[The Hill] More than 70 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point have been accused of cheating on a math exam, the worst academic dishonesty scandal to hit the military academy in decades.
Fifty-nine cadets have admitted to cheating on the final exam in May in a calculus course, which was administered remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic, USA Today first reported. All of the cadets made the same mistake in one section of the test.
West Point instructors initially raised accusations against 73 cadets, including 72 first-year cadets and one second-year cadet, West Point officials confirmed to The Hill.
However, two cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence, and four were dismissed because the cadets resigned.
Fifty-five cadets have enrolled in a program for rehabilitation know as the "Willful Admissions Process," officials confirmed.
Within the process, cadets write journals and essays, are paired with a mentor and enroll in other programs, USA Today reported.
Four other cadets who admitted to cheating are not eligible for the program, which can last up to six months, officials confirmed.
The remaining individuals are facing administrative hearings over the accusations, and they could face a range of penalties, including being expelled, USA Today reported.
West Point’s honor code states, "A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do."
#1
“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.” - Lazarus Long.
#2
Endemic at the service academies. Won't stop until the ratio is more like 3 or 5 guilty cadets are put on probation and 55 are expelled, not vice-versa.
There is something deeply rotten about the way our country's elite academic institutions select and promote politically-ambitious young people. This seems to be the underlying reason for the unbelievably shitty political class of the last 30 years: the Clintons, Bush spawn W and Jeb!, McCain-Romney, Kerry, Edwards and of course His Nothingness Obama himself.
All of them intellectual lightweights but superbly skilled at manipulating the system to their advantage. Except for the silver spoon Bushes, most of them are just ambitious little scam artists of one kind or another who accumulated vast fortunes thanks to their political connections, status or ability, like Edwards the tort lawyer, to manipulate a broken political-judicial system.
Unlike the presidents, generals and other gearen produced by earlier generations, none of our recent presidents or presidential candidates gas shown any real executive ability or talent or gift for leadership.
So instead of Pattons and Eisenhowers, or men like Lee and Grant, we get morons like:
Spencer Rapone, the USMA Communist plebe;
that black USFA doolie who like Jussie Smollet faked being a victim of racist hate crimes;
and the passel of shitty little overachiever-cheaters clogging up all the academies from West Point to Annapolis to Colorado Springs.
#5
West Point started out not just as a military academy for the Army, but also a major participant in putting engineers into the nation and economy. It remained primarily an engineer school till after WW2 when other degrees were implemented. Being an accomplished engineer takes a certain mindset involving real world problem solving and low tolerance for mistakes.
#6
Don't underestimate the damage done to standards as a result of Obama's social justice focus, which took root in the selection of whom to promote and embed at USMA.
But also don't underestimate the crappy state of the applicant pool.
#9
The system still produces some excellent young leaders - Pompeo's a fine example - but it fails to screen out ambitious grifters and all-around bad eggs.
To #2 TC4201's point, there is definitely something weird about our current era's crop of political or militarily ambitious characters. It produces people who are far more narcissistic than earlier leaders ever were.
Something about our cult of "identity" -- not just race gender etc BS but also people wanting to "be" somebody of their imagining rather than focus on actually doing things for other people.
#10
Maybe just shut down the corrupt institutions. That'll give the follow ons incentive to hide their corruption better.
/snark
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/22/2020 9:17 Comments ||
Top||
#11
#6 Don't underestimate the damage done to standards as a result of Obama's social justice focus, which took root in the selection of whom to promote and embed at USMA.
#12
also don't underestimate the crappy state of the applicant pool.
True ... even before the pandemic, something like 75% of America's youth could not even meet the most basic physical, moral, and mental standards for consideration to enlist in the military. It's probably close to 90% disqualified now.
So those American 18 year-olds who can run a mile in 8 minutes, who don't know a cosine from a cosplay, who don't have alphabet diagnoses or criminal records-- those who get over the first most basic hurdle don't amount to more than maybe 0.5% or so of this nation's youth. Very disturbing. Slim pickings indeed.
[MAIL] Video has emerged of the desperate battle by fellow passengers to save a man's life who had fallen unconscious while traveling on a flight from Orlando to Los Angeles.
In a terrifying ordeal for nearby passengers the man was seen on the plane shaking and sweating and having a hard time breathing even before the flight took off.
But once United Flight 591 was in the air, his condition deteriorated rapidly and the captain made the decision to perform an emergency landing in order for the man to receive medical attention.
Fortunately, there were three CPR-trained professionals who were onboard the flight who risked catching the coronavirus themselves in order to perform life-saving emergency procedures.
