The Playpen topic du jour is a no-brainer, amirite?
I’m sure everyone has their special take on Admissions-gate, but for me, it’s all about ‘Murica, the meritocracy.
The documents facilitate no such doubt, though, when it comes to their subtextual indictment of American meritocracy and its hallowed institutions and loudest defenders. The wealthy believe their kids deserve special treatment, even as they preach a gospel of self-reliance. Employees of prestigious universities will make every effort to provide that special treatment to the wealthy and connected, even as they stress the importance and virtue of their social or athletic mission.
Hey, when you’re in the service business, catering to customers is what you do. Especially the more desperate ones.
And here’s my favorite take on the news.
Playwright David Mamet wrote a letter supporting Macy and Huffman, longtime friends, in an open letter posted by The Hollywood Reporter.
“The unqualified may be accepted for many reasons, among them, as Legacies, and on account of large donations made by their parents,” Mamet wrote. “I do not see the difference between getting a kid into school by bribing the Building Committee, and by bribing someone else. But, apparently, the second is against the Law. So be it.”
These are people who, on the one hand, bitch about affirmative action at parties, and on the other, look on with envy at the people like Charles Kushner who can afford to bribe Ivy League schools legally with eight-figure contributions to get their own mediocrities admitted. (And since those contributions are charitable ones made to non-profit institutions, we taxpayers nobly subsidize them. What a country!)
In other words, it’s tough being white and rich, but not quite rich enough, these days. Think of the children forced to take up sailing at Stanford.
The cool thing coming is that they’ll profess contrition in court — those acting skills will surely come in handy — pay a fine, maybe even do a little time/get probation, and then, with it all in the rear view mirror, go on to write, act and produce Admissions — The Real Story to recoup their losses.
The floor is yours, peeps.
Get The Picture 
It’s like this whole idea of America being a meritocracy is an ILLUSION or something.
And people wonder why the AOC’s of the world are getting such traction right now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is so easy. Preach global warming… fly everywhere on private jets. Walls are immoral… except for the twelve foot one around “my” mansion. Affirmative action for the disadvantaged…as long as it doesn’t alienate my interests.
The common denominator is virtue signaling in order to insulate the elite from criticism of being elite.
As far as AOC I wish someone would ask her if she ever read “1984” and how does she think it relates to politics and culture in 2019. The babble would be historic.
LikeLike
Well, you are aptly named, I’ll give you that.
LikeLike
Personal insults are always in style for the stumped.
LikeLike
We are well beyond 1984’s Party tactics; they only had a 2 Minutes Hate, we have a 24 Hours of Hate news network.
LikeLiked by 1 person
FOX?
LikeLike
You’re right for once, bribery of this type and the social caste system it leads to is more often associated with socialism.
Just proves Ivy League schools are what we all thought they were.
Overrated pay for play networking schemes for the coastal elite. Why anyone in the middle class would ever vote Democrat is beyond my capacity for comprehension.
LikeLike
Excuse me but how did W get into Harvard Business School with a flat 2.0 average. Dems and Republicans alike engage in this practice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your ability to whiff on the grapefruits right out over the middle of the plate is pretty remarkable.
THAT’S your takeaway? Really?
LikeLike
When you are a right-wing hammer, everything is a socialist nail. 😉
LikeLike
It’s not hard to hit that AOC nail when its already started for you. That’s your takeaway from that?
LikeLike
My entire takeaway? Not completely.
“Why anyone in the middle class would ever vote Democrat is beyond my capacity for comprehension” says more about your comprehension than the middle class, I suppose.
LikeLike
The term “Middle Class” is about as misused as the word Liberal. The phrase “Upper Middle Class” really refers to the 15-18% of the population in the “Professional Class”. Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, good Lawyers, Economists, Pharmacists, Veterinarians, Academics, Middle-level Managers, etc. are not “Middle Class”. The culture is very different and is why there is sometimes quite a bit of friction between Alumni (mostly Professional Class) and unaffiliated fans (usually Working Class or Lower Middle Class).
Professional Class voters that skew Democratic tend to vote that way for Social Issues; those that skew Republican usually do so for economic issues. The majority of the Libertarian Party comes from the Professional Class as well.
LikeLike
Well that clears that up! Thanks Anonymous !
LikeLike
Agreed.
