A recent article in The Atlantic contained a notable account of the final meeting of the Spring 2024 semester for Harvard’s college faculty. As part of his annual report, then-Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana could not keep a straight face when reporting that the average grade at the school was now 3.8. As Khurana chuckled at the lunacy of an average of an A, the rest of the faculty joined in the laughter. It appears that, after years of runaway grade inflation, Harvard’s grading system has become a bad joke even among its own faculty.
All schools have experienced grade inflation, which is often mandated by grading curves that prevent faculty from assigning more accurate grades. Harvard has long been the leader in this race to the top. The ripple effect is that other schools have sought to match the generous grading to appease students who are used to such generous grading standards from high school. The result at Harvard is that the grading scale runs from A to A+.
Here is the account in the article:
During their final meeting of the spring 2024 semester, after an academic year marked by controversies, infighting, and the defenestration of the university president, Harvard’s faculty burst out laughing. As was tradition, the then-dean of Harvard College, Rakesh Khurana, had been providing updates on the graduating class. When he got to GPA, Khurana couldn’t help but chuckle at how ludicrously high it was: about 3.8 on average. The rest of the room soon joined in, according to a professor present at the meeting.
They were cracking up not simply because grades had gotten so high but because they knew just how little students were doing to earn them.
Harvard is not alone. As we previously discussed, Yale was at 80 percent years ago. We also previously discussed how, at Spellman College, economics professor Kendrick Morales was fired after objecting to the school raising his grades without his consent, even after the grades were massively increased.Morales worked for two years at Spellman, teaching two upper-level courses. In one class, he added a 28-point grade bump for one test at the request of his department chair.
When students overall performed poorly on the final, Morales “pre-emptively” raised their scores by 36 points, so that a student receiving a 57 would receive an A. Yet, even with that increase, 44 percent of that class would still fail. Indeed, they had failed, but Morales says that Undergraduate Studies Dean Desiree Pedescleaux bumped up the students’ grades again without his approval.
Grade inflation is only the latest sign of how school administrators have lost control of universities and colleges. It also reflects a growing expectation among students for higher GPAs. Schools now attract applicants and professors attract students with assurances that virtually everyone will receive an A.
It is easy to say that this is the byproduct of the “trophy generation,” but this is not their fault. Years ago, I had an interesting conversation with one of my classes over this negative image and one student said that they never wanted participation trophies. She noted it was my generation that wanted them to have them, not the kids. Another student said that she would routinely throw away trophies as meaningless and insulting.
The same could well prove true for grades, which will become worthless and discarded if this trend continues. That will undermine the critical role of universities in evaluating student performance. That role not only helps future employers. It is even more important in offering students an accurate appraisal of their work. Often students will pursue degrees for the wrong reasons and not consider other fields that may be better suited to their talents and interests.
Harvard’s grading wipes out any distinctions between students in a system that only the character Syndrome would celebrate:
We are also producing future workers who have been coddled within a system that does little beyond praising and pandering them. Once they enter the workforce in an increasingly competitive market, they can find a shocker as their performance is actually measured and compared to others.
This generation of administrators and faculty have destroyed the credibility and integrity of higher education because it lacks the courage to maintain academic standards. Instead, faculty now just laugh at their own lunacy.
When John F. Kennedy was given an honorary degree at Yale, he quipped “it might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.” The question is whether the Harvard education or the Yale degree hold much distinction when you receive an A by just showing up to class.
I believe that some day these young people in this country are going to wake up some morning and find out that they will be working for foreign born managers and owners. People will be in control who come from cultures that are more disciplined than ours and be ready to work extremely hard to be successful.
You just described what my Mother said was coming:
“Someday You’ll be having a Rude Awakening” – Mom
DEI places the undisciplined/unqualified in positions of authority, while demotivating/excluding the qualified.
We are seeing a dissolution of America.
Does this grade-rigging also apply in the Medical School; the Business School — and if so, will from now on someone who says I’m a Doctor (with a Harvard Med School Degree) be considered less than years ago; same goes for the Harvard MBA?
The lefts wish for equal outcome is noble, but blind-fully naïve. Having been an employer of young males 18/30, I encountered the lack of mathematical skills and the ability to follow directions. In this category I considered it lucky to keep more than half of new hires after a week and in rare occasions one day. I employed PHD’s to High School dropouts and found it mattered not the education level, there were those that had common sense, motivation, and the ability to show up without excuses, and well those not. The sorry part of this issue is graduating any individual who lacks basic skills to prosper in their life also starting them out as a failure.
GW – the equal-outcome advocates are generally mediocrities. They are infuriated that real talent and greatness eludes them. There is no better metaphor than the failed artists throwing soup on Van Gogh paintings.
John, it comes down to the post collegiate results.
Having “Harvard” (Most Ivy League, Stanford, Univ. of Chicago, or Business/Med “M7” Schools; Kellogg, Wharton, ….) on your Resume is a big advantage over the rest of the field.
It doesn’t mean the person is better, but it does get you the Job/Foot in the Door/the Privileges, that make life better in the long run.
