Donald Trump famously promised, during his campaign, to “drain the swamp” of Washington DC. Various reports like this suggest that he is instead surrounding himself with alligators (emphasis mine):
Trump taps into DeVos family to head education.
…
The DeVos family, heirs to the Amway fortune, has long been a leading source of money for Republicans in Michigan and beyond. Just in the last three elections before 2016, members of the family gave nearly $9.5 million to party committees and candidates.Mrs. DeVos had money of her own before she married Richard DeVos Jr., the Amway scion. Her father, Edgar Prince, built his own auto parts supplier, in Holland, Mich. Her brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater USA, a private security contractor whose guards were convicted of killing 14 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.
So in just one appointment, Mr. Trump has returned to his pyramid-scheme roots and his love of torture. We heard a lot about “Trump University” during the campaign. We did not hear as much about another Donald Trump fraud, the Trump Network. The family that Ms. DeVos married into succeeded where Mr. Trump failed — Amway at least sells real (even if mediocre) products in its pyramid scheme.
Blackwater, as the NYTimes piece points out, was the consulting firm that earned handsome profits from torture. Their reputation was so bad that they’ve had to change their name not just once (to “Xe”) but twice — most recently to “Academi”.
Long a proponent of private school vouchers. Ms. Devos will supplement Mr. Trump’s outreach to his white racist supporters, as she does all in her power to destroy public education and replace it with private (and of course, all-white) schools.
He’s not made any mention of building that wall, gone soft on repealing Obamacare, and recently said that he will not try to put Hillary in jail.
Question: Would you admire him more of less if he kept all his promises?
I don’t think anyone knows what this guy is up to, including him, at least in the future.
It’s sad and embarrassing and a wee bit scary that we’ve come to this,
…for keeping promises that are so vile. Then again, even more benign promises like George Bush 41’s “read my lips” I’d prefer to see broken if circumstances warrant rather than keep the promise for the sake of keeping a promise.
Isn’t it? If one truly believes that Hillary is a criminal and that rapists are entering from Mexico and he is doing nothing. Not that I agree, of course.
I don’t have much hope, however, that he will not do the greatest harm and that will be accelerating global warming.
Sometimes I dream that he will get caught up in a payback scandal in a pay to play involving his business, get impeached, and resign. Then my dreams turn into the nightmare of President Pence…..I can’t seem to win.
Your dream is already reality, at least so far as the pay to play involving his business:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
ARTICLE I, SECTION 9, CLAUSE 8
By the way, check the source of the link!
I have had to deal with Blackwater in the past on a few occasions and it is always ugly. Their hiring preferences are clear. Get the meanest, nastiest testosterone-fed ex-military and let them loose on civilian populations. Soldiers who were lucky to earn $30,000/yr for active duty can retire and go to work for private security firms in war zones, live in safer circumstances with civilian conditions and add $100,000 per year to their previous salary. Unlike many of the more reputable private security firms, these motherfuckers are not policed by their own management and US armed forces are reluctant to take on these shitbirds who do not abide by the rules that regular US army does.
I was once in a remarkably safe war zone in a Muslim country (sounds like an oxymoron but 20′ tall blast walls give confidence). That means Thursday night is party night, time to hit the only local watering hole. My security team was prohibited by their management from going out with us on Thursdays because Blackwater goons would pick fights with them. When two groups of trained killers engage in a bar fight it is really ugly.
BTW, Blackwater is so hated around the world that they have twice change their name, first to Xe Services and now to Academi, which makes them sound like a civilized group. They are not.
To learn that DeVos is part of that family comes as no surprise but it did make me throw up in my mouth.
by crony capitalism driven by right – wing ideology and bellicose nationalism.”
DEFINITION OF FASCISM HERITAGE DICTIONARY
So why should any intelligent human being be surprised when a Fascist surrounds himself with Fascists ?
Fred Rich LaRiccia
see how Detroit’s charter schools have fared.