Will billionaire Betsy DeVos go to jail for defying the direct order of a judge?
In 2015, for-profit Corinthian Colleges went bankrupt after state attorney generals complained of fraud. Thousands of its former students were left in the lurch with a mountain of debt for a worthless “education.” After the company filed for bankruptcy protection, the federal department of education ruled that as many as 335,000 students might have their debts canceled, “under The Borrower Defense to Repayment program—an initiative started in 2016 to provide loan relief for students who had been defrauded by predatory schools.” This was during the Obama administration.
However, when DeVos became Secretary of Education, she limited the program of loan forgiveness and began to hound many of the students who had been defrauded. The applications of some 160,000 students for loan forgiveness were shelved. DeVos was ordered by Judge Sallie Kim to stop hounding students to repay student loans that should have been forgiven.
But, as we have seen before, Secretary DeVos has great sympathy for for-profit corporations and no sympathy for students who were defrauded.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been threatened with the possibility of jail after a judge deemed she was violating a court order for continuing to collect student debts on a now-defunct school.
That ruling, handed down in June of 2018, was made by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim and prevented DeVos and her Department of Education for going after former students at the bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc.
However, Kim said she was “astounded” to discover that DeVos was violating the court order at a hearing in San Francisco on Monday after a filing by the Education Department earlier disclosed that more than 16,000 former students at Corinthian College “were incorrectly informed at one time or another … that they had payments due on their federal student loans.”
“At best it is gross negligence, at worst it’s an intentional flouting of my order,” Kim said, reported Bloomberg.
“I’m not sure if this is contempt or sanctions,” she added. “I’m not sending anyone to jail yet but it’s good to know I have that ability.”
The same story is here in the Washington Post.
Is it time to chant “Lock her up”?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We all know that the general ethos is contempt for the rule of law, and that it comes from Trump himself and his minions. As for Betsy and the like, thinking of oneself as being above the law must come with the DNA of being rich.
But it’s already TRIBAL: Trump and Betsy-like will still use the courts, but only as long as they like their judgments. To them, however, the courts are already politicized insofar as, when judges rule against Trump et al, they are working for “the democratic deep state against Trump.” However, when judges rule for Trump et al, they are loyalists of the highest order.
In fact, however, the “deep state” is the Constitution; and the loyalty to uphold it is what Trump hates the most.
They’ve already put us on notice: I’m for putting Betsy in jail–if those who uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, including Congress, don’t use their powers NOW, there will be no end to it and, over the land, crickets will eventually inhabit Congress and the courts. CBK
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We need a Warren or Sanders presidency and both houses of Congress for many, many, man reasons, one of which is to make multi-level marketing scams illegal and to make people flimflam artists like the DeVos family pay back the millions they’ve bilked from poor people by preying on their dreams.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for Congress–what Jon Awbrey called, on this blog, the “Congressional Insider Trading Club,” to do that.
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crickets will eventually inhabit Congress and the courts.
Wow, CBK!!!! That is powerfully, powerfully said. Magnificent writing. Thank you.
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Yet another aspect of the trump administration that subverts the law. All the while he chants about the moral turpitude of his opponents. Republicans are all about rule of law until it is applied to the wealthy heirs of fortune. Then, suddenly, it is all about freedom. Go figure.
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This is to be expected from the woman whose billions come from the Amway pyramid scheme multilevel marketing scam, appointed by the fellow who gave us Trump University [sic].
The Trump motto: screw the poor (and random porn stars).
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Laws and taxes are for all those “little people.”
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I hope to live to see the day when the folks who ran these multilevel marketing scams are hauled into courts and forced to pay their billions back to the poor people they bilked out of them. In a better world. . . .
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Better yet, I want to see the MLM people in prison for fraud.
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“Scamway” is the proper name of the company.
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Ditzy DeVoid (to the tune of MyWay)
Breaks,
I’ve had a few,
Like whom I knew,
And whom I married.
Fancy yachts,
I’ve worried not,
O’er life’s great storms
I’ve, heedless, ferried.
I’ve learned
To con the pawns
To feed upon
Their dreams was child’s play.
And in my work
I didn’t shirk,
To do it AmWay.
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Great, Bob.
You forgot one fact: Betsy was born into great wealth.
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Ah, yes. She was born and princess among Princes.
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yikes. a princess among Princes
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Bob Shepherd Goes to show: Neither bloodlines, nor intelligence, nor power in one’s parents are necessarily trans-generational. In fact, if you follow kingships and dictators over the centuries, it’s just the opposite. CBK
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I had a young man working for me for a time whose family had made a great fortune in industry. His own parents had spent their lifetime sailing around the world. This young man stood to inherit a lot of money, but he worked for me incredibly hard, incredibly diligently, and he was very, very smart. I said to him once, “Why are you doing this? You don’t have to.” He said that he wanted to do something in the world and reclaim the family name. That’s what honor looks like.