A ‘Diploma Mill’ they may all be (lack of standards), but the Kids pay for it because they want Privileges in their life. Doesn’t matter who you are. if you can Buy($) Privilege, then why not? That said some people truly do want to ‘earn their salt’ in life. These are the ones that should be granted Privileges, no matter where they come from (Academic, Vocational, School of Hard Knocks).
A colleague once told me that he got only three things out of his Yale undergraduate and Harvard law degrees:
1. A pedigree,
2. A network, and,
3. An attitude.
Probably applies equally to all the Ivy leagues, and the Ivy league wannabes.
-g
Mine didn’t when I went. Mine was the toughest and best university in the system. The average grade awarded was a C+ in the University.
In my major it was a C- and only one-fourth of those who started as a freshman in the major were allowed to become upper-division (Juniors) in the major. But then, that was 1980s. We were almost as tough as the Colorado School of Mines which was notorious for flunking out 2/3rds of its students back in the 1980s.
Unfortunately, the grade-point inflation has happened there too. Now 79% have a 3.0, or higher, GPA.
Also, nearly 50% of the students who were accepted washed out by their sophomore year. Now, in my program, there is a 78% graduation rate for incoming Freshman and an 85% graduation rate for incoming transfer students.
Having hired a few, they’re not as competent as we were (we were the #4 program in the US back then). The curriculum has been softened and the grades inflated. It’s a tragedy.
I’ve heard stories that after a youth sporting event where no official score is kept, if you ask the kids, they will tell you who won and by precisely how many goals/runs/points.
Harvard has other options to entice freshmen
I am going to marry this⬆Babe💖.
Don’t really care. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Ivy League anything, they are all a joke. Endowment factories with delusions of grandeur and superiority. Elite? Oh, yes! None are better at making money while delivering nothing of real substance. Given a choice between hiring a Harvard or Yale grad and one from Downhome State, Downhome State gets the job. Any Ivy League university with an endowment larger than the GDP of some countries should consider investing in a serious self improvement effort before the general public wakes up and demands accountability.
A classmate of mine in our East Los Angeles high school was accepted to Hahvahhhd, in 1978, and it was as if he had been elected President of the world. Thanks to Affirmative Action, he was accepted and, of course, he did not do well. He spent the entirety of his four years smoking dope and coming home with a “Degree” and a strong addiction. Of course, he’s still a snob about it. 🙄
Back in the early 70’s I started to see the effects of affirmative action on the American workforce. Standards for excellence started to go down, mistakes were more common and everyone suffered. Soon American jobs were slowly being send to other countries where the quality of their workforces was starting to close the gap with the US. Americans now knew that studying and working wasn’t the criteria for employment. Unions became stronger as a result and was an added catalyst for moving jobs offshore faster.
Americans just got lazy and still got a trophy.
For an example, take a look at our doctors, engineers and LPGA golfers. Americans just don’t have the desire to do the things to excel.
Now they are glued to their “smart phones”.
We are screwed!
Because Trump has gone after Harvard and because Turley is paid to do so, Turley attacks Harvard, as if this is the only institution with grade inflation or that Harvard, and not helicopter parents and their entitled offspring, aren’t contributing causes. Grade inflation begins at least in high school. From Forbes: “Grade Inflation is Not A Victimless Crime”:
Grade Inflation Is Not A Victimless Crime
ByFrederick Hess,Former Contributor. Rick Hess is a scholar who writes about K-12 and higher education.
Sep 05, 2023, 06:00am EDTSep 07, 2023, 09:25am EDT
America’s high schools have just endured a decade of dramatic grade inflation, according to a new study from ACT. This coincided with a decade of declining academic achievement, raising hard questions for those concerned about instructional rigor, inflated graduation rates, and the integrity of selective college admissions.
Between 2010 and 2022, there was evidence of steady grade inflation among high schoolers. During that period, even as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the “Nation’s Report Card”) recorded steady declines in reading, math, and U.S. history achievement, student GPAs climbed steadily higher. The average adjusted GPA increased from 3.17 to 3.39 in English; from 3.02 to 3.32 in math; from 3.28 to 3.46 in social studies; and from 3.12 to 3.36 in science. In 2022, more than 89% of high schoolers received an A or a B in math, English, social studies, and science.
This is a story about the withering of cursive. With so much reading, writing and math being stressed in schools across the nation, many are forgoing classes on handwriting. Andrea Lewis is a fourth grade teacher at Bromwell Elementary. Just last month Intelligent.com reported that 44% of educators say that students today often ask for better grades than they’ve earned.
At a time when schools are struggling to combat pandemic learning loss and graduation rates have climbed to historic highs, there are unfortunate consequences when educators essentially give every student an A or a B. Easy A’s signal to students they don’t need to work hard to succeed, give parents a false sense of how their kids are doing, and allow students to graduate without essential knowledge or skills. They also undermine learning, as Brown University researchers have reported that students appear to learn more from teachers who are tough graders.
This is hardly the first time we’ve seen evidence of grade inflation. These results reinforce a decades-long trend. For instance, the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress High School Transcript Study, issued by the National Center of Education Statistics, found that America’s students were getting better grades and (putatively) taking more rigorous classes than students a decade before, but actually learned less.
