The College Admissions Cheating Scandal

Rick Singer, the maestro of the scandal, talked about front door, back door, and side door admissions processes. The front door is the process most of us went through; admissions based on qualifications. Admission to the top colleges is mostly, but not totally, a meritocracy. Many of the nation’s universities, even public universities, accept less than half their applicants, sometimes below 10% at the most elite universities. Seats at these elite universities are highly coveted. [Side note to Americans. You can get a good education, often a better education, at less prestigious universities. You can be very successful in life without a degree from the elites.] They top universities pick and choose between tens of thousands of highly qualified students. The elite East Coast private universities focused their student bodies a century ago on white male Protestants, many of whom attended prep schools – the WASP Meritocracy. Women, Catholics, and Jews generally found the Ivy doors closed or slightly opened. Informal quotas limited Jewish admissions to the Ivies. James Conant, the young President of Harvard from 1933-1953, wanted to transform Harvard academically and change admissions profiles. He was especially impressed by the quality of public high school graduates attending the great public universities in the Midwest. President Conant pushed for the SAT as a means to open the doors of academe. The SAT was the key to the meritocracy. The move to a meritocracy based on ability began. Upper mobility based on a college education became possible. However, intellectual ability never remained the sole admissions criteria of the elites. Rick Singer acknowledged the back door. Exceptions are made for athletes, even at the most prestigious universities. Exceptions are made for legacy. Reports are that 40% of Notre Dame’s entering class are legacies, but that’s an extreme. The figure is usually 10-15% at the elite universities, but even at these schools the average SAT might be only 100 points below the median. Of course, a double standard exists. Exceptions are made for major donors. Tuition doesn’t cover all the costs of running these multiversities. Parents can buy admission. Rumors are that one highly prestigious non-Ivy reserves a number of seats in the freshman class for donors’ sons and daughters Exceptions are made for affirmative action. It’s not just what you know, but who you know. Prominent persons, such as powerful politicians, can make phonecalls. For example, University of Illinois legislators could get otherwise unqualified students into Illinois for years. These students often got free tuition. Personal contacts can make a difference. Parents use whatever contacts they can. University presidents and deans often have the power to make special admissions decisions. We understand these realities. These realities are well known, but they do not displace the meritocracy of higher education for 80-90% of the applicants. We don’t accept out and out cheating. We don’t accept corruption. People learn to game systems. Colleges and universities have been known to submit false data to U. S. News & World Reports. Applicants have falsely claimed to be diversity applicants. High school students are known to cheat and pad their resumes. So far though, no admissions officer, as yet has been implicated. No university has yet been institutionally involved in the scandal. Rick Singer used the side door. He had two ways of cheating the system. The first was exploiting the back door athletes loophole. Applicant files would be “dressed” to show them as star athletes combined with paying off, bribing, the coaches and an associate athletic director at USC. The second was to corrupt proctors at SAT test sites in Houston and West Hollywood. These proctors could aid the students, correct their mistakes, and even take the exams for them. These students should be kicked out of their universities because they knew. The FBI tapes tell us that the parents were willing and able participants in the cheating. The parents include Hollywood stars, a hedge fund manager, and the co-managing director of a large Wall Street law firm. Their residences are in Atherton, Beverly Hills, Del Mar, Mill Valley, Newport Beach, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Greenwich and New York City. They reek of money. They should reside for a time in a small cell. The lawyer should be disbarred. They are also going to pay a high financial price. Their payments to Singer were through a bogus non-profit for which they received deductions on their income taxes. Large penalties will be assessed. Here’s the crazy, stupid thought. These multi-millionaires could have bought their children into elite universities through the back door. They did not have to use the side door. Here’s the sad thought. Rick Singer is not the only one out there. More admissions scandals will emerge. Parents’ greed to get their children into an elite colleges starts early in life.