LikeLike
So…is this how you got into UVa undergrad Bluto? 😉
LikeLike
I’m not sayin’. 😉
LikeLike
If it is possible to compose language any more obtuse, I have yet to read it. Except maybe on a UT board. Which I don’t even read.
LikeLike
Thank you for letting everyone know that you are not an alumnus.
LikeLike
I know people are talking about the Ivy League involvement – but the only Ivy League school involved was Yale right? I think the fact these parents are bribing coaches and administrators at USC, Georgetown and Stanford is really interesting.
And the Republican party has done so much for the middle class and college entrance fairness …
LikeLike
Look, I’m not here to be a defender of the Ivy League – they don’t need my help, and I went to lowly UGA “the Harvard of the South.” But this scandal doesn’t alter the value or prestige of those Universities. It just exposes something that all of us knew was happening – rich people buying power and influence that they couldn’t earn on merit.
LikeLike
FIFY “rich White people”
LikeLike
Chris, let me ask you a really hard question. If “bribery of this type and the social caste system it leads to” is “most often associated with socialism,” then why is it that the capitalist-driven United States is such a glaring example of a country corrupted by bribery and a social caste system?
Do you think Donald Trump went to Wharton college on merit?
Maybe don’t answer that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The Russians got Donald into Wharton. Everyone knows that. Just ask Adam Schiff.
LikeLike
Every society in the history of the world has suffered from the problem of an elite benefiting disproportionately. I don’t think this a solvable problem, but a key mitigating factor is more egalitarian access to elite status. Free markets tend to be less rigid in that regard, but even then, if the system becomes too corrupt (Through whatever means. I’m not terribly interested in a lengthy debate as to if or why corruption is more prevalent today in America.) people outside that elite are going to approach revolt until the tipping point is reached.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wait, are we on to Muh Trump’s College Merits?
Don’t ever change Prog filth.
LikeLike
You don’t have any idea what is being discussed here, do you? You’re just a FOX-watching snowflake with pre-programmed responses to trigger words. I mean, this is literally the fucking topic at hand that YOU chimed in on to begin with, but you act as if mentioning Trump’s admittance to a prestigious school is a different subject. Classic magafuckery. “I save all my outrage for the things Trump does for when other people do it.”
LikeLike
Now that’s the kind of melt I’ve been waiting for.
Oh the irony of what you just posted. You bring in Trump thinking it has anything to do with what is being investigated as academic and scholarship fraud. Continue on your marching orders NPC bot.
LikeLike
Striver Chris here doesn’t have the slightest clue…
LikeLike
What he does is projection seen thru a kaleidiscope…
LikeLike
Now do how Obama got into Columbia and Harvard!
LikeLike
Grades?
LikeLike
I think that bribery of this type is the result of a social caste system, not the lead-in to it. And I doubt that this type of behavior is limited to the “coastal elites”.
I agree with Mamet that there is little to no difference between bribing a committee or bribing an individual, the sad part is that everyone just accepts the former as business as usual.
LikeLike
The last two Republican presidents had their family pay their way into college. The last two Democratic presidents earned their way into college.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly. We can’t even trust college bureaucrats to keep the system honest. We should probably appoint some more bureaucrats to oversee the corrupt bureaucrats in order to insure that everything stays on the up and up. And hey, if that doesn’t work, we can always get some more bureaucrats.
LikeLike
Secondary topic – maybe track record and proportionality has to be considered, but am I the only one who is bothered by the fact that the US is alone in not grounding the new Boeing 757 Max 8’s after two crashes inside of 6 months? Every major country in the world has grounded them, except the one where Boeing is neck deep in the swamp and has it’s CEO playing golf with Trump. Considering all the other boneheads working for this administration I have little faith in that system right now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m with you on this one Chili.
LikeLike
As was pointed out on various news programs this morning, it is highly unusual for the FAA to not be the world leader on an issue like Max 8’s. When something like this happens, the FAA is quick to be the leader, ground the planes, investigate and find a solution.
Of course the FAA doesn’t have anyone running it right now … and there is this:
“As the world awaits the readout from Ethiopian Airlines black box, which is expected Friday, the FAA’s response and the role that it played in keeping Boeing’s 737s in the air are under scrutiny. After the Lion Air plane crash in October 2018, a Boeing software upgrade was expected in January, but the US’s 35-day government shutdown and disagreements between the FAA and the airplane manufacturer delayed it.”