In 2009, Mark Schneider, currently the director of the federal Institute of Education Sciences, found that the share of students completing algebra II grew one-third between 1978 and 2000 and that average math GPAs rose markedly between 1990 and 2005 and, yet, student test performance in algebra I, geometry, and algebra II actually fell between 1978 and 2008. In short, impressive-sounding classes and rising grades masked a decline in student learning.
What’s driving this trend?
For one thing, a number of education leaders, advocates, and experts appear to be increasingly uncomfortable with traditional notions of rigor or grading. Indeed, the burgeoning push for “grading equity” (with districts eliminating the “zero”, eliminating penalties for late work, and allowing repeated re-tests) is premised on the belief that grades are often arbitrary or unfair. Author and speaker Cornelius Minor teaches, for instance, that one “cannot separate grading practices” from “the history of classism, sexism, racism, and ableism in the United States.”
Meanwhile, parents and students have become increasingly assertive over time, and many school leaders and educators have decided that it’s easier to appease them than to fight them. Just last month Intelligent.com reported that 44% of educators say that students today often ask for better grades than they’ve earned. Four out of five educators say they’ve given into these demands, a reaction that’s easier to understand when one sees that 38% say they’ve been harassed by students (and 33% by parents) over grades.
What can we do about all this? There are at least four places to start.
First, it’s crucial to appreciate that grade inflation isn’t a victimless crime. It sends a false signal to students and families, making it tougher for educators to encourage students, acknowledge hard work, or give honest feedback. It can mean that selective college admissions become more about connections and game-playing than about earned opportunity.
Second, for teachers squeezed between helicopter parents and ideologues, it can be difficult to hold the line on high expectations. Education leaders who take their mission seriously need to recalibrate expectations, stand up for rigor, and support classroom teachers more, making clear that they regard runaway grade inflation as a problem.
Third, there’s a crucial role for states, which should ensure that graduates are mastering essential knowledge and skills. Issuing students meaningless diplomas isn’t doing anyone any favors. Accountability testing and graduation exams are good tools for keeping things in check.
Finally, colleges should take care to ensure they’re using credible measures of student preparation, which suggests a U-turn for all the schools that have ditched the SAT or ACT. Keep in mind that Harvard University’s Raj Chetty has reported that, contrary to the claims of anti-testing ideologues, selective colleges which embrace admissions testing are more likely to enroll low-income students than those which rely on grades, interviews, essays, and other similar inputs.
Grade inflation can feel like an abstract problem but it has real, troubling consequences for students, parents, and educators. We need to do better.”
the above 1:54 PM and below 1:43 PM comments were posted by a George Soros funded DNC troll who is paid to post Democrat talking points. Talk about inflated egos
🤣🤣
Check out the unhinged comment at 3:57 below! Cuckoo!
Coming off of crystal meth is bad, but cruising legal blogs while crashing from meth use, is really bad. Ed Buck had his effect on LA West Hollywood gay hookers but one apparently is with us here which explains his 100+ fake screen names
“Man who survived drug overdoses in Ed Buck’s apartment found dead on sidewalk in South LA”
https://abc7.com/post/man-survived-drug-overdoses-democratic-donor-ed-bucks-west-hollywood-apartment-found-dead-sidewalk-south-la/15543206/
It’s garbage. I just skip over it, I also don’t dignify garbage with a response.
The person is s clown. Everything they post is laughable.
When you’re at the top, like Harvard, you lead. Then you get attacked.
it’s not all about Trump. You Trump and Turley agree. Get over it….
Anonymous – no one beleives this problem is unique to harvard to to the ivies, or even to colleges.
The huge deal is that Students are getting ripped off.
If you graduate unable to do your job well – that WILL screw up your future.
You can hide behind inflated grades at Harvard – you can not in the real world.
Even if employers try to inflate performance like colleges do – in the marketplace the grade is given by consumers – if you do not produce things people value and can afford – YOU FAIL. There is no grade inflation in the market.
You cover alot of the issues in places other than harvard – which is fine.
But if you actually want to permanently solve the problem with education – you need to restore the discipline of markets. As noted above for businesses – ultimately you are graded by consumers – there is no possibility of grade inflation.
If you want our insititutions to function well – to the greatest extent possible – get them as far away from government as possible.
I would recomend the work of Nobel Prive winner James Buchannon on public choice economics.
The core of which is that all the things that make free markets work well, get perverted in govenrment. And the fundimental reason is that government is NOT really answerable to consumers.
Each of us “votes” on our grocer, fast food, even coffee and service stations each day sometimes several times a day. If McD’s screws up your order and does nothing about it – your going somewhere that does not. Producers are graded every hour of every day on their performance.
Elected govenrment officials are graded at best once every two years – often far less.
Unelected govenrment officials are NEVER trualy measured by consumers for their performces.
It is not surprising that those in govenrment do not care to make their consumers happy.
Simple test – go to most any retail store – who gets the best parking spaces ?
Customers.
Go to any government office – customers typically do not get any parking spaces at all, those are reserved for managers and employees. Customers often have to pay to park where they go to purpotedly get served by govenrment.
“ There is no grade inflation in the market.”
Actually there is. When everyone is cheating, including the regulators the market becomes rigged. This happened when we had the housing bubble and the resulting 2008 financial disaster.