The Newport Harbor High School Students Sieg Heil Nazi Salute to the Swastika

The world by now has heard of the Newport Harbor High School juniors playing beer pong, forming a swastika, then laughing and smiling as they Sieg Heil saluted the red solo cup swastika at a private party in neighboring Costa Mesa. They thought it was a funny joke. They then compounded their gross stupidity by promptly posting it on social media. Aren’t we cool? Aren’t we funny? Where are their inner morals and ethics? Parents, School officials, Jewish groups and politicians appropriately went ballistic. Sean Boulton, Newport Harbor principal said: “We condemn all actions of anti-Semitism and hate, period. This is not who we are or what we stand for. This will not define us.” The schoolboard and administrators would love to discipline the students. Police have interviewed at least two dozen students. The facts are slightly different, but even more offensive. The students were not just from Newport Harbor, but also Corona Del Mar (CDM), Estancia, Costa Mesa and Junipero Serra High Schools. The Newport Harbor students had studied the Holocaust last month in a history class. They saw pictures of the Holocaust. They are educated students acting like ignoramuses. Don’t blame it on being teenagers. Don’t blame it on alcohol Don’t call it a not-so-funny joke. Jewish students at Newport Harbor report instances of anti-Semitism, including swastikas carved on desks and in the restrooms. Newport Beach is one of the most affluent cities in the affluent Orange County. These students are privileged. Their acts reinforce the historic concept of Orange County as the Orange Curtain. As privileged high school students, they indulge in a culture of drugs and alcohol like many privileged, and not so-privileged, high school students nationally. They lack an inner compass or conscience. Who are the parents that let their house be used for a beer party by underaged high school kids? They should be prosecuted. Who has not instilled a culture of judgment, values, and tolerance in these students? Is it the parents? Is it the teachers? Is it social media? It may cost them admissions to the colleges of their choice. That’s not cool. Acts have consequences. People know the identity of the students. The student from Junipero Serra High School, a Catholic High School, either dropped out, or was expelled from Serra High School a few days later. Serra administrators aren’t saying which it was, but they issued a statement strongly deploring anti-Semitism. Some, not all, Newport Harbor students wore blue Monday to show solidarity with the Jews. 500 people showed up Monday at a community meeting at Newport Harbor High School to air out their outrage and condemn anti-Semitism. The students are probably safe from punishment from their public schools. It was a private off-campus party unrelated to any school activity. The swastika goes back at least 1500 years. It was an honored symbol. The Nazis turned the swastika into an infamous symbol. The swastika is just as offensive as blackface, the N word, or a noose to African Americans. Anti-Semitism, intolerance, and hate crimes are rising globally and in the United States, especially on our campuses. Both the British Labour party, led by the anti-Semite Jeremy Corbyn, and the U.S. Democratic Party are wrestling with anti-Semitism. 89 year old Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor and step-sister of Anne Frank, was in California on an anti-Semitism tour, educating America about the Holocaust. She met with the students yesterday. They apologized profusely and said they thought it was a funny game while drunk. Alcohol can cause you to engage in stupid acts. It can also release inhibitions and bring out the “real you.” What have they learned? Not to be anti-Semitic? Be careful what you post on social media? Or Not to drink?

The AOC Green New Deal

Once we pay everyone who doesn’t want to work to not work, who would want to work to pay those who are not working? You can catch the 8:10 bullet train to Singapore. An express bullet train from Tia Juana to the new train station at SFO for the Border Crossers You can no longer catch the $77 billion California bullet train from nowhere to nowhere. Trains to regional hubs, where you switch to horse and buggy to your ultimate destination Mahalo to Hawaii Use the New York City public transit system and public housing as your template The visiting team in the annual Notre Dame/USC football rivalry will return to getting to the stadium by cross country train while wearing throwback uniforms Methane filters to trap bovine flatulence Road apple patrols Boviation In congress Hot air balloons in Congress Snail mail by the Pony Express Organic farming by solar tractors A vegan diet Your backyard herb garden for medicines Whale out to light in the lamp Ask Spain how the solar thing worker out Ask Germany how the alternative fuels have worked out Ask Australia how the alternative fuels have worked out Learn to ride a bike. The once bicycle country of China has abandoned the bike for the large car. What does China know that we don’t? How long does it take to bike from Los Angeles to San Francisco? How much wood will we burn in fireplaces to stay warm during winter? All buildings are to be rebuilt to make them energy efficient. An estimated 5.6 million commercial buildings and 136.57 housing units are in the United States. Where do you begin? None of this matter because the world’s going to end in 12 years. The Biblical prophesies predicted the world will end within 40 years of Israel building the Third Temple. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not a Biblical Prophet.

