A Bernie Sanders Supporter Who Will Vote For Donald Trump: Cry Havoc!

You ask me if I'll get along.

I guess I will, someway.

I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

Guess Things Happen That Way

Johnny Cash

I am a die hard Bernie Sanders fan. As I said in an earlier blog, I will support him until the last dog dies, right through the California primary election.  I have harshly criticized Donald Trump on my Catholic blog site because I think Donald's stand on immigration is contrary to Catholic teaching. And I'm not taking my anti-Trump posts down.

But here's a message for Hillary. If I am faced with a choice between Donald Trump and Crooked Hillary, I'm voting for the Donster.

Hillary claims to be a progressive but her brand of progressivism allows her to collect a quarter million dollars a pop making secret speeches to corporate oligarchs. 

Hillary's brand of progressivism is Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew's brand of progressivism. Lew took more than two thirds of a million dollars as an exit bonus when he left New York University, the most venal and expensive higher education institution in America. But he's a progressive because he wants Harriet Tubman's face on the dollar bills he lines his pockets with.

Hillary's brand of progressivism is Arne Duncan's brand of progressivism. He bleated repeatedly about the student-loan crisis but did nothing to rein in the for-profit college industry while he was Secretary of Education. In fact, at the direction of his boss, Duncan cynically constructed a modern-day form of serfdom whereby millions of distressed student-loan debtors pay a percentage of their income to the federal government for 20 and even 25 years.  And when he finished picking his nose at the Department of Education, Duncan toddled off to the Brookings Institution, where he will probably write policy papers defending the status quo in higher education and rake in money sitting on corporate boards.

Hillary's brand of progressivism is the New York Times' brand of progressivism, which tells the people of North Carolina how to go to the bathroom while it organizes Luxury Conferences and peddles obscenely expensive New York real estate in its advertising pages.

Hillary's brand of progressivism allows her to think Americans are so stupid that she can mock Donald Trump for flying in a private jet, while she flies in a private jet that is almost identical.

Yes, and Hillary's brand of progressivism is Barack Obama's brand of progressivism, which allowed Barack to  cozy up to Wall Street for eight years while the death rate for working-class white people went up--driven by suicide, liver disease, and drug abuse.

In short, I reject Hillary and all her empty promises.  I would much prefer to vote for Bernie Sanders in November, but if I must choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I'm pulling the lever for Trump. As Johnny Cash put it, "I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way."

Will Donald Trump bring chaos to the United States? Perhaps. But I think Hillary and the political elites are going to find that millions of Americans would rather risk chaos than be manipulated by an old political hack and her Ivy League cronies for the next four years.  

Indeed, Shakespeare expresses my sentiment exactly: "Cry 'Havoc!"

Jacob Lew, Secretary of the Treasury: I want my cash in small bills, preferably with Harriet Tubman's picture on it

References

Andrew J. Chirlin. Why Are White Death Rates Rising? New York Times, February 22, 2016. Accessible at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/opinion/why-are-white-death-rates-rising.html

Danny Hakim. Obama's Treasury Nominee Got Unusual Exit Bonus on Leaving N.Y.U. New York Times, February 25, 2013. Accessible at  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/nyregion/lew-treasury-nominee-got-exit-bonus-from-nyu.html?_r=0

The Abu Dhabi Scandal: New York University Should Be Kicked Out of the Federal Student Loan Program

Today's New York Times carried a front-page story about New York University's recently constructed campus in Abu Dhabi.  According to the Times, the campus was built by immigrant laborers who worked under harsh conditions for salaries of as little as $272 a month.

Photo credit: NYU Photo Bureau

  

New York University pledged that the Abu Dhabi campus would be built by construction workers who would work under humane conditions and receive fair wages; but apparently that did not happen.  As many as 15 workers lived in tiny rooms, and apparently they were not paid the wages that had been promised to them.  When workers went on strike, the police were called in; and some of the workers were beaten.