LikeLike
What’s truly terrifying is that the CEO of Boeing lobbied Trump over the phone to not ground the planes. The decision to not ground the planes might be as simple as the simpleton taking that call.
That’s scary.
By the way, lest anyone forget about Trump’s relationship with Boeing – he went on a Twitter attack at them a couple years back because of an estimated cost of $4 billion for the new Air Force One, which resulted in a phone call that Trump claimed he negotiated some great deal on, a new price of $3.9billion, and a $1 million contribution to Trump’s campaign from Boeing.
Draining the swamp, indeed.
LikeLike
Boeing’s lobby jumped from 8 billion to 18 billion when Obama took office and hit 24 billion before he left.
just sayin’
LikeLike
Shut up fascist!
LikeLike
Old chilpuss
LikeLike
I thought Trump was going to change all that?
Why can none of you ever be consistent in your beliefs, always resorting to “whataboutism” when it’s your guy doing it? It’s astonishing. Nothing will ever be fixed if the populace is as dumb as you lot.
LikeLike
Calm down. The hypocrisy runs deep in you. Fuck you and your whatabouism. You strike me as a person with a paper ass but do carry on.
LikeLike
What about what I said is hypocritical?
LikeLike
guess is you may be too dumb to figure it out . Youve let yourself become this blogs personal bicycle lock boy. Flailing away with your ad hominem assaults on anyone daring to have a view that differ from yours. We should thank you and those trolls and grifters that mob up with you. Its why we have the playpen.
Brilliant move by the Senator.
LikeLike
Did that make sense in your head? Don’t hurt yourself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Apparently it’s happening.
LikeLike
Yep, and a damn good thing. 350 or so people are already dead because Boeing’s new widget decided to fly a couple of them into the ground. As someone who flies a lot, I don’t want to die in flaming wreckage because “It works most of the time”.
I want to be shot by Mrs. Cowdog’s jealous boyfriend when I’m 107.
LikeLike
We can’t have faith in the system of politicians running our lives until we get the right politicians in power. Then it will work great. Of course, inevitably the wrong politicians will gain power again. At that point, the system will be broken and we will lose faith. That’s why it’s so important that one party gain permanent power and political dissent be quashed. That’s how we stop fascism.
LikeLike
Put your Trump hate aside and seek REAL NEWS
President Trump says he is grounding all U.S. flights on Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes ‘effective immediately’ in an emergency order of prohibition
Any plane that is currently in the air will be allowed to land, and then the planes will be grounded until further notice, he said in a surprise announcement
Trump made the decision following conversations with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg and the acting FAA administrator
LikeLike
We were literally the last country in the world to ground the planes, because the Boeing CEO is cozy with Trump. Thousands of US travelers remained at risk of death because the CEO of Boeing made a phone call to Trump to plead with him to protect his company’s stock.
But you go ahead and give him credit for acting after everyone else already had.
The question you ought to be asking is – if Trump’s appointees at Transportation (Mitch McConnell’s wife) and the FAA weren’t incompetent swamp creatures, would these planes every have been signed off on in the first place?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I guess affirmative action is okay if you can pay for it?
LikeLike
I’m curious how many of these kids knew their parents were buying their way into these colleges. At least some of them had to know, right? Like you’ve got to know if your GPA or SAT scores are high enough to get in to certain schools…right?
On another note, I finally got around to watching Hell or High Water. Really enjoyed it, especially the ending. Saw Captain Marvel over the weekend too. Thought it was pretty good, not great. Wonder Woman was better, IMO.
LikeLike
Hell or High Water was excellent. Going to see CM this weekend with my wife, daughter and her friends. Should be interesting to see how everyone feels about it coming out.
LikeLike
I also endorse Hell or High Water. I saw it in a theater and got the full flavor of the movie’s scenery and sound. It really is a western brought forward to the modern era and probably the best western made in many years. It was nominated for the AA best picture award and other awards but alsa didn’t win.
LikeLike
Trigger warning: Corch incoming.
LikeLike
The Mamet letter ignores the charge that some of these kids had surrogates take the admission tests for them or had their answers changed before being submitted for scoring. Do you suppose he thinks that’s OK too?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tried to post a comment a minute ago and it disappeared. Hopefully it doesn’t pop back up as a double-post. In any case what I said was that some of these kids had to know that their parents were buying their way into these schools right? They had to have known whether their GPAs or SAT scores were good enough to get in on merit right? But on the off chance that some of them didn’t know, and now they do, that’s got to be a pretty crappy feeling.
Also, I watched Hell or High Water over the weekend. Really enjoyed it, especially the ending. Watched Captain Marvel as well. Not as good as Wonder Woman IMO, but still good.
LikeLike
my post didn’t post… happened the other day as well.
LikeLike
That’s been happening to me a lot lately, there’s a delay before my comment posts. Also the site no longer remembers my name and email in the fields below the comment box, and that’s across different devices so I think cookies are dead or disabled.
LikeLike
Yep. Thanks.
LikeLike
I think any kid that posed for pictures as water polo player or football player, etc had to know.
The only one that was documented as not knowing was the kid who parents used a photo of a different person pole vaulting. Apparently, the kid and his Dad didn’t know about because they went to orientation and were confused about him on the track and field team.
I think in most cases the kids have been complicit.
LikeLike
I’ve seen this argument a lot over the past 24 hours on my social media feeds from friends of mine, “oh, they say you’ve got to pull yourself up by your own boot straps but at the same time they’re bribing schools to get their mediocre kids in.”
OK, someone is going to have to show their work on that one for me. I don’t follow Aunt Becky or Felicity Huffman closely, so I guess it’s possible that they’ve been railing against any type of affirmative action for years or they’ve been talking down to people about how they only should have what they earn, but I certainly don’t remember it. Or are we just generalizing what we believe their beliefs are because they’re white and rich and other rich white people have said the same things? Because that seems problematic. Incidentally, I support affirmative action and believe that the whole bootstrap thing only really works if opportunities are equal for all and I don’t believe that exists yet in 2019. But bringing any of that into a discussion of some rich people who were trying to bribe their kids into elite schools and also the University of San Diego is just trying to shoehorn your pet cause into a discussion where it doesn’t really belong.
LikeLike
It’s common knowledge that Hollywood celebrities are Republicans!
LikeLike
I didn’t think USD was that hard to get into! Why would anyone bribe somebody to get into USD?
LikeLike
That said, from what I’ve heard it is a damn fun place to go to school.
LikeLike
So, the partial value of an athletic scholarship here – just the admittance part – was in the neighborhood of six figures? 🙂
Working in a college admissions office can be quite lucrative. You just have to know your Bag Man Rules – always use intermediaries, always require cash.
Agree about the book and movie rights. They will end up making a profit in the end.
LikeLike
Speaking of admissions, my youngest daughter is a senior in high school awaiting word from UGA. She has already been accepted into UF. It sickens me to think of sending my money there. Plus out of state tuition is $53k per year. Please send positive thoughts our way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
53K a year at UF? That is absurd. There is no way a 4 year undergraduate degree from there is worth that money. A 2 year degree from a community college, some work experience, and no debt is a better way to send a kid into the world…
LikeLike
As much as I love the University of Georgia, my standard advice to students is go to a small place for your undergraduate degree. UGA is a great place for graduate school. As a percentage of the graduate student population, graduates of small, liberal arts colleges are over represented.
LikeLike
I would take core classes at an in state smaller school and then transfer to the school of your choice. I certainly wouldn’t pay out of state tuition for the freshman year, what percentage of students change majors?
I have friends that started at KSU and GSU (State or Southern) but graduated from UGA or GT. Nobody cares where your core was completed, and more and more credits transfer especially English/History/Chem 101.
LikeLike
^^This.
LikeLike
I went to GSU my first two years, lived at home and saved my money. Then when I transferred to UGA I only had to work part-time.
LikeLike
My oldest son didn’t quite make the cut as a freshman at UGA. We sent him to College of Coastal Georgia for his freshman year, then he transferred to UGA. The transfer requirements are less stringent than new enrollment.
CCG is one of the best values in the state. It’s in Brunswick, right across the river from SSI and Jekyll. Check it out, it’s worth a visit.
LikeLike
Thanks, y’all are a great resource. She’s been accepted to Berry, GCSU, and a couple more. If UGA is a no go she is probably going to Oglethorpe. It is within $1k of UF but after scholarship money it will only cost me about $4k per year. Go Stormy Petrels!