Caution: Yearbooks Are Dangerous for Your Political Health

The Senate confirmation hearings on Justice Kavanaugh were a disgrace to American democracy. Political partisans have long since passed the line into no holds-barred political warfare. The end justifies the means. PERIOD. Seemingly anything goes. Justice Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook was placed under an electron microscope looking for definitive evidence that he was a sexual harasser in high school. His nomination survived Just as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s removal of the filibuster for federal judges came back to bite the Democrats over the first two years of the Trump Administration with judicial appointments, the Kavanaugh hearings are now biting Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. . We now know that as he was campaigning for Governor by repeatedly attacking Republican Ed Gillespie as a racist, Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook was a ticking time bomb. He’s just another political hypocrite/hack who will say whatever to get elected. We now know that the politician calling a non-racist a racist had actually engaged in racist behavior. The picture in his yearbook under his name of a man with blackface standing next to another man in a KKK outfit blew up earlier today. He apologized today for the photo, but didn’t say which he was – not that it matters. A lot of high school and college yearbook photos, and captions, are ill-advised in hindsight and maturity. I wouldn’t give much credence to them, unless they are a forewarning of later behavior. People change; they mature; they grow up; they acquire a set of values. A lot of stupid behavior occurs in high school which is later regretted. This photo though is in a medical school graduation yearbook in 1984 when Dr. Northam was 25. It had to take deliberation to submit the photo. This photo was not an act of sophomoric humor by a pimple faced teenager. He had to know by 1984 at the age of 25, even in the Southern state of Virginia, that blackface and KKK are repugnant. He issued a statement as I wrote this blog that he will not resign. His governorship is dead if he stays in office, but he won’t. He was already in political hot water this week by endorsing a full-term abortion statute that could amount to infanticide. That he could survive. Not blackface and the KKK. The Democrats cannot use the racist card while one of them is a racist. Minnesota Senator Al Franken had to resign because of an old photo of the then comedian putting his hands on the breasts of a sleeping soldier. It looks bad. Whoever did the opposition research for Ed Gillespie and Governor Northam’s primary opponent is guilty of political malpractice. Yearbooks, old college newspapers, failed memories are now fair game in politics. You might be able to purge postings on social media, but not those old, faded, dusty, moldy yearbooks.

The President Grounded the Speaker In Response to Her Cancellation of His State of the Union Address

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi invited President Donald Trump to deliver the State of the Address on January 29 in the House of Representatives. She disinvited him on January 15, pending resolution of the Partial Government Shutdown. She said security could not be assured at the Capitol because of the shutdown with security officers going unpaid. President Trump’s twitter account has been strangely silent in response to the Speaker’s unprecedented act. He responded today. The Speaker, Representatives Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel, and other Democrats were on a bus about to catch a military jet for a flight to Afghanistan and Brussels (for NATO) Don’t underestimate President Trump. He has some of LBJ in him. He can reward and he can punish – old style politics. He responded with old style, hardcore politics – not tweets on this occasion.. LBJ, Tip O’Neill, Big Daddy Jesse Unruh, all would be proud. Steny Hoyer, The House Majority Leader, called the President’s act “petty,” “small,” and “vindictive.” Alexandra Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi’s daughter, said on CNN January2 that “She’ll cut your head off and you won’t even know you’re bleeding.” President Trump can play the same hardball politics. Make no mistake – he sent a message! The Democrats got the President’s letter shortly before they reached the plane. The letter was classic: “Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you will agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.” He added: “I also feel that, during this period if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown. Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.” Next Tuesday is the next deadline for federal payroll checks to be processed. The cancelled trip was for seven days, meaning that no progress would be made on resolving the dispute before the federal employees missed another paycheck. The Speaker is furious, undoubtedly plotting her next move. She will have ample time to mull it over if she flies commercial. The Democrats were on a junket. Republicans do it too. Junkets are non-partisan. Speaker Pelosi should have realized the optics are bad on the week long cancelled trip. It could only have been planned for weeks if the Democrats knew the Shutdown would continue. Members of Congress should not receive pay during budget shutdowns. They also should not go on government paid junkets. Nor should they go to Puerto Rico either on government money or lobbyist money. The President also cancelled all Congressional delegation travel by military aircraft during the Shutdown. He further cancelled his trip and that of Administration to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland next week. As a sidenote, Speaker Pelosi had a reputation of using military planes for domestic travel during her previous stint from 2007-11 as Speaker. The next move is the Speaker’s.

