Friday, August 31, 2018

Hail to the Victors! 2018 is the Year to Win it All

This is the year. The Wolverines will be back, finally. They will win it all. Michigan will beat Notre Dame, Michigan State, and Ohio State on the road and Penn State and Wisconsin at home, the Big (Ten) Title Game, and the two playoff games. Don’t scoff! I know the stats. Michigan is 1-13 against Ohio State in the past 14 game. Lloyd, the coach whose name shall not be mentioned, Brady and now Harbaugh are 0-16 since 2006 in road games against ranked teams. Harbaugh is 1-2 against Michigan State. No Big Ten titles since 2004. Notre Dame, Michigan State, and Ohio state are road games this year. Penn State and Wisconsin are at home. The Wolverines will prevail. The breaks will fall their way this season. So many games were oh so close last year. This is the year. Michigan’s problem for a decade has been a porous offensive line that sometimes leaked like a sieve. The school which routinely sent OL’s to the NFL has had a few All Americans in recent years, David Molk, Jake Butt and Taylor Lewan, but a OL is only as good as its weakest player. The result is twofold: 1) the team is beaten down by the end of the season and loses games, and 2) relatedly the RB’s and QB’s are banged up. Denard Robinson, Devin Garner and whoever entered the Ohio State game unable to throw the ball. The passing game has been anemic. Wide receivers could not create space at the line of scrimmage. Running backs had to execute their best moves to get back to the line of scrimmage. A running game can open up the passing game. The passing game can open up the running game. If neither is effective, then the offense will underperform. His offensive game plans were often simplified by necessity. Good old fashion smash mouth football didn’t work. Watch Michigan open it up this year with a bevy of solid quarterbacks and running backs. Coach Harbaugh made adjustments during the off-season. He’s hired a new conditioning coach, offensive coordinator, and offensive line coach. The offensive line will click this year. Michigan has lost too many games at the end of the season. Lucy will not pull the football out this year from Charlie Brown. What do I really think? 8-5 to 14-1. If Michigan beats Notre Dame Saturday night, it should be able to defeat Michigan State on the road. One of these years the pendulum will change against Ohio State. Penn State and Wisconsin are beatable in Ann Arbor. All Michigan needs this year is a solid offensive line and a few breaks to go along with a great defense. 14-1. Let not Ohio State be the loss. POST GAME POSTING Lucy pulled the football out again. The offensive line problems continue and Michigan continues to have trouble with a running quarterback.

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Memo to Ohio State "President" Michael Drake: Football Coach Urban Meyer is TOSU President - Not You

University of California Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake was appointed President of The Ohio State University on January 30, 2014. His vision was undoubtedly to take an outstanding university and raise it to greatness. The Chancellor from California did not understand the ethos of Ohio. Football is the state religion of Ohio. A winning Ohio State football coach is God in Ohio. The Buckeye Nation worships at the altar of Meyer. Mere mortals genuflect to him. Urban Meyer has won one national championship in six years in Columbus. More than that he has defeated that school up north, aka Michigan, 6 times in 6 years. Coaches who consistently lost to Michigan, e.g. Earle Bruce and John Cooper, were fired. He is God of Ohio football. He tolerated Zach Smith, a spousal abuser on his staff; he must have had a good reason in his mind, just as he did with Aaron Hernandez and a host of other players earlier at Florida, where he won two national titles. Coach Meyer gave Zach promotions and substantial salary increases over the years despite increasing erratic behavior. His judgment cannot be questioned. He is a winner. President Drake earns $1.09 million a year. Coach Meyer’s is $7.6 million, the highest paid person at Ohio State. Gene Smith, the athletic director, earns almost twice as much as the Ohio State President. Any questions about the state’s priorities? He lied to reporters. Who cares? Coach Meyer said at the Wednesday press conference: “I wish I had done more and I wish I had known more.” He’s still lying about his ignorance. His wife knew and apparently never told him. Yet he asked an administrator how to delete the text messages on his phone after the scandal went public. Coach Meyer knows football – not smart phones. Urban Meyer’s body language at the press conference was one of arrogance and disgust. It was snarly and surly, like “How dare you force me to be here!” It was a damn inconvenience for him to be there as he woodenly read a prepared statement. He was sorry for the Buckeye Nation, but did not mention Courtney Smith, the victim. The assistant coach, Zach Smith, took high school coaches to strip clubs on the university tab. He had sex toys sent to his office, and was sleeping with a secretary in the athletic department. President Drake fired Jonathan Water, the innovative marching band director, on July 24, 2014 for not stopping a history of sexualized misconduct by the band. Jonathan, as a student member of the band, dotted the “I” at the November 21, 1998 Ohio State – Michigan game. The President said: “We expect every member of our community to live up to a common standard of decency and mutual respect and to adhere to university policies.” Not always – apparently a pattern of domestic violence does not count. Jim Tressel, once a great Ohio State coach, was fired for less. Don’t cry for Tressel. The state of Ohio has taken good care of him. The former football coach of Youngstown State is now the President of Youngstown State. This though is Urban Meyer, the legendary Urban Meyer. I don’t know if President Drake has ever met former President James Duderstadt of Michigan, who has been concerned about the relationship of big time athletics to institutions of higher education. His book, Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective (2003), should be a must read for university presidents. He writes in his preface: “While it is tempting for university presidents to regard intercollegiate athletics as merely a peripheral activity, far removed from the mainstream mission of the university, it is also clear that the unusual public visibility of big-time sports programs can place the university at considerable risk.” Big Ten universities are a shining example of sports debacles affecting university missions of academic excellence. The University of Michigan had a major scandal 15 years when it was discovered a booster was paying many of its star basketball players. More recently Penn State has incurred $237 million in costs as of January 2017 in the Jerry Sandusky Scandal. Esteemed Coach Joe Paterno was shabbily treated by the Board. Michigan State recently agreed to pay $500 million to 332 victims of Dr. Larry Nassar. Ohio State is experiencing revelations about a doctor for the wrestling teams. He died years ago, but the liability lives on. Maryland has a football team scandal on its hands and Rutgers has several players arrested in recent years for a variety of offenses, including credit card fraud in the past week. USC, in the Pac 12, is undergoing a scandal similar to Michigan State and Ohio State. An NCAA basketball scandal is unfolding and may involve Arizona, Auburn, Kansas, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, and USC. Baylor’s football program has been wracked by a series of alleged sexual assaults. Ohio State is appearing to condone domestic violence. I suspect not everyone in the Buckeye Nation is happy about that message. Ohio State’s Board took almost 11 hours Wednesday in deciding Urban Meyer's future – at least for now it’s a three game suspension and several weeks without pay. That won’t even put a dent in his $7.6 million salary. Rumors are that President Drake wanted the coach terminated. Both the coach and athletic director violated a cardinal rule of governance. They sprang a major avoidable, unpleasant surprise on the President, Board, and University without warning. Zach Smith’s lawyer, Brad Koffel, isn’t helping. He issued a statement Wednesday: “Zach Smith married a woman he should not have married. Vengeance against her ex-husband resulted in collateral damage to Urban Meyer, Gene Smith and the Ohio State University.” Yep, blame it on the victim. Urban Meyer finally tweeted an apology Wednesday to Courtney Smith. The odds are he didn’t write it, just as he didn’t write the statement he read Wednesday. The tweet said: “Let me say here and now what I should have said on Wednesday. I sincerely apologize to Courtney Smith and her children for what they have gone through. My words and demeanor on Wednesday did not show how seriously I take relationship violence. This has been a real learning experience for me. I fully intend to use my voice more effectively.” We will see. Penn State disgustingly fired Joe Paterno, stripped him of his victories and removed his statue in front of the stadium eventhough Joe Pa had reported Jerry Sandusky to his superiors. Gene Smith and Urban Meyer should be fired, but this is Urban Meyer. Gene Smith’s contract is up in 2020. He will probably quietly retire. Urban Meyer ????

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Will President Trump Trump President Erdogan?

