saying it was disputed, they claimed that the Arizona Senate was lying. Case closed. Maricopa County, without proof, is telling the truth.
Shit like this constantly happens in favor of the liberal narrative.
Tim Pool has done several videos on how fact-checkers do this, as well as other dirty as fuck tactics.
Facebook isn't a news site - and they can make all the rules they want about the content they'll let you put on their site! It's not a Government-run site, it's Zuckerburg's site! The fact that it's popular doesn't change the "rules" (which are: it's a privately-held website, free under the 1st Amendment to make whatever rules it wants! And to enforce them however it sees fit! ... at least when the enforcement is limited to their site... just covering my ass for some hyperbolic, out-of-left-field, wildly misplaced and unrelated "what-about" response you'll have...)
You like to say I support "Big Tech" - but that's not true... I support freedom! And that includes your (actually, it's Mike Lindell's - or, the My Pillow guy's) right to claim that 24,000 votes in a single county in Iowa were changed by Chinese hackers in 2020.
The problems with his claims are numerous, but let's start here:
So the claim is factually bereft of even a hit or whiff of truthfulness - but he's been on CNN making those claims (why he agreed to an interview with CNN is beyond me... dumb move on his part!), and it is his right to self-publish those baseless claims anywhere that will let him!
However, the folks at CNN would have been within their rights to have censored his baseless claims, and even to have decided, editorially, not to run the interview at all... Though, in this case, they did run the interview - without editing his ridiculous claims.
I am certain that Fox News, as well as Gab, MeWe, Telegram, and Parler, have edited their sites for content they found "unbecoming" of their "brand" as well! (And if they haven't so be it - and good for them! But, it is within their rights to do so! And that is the point!)
I am a true believer in freedom... even when it is not in my favor. But as the owner of a small business (with an Internet presence), I do not want the Government telling me - beyond some wide, broad-brush strokes, like: not suborning hatred, violence, or the overthrow of the Government itself - how to run my business (or my Internet site). And I happen to think that the same goes for other non-Governmental Internet sites - big & small - as well!
Where I DO support Government Regulation is realm of the the ISP's - especially in areas where there is only 1 (or 2) provider(s). In most US jurisdictions, ISPs enjoy a Government-subsidized and Government-created monopoly on being an ISP for high-speed Internet.... and "regulated monopolies" need to be regulated! (My ISP should not be allowed to block my connection to GT.ru, nor to throttle my torrent client connections!)
Create an "open and free" marketplace for ISPs (as exists in many other countries), and the problem goes away... people like me can simply choose an ISP that doesn't do the things I object to! But, as you've heard me quote before: 'This ain't that'
@raphjd said in Where's the liberal C-19 outrage?!:
Funny how you do what you claim not to like.
I smell a liberal.
Don't worry, @kinkyrican - to @raphjd, EVERYTHING non-Trumpite is a Liberal...
If the political spectrum were to be drawn with Trump at a 10, and AOC at a 0, anything less than 9.9999999 would be a Liberal! (You are allowed to not like Trump's ties - nothing more tho!)
@raphjd said in FBI: Donald Trump did Nothing Wrong:
Where's our resident fake conservative on this?
The FBI clears Trump over 6 Jan and the liberals are totally silent, as expected.
You really should understand how things work in the US Government.
So you know:
Clarification:
Here's what the AP (Associated Press) said about the claim... "False. There is no record of the federal law enforcement agency making such a statement"
It is sad, but I'm not surprised, that you didn't catch the obvious error in the claim... however, I will suggest this:
@raphjd said in UK to give special privileges to Afghani "refugees":
Boris has announced that Afghani "refugees" will be given Permanent Right to Remain, free university tuition, and several other things.
In England, you have to pay to go to university. Now we are going to let Afghani "refugees" do that for free and on the taxpayer's dime.
The UK, like the rest of the western world, is not vetting these people, so we don't know who the boy rapers are. Not like the UK to care about that, with 50+ years of allowing Pakistanis to rape girls unimpeded.
We don't know how many Taliban snuck in with the "refugees". Nor do we know if any ISIS snuck in.
