Mediaboss Marketing

Uber hired former attorney general Eric Holder to give it some advice about its scandal-ridden workplace. Predictably, much of that advice turned out to be more politically correct than legally sound, much like the Justice Department when he was running it. Alas, the Uber board has already announced that it will adopt Mr. Holders recommendations.

In particular, Mr. Holder wants Uber to get its numbers right, by hiring more underrepresented minorities and women. And so: The Head of Diversity (or Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer) should set goals with respect to annual improvements in diversity and regularly publish data on Ubers diversity and inclusion numbers to judge how the company is meeting its goals.

Mr. Holder recommends that Uber adopt some version of the Rooney Rule, which is illegal, since it requires the sorting of job applicants by race, ethnicity, and sex. Perversely, he also recommends that Uber have blind resume review that is, resumes that have had all indicators of race, ethnicity, and sex removed from them which is a fine idea but flatly inconsistent not only with the Rooney Rule but with the rest of his recommendations. Those recommendations, for example, urge setting and meeting diversity goals and then rewarding and punishing (recognizing and holding accountable, meaning getting bonuses and getting fired, see recommendation II.D) managers based on metrics that are tied to improving diversity. In a word, quotas.

Candidates who are themselves diverse is one quality the board should look for in the new chief operating officer. Theres plenty in the recommendations on unconscious bias but nothing on the quite conscious bias that would be required by them. Tellingly, Mr. Holder criticizes the companys embrace of Meritocracy and Toe-Stepping as a corporate value.

There is a simple choice to be made here, folks, whether were talking about jobs or university admissions or government contracts or whatever. We can strive for nondiscrimination, which is what fairness and the law require, or we can mandate diversity, which inevitably means politically correct discrimination, which is in turn neither fair nor legal. We cant have both. Nondiscrimination will lead to more diversity if the status quo was politically incorrect discrimination, but it is nondiscrimination that must be the aim, not a predetermined bean-count.

Originally posted here:
Eric Holder's Uber Diversity Advice | National Review - National Review

After four months immersed in the muck of Ubers corporate culture, former US attorney general Eric Holder and his colleagues issued a list of recommendations for the beleaguered ride-share company Tuesday (June 13).

If theyre implemented, the suggestionswhich run the gamut from when the office serves shared meals to major changes to the structure of its boardmay help Uber regain the confidence of its investors, employees, and customers. But they also form the template for the governance and human-resources policy of the ideal modern company, most of which should be considered by all corporations. Here are some of the keys:

Holder recommends that Uber install an independent chairman, long a cherished cause for good-governance advocates. An independent chair can provide oversight and scrutiny, and protect a company from self-dealing from its CEO. While Uber CEO Travis Kalanick doesnt also serve as chairmana common, and compromising, practice at US companiesthe position is held by Garrett Camp, who co-founded Uber with Kalanick. That close connection means Camp cant serve as an independent check on Ubers management, as Holder recommends.

Holder also suggests Uber add more independent board membersand there may be at least one board vacancy, as of June 13as well as create an ethics oversight committee. It should also beef up its audit committee with an independent auditor or ombudsman who can bring significant compliance or harassment issues to the attention of the Audit Committee without having to go through management or the CEO.

Advocates for effective management have understood for decades that executive pay should be tied to the performance of the company. In recent years however, theres been a recognition that tying pay to financial metrics like share prices or earnings-per-share can distort the goals of the CEO, pushing them toward short-term goals at the expense of the companys long-term health. In fact, research shows that companies that use non-financial incentives, like employee turnover, out-perform companies that dont. Holder recommends Uber include incentives for adherence to ethical business practices, and progress toward building a diverse workforce, part of executive pay packages.

Silicon Valley is wrestling with how to improve hiring practices, and Holders recommendations square with some of the best new practices urged by experts like Iris Bohnet, a behavioral economist at Harvard and author of What Works, a guide to promoting inclusive work places. Uber should implement hiring training, so interviewers are aware of their unconscious biases, and questions should be standardized, so candidate responses can be measured fairly, Holder says. Resumes of job candidates should be blinded, so their reviewers dont see clues about gender and race.

Holder also recommends Uber adopt a version of the Rooney Rule, a practice used in the NFL that requires that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for every opening for a head coach. Uber should include at least one woman or under-represented minority in every pool of job candidates. The company should also require that a woman or minority be included on every interview panel.

Read this next: How to really reform a toxic culture, a Uber or anywhere else

The rest is here:
The official recommendations for reforming Uber describe the perfect modern company - Quartz

James T. Hodgkinson, the man who shot up a congressional baseball practice Wednesday morning, was allegedly a strong Democratic partisan who was outraged over the election of Donald Trump.

The Belleville News-Democrat, the paper in Hodgkinson's home town of Belleville, Illinois, interviewed a few of Hodgkinson's neighbors. One of the neighbors offered up a quote that speaks volumes about political culture in the United States.