The US-Turkey fight is purported to be over Andrew Brunson, a Protestant Minister, imprisoned in Turkey for 21 months. That’s only the surface of several layers; it’s much deeper than one minister and goes back several years. . President Trump is tough. He’s a New York City streetfighter, who made it in New York City real estate, one of the toughest markets in the world. He has survived financial setbacks and fake news as well as the collective slings and arrows of the media. He is a tough survivor. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is tough. He has survived imprisonment, banishment from political office, a legal coup, and a military coup. He is a tough survivor. Both use strong language. Neither suffers insults easily. President Trump tweets and insults. President Erdogan jails. President Trump is challenged by the Deep State. President Erdogan is eviscerating his Parallel State. We are currently witnessing a battle for survival between the two presidents. We were in Istanbul 5 years ago. It was a dynamic city with a booming economy. The fast pace of the people reminded me of the first time in Manhattan, witnessing the hurried pace of multitudes of New Yorkers on 5th Avenue. Optimism permeated Istanbul. Turkey wanted in the EU. The EU needed Turkey’s economic success as a model. It didn’t happen. The EU toyed with Turkey, which even eliminated capital punishment as a condition of joining the EU, but the answer was No. I believe Western Europe holds strong biases against the Turks, remembering the centuries of Ottoman rule and attacks on Austria. Many still view Turkey as backwards. The Greeks, Albanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Ukrainians and Romanians have no love for the Turks. Anti-Muslim bias probably also played a role. Roughly 2 million Turks work in Germany, but they are definitely second class non-citizens. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was on a roll. He had tamed inflation while keeping inflation low. He unleased the economy. He invested in major infrastructure projects. Turks were rightly proud. Let us start with an underlying premise. Turkey’s main economic problem is a heavy debt load. Its growth was financed by foreign debt, usually in dollars or Euros. A drop in the Turkish Lira adversely affects debt repayment. Turkish companies owe about $220 in foreign exchange loans. Moody’s removed the “investment grade” rating from Turkey’s debt rating in 2016. They just rerated it as “junk.” Warning signs were present five years ago of President Erdogan’s megalomania. President Erdogan had already imprisoned scores of reporters and, with the assistance of Muhammed Fethullah Gulen’s supporters, framed scores of military leaders in 2005. There was not going to be another military coup on his watch. Iman Gulen founded in Turkey the Gulen Movement (Hizmet), which is a form of soft Islam, emphasizing hard work, education, altruism, and tolerance. A split between the allies occurred in December 2013, when the sons of three cabinet ministers were arrested for corruption. A tape was leaked, with Prime Minister Erdogan instructing his son to dispose of millions of dollars in incriminating funds. The inference was that the devoutly religious prime minister was also a deeply corrupt prime minister. The prosecutors forgot the cardinal rule. If you try to depose the king, sultan, shah, ruler, president, prime minister, boss, leader, make sure you succeed. They failed. The PM resisted calls to resign. The responsible prosecutors and police were quickly arrested. Gulen supporters in the judiciary, police, prosecution, and intelligence services were purged. Erdogan blamed Gulen, who moved to the United States in 1999 for medical treatment, has a Green Card. He lives in a compound in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. An arrest warrant was issued in Turkey for him on December 19, 2014. Then came the botched military coup on July 15, 2016. Over 160,000 Turks were arrested or detained, and over 180,000 fired from their jobs. Over 140,000 passports were cancelled, precluding them from leaving Turkey. 