Brown University Medical School bills itself as a “national leader in medical education and biomedical research” that has attracted “first-class physicians and researchers.”
What exactly does the school mean by “first class”?
To earn a promotion, faculty in the Department of Medicine must demonstrate a “commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the Free Beacon‘s Aaron Sibarium reports. That criterion gets the same weight as “patient care” for doctors who train students and more weight than “clinical skills,” which are a “minor criterion.”
The revelation alarmed doctors. Bob Cirincione, an orthopedic surgeon in Maryland, called the criteria “what DEI in medical schools is all about. And it’s not about clinical performance.” Texas A&M College of Medicine clinical professor Hector Chapa called it “heartbreaking” and “difficult to comprehend.” Clinical skills “are of paramount importance and should be considered major criteria for any promotion,” he said.
“News of the promotion criteria comes as President Donald Trump is preparing an all-out assault on DEI, instructing each federal agency to identify up to nine potential targets—including universities—for civil rights probes,” writes Sibarium. “Even before that order, some public colleges had shuttered their diversity offices under pressure from GOP lawmakers.”
“Medicine, though, has been a notable exception to that trend. Medical schools and professional groups are doubling down on DEI even as other institutions retreat from it, raising concerns about the quality of future doctors and the politicization of science.”
Read more here.
Back in D.C., congressional Democrats and their media allies spent much of Monday lamenting the demise of USAID at the hands of Elon Musk. The Trump administration plans to shrink the agency and place it under the State Department’s umbrella, something the Left described as an “assault” that “endangers lives and undermines U.S. national security.”
Look beyond programs that fund lifesaving medicines like HIV, though, and you’ll find that USAID funds a litany of left-wing priorities like funding for climate activists in Asia and Africa and for anti-Israel lunatics in the Middle East.
The HIV money is exempt from the State Department’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid. The other stuff isn’t. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the freeze aims to ensure American foreign aid does not go to “programs that run counter to what we’re trying to do in our national strategy.” What’s he talking about? Here are some examples from the Biden years:
- $1 million to make disabled Tajikistanis ‘Climate Leaders’ — USAID Tajikistan solicited proposals for the project in 2023, writing in a funding notice “for Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Activity” that the money would ensure “climate action by governments and other actors is informed by and responsive to the unique ideas and contributions of persons with disabilities.”
- $1 Million to a Hamas-Linked Charity — This one came just six days before Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel. USAID doled out more than $900,000 to the Gaza-based Bayader Association for Environment and Development. In 2023, the group organized an event in the Gaza Strip that included senior Hamas officials like Abdul Salam Haniyeh, son of the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
- $1.5 Million To ‘Empower’ Female Climate Activists in Northern Kenya — The project, a May 2023 funding notice indicates, noted that women in the area live in “traditionally patriarchal communities.” As a result, the notice stated, training to “improve their participation in decision making” and “enhance adaptive capabilities to climate change” is necessary.
How will anybody live without these essential services? Read the full rundown here.
Kamala Harris lost the election months ago, but the full picture of her campaign’s lavish spending is only now coming into view. Harris, our Chuck Ross writes, has faced criticism for “elaborate spending on celebrities and influencers” like Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen. Well, add Cardi B and Barack Obama to the list.
Harris’s campaign, Ross reports, sent roughly $150,000 to firms owned by Cardi B and Obama. Both spoke at events in the race’s closing weeks: Obama suggested in an Oct. 10 appearance in Pittsburgh that black men harbored misogynistic beliefs about Harris, and he got $96,000 for “travel” expenses. Cardi B, who saidin the wake of Harris’s loss that she appeared alongside Harris in Milwaukee because it was “somewhere I wanted to be” and “didn’t get paid a dollar,” received $59,000 for “campaign event production.”
“Harris spent millions more on other influencers and musicians to appear at campaign events,” writes Ross. “The campaign paid $2.5 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, to produce a campaign event in Michigan on Sept. 19. Winfrey claimed the massive payment was not for an endorsement, but instead went to help produce the event.”
“Harris has faced scrutiny over payments to other influential activists. The campaign donated $500,000 to the nonprofit of Al Sharpton just days before the activist interviewed Harris on his MSNBC show on Oct. 21, the Free Beacon reported. Media ethics groups called the payment a ‘black eye’ for Sharpton, MSNBC, and the journalism profession. President Donald Trump asserted the payment was ‘illegal.'”
Away from the Beacon:
