Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos invested in a military technology company owned by her son-in-law. Her brother Erik Prince is advising the Trump administration on military strategy.
I naively assumed that once appointed to the Cabinet, all outside business dealings were suspended.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I naively assumed that once appointed to the Cabinet, all outside business dealings were suspended.”
Oh, silly, that’s not how Republicans work!
It was reported that Trump is talking to Prince as he may want to replace troops with mercenaries in Afghanistan. This is another strategy to send public dollars to private pockets. Prince’s company is no longer called Blackwater; it is called Academi, which sounds more like a charter school. https://thinkprogress.org/blackwater-trump-afghanistan-strategy-4a35c39b277
A private army serving an unhinged President, who is surrounded by family colluding with Russia…what could possibly go wrong with the American oligarchy?
Good summary.
ouch
Our understandings of what is appropriate and kosher are obviously being stretched daily by the current administration. So far it seems to be going along with no real firewalls in place. A glaring example of how our assumptions can lead to trouble web confronted with someone brazen and audacious enough to thwart them.
Anyhow, the DeVos/Prince thing. One need only to look at the career and companies of Erik Prince, DeVos’ brother, to see what her broad agenda is with education. Prince has made a career of privatizing military functions….to such a thorough degree that he is now amassing an air arm with armed aircraft, not just transport. Like most on the right nowadays he is a champion of an Ayn Rand-ian type of nihilistic libertarianism that sees any function of government as bad and ripe for a corporate takeover that would be always better. He is quite frank and open about this, as are most on the right. Yet we are shocked when it plays out. That his sister subscribes to precisely the same view, except in her field of education, is obvious and has been legible always.
We are confronting a vast right wig philosophical challenge not just to specific arenas like public education, but to the very idea of government.
How about confronting a challenge to the very idea of humanity?
Betsy DeVos to Meet With Accused Rapists
The secretary of education will hear personal stories from those claiming they were falsely accused of rape, as well as a ‘men’s rights’ group.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will hear personal accounts on Thursday 7/13 from two former students and attorneys representing men who allege they were falsely accused of rape, according to a spokesperson for Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), a nonprofit that is described by the Southern Policy Law Center (SPLC) as promoting misogyny.
Jaclyn Friedman, a leading expert on campus sexual violence and the editor of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, called the NCFM, FACE, and SAVE “hate groups, plain and simple,” and said they should not be given an audience with Secretary DeVos.
“They actively publicize the names of rape survivors in order to intimidate them and others into shutting up and taking it,” Friedman told The Daily Beast.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/betsy-devos-to-meet-with-accused-rapists
How is that remotely within the purview of the Secretary of Education anyway? Ay ay ay.
Dienne here is the connection from Politico today. It is part of the effort to eliminate everything connected with the Obama Administration.
Begin quote. SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS URGE DEVOS TO KEEP TITLE IX PROTECTIONS: More than 100 survivors of campus sexual assault have signed onto an op-ed that will publish in Teen Vogue this morning, urging Education Secretary Betsy DeVos not to roll back guidance the Obama administration issued in 2011 that told colleges and universities they’re required to combat sexual violence under Title IX. “The administration has signaled that it is seriously considering further dismantling protections for survivors of sexual violence by weakening the oversight and enforcement mechanisms of the federal government – enforcement that many vulnerable students and survivors need,” the op-ed will say.
DeVos this week is slated to meet with survivors of campus sexual assault, as well as with students who say they were falsely accused and college attorneys. Advocates for survivors of campus sexual assault fear DeVos will take the side of those who would like to see changes to the guidance. “We cannot imagine a more cruel or misguided policy agenda than one that withdraws protections from vulnerable students,” the op-ed will say. “Especially coming from the administration of a man who has been repeatedly accused of committing sexual violence himself.”
The National Women’s Law Center has also penned a letter to DeVos urging her to commit to preserving the “critical guidance.” “As Secretary of Education, we are counting on you to lead the way in ensuring sexual violence does not deprive students of educational opportunities,” the nonprofit writes. NWLC also urges DeVos to meet with survivors of campus sexual assault from a diverse group of schools nationwide.
I just read The Handmaid’s Tale. If I had done so a year ago would have said it was too “farout” and dystopian for my taste. However, in perspective of the whole Prince/DeVos connections to current political scheming is somewhat enlightening. An Amway Ambush is a picnic compared to what these folks are capable of conjuring. And most likely they’ll accomplish whatever sick goals they have in mind. All aspects of our society are subject to their plunder. Trump in the least of our worries.
Well, isn’t this special (said in the smuggest church lady tone).
Heat seaking spitballs for schools?