March 19 Open Thread: Money Is the Root of All Greed

Filed in Delaware, National, Open Thread by on March 19, 2018

WDEL’s Amy Cherry has the best story on the kerfuffle over the firing of Padua Academy’s principal. The Diocese of Wilmington is trying to split hairs about it, but it all boils down to money, as in the family’s of Padua’s students weren’t giving St. Anthony’s any contributions, mainly because 97% of the students’ parents don’t belong to the parish. Those contributions, BTW, were expected on top of the $13,800 annual tuition. Alms for the poor my ass.

It turns out the theft of the presidential elections can be laid at the feet of billionaire Robert Mercer, whose Cambridge Analytica stole date from Facebook to build their database of Morons Registered to Vote.

Trump is such an uninventive dolt that he had his White House staff sign non-disclosure agreements with big monetary penalties if they talk. The ACLU points out that such contracts are unconstitutional and unenforceable.

Those Morons Registered to Vote can’t be distracted by unimportant shit like elections stolen with foreign help. They know what’s important — giving shit to a couple of kids who carried an upside-down American flag during one of the school gun protests. Let it be noted, BTW, that Sussex Tech is the county’s premier White Flight Academy.

How can Great Britain fight back against brazen poisoning attacks on expatriate Russians? By hitting them where it hurts — in their laundered-money real estate holdings.

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  1. Jason330 says:

    They may be worthless, but they need someone to force the question. I wonder who is going to be the person who shows that Trump’s Presidential NDA’s are unenforceable?

  2. puck says:

    A large advance on a book deal should do the trick.

  3. Dave says:

    If 97% of the students at a parish school do not belong to the parish, I would question the need and purpose for the school.

  4. Liberal Elite says:

    @A “…Cambridge Analytica stole date from Facebook to build their database of Morons Registered to Vote.”

    The question is, how did the Russians get basically the same data?

  5. Paul says:

    In an era of wealth hoarding, it is probably fair to remind readers that the biggest hoarder of all is the Vatican and its dioceses. This is why I am not sanguine as others are about the new pope. Of this hoarding, he is saying naught. I suspect he’s learned the lesson of Pope John-Paul I. You talk about money reform and your tenure gets cut short. JP1 didn’t last two months before he died of a “mysterious” illness. My guess is that the Curia provided the means, some kind of “nerve agent”. I think the Kremlin regards the Vatican as its chief financial and ideological opponent.

  6. Arthur says:

    Paul you’ve got it backwards – the school is thriving and the church is dying. A good education is what is wanted and a majority of students belong to other parishes or none at all

  7. Liberal Elite says:

    @Ar “A good education is what is wanted…”

    And I thought that racism was the usual driving force for putting non-parish kids into parish schools.

  8. Paul says:

    @Arthur- I think not. The church is using the school as its cash cow. Wealth “hoarding”.

  9. delacrat says:

    “Those Morons Registered to Vote…” – alby

    You expect people you call “morons” to vote for your preferred candidate ?

    How did “basket of deplorables” work for Clinton.

  10. Alby says:

    No, I don’t. They’re morons.

    Do you really think people I call morons visit this web site so they can decide whom they’ll vote for in 2020?

    Do you think Hillary lost because she called a bunch of resentful racists and xenophobes deplorable?

    PS: You’re here provisionally. You still haven’t passed the test.

  11. Dave says:

    @LE

    “And I thought that racism was the usual driving force for putting non-parish kids into parish schools.”

    No. At least not in my own experience and others I know who did/do the same. Parents want a good education. They are willing to pay for it. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any children then with parents who are prejudiced. It just means, generally most are there for the education.

    An easy want to test my assertion would be to provide a high performing public school environment and see how quickly they abandon high-priced parish schools. $13,800 per child is not chump change.

  12. Dave says:

    “They’re morons.”

    The coal miners are still waiting for the mines to reopen so they can help make America great again. Just like the steelworkers who are waiting for the mills to reopen. Teach a man to fish…, but what do you do when the men are the fish? Even some fish are smart enough not to take the bait.

    I used to have sympathy for the plight of the miners, steelworkers, etc. But when they chose willful ignorance they fell off my radar.

  13. Jasonn330 says:

    It was willful economic ignorance and a chance to give browns and blacks the finger.

  14. Alby says:

    @Dave: It’s not the parish school; the parish owns the land and building, the diocese runs the school.

    Also, that high-performing public school exists: the misnamed Charter School of Wilmington, actually the STEM magnet school run by the Red Clay District so that the city of Wilmington would keep its last remaining non-VoTech high school in operation. It’s very hard to get into, and doesn’t seem to have depressed the non-public high school market.

    There are a lot of parents whose kids are good but not quite good enough to get in, and they’re willing to make a $60,000 investment in secondary school with an eye on college admissions. Is some of it white flight? Undoubtedly, but the amount would be hard to quantify, and I doubt it could be squeezed out of existing data.

    BTW, that’s a bargain price. Current tuition at Ursuline is $20,910. Archmere is $24,950. St. Mark’s is $13,500, but it’s down near Newark. St. Elizabeth’s is $11,700.