New York University is a private institution with extremely high tuition--about $64,000 a year for tuition, room and board.  NYU students graduate with some of the highest student-loan debt levels in the country.  In 2010, NYU students graduated with a total of $659 million in student loans. That's right--nearly two-thirds of a billion!

Nevertheless, John Sexton, NYU's president, is compensated at an obscene level; and the university operates as if it should be answerable to nobody. And when I say obscene--I mean obscene.  President Sexton makes almost $1.5 million per year and is guaranteed a "length of service" bonus of $2.5 million.  When he retires--supposedly in 2016--he will receive annual retirement income of $800,000 a year.  Oh yeah--and he also get an apartment near Washington Square.

Here are a few other recent stories of unseemly behavior by this behemoth institution.

•  According to a recent news story, the university provides a luxury apartment for scholar Henry Louis Gates at below-market rent. Professor Gates is not even employed by NYU; he works at Harvard.

• NYU paid Jacob Lew, now Secretary of the Treasury, an exit bonus of several hundred thousand dollars when Lew left NYU to go to work in private industry.

• NYU gave President Sexton and other favored faculty members low interest loans to purchase second homes. For example, a former law school dean and his wife used a NYU loan to buy a 65-acre estate in Connecticut. 

NYU has the right to operate as it wishes and to disregard its many critics.  The governing board has paid no attention to a vote of no confidence in Sexton's leadership that the Arts & Science faculty issued in 2013.

But does NYU deserve to participate in the Federal student loan program, which is financed by American taxpayers, when it shows so little regard to financial propriety?

I don't think so.  If it wants to pay its president more than $1 million a year and start a high-profile campus in the Middle East, let it do so.  But NYU should not benefit from a federal student loan program that was intended to provide broader access to higher education--not subsidize a lavish and unseemly enterprise.

References

Jake Flanagin. The Expensive Romance of NYU. Atlantic, August 13, 2013. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/the-expensive-romance-of-nyu/278904/

Ariel Kaminer &  Alain Delaquieriere. N.Y.U. Gives Its Stars Loans for Summer Homes. New York Times, June 17,2013.

Ariel Kaminer & Sean O'Driscoll. Worker's at N.Y.U.'s Abu Dhabi Site Face Harsh Conditions. New York Times, May 19, 2014, p. 1.

Abby Ohlheiser. John Sexton will officially leave NYU in 2016. The Wire, August 14, 2013. Available at: http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/08/john-sexton-will-officially-leave-nyu-2016/68346/

Bruce Wright, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Gets Unreal Housing Perks from NYU. Boston.com, May 17, 2014. Available at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/05/17/harvard-prof-henry-louis-gates-gets-unreal-housing-perks-from-nyu/pXTFg7YDd3BMSekltbQ4tI/story.html

Blah, blah, blah: Drew Faust, president of Harvard, lectures America on the value of arts education

Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, took time out from her busy schedule to co-author an op ed essay for USA Today on the value of arts education. Anxiety abounds, Faust and co-author Wynton Marsalis noted, about the ability of our current educational system to respond to a rapidly changing world. "Yet," they conclude, "the education we are fashioning for our children and their children seems ill-suited for the lives they will lead."

Faust and Marsalis went on to summarize the kind of education Americans need to live in the world we now inhabit and to shape the world to come:

We need education that nurtures judgment as well as mastery, ethics and values as well as analysis. We need learning that will enable students to interpret complexity, to adapt, to make sense of lives they never anticipated. We need a way of teaching that encourages them to develop understanding of those different from ourselves, enabling constructive collaborations across national and cultural origins and identities.

Faust and Marsalis then argue that many of the skills and attributes that students need to prepare themselves for life are taught through the arts--drama, music, dance, etc.

Well, who can argue with that? 

