I worked for Lamar Alexander when he was Secretary of Education. He had a car and driver. He did not have a security detail.
The cost of Betsy DeVos’s security team is $1 million per month. She is protected by federal marshals, whose agency is reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Education.
This outlay comes as DeVos and Trump seek a multi-billion dollar reduction in the budget of the Department. They want to cut after-school programs and dozens of others that are needed by children in poverty.
Why doesn’t she pay for her own security? She is worth $5.4 billion. She can afford it. Why should poor kids tighten their belts and do with less while she travels in style on the taxpayers’ million?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Everything about this administration is nothing but smoke and mirrors and a total waste of taxpayer dollars.
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Whether you like it or not, she is the current Head of the Department of Education. When you worked with Lamar you did not have groups loudly and sometime violently resisting your actions or movements. You, Diane, have played your part in stirring the pot thus creating a dangerous environment for her to work in, so that such a security detail has become a necessity rather than a luxury.
If you don’t like that she needs the detail maybe you need to review you part in creating the ever increasingly radical “revolution” of the left.
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Linda,
How many security guards do you think she has to cost $1 million a month. Surely they don’t watch her at night. Do the math. Assume they are paid an average of $50,000 a year, which is overgenerous. How many people watch her during the day. Odd she supports cutting vital programs for children but squanders so much on security.
I have heard of no threats to her life. I have certainly never advocated violence against her. I said she was unfit and unqualified for the job. Even I have First Amendment protections.
She is a delicate little blossom. And very frightened.
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Linda,
How many security guards do you think she has to cost $1 million a month. Surely they don’t watch her at night. Do the math. Assume they are paid an average of $50,000 a year, which is overgenerous. How many people watch her during the day. Odd she supports cutting vital programs for children but squanders so much on security.
I have heard of no threats to her life. I have certainly never advocated violence against her. I said she was unfit and unqualified for the job. Even I have First Amendment protections.
She is a delicate little blossom. And very frightened.
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Send in the fainting couch. When did dissent from government policy become “dangerous”? Worse yet, Linda Giffin, you lied about the protesters greeting Devos. No one was “violent”. These groups protesting are average parents & students opposed to DeVos’ extremist ideology & ignorance. She should be embarrassed for being so paranoid & fearful of the people she was hired to support.
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Linda Giffin,
You speak though you personally need a security detail. Do you need protection?
Dr. Ravitch has anything but stirred a pot. If anything, she chooses to inform the public about Betsy DeVos. Facts, facts, and oh, yes, more facts.
Maybe you, Ms. Giffin, ought to get a life instead of potentially obsessing about your own safety and that of a person who is a non-educator, non-cognitive scientist but who just happens to “lead” the school systems and policies in this countries.
Personally, Linda, I don’t think your life is in danger at all. But as a European, I can see how deeply at risk you are for being so ignorant and utterly moronic. You might wish to hire a security guard/publicist to safeguard you reputation as an American and critical thinker.
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This is all part of the rightwing/libertarian/Ayn Randist assault on government and governmental effectiveness. They want to cripple government from the inside by defunding our various agencies so that they cannot function properly. Then the right wingers can claim: “See, we told you that government was ineffective and inefficient. The private sector is so much better, blah, blah, baloney.” It’s called starve the beast to the point where you can drown the government in a bathtub. Defund the administrative functions of the VA or Social Security to create backlogs and a plethora of unanswered phone calls. Then claim that privatization is the answer which it is most definitely not. Privatization is great for the billionaires and the corporations but toxic poison for ordinary Americans, the disabled, elderly and poor.
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Well, Eric Kushner uses Trump’s personal body guard for his security detail on international trips. He sits in his Adidas attire next to Kushner.
I suspect that Betsy DeVos may have a problem finding the perfect fashion statements (plural) if she hired her own body guard.
It is not clear whether taxpayers or Trump or Adidas is paying for Kushner’s body guard. The Adidas logo is on the back of the bodyguards’ jacket.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/04/04/trump_bodyguard_keith_schiller_visited_iraq_with_jared_kushner.html
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At some point, she’ll pull in special ops from her brother as protection. That way, she can keep it “all in the family.”