"I didn't really talk to him too much," said neighbor Aaron Meurer. "He was a Democrat, and I was a Republican, so we didn't have too much to talk about."

In one sentence, Meurer offers up a snapshot of American partisanship: For many Americans, their political affiliation is a central component of their identity. Meurer's statement suggests that he and Hodgkinson saw themselves as partisans first and neighbors second.

This isn't to pick on Meurer - this sort of worldview is widespread and becoming more common in the United States. Recent data from the Pew Research Center speaks to the phenomenon directly. More than 4 in 10 Democrats and Republicans told Pew it would be easier to get along with a new neighbor if they were members of the same political party.

Conversely, 27 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans said it would be harder to get along with a new neighbor of the opposite party. In both parties, people who were highly engaged with politics were more likely to hold this view.

This intraparty antipathy is rising rapidly. In 1994, according to Pew, 21 percent of Republicans, and 17 percent of Democrats, rated the other party as "very unfavorable." By 2016 those numbers had shot up to 58 percent and 55 percent, respectively.

But "very unfavorable" is just the tip of the partisan iceberg. Fully 45 percent of Republicans, and 41 percent of Democrats, view the other party as "a threat to the nation's well-being." Those numbers rose significantly between 2014 and 2016.

This level of hostility is stunning. You can see how a certain type of person could get from a belief that the other party is a threat to the country, to a belief that it's up to them to do something about it - even something extreme. This viewpoint was explicitly articulated by Hodgkinson in a Facebook post in which he wrote, "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co."

Several decades ago, the polling suggests that for most Americans, their political party was part of who they were but not necessarily a core part of their personal identity, as it is for many people today.

Christy Gutowski, David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen

One line of questioning illustrates that shift starkly: In 1960, roughly 5 percent of Democrats and Republicans told pollsters that they would be upset if their child married someone from a different political party. By 2010, those proportions stood at nearly 50 percent for Republicans and more than 30 percent for Democrats.

Go here to read the rest:
Neighbor says he rarely talked to James Hodgkinson: 'He was a Democrat, and I was a Republican' - Chicago Tribune

Momentum by Democrat Jon Ossoff in his bid for Georgias 6th congressional district has led some party members to believe Democrats can take the House of Representatives seat in the 7th congressional district. This district contains parts of Forsyth and Gwinnet Counties,and islocated northeast of Atlanta.

Democrat David Kim announced on June 7 that he would be running against Rob Woodall, the incumbent representative of Georgias 7th district, for the 2018 House seat district primary. An Asian-American Harvard University graduate, Kim is known primarily as the CEO and founder ofC2 Education, an exam-prep and personal tutoring program with over 180 centers across the nation.

David Kim (Photo/Courtesy David Kim campaign website)

Kims campaign announcement follows a recent statement by The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in a document titled Charging Forward, DCCC Announces Battlefield Expansion, issued on May 22. This document lists district 7 as one of the targeted districts for potential investment and recruitment.

According toGaPundit, Kim expressed that he feels Georgia voters want a candidate who is less partisan, stating that Woodall has been more interested in partisan purity than getting things done for the people.

In afundraising email sent to his supporters, Kim expressed that he wants to be a voice thats independent minded and focused on important long-term decisions.

Woodall has been serving since he was elected in 2011,and is on the House Budget Committee, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Committee, according to theGeorgia Secretary of State. The Republican representative defended his House seat in May 2016, defeating Democrat Rashid Malik by nearly 60,000 votes in the 7th congressional district election.

Rob Woodall (Photo/Courtesy Rob Woodall campaign website)

Were David Kim to take the congressional seat in the 7th district this would be the first time that a Democrat hasheld that position in over 20 years.

According to coverage from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Woodall said that the layout of the 7th district, and the fact that it contains a large part of conservative Forsyth County, has helped protect him in previous years from electoral pressure.

Kim will not run unopposed in his bid for the 2018 House seat, and will face fellow Democrat Kathleen Allen.

Kathleen Allen (Photo/Courtesy Kathleen Allen campaign website)

On her campaign website Allen highlights her 20+ years of experience in both not-for-profit and for-profit healthcare organizations as the driving force behind her desire to balance the health and well-being of Americans with our nations financial interests.

In recent years Allen has served as the CEO and Founder of Paid in America, INC., a nonprofit that helps promote establishments that pay their employees a living wage. Allen is slated to formally start her campaign in Norcross on June 22.

Elections for the GA House of Representatives seat will begin on November 6, 2018.

Read the original here:
Democrat David Kim joins race for GA's 7th congressional district - Red and Black

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Never let a crisis go to waste, as the lefts loud Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, always used to say.

So like a good tool, Terry McAuliffe, Virginias Democratic governor, listened. He took a time out from his well wishes for the victims of the Alexandria shooting attack on Republicans playing ball to say this: There are too many guns on the street. We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence.