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and the pyramid scheme mentality: take, don’t stop to ask questions
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Diane Is there some reason my comment (first in this thread) was put into moderation? CBK
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This happens randomly with Diane’s WordPress site, Catherine. She is quite diligent about checking for this. For some reason, any time the name of a certain recently appointed Supreme Court Justice is mentioned, for example, the comment goes into moderation. Weird. A glitch in WordPress.
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Thank you, Bob. It does make one wonder. CBK
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CBK, it is total serendipity as to which comments go into moderation.
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Diane Thank you for responding. It seemed odd that it was the first response on this thread. CBK ei
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Did you see how many of the debts they have forgiven? Ten. Over two years.
The judge should put them in jail. See if 48 hours in a jail cell speeds things up.
I really think we’ve reached the point where it’s irresponsible to direct naive 17 and 18 year olds to these folks for information and advice. They’re bad for students. Perhaps America’s college-bound young people should find adults who are actually working on their behalf, instead of listening to these representatives of the student loan and for-profit college industry.
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“Betsy DeVos’s Hiring of For-Profit College Official Raises Issues”
Students First!
The level of corruption in this country is appalling. A 1st generation 17 year old college student doesn’t stand a chance swimming with these sharks.
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Yes, this is classic banana republic-, Russian kelptocracy-level corruption. It pays very well for our own American oligarchs to have an idiot and lifelong con man in office.
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CURMUDGUCATION on Betsy DeVos
Looking at that smile, I was reminded of an old Christian admonition – “Be in this world, but not of this world.”
It’s a view that people of faith, people who have been elevated by a relationship with a personal Lord and Savior, do not actually belong in this dirty, debased world. The rules of this world cannot be their rules. To achieve Godly goals, they may have to use worldy tools, even pretend to go along with worldly rules, but this is stooping to achieve a higher purpose. God will even give His chosen tools (like earthly wealth and political power), but they must avoid being seduced by worldly things, including a desire for worldly acclaim and recognition. That means, among other things, that the Chosen don’t owe these earthly, debased, going-to-hell persons an explanation. You can be in the world with these people, and maybe feel sorry for them, but there is no need to connect with them – you are almost like two separate species, passing each other for a brief moment as you travel to two separate destinations, you to eternal glory in Heaven, and they to endless damnation in Hell.
So you smile. You smile hard, because it shows that you’re still better than they are, and that you haven’t stooped to their level. You smile even as they say mean things about you, because if the people of this world mount powerful forces against you, it’s just further proof that you are right (and they are wrong). In fact, you are so right, and so sure of it, that real conversations with them aren’t necessary because what could you learn from people who are so low and earthly and wrong? But you go through the motions to show that you’re the bigger person, and because sometimes worldly tools must be used to achieve divine goals. You smile.
Betsy DeVos’s smile is the smile of Dolores Umbrage or the Church Lady. It’s an angry, flinty smile, a smile that says, “I am in this world, but I am not of it, and some day I will rise above it and leave you behind.”
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LOL. Ditzy DeVoid. Clueless.
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Bill Sowder In a word: arrogant. CBK
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That’s an interesting interpretation of that quote.
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Thanks for debunking the superiority.
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Bill,
The Paul Weyrich training manual at Theocracy Watch is worth a read. Weyrich is the Catholic founder of ALEC, the religious right and the Koch’s Heritage Foundation.
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Interestingly, these deeply religious people share the view of libertarians, many of whom are atheists, that they are the chosen ones.
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Máté Wierdl: You’ve got this all wrong. Trump is the ‘chosen one’. He has no sense of humor and never jokes but uses that as a coverup when saying one more stupid thing.
………………………………..
In the midst of answering a question about the ongoing trade war with China on Wednesday, President Donald Trump turned from reporters, looked to heavens and proclaimed, “I am the chosen one.”
He was, ostensibly, joking — and, days later, the President said in a string of Saturday tweets that reporters knew he “was kidding, being sarcastic, and just having fun.”
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Well, I watched “The family” on Netflix and it confirms that these people really think, they are specifically chosen, exceptional.
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“At best it is gross negligence, at worst it’s an intentional flouting of my order,” Kim said. Betsy, was it negligence or flouting of a court order?
“Um, grizzlies?”
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What a hideous vapid shrew. Her crime boss just ignores the law so why shouldn’t she? Perhaps we should all ignore subpoenas if we disagree with the charges. The billionaire class finds the laws we all follow so unappealing and restrictive since they so often disrupt their precious revenue streams. Gut all regulations, privatize public resources, defile the planet, exploit the poor and working classes and do no honest social good – this is the shameful anti-democratic legacy of the wealthy in America. The vast majority of the elite aren’t intelligent – they are ruthless cowards who lack any moral center.