Speaker Pelosi Says No: Options for President Trump on the State of the Union Address

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had exercised her power to disinvite President Trump from delivering the State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress in the House of Representatives after earlier inviting him. The United States Constitution sets up three co-equal branches of government: The Legislative, Presidency, and Judicial. Each is sovereign in its own right with certain inherent powers. The House of Representatives governs the House and the Senate the Senate. The Speaker of the House formally invites speakers before the House. For example, Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress on March 3, 2015. The Speaker extends the invitation to the President to present the State of the Union address to the people before a joint session of Congress. It’s usually a formality. Speaker Pelosi adhered to the letter of the law by extending the invitation to President Trump for January 29, but then effectively disinvited him until a budget agreement is reached to end the partial shutdown of government. That is either a brilliant political stratagem, of which the Speaker prides herself, or it is petty. President Trump has options, which will work to his advantage and not the Speaker’s. The Constitution requires a State of the Union report by the President to Congress. It does not require an oral presentation. Presidents only in the past century have delivered the address in the House of Representatives to the American people. President Trump can deliver the address virtually anywhere he wants, and forward a written copy to Congress whenever he wants. He can invite the audience of his choice to the presentation. He can deliver the address before the Senate with the House not invited. He can deliver it in the White House. He can deliver it on the Capitol Mall. He can deliver it by the Rio Grande on the Texas Border. He can deliver in an arena or stadium. He can deliver it in front of the wall surrounding Speaker Pelosi’s San Francisco house. My preference will be to deliver the State of the Union Address before the San Diego Border Wall in front of an audience of the victims and victim families of illegal immigrants: the widow of Officer Ronil Singh, a legal immigrant gunned down by an illegal immigrant, other relatives of slain officers and victims of MS-13, the victims of illegal drivers and drunken drivers. He could attach to the Address delivered to Congress a list of all the victims and crimes of illegal immigrants. The San Diego Wall has been incredibly effective in halting illegal immigration at the San Diego border, which was once flooded by illegal immigrants. He could continue with a impressive listing off all his Administration’s accomplishments over the past two years. He could show photos of the Democratic members of Congress cavorting on the beaches of Puerto Rico. He can demand that members of Congress not receive compensation during a government budget shutdown. President Trump’s presentation would trump Speake Pelosi’s shutdown of State of the Union Address and the banality of their argument that “Walls don’t work.” A side feature with this presentation would be the lack of a response by an opposition speaker, although Republicans would relish another rebuttal from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer..

