Tag: Betsy DeVos

CORRECTION Any You Thought Giving your DNA to Ancestry.com was harmless

Correction

Blackstone is buying Ancestry.com

Everybody just sold themselves out. Now your DNA will get sold to any insurer that wants to buy it, or any other business that wants to know about you and your family.

Blackstone to acquire Ancestry.com for $4.7 billion

Blackstone Group Inc (BX.N) said on Wednesday it agreed to acquire genealogy provider Ancestry.com Inc from private equity rivals for $4.7 billion, including debt, placing a big bet on family-tree chasing as well as personalized medicine.

Ancestry.com is the world’s largest provider of DNA services, allowing customers to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks with tests sent to their home.

Blackstone is hoping that more consumers staying at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic will turn to Ancestry.com for its services.

Blackstone is buying Ancestry.com from private equity firms Silver Lake, Spectrum Equity and Permira. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, another Ancestry.com investor, said it will continue to maintain a significant minority stake in the company.

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The Real Looters are Donald Trump, Betsy DeVoss, and brother Erik Prince

June 1, 2020 New Map Shows Hundreds of Counties in the COVID-19 Endgame — and Thousands on the Uptick

THESE ARE THE REAL LOOTERS

The ‘ultra-rich’ have been ‘looting’ for 40 years, amid looting of businesses and banks

The worst looting that took place happened a few weeks ago when corporations collected over 500 billion dollars in stimulus money while everyone else was left with a $1200 dollar check and having to decide if they pay for food or rent. You’d think a country that can equip every cop like a soldier could equip every doctor like a doctor. Surveillance capitalism, Job automation,  Another auto industry crash. The pandemic is compressing and accelerating trends that would have taken decades to play out. MALL of AMERICA in Minnesota announced it will miss 2nd payment on its $1.4 billion mortgage. An intelligent question is “Who is not getting paid?” Dominos starting to fall. IMF says debt will rise from $6 trillion to $66 trillion by end of 2020. Buy Gold Silver & Bitcoin.Congrats to the Space-X astronauts who have picked an excellent time to leave Earth.
The Maddening Dishonesty of the New York Times Op-Ed Editor. They constantly legitimize hideous opinions in the name of “open debate.”
I was curious about how the New York Times covered the rise of Hitler. I wondered whether their sense of “journalistic neutrality” prevented them from telling the truth about fascism and exposing Nazism for what it was. And when I looked in the archives, sure enough, it was full of everything from neutral horse-race articles to flattering profiles that minimized Hitler’s anti-Semitism and never called his terrifying ideology what it was. (“Hitler is a man of the people, a carpenter by trade… His entire being breathes dynamic energy combined with a marked reserve.”) Hitler himself even got a byline in the Times when it excerpted Mein Kampf in 1941 (not sympathetically, but it is still strange to see “by Adolf Hitler” in front of a Times article).

The Facebook president and Zuck’s racist rulebook

AS Donald Trump heads to Maine today, the Portland @PressHerald tells him to resign. “He lacks the character, maturity and judgment to lead the country in a perilous time.” #TrumpResignNow

BETSY DEVOS Inside the Financial Holdings of Billionaire Betsy DeVos

Friday, January 20, 2017, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, released the paperwork and pledge for President Donald Trump’s secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos. The 108-page document is rife with private equity and hedge fund investments that are opaque to the public.
Overall, DeVos’ paperwork showcases an extensive web of investments, several of which raise eyebrows. She has investments in companies that hound students to pay their federal loan debts, as well as in psychiatric hospitals under federal investigation for Medicare fraud. She also has more than $1 million in an undisclosed venture related to education. And although her filings do not show any direct ownership stake in a private for-profit college, she has chosen to put some of her money into firms that are invested in that industry.

The Charter Schools Program (CSP) is a long-running federal grant program aimed at helping the charter school industry with new start-ups and expansions. It has had some serious problems with waste and fraud in the past, but Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Friday that CSP will be awarding$65 million in grants to thirteen charter management organizations—some of which have had problems of their own.

Since 1995, CSP has distributed about $4 billion. A study by the Network for Public Education found that roughly $1 billion on that had been lost to waste and fraud, including charters that accepted grants and soon closed, or never even opened. A follow-up study found that nearly 1800 charter schools had failed after accepting CSP grants. The report has been criticized for some small errors, but the source of key data for the study was Betsy DeVos. To date, there has been no real debunking of the major findings of the report. But DeVos herself has repeatedly dismissed the study (”I’m not sure you can really call it a study”) and claimed it is just the product of people with a political agenda.

extensive self-dealing, with school founders essentially renting properties from themselves, all tied to a pair of brothers who had built a small real estate empire in Florida. If nothing else, Mater’s early history is a reminder that there are many ways to turn a profit from a non-profit charter, and real estate dealings are among the best.