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Prosperity evangelicals like DeVos and prosperity Catholics like Leonard Leo (Federalist Society) and William Barr manipulate the laws of men in favor of God’s rule because the latter can be twisted to justify enslavement, women as lesser people, monopoly, authoritarian rule, etc.
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There seems to be one set of procedures for the wealthy and a different one for the rest of us.
DeVos should be tried and found guilty and serve jail time. When will that happen?
Trump should be tried and found guilty and serve jail time. When will that happen? It is a DOJ memo, not the law, that says a sitting president can’t be tried. The Justice Department has twice ruled in a long extensive memo stating clearly that the president cannot be indicted, prosecuted, and tried while serving in office.
Nobody SHOULD be above the law. Unfortunately, in this country at the current time the wealthy get away with things because ‘they contribute’ so much to society. BS
What about the wealthy former Stanford University student who raped an unconscious woman and two witnesses saw the whole thing and reported what they saw. He got six months in county jail and probation.
A former Stanford University athlete convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation. The judge, Aaron Perksy, cited Turner’s age and lack of criminal history as factors in his decision, saying, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.”
Imagine what would have happened to a poor black man if he’d done exactly the same thing.
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As you know, a federal judge in New York ruled that the president was not above the law. Trump’s lawyers had madethe argument that while he was president, he could not be investigated or prosecuted and that his legal immunity covered not only himself but his family, his businesses, and his associates.
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were world enough and time to get a definitive ruling on this that came down on the side of the president’s not being above the law!!! Of course, Trump is counting on a) stonewalling via appeals and b) this ending up in a Supreme Court that he has packed. The latter is VERY interesting. Would a right-leaning court uphold democracy or an imperial presidency? Does the republic become and empire? History repeats itself.
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“Would a right-leaning court uphold democracy or an imperial presidency? ”
I think we know the answer to this, Bob. On the other hand, as soon the Supreme Court rules for Trumpus, the people will uphold democracy, and makes sure that in the future, the Supreme Court won’t be political.
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I don’t know. Roberts might actually believe that we should be a Republic, not an Empire.
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So think this Supreme Court would give any ammunition for an impeachment? Hard to imagine. They wouldn’t have the guts.
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Roberts, I suspect, is a lot like Romney. So, yes, they might.
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Mate See my earlier not to Bob. I don’t think the finish line has been crossed on Roberts yet; but I think Trump is stupid enough to think only in terms of political payback.
Apparently, however, and with your pessimism in full view, personal integrity is a malleable thing. It’s like these people are great until they take the Trump poison. . . . CBK
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Bob Shepherd Also, we can ask of ANYTHING and ANY judgment, “what are its political implications?”
WE ALL have a set of political views–no matter what we do (if we don’t know that, then we need to do some serious self-reflection). The problem with much of the current thinking of those on the right (and some on the left, etc.) is the thinking that politics is ALL THERE IS TO IT. That’s a reversion (and reduction) to tribalism, by definition. Trump is the poster-child for such thinking. My guess is that he thinks SCJ Roberts is already in his pocket.
But an oath, in this case to the Constitution and to the rule of law (etc.), or just maintaining one’s personal integrity, enables any of us to hold positions that serve the meaning of that oath, and whether, in concrete circumstances, those positions go against, or are on the side of, our politics, or in many cases, our own family’s, party’s, or group’s immediate well-being.
That’s why, for instance, the Uni-bomber’s brother could turn his brother in and be right to do so; and why a whistle-blower (or anyone else) who is a long-term party person (republican or democrat) can go beyond their politics and reach for a higher principle, for instance, to go talk to Nixon; or to avoid supporting those who would tear children from their parents, those who shake-down an ally into lying to get re-elected using public funds, or who abandon an army of people who trusted us to a known enemy, in order to maintain their hotel income in Turkey. (Note to Russia: Break out the champagne again.)
We are ALL political beings. The better question is: can we be MORE than that? CBK
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Wonderful, CBK. Exactly. Interestingly, Roberts has been writing and speaking a lot recently in this same vein. He sees the problem.
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Some of the Republicans might begin to wonder how they will be described in the history books. Perhaps Roberts.
Trump’s outrageous claim that the president is above the law must be hard for Roberts to accept.
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The right decision by Roberts in such a case would bring him immortality as a savior of the rule of law. The wrong one would spell the end of our Republic as a Republic.
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All Roberts and friends need to believe that there is life after Trumpism and it’s in the distant future. Nobody in his right mind, however much pessimism may cloud it, can believe that this upside down world will last long.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
I wonder what the Vegas odds are the both Trump and DeVos leave office in handcuffs?
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