I agree that "special rights" - like full college tuition - is a bit far (a "lot" far!)... but the idea that these Afghan refugees are un-vetted is US right-wing propaganda that has been debunked by several non-hysterical right-wing media outlets already: here for one
This may or may not apply to refugees going to the UK, but the ones coming to the US are heavily vetted - which is one reason why the LEFT is screaming bloody murder (literally) about how many were left behind and still remain in Afghanistan...
@raphjd said in Party of family values part 1 
:
We already had the Male Genital Mutilation discussion and its sexist attitudes in the US. You can find the thread here somewhere. 84% of MGM is ordered by the mother. The same women that would never, ever have their daughters circumcised.
Damn, dude! They've been snipping at the ends of boy's penises for over 3,000 years... (not hyperbole - three millenia!) and it's all been a feminist plot? Has even the past 100 years been a feminist plot?
I'm no fan of circumcision (and I do not object to the term male-genital-mutilation, as that's truly what it is)... but an ancient, barbaric, religious practice is not exactly a "tool of the feminists"!
Planned Parenthood is severely funded by the government. The claim is that they don't use any of that money for abortions, which is extremely dishonest. If they stopped getting taxpayer money, where would they get the money to fund their buildings, staff, etc, etc, etc?!
I am curious how the word "severely" can apply to government funding... but word choice aside, Planned Parenthood has had its government funding cutoff before, and the organization didn't wither up and die. Indeed, they offer many different kinds of programs: non-medical, as well as medical - including abortion services - that are often paid for by their clients' health insurers.
It's always easy to vilify an organization that does something you fundamentally disagree with (in this case, that would be abortion), but the real world seldom can be so easily categorized into good vs. bad.
The HPV vaccine was only given to females in the west for over a decade, despite males getting far more often than females. From memory, males got it 5 times more than females.
The identification of HPV as being a cause of cervical cancer was quite the shocker to the medical community. The HPV vaccine was, for most of its early years, seen strictly as a preventative for cervical cancer.... and any man who had a cervix was strongly suggested to take the vaccine.
It wasn't until later that they also traced other cancers - and genital warts (eww... can we change the subject... quickly!) that they started recommending it for boys as well as girls.
As the father of 9 (current ages from the 30s to mid-teens), I am pleased to report that all of my children: with and without a cervix, have been vaccinated against HPV.
Females still get Affirmative Action, despite overtaking males in every aspect of education.
I'll have to alert every Engineering school in America... their counts are wrong!
FACT: STEM enrollments are still predominantly male, with some exceptions - like medicine. But even then, you're looking at enrollments strictly in European and North American colleges... include the REST of the world (with far more population, mind you) and the numbers vary widely... Indeed, with the US pullout from Afghanistan, female education is destined to once again become outlawed there. Sharia Law, don't ya know!
In many countries, women can not commit sex crimes, domestic violence, and other things.
It is true: in Saudi Arabia, by way of example, a woman cannot be accused of raping a man. No such crime exists on the books. On the other hand, she can be killed by her husband's (or brother's or father's) hand on a whim - with no consequences to him (so long as he claims it was to protect his honor) - so, what's the point in charging her with rape? Just kill her! Silly westerner with such outlandish ideas! Why would you waste time and money on a woman! If she doesn't please you, just kill her and find another!
There is a laundry list of things where there is rampant sexism against men.
This is an area you and I fundamentally disagree on routinely: I don't mind competing on an even playing field - even if that field is slightly in favor of others. White men have been the privileged class for so long, and I am keenly aware of many areas of my life where I received (and, to be fair & truthful, I continue to receive) advantages.
To me it's just "evening up the competition".... to you, it's an affront to all that is masculine and a challenge to the "rightness" of the way things used to be - the way that favored you.
Whereas I welcome the competition - even if the playing field is not perfectly fair (as-if it ever was) - you appear to want to be victimized by it...
@raphjd said in YouTube is at it AGAIN:
As always, you only care about the fake "human rights" of businesses but don't give a fuck about actual people unless they are "non-conforming, gender fluid" penis possessing skirt wearers.