LikeLiked by 1 person
BTW, Homey is graduating Cum Laud from Terry this May with a degree in Finance. Yes I am a proud Papa and I am bragging on his little ass. I hope you get to do the same with yours.
LikeLike
Congrats! My youngest son went that route. What are his plans?
LikeLike
He is set up with an investment firm downtown and got decent money starting out. He has to put some time in for licensure but the firm is footing the bill for it, with salary bumps at each. From there who knows?
LikeLike
Proud papa. Good stuff!
LikeLike
Tell him to start compiling his list of names, NOW. Errybody, fraternity brothers, little sisters, tutors. And get ready for that sweet wrap account, dad. It’s at least suitable, if not advisable!😂
LikeLike
Hah!
That little skinflint isn’t going pony up a wrap when there’s real money to be made. Takes after his Mama.
LikeLike
Great job by your son!
LikeLike
Started at Oglethorpe back in the day. Great school but after a while it was a little too small for me. Plus Buckhead was expensive. Decided I wanted to go to a bigger school with a football team, but I chose UGA instead (thanks Ray Goff). Still, Go Stormy Petrels!
LikeLike
My daughter is considering Oglethorpe as well. They want her to play tennis there. It seemed like a nice school the two times we have visited. Does anyone else that maybe went there have any thoughts on it?
LikeLike
My youngest did her undergrad work at GCSU and loved it and got her masters from UGA.
LikeLike
I worked at Coastal for the past seven years. It’s a wonderful, small school. Teachers and staff know the students, there are lots of outdoor activities in the area and, of course, beaches. Not to mention Southern Soul. Jacksonville is an hour south and Savannah is an hour north. It’s a hidden gem. By USG standards, I believe only ABAC is less expensive to attend.
LikeLike
ABAC is a tremendous bargain. My oldest got a Forestry degree from its newly-certified program last year and got the first job he applied for with an industry leader. He beat out two Warnell grads. He has only a nominal student loan debt load. I would highly recommend the little cow college that could.
LikeLike
More importantly, right across the street from Willie’s Weenie Wagon. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
True that mykiesee. They relish your buns. I always ask for the burnt fries.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Out of state, I wouldn’t do it.
LikeLike
Do like I told mine and that’s that he ain’t going anywhere that doesn’t offer in-stat tuition because I ain’t paying that kind of money for him to go to college.
LikeLike
Wealthy people have been paying for their children to get into schools for years. They also have been getting preferential treatment at hospitals with their name on the building. I guess trying to disguise it was the issue?
LikeLike
Doing it on the cheap was the issue.
LikeLike
First in line at the hospital because you paid for the building: shrug
First in line because you faked being a doctor and bribed the security guard and wrote off the bribe as a charitable donation: court
LikeLike
The cheap? The crime is the bribes and proctor test takers. I am sure that the kid who had someone else take their SAT knew that was wrong (or maybe not – they had to have someone else take their test after all) and ‘athletes’ whose sole athletic experience is from XBox had to know that was wrong, but there are no shortage of folks doing business coaching for SATs, writing essays, etc. and some of them are legitimate. I can see someone paying what they can to this guy without realizing what he was doing.
But this is not new at all. Everyone knew that Ted Kennedy had no legitimate business being at Harvard. Some bribes are legal; some are not.
LikeLike
But the reason for the bribes and test takers was to save money. $10 million will get your kid into any school with the blessing of everyone involved. $50k won’t, so you’ve got to get into the “side door.”
LikeLike
Yes. But none of these actresses are making Meryl Streep/Amy Adams money, nor are they making Robert Kraft money. They can only afford to hire a ‘guidance counselor’ to enhance admission. Crime to be poorer than those who can have a chair or a building named after them?
LikeLike
Pretty much. If you’re middle class, you hire a CPA to minimize your taxes. If you’re a billionaire, you hire some politicians to rewrite the tax code.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I only JUST watched “American Hustle”. What are Mizz Adams’ other screen features? That gal brings it…
LikeLike
Matt Levine at Bloomberg had a great blog post on this today. Despite the DA’s bloviating, this is not about fairness. It’s about theft of a college’s valuable asset (admission):
Singer on a call with a parent: “There is a front door which means you get in on your own. The back door is through institutional advancement, which is ten times as much money. And I’ve created this side door in. Because the back door, when you go through institutional advancement, as you know, everybody’s got a friend of a friend, who knows somebody who knows somebody but there’s no guarantee, they’re just gonna give you a second look. My families want a guarantee.”