4,000 judges, 25% of the country’s total, were dismissed, so much for an independent judiciary. Elected officials, including members of Parliament, mayors, and party leaders, were purged and sometimes arrested. The broad brush of Erdogan’s vengeance includes, at recent count, includes 24,000 police officers and prosecutors, 7,300 academics, 15 universities and over 1,000 schools closed, 28 TV stations closed, as well as 36 radio stations, 66 newspapers, 19 magazines, 26 publishing houses, and 5 news services. Over 1,000 private businesses, often of his political opponents, were seized. The story is that Turkey had to empty its prisons of ordinary criminals to make room for the political prisoners. The Gulen Movement has been labeled a terrorist movement, but Erdogan’s victims include Kurds, socialists, communists, and innocent victims. The President again blamed Fethullah Gulen and has actively sought his extradition from the United States, which has been rejected several times on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Erdogan wants Gulen to the same extent Stalin wanted Trotsky. The Reverend Andrew Brunson has been in Turkey for 23 years, ministering to a small church with about 25 congregants in Izmir, Turkey. He was arrested on October 7, 2016 on grounds of terrorism as a member of the Gulen Movement. He has essentially been held as a hostage for 21 months in exchange for Gulen. The Reverend is not the only one though. 17 Turkish Americans are also being held, including Dr. Serkan Golge, a NASA scientist with dual U.S. Turkish citizenship. Dr.Golge was vacationing in Turkey when he was arrested. The prosecutor told the judge that the serial number on one of Dr. Golge’s dollar bills represented his hierarchy in the Gulen Movement. Apparently, they believe that serial numbers beginning with “F” are suspect. Dr. Golge’s wife is barred from leaving Turkey. The State Department is further upset because the mass arrests included three Turkish employees, Metin Topuz, Hamza Vlucay, and Mete Canturk, of the United States Embassy. Due process is non-existent in these arrests and dismissals in Turkey. More twists are in the dispute. President Erdogan’s body guards attacked several demonstrators in Washington, D.C. on May 16, 2017 outside the Turkish Embassy during a visit by President Erdogan. 15 were indicted. Reza Zarrab, a gold trader who helped Turkey violate the sanctions on Iran in trading for oil, was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to 32 months in prison. Erdogan wants him back. He will also want Mehmet Hakan Attila returned. Mehmet was Vice President of state owned Halkbank, which funneled the funds to Iran in breaching the sanctions. He has also been sentenced to 32 months while the bank is awaiting the imposition of perhaps substantial fines. Washington feels betrayed by President Erdogan. Israel arrested Ebru Ozkan, a 27 year old Turkish woman, in June for helping Hamas. Presidents Trump and Erdogan met on July 11 at the NATO meeting. The Americans believe, the Turks deny, that an agreement was reached for the release of Ebru in exchange for Reverend Brunson. President Trump phoned Prime minister Netanyahu on July 14, requesting the release of Ebru. Israel deported her the next day. Reverend Brunson remains a prisoner in Turkey, albeit now under house arrest. Charges were dropped at the same time against 11 of the indicted bodyguards. President Erdogan played President Trump for a fool, which he is not. The State Department then imposed sanctions on Turkey’s Interior and Justice Ministers. President Trump imposed tariffs of 20% on Turkey’s aluminum and 50% on Turkish steel. 11% of Turkey’s steel exports go to the United States. President Erdogan still believes in massive infrastructure, borrowing heavily. He built a railroad tunnel under the Bosporus, connecting Europe to Asia. He’s building a third bridge across the Bosporus, and a third international airport for Istanbul on the Asia side of the Bosporus at a cost of at least $10 billion. He wants to build a new canal connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, bypassing the Bosporus. The environment be damned! Turkey’s boom was financed by borrowed money. Turkey’s banks borrowed dollars and euros, and loaned in Turkish Lira. 1/3 of Turkey’s bank borrowings are in foreign currency. Similarly, Turkey’s companies have often borrowed in dollars, such that about ½ of Turkey’s international debt is in dollars. The precipitous fall of the Turkish Lira jeopardizes the financial viability of the Turkish institutions. President Erdogan refuses to raise interest rates to fight the collapse in the Turkish Lira. Inflation is shooting up. He appointed his apparently unqualified Son in Law, Berat Albayrak, to be the Minister of both Finance and Treasury after his recent election victory. A few tweets and tariff increases should not sink a strong currency, but the Turkey Lira had already sunk 40% this year prior to President Trump’s actions. The TL was 2.4 to $1 when we were there 5 years ago. It was down to 3.8 at the beginning of 