He meant 93 and upon correction, amended the figure, But potatoes, potahtoes. Nothing like a good shooting to get the Democrats all fired up for gun control, right?

But really, at this juncture in American politics and culture, its not gun control we need.

Its Democrat control.

If nothing else, this horrific ballpark shooting, done at the hands of James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old Illinois man with an anti-Trump Facebook page that touted his love for all-things-socialism, shows just how dangerous the Democratic all-courts-press for political wins has become.

And the GOP needs to grasp the realities of the situation, but fast.

But theyre not.

Rep. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, delivered a terrific response to the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, two police officers and a congressional aide, telling a Fox News audience that whats called for is faith that God and the countrys Judeo-Christian founding principles can and will unite, can and will prevail over partisan bickering and a fiery political atmosphere.

On that, Scotts quite right. Yes, in the end, in the spiritually-speaking end, that is, God does indeed win. Satan loses. Sanity succeeds. Law, order and justice rule; chaos, mayhem and hatred fall to the side.

However, thats the biblical end the end of all ends. In the meantime, theres a reality that cant be ignored, a more fleshly world that must be recognized, a political atmosphere that cant be calmed by simple calls for peace and unity.

Rep. Rodney Davis from Illinois, touched on this nerve on Fox News, saying to host Bill Hemmer, shortly after the shooting: This political rhetoric, this political rhetoric and political discourse that has led to hate, has led to gunfire. I never thought Id go to baseball practice for charity and have to dodge bullets. This has got to stop and its got to stop today.

He was describing the scene that unfolded before his eyes at the baseball park the plights of the innocent children on the field, the innocent park-goers, the innocent congressional members and staffers and choking at the bloodshed that wouldve come had two armed Capitol Police officers not been on site with Scalise.

But he shied from pointing fingers of blame. Like Scott, he failed to recognize the root.

Davis stopped short of placing responsibility for the shooting in any particular direction, saying instead he didnt want to assess who takes responsibility because we all are responsible for the discourse that happens in American government.

Thats a nice sentiment. One that belongs in the same Hall of Higher Principles with Scotts.

But the fact is, there is blame that can be affixed here. There is one political party more than another thats comfortable using violence as a form of acceptable political protest. And violence, thy name is Democratic.

Witness: The many, many street protests against President Donald Trump, both pre- and post-inauguration, that have led to burned cars, smashed storefront windows, attacks on police and civilians, injuries and arrests.

Witness: The college campus protests against certain speakers against planned conservative speakers that have led to burned cars, destroyed properties, attacks on innocents, injuries and arrests.

Witness: The Black Lives Matter movement, its vicious railings, its targeted attacks on white police, as retribution and revenge for perceived targeted police attacks on members of the black community and the fact that members of this violent upstart actually had sit-down, stamp-of-approval invites to the Barack Obama White House.

The common denominator? These are all leftist-led upheavals and campaigns. These are all Democratic-progressive-socialist-anarchist fueled protests, gatherings, get-togethers.

These are all movements that involve leftists possessed of intense hatred for all-things-Trump, all-things-conservative.

And theyre spreading their hate-filled messages everywhere. One week its on the streets of Portland, Oregon, where anti-Trump protesters at a free speech rally clash with police; next week, its in the driveway of a Tennessee home, where an unhappy constituent chases down a Republican lawmaker; another week, its in the online pages of the Huffington Post, where a writer seriously calls for the left to follow Republicans to their homes, their restaurants, their places of work to protest, protest, protest; yet one more week, its in the world of comedy, where Kathy Griffin finds laughs for holding a bloodied fake head of Trump.

Its in the subtle and not-so-subtle messaging of the Democratic National Committees Resistance Summer goals and the outgoing California DNC chairs unhinged fTrump! scream before an audience of hundreds that included a smiling House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Its Not the Republicans.

Its the Democrats the Left.

So, listen up, Republicans. Unity is good. Peace is even better. And living out a godly, biblical life, both on Capitol Hill and in the privacy of home, that convicts of the need to reach out and connect with those of differing views is most definitely the way to go. But lets face facts here.

Hodgkinsons Facebook posts included this little nugget: Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. Its Time to Destroy Trump & Co.

On top of that, he apparently asked a lawmaker leaving the ballpark if the remaining congressional members were Republican or Democrat and three minutes later, coincidentally, the shooting began.

The shooting comes amid a wave of anti-Trump, anti-Republican Democratic-sponsored resistance rhetoric and activities.

This is not coincidental.

This is not a problem of the Second Amendment or of security failures.

The timing of this shooting means something. It says something about our culture, our moral compass, our political realities. Its indicative of something deeper, darker. Put together all these somethings and whats left is the need for Democrats, party of the angry, to step up, step forward and get their messaging and political protesting under control. And they need to do it quickly, before any more innocent Americans get hurt.

Read the original:
We don't need gun control we need Democrat control - Washington Times