Responsive Education Solutions is another Texas-based charter company set to receive a hefty CSP grant ($14 million). RES is notable for its strong connections to the creationist movement. In 2014, Zack Kopplin published an investigation at Slate:

When public-school students enrolled in Texas’ largest charter program open their biology workbooks, they will read that the fossil record is “sketchy.”That evolution is “dogma” and an “unproved theory” with no experimental basis. They will be told that leading scientists dispute the mechanisms of evolution and the age of the Earth. These are all lies.

BROTHER ERIK PRINCE

Betsy Devos Brother founder of Blackwater

K12 Department of Education #BetsyDevos Brother Founder Of Blackwater, Is Setting Up A Private Army For China

ALT RIGHT founder of the private military company Blackwater USA, now called Academi served as Blackwater’s CEO until 2009 and as its chairman until its sale to a group of investors in 2010. Prince now heads the private equity firm Frontier Resource Group.

Twitter Tried to Curb Abuse. Now It Has to Handle the Backlash
The Project Veritas videos are embarrassing, but mean Twitter is doing something right.

Blackwater founder Erik Prince’s new company is building concentration camp  for UYGHURS  a “re education” in  Xinjiang China. The Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs were traditionally the dominant ethnic group in the region whose Mandarin name, Xinjiang, means simply “New Frontier” — perhaps a reflection of the fact that the region was only brought under Beijing’s control in its entirety during the 19th century rein of the Qing dynasty.

Blackwater Renames Itself

Prince now heads the private equity firm Frontier Resource Group

Blackwater Founder’s New Company Strikes a Deal in China. … of a deal by Frontier Services Group to build a concentration camp over a million people in Xinjiang in northwestern China, that Chinese Communist Party calls a “re education camp” Just like Chairman Mao did. Hong Kong-listed Frontier Services Group (FSG), co-founded by former U.S. military services contractor Erik Prince, has signed a deal to build a training base in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, the company said in a statement.

Erik Prince Recruits Ex-Spies to Help Infiltrate Liberal Groups

Prince, a contractor close to the Trump administration, contacted veteran spies for operations by Project Veritas, #projectveritas.com the conservative group known for conducting stings on news organizations and other groups.

BlackRock Is Bailing Out Its ETFs with Fed Money and Taxpayers Eating Losses;

It’s Also the Sole Manager for $335 Billion of Federal Employees’
Retirement Funds ` By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: June 4, 2020 Laurence (Larry) Fink, Chairman and CEO, BlackRock
BlackRock, the international investment management firm run by billionaire Larry Fink, has played an outsized role in Federal Reserve bailouts of Wall Street. As it turns out, it’s also been quietly managing hundreds of billions of dollars for more than […]

[ECP] Educational CyberPlayGround NetHappenings Newsletter 5-13-2020

BlackRock Begins Buying Junk Bond ETFs for the Fed Today: It’s Already at Work for the Central Bank of Israel

Trump, Betsy DeVos, and brother Erik Prince lead the worst Hate Group Families

$13.2 billion for state and local K-12 educational agencies

BETSY DEVOS Department of Education Seizing Wages From Student Loan Borrowers

No Matter the Pandemic, BETSY DEVOS  Department of Education Still Seizing Wages From Student Loan Borrowers, Suit Claims

Almost a month after announcing garnishing wages will be halted, the Department of Education BETSY DEVOS is being sued for continuing the heartless practice despite the pandemic

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies during a hearing of a House Appropriations Sub-Committee on the fiscal year 2021 budget on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has continued the practice of garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers who are in default, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday.

The suit, brought by a New York woman on behalf of about 285,000 borrowers, claims that DeVos and her department have not halted collection practices even though the secretary made an official announcement, on March 25, stating that the seizure of wages and tax refunds will automatically stop. Devos also promised a refund of approximately $1.8 billion of all wages seized since March 13. DeVos’ department still hadn’t notified employers to stop garnishing wages of student loan borrowers in default — almost a month after the initial announcement.

www.edu-cyberpg.comThe Department of Education is a money making machine run by Betsy Devos an evangelical, vocal pro-life opponent of abortion,  school choice advocate selected by President Donald J. Trump. She is a billionaire from For Profit schools that she owns and from Bethany Christian Services whose business interests are in warehousing stolen refugee children for $700.00 a day.
Tax filings archived by ProPublica show that between 2001 and 2015, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation (the philanthropic organization run by DeVos and her husband) gave $343,000 in grants to Bethany Christian Services. Brian DeVos  – a cousin of Betsy DeVos’s husband Dick who was the Senior Vice President for Child and Family Services at Bethany as recently as 2015, and Maria DeVos who is married to Dick DeVos’s brother Doug and has served on the board of Bethany.