2018. It plunged to 7.23 to $1 before rallying. It’s hovering in the 5-6 range for now. Qatar offered Turkey $15 billion in investments, which buoyed the TL, but will only serve as a short term palliative unless Turkey’s economy is reformed. The good news for Turkey with the plunging TL is that it will attract large numbers of tourists for the bargain prices. Turkish residents will pay the price. The election gave President Erdogan peremptory powers. He can issue edicts, which can only be overturned by the Parliament, which he currently controls. He also controls the judiciary. The Turkish leader is acting like a true demagogue, giving a series of speeches blaming others for the country’s economic problems. He proclaimed “There are economic terrorists on social media,” and ordered an investigation of 360 social media sites. He said on Thursday: “If they have their dollars, we have the people. We have Allah.” Allah did not save the Ottomans, whom he admires. Allah did not save the later Sultans from financial insolvency by building two new palaces, the Dolmabahce and the Yildiz, which replaced the famous Topkapi. The foreign debt load financially hobbled the Sultans during their last decades in power. He exclaimed on Monday “We are together in NATO, and then you seek to stab your strategic partner in the back.” Turkey is increasingly a shaky member of NATO. Turkey was a bulwark of NATO against the Soviet Union during the Cold War because of its strategic location. Turkey signed a contract with Russia last year to purchase the Russian S-400 surface to air missile system. It is also acquiring a Russian nuclear reactor and buying Russian natural gas. Congress responded to the Russian missile pact by barring the sale of F-35’s to Turkey. The United States is rumored to have between 50 and 200 nuclear bombs stored at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base. I hope the U.S. has gradually been pulling them out. President Erdogan said the US tariffs were an “act of economic war,” and “Once again we are facing a surreptitious plot.” He postures: “They cannot use the language of threat and blackmail against this nation,” and “Bullying this nation will get them nowhere.” He’s demagoguing the United States, but so far has been careful to not personally denigrate President Trump. President Trump has simply stated: “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time.” And then we have the eternal issue of the Kurds. The Kurds were promised a homeland at the end of World War I, but it didn’t happen. Instead, they are spread between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The Kurds have fairly regularly engaged in guerilla warfare against Turkey. The current Kurdish “freedom fighters” or “terrorists,” depending on your perspective, are in the Kurdistan Workers Party The Kurds have carved out a major part of oil rich northern Iraq. The United States has backed Kurdish rebels in Syria fighting the Assad Regime. President Erdogan views the Syrian Kurds and the Turkish Kurds as identical terrorist groups. The Turks are frightened at the prospect of Syrian, Iraqi, and Turkish Kurds carving out an independent country. President Erdogan responded by banning the import of U.S. electronic products, specificallppy singling out Apple’s IPhone, which are actually manufactured in China. Turkey also announced an antitrust investigation of Google, following up on the recent EU actions. He further responded by imposing 120% tariffs on U.S. cars, 140% on alcoholic products, and 60% on leaf tobacco, as well as tariffs on American rice, coal, and cosmetics. The Turkish President is making nice with Iran and Russia, both also feeling the sting of American sanctions. He is playing with fire with those two, historic arch enemies of Turkey. The tsars, commissars, and now Vladimir Putin have all wanted control of the Turkish Straits, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, which control access to the Black Sea. Be careful of the Bear Hug. Iran is Shia and Turkey Sunni. The U.S. is upping the ante by promising more sanctions if the minister is not released. President Trump on Thursday called Andrew Brunson a “great patriot hostage” and said “We will pay nothing for the release of an innocent man.” He’s laid the marker: “The United States will impose larger sanctions on Turkey for their long term detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being.” President Erdogan's problem is that he is dealing with President Trump - nor President Obama Turkey will cave, but remember there’s multiple layers, nuances, and pieces to this puzzle.