Grade inflation IS a product of an unregulated market. What you call “market discipline” is regulation. A free market produces the kinds of problems that government is eventually fix the problem by bailing out the free marketers from their failure.
When the wealthiest get rich enough to manipulate the market and dictate the rules. It’s no longer a free market. It’s a rigged market. That is why we have government regulation because truly free markets always end up being rigged in favor of those with the power and ability to rig the rules.
“What you call “market discipline” is regulation. “
You lack a basic education.
Something is definitely amiss with the glorious leader.
He made no public appearances for 4 days last week, and his official calendar was completely empty.
He supposedly played golf this weekend at his Virginia golf course, just across the river from DC.
He usually goes to Mar-a-Largo or Bedminster for the weekend, especially holiday weekends.
He claims to have played golf in Virginia, but residents nearby report otherwise. Residents near the golf course say that when he plays, the Secret Service and police seal off the perimeter of the course, after the assassination attempt at the West Palm Beach course. There are usually road closures and Secret Service patrolling the streets and helicopters in the air.
None of that happened.
He published a photo of himself allegedly playing with John Gruden this weekend.
Problem is, the photo was from last week.
Also John Gruden published a photo of himself in New Orleans, at the Tulane footbal game, this weekend.
The Tulane coach was in the photo.
So clearly Trump did NOT play golf.
He is obviously staying close to DC and Walter Reed Hospital.
Why is anyone supposed to care about speculation by an anonymous troll ?
While factually you are full of schiff – There is video fo Trump responding to questions from the press nearly every day. It does not matter.
Republicans are fixated on the fact that Biden was demented while president – while that is a problem. If The Biden presidency had been a good one NO ONE WOULD CARE.
If the children who actually rant the country from 2021 thru 2024 had not screwed up by the numbers – no one would care if Biden was a crazy old coot. It the economy was actually doiing as well as Biden claimed, if the world was at peace, if inflation was low – Biden could have run naked across the stage in the June 2024 debate – and still won in a landslide.
The exposure of Biden’s incapacity was significant because it explained the failures of the Biden administration.
While contra let wing nuts there is NOT evidence of any decline in Trump – and in fact he appears MORE active and busier in his second term. In the end it would not matter if Trump was as incapactitated as Biden – so long as his administration did not F#$K up by the numbers as Biden did.
While we are NOT yet seeing the great economy Trump promised on day one – many of us expected the Recession that the Fed has been trying to push down the road for almost 4 years.
That has not happened. The economy IS getting stronger.
Alot is being changed – and that causes market turmoil and chaos. But most of the changes are good and ultimately lead to improvement. Further that rapid change has NOT caused the disasters that so many predicted.
Most of us understand that things are getting better again – NOT worse,
We all know you do not beleive that – but then we all know you do not live in reality and deluded yourself that things were good while Biden was president.
If Trump performs as badly as Biden did – no republican will get elected president for decades.
In the real world – that is not what is happening.
I do not honestly beleive you have a clue how much golf Trump lays or what physical shape he is in.
But the rest of us only care about those things to the extent they mean we can expect OUR lives to get better or worse.
If Trump never leaves the golf course – or is kept aloive in a closet in Walter Reeed on machines – and the world continues to become more peaceful, and US prosperity continues to return – no one will care.
Professor Kendrick Morales was fired after objecting to the school raising his grades without his consent . . . Undergraduate Studies Dean Desiree Pedescleaux bumped up the students’ grades without his approval.
And that is an accurate snapshot of the situation: desires over morals.
So the exorbitant tuitions (that go mainly to funding administrative fat and over-generous remunerations for profs with less and less to do) BUY a guaranteed A. These are now the POISON IVIES in more ways than one e.g. poisoning workplaces with unqualified bogus “A” students. How long until bridges start falling and medical staff blithely mutilate the young instead of making them healthier? Oops, the latter is already happening!
It’s mostly employers and to some extent society that will bear the burden of these ignorant fools with degrees. I suggest hiring from community colleges and Technical schools for most employers. society should fear the ones that become doctors, lawyers and educators.
