Minnesota Week

I should have been a criminal lawyer, except that I don't like crooks.  

My education used to lean more toward psychology but now it is closer to law.  When I see something rotten I usually start with criminal law.  It is documented and it stems from mens rea or intent.  You can't really be jailed for being dumb or making a legitimate mistake.  You certainly cannot be convicted if a disability caused the incident, or if you acted lawfully or correctly.  The prosecutor has to show you did it with intent.

An allocution, a confession or admission, may be considered the solution to the criminally-illegal act.  In psychology it is the admission, the acknowledgement, and the coming to grips that leads to healing.

Today I was trying to read real news on washingtonpost.com; more like, instead of watching videos I wanted to learn something and preferred to read.  I even logged-in to my old account.  Scrolling down the page for more I learned Pat Fitzgerald is suing for a huge amount.  At least in terms of the football team and program, when they're gone they're gone.

Personally, I always thought Pat Fitzgerald was an average coach and a weird guy, sort of like PJ Fleck.

Quick Google search:  how did Hugh Freeze leave Mississippi State?  He resigned.  As I recall, he admitted, and now he's back in good graces as the head coach at Auburn.  Typically, when you resign you have either agreed to something or you now agree to go away.

Same goes for Mel Tucker.  Please recognize the destruction you have caused.

For Pat Fitzgerald, the memory becomes fuzzy or opinionated.  There was enough.  There was enough there to embarrass a university paying millions of dollars.  The best thing for everyone is to take your lumps and move on.  And it doesn't have to be about criminal or even civil guilt.

I think Minnesota is going to lose big this week.  It'll be pretty and well-attended in cold Minnesota.  It will not be a close game--like Nebraska and Rutgers, get used to your place in the new Big Ten.  The best of the West is coming.

 

Sam Bankman-Fried, and his parents, are fried.

The story here is you can't go around thinking you are smarter than everyone else.  There are a few exceptions, but most of those didn't have exactly happy lives; Oppenheimer, for example; I don't know about Einstein or a couple of others I can think of.

The problem really shows itself when they react with, or relate to, the rest of the world.

If you look at Sam Bankman-Fried, he shakes.  He is playing a video game.  H is shuffling or moving something with his hands.  Apparently he has an extreme case of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and he is also dependent on depression medication.  

These cannot add-up to a very stable or smart person.  That is exactly the case against him:  he was not adequately in charge.  What is particularly suspicious, and criminal about it, is he lied.  He tried to cover it up by saying everything was fine.  Specifically, the $8 billion siphoned from FTX to Alameda Research is well known.  There was code and there were rules to allow it.  Now, what has come out is that he has admitted they changed the code and it, the money, still wasn't there.  It was gone.  It was then he announced to customers and the world everything is fine.

Mistakes?  No, it is planning, plotting, lying, and intentional.  There is no way not to admit that he is responsible.  Even his former friends, co-founders, and employees admit it.  They are doing the smart  and healthy thing.

It is rare to see a case this strong.  He has serious psychological problems in failing to acknowledge it.  His crimes are that he is a danger to others.  For the safety of us all, and since he cannot do it himself, he must reform and/or be put safely away.

His parents and counselors are long-time, and previously-respected, lawyers...  If anything proves the difference between academics and the real world this is it.  They are going down too.