Drew Faust is president of  Harvard, the nation's most prestigious university and perhaps the most prestigious university in the world. We can reasonably assume that Harvard is providing students with an education that instills the values Faust and Marsalis articulated. Indeed, we might reasonably assume that all of the nation's elite universities--Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, Brown, etc.--are instilling these values.

Drew Faust, President of Harvard Univefrsity

Unfortunately, I don't think these values are being taught in today's most prestigious universities.  Let's look at the people who work in the Obama administration, almost all of whom have undergraduate or graduate degrees from elite American universities.  For example, Jacob Lew, Secretary of the Treasury, has degrees from Harvard and Georgetown. Valerie Jarrett, one of President Obama's top advisers, received a degree from Stanford; and Obama himself has degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law School.

Do we see the Obamacrats exercising sound judgment as well as mastery? Do we see them demonstrating ethical values as well as analysis?  Do we see them expressing an appreciation for diverse cultures and religious traditions?

No, we do not.  Jacob Lew, our Secretary of the Treasury, received a $685,000 exit bonus from New York University when he left NYU to go to work for Citigroup. He also got a special deal from NYU on a home mortgage. Illegal? No. But certainly this compensation is inappropriate for a person working at a tax-exempt university.

And how about Valerie Jarrett, who basically said Americans are too dumb to understand President Obama's grand designs.  Has she demonstrated an understanding of people different from herself? No, she has shown contempt for the very people she is supposed to be serving.

And President Obama, who has accumulated honors and accolades all his life--has he demonstrated moral rectitude? Has he shown himself able to build "constructive collaborations across national and cultural origins and identities"? No, he has repeatedly insulted the Catholic Church, casually and perhaps even unknowingly. He has lied to the American public. His administration has managed to outrage many of the major nations of the world: France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Saudi Arabia and India among them.

It is time for Americans to realize that our nation's elite universities are not producing the leaders we need. The people who run our government--almost all graduates of our nation's elite colleges, are arrogant, provincial, condescending, and contemptuous of traditional American values, including the values associated with Christianity.  Perhaps more art education would produce better citizens as Faust and Marsalis suggest, but somehow I think President Obama and his cronies would still be as crude as they are now, even if they had taken a few art classes at their high-toned colleges.

References

Drew Faust and Wynton Marsalis. The Art of Learning. USA Today, January 2, 2014, p. 7A.

Danny Hakim. Obama's Treasury Nominee Got Unusual Exit Bonus on leaving N.Y.U. New York Times, February 25, 2013.  Accessible at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/nyregion/lew-treasury-nominee-got-exit-bonus-from-nyu.html?_r=0

George F. Will. How a Presidency Unravels. Washington Post, November 22, 2013.  Accessible at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-obamas-presidency-unravels-through-chaos-and-crisis/2013/11/22/57132e74-52de-11e3-a7f0-b790929232e1_story.html

 

Feed Me, Seymour: New York University and Ohio State University Should Be Kicked Out of the Federal Student Loan Program

American colleges and universities love the Federal Student Loan Program.  Many of them wouldn't last a week if their students couldn't borrow money to pay their tuition bills.  And universities could




Feed me, Seymour!

not raise their tuition and fees every year were it not for the fact that student can absorb these increased costs simply by borrowing more money.

Does participation in the Federal Student Loan Program impose a moral obligation on universities to prudently manage their affairs? In particular, are they obligated to put some limits on their executive compensation packages and to disclose the terms of those packages to the public?

 

Apparently not.  Some universities--both public and private--pay their presidents and senior executives obscene salaries and lavish benefits like bonuses, travel and entertainment allowances, and luxury housing.  And they don't want the public to know about it.

 

Here are a couple of examples. Recently, the press reported that John Sexton, president of New York University, receives a salary of $1.5 million, and NYU gave him a loan on favorable terms to purchase a second home.  When he retires, Sexton's pension will be $800,000, and he will get a "length of service" bonus of $2.5 million if he stays on the job until 2015. 