The back door—“institutional advancement,” i.e., giving colleges tons of money—is fine, not because it is “fair,” but because the owner of the asset gets to decide the conditions of its sale. The side door is wire fraud, not because it is “unfair”—Singer says here that it’s one-tenth the price of the back door, which kind of seems fairer—but because consultants and coaches are misappropriating the asset and selling it for their own benefit. The law doesn’t protect fairness; it protects property.
LikeLike
Yes, Hollywood is full of hard core right wingers who are rabidly against affirmative action. Felicity Huffman and Lori Laughlin were probably wearing MAGA hats when they paid off the fixer! Off with their heads. Or maybe they’re just liberal hypocrites who are fine telling the rabble how to live because money I sulfates them from the conditions they demand the rest of us have to accept.
LikeLike
Real story is rich, white, liberals pay homage to affirmative action while bribing officials to get their own kids admitted. Related story is college is oversold. These kids will get good jobs because of their parents not because of where they go to school. A black kid going into a mountain of student loan to get a useless degree will not enjoy a similar life to the kids of Hollywood
LikeLike
Pretty much agree with all of that. That’s the real meritocracy in this country.
LikeLike
I thought the Fullcast nailed it yesterday. Basically made the same point that these kids are going to be just fine regardless of what college they went to (i.e. still pretty wealthy). If the objective was to get them out of the house, why bother trying to get them in one of these elite schools they couldn’t qualify for on their own and could get booted in like a year? Why not just send them somewhere like Arizona State or UCF where they’ll have a great time, hella cheaper, and they can probably stay for as long as they want?
LikeLike
I understand Lori Loughlin wanting to send her kids to USC (essentially the Stanford of LA). But why spend $500K on it. UCLA, Occidental, UC Irvine and others–they are all high quality academic schools in LA (and others too) and I’m certain they could have gotten into at least one legitimately and you save the $500K to spend it on PARTY. Plus….there’s always the king of west coast party schools–UC Santa Barbara! These people got too much money and no brains. Don’t send them to jail–fine the hell out of them and use the money for scholarships for disadvantaged smart kids!
LikeLike
Any kid going into debt to obtain a useless degree won’t have the life of A Hollywood Kid. A liberal arts degree from today’s university is almost theft. After college with degree in hand AOC was works as a bartender with worn out shoes.
When you graduate HS and head to college ” you best have a plan on where you want to land. ” That plan starts in HS.
Not everyone can get a gig as a Senator and Boss.
LikeLike
AOC only worked as a bartender because her genius threatened the capitalists who would have to employ her.
LikeLike
Give me a little more detail on “people who, on the one hand, bitch about affirmative action at parties, and on the other, look on with envy at the people like Charles Kushner who can afford to bribe Ivy League schools legally with eight-figure contributions to get their own mediocrities admitted.”
LikeLike
Rest assured, that is NOT the reason we lost so many OL in the 2000s.
#COMMITTOTHEG
LikeLike
The Family Trump has always been extremely concerned with heir worthiness.
LikeLike
Think of the children forced to take up sailing at Stanford.
LOL. This is gold, Jerry!
LikeLike
Stop Sign
LikeLike
I would submit that Mr Dickey’s logical jump between academia not being a meritocracy(because it’s not) and America not being one is just clear hogwash. I have to admit my first reaction was the same as Mamet’s……what is the name of the Harvard School of Government? …but after learning of fake ACT test takers I changed my position. I have long believed that going to the Ivy League is NOT for a superior education but for contacts and as a resume builder. If an unmarried childless full-time law student at Yale can flunk the bar in Washington DC and therefore have to enter practice in Arkansas the education can’t be too good. Also… when the tennis coach at Georgetown buys a yacht or a Bugatti (I’m speculating here) and no one gets suspicious wouldn’t the NCAA call that a lack of Institutional control?
LikeLike
Did you really take the time to look up all the races of the people indicted?