Here you go again, Comrade - YouTube doesn't have the RIGHT to take down videos - they have the FREEDOM to do so! It's their platform - they could change the terms and make it "All Barney - All Day" (Barney being the annoying, ear-worm spewing purple dinosaur on childrens TV)... It's not their RIGHT to do so, its their FREEDOM to do so!
You still slurp Fauci's back vag, claiming he's a saint.
Let's clear something up here: Fauci is a scientist. A former medical researcher who rose through the ranks to become a leading voice & administrator in medical research in immunology and disease mitigation.
He made a significant mistake in 2019 and 2020 - he ALLOWED Donald Trump to politicize his role in the NIH and allowed himself to be duped into becoming the "faceman" for the Trump Administration's originally well-intentioned, but eventually woefully inadequate response to COVID-19.
But: He's a man... he's just a man. (Thanks Yvonne Elliman!)
You and he share some of your experiences, however. You are also being duped into being an unwitting tool of the Russian KGB - who are feeding lies and twisted news stories into our Western Culture in an attempt to defeat us from within. So far, you and your ilk are winning - just as Germany & Japan initially made great strides in WW-II. But you WILL fail. Real FREEDOM is a bell that cannot be un-rung! You will be defeated!
Sadly, you are completely oblivious to the role you're playing because you allow yourself to be spoon-fed lies that feed into your basic cultural fear: that your "supremacy" as a white male is being challenged and will soon be replaced. You don't think you'll be as successful without the "white privilege" you've been raised with, and you're MORTALLY TERRIFIED that others will treat you - as a white male - as poorly as you have treated them!
Whether you are capable of independent thought, critical thinking, or basic problem solving is immaterial: you refuse to apply them to the drivel you spread, and you become infuriated with people who point out the OBVIOUS flaws in your "stories" (that's all most of them are: made up stories based on tiny fragments of truth - an entire garden of lies around a single chicken-nugget that you call a "chicken salad").
Colin Powell, the trailblazing soldier and diplomat whose sterling reputation of service to Republican and Democratic presidents was stained by his faulty claims to justify the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq, died Monday of COVID-19 complications. He was 84.
A veteran of the Vietnam War, Powell spent 35 years in the Army and rose to the rank of four-star general before becoming the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His oversight of the U.S. invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991 made him a household name, prompting speculation for nearly a decade that he might run for president, a course he ultimately decided against.
Powell instead joined George W. Bush’s administration in 2001 as secretary of state, the first Black person to represent the U.S. government on the world stage. His tenure, however, was marred by his 2003 address to the U.N. Security Council in which he cited faulty information to claim that Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons never materialized, and though the Iraqi leader was removed, the war devolved into years of military and humanitarian losses.
In announcing Powell’s death, his family said he had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Peggy Cifrino, Powell’s longtime aide, said he had also been treated over the past few years for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that impairs the body’s ability to fight infection. Studies have shown that those cancer patients don’t get as much protection from the COVID-19 vaccines as healthier people.
- Source AP
@raphjd said in 2020 vs 2021 so far - US Covid death figures:
You didn't even mention the topic, but being a Democrat, the figures look bad on you and your BFF.
You idiot... I added up your totals - and then pointed out that the numbers look DO bad - 700,000 dead by your own count is BAD!
The question is this: do you really want to take credit for BLOCKING Biden's attempts to manage COVID-19? Is his failure somehow a GOOD think for Republicans?
I'm sorry - I don't see how you're seeing these 300,000 new dead in 2021 - most of which are among the vaccinated, and the vast majority of those being Republican voters...
I'm not seeing what you're seeing...
@raphjd said in 2020 vs 2021 so far - US Covid death figures:
In 2020, even with much looser measurements on how to count Covid deaths, there were 352,000 recorded deaths in the US and that was before we had the vaccine and the science.
As of 17 Oct 2021, with the stricter covid death counting, the science, and the vaccines, there have been 372,300 covid deaths in the US.
700,000 dead in 2 years (and still counting)...
