DL Open Thread For Thursday, November 18, 2021

Darius Brown Blowed Himself Up Real Good.  Maybe his latest sham employer will reconsider the job they handed to him–especially since they’re probably not getting any Grant-In-Aid $$’s as long as he’s there.  Glad that Sen. Sokola is not muzzling the other senators, you know, the way that Pete ‘n Val tried to do when Gerald Brady’s racism and xenophobia were exposed for all to see.  Did I say ‘blowed himself up real good’?

BOYCOTT MT. CUBA!!  The Copeland-founded enterprise fires all its Docents, just in time for the holidays. Guess they won’t be repeating as being one of the ‘Best Workplaces in Delaware’. Heartless bastards:

As the center approaches its closure for the winter, the organization is phasing out its docents and will add educators for next spring’s opening.

There are currently 18 docents. Those positions will turn into about 10 educators, with the possibility of more.

“I know our guests love the fact that Mt. Cuba has docents in the garden to answer any questions they have,” said Barbara Reinhart, 68, a docent and volunteer. “Every day that we’re there in the gardens, people are asking very specific questions.”

A volunteer for the center, who wishes to remain anonymous, says they are “very distressed” over the decision to retire the docent position.

“The docents have always been such a valued resource for detailed information about plants, their cultivation and knowledge about the history of Mt. Cuba that I find it puzzling they were terminated,” the volunteer said. “Their expertise in plant nomenclature and horticulture was something I depended upon.”

Some docents were upset about the nature in which the news was shared, as they thought they were attending their monthly staff meeting.

“Most people are really pissed off about the way it went down,” said Reinhart. “People have been there 10 to 15 years and just know all about the place.”

White 4-Time Rapist Gets No Jail Time.  From a wealthy suburb of Buffalo.  Aging white judge says he ‘prayed over the decision’.  So, I guess you could say that God spared the rapist:

This week, Mr. Belter, 20, was sentenced in the assault on M.M. and in sexual attacks on three other teenage girls. Facing up to eight years in prison, he was instead given eight years’ probation by a judge who said he had “agonized” over the decision.

“I’m not ashamed to say that I actually prayed over what is the appropriate sentence in this case because there was great pain,” the judge, Matthew J. Murphy III of Niagara, N.Y., County Court, said at Mr. Belter’s sentencing on Tuesday, according to WKBK, a local television station. “There was great harm. There were multiple crimes committed in the case.”

Still, the judge continued, “It seems to me that a sentence that involves incarceration or partial incarceration isn’t appropriate.” He told Mr. Belter, who must register as a sex offender, the probation would be “like a sword hanging” over his head for the next eight years. He offered no further explanation for why the sentence did not include prison time.

Hey, if was good enough for a DuPont heir, it’s good enough for a rich kid from Buffalo.

Will Oklahoma Governor Murder An Innocent Man?  Pretty much everybody, including R legislators, has urged the Governor to commute his sentence.  Yes, the man about to be executed in Black.  Feel free to view this story and the preceding story in tandem.

South Dakota’s Richest Man A Pedophile?  His two interests appear to be young children and Rethug politicians.  How did he become South Dakota’s richest man?  Think Charles Cawley 2.0:

On a chilly Monday in early November, Laura Bush appeared at a lunchtime reception at a baronial mansion in Wilmington, Del., to express her husband’s gratitude for $350,000 in contributions to his re-election campaign. Her host was Charles M. Cawley, and most of the money had come from employees of the MBNA Corporation, the highflying credit card company that he had run for two decades.

The Bush family was well acquainted with Mr. Cawley and his generosity. Only Enron, before its fall, was a bigger source of political donations to George W. Bush than MBNA. Mr. Cawley was also a benefactor to the president’s father. Besides donating $1 million to the foundation that built George H.W. Bush’s presidential library, Mr. Cawley and MBNA have paid more than $300,000 to the former president and his wife for appearing at company events.

Although hardly a household name, even on Wall Street, Mr. Cawley, 63, became a powerful figure in business by catering to the national addiction to credit. Operating in a heavily regulated industry, he curried favor in Washington through political contributions and by hiring former senior government officials. MBNA’s management team is studded with retired F.B.I. officials, including Louis J. Freeh, its former director.

But two days after Mr. Cawley played host to the first lady, his stewardship of the company unraveled quickly. At a meeting on Nov. 12, people who were present said, he locked horns with board members over the compensation of his management team — a subject dear to a man whose own pay was among the nation’s highest, topping $50 million in each of the two previous years.

MBNA. Say-y-y-y, didn’t Hunter Biden work there?  Why, yes, yes he did–at the same time that then-Sen. Biden ran interference for the credit card industry.  Coincidence, I’m sure.

Affirmative Action For The White, Rich And Privileged.  We’re talkin’ Dear Old Hah-vahd:

In reality, 43% of Harvard’s white students are either recruited athletes, legacy students, on the dean’s interest list (meaning their parents have donated to the school) or children of faculty and staff (students admitted based on these criteria are referred to as ‘ALDCs’, which stands for ‘athletes’, ‘legacies’, ‘dean’s interest list’ and ‘children’ of Harvard employees). The kicker? Roughly three-quarters of these applicants would have been rejected if it weren’t for having rich or Harvard-connected parents or being an athlete.

Here’s the thing– Harvard is insanely competitive. The admittance rate for the class of 2025 was 3.43%, the lowest rate in the school’s history, in a year that saw an unprecedented surge in applications. But as more and more comes to light about Harvard’s admissions process, it’s clear that the school’s competitiveness is not just based on academic strength or great test scores, but also whether or not your parents or grandparents have donated significantly to the school.

What do you want to talk about?