“Stay tuned, as I have at least two more News and Documentary Emmy Winners to post here.” That’s what I promised to end Frontline’s ‘The Choice 2016’ wins Outstanding Politics & Government Documentary. Watch Katty Kay present the award for Outstanding Business, Consumer, Economic Report for the payoff.
Yes, the winner really was “Trump University Fraud,” a segment on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. CNN has all of the clip used in the awards ceremony: Trump University instructor: What I did was sales.
As Donald Trump’s Trump University lawsuit moves forward in court, CNN’s Drew Griffin sits down with a former instructor and real estate expert who said he was the best salesman at the school.
The most damning part of the interview was used again in New motion filed in the Trump University case.
President-elect Donald Trump faces three lawsuits surrounding Trump University. CNN’s Drew Griffin investigates.
Judge Curiel advised the parties in the case he’s overseeing to settle the suit. That happened a few days later, as Trump University lawsuits settled for $25M.
New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his lawsuit against Trump University will be settled for $25 million, calling it a “stunning reversal” of President-elect Donald Trump’s position. Two class action lawsuits are also covered by the settlement.
That should have taken care of the suit except that Sherri Simpson is appealing the settlement so she can sue independently. This case is not over.
I have one more Emmy winner to post that features a President, one that covered a town hall with then President Obama. Stay tuned.
Originally posted at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.
I am glad that the Trump University scam is getting the business from The Business. It is, however, just another low-hanging fruit…an easy target and a politically motivated one as well. I await with bated breath similar coverage of such institutions as…and I only include recent personal experience here…The New School, NYU and Columbia.
Almost the entire U.S. higher academic system is now a hugely profitable real estate scam. Inflated tuition comes in; students are carried whether they are actually learning anything useful or not (Why flunk out hot investment money sources? Especially since the college loan scam is such a winner for the banks.); teachers are hired at low wages w/no benefits…especially grad students, who are used to near exhaustion w/the potential reward of a degree used as a carrot on a stick to keep them in a position of indentured servitude (A carrot that has increasingly less and less potential nutrition because of the glut of Masters and PhD degree recipients.)…and potentially massively valuable real estate is picked up from soon-to-be gentrified areas contiguous to the schools.
Always remember…it was no coincidence that the Boston gangster Whitey Bulger’s inside man brother William Bulger was selected as president of the University of Massachusetts system in 1995, when this practice was really getting its legs under it. They needed a professional scammer at that level, and he fit the bill perfectly.
I am close to a number of people who are currently working at high-level universities as adjunct teachers, and I have had my share of similar positions as well, positions that I neither actively seek nor actively try to keep because:
A-The pay sucks.
B-There is absolutely no job security offered.
C-There are zero benefits.
and
D-The talent and effort levels of way too many of the students…real estate cash cows, nothing more, really…are abysmal.
Do not swallow the hype. The U.S. university system is broken. Going after Trump University is like going after low-level payday loan shark banks.Easy pickings. I’ll applaud when I see Ivy League Universities and Wall Street firms getting the same treatment from the media, the same way that I will applaud when I see high-level neoliberal-allied economic and political hustlers getting Trump-level examination…Trump is just another low hanging fruit, to say the least…from the massive neocentrist media.
But I am not holding my breath.
Nor my tongue.
Bet on it.
AG
I know someone who agrees with you, James Howard Kunstler. He devoted an entire podcast to the student loan debt crisis. In another blog post, he wrote “[H]igher education may lie in ruins. It is already burdened and beset by the unintended consequences of the financial racketeering so pervasive across American life these days.” I think you would appreciate his writing. He agrees with you on more than just this one issue. You might also enjoy participating in his blog’s comment section. You’d find a lot of people there with similar attitudes about the establishment.
Thank you, NV. I’ll check him out.
AG
You’re welcome. Glad to help.
Another intelligent, unclassifiable outlier. There are many of us, but most have almost no real impact on the control system as it stands because…well, because we cannot be pinned, thus can neither be used nor actively opposed (just another “use,” really) by the controllers.
So it goes.
Maybe we have a use, too.
Time will tell.
Won’t it.
Later…
AG
“Another intelligent, unclassifiable outlier” — that’s a good description of Kunstler. Another person who fits that description is John Michael Greer, who blogs at Ecosophia. You might check him out, too.
Second the rec for Kunstler. I recall reading his book on the awfulness of US suburbia 15-20 yrs ago (something like “The Road to Nowhere”), or about the time I moved out of the big city and found a nice house in the suburbs. Had to agree with most of his points. But, at least the traffic is much lighter and I can get out of my neighborhood on weekends, unlike previously in L.A. And air quality has definitely improved.
I also appreciate his bold outspokenness and lack of concern about being PC on his blog and podcasts. Sometimes speaking the truth can be jarring and harsh to hear. Refreshing to have a few voices like his calling it plain and not apologizing for it.
The book is “The Geography of Nowhere.” Here’s the cover.
of a very bad bunch of for-profit alleged “universities.” DeVry and the now-defunct ITT are more representative. Regardless, students enrolling in these places get scammed. The curent DOE boss has shown no real interest in providing any relief to those who have worthless degrees and huge student loan burdens. For those wanting a technical certificate or a two-year degree, I’d advise going to a nearby community college. Heck, some four year colleges and universities will offer those same credentials. The cost will be lower – even an in an era where states are cutting higher education budgets – and the degree will actually mean something to employers. Just my two cents.
Don’t forget the University of Phoenix among your list of bad actors. I interviewed with them twice when I was an adjunct looking for more work and both times I walked away knowing it wasn’t for me. I currently teach full-time at a community college and saw what happened when ITT Tech failed and the attempts the college where I work made to pick up their students. I quite agree that they would have been better off with us. As for Betsy DeVos, sister of Erik Prince and wife of Amway heir Dick DeVos, I’m from Michigan and I’m quite aware of her ideological efforts to screw up public education. I’m not the least bit surprised at what she’s doing and not doing for higher education, most of which are not good.