Few things disappoint me as when someone that you have a lot of respect gets involved with something really bad, and stupid.
Remember Lynette Scavo on
Desperate Housewives? The frazzled mother was always getting chewed to pieces when her moves in life came back to haunt her.
Apparently, Felicity Huffman never learned from playing Lynette Scavo lifestyle.
Today,
Huffman and a host of others were implicated at buying their children's way into colleges and collegiate athletic programs at a number of high profile universities and colleges.
Initial new made it sound as if Huffman, and Lorie Loughlin we running the ring. Not true.
What we do know is that they "hired" a firm to buy influence for their child's acceptance into a school and that the amounts paid were channeled into non-profits, which in turn paid coaches and admissions people at the school's kickbacks for preferred or manipulated admission.
In fact, Huffman was taped discussing what this consultant was going to do for her child.
Scandal traps Huffman, Loughlin and about 28 more parents caught with their hands in the kitty.
It also traps the people running the racket, and it traps college staff members who took the money.
What we have yet to see is how this is going to impact the schools, their athletic programs.
The biggest losers?
The kids who earned their spaces in these schools and earned the right to play sports. They are the ones who could get screwed the hardest if the NCAA decides to do something really shitty, like cancel the programs and invalidate wins as punishment for the programs. And the NCAA has a pretty good track record of fucking over collateral students who were never involved when these things blow up.
Huffman's daughter and all the children whose parents try to game the system are also victims. I cannot imagine what is and will be going through their minds. Think about it: Getting into a college should be one of the first "adult" decisions and efforts in life. Now, everyone will look at them and wonder how bad their accomplishments must be for their parents to resort to these tactics.
Of course, this gaming the system is nothing new.
How do you think that Forty-Five got into college and ended up with
a degree from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania? We know that he knows that the degree was bought because he is flipping out over his transcriptions and what they show. Moreover, no one at Wharton really remembers Donald Trump. Strange, don't you think?
And the last person I knew of who bragged about being a Wharton grad was a former co-worker of mine in Ohio who got busted for all sorts of fraud when her house came tumbling down. She even ended up with a prohibition against working in a Federally insured institution. She displayed Wharton as her Alma Mater, too.
As for Felicity, even the genealogy community is BUZZING about this because a couple weeks ago she and her hard-luck childhood were featured Dr. Louis Gates, Finding Your Roots.
So yeah, I am angry with Felicity. This really stains her brand.
But like Lynette, downing Ritalin to be super Mom, or
Julia Ann Norbeck getting fingered for consumer financial fraud, when you are dishonest, you get caught.
Now, Felicity is pretty desperate, I bet.
Sources:
USA TODAY, 20190312,
"Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin among dozens indicted in largest-ever case alleging bribery to get kids into colleges" https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/03/12/felicity-huffman-lori-loughlin-indicted-admissions-bribery-case-reports/3139204002/
Valentina Zarya,
ESQUIRE, 2015/08/14
No one knows what Donald Trump Did at Wharton,
97-12-02IV--
Final Order of Prohibition Julia Ann Norback,
National Credit Union Administration.
