(Independent Sentinel)—The government is moving to follow President Trump’s executive orders on straws and DEI in purchasing.
According to the General Services Administration, the Trump administration is directing federal agencies to no longer consider a company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices when deciding whether to procure its goods or services.
The Wall Street Journal reports that this reverses Biden’s policy of pushing companies to consider DEI when purchasing goods and services.
The GSA is also ending a federal effort to replace plastic straws with paper straws in federal operations, bringing procurement policy in line with President Trump’s executive order.
The Biden administration aimed to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from all federal operations by 2035.
Additionally, the GSA is overhauling federal procurement practices. The regulations grew to more than 2,000 pages.
“It’s burdensome, outdated, and doesn’t allow agencies to buy at the speed of need,” said Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service.
It’s not clear how much can be done without Congress. Congress sets many preferences for certain types of companies, such as those owned by people with disabilities or Native American tribes.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
