@TheDignityIndex , a project of UNITE and Tim Shriver looking to ease divisions and prevent violence, is, in a few words, a social change experiment.
Quoted from the 2023 Utah Pilot Project Technical Summary, University of Utah President Taylor Randall says, "The Dignity Index relies on one of the most ancient tools for social change in the history of human beings--conscience. When we see how often we use contempt and how harmful it is, we see we're a part of the problem, and that makes us part of the solution."
The Dignity Index partnered with University of Utah, Kem C. Gardener Policy Institute, David Eccles School of Business, and Hinckley Institute of Politics, claiming to have chosen students with politically and ideologically diverse backgrounds, to pilot a system where they would help determine a scoring mechanism for speech.
Turns out they are not so diverse after all. Rather it seems like these schools are serving as incubators to install radicalized students into various think tanks, nonprofits, and government positions across the country. 🧵
#1 Thandi (Hanna) Msiska
During her time at University of Utah, Thandi served on the executive board of Alternative Breaks, Bennion Center for Community Engagement.
Alternative Breaks promotes lifelong activism through its students at U of U.
The Center's page states their negligence in taking a continued stance on police brutality and institutionalized anti-Blackness in the US, acknowledging their silence as an act of oppression and a failure in their purpose. They put together a list of nonprofits to engage with and donate to, including Black Lives Matter.
The Bennion Center at U of U has both an Anti-Racism Agenda and a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Plan.🧵
#2 Iradukunda Esperance
Iradukunda is a social justice activist with Black Lives Matter Utah and has quite the social media profile--from her dislike of the police and ICE to her racist and anti-America rhetoric and even, dare I say, contemptuous speech.
She is currently a Dignity Index ambassador.
#3 Ermiya Faenaeia
Ermiya's lengthy history of radical activism has been documented extensively following the event at UVU resulting in Charlie Kirk's death. We know the ACLU sure loves Ermiya. See @DataRepublican's thread below ⤵️
Diane has interned with several government entities including Utah's Office of the Attorney General, Utah System of Higher Education, Utah League of Cities and Towns, and the Office of Governor Cox.
She also spent time with several activist organizations to include AmeriCorps, Rankin Climate, Utah Center for Legal Inclusion, Vote 4 U at the University of Utah, and the League of Women Voters. While a board member with the Red Cross, she was invited to speak at the UN's Migration Forum.
Diane also spent time engaging in racial justice activism, hosting a Juneteenth protest with Solidarity for Justice, JuneteenthUtah, and Blaq Void and participated in Black Lives Matter protests.
#5 Casey Hansen
Casey is currently employed by the New Mexico House of Representatives and interned with the Utah House of Representatives.
He spent significant time as a climate change activist, including having worked to get a carbon tax on the Utah ballot in 2024.
#6 Steven Lehnhof
Steven works with the Dignity Index as a Project Assistant. He is a founding member of Students for Dignity and graduated as the Vice President of the U of U chapter.
He interned with the Utah House of Representatives. In an interview with Axios, Steven labeled himself a "left-leaning moderate."
#7 Madeleine Jones
Madeleine is a Program Associate and Trainer with Dignity Index, actively working to install its practices in colleges and universities. She co-founded Students for Dignity at U of U.
Madeleine interned with the Utah State Senate.
In a BYU interview, she describes herself as liberal and thinks of the word "patriotism" as very right-wing.
#8 Emalee Carroll
Emalee (she/her) interned at the US EPA, where she is now employed as a program analyst. She studied at U of U for environmental sustainability.
Emalee wrote in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that air pollution near schools is linked to lower test scores and that kids at disadvantaged schools are exposed to higher levels of air pollution. She concludes that since, in her opinion, early learning is essential to a child’s education along with the location of these schools, there is an inequity in the education stemming from pollution.
#9 Helen Raty
Helen interned with the Utah House of Representatives and the US Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, she interned with activist group, The Policy Project where she focused on improving gender equality and diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of the policy focuses of the Policy Project is period poverty and creating "period positive" schools, having worked with the Utah legislature to pass the free tampons in schools bill in 2022. Guess where Utah is sending its money for period products? If you guessed Aunt Flow, the org that all the libs have embraced in recent years, you'd be right.
She is a founding member and chair of Students for Dignity at U of U.