    For comparison, Catholic high schools are overall bargains. Tuition at Tower Hill is $28,580, Tatnall $28,650, Sanford $27,315, Wilmington Friends $27,000, Wilmington Christian 14,630. Caravel is cheap at $10,400.

  15. Arthur says:

    Alby – actually charter and other non-traditional public high schools have made a pretty good dent in the private HS landscape. st marks is barely hanging on. st elizabeths will probably either close their elementary school and focus on the high school and Independence is asking for state money to bolster them. the top tier schools, archmere, sallies, ursuline, tower hill are doing fine. but a good portion of parents take the entrance exam to their private school of choice and charter and make the decision based on acceptance

  16. RE Vanella says:

    For the record it is a parish school.

    •The Head of School (aka Principal) of Padua Academy reports directly and solely to the Pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish.

    https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/education/2018/03/19/st-anthony-padua-parish-statement-padua-change-leadership/438387002/

    I grew up in the parish and although it’s not typical, in this case it’s run by St Anthony’s church not the diocese. Same as the elementary school.

  17. Tom Kline says:

    It’s simple – Delaware’s Public schools generally BLOW…

    Dave says:
    March 19, 2018 at 1:13 pm
    If 97% of the students at a parish school do not belong to the parish, I would question the need and purpose for the school.

  18. Alby says:

    “actually charter and other non-traditional public high schools have made a pretty good dent in the private HS landscape.”

    Dave posited an excellent public school. I would characterize most other “charter” schools as less than excellent, and I question the need for and motive behind opening most of them. Whatever you can say about charters individually, collectively they have not been worth the cost involved in wreaking havoc in the Christina School District alone, let alone the graft and grief involved in the many failed charter operations.

  19. Alby says:

    @REV: Thanks for the correx. My head must have been spinning from reading too much Krebs.

  20. Rufus Y. Kneedog says:

    The Head of School may report to the St. Anthony’s Pastor, but I don’t think there’s any way he fires her without the Diocese green-lighting it.

  21. RE Vanella says:

    If the public schools blow…
    and the fancy schools thrive…

    …why would this be, do you think?

  22. mediawatch says:

    Pastor making a big-time miscalculation. By canning the principal, Padua will likely take a big enrollment hit next year, and the overall loss will far outweigh any gain the parish might have realized through its surcharge.
    And, given the enrollment at St. Anthony’s elementary, even if all the 8th grade girls went to Padua for high school, there’s no way they would make up any more than 10 percent of the enrollment. If girls from St. Anthony’s parish ever made up a majority of the enrollment, it would have been at least a generation ago.

  23. RE Vanella says:

    You’d think that, Rufus. But I go back there quite a while.

    There’s a mural of Balducelli on the wall at Fierro’s Cheese.

    I have no idea what the process is, but there’s no reason to believe that there’s not some degree of autonomy.

  24. mediawatch says:

    Gotta put this somewhere — maybe Alby can elaborate on Tuesday thread:

    The Donald’s Daily Disaster now has a certifiable Delaware angle: His new lawyer, Joe DiGenova, was born in Wilmington and grew up here. Sallies grad.

    https://www.dcbar.org/bar-resources/publications/washington-lawyer/articles/february-2013-legends-in-the-law.cfm

  25. He even has (had?) a sandwich named after him at Luigi Vitrone’s Pastabilities. That’s an achievement that not even David Grimaldi can match.

  26. mediawatch says:

    ElSom: Not a fair comparison. Grimaldi’s not a real Delawarean.

  27. DiGenova and his equally slimy wife Victoria Toensing made their bones going after Bill Clinton and l’affaire Lewinsky. You couldn’t turn on the tube back then w/o seeing their mugs. Pretty sure Ken Starr had them on speed dial.

    Betcha they don’t take the same tack when it comes to Stormy Daniels. They are the lowest of the low.

  28. delacrat says:

    “They’re morons.”
    ”the miners, steelworkers, etc.”
    – Dave

    and

    ”It was willful economic ignorance and a chance to give browns and blacks the finger.” – jason

    Are your above mentioned opinions informed by years working with factory workers or having numerous such friends and acquaintances… or do you just watch too much teevee ?

    I ask because that is not what I experienced working 3 decades with factory workers in the petrochemical industry.

  29. Paul says:

    Don’t understand anything about your Balducelli reference. Not from NC

  30. Alby says:

    ” that is not what I experienced working 3 decades with factory workers in the petrochemical industry.”

    Is that what turned you into a Republican?

  31. delacrat says:

    It never turned me into a Republican, but it’s why I don’t share your disdain for Americans who work with their hands.

  32. Alby says:

    I don’t have any disdain for working with one’s hands. You don’t have to be a moron to work with your hands, and many who work with their hands are not morons. Many who don’t work with their hands are — most of the Republicans I know don’t work with their hands.

    Stop telling me what I think and stick with what you think. This is your MO — accuse people of stuff without ever taking an actual position.

    So man up and prove you’re not a Republican or this comment of yours disappears.

    You are here at our pleasure. Either play nice or you’ll be made to go away.