I'd wager stress attack. Flying gets people wound up on a good day; add in each layer of checkpoint, health conditions, and maybe a night hanging out with Andrew Gillum.
Honestly surprised only 3 CPR trained responders. Flight like that I'd expect the crew to have been rated, then along passengers, then the Cliff Notes in case everyone starts spitting eggs.
[IsraelTimes] Probe as to why patient, 74, who had been clear of infection, became fatally ill finds that second illness was caused by a mutated coronavirus variant.
#2
Edridge, A. W., Kaczorowska, J., Hoste, A. C., Bakker, M., Klein, M., Loens, K., ... & Ieven, M. (2020). Seasonal coronavirus protective immunity is short-lasting. Nature medicine, 1-3.
[Bloomberg] The British pound slumped the most since March on concerns about a new strain of coronavirus in the U.K., then pared much of the decline as Prime Minister Boris Johnson made another offer to salvage Brexit talks.
Sterling tumbled as much as 2.5% to $1.3188 before recovering most of that in New York afternoon, down only 0.4% to $1.3475 as of 3:25 p.m.
Investors were spooked earlier as another Brexit deadline went past without results and Britain’s biggest port in Dover stopped all traffic heading to the continent, threatening the U.K.’s supply chains with Europe. The currency’s one-week implied volatility was the highest for a Christmas period in more than a decade.
Expectations of monetary easing by the Bank of England mounted, with money markets bringing forward bets for a 10-basis-point interest-rate cut to September, compared with March 2022 on Friday. Ten-year bonds rallied, with yields slipping as much as nine basis points, and the FTSE 100 share index fell as much as 3.3%. While the slump also reflected the dollar’s strength, the U.K. currency also fell against the euro, with the shared currency rising as much as 1.7% to 92.17 pence.
[Taipai Times] A crowd yesterday marched in Taipei to rally support for US President Donald Trump and show opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
At the parade organized by Epoch Media Group — publisher of the Epoch Times and affiliated with Falun Gong — participants carried placards with slogans such as: "Taiwan-US cooperation, we support Trump to dispose communist China" and "Taiwan, Fight for Trump."
Some signs echoed messages used by Trump supporters who believe he won the US election last month, with phrases such as: "Stop the Steal" and "Make America Great Again."
Despite Trump’s claims of election fraud, the US Electoral College on Monday affirmed US president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, awarding him 306 electoral votes — more than the 270 needed to win — to Trump’s 232. The result still must be confirmed by a joint session of the US Congress on Jan. 6.
With drums and music, the march traveled several blocks around Taipei 101, ending at a nearby plaza, where talks and music videos were presented and streamed online.
Event organizers estimated that about 8,000 people turned out for the event.
"Without US protection, Taiwan would not have its freedom, and instead we would be slaves ruled by communist China. Trump is the best US president for Taiwan, signing laws to have officials visit and sell US weapons for us to fend off a Chinese military attack," pro-Taiwan independence campaigner Rishen Wu (吳日昇) said at the march.
In the crowd, an American, who identified himself as Jerry, said he was touched to see so many Taiwanese at the rally.
[IsraelTimes] Judges bar Stephan Balliet from early release; he has denied the Holocaust and expressed no remorse for failed 2019 storming of German house of worship.
Balliet suffered from symptoms of schizophrenia, paranoia and autism
A German court handed down a life sentence on Monday to the terrorist behind a deadly far-right attack last year that nearly became the country’s worst anti-Semitic atrocity since World War II.
News agency dpa reported that judges at the court in Magdeburg found him "seriously culpable," meaning that he will be effectively barred from early release after 15 years.
Continued on Page 49
#BREAKING: A bill intended to avoid Knesset dispersal and elections has failed to pass, at 47-49. #Israel will be going to elections on March 23. https://t.co/LefYJtyUFH
#3
Canada also has paper ballots. Every advanced nation requires photo ID.
Ours is the only nation that allows the three-ring circus involving Wakandan bullying, ballot harvesting, ballot stuffing and programmable internet-connected computers that produce vote-swapping and negative tallies and floating-point value tabulations and other ridiculous bullshit.
Why do We the People tolerate this for even a second?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[The Hill] More than 70 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point have been accused of cheating on a math exam, the worst academic dishonesty scandal to hit the military academy in decades.
[Taipai Times] A crowd yesterday marched in Taipei to rally support for US President Donald Trump and show opposition to the Chinese Communist Party.
[DAILYTIMES.PK] A man in Lahore on Monday killed his wife and two children over a domestic dispute.