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The State of NY could provide her with a very secure setting that includes 3 meals a day and some exercise time, for $60,000.00 a year . She could even participate in a Public School adult education program.
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Like!!!
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Joel… I think there would have to be some remedial tutoring before she could understand what is going on in an adult public school education program and I am sure that Detroit or DC would have a middle school with security – you know frisk-downs every morning and metal detectors. This surely would protect her from the grizzly bears as she learns about the three branches of government and memorizes the Preamble etc…
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Does one get the sense that all of these plutocrats playing “government” are afraid of the people they are supposed to be representing? Imagine that!
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I read earlier this morning that the reason for more security to protect Betsy with a human shield is because she is getting more serious threats than any other Secretary of Education and probably anyone that has ever sat on any President’s cabinet.
It can’t be that easy to find people willing to take a bullet for Betsy. I’m surprised they can find people willing to take bullets for the malignant narcissist. But then we won’t know if the security detail is willing until the bullets start flying. They might surprise and step aside.
And then during the follow up investigations, the security detail will swear the bullets curved to go around them.
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She’s absolutely not fit to be Sec. of Education!
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Diane, I remember a comment you made telling about how Trump’s attack in Syria would not have any effect because the damage would be quickly repaired. I found this in Quartz and thought it was worth reading.
……………………
It was a good show that just two days after Assad’s sarin gas attack, US president Donald Trump responded with a strike of 59 missiles at Shayrat air base in Homs province. He allowed the world to vent horror and anger at Assad. But hours later Syrian jets were taking offfrom Shayrat: Trump had made an elegant announcement of moral purpose, and a stated new policy of defending innocent women and children. But the words were rendered empty and self-serving by the bombing’s light damage—the runways, the taxiways, the parking areas are intact. Assad can go on with his war.
What did Trump achieve? He has, for now, deflected attention from his long list of self-inflicted woes. On April 7, for the first time in weeks, not a word was heard about investigations of his campaign’s links to Russian hacking of last year’s presidential election; cable television forgot about the diet of lies Trump feeds to the nation, and his unsubstantiated allegations against perceived enemies. Talk of an unraveling of his young presidency tapered off.
Trump will ride his newfound bipartisan support for a time. But he will have to do more to keep it. For starters, he can find out what Putin knew about Assad’s sarin gas stockpile, and of the recent attack. He will have to find a way to defuse the tension with North Korea, which fired yet another ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on April 4. And he must stop making ad hominem, false attacks against his enemies. Trump, in short, will have to keep making a stab at statesmanship. One short show of presidential leadership will not be sufficient.—Steve LeVine
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Carol,
I thought it might take a week to repair the airfield. I was wrong. It was repaired within a day.
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Disgusting. She thinks she’s a queen. Well she is the Amway queen. Amway should be paying the secret service.
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Several investigative reporters were tapped by television newscasters to address the longevity of any “bump” in approval for Trump from the missile attack. The consensus was that the attack had no merit as a military or a humanitarian intervention. That means it is likely to have a short life as a distraction from Trump’s other problems.
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Targeted response … It means it hits what it is programmed to hit. The Tomahawks were not supposed to damage the runways or land Willy nilly. Tomahawks are so precise you can hit a target on the tenth floor of a building and not damage anything else.
It take almost two minutes to launch one middle. All the missiles were launched into an orbit, you might say, above the target. All of the missiles were then commanded to target at the same. Fifty nine Tomahawks hit the airbase all in the space of two minutes.
Great care was taken not to hit anything unexpected. In an effort to avoid an international incident our military gave Russian military a heads up about an hour before the attack.
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Great care was taken to hit nothing at all except Trump’s poll numbers
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“Tomahawks are so precise…”
Then explain why 36 of the 59 missiles sent didn’t even materialize anywhere near the airfield.
“Fifty nine Tomahawks hit the airbase…”
Wrong!! Only 23 of them did.
You need to stop drinking the government Kool-Aid.
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I read your comment and hope it is accurate because it came with no links, but after I read it, I thought about it for a moment in total silence, and then broke out with loud laughter. My bet is that the ones that missed were deliberately programmed to hit an empty field nearby.