Dear Jake: the reason MAGA media attack higher education and some of the top schools in this country is to get MAGAts to disbelieve what educated people, especially scientists, say, (the “ignorant fools with degrees”) because billionaire-purchased MAGA-driven Project 2025 wants to make more money, and to do that, they have to get enough people who don’t know any better to vote MAGA. They aren’t satisfied with just the trillions in tax breaks that benefit them. And, they are actively trying to rig 2026 to stay in power. They HAVE to counter things that most Americans would oppose, if they understand the issues and believe educated people like: 1. environmental science–so the coal and oil industries can call scientists stupid who talk about studies proving the toxic effects of the pollution they spew and climate change that poison our water and air; 2. lawyers—who point out why rolling back of things like consumer protections are bad–so banks can go back to making billions off of consumers by charging whatever they want for overdrafts, late payments and other charges that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau help get rid of; so airlines can go back to charging for cancelled trips, checked bags and other policies that hit your pocketbook; then, there’s Trump’s effort to try to control the other 2 branches of government–the courts and Congress; he’s already trying to rig 2026; lawyers are the experts on the law, and Trump keeps getting shot down over and over again by courts because his tariffs are illegal, because he cannot arbitrarily try to fire anyone he pleases, and because he has no respect for the law. So what does he do? Attack the integrity of courts, judges, lawyers and the judicial system; 3. economists–who point out that Trump’s tariffs will eventually tank our economy because they will drive up the cost of goods, including food, prescription medications and other everyday things. We simply cannot grow enough coffee, bananas and other agricultural items to meet our needs. They are the ones who point out that when there is a trade deficit, the USA is not getting cheated, contrary to Trump’s claim–we cannot produce pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, shoes, clothing and a myriad of other goods for the low prices we enjoy from other countries with which we deal. We don’t even have the factory capacity, and because we pay people a living wage, goods would cost much more than those we import even if we did have the factories up and running. Economists point out that WE, the American consumer, are the ones who will eventually pay the tariffs–it is essentially a sales tax; Trump lies by claiming that other countries pay the tariff; 4. medical scientists–RFK, Jr., who has NO background in medicine or even science, pushes his harebrained notion that vaccines are bad, that epidemics are good–he actually argued that chickens who contract bird flu should just be allowed to die and that those who survive should be bred–“survival of the fittest”; apparently he believes the same should apply to humans, too. We just went through a round of firings and resigations at the CDC because actual, trained physicians and scientists refused to sign off on RFK’s lies about vaccine recommendations. So now, the CDC can’t be trusted. People will die as a result of the distrust and confusion over vaccines for absolutely NO good reason.
These are just a few examples. But, to get people to disbelieve experts so as to benefit the billionaires who push the MAGA agenda, institutions of higher education must be attacked. THAT’s what Turley is doing with this piece.
too long
didnt read
youre just a needy, attention seeking charlie foxtrot troll
You are a fool. I laugh.at the drivel you write.
Anon 3:57 – Your leftist TDS obsessions are not serving you well. You should consider changing your info-sources. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!sAn1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46947418-0f73-4de2-af02-6e09a30b7070_842x716.png
ATS – Trump did not start an unwarranted attack on US schools – parents did that – before Trump.
Our education system has been slipping for DECADES. Though Covid exposed to most parents how abysmally bad it had become.
Crime was improving for Decades – now it is NOT.
Look arround – every REAL problem of consequence share TWO things in common – Govenrment and the left.
We have heard your nonsense about climate for most of my life.
It is 2025 – the arctic has not melted, nor has greenland or antarctica – is there a single malthusian left wing prediction of ANY kind that has come true ? ANY ? On ANY topic ? Climate ? Anything ?
Everything that is going to h311 shares two things in common – Government and YOU.
ALL the things you worry about are BOGUS. ALL OF THEM.
You have no ability to critically think. You can be counted on to get pretty much anything WRONG.
Turley’s article elaborates on what most people already know – the “educated people” ARENT.
Maybe YOU would trust your future to the idiots graduating from Harvard or elsewhere today.
But most of us would not.
They and YOU have been wrong about everything you touch and say.
The climate is doing fine. The Russians did not collude with Trump – if anything they have colluded with Democrats – as have the chinese. The Bidens are a highly dysfunctional family of petty criminals – who idiots like you put in the White House. Hunter Biden’s laptop was real, Joe Biden’s dementia was real. Pretty much EVERYTHING your public health experts said about Covid WAS WRONG.
Those who tried to tell you – the “emporer has no cloths” – you censored -0 often with govenrment money. You tell us that Trump is the end of democracy – though he won the presidency by millions of votes – real ones from real people. But YOU are the ones telling us that these highly educated elites – who have botched everything they have touched must make all the decisions for all of us – that we are all too stupid to decide for ourselves – that voters can not be trusted to make wise choices – unless they are fed a steady diet of left wing govenrment approved pablum. And anything at odds with that is censored.
We live in the least racist country in the world, the most diverse country in the world at the least rascist moment in time – and YOU constantly make KKK and Nazi comparisons.
There are lots of highly educated people who did not get everything wrong for the past several decades. These are the people who have been telling you OVER AND OVER that you are wrong.
And time and again – they have been right.
The left is in trouble – because it has FAILED over and over and over again.,
You have done this to yourselves.
No one is lying about the decline in the quality of education at Harvard – and Yale and Columbia and the Ivy’s and too a less or extent the entirety of our education system.
Trump did not create Covid – you and yours did.
Trump did not ruin the US education system – you and yours did.
Trump did not create the crime problems in this country – you and yours did.
Trump did not create the immigration problems in this country – you and yours did.
Trump is not only not lying, he is far from the first person to point out YOUR failures.
What he IS doing – is what the majority of americans want – he IS trying to improve these problems. If he fails – that STILL makes him a better person than you.
But he is not failing.
Regardless, this is NOT about Trump.
Trump only exists because of YOUR F#$Kups.
There is not a chance in the world that Donald Trump would have been elected ONCE – much less twice – if the left had not taken over the democratic party and F$%Ked things up by the numbers in EVERYTHING that you touch.
Trump may or may not be the answer – But YOU are the problem.
The uber wealthy in this country – the people You claim Are in Trump’s pocket are 3:1 liberal democrats .