LikeLike
The backdoor to college admissions has long been well established at schools that are heavily dependent on private donations, which includes both public and private institutions. I’ve seen some publications speculate that around 4% of annual acceptances, especially at elite privates, fall in this category. https://medium.com/s/story/the-dirty-secret-of-elite-college-admissions-d41077df670e
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
LikeLike
I read the linked article (even though the link didn’t work–I looked it up) and am even more disgusted. It appears that bribery of a different kind is not only considered legal but encouraged by the institutions themselves. Query: Why is it illegal for a prospective student’s family to bribe an admissions officer to get the student admitted, but perfectlylegal for that same student’s family to make a huge “donation” to the institution with the (“wink, wink”) understanding that the same student is going to be admitted? What this system does is legalizes HUGE bribery but criminalizes moderate sized bribery. Is the difference that the bribery goes to an institution rather than a person? Well, all that money ends up in someone’s pocket–university presidents, deans, professors–so how are the two really different? Someone please tell me.
LikeLike
One could argue that a donation the size to fund a library or a new research facility at least ultimately benefits all of the other students. A donation to an admissions officer only benefits the officer and the single student.
LikeLike
Rich white people get their kids in with bribes and fixing services.
Broke black people get their kids in with sports and fixing services.
Both make a mockery of the institutions.
LikeLike
…..wow.
LikeLike
That is somewhere around the back end of stupid. But you be you.
LikeLike
The core problem is clear…the American public education system is FAILING rich elitist kids!!!!
LikeLike
“If God didn’t want them to have money, he wouldn’t have given it to them in the first place. The same in reverse is true.
So long as the demographics of the winners and losers fit my biases and prejudices, why complain?”
Average Stupid MAGA hat wearer
LikeLike
Every kid who bribed his way into an ivy league school took a spot from a kid who deserves one on merit, like David Hogg.
LikeLike
You mean David “we’re begging you for our lives” Hogg? I got some advice for you kid: Shut the fuck up and die like a man.
LikeLike
LikeLike
“Every kid who bribed his way into an ivy league school took a spot from a kid who deserves one on merit”
I’m thinking of George W. Bush getting into Yale.
LikeLike
I’m thinking George W. Bush getting into Harvard Business School.
LikeLike
I’d rather stop thinking about George W.
LikeLike
With affirmative action, anti-Asian policies, race/gender quotas, intersectionality preferences, and geographic quotas, universities have already made it clear that admission (and hiring) standards are unfair and often arbitrary. That wealthy and/or politically connected people also get special treatment should not be a surprise or a special outrage. All the more reason that the higher ed bubble needs to pop.
LikeLike
This is correct.
The concept that the admissions process has ever been completely merit based is absurd. Schools like Yale carefully curate their ethnic, gender, and racial composition.
LikeLike
I visited Cal Tech with my nephew. I felt like I was in Taiwan. lol
Smart kids!
LikeLike
Been to Georgia Tech lately?
LikeLike
“I do not see the difference between getting a kid into school by bribing the Building Committee, and by bribing someone else. But, apparently, the second is against the Law. So be it.”
I thought the same thing.
LikeLike
Legacies, building donations, affirmative action, bribing athletic coaches, hiring talented dopplelganger test takers. Seems like everybody has an “in” except Asian kids, and bright settler kids from flyover country. Makes you wonder how legitimate an elite degree is, if all these unqualified kids can pass the courses once they get in.
LikeLike
If you get into an Ivy you don’t flunk out unless you completely f*ck up. You’ll get a degree.
LikeLike
This is on the front page for UGA’s women studies program:
“Traditional academic disciplines have devoted little systematic attention to issues of gender, race, class, and sexuality.”
Yes, they have been devoting systematic attention to things like business, science, law, medicine etc.
What does one do with a degree in women’s studies? This is not sarcasm. I truly want to know?
Is it worth more than a degree in French poetry?
LikeLike
Hey ChiliDawg, read the news, dumbass. “Trump announces FAA to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9.” So are you going to apologize for all that bullshit you posted earlier?
LikeLike
No, why would I? Trump is a fucking moron who instructed Mitch McConnell’s wife to not ground the planes because the Boeing CEO asked him not to. He only did the right thing after EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD had done so and Congressional representatives from both sides of the aisle were dogging him to do it.
You fucking idiots want to praise the man for pissing without wetting himself.
LikeLike
You don’t know shit. You made of fool of yourself as usual and now are trying to lie your way out of it. Just admit you’re a fucking moron and be done with it.