More than $50 million in missiles for PR to influence the media and many Americans with short attention spans to forget that the malignant narcissist in the White House and his administration is being investigated for alleged treason by the FBI and the CIA.
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Amazing how quickly our Secret Service has devolved into a royal guard. The spirits of the founders and framers are now spewing four letter words. I’m guessing William S. Burroughs and departed rappers are conducting primer courses right now.
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It is strange that the people that want to make the federal government fail and collapse can justify spending so many tax dollars on their security. Trump took another $3 million dollar trip to Florida this weekend.
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Don’t expect a chameleon to change his bloated orange stripes anytime soon. He gets to play golf and dine at his estate and when planning his weekend getaways looks to see who would “look” politically to hang out with briefly… then decides for this weekend … ahhh China’s president because he can also ensure that Chinese billionaires will want in on this and stay at his hotels and promote the “Trump” brand while currying favor. Not bad… make U.S. tax payers foot the extremely expensive security details to maintain two homes and the WH all-the-while earning money for the Trump brand just by doing a political “chat vacation” with the Chinese Prez. That is the “Art” of the Trump dEEL”…slippery and totally self-serving.
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This bit of information just came in an email from the White House.
Once again, only charter schools matter. How many schools can now provide, “a solid academic foundation and enrichment opportunities ” when budget cuts for public school education exists?
…………………..
Readout of First Lady Melania Trump’s Visit to Excel Academy Public Charter School with Queen Rania of Jordan
After a brief visit to the oval office with their husbands, First Lady Melania Trump and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah enjoyed lunch in the residence and discussed their varying roles within their governments, and some of the challenges facing their nations.
Upon conclusion of lunch, the ladies visited Excel Academy Public Charter School, Washington DC’s first public charter school for girls, serving grades Pre-K to 8th….
ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Excel Academy Public Charter School is Washington D.C.’s first public charter school for girls, with scholars enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten to the 8th grade. Today, the school has 672 girls enrolled in their programs. The mission is to provide girls a solid academic foundation and enrichment opportunities to prepare them to success in high school and college and to develop the skills and confidence they need to make healthy, positive lifestyle choices….
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/05/readout-first-lady-melania-trumps-visit-excel-academy-public-charter
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Well, here is some money that would be better spent being paid out to Any Public School USA. DeVos MUST have made that Week One trip to the DC school just so she could be “blocked”, snuck in through a pre-arranged side door, ultimately authorizing her very own, expensive VIP Security Detail
“Federal marshals are protecting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at a cost to her agency of nearly $8 million over nearly eight months, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Education Department has agreed to reimburse the marshals $7.78 million for their services from mid-February to the end of September, said a marshals spokeswoman — an average of about $1 million per month.
Marshals will continue providing security for the education secretary for the next four years, or until either agency decides to terminate the arrangement, under an agreement signed last week.
Previous education secretaries have been protected by a team of department employees, many of whom were Secret Service veterans. That team was replaced by marshals on Feb. 13, a few days after DeVos encountered protesters who briefly blocked her from entering a D.C. middle school.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-cost-of-betsy-devoss-security-detail-1-million-per-month/2017/04/07/efa01488-1ade-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html?utm_term=.d6d077031362
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Wealthy folks like DeVos l look at life through a lens of self-deserving entitlement, in which the non-wealthy are all “takers.”
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Most people don’t even know who the Sec of Ed is. I am finding it hard to believe that she gets many death threats. But all cabinet secretaries are required to have security protection.
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Not true, Charles. What other cabinet secretary requires $1 million a month for protection.
Why not call Blackwater and ask Erik to send his mi.otia?
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I do not know what it costs to protect the Secretary of Transportation. Her husband is the Senate Majority leader. Maybe they get a “package deal” (LOL)
I will wager, that most Americans do not know the name of the Sec of Education, or the Sec or Interior, etc.
I will agree that $1 million a month to protect a Secretary of Education is a lot of money.