YOU rant about the environment – WHAT have YOU been right about ? NOTHING ?
You do not have to be a climate scientist to grasp that not a single malthusian left wing nut claim regarding the envirnoment has proved True EVER.
You rant about poisoning the air and water – both of which are cleaner than they have ever been.
If McDonalds sells you a garbage burger – you will go somewhere else.
You do not need an army of lawyers of the CFPB to protect you.
ALL you need is a free market where you have choices – something that left wing nuts and government oppose.
Airlines and other industries ALWAYS seek to maximize profit – yet somehow airfare is lower than it has ever been. It Cost me LESS to fly to St. Croix or Seattle a year ago than it did to fly 1/3 the distance to College in 1979.
In FACT the REAL price of nearly everything is lower than 60 years ago. In MOST instance the NOMINAL price is lower.
What are the exceptions ? What are the goods and services whose prices have skyrocketed over the past 60 years ?
Universally EVERYTHING that Government regulates in direct proportion to the regulation.
Education has increased in cost dramatically and decreased in value.
Healthcare has increased in cost dramatically – with small improvements in quality EXCEPT in those few areas like Lasik or cosmetic surgery that Government was furthest from.
Gasoline costs the same amount in nominal dollars today than 60 years ago – but our standard of living has increased by a factor of 4.
I can find adds for toasters from the 60’s for $20. I can buy a toaster today on Amazon for $12.99.
I bought a top of the line Amana Refridgerator in 1983 when I got married – I paid 1300 for it WHOLESALE. Today I can go to any big box store and buy a bigger better more efficient refridgerator for under 1000.
Government had NOTHING to do with that or any of the other near universal drops in the REAL cost of what we buy.
Further we have FAR MORE choices. There was no Starbucks in 1960. You could not go to any corner and order a “Double decaf non-fat latte, mmm… medium foam, dusted with just the faintest whisper of cinnamon.”
Or go to the cereal aisle of the grocery store – most of what is offered today – did not exist 60 years ago. There was not organic fair trade gluten free Kashi, there were a couple of choices of cornflakes and raisin bran.
The CFPB and your left wing nuts have NEVER actually lowered the price of anything.
They have NEVER increased the number of choices that people have.
The people you HATE who are doing everything they can to pry every buck they can from you did that. Because YOUR idiotic fears of an actually free market – are fantasy.
The people you think are trying to cheat you – and some may be. Ultimately can not FORCE you to spend a dime. To pry your money from your hands they MUST persuade you that they are offering you something worth MORE than the money you are giving them.
No one EVER buys something that they do not beleive is worth what they are paying.
And Contra the left – no one is EVER forced to buy anything (except by government).
Because we are Free to buy from anywhere or nowhere, those trying to sell to us must persuade is that we are getting more for our money. If one airline charges extra for baggage, if others follow – another will come in and steal their customers by offering extra baggage for free.
Everything you think is a rip off does not last long.
The very fact that your highly educated people think the same stupid things you do is the proof their education sucks.
The laws of supply and demand were coddifed 2 centuries ago – but they have been known by most traders for as long as there has been trade.
No ATS lawyers are NOT experts on the law – WE THE PEOPLE make our laws.
We do so through our elected representatives. Lawyers are no more experts on the law, than used car dealers are experts on cars.
Further – Trump’s track record in court is excellent so far. On issue after issue – While SHOPPED left wing nut judges have initially shot him down, he has ultimately prevails – much of the time WITHOUT going to the supreme court.
This is all just more left wing nut lawfare – lawfare that you are LOSING and that is pissing people off.
Yes the president can arbitrarily fire anyone he pleases – the executive power of the UNited States is vested in the president.
I would note that the courts have ruled that presidents can fire anyone they please for pretty much the entire history of the country – with a FEW small exceptions – Trump si actively going after those exceptions and the supreme court is baking him up.
BECAUSE it was always idiocy to beleive otherwise. The purpose of the executive branch is the day to day administration of the affairs of the country.
If congress or the courts were capable of that – we would not need a president.
Many many decisions can not spend weeks or months being resolved by congress or the courts.
The president is NOT king – but Congress is NOT the cheif executive. Congress is similar to a companies board of directors and the president is the CEO. CEO’s can fire whoever they please.
Whether Trump is trying to control the other branches of govenrment is irrelevant.
We have three branches of government that are always checks on each other.
Congress has ceded too much power to the president – but that is the fault of the left, not Trump.
Conversely the courts HAVE taken too much power for themselves.
Cours do NOT decide what the law should be. They do not decide policy. They do not have any power AT ALL over what SHOULD be. They can only decide what the law ACTUALLY says and Whether that law is constitutional. That is the limit of the power of the courts.
What the law IS or should be is between congress and the president – mostly congress.
The power of the president is determined by the constitution and those actual laws that are constitutional.
I do not like some of those laws. I think the president has had too much power delegated to him by congress. But the remedy for that is to pass new laws – not engage in lawfare.
If you do not want Trump to attack the integrity of the courts – DO NOT ENGAGE IN LAWFARE.
Nearly all the lawsuits against Trump’s actions as president are LUDICROUSLY STUPID AND LAWLESS.
Of source the president can fire anyone in the executive – just as Biden did – often the same positions.