#10 Katie Nelson
Katie interned with the Utah State Board of Education and the Utah House of Representatives. She is currently interning in DC at the National Head Start Association, an organization that promotes early childhood education.
Her LinkedIn bio says that she is passionate about advancing equity and dignity through public service.
Like Helen, Katie did advocacy work with the Policy Project as a student ambassador in the lead up to the passage of the free tampons in schools bill and worked as the Social Media Director for Dignity Index, in addition to her time as a coder with them.
#11 Darbee Hagerty
Darbee teaches social theory and race and gender at Westminster College and Gender & Sexuality & Social Inequality classes at University of Utah. Her classes are a "safe zone and a brave space."
She continues to assist the Dignity Index with their projects.
#12 Maddie Hair
Maddie interned with the Utah House of Representatives and the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. She also interned at a political consulting company. Up until recently, she worked social media and as program associate for Dignity Index. She was a founding member and the first President of Students for Dignity at U of U. Maddie now works in DC at ACB Ideas, a company furthering the ideas of Arthur Brooks, who wrote the book on saving America from the culture of contempt. Maddie's future ambitions include a career either at a political think tank or in university administration.
Last year, Maddie attended the Braver Angels conference with Brookings fellow Jonathan Rauch. She also went to the National Governor's Association summer meeting, which Governor Cox chairs, and met Governor Stitt (OK) who is a big supporter of Dignity Index and Cox's Disagree Better initiative.
Maddie helped as both a first-round project coder and on AI project 2.0.
#13 Susie Estrada
Susie (she/her) is currently employed by the Utah State Board of Education and works as an ambassador for Boost Collaborative. Boost Collaborative's pet project, @MARS4GOOD, is loaded with anti-Trump, anti-Republican sentiments, including a cartoon of "little Trump supporters" depicted as Nazis and KKK members.
Susie also boasts an Equitable & Inclusive Teaching Practices course at Salt Lake Community College.
But the pièce de résistance is that Susie is the current president-elect for League of Women Voters-Salt Lake.
#14 David Witt
David moved on from his time as a student coder with Dignity Index to full-time employment with them as a Program Associate.
Prior to his current role, David spent a good chunk of time with Utah Global Diplomacy. That seedy NGO has been covered at length by @SKDoubleDub33. See below and search her posts for more on them. x.com/skdoubledub33/…
#15 Angie Zheng
Angie interned at both the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice and the Utah Senate.
Angie worked with Dignity Index in Round 2, helping to build out their AI program at, drum roll please...UC Berkeley, home of Angela Glover Blackwell, John Powell, and violent campus protests.
It is only fitting then that Angie has a self-professed interest in critical theory.
It's worth mentioning that The Dignity Index's Pilot Advisory Board includes the following U of U affiliated educators:
🔹DR. KARA BYRNE, Senior Research Associate, University of Utah
🔹DR. MORGAN LYON COTTI, Associate Director, The Hinckley Institute of Politics, University of Utah
🔹DR. NATALIE GOCHNOUR, Associate Dean, The David Eccles School of Business; Director, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, University of Utah
🔹DR. JESSE GRAHAM, George S. Eccles Chair in Business Ethics and Professor of Management, Eccles School of Business, University of Utah
🔹DIANNE MEPPEN, Director of Survey Research, University of Utah
🔹JASON PERRY, Director, The Hinckley Institute of Politics; Vice President for Government Relations, University of Utah
Additionally, Samantha Ball, Senior Research Associate at the University of Utah is also employed with Dignity Index as their Research Director, having worked for both the US Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services in DC previously.
These educators housed and supported the Dignity Index and Gov. Cox's Disagree Better initiative on campus, hand selecting a certain type of student candidates to partake in the project.
Of course, I'd be remiss not to mention Chi Kim--CASEL & FairVote board member, COVID Collaborative National Advisory Council member, University of Virginia professor, and Ibis Group chair. See below thread that covers some of these groups in depth.
Oh, and what a crazy coincidence that fellow Dignity Index team member, Tami Pyfer, happened to be with Chi Kim when Charlie Kirk was shot.
You'll be seeing more of Chi in the near future in relation to her role in the network of networks.
Don't worry Timmy, we got the rest of them, but I think everyone here has a pretty clear picture. You may like to pretend like you don't know what a color revolution is, but if the shoe fits...👞😉 x.com/woodshed2012/s…
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Did you know that, housed within the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, is a Health Sciences Tissue Bank (HSTB)?