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I remember in 2006, when president of the school board Veronica O’Brien had a month or two of 20,000 dollars protection in St. Louis, after a former special needs student who had been allegedly beaten by a basketball coach six years earlier, was being helped by Veronica to bring a lawsuit….and 12 bullets were fired into him. (No connection, said some) I always suspected she feared for her 11 year old son….Radio person Charles Jaco, and 566,000 dollar museum director Robert Archibald were a bit noisy in their criticism of her. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/robert-archibald-resigns-as-head-of-missouri-history-museum/article_8c1cbb1a-8cb2-5819-9037-778f3ae74b74.html
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No offense to the educators here, but why in God’s name does the Secretary of Education need a detail of U.S. marshals.
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I just sent this Facebook message from Bernie Sanders to the WH. (Doubt that anyone cares what I say since I’m not a billionaire who supports Agent Orange and his destructive agenda.) How interesting that Bernie can speak in complete sentences that make sense.
No Airstrikes Without Congressional Approval
By Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders’ Facebook Page
08 April 17
…As the most powerful nation on earth, the United States must work with the international community to bring peace and stability to Syria, where over 400,000 people have been killed and over 6 million displaced. The horror of Syria’s civil war is almost unimaginable.
If there’s anything we should’ve learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which the lives of thousands of brave American men and women and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians have been lost and trillions of dollars spent, it’s that it’s easier to get into a war than get out of one. I’m deeply concerned that these strikes could lead to the United States once again being dragged back into the quagmire of long-term military engagement in the Middle East. If the last 15 years have shown anything, it’s that such engagements are disastrous for American security, for the American economy and for the American people.
The Trump administration must explain to the American people exactly what this military escalation in Syria is intended to achieve, and how it fits into the broader goal of a political solution, which is the only way Syria’s devastating civil war ends. Congress has a responsibility to weigh in on these issues. As the Constitution requires, the president must come to Congress to authorize any further use of force against the Assad regime.
Further, the US must work with all parties to reinforce longstanding international norms against the use of chemical weapons, to hold Russia and Syria to the 2013 deal to destroy these weapons and to see that violators are made accountable.
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No offense to Bernie, but his analysis sounds like exactly what Obama did that led to no action. I’m not saying there are any easy answers nor that I know them, but the international community has been ineffective at doing anything to curb Assad’s excesses, nor do they (or we for that matter) seem to care as long as he is quiet about it. That being said it would certainly help if Trump was able to articulate a coherent policy (on any subject). The chances of that are next to nothing since he seems to throw stuff out to watch the ripples and then react to the response.
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“the international community has been ineffective at doing anything to curb Assad’s excesses”
Why hasn’t anyone had any success at curbing Donald Trump’s excesses for the last fifty years or so – a half dozen bankruptcies, refuses to pay workers what he owes them, more than 4,000 court cases where he often defies judges orders, molesting/groping women just because he can get away with it, etc?
Why should a dictator like Assad be treated any different?
And what about all the other brutal dictators around the word – for instance, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Omar al-Bahir in the Sudan, Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, Raul Castro in Cuba, Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus, Isaias Afewerki in Eritrea, King Mswati III in Swaziland, Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Equatorial Guinea who eats his enemies, and Kim Jon-Un in North Korea?
If there is no uniform international code to go after all of these monsters at the same time, then leave Assad alone and let him be a monster too. If you don’t like what Assad does to him own people who let him do it to them, stay out of Syria. That goes for Russia and Putin too. Stay out of Syria. Assad stands or falls on his own without support from Putin.
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Lloyd, as I said I have no answers, nor it seems, does anyone else. In a sense, the world was much simpler before we had access to news almost instantaneously from around the world. It took weeks for the east coast to hear about the San Fransisco earthquake. Now we would know almost before the quake was over. The world has gotten much smaller although I’m not sure it has brought us any closer together.
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I have an answer. Support the public schools. Refuse to support the corporate/religious, make-a-profit/brainwash a child, so-called choice/voucher movement to destroy public education.
And support all of the professional public school teachers and encourage them to teach their students how to tell the difference between the misleading, lying, conspiracy theory, far right Alt-News hate media machine and news based on real facts. Teach every child to doubt everything they hear and read in the media, alternate or traditional, and how they can find the facts that point toward the most accurate news.