Should the president have the power to unilaterally levi tarrifs with no limits ?
I do not think so. But inarguably Congress has passed MANY laws giving the president that power.
Nor is Trump the first president to do what he is doing.
No Trump’s tariffs will not tank the economy – and no sane economist is saying that.
I am not a fan of Tarriffs – but if Trump’s tarriffs were going to be an economic disaster – they would have crushed the economy already AND they also would have crushed the economies of the rest of the world which until recently had universally higher tarrifs than the US.
Any economist that is claiming that something will be a disaster if Trump does it, but not if Starmer or Marcon do it is an idiot.
Trumps Tarrifs MAY make foreign goods more expensive – that STILL has to be seen.
The US is the worlds largest market and to get into it now – you must pay tarrifs.
The rest of the world has no ready replacement for US markets. If prices of foreign goods rise – sales of those goods will plumet. That will harm the REST OF THE WORLDS economies.
No one in the US will lose a job because foreign made goods are not affordable.
On the contrary the entire theory of tarriffs – the reasont he rest of the world has high tarrifs is because they drive production TO the country.
I would further note that Tarriffs are a TAX. They are a way to pay the cost of govenrment.
Of all the different ways that a country can tax its people – Tarriffs are one of the least economically damaging. Taxes on property, taxes on investment, taxing on income ALL far more negatively impact an economy.
If we MUST pay the cost of govenrment – taxes on consumption are the least negative way to do so.
You are correct that trade deficits are NOT inherently unfair. They can be both fair or unfair.
As to the ability of the US to produce – are you an idiot ? Have you heard of WWII ?
In an incredibly short period of time the US increased by 20%/year
US GDP is currently 31T – there is no reason that we can not increase US GDP by 6T/yr
The US trade deficit in 2024 was 1.2T It would only take a 4% increase in US GDP to entirely fill the US trade deficit – that is perfectly doable.
There is ONE relevant economic reason that we shoudl NOT try to make EVERYTHING in the US.
That has nothing to do with any of the nonsense you are spewing – and that is “comparative advantage”.
The US is better off producing as much as it possibly can of high value goods and buying lower value goods elsewhere.
Most lawyers have legal secretaries. Most good lawyers can do the job of a legal secretary better and faster than the legal secretary. But it is better for the lawyer to be doing the high value legal work they do and paying the secretary to less efficiently do the secretarial work.
The US should NOT be using skilled labor that can be put to better use producing high value goods to produce lower value goods.
But there is no reason that we can not produce anything that we want to produce – and do so in whatever quantity we want and do so fairly rapidly.
I would note that this is the FOCUS of Trump’s trade deals.
Trump is NOT seeking to get foreign countries to stop selling the US cheap goods – like cloths.
He is trying to get foreign countries to buy more high value US goods – by lowering Tarriffs on US products.
Nor would any sane economist claim that making goods in the US would be inherently more expensive – as a generalization – that is false.
All foreign goods have an autmatic additional cost for transport and logistics.
When you factor in all costs – goods that cost 15% less at the docks in Shanghai than goods produced in the US will be more expensive when they are sold in the US.
China’s lower labor cost advantage has been erroding over several decades.
China’s standard of living has gone from the bottom of the third world to the bottom of the first – and that means goods in china cost more to produce than they used to.
Even without Trump and Tarriffs China is in an economic bind – chinese manufacturing has slowly been moving to the rest of asia – where labor costs are still lower or back to the US where production is far more automated.
Tarrifs are accelerating that.
Separately – lower labor costs are a factor in Asia – they are NOT in Europe.
Europe does not sell cheap goods that americans can not easily produce.
Europe sells goods produce by the same expensive skilled labor as the US.
In an actual free market it is Europe that would have a trade deficit with the US.
Labor costs in Europe are high, efficiency is lower, energy costs are much higher, transportation costs are much higher and raw materials costs are higher.
There is nothing that Europe can produce at a competitive advantage to the US.
If people are resigning or being fired at CDC – please sir can we have more.
The CDC thoroughly botched Covid vaccine recomendations.
I trust ordinarly people and THEIR doctors far more than the nut jobs at the CDC.
Just shut the CDC down entirely.
BTW RFK Jr. has been suing the medical industry successfully for decades.
You can not do so unless you learn a GREAT DEAL about the medical industry.
Regardless, public trust of PUBLIC SERVANTS has tanked – and deservedly so.
I have no idea what RFK jr. has argued – nor would I beleive anything you claim.
But what YOU described is EXACTLY how nature has made us all stronger for billions of years.
Just to be clear there is no “SHOULD” in this. The laws of evolution are the laws of nature and science. Nature is NOT warm and fuzzy.
I would note however that we saw this at work with Covid.
Covid almost entirely killed of the weak. Further Covid itself evolved – quite rapidly to being ever more transmissible and ever less deadly. That is how nature works.
It works that why despite your desire that it work otherwise.
TODAY we have the ability to genetically engineer nature – chickens people – the mRNA vaccine is itself just a virus that infects people that causes them to produce antibodies to Covid in the hope that will increase their immunity to Covid. prior vaccines work much the same way – the mRNA vaccines are just in theory more efficient.