And Jacob Lew, our new Secretary of the Treasury, received a $685,000 parting bonus when he stepped down as Executive Vice President of NYU to take the Treasury post.  That's right. In addition to a generous salary and other perks, NYU gave Lew two-thirds of a million dollars as a going away present.

Senator Charles Grassley decided to look into NYU's executive compensation practices to see if they were in keeping with the university's tax status as a non-profit organization.  Did NYU cooperate with Senator Grassley's investigation?

 

Not really. According to a New York Times story, Senator Grassley accused NYU of impeding his inquiry. For example, NYU representatives allowed Senator Grassley's staffers to view some

John Sexton

documents but would not allow them to be copied. On the date of the NY Times story, Senator Grassley still had not received all the information he asked for.

 

Would you like another example? In 2012, Gorden Gee was the highest paid president of a public university in the United States. In the fiscal year ending 2012, Gee made $1.9 million, including base salary, bonus, deferred compensation, and supplemental retirement contributions. In addition, he lived in a 9,6000 square foot mansion stocked with antiques, art work, and Persian rugs.  And according to Dayton Daily News, Gee spent an average of $23,000 a month on entertainment.
 

A guy pulling down that kind of money obviously has tax issues--big tax issues.  Not to worry. Under his university contract, OSU provides Gee with up to $20,000 a year in tax preparation and financial planning services!

 

Did OSU make the terms of  President Gee's entire compensation package available to the public? No, it did not.  The Dayton Daily News pried the information out of OSU through an open records request. And it took OSU eleven months to turn over all the documents the newspaper requested.

 

This, then, is the status of higher education in the current age. College costs go up every year and students have to borrow more and more money to pay for it. Many can't find decent jobs when they graduate and many default on their loans. How many? We don't know because the Department of Education won't tell us.  Meanwhile, our universities pay avaricious  oligarchs like OSU's Gorden Gee and NYU's John Sexton ridiculous amounts of money.

Does anyone believe our universities need to pay their leaders unseemly amounts of money and provide them with regal benefits in order to get good leaders? I certainly do not. 



Gordon Gee

In fact, the emergence of the imperial university president is a core reason our public universities are in the mess they are in. We've appointed people to run our colleges who want to become wealthy, and indeed some of them have become wealthy.

We should have university presidents who see themselves as first among equals in a community of scholars--people who will turn all their energies into making sure students get an education that will fit them for a 21st century economy and who will work night and day to keep tuition costs down.

We need federal legislation to regulate all the colleges and universities that receive federal loans.  First, all institutions that participate in the student loan program should be required to post their senior executives' compensation on their web sites--with a direct link from the university's home page.

And by compensation, I mean ALL executive compensation: salary, bonuses, enhanced retirement benefits, housing, travel and entertainment allowances, financial services, speaking fees, etc. And senior executives should be required to report compensation they get from any source, including nonprofit foundations.

And we also need federal legislation to require all universities that participate in the federal student loan program to cap salaries and compensation for their senior executives at some reasonable level--say $300,000.

If Ohio State University and New York University want to pay their presidents outrageous salaries, they are free to do so. But they should be kicked out of the federal student loan program until such time as they bring their executive compensation packages down to some level of decency. 

References

Laura Bischoff. OSU president expenses in the millions. Dayton Daily News, September 22, 2012. Accessible at: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/expenses-of-osu-president-run-into-millions-for-tr/nSGkK/

David Haglund. NYU Neatly Embodies Everything Wrong With Higher Education in America. Slate,, June 18, 2013. Accessible at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/06/18/nyu_loans_for_summer_homes_ny_times_story_about_university_pay_for_john.html

Ariel Kaminer.  N.Y.U. Impeding Compensation Inquiry, Senator Says. New York Times, July 10,2013.  Accessible at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/nyregion/nyu-accused-of-impeding-compensation-inquiry.html?_r=0