LikeLike
No. You don’t know SHIT. Mitch McConnell’s father-in-law holds numerous gargantuan shipping contracts to the U.S from Taiwan. Chao (w/ McConnell) are profiting directly from Trump’s faux-idiocy vis-a-vis China.
LikeLike
Thi$ ca$h grab ha$ been in place for quite awhile…the$e $tupid ba$tard$ ju$t happen to be REALLY $tupid.
LikeLike
And, speaking of lying to advance a college career, this deserves a smile for hypocrisy:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/13/sen-warren-has-zero-sympathy-for-parents-in-college-admissions-scam.html
LikeLike
LikeLike
Even I have to admit: FUNNY.
LikeLike
A significant number of posters on this blog are lawyers, as am I. I want to pose a question to all of you, lawyers and those whose minds have not been twisted by legal education, alike: While this is reprehensible conduct, why is it illegal? If I pay somebody to take a test for me, even the SAT, how is that a crime? Same for the test taker. And the admissions officer getting money under the table to see to it that little Johnny gets in? And mom who pays a bunch of dough to the admissions officer (or maybe meets him for a little horizontal mambo like Forrest Gump’s mom did to get him into a school)? Firing offense–yes! A crime? Not so sure. Anyone? Beuller?
LikeLike
Maybe I’ve misread you, but are you asking why society would make fraud a crime?
LikeLike
When Forrest Gumps Mom humped the guy to get Forrest into school did she committ fraud?
LikeLike
She was just being fiscally responsible. And along the same lines, I plan to offer my “services” to any female college admissions officers willing to help my kids out with some scholarships or whatnot.
LikeLike
Which one are you, Boner?
LikeLike
I’ll take a shot, Mayor, being unencumbered by legal experience other than having representation afforded to me. 😎
UGA has a limited number of enrollment opportunities. Tax dollars fund a substantial portion of its operation which burden everyone under the tax umbrella. They can’t sell enrollment to the highest bidder and still take money from everyone, right?
LikeLike
There is another round of Fake News that just won’t go away. This time, it is those on the Right that have been duped. New York and Virginia did not, nor did they try to, legalize killing babies after they have been born. What was at issue was 1. allowing abortions after 24 weeks in cases where the fetus was non-viable (viable was defined as “potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid.”) or where the woman’s life or health were at risk and 2. allowing hospice for infants that were born with deformities that were incompatible with life. These are infants that are going to die relatively soon regardless of the amount of intervention attempted. It recognizes that spending $1M to keep an infant alive for another week is cruel and a poor use of money. The idea is for the parents and the physicians to make those hard decisions. Whether you like the bills or not, you should at least stop pretending they are something they are not.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s half true. The New York law changed from allowing late term abortions where the mother’s life was at risk to a broad and vague “health” risk. And pro-abortion advocates and court decisions alike have defined the health of the mother as everything from mental and emotional stress, to financial or familial concerns, to convenience.
Most people would support the notion that keeping a terminal infant alive for a few days or weeks shouldn’t be required. But allowing for that in the law doesn’t require removing all restrictions so that the worst case scenarios of allowing perfectly healthy, viable infants to die is allowed.
LikeLike
Anonymous is an idiot. If the pregnancy is beyond the point of viability, about 24 weeks, and the pregnancy is endangering the health of the mother, then you DELIVER the baby. You don’t abort it. It happens all the time. In fact, I was involved in a c-section about an hour ago, which was performed because the mother has severe preeclampsia. Now she has a healthy baby.
LikeLike
I was not making a comment on my support for or against the bills. I was commenting on what the NY Law / the VA Governor actually said. I’m not sure why you would think that makes someone an idiot, but that is on you.
Yes, you would generally deliver a baby that is past the legal stage of viability, but that doesn’t mean the child is actually viable. There are a number of defects that allow a baby to live in urtero but not be actually viable.
For those that want to claim that the bill is a backdoor way for late-term abortions via the “two doctor” method, that is fine. What I am trying to avoid is people having an aneurysm. (Warning NFSW):
LikeLike
Of course all infants past 24 weeks aren’t viable. The vast majority are viable. These should not be aborted because they are a threat to the mother, they should be delivered. It’s not that complicated.
LikeLike
A.B.C. Always be closing, peeps. Mamet put it right there in his mea culpa.
LikeLike