Memo to California Governor Gavin Newsom

Congrats Governor Newsom. You are now the 40th Governor of California, the first Democrat since 1888 to succeed another Democrat as Governor. You gave your inauguration speech on Monday and presented your first budget on Thursday. You laid out your drams and ambitions for the State. The Sacramento chorus is cheering. It’s heady times for you. Sacramento is raking in the money. The Democrats hold a supermajority in both branches of the legislature. The Republicans have no control over the budget or taxes. The remaining Republicans in Sacramento are meek and quiescent. California is now a one party state with you as Governor. Governor Jerry Brown, your predecessor, built up a reserve fund for the state budget. You may have an extra $21.6 billion to spend next year. Yes, times are good for the Democrats. Enjoy the euphoria. These will be the best days of your four year administration. Yes, you are facing an economic maelstrom in California. You have the potential to become another Justin Trudeau and Francois Macron. They entered office a few years ago in Canada and France with overwhelming public support. Their polls are now in the tank, much lower than President Trump’s, for mishandling the economy. California is like a building, magnificent on the outside, but rotting inside. The state, your state, our state, looks in good shape from the outside at first glance, but the economic dry rot is eating away. California is increasingly anti-business. Business know it. 13,000 business have left the state from 2008-2017 because of high taxes, regulatory burdens, high housing costs, and the overall cost of doing business in California. Business’s that have moved their corporate or U.S. headquarters out of California include Bank of America, Bechtel, Carl’s Jr., Core-Mark Holding Company, Davita, Jamba Juice, Kubota, McKesson’s, Nestles, Nissan, Northrup Grumman, Occidental Petroleum and now the Raiders. Other companies, such as Apple, Beckman Coulter, and Chevron, have moved substantial operations out of the state. A Bureau of Census report last year showed 142,932 more Californians left for other states than came from other states. A survey last year of Bar Area residents said they would like to leave California. You promised in your inauguration to be “a prudent steward of taxpayer dollars,” and also to “be bold.” You can’t be both. And you won’t. The pressure to spend, spend, spend is too great. California’s $2.7 trillion economy may be the fifth largest in the world after the United States, China, Japan, and Germany, but it’s ranked 42nd out of 50 states in fiscal condition and 49th worst in taxes. The state is fiscally Mismanaged. Here’s your problems. You said in your inaugural address that you will recognize all Californians. You can’t. You are a San Francisco Democrat. You do not, and cannot, understand the Central Valley or Inland Empire, which do not enjoy the deceptive coastal prosperity. You decry the inequality in California. Yet your policies will increase it. Almost 20% of Californians live in poverty. California, with 12% of the nation’s population, has 1/3 of the nation’s welfare expenditures. California, with 12% of the nation’s population, has one-fourth of the nation’s homeless. The numbers grew by 14% in 2016-17 and then by 17% in 2017-18. You can see the large number of the homeless on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County. It’s a modern American tragedy, and still growing in California. The liberal residents in San Francisco and Brentwood are increasingly upset with the homeless problem. The obvious solution is to throw money at the problem, another $500 million, but the more you spend on the problem, the more attractive California becomes to the nation’s homeless. Millions of Californians pay over half their income on rent. The problem will grow until the state’s cities and counties welcome homebuilding and lift exclusionary zoning practices. California, the rich, prosperous, affluent California has the highest poverty rate in the country. The state’s highways, roads, and streets are continuing to deteriorate. Governor Brown fooled the people by increasing the gas and registration taxes increased by saying it’s for the roads and highways. Much of the revenue is diverted to other purposes. These taxes are highly regressive, increasing the burden on poor workers by up to $1,000 a year. Yet you decry the inequity in the state. You support the Green agenda of your predecessors. California is to be 100% carbon free for electrical production by 2045, and 60% by 2030. The national average cost of electricity is 8.82cents/kwh. It’s twice that at 16.06cents/kwh in California. Alternative fuels are expensive. I can afford the electricity rates, but they are again a tax on the poor and an economic disincentive to commerce and industry. You want a high minimum wage. That will benefit those who keep their jobs, result in reduced employment in lower paying jobs. You yearn for a single payer health insurance system for California even though the cost will be more than the current state budget. You are asking the legislature to impose an individual mandate on all Californians, the mandate that has been repealed by Congress. This tax increase will suck more disposable income out of residents pockets. You propose in the meantime to provide Medi-Cal coverage to all undocumented immigrants under 26 at an estimated cost of $260 million. Medi-Cal currently covers 33% of California’s population. You are also proposing new taxes on residential water use as well as a phone tax to fund the 911 system. The public pension plans are grossly underfunded. You are proposing pumping an additional $4.8 billion into the pension funds. You are proposing a second year of free tuition at the community colleges, while the great University of California has been chronically starved of state funds for decades. You are proposing $1.8 billion on early childhood education programs, child care and full time kindergarten. An op-ed writer in the LA Times immediately wrote that $1.8 billion “isn’t enough.” Of course, there’s never enough money to supply all the “needs.” However, you premise much of the increased surplus on California’s Medi-Cal costs dropping 1%. You want six month paid family leave after the birth of a child, but haven’t figured out how to pay for it. You have to deal with Governor Brown’s Bullet Train fantasy. It will not be a “bullet” train, will cost over $100 billion to build, and will be uneconomical if to operate. You can pull the plug, or pour money down the rathole. You can expect a substantial increase in crime as a result of Governor Brown through AB 109 and Prop 57 reducing the state inmate size by 34,000 inmates. Felonies were reduced to misdemeanors, and misdemeanors reduced to tickets. He also eliminated much of the traditional cash bail system. California is leading the Resistance against President Trump. You know the federal district and appellate judges of the Ninth Circuit will have your judicial back in leading the judicial resistance to the President. Note, California needs billions in revenue from the federal government. The Trump Administration will try to cut off federal funds whenever possible. You can fight legal battles for the funds.