Monday, August 6, 2018

And So, Donald Trump, Jr. Met With Russian Attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya to Get Dirt on Hillary

President Trump admitted Donald Trump, Jr. met with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower to get dirt on the Clinton campaign. The media is ecstatic. Congressman Adam Schiff has surfaced after a summer hiatus screaming “Collusion! Collusion! Collusion!” Which leads in the media’s eyes to impeachment and indictment. So they hope. Let me get this straight. The Clinton Campaign and Democratic National Committee retained a lawyer through his law firm, Perkins Coie, to hire Fusion GPS to hire Christopher Steele, a British former agent, to compile a dossier on Donald Trump with information from Russians. About $10 million dollars followed this path. And that’s OK? The FBI was interested to paying for the Steele Dossier. And that’s OK? But Donald Trump, Jr. should be packing for jail? Donald Trump’s mistake was based on the Trump Campaign inexperience and naivete. He should not have met directly with the Russian lawyer, nor, indeed, left any finger prints on the contact. Instead, he should have the actions taken by third parties. It’s called “plausible deniability.” The meeting was not illegal. Collusion is not illegal. Lying to the media is not a crime. Lying about it is stupid. Nothing can be kept secret in D.C., especially when the media is trying to scrape up any dirt it can on the Trumps. The Steele Dossier was the primary source for four FISA warrants against Carter Page to indirectly get info on Donald Trump and the Trump Campaign. And that’s OK? The Steele Dossier was the primary source for the initial rumors of the Trump-Russia Collusion and the four FISA warrants against Carter Page eventhough not verified. Christopher Steele has even said much of it probably isn’t true. And that’s OK? Opposition research is the norm these days. Opposition research is a euphemism for getting dirt, any way possible, on an opponent. The Clintons have pulled some sleazy campaigns, with the aid of the media, such as vicious attacks on the women accusing Governor Clinton of sexual assaults, in their careers. And that’s OK?

Saturday, August 4, 2018

President Trump, the New York Times, and Sarah Leong

President Trump’s unique foreign policy is his meeting with foreign leaders with whom he agrees or disagrees, such as President Kim Jong Un of North Korea and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. He had an open invitation out to Hassan Rouhani of Iran. He even had a tete-a-tete with A.G. Sulzberger, the new publisher of the New York Times, on Sunday, July 28. The President emerged from the meeting with his usual effusive summary. He initially described the meeting as “very good and interesting.” Mr. Sulzberger had a different perspective in a letter to the Huffington Post: My main purpose for accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the President’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric. I told the President directly That I thought his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.” He added the President’s “inflammatory language is contributing to the rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.” The debate is essentially over divisiveness: inflammatory rhetoric and fake news by the media against inflammatory language by the President. Nothing was resolved. The publisher is correct to the extent that journalism is increasingly becoming a dangerous profession with rising attacks against journalists (47 journalists and staff killed in the first half of 2018) and arrests of journalists, but that was occurring before President Trump’s election. However, much of the political violence in the United States today is triggered by the left-wing, such as Antifa, against conservatives. One left-wing nut-job even shot several Republican members of Congress in a baseball practice in Virginia. The New York Times announced on Wednesday of appointment of Sarah Jeong to its editorial board specializing in issues of technology. She is not the solution to reducing the current divisiveness in America. To the contrary her tweets pour fuel on the fires. Ms. Jeong was born in South Korea and came with her parents to the United States to pursue the American Dream and higher education. Her parents should be proud of their daughter. She received her bachelor’s from Berkeley and law degree from Harvard. She published a book, “The Internet and Garbage,” which discusses online harassment and free speech, all by 29. Sarah Jeong though has rejected the religion of her parents, asserting she “grew up in a conservative evangelical Christian bubble,” and was “trapped in a fundamentalist school” during her teen years. She cut herself “off from the conservative evangelical community,” and labeled herself “an annoying atheist.” The Times apparently has no problem with her history of racist, sexist, anti-police, and anti-Christian diatribes laced with profanities. She posted in December 2015: “I was equating Trump to Hitler before it was cool.” One tweet illustrates the ignorance of the self-proclaimed member of the “left-wing educated elite:” “I dare you to go on Wikipedia and play ‘Things white people can take credit for’ It’s really hard.” The answers include her alma maters the University of California Berkeley and Harvard Law School, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and her new employer, the New York