$13.2 billion for state and local K-12 educational agencies.

BETSY DEVOS Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund is intended for immediate needs, such as supporting distance learning, ensuring student health and safety, and developing and implementing plans for the next school year. In order to access the funds, the Department must receive a signed certification. It expects to obligate funding within three business days of receiving a complete form. Again, allocations are set by formula prescribed within the CARES Act, and states must allocate 90% of their funding to school districts, including charter schools, in proportion to the amount of Fiscal Year 2019 funds the district received under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Then, on April 27, the Secretary BETSY DEVOS announced over $300 million in discretionary grant funding for states under two new programs:
Rethink K-12 School Models Grants and Reimagining Workforce Preparation Grants.

BETSY DEVOS The former is aimed at opening new, innovative ways for students to access K-12 education with an emphasis on meeting students’ needs during the national emergency. The latter is designed to expand short-term postsecondary programs and work-based learning in order to get Americans back to work and help small business return to being the country’s engine for economic growth.

Finally, on April 30, the Secretary BETSY DEVOS announced nearly $1.4 billion for Minority-Serving Institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and institutions serving low-income students. This funding is provided on top of the aforementioned Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund student aid and institutional aid allocations. For example, HBCUs will collectively receive an additional $577 million in awards, after receiving about $353 million from previous allocations. TCCUs will receive an additional $50 million in awards, bringing their total allocation under the fund to $65 million. More information, including certifications and allocations by institution for each component, are on the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund site.

Furthermore, as requested by Congress in the CARES Act, the Secretary examined federal education laws to determine what, if any, additional waiver authority she believes is necessary to provide limited flexibility to state and local educational agencies during this unprecedented time. She is not recommending that Congress pass additional waiver authority concerning the Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), reiterating that learning must continue for all students during the national emergency and can be done online through distance education or other alternative strategies. She is suggesting that Congress consider flexibilities on administrative requirements under IDEA, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, and the Rehabilitation Act (press release).

$30.75 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund

13 billion emergency coronavirus relief k12 students

The [Chief State School Officer or his/her authorized representative] assures or certifies the following:

Trump, Betsy DeVos, and brother Erik Prince lead the worst Hate Group Families

Erik Prince Offered Lethal Services to Sanctioned Russian Mercenary Firm Wagner

Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater and a Trump administration adviser, has sought in recent months to provide military services to a sanctioned Russian mercenary firm in at least two African conflicts, according to three people with knowledge of the efforts.

Prince, who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met earlier this year with a top official of Russia’s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm’s operations in Libya and Mozambique, according to two people familiar with Prince’s offer.
Wagner officials said they are not interested in working with Prince, three people familiar with their decision told The Intercept.
A lawyer for Prince denied that his client met anyone from Wagner.
ChVK Wagner is really a unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence in disguise, which is used by the Russian government in conflicts where deniability is called for. It is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Erik Prince { $1.3 billion in cash trust fund baby of Dutch parents}— founder of the private military company Blackwater, financial backer of President Donald Trump, brother to the new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and frequent Breitbart radio guest. By the mid 2000s, Blackwater was the largest, deadliest and most powerful private army in the world. Prince moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he is an advisor to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. He has been operating as a CIA spy, as what Vanity Fair called “a Mr. Fix-It in the war on terror.”Today thanks to his family money and the incredible success of Blackwater during its heyday, Erik Prince has a personal net worth of $2.4 billion.

YET IT WAS ALREADY REPORTED

K12 Department of Education #BetsyDevos Brother Founder Of Blackwater, Is Setting Up A Private Army For China

Prince is the founder of Blackwater aka Frontier Services Group aka  Wagner  Group set up two bases in China.  US law prohibits the export of military services or equipment to China.
Prince is chairman of Frontier Services Group
PRINCE BUILDS CONCENTRATION CAMPS FOR CHINA’S MILLIONS OF  Muslim Uighur PEOPLE.
 “a forward operating base in China’s Yunnan province” and another in the troubled Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.