The HSTB collects fetal tissue, including fresh tissue samples from abortions performed at UPMC hospitals like Magee-Womens Hospital. The tissue obtained by HSTB from abortions ranges from 6 to 42 weeks (full-term) gestation. 🧵/
In 2021, in collaboration with the Center for Medical Progress, @JudicialWatch released an article detailing the nearly $3 million in federal funds spent on the University of Pittsburgh’s quest to become a “Tissue Hub." 🧵/ judicialwatch.org/hhs-documents-…
This followed a scientific study released in 2020 describing experiments conducted by the University of Pittsburgh to study human immune responses and skin infections. These experiments used full-thickness human fetal skin from aborted fetuses, grafted onto rodents to create "humanized" models. Pictures from the study show baby hair from the aborted fetuses, ranging from 18 to 20 weeks gestation, growing on the backs of rats. 🧵/ nature.com/articles/s4159…
I think I’ve heard about every excuse imaginable today as to why @Josh__Parsons lost the PA senate race. My favorites are “Republicans didn’t show up” and “Democrats beat ‘us’ at mail ballots, again.”
I’m a data gal, so let’s look at the actual data 📈
Total mail ballots returned: 12,589
Breakdown as follows:
🔴 R - 3,547
🔵 D - 8,869
⚫️ Other - 173
Amazingly, no provisionals or write-ins.
Yet, the breakdown by party registration for each of those returned ballots is as follows:
🔴 R - 4,290
🔵 D - 7,033
⚫️ Other - 1,270
What does this mean? 17% of all Republicans that returned a mail ballot had to vote for the Democrat.
When you factor in third party registrations, that number jumps to a whopping 33%.
In other words, A THIRD of all 🔴 & ⚫️ jumped ship from their party for the Democrat candidate.
Of course Shapiro would have you believe that is entirely logical. The Republican candidate is too ‘extreme’, he says. That narrative is becoming all too tired & repetitive.
The list of cancelled mail ballots tells an even more interesting tale for me.
Bottom line:
NO—Republicans did, in fact, sufficiently turn out in line with historic trends.
NO—Republicans did not lose to Democrat mail ballots. Republicans flipped. Third party voters flipped. The margin of votes by Republican voters was MORE than enough for Parsons to win handedly.
Now ask yourself why that is. Was the Democrat candidate just that appealing in a ruby red, ultra conservative district that hasn’t had a Democrat senator for well over 100 years? The same district that Trump took mere months ago by 15 points? With Rasmussen reporting a 26% approval rating for the Democrat Party nationwide?
Be careful who you listen to.
🔔 UPDATE 🔔
PA Senate District 36 “Historic Upset”, Part 2:
Another popular excuse I hear for this loss that has really taken off within party circles is that Parsons “was just not a good candidate” or he was too dull/unexciting/unliked” that people just didn’t show up for him.
For those that may not be familiar with Lancaster County or its electeds, Parsons was not some largely unknown candidate like his counterpart. Now serving in his third term as Lancaster County Commissioner, he was the county’s Clerk of Courts and also the Assistant DA prior.
So naturally, to quench my curiosity, I had to run a trend analysis comparing the 120 precincts in the 36th senate district to prior elections to see if there was any truth to this new narrative making its rounds.
Parsons was first elected in 2015. In PA, many counties have 3 county commissioners—2 from the majority party and 1 from the minority party to maintain balance in local governance. Parsons outperformed the Dem candidate by nearly 20 points in 2015, but, being a new candidate for this office, did not do as well as the returning Republican candidate Dennis Stuckey. Each election thereafter, his vote count in the district grew, as the highest vote-getter receiving more votes than both the Democrat candidate(s) as well as his Republican running mate:
🔴 2015 - 21,054
🔴 2019 - 28,763
🔴 2023 - 37,075
Does this data trend correlate with someone who is unpopular, unknown, or disliked?
And, as I pointed out in the earlier post, it is not true that the candidate was so dull that voters didn’t turn out for him. A 29% turnout is on trend with prior “off year” elections, even performing better than expected for a special election with a higher turnout rate in this district than his 2019 election, or even the 2021 Supreme Court race that saw substantially large sums of money dumped into the race to get Kevin Brobson elected.