Allowing sick birds to die with the strong surviving ones developing resistance – is just natures slower form of genetic engineering.
You are merely fighting over what route is better – where there are many different criteria to measure and may not be a clear cut winner.
Some vaccines are bad and some are good. Some diseases are suitable for vaccines and others are not. The Covid vaccine was a mistake. No one has been able to make an aids vaccine and for reasons that have to do with science – likely never will.
Your pretending there is a one size fits all solution – there is not.
And not the CDC can not be trusted – Not because RFK jr or Trump say so. But because they botched Covid.
We constantly here this “people will die” nonsense from those of you on the left.
Can you cite a SINGLE instance ever where a left wing nut policy ACTUALLY reduced mortality or getting rid of it increased mortality ?
3 things have dramatically improved life expectance in the world.
Antiseptics,
antibiotics
and IV fluids.
These are responsible for increasing life expectances globally from 45 into the 70’s
There is nothing else that has been done in medicine for the past century that has perceivably altered life expectance.
Somethings have improved quality of care and quality of life – but NOT substantially increased life expectance.
When you say “people will die” – you are lying.
As Khurana chuckled at the lunacy of an average of an A, the rest of the faculty joined in the laughter.
Children were prescribed an antidepressant drug known as Paxil (paroxetine) because physicians and academics from top medical schools, including U Penn and Brown U, published an article in 2001 praising the efficacy and safety of Paxil in adolescents.
Paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents.
Keller, M.B., et al. 2001. Efficacy of paroxetine in the treatment of adolescent major depression: a randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(7), pp.762-772.
free link: study329.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Study-329-original-published.pdf
It appears that article is now being investigated as possible bogus.
Re-analysis of controversial Paxil study shows drug “ineffective and unsafe” for teens
https://retractionwatch.com/2015/09/16/re-analysis-of-controversial-paxil-study-shows-drug-ineffective-and-unsafe-for-teens/
Amid cries for retraction, a medical journal reviews a discredited, 24-year-old paper on an antidepressant
The Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry is reviewing a study of Paxil
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2025/08/25/antidepressant-paxil-gsk-medical-journal-children-adolescents-depression-ghostwriting-retraction/
Our academic health elites and public health leaders need to be addressed. Firing “scientists” from the CDC, NIH, FDA, and top academic universities is just a start
Whimsicalmama has hit the nail on the head with every one of her observations today; we have created two generations that are so fully inculcated in abject ignorance and incompetence they will likely never be able to to do much of anything, no matter how long they live. Whether one believes that is by design or not is irrelevant to this conversation: we are all going to have to deal with the fallout. My generation likely does not get to retire, and we had better pray that there are still people around to guide new generations in the future that have not had basic human functionality conditioned out of them after we are gone, or its just game over.
I personally attribute much of this to parenting trends that began with the hippies and was cemented by Gen X, but opinions are free to vary. It really is the fall of Rome 2.0 in the making, and we have the history, we know better, we had better do better or no one will see the 22nd century; not because of climate change or the like, but because we forgot how to be human and live with other humans, whole hog. Obviously the massive push toward leftist authoritarianism is a part of this, as well. We are really in a pickle, and we had better keep addressing it, right now, today, in spite of the squealing and temper tantrums which we will have to ignore. I have always thought a return to sanity after the tremendous damage the global left has done would be like ripping off the mother of all bandages to the entitled, and it is, but it must be done.
I don’t personally think global society has been this mentally unwell, ever.
In the late 40’s my father came here as the husband of an American citizen. His schooling was in Manila. In addition to attending UC Berkley for civil engineering he took on 3 jobs. One of which was a clerk in the accounting department of a large corporation. Eventually he dropped out of UC and kept the job in the accounting department. 37 years later after going through many other departments in the company he retired as the assistant comptroller. He was responsible for all accounting except for stocks and construction in this multi billion $ company. Each day he would visit every department, talk to the employees and supervisors to find problems or praise the work on his way up to his desk. He used to say he had a MBWA ( management by walking around) degree. When they hired a fresh college grad as his boss that had no experience in their type of business he got tired of teaching his boss what to do. He quit in 1984, 2 years early. 200 employees showed up to his retirement dinner along with the board of directors. It took 5 people to replace him.
I have always used him as an example of how college is not necessarily good for everyone. The grades given out now are even more evidence. Businesses need to recognize the people that are willing to work and grow the company along with themselves.
Business once trained people and picked the good ones to keep and promote. When they began to control the academics with millions in grants and private foundation funding, they themselves twisted education to presumably suit their needs to turn out a competent workforce. This was a devil’s bargain. Students who aren’t taught critical thinking are never good workers, but keep their heads down and do what they’re told without the initiative to improve themselves or their environment.
Kid gets a bad grade and endowment from his daddy comes to an end. What’s so hard to understand. The worship of mammon remains eternal even by those who carry their noses in the air.
Dear Prof Turley,
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” ~ Mark Twain
In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made Harvard Law School. ..
*in loco parentis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMcWFYaBElk
YAWN
You are like the Plover bird, Dusty .. . a small river wader who timidly picks food out of the jaws of crocodiles.
*YAWN
NO dg.
You write meaningless junk.