THE CULT

OF HATE 

TERROR GROUPS

The DeVos Dynasty: A Family of Extremists

DeVos’s background—and the transcript from Tuesday night’s hearing—shows that she instead represents an extremist, right-wing perspective.
Betsy’s husband, Dick DeVos, for instance, has pushed for creationism to be taught in schools.
Her late father, Edgar Prince, helped start the fundamentalist Family Research Council, a known anti-LGBT, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, hate group.
Her mother Elsa Prince, also an extreme fundamentalist, was once called a “portrait of Christian hate” by the Daily Kos. She has been one of the biggest contributors to campaigns to ban same-sex marriage in the country, working against the civil rights issue in California and Michigan.

The DeVos family’s CULT OF HATE goes back more than a century.
DeVos’s father, Edgar Prince, made his fortune in manufacturing and soon began using his profits to fund far-right organizations.
Most notably, Edgar Prince was a founder of the Family Research Council, which argues that homosexuality is a type of perversion.
In 1999, an FRC staffer wrote, “Gaining access to children has been a long-term goal of the homosexual movement.” The comment helped put the group on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group watch list.

Pence’s ascent to the second most powerful position in the U.S. government is a tremendous coup for the radical religious right. Prince’s family has a history of supporting right-wing and conservative causes. Edgar Prince, Erik’s father, was a major financial contributor to former President Gerald Ford, and in recent years, the family has supported Mike Pence, first as a member of Congress and later as Indiana governor.

HEY BETSY DEVOS WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY RIGHTS 4/4/2020 Two children sue Google for allegedly collecting students’ biometric data The lawsuit says the search giant violated privacy laws with its educational tools. Two children from Illinois are suing Google for allegedly collecting biometric data, including face scans, of millions of students

Federal Judge Invites Scammed Students to Propose Additional Punishments for Betsy DeVos

Cruella DeVos Needs to go to Jail! Federal Judge Invites Scammed Students to Propose Additional Punishments for Betsy DeVos The courts have had it up to here with Department of Education (DOE) Secretary Betsy DeVos and her agency’s repeat—and apparently ongoing—violation of court orders that require her to stop milking scammed college students for student loan repayments.

Betsy Devos found in Contempt fined $100,000 for hurting kids.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in contempt of court STILL Enforcing Loans On Defrauded College Students. The government will pay the $100,000, and DeVos will not be personally responsible for the sum. Ten third-party contractors were involved in collecting the loans, and the judge’s opinion notes that the Education Department didn’t do much to make

GOP Betsy DeVoss official public policy statement to undermine security of K12 public schools. 

MAY 1st – the public better watch out! The GOP has made undermining K12 public schools their official policy. GOP Betsy DeVoss officIal  public policy statement is to undermine public schools. “Thank you, Roger Hertog, for that kind introduction. And I’m very grateful for President Bush’s kind words.” Roger and Susan Hertog https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/wall-street-donors/roger-hertog.html The Manhattan

Betsy DeVos would not be in charge of the Department of Education without paying for it.

Betsy DeVos Asked to Justify Proposed $9 Billion Cut to Education Budget Betsy DeVos Refused to answer Basic Simple Questions Charter and private school grant program will allow discrimination based on LGTBQ and do not have to take any disabled or any 4:32 voucher student and follow AIP program like every public school. Vouchers come

Betsy DeVos’s 13-year ‘clerical error’ – #DeVosHearing #StopDeVos

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/18/betsy-devoss-13-year-clerical-error/ the nominee for education secretary left senators puzzled by denying her documented involvement in a foundation that has funneled millions of dollars to anti-LGBT causes. [Six astonishing things Betsy DeVos said — and refused to say — at her confirmation hearing] DeVos, from 2001 to 2013, was listed in tax filings as vice president of the

@BetsyDeVos Fails – Not Qualifed

Betsy DeVos was asked a basic question about education policy — and couldn’t answer Sen. Al Franken discovers Trump Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos doesn’t know the difference between proficiency and growth. pic.twitter.com/QFQchwHhuc — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 18, 2017 Exchange between Elizabeth Warren and Betsy Devos Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee. Exchange between Elizabeth

4/3/20 Department of Education Secretary remarks

4/3/20 Department of Education Secretary’s full remarks and video “My team and I are in contact daily with governors, state school chiefs, college presidents, superintendents, and local education leaders.  We are quickly responding to their needs so they can do the next right thing for their students.  Most governors have decided to close some or