DL Open Thread Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Trump’s lawyers whined that nobody will accept his real estate as collateral for the half-a-billion-dollar bond he has to post by Monday. Letitia James said Trump’s assets could be seized if he can’t pay, but it seems more likely that the state would go after his bank accounts than his real estate holdings.
Remember Paul Manafort, the Russian asset who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign? Trump pardoned the felon for his tax crimes and now intends to hire him again, I suppose so Russia doesn’t have to risk using someone else as a go-between.
Ketamine-addled genius boy Elon Musk once again revealed himself a thin-skinned racist in his interview with Don Lemon. Because Lemon challenged Musk’s racism, Musk pulled the plug on their deal after this one and only interview, offering the usual litany of Trumpian excuses and insults.
Bernie Sanders got a brief burst of publicity when he filed a bill to reduce the American work week to 32 hours. It stands no chance of passage.
The situation is out of control in Haiti, where armed gangs control most of the country. It’s not as bad as Gaza yet, but it’s on the same path of humanitarian disaster, and nobody seems to have any plan for dealing with it.
The floor’s yours.
Calling it a “32-hour work week” is messaging doomed to fail, triggering people over their imagined work ethic issues.
Instead, call it something like “overtime reform” and just require that employes pay time and a half for hours worked over 32. (That’s how it works now for 40 hours.) People love overtime!
Nobody would stop people from working more than four days, but they would get paid overtime for the extra hours.
Bernie’s law went too far, mandating a 32 hour week even for salaried workers and prohibiting employers from cutting pay. That was too much to swallow, even for me.
But a simple change to require time and a half over 32 for hourly workers would in fact eventually evolve into a de facto four-day work week as businesses refused to pay overtime and shifted their schedules around their support workers.
Brandywine School Board last night hired a new superintendent without any consult or engagement with the public. Find the audio of the board meeting. Four white Board members effectively used their voices to silence the three board members of color calling for a more open and transparent process.
Whoa. Need to check that out…
Looks like Hohler is retiring in July and this begins the search for a new super
Doesn’t sound like a search. It sounds like they selected number 24-111 last night. Does anyone even know who 24-111 is? That’s who’s listed on BoardDocs as the person getting the job. No name.
A FB post I saw said it was Lisa Lawson, the assistant superintendent.
I’m not a big fan of national searches. They typically result in hiring job-hoppers who don’t know the state, stick around for three years and look for a bigger paycheck.
But handing the job to the second-in-command without exploring other options is a lazy approach to exercising the responsibilities entrusted in board members.
Something tells me they that if they had made this move before the referendum last month, they wouldn’t have gotten yes votes in excess of 70 percent.
The former President is looking more like a vagrant with each passing day. As a generous nation we should provide him with shelter and food. Two hots and a cot would be a humane response.
Pretty sure our corrections system can overcook a cheeseburger with the best of ’em.
Supreme Court Blows Over A Century Of Precedent Out Of the Water On Immigration. AKA, Texas can do whatever it wants:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/scotus-bows-to-texas-bid-to-annex-immigration-enforcement-away-from-feds-for-now
Funny what happens when the supposed authority engages in salutory neglect on a major issue. I don’t feel great about it either but failing to lock down the border will likey be remembered as bidens greatest unforced error.
There is no way to “lock down the border.” All you’re doing is showing that you don’t understand the problem.
Looks like Eric Morrison has a primary challenger in Margie Lopez Waite, the CEO of Las Americas Aspiras Academy who failed upwards after running DAPSS into the ground.
Your description of Margie Lopez Waite is half right. She is CEO of Las Americas Aspira Academy, which has a reasonably good reputation among the state’s charter schools. No, she did not run DAPSS into the ground. That charter school was sinking, with management problems and shrinking enrollment, when he was recruited as part of a rescue effort. Also partnering in that effort was Dusty Blakey, then the Colonial School District superintendent. Their bailout attempt didn’t succeed, but it was a case of too little, too late.
Actually, just as well, because the founders had a really dumb idea for a charter school since its curriculum should have been part of a vo-tech curriculum.
Don’t take this as an endorsement of Margie because it isn’t. She’s a corporate Dem with banking connections who has learned how to run a school, but Morrison is by far the better choice as a legislator.
Margie Lopez Waite will help move us down the road to more charter schools and the expansion of existing ones. Charter schools have fragmented our communities, pulled desperately needed resources out of non-charter schools, and resegrated our education system. The super successful charter schools have a comparatively tiny number of low income and special needs students while the ones who do serve these populations in large numbers do no better than traditional schools who serve all students without the benefit of selecting who to enroll on the front end and being able to kick out troublesome students on the back end. Donating to Eric now.
I listened to the BSD school board meeting last night. Compelling testimony from the three women of color board members who simply wanted the search process to seek frontline educator input. I get that the other board members had an excellent inside candidate they didn’t want to lose, but they have risked further demoralizing and alienating an already burnt out workforce by taking this decision without properly engaging them.
The audio is worth listening to. Start at 1:12:24
https://youtu.be/kKLeTTtU4fo?si=4cFJN2hAETsEziK0
That audio is wild. There really is a bigger story here and I hope The News Journal picks up. Kim Stock’s eloquent soliloquy calling out this mess should be required listening for every activist.
Brandywine really fouled this up.
Slightly off-topic, but it wouldn’t shock me if Kim Stock was someone who might want to succeed Kyle Evans Gay in that Senate seat should Kyle be elected Lt. Governor.
I knocked some doors in Chatham on Kim’s behalf when she was running against that fundamentalist God Squadder in the election.
Hard agree. Kim was impressive at the board meeting…she would make an exceptional candidate for (higher) office. I do think Larry Lambert is eyeing the 5th Senate district seat. Two good potential candidates.
I’m also a big Larry fan. I’m on the 7th RD Committee, and I think he’s great.