This should surprise nobody. After all, military cadets have watched their commander in chief lie and cheat every day for the past four years.
The US Military Academy at West Point is dealing with the fallout from a major cheating incident involving 73 cadets. …
Seventy-two of the cadets accused of breaking the academy’s famed honor code are first-year cadets, referred to as the “plebe year,” according to the academy. One student is a sophomore. All of them are accused of cheating on a calculus exam in May, when West Point had shifted to virtual classes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
(CNN, December 22, 2020)
Ominously, these cadets are just the tip of the iceberg of kids who are mirroring President Trump’s bullying, blustering, and bullsh!ting behavior. And chances are very good that one of those kids lives in your home.
The scandal strikes at the heart of the academy’s reputation for rectitude, espoused by its own moral code, which is literally etched in stone:
‘A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.’
(USA Today, December 21, 2020)
Except that far too many parents are conspiring with their kids to mirror Trump’s behavior. I had cause to damn their failure to set good examples just last year in “Parents in College Admissions Scandal: It’s Really About Them, Not the Kids,” April 8, 2019.
Still, these cadets have seen Trump make a mockery of the US presidency’s reputation for defending democratic values and give a middle finger to any kind of moral code. Indeed, a defining feature of his presidency has been the treasonous way he has continually sided on the world stage with America’s enemies against America’s own intelligence agencies.
Not to mention that this cheater in chief is now lying his ass off in a vain attempt to steal a second term in office.
President Donald Trump is spending his dwindling days in office entertaining increasingly desperate, last-ditch schemes to overturn the results of the presidential election, relying on a lawyer who, like him, has furthered conspiracy theories, and on a former adviser who has advocated for martial law.
The president has not appeared publicly in nine days, and behind closed doors, advisers say, he has remained focused on the election — rather than governing the country through a historic pandemic, overseeing the rollout of two COVID-19 vaccines and ensuring a smooth transition to a Biden administration.
(ABC News, December 21, 2020)
And, by the way, it’s no accident that the worst cheating scandal before this one occurred in 1976; that is, on the heels of the presidency of another lying crook, Richard Nixon.
The point is that, given all that, catching cadets cheating on a calculus exam seems rather like catching a toddler with his hand in the cookie jar, no?
Related commentaries:
Trump presidency… college admissions scandal…