Teach them how to measure bias in the media.
Don’t vote for idiots like the malignant narcissist in the White House.
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“Don’t vote for idiots like the malignant narcissist in the White House.”
Educating our children to think critically would certainly help, but the answers I don’t have are how we and the international community should deal with tyrants like Assad. I have the luxury of paying attention to what is going on in the world, but I remember my last days in the classroom where twelve hours of my day were spent on the road to or in the classroom. Even the few remaining hours of wakefulness were often dominated by school work. The same focus applies to people who spend most of their working hours just trying to support their families, so ignorance is not a condition belonging to any one group. In a real sense, my education began when I was forced out of teaching. Critical thinking was not the issue before retirement but the time to do it on anything other than the immediate environment.
Of course, we only have to look at this blog to see the deep divisions that developed over the course of the campaign among people who I would consider critical thinkers. I have yet to hear a cogent argument for Trump, but he was never about informed opinion. People responded with gut reactions, and his propaganda machine played on that emotional reaction superbly.
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It is not our responsibility to solve the problems of the world. We have enough problems at home to fix, and they aren’t getting fixed. They are getting worse.
It is not our responsibility to send the American military into every dictatorship in the world to remove those dictators from power.
In fact, the U.S. supported many brutal dictators for decades if they could be bought and were anti-communist. And the U.S. still supports brutal dictators around the world. When Iran democratically elected a president the U.S. did not approve of, the U.S. had the CIA assassinate that president and then supported the return of a brutal dictator to rule over Iran and that eventually led to the fundamentalist Islamic revolution that drove the SHAW of Iran out and to the U.S. where he lived out the rest of his life in luxury.
The only reason the U.S. occasionally goes after a dictator is because that dictator refused to do what the current leadership of the U.S. wanted them to do. If they play ball with DC’s corporate and/or anti-communist agenda, then they can do whatever they want to their own people.
In addition, the U.S. sells more weapons to the world than any other country.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/arms-trade-exporters-importers-weapons-transfers-sipri-a6891491.html
Why Is the U.S. Selling Billions in Weapons to Autocrats?
“The export of American arms to countries around the world — even those actively repressing their own citizens — is booming.”
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Back in 1969 I was a traveling backpacker, having just finished a two year stint in the Peace Corps in Borneo. I spent 5 months traveling throughout India, the Middle East and hitchhiked across Europe. I remember going to the US embassy in Delhi, India and was welcomed. They served a breakfast buffet which I enjoyed.
I taught for 9 years in Kuala Lumpur at the International School of Kuala Lumpur and came home in 2007. The US embassy in KL is a barricade with high walls topped with barbed wire. The one time I entered, I had to go through extreme security. I also had to show my passport and was frisked by a metal detector.
Times have changed. We have encouraged hatred and now we pay the price.
…….
U.S. Military Should Get out of the Middle East…AlterNet
America is no different from other imperial powers, ensnared repeatedly in costly, bloody, and eventually futile overseas wars. From the Roman empire till today, the issue is not whether an imperial army can defeat a local one. It usually can, just as the United States did quickly in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The issue is whether it gains anything by doing so. Following such a “victory,” the imperial power faces unending heavy costs in terms of policing, political instability, guerilla war, and terrorist blowback….
http://www.alternet.org/world/us-military-should-get-out-middle-east#.WOp9vWRIz20.gmail
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We spend trillions to kill people and yet look at how many are starving. Guess nobody can make money off of helping starving people vs. the greed of corporations that make money off of killing. What a lack of decent priorities the US shows the world.
……………
The following article appeared on Quartz:
The lives of 20 million starving Africans and Yemenis are worth $43 each. The United Nations says it needs $4.4 billion to help mitigate the looming famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen, and Somalia. But at a time of falling support for foreign aid in Western countries, the UN has received about 20% of what it needs, writes Max de Haldevang.
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Whoa, Lloyd! By the time I got to the end of your post, I had no idea what you thought we should or should not do, not that I expect you to have answers. I certainly don’t.
