In a recent post, Booman asked: “Why is Boeing’s 737 Max 8 Plane Still Flying?” (http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2019/3/12/175323/799)
I answered…basically…
Legal graft.
Also known today as “Lobbyists’ under the table payoffs” and “Corporate monetary support for PermaWar, corporate-friendly congressmen and other politically powerful people.”
I had more to say, but ran out of time.
I was going to add something about the absolute collapse of Big Time Education/Big Time Science….and by extension, Big Time Manufacturing. If the plans aren’t right, the supervisors aren’t right and the workers are underpaid and anxious about their own survival, bad things are going to happen.
Bet on it.
I have seen this educational-level problem happening first-hand in the music conservatory/university field over the past couple of decades, and my son…who just got his doctorate in Environmental Biology from an Ivy League school and has been teaching there on one level or another for a number of years…concurs.
And now the news:
Elite College Bribery Scandal!!!
It’s all over the headlines!!!
Long story short, from NPR.(www.npr.org/2019/03/13/702973336/does-it-matter-where-you-go-to-college-some-context-for-the-ad
missions-scandal):
It’s no secret that wealth brings advantages when it comes to sending your kids to college. Rich and famous parents can donate large sums of money to schools or lean on their names and connections. Some ritzy colleges explicitly prefer the children and grandchildren of alumni — at Harvard, an investigation found last year, these “legacy” admits were five times more likely to get in than the average Joe.
Yet federal prosecutors say that for 33 wealthy parents, these advantages were not enough. A college consultant named William Singer, of Newport Beach, Calif., pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a cheating scheme that included bribing SAT test proctors and college coaches on behalf of these families.
The indictment names prominent actors and business leaders. It alleges crazy stunts — like having a stand-in take a college entrance exam, photo-doctoring to paste a student’s head onto the body of an athlete, bribing college coaches, and paying up to $75,000 for falsified exam results, all in the name of getting their kids admission through what Singer called “a side door,” to schools like Yale, The University of Texas and the University of Southern California.
—snip—
Now…do not kid yourselves. “Cheating” is rampant up and down the educational system, not just at the most wealthy levels. Following is a missive from the great playwright David Mamet regarding this problem. (https:/deadline.com/2019/03/david-mamet-defends-felicity-huffman-amid-elite-college-bribery-scanda
l-1202574709)
Read on.
I worked for very many years in and around our Elite Universities. I am able to report that their admissions policies are an unfortunate and corrupt joke.
Harvard was once sued for restricting the admission of qualified Jews; a contest currently being waged by Asians.
The unqualified may be accepted for many reasons, among them, as Legacies, and on account of large donations made by their parents. 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’ve known and worked with Bill Macy for nearly fifty years. We started two theatre companies together, one of which, THE ATLANTIC is still in operation in New York, after 35 years. I’ve known Felicity Huffman for those 35 years, she was my student, my colleague, worked in many of my films, and created roles on stage in three of my plays.
I’m crazy about them both.
That a parent’s zeal for her children’s future may have overcome her better judgment for a moment is not only unfortunate, it is, I know we parents would agree, a universal phenomenon.
If ever there were a use for the Texas Verdict, this is it. For the uninitiated, the Texas Verdict is: “Not Guilty, but Don’t do it Again.”
David Mamet
Yup.
This current uproar is just another clickbait media foofaraw. If they really cared enough to do so, they could plant reporters in every high school and college in the country and soon find equivalent…although less potentially sensationalistic…”cheats” going on from admissions right on through doctoral studies.
Hell…how many supposedly “original” research papers and major publication articles have been blown out of the water for plagiarism and/or fudged data in the last year or so alone!!! Do you think that this happens only at the top of the food chain?
Get real!!!
You’ve heard of “trickle down economics,” right?
Well…this is trickle down dishonesty!!!
It starts at the top.
Lying presidents and their staff.
Lying corporations.
Lying media.
And they get away with it.
So…”Why not try it yourself?” is the next question.
Right on down to your local automobile mechanics, dentists and school teachers.
Playing an already “played” system out of the need for sheer self-survival.
Trickle down dishonesty.
Deal wid it.
From the top, please.
Hold your so-called “leaders” to a higher standard.
When someone lies to Congress…as did the various functionaries of the Obama regime when asked about “illegal” surveillance practices, for example…demand that they be punished!!!
Why?
Because:
The ship be sinking!!!
That is a quote from the wonderful basketball player/character Michel Ray Richardson when asked about a woeful NY Knicks team. When further questioned about how far it could sink, he replied “The sky’s the limit.”
Yup.
That concept could well apply to the United Staes of Omertica today.
How far can we sink?
Stay tuned.
The sky’s the limit!!!
About the only prominent people telling the truth about our condition are the New Dems. And they are increasingly coming under attack by the Deep State’s Mighty Wurlitzer media for their efforts.
The rest?
Remember that Pelosi photo meme from the recent Trump State of he Union Show? Where she was supposedly telling him that she had one-upped him? The “sarcastic clap?” (https:/www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/05/state-union-nancy-pelosi-clap-trump-q
uickly-becomes-meme/2786195002) I swear…when I saw it, it looked to me like just another gang sign.
The Feds.
Like the Crips and the Bloods, but…much bigger.
And much, much more dangerous to our own survival.
Bet on that as well.
Wake the fuck up.
Later…
AG
P.S. And while I’m at it…stay away from Boeing airplanes if you can possibly do so.
They been cheating too.