Just another Seasonal Flu.... why all the fuss, right?
On a more serious note: anyone else considering that wearing a mask during flu season (regardless of COVID) wouldn't be such a bad idea? Even (especially) post-COVID?
The same principles apply:
If we could cut the Flu losses (deaths) each year in half, or better, wouldn't that be worth wearing a mask during those months? It would for me
NOTE: I'm not recommending (nor supporting) mandatory masks for flu season... just thinking that this new COVID habit of wearing a mask might be useful to keep around AFTER COVID!
@raphjd said in 2020 vs 2021 so far - US Covid death figures:
You are a totally clueless twat.
You are supporting my claim.
In 2020, the counting was far worse than now by counting anyone who tested positive and later died, regardless of the cause, counts as a covid death.
In 2020, we had no vaccine.
In 2021, we tightened up the way we counted covid death. It went from EVER, to within 9 months, to 6 months, to 4 weeks.
In 2021, we had the vaccines.
You are, without a doubt, fighting a straw man.
What the fuck does the shit you are talking about have to do with what I'm talking about?!
I guess your Chinese handlers won't let you actually respond to the topic.
Yes - I am using your own numbers - because they support my claim... which is to say that I read MORE into the numbers - your numbers (which I don't necessarily agree are correct, but I'm taking at face value because they support my analysis too!) - to come to the conclusion that this is hurting US (Republicans) way - WAY - WAY more than it's hurting the Democrats!
Did the parable of the seatbelt not drive home the point?
YAY! (????) Biden is doing a great job of preventing Democrats from dying of COVID-19 by getting them vaccinated quickly.... but, record numbers of Republicans are dying from it... so the overall numbers are even worse than last year! Great! (really - IS that great? For who, other than the MOST CYNICAL Democrat you could imagine!)
Biden sucks at saving Republicans from COVID-19 - and that's awesome news? For us?
But, oh by the way, the reason he sucks so bad at saving Republicans from COVID-19 is because we refuse to take the vaccines? I ask again:
(Look, I understand this is too complicated for @raphjd to grasp - but there are OTHER readers out there... silent ones... who DO get it!
PLEASE: Convince your Republican friends and neighbors that it's time to get the shot! Nearly a BILLION doses have been given world-wide... they aren't experimental, they aren't killing people, they ARE indeed fully FDA approved, and they DO work! They are not perfect - there is no guarantee that the vaccine will protect you personally 100% of the time... but no prior vaccine ever has been, so why is this any different? Play the odds - WITH the shot, the odds become in your favor!
If they're as implacable as @raphjd, don't get mad, but don't stop trying, either! Lives are at risk... needlessly)
@raphjd said in ILLEGAL: NJ Election Worker: ‘I’ll let you[Non-Citizen/Non-Registered Voter] fill out a ballot.':
Another example of: Look! The SKY is falling! When it's actually just raining.
In most states, anyone who shows up at a polling place can claim to be a voter and obtain a ballot... it's called a "PROVISIONAL BALLOT" - and its validity is determined later - often only if the race is close enough to where the provisional ballots would "made a difference".
The acceptance of provisional ballots hails from a time where we were more interested in making sure EVERY VOTE COUNTS vs. "finding every way to throw out votes"!
@raphjd said in State Street Global Advisors will need permission to hire White men:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/state-street-global-advisors-permission-hire-white-men
I would love to know the exact figures that are being demanded for this "diversity" quota.
Will it be like Tony Blair's 35% rule for non-white representation in media, despite that figure being over 3.5 times the non-white figures in the UK population? Now the 35% rule is just under 3.5 times higher than the UK population.
You post this as-if this were some Government rule or law.
This is a company who is challenging their own hiring managers to hire with more diversity.
Is it ham-handed and overkill (IMHO)? Sure! But they could decide to suddenly stop advising people to buy stocks and bonds and invest in Girl Scout Cookies if they wanted to - it's their business! They can run it into the ground if they want to! (No, I don't think hiring minorities and women will run the company into the ground - but I don't think "quotas" are a good start either).