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I didn’t write a post. I wrote a comment.
I do not think the United States should be involved in exporting its values to the world (actually forcing its values on the world), forcing its major religion on the world, and should not be involved in nation-building.
The United States should not claim to be the world’s police force. Fund the United Nations adequately and let the UN police the world with approval from a majority of the world’s countries.
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My apologies, Lloyd. I do not always use the language accurately. Your correction is what I would have said if I knew what I was saying. I thought we posted comments. In any case, thank you for your response. I agree wholeheartedly, and you gave me the words to do so. Maybe some day the United Nations will be more effective. I don’t care if everyone shares our values; I just hope we can reach the point where we all value each other equally. I know, it sounds like a “kum ba yah” moment, but I hope some future generation lives to see it. Please don’t think I was being facetious or argumentative. I really do care about these issues and value your opinion.
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Did Arne Duncan have that kind of security? When did this security detail start for DOE? Do other cabinets have the same?
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If spending $1 million per month for security for a cabinet member were typical, it would not have been a news story.
How many people can you hire for $1 million a month?
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This is an analysis and opinion coming from the South China Morning Post. I find it interesting to read what foreign newspapers have to say about tRump. (The article includes a photo of the whole Florida White House.)
……………..
Why the Xi-Trump summit is a high-stakes gamble
The Chinese and Americans have different views of diplomacy and both sides have a lot to lose with a negative outcome from the meeting
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 06 April, 2017, 12:05am
…Many have expressed doubts about whether it was the right time for Xi to reach out to Trump and meet him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The summit, starting on Thursday, was only confirmed a week beforehand…
Intense media coverage of a power struggle within Trump’s inner circle seems to have added to uncertainties in an already complicated US-China relationship, and the fact that Trump, more than two months into his presidency, has yet to come up with a China policy or fill many important foreign policy positions in his administration has lent more weight to views that the US-China summit is premature…
Huang and other analysts also warned it would be even more embarrassing for Xi if whatever he managed to agree with Trump was not well-received among the embattled US leader’s domestic critics or if bilateral relations turned sour in the coming months.
Tsang said how well the two would get along remained to be seen despite the high stakes involved.
“Trump may like strongmen but he also has strong and not always up-to-date views about China,” he said. “Xi is unlikely to be warm to Trump if Trump should come across as overbearing to him because Xi does not like playing second fiddle to anyone.”…
Why the Xi-Trump summit is a high-stakes gamble
Shi Jiangtao jiangtao.shi@scmp.com
Published on April 6, 2017, 12:00 am
Read More: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2084304/why-xi-trump-summit-high-stakes-gamble
Links
[1] http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2084304/why-xi-trump-summit-high-stakes-gamble
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It also helps to know who owns the South China Morning Post. It is not owned by the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP’s media outlet is Xinhua, and the Party’s media mouthpiece had something to say about the meeting too.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-04/08/c_136192297.htm
“SCMP” redirects here. For other uses, see SCMP (disambiguation).
South China Morning Post SCMP logo.svg
20140815scmp.jpg
SCMP front page on 15 August 2014
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Alibaba Group
Editor Tammy Tam
Founded 6 November 1903 (41396 issues)
Headquarters Hong Kong
Website scmp.com
South China Morning Post
Traditional Chinese 南華早報
Simplified Chinese 南华早报
[show]Transcriptions
The South China Morning Post (also known as SCMP or The Post), with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is a Hong Kong English-language newspaper and Hong Kong’s newspaper of record.
The journal was founded by Australian-born revolutionary Tse Tsan-tai and British journalist Alfred Cunningham (formerly with China Mail, Hong Kong Daily Press and New York Sun) in 1903.
The first edition of the paper was published on 6 November 1903. The journal’s circulation has been relatively stable for years – the average daily circulation stands at 100,000.
It was owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation until it was acquired by real estate tycoon Robert Kuok in 1993.
On 11 December 2015, it was announced that Alibaba Group would acquire the media properties of the SCMP Group, including the South China Morning Post.
On 5 April 2016 Alibaba Group completed the acquisition.