Times. My erudite late father-in-law, who never attended college, called snotnoses like her “pissants.” Sarcasm and Satire usually have a degree of sophistication to be effective. Her prose is just, plain crude with all the subtlety of a blunderbuss: “I open my mouth to politely greet a Republican, but nothing but an unending cascade of vomit flows from my mouth.” Her tweets are racist. Here’s one from December 2014: “And white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.” She must have missed the life experience that shows hundreds of millions dark complexion Caucasians that are not the pale, fair skinned Anglo-Saxons, Nordics, or Slavs. She seems to be very ignorant for one so highly educated.. “ White people have stopped breeding. You’ll all go extinct soon.” Another one is “Dumbass fucking white people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants.” She hates men, failing to understand that a woman can be a feminist and like men at the same time. I’m not sure which is the most sexist, vicious, malicious tweet, but this one has to be high on the list: “Oh man, it’s kind of sick how much joy I get out of being cruel to old men.” That sounds like a bully to me, picking on those unable to protect themselves. A succinct 2013 tweet was “Kill more men,” along with “All men are garbage” in another tweet. She tweeted on February 24, 2015 “ Men are innately, unintentionally garbage.” She tweeted of heterosexual women “Being a straight woman is like being attracted to garbage heaps of radioactive arsenic.” One wonders if she ever intends to pass on her genes. Her August 2014 tweet proclaimed “Men are too fucking emotional to be let out in public. Jesus Christ.” She hates police officers. She tweeted in 2014 “Let me know when a cop gets killed by a rock or Molotov Cocktail or a stray shard of glass from a precious precious window.” A 2016 tweet is particularly telling: “If we are talking about sweeping bans on shit that kills people, why don’t we ever ever ever talk about banning the police?” Common tweets are “Police are assholes,” and “Fuck the police.” One has to wonder if the Times thoroughly vetted her, considering her vicious comments about the New York Times and its editorial writers. If I were her employer, I would never hire a staffer who had these comments to say, prior to employment, of some of my star op-ed writers. She tweeted on September 8, 2013 “A just God would not allow Tom Friedman to keep talking,” and asked of the Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman: “Guys, what drugs do you think Paul Krugman uses?” (1/2/2014) I thought she was an atheist! She tweeted on August 5, 2013 “Mind you, if I had a bajilion dollars, I’d buy the New York Times, just for the pleasure of firing Thomas Friedman.” More recently on August 11, 2017 she tweeted “Brooks is an absolute nitwit tho.” Here’s what she tweeted about the New York Times on November 24, 2013: “ After a bad day, some people come home and kick the furniture. I get on the Internet and make fun of the New York Times.” The New York Times defended Sarah Jeong by issuing a statement: “Her journalism and the fact that she is a young Asian woman has made her a subject of frequent online harassment.” “For a period of time to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of the harassers. She sees now that this approach only serves to feed the vitriol that we do often see on social media. She regrets it and the New York Times does not condone it.” The explanation doesn’t add up. Racism is racism, rather it be by whites, blacks, Hispanics Asians or Native Americans. It is no more acceptable from the left than the right. Korean Americans have not faced the historic discrimination against the Chinese and then Japanese Americans in America, including the WWII concentration camps of the Japanese Americans. Nor does her “rhetorical” response does not explain her pre-New York Times tweets or attacks on Christians and the police. We have two great Korean American professor on the faculty, with law degrees from Yale and UCLA. We have another colleague from India. All three women are excellent scholars and teachers. None of the three, as young Asian women, have engendered scurrilous social media comments. None have posted blogs or tweets that would cause a vile internet response. I assume that if my blog ever became popular and widely circulated that I would receive such comments. The Times is right in one respect to discrimination faced by Asian Americans, both by males and females; that in, in college admissions. Many elite private universities discriminate against them in admissions, just as they did against Jewish students for the first 2/3 of the 20th Century. Indeed, Harvard is currently defending itself in a law suit alleging discrimination against Asian American applications. Social media can be vicious. Hate speech, personal threats and horrific defamatory remarks are all too common from all slices of the political spectrum. The internet brings out nutjobs who can anonymously post. I assume that if my blog ever became well-read I would be receiving such treatment. Ms. Jeong is an angry, rebellious immature young woman, who’s education exceeds her rational capacity. Many commentators are upset about the blatant double standard of the New York Times. No one should be surprised. My concern is broader. She and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seem to reflect a large generation of our younger adults.