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956 Worldwide last won the day on April 17
956 Worldwide had the most liked content!
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I don’t disagree at all. I think that across lots of areas but especially education we have succumbed to a kind of cargo cult mentality towards credentials that mistakes the symbol of a thing for the thing itself. We noticed that high school graduates had better outcomes than non-graduates and so we dramatically dropped standards and made it close to impossible not to graduate. A large percentage of high school graduates cannot read at near a “sixth grade level.” Close to half of graduates leave with an “A” average. We noticed that students who got As did better and so we gave out more As. Crept into college, too, and we have oodles of innumerate and barely literate bachelor holders. While high schools grades have risen, standardized test scores have fallen and so schools choose to deemphasize them. Cargo cult. The credentials were merely symbols of possessing a certain amount of ability, knowledge, and discipline. Divorced from that theu hold less and less predictive power for outcomes. Like building an airstrip in the jungle in the belief it will attract airplanes full of valuable goods.
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Perhaps so. I will say that “(demographic group) is failing because they have shitty parents with shitty values who don’t teach them to make good choices” has me double checking if maybe I didn’t open TexAgs Forum 16. Are people SURE that’s the exit we want when discussing disparate outcomes?
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NGL, if ever a statement needed some evidence this is one. I am wholly skeptical that college age boys are not applying to college because they don’t want to be around college-age girls.
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This thread and the take that the Left needs its own Joe Rogan makes the mind reel at the dissonance.
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I don’t think I’m misrepresenting you man. I’ve pointed out that in many areas, especially in broad zoom, disparity of representation is considered pretty strong evidence of explicit or implicit discrimination or barriers somewhere in the pipeline. So much so that generally the onus shifts to prove that it ISN’T the cause.
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My thoughts on this are complicated and I don’t disagree that we have over-credentialed a lot of work and under-valued non-credentialed work. That said, it’s not really disputable that for decades the message and policy has been that college is an important vehicle for social mobility and improvement and that it’s important to improve access to minority groups and women. It’s a hard pivot from that to “actually a bunch of you need less college.”
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One sector is not a good proxy for something like college. And to your point, for most of the 20th century fewer women chose to apply to college than men due to “cultural and societal factors.” That was (IMO) properly recognized as problematic and the entire educational system mobilized to shift. To this day, more boys than girls play sports due to “cultural and societal factors.” And yet we have Title IX to try and legislatively equalize that and continue to do so. When do we get to cite these factors as non-problematic?
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In most institutions and industries, a non-representative applicant pool is considered prima facie problematic and great pains and effort is taken to identify the deficiency and close it. It strikes me that this argument is not considered acceptable for other underrepresent groups lack of presence whether actually on campus or in the pool.
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TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
956 Worldwide replied to Vato Macho's topic in Cloak Room
You will get no argument from me that a culture of complete dependence on government largesse, a political sense of untouchability, and a feeling that “everyone else is doing it, I’m missing out if I don’t” has created a deeply corrupt set of people in high-level health care executives. -
TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
956 Worldwide replied to Vato Macho's topic in Cloak Room
I will concur with Walz that it’s likely above $1 billion. We will see where it stops. Even that figure is frankly obscene, but completely unsurprising as I’ve seen similar combinations of factors result in absurd amounts of ignored criminality. Even “only” $215 million across 77 conspirators is astonishing. It requires vast community-level complicity combined with willful ignorance at the bureaucratic level. It is extremely difficult to find 76 people willing to go in on a “defraud the government” scheme absent some very unique community factors. -
TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
956 Worldwide replied to Vato Macho's topic in Cloak Room
You also alleged that Walz was misquoted in agreeing that fraud could reach over one billion. For no reason other than than that “you couldn’t find it,” and it’s not like this is some uber lib or con rag. Anyway, here he is saying it: Clip starts at 30:35. Reporter: “Joe Thompson said that fraud could surpass one billion in Minnesota. Do you agree with that number?” Walz: “Yes.” You are correct that the Star-Tribune analysis counts formal charges in addition to guilty verdicts and pleas. (It is much easier to say that since I am not a lawyer.) So I will rework my statement: an analysis of all charges brought in RICO cases against mafia figures and the dollar amount involved would be interesting. I would never attempt to say that the figure represents something like a useful guide to mafia theft and corruption. It’s really silly to think so. And I don’t expect the Star-Tribune analysis of charges to get close to the real amount of fraud perpetrated on Minnesota DHS. So what we know is that Walz agreed that fraud could go over a billion. Now he disagrees with Thompson that it may be 9 billion. The real amount surely can’t be known. Maybe somewhere between 217 million and 9 billion we reach something that’s worth more concern than a misleading tweet. -
TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
956 Worldwide replied to Vato Macho's topic in Cloak Room
You completely misrepresented the funds being discussed and the blamed the tweet for it. -
TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
956 Worldwide replied to Vato Macho's topic in Cloak Room
This is a true and accurate accounting of the amount of fraud that’s been proven in court. The problem is that it’s not believable as even a close estimate of the actual scale, and that the time has come and gone to gather an accurate estimation. If I were describing this in an Eastern European country for a transparency NGO, I’d write: ”Corruption in the public health and welfare services in Svaty Pavel is endemic. Prosecuted cases have tallied at least $217 million over six years although there is little doubt that the accurate figure is many times that number. Due to political and social sensitivities, local officials failed to investigate credible claims for several years while national counter-corruption officials pursued only the most egregious and probable cases due to the tremendous resources required. The fraud has become a national scandal, with the populist leader seeking to exploit it for political gain. His opponents are scrambling to mount an effective response due to the gross incompetency and oversight demonstrated by the opposition party in providing oversight of state funds. A full accounting of misspent funds is likely impossible based on the scale and duration of the fraudulent activity.” The information useful. But no serious person can argue, for instance, that a successful prosecuted RICO cases represent close to a full accounting of economic losses due to mafia activity over the years. -
TIL there’s something called fraud tourism. Congrats, Minnesota.
956 Worldwide replied to Vato Macho's topic in Cloak Room
Here is Walz saying that he agrees with Thompson that there was likely in excess of one billion in fraud: https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/07/28/walz-says-he-stopped-payments-to-50-of-the-largest-housing-stabilization-providers/ When do we get to stop calling it “relatively small?” Ok, maybe it’s not nine billion but it’s more than one? I think it’s a problem for Walz that he can’t settle on a number. I have set doubt that fraud schemes is far beyond the scale Minnesota wanted to admit, and after a couple of programs were found to be overwhelmingly fake, I also don’t doubt that there are others out there. I don’t believe that the feds got all of it. I’ve been to plenty of communities where defrauding social programs is basically the only economic game in town. It’s not something that is beyond possibility and r the way Minnesota has handled its responsibilities is deeply embarrassing.
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