The past two years have seen a tremendous shift in the public perception of capitalism and socialism, the character of philanthropy as reputation-laundry rather than generosity, and the nature of wealth as an indicator of sociopathy, not virtue or cleverness. Read the rest

Thanks to the college admissions scandal the issue of inequality and access to postsecondary education is now in our national conversation, but despite the glitz of the bribery scandal, the real issue is a much more mundane form of reverse affirmative action that allows wealthy Americans to dominate college admissions, muscling out better candidates from poorer backgrounds, especially Black students. Read the rest

There are some mysteries in the court documents related to the college admissions scandal: a pair of mystery students whose parents paid $1.2m and $6.5m in bribes to get them into top US educational institutions. Read the rest

The University of Southern California, one of the schools heavily involved in the college bribery scandal, said yesterday that they will deny any current applicant who is involved with the scam. In fact, they've already identified and denied six such applicants, according to Buzzfeed.

USC is also in the process of investigating the students linked to the scandal who are currently attending USC, including Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli, daughters of actress Lori Laughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli.

"If UCLA discovers that any prospective, admitted or enrolled student has misrepresented any aspect of his/her application, or that information about the applicant has been withheld, UCLA may take a number of disciplinary actions, up to and including cancellation of admission," a university spokesperson told Buzzfeed.

Via Buzzfeed:

About half of the 32 parents who allegedly paid the California life coach to fix their children's applications wanted their kids to get into USC...

Now, USC officials say they're going to conduct a thorough, "case-by-case review of current students and graduates that may be connected to the scheme alleged by the government..."

USC said Wednesday that it will deny admission any applicants "who are connected to the scheme."

It's easy to deny current applicants who have lied on their application or cheated in some way to make themselves someone they aren't. But let's see how USC handles the students who are currently enrolled at the university who cheated to get in. The fact that 19-year-old Olivia Jade (who allegedly pretended to be on her high school crew team even though she'd never participated in crew) was on a yacht owned by the Chairman of USC's Board of Trustees the day the story broke, makes this an especially interesting corner of the story to watch. Read the rest

Yesterday, federal authorities announced 50 indictments of college personnel, wealthy parents, and fixers who ran a multi-million-dollar bribery ring that ensured that the slow, plodding, undeserving fruit of wealthy grifters' loins could be admitted to the top universities in America. Read the rest