Jack Ma is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma#Views
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I read two other commentaries put out by the SCMP. Those other two were very favorable towards the outcome of the meeting between Xi and Trump. I chose the article that I posted because it seemed to be the most knowledgeable about the whole situation. That author knew that Trump was ill prepared to know anything about Asia and that there could possibly be repercussions in the States from his followers.
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Have you seen the latest SNL with Alec Baldwin as the Malignant Narcissist?
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The Dangers of Distraction
By Dan Rather, Dan Rather’s Facebook Page
08 April 17
A flurry of unfounded allegations clutter our news feeds. Susan Rice. Wiretapping of the Trump team by President Obama. The latest Fox News induced Twitter rant.
The smoke machine is turned on. There’s a trained monkey dancing in the corner. The magician is buckling his cufflinks. The misdirection meter is turned up full. We cannot let ourselves be distracted.
It is baseball season so perhaps the age-old admonition of youth coaches across the country is warranted. “Keep your eyes on the ball.”
We know that Russia – led by a former KGB agent – actively worked to undermine our election. We know that there are serious investigations into collision between Trump associates and Russian operatives. That is the story. Everything else is just noise and dust until proven otherwise.
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Betsy DeVos Pitches Voucher Schools at Only Public School Protesters Can’t Get To: A Military Base
DeVos promotes privatization at military bases, religious schools and charter schools.
By Jeff Bryant / Education Opportunity Network
April 6, 2017
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos finally found a public school she could visit where she could avoid protests. It’s on a military base, safely inside the compound of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina.
As a local news outlet reports, DeVos used her appearance at Kimberly Hampton Primary, a school operated by the Department of Defense and funded by the federal government, to make her usual pitch for “school choice,” in this case, in the form of vouchers parents can use to withdraw their children from public schools and send them to private schools at taxpayer expense….
After the Ft. Bragg gig, DeVo’s next stop is CARE Elementary School in Miami, Florida.
CARE is a private school, for which DeVos has a well-known preference. Also, DeVos may want to showcase the school because its name, CARE, stands for Christian Academy for Reaching Excellence. DeVos’s belief in using education as a way to “advance God’s Kingdom” is well documented….
Students at CARE, according to the school’s handbook, “Attend weekly chapel, they are taught Christian principles with love and respect, and they are exposed to the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Prayer is part of the CARE experience.”
http://www.alternet.org/education/betsy-devos-has-go-military-base-pitch-voucher-schools#.WOt6lHUovOw.gmail
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A problem with the United Nations is that actions can be blocked by the five permanent members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Here is an example of the work that the United Nations has done on a horrible humanitarian crisis. This was reported in Quartz:
The Khmer Rouge trials are a massive failure. Cambodia’s United Nations-backed tribunal has cost $300 million over 11 years, and resulted in only three convictions (paywall) for the deaths of 1.7 million people.
……..
For what its worth, I also agree that the UN should be doing more of the work to monitor the world. The US spends more money on their military than the next 7 countries combined. Corporations are the only ones benefiting from this injustice. We also supply 40% of the military hardware for the world.
I believe the US is the cause of way too much killing in the world. It is a major recruitment tool for extremists. Agent Orange wants more money for the military at the expense of cutting well needed services at home. As the song goes, “When will we ever learn?”
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The Department of Education Is Spending a Mind-Boggling Amount of Money to Protect Betsy DeVos
Meanwhile the Trump administration plans to slash her department by $9 billion.
By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet
April 10, 2017
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been met with angry mobs since her narrow confimation in mid-February. As a result, the department is spending a staggering $1 million per month to keep her safe, according to the Washington Post. “The [U.S.] Marshals Service is hiring nearly two-dozen people to guard her,” the report finds.
Under an agreement signed in late Month, DeVos will be under its protection through September, but she may use law enforcement agency’s services for the duration of her term….
As News One Now host Roland Martin pointed out Monday, “DeVos’ stance on charter schools and special education has caused protesters to show up at every school she visits.”
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/department-education-spending-millions-protect-betsy-devos-and-thats-not-even#.WOziWorFYJI.gmail
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