In the same way, we reject Comrade Shapiro’s assertion that Parsons was too radical/extreme. He used this same narrative with Mastriano and later, Trump. Following Mastriano’s loss in 2022, of which Shapiro credited to his extremism, Parsons went on to secure a 2023 re-election win with more votes than any other candidate and the most votes he had received ever. Of course, Trump then easily won Lancaster in 2024. Doesn’t exactly align with the story he’s trying to sell, does it?
We can consider these claims debunked.
Now, looking at anomalous trends, I’d pay particular attention to these areas:
While relatively small, the wards of Columbia Boro, which had been making Republican gains for Parsons each election, made a hard pivot to Democrat this year.
Other precincts in need of special attention are parts of Elizabethtown Boro, parts of Rapho Twp, parts of Mount Joy Twp, Lititz Boro (particularly 1st ward 2nd precinct), Marietta Boro 2nd district, New Holland Boro 3rd district, and Conoy Twp.
Given the turnout-to-bed ratio and the batch of related cancelled mail ballots, it would be worth looking into who was conducting mail ballot assistance at the Mt Hope Nazarene Retirement Community. I have my guesses.
Finally, @LancasterCounty really needs an update to their arcane election reporting system. The 2024 elections have not yet been uploaded, data fields are cut when archived, download options are nonexistent. I feel for those who do not regularly download election data because what you are offered by the county is lacking to say the least. Keep this in mind when conversations about ‘vexatious requesters’ come up. The solution to this almost always comes back to more needed government transparency, not more restrictions to public access.
Here’s a fun little chart showing the number of mail ballots returned to the county by voters that were registered as Democrat vs. the actual number of mail ballots that voted Democrat.
How about them gains? Amazing that nearly every single precinct in the district had Republican or third party voters vote for the Democrat candidate regardless of the widely variable demographic makeup of each precinct.
It’s a Christmas miracle come early for the Democrat senate candidate!
Who is Frank McCourt? Buyer beware. You’re going to want to keep reading to find out. 🧵1
@Breeauna9 @Andreafreedom76 @iamlisalogan @CourtenayTurner @LBelle355 @luce_lexi
Frank McCourt founded McCourt Global. The organization has a philanthropic current, with social impact mindfulness at their core. Common themes throughout this thread include a “common purpose/good” and “building a better…/a new way forward” with plenty of progressive keywords like “equity,” “safety,” “resilience,” and “democracy.” 🧵2
Frank McCourt recently wrote a book called “Our Biggest Fight” addressing what McCourt sees as the need for a new, better, healthier, more equitable internet due to its threat to democracy and youth mental health.
His book site displays shining recommendations from several well-known figureheads in the leftist world, including singer Bruce Springsteen and Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation.🧵3
While on the subject of DOJ STOP grants, let’s talk about the PASS survey and reporting required under this grant.
PASS or Pupil Attitudes to Self and School is an assessment tool designed to track students “feelings” or social and emotional well-being. One of the primary domains of the survey is SEL (social and emotional learning). 🧵1/
@kellyske @luce_lexi @5sweetharts_ @HideYourKids0 @ALegalProcess
The Pennsylvania Office for Safe Schools under the PA Dept of Ed (PDE) administers this as the PA School Climate Survey. SEL is one of the three domains central to the survey, given not just to students, but staff, parents and community members as well as part of the broader Whole-Child, Whole-School, Whole-Community model. This reflects the shift away from ACADEMIC intelligence to EMOTIONAL intelligence. Schools are, of course, incentivized to participate through grant monies, with results shared between state and federal agencies and third-party orgs. 🧵2/
Another core focus of grant funding is Restorative Practices (RP). RP and SEL work hand-in-hand to create societal change through social consciousness and collectivism—core socialist principles. Children (and adults) are taught that systemic racial disparities exist in classrooms, where one race is disproportionally punished over another. In turn, RP works to eliminate punishment and produce equitable outcomes, instead bringing the offender and the ‘harmed’ together to repair harm through reconciliation. 🧵3/
One of the more shocking revelations I’ve had over the last few years is how inextricably linked our elections are to our education system via NGOs operating as the 4th branch of government.
We continue to peel back the layers here with a closer look at Tim Shriver’s organizations which directly link social and emotional learning and critical theory efforts in education to the push for ranked-choice voting and National Popular Vote in elections. 🧵1
Tim Shriver is the co-founder of three organizations responsible for major policy decisions in education, health, and elections. CASEL (Fetzer Institute) is arguably one of the largest organizations to help usher in social and emotional learning & CRT into both K-12 and higher Ed school systems. COVID Collaborative directed many Covid protocols implemented in the US. UNITE’s focus is to transform democracy.
Watch this video from fellow parent advocate @iamlisalogan for a foundational understanding of linkages. 🧵2 youtu.be/aDO4iSAibpk?si…
CASEL’s board not only includes Shriver, but several prominent members, some of which have been deeply involved in ushering in “evidence-based” mental health into schools since the 1980’s. While an entire thread could be done on their team members alone, the focus here is CASEL’s creation of their Collaborative States Initiative (Agreement).
The goal of CSI was to get SEL into all 50 states. 🧵3
A historic look at the Speaker of the House Role and who may serve: 🧵
Have you ever wondered why the word “choose” appears misspelled in our US Constitution?
The archaic spelling “chuse”, contained within our nation’s founding document, is derived from William Penn’s 1701 Frame of Government, otherwise known as the “Charter of Privileges” or “Charter of Liberties” for the Province of Pennsylvania. Penn built that framework for Pennsylvania’s government from English Parliamentary Rule going back hundreds of years, of which he, and later our Founding Fathers, was very familiar.
Article I Section 2 of the US Constitution says, in part:
“The House of Representatives shall “chuse” their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
Pennsylvania, though not the first colony founded in America, had arguably the most important role in the framing of the national government we know today. Pennsylvania is the KEYSTONE state after all.
Penn’s Frame of Government is considered Pennsylvania’s first Constitution, of which the federal Constitution was drafted from. William Penn’s concept of government expressed in the Charter of Liberties shaped democracy in America and all around the world.
Despite the proclamation found on the US House’s governmental page that the Speaker role can be filled even by unelected persons of the House’s choosing, the notion is an inaccurate misrepresentation of our Founders’ intent. While our federal Constitution does not delineate all the intricacies of the Speaker role, thankfully historical records greatly detail the inception of this role in American politics. Many preserved records, including Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania, meticulously document the introduction of the Speakership here in the US.
English Rule: 🧵
The Speaker of the House role goes back as far almost as the inception of English Parliament.
Parliament’s own website provides wonderful, succinct historical timelines of their transformation from the time they began to take form in 1236.
The earliest concepts of a Speaker was the presiding officer selected to oversee the drafting of the “Provisions of Oxford” in 1258. That role became the Lord Speaker in the Upper House. As the House of Commons (knights of the shire and burgesses) formed and then later began to meet apart from the Upper House, the need for a speaker that would be the go-between for the Commons and the King developed.
The first unofficial Speaker of the House of Commons was chosen in 1375, followed by the first official Speaker on record in 1376.
The Speakership was a dangerous role in the beginning and one that was beholden to the Crown. A number of Speakers were beheaded at the displeasure of the King upon delivering news that he did not like. While the Commons chose their Speaker, they were typically someone that had the King’s approval. The practice of choosing a Speaker was for a member to stand and nominate another member for office. If unanimously agreed upon, the Speaker was led to the chair by two other members in what came to be known as “dragging the Speaker” due to the apprehension at the perilousness of the position. The part of the Speaker being an agent of the Crown is later carried over to a greater degree in America with the appointment of Speakers in the various colonies.
Over the next few hundred years, the Speaker role in the House of Commons continued to gain authority and gradual distancing from the King. Eventually, the role saw itself wholly independent from the Crown, owing its allegiance solely to the Commons.
One fact about the Speaker role in English Parliament that is as true today as it was in the 14th century is that the Speaker of the House must be a member of Parliament, that is to say an individual elected to serve in the House of Commons. That concept is important as we move into the molding of American government.
Early Colonial America: 🧵
It is of no surprise that government in early America was led by the Crown. Men were granted charters by the King, who, in return for their allegiance to the Crown and their laws, would be given tracts of land and deemed the proprietors or governors over it. A council, comprised of the areas’ most elite land holders and often of the King’s choosing, was then formed to advise the governor and aid in the creation of new laws. The council, together with the governor, also served in a judicial capacity as the highest court in the land.