It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, July 23, 2020
UPDATED PIMPETE TO THE 1%
Judge rules to unseal documents in 2015 case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's alleged accomplice
(CNN)A federal judge ruled on Thursday to publicly release documents that have been kept under seal in a case involving Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's one-time girlfriend and alleged accomplice. US District Judge Loretta Preska verbally unsealed the documents in a ruling held via teleconference. She is giving Maxwell's legal team a week to pursue an appeal to her decision but ordered the court to have the documents ready to be posted "within a week."
The documents are connected to a 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed Epstein sexually abused her while she was a minor and that Maxwell aided in the abuse. The case was settled in 2017.
Included in the now unsealed documents are Maxwell's 2016 deposition related to the lawsuit in which she denies knowing if Epstein had a scheme to recruit underage girls for sex. Other documents include emails and depositions by others, including Giuffre and anonymous women who also claim to have been abused by Epstein.
Preska ruled that several medical records included in the court filings will remain sealed. In addition, she noted that the multiple anonymous women -- "Jane Does" who accused Epstein of abuse but have not publicly spoken out -- will continue to have their identities redacted in the documents.
In her ruling, she said that the public's right to have access to the information carried heavier weight than the "annoyance or embarrassment" to Maxwell. Ghislaine Maxwell is denied bail as judge says risks of fleeing 'are simply too great' "In the context of this case, especially its allegations of sex trafficking of young girls, the court finds any minor embarrassment or annoyance resulting from Ms. Maxwell's mostly non-testimony ... is far outweighed by the presumption of public access," she said.
Maxwell, 58, was charged by federal prosecutors in early July for allegedly helping recruit, groom and ultimately sexually abuse minors as young as 14 as part of a years-long criminal enterprise with Epstein. She pleaded not guilty and was ordered jailed pending trial.
Parts of the deposition were unsealed last August, a day before Epstein killed himself in his jail cell while awaiting trial for allegedly running a sex-trafficking enterprise.
The charges against Maxwell, which came almost exactly a year after Epstein's arrest, also include two counts of perjury for comments she made during a legal deposition in April and July 2016 as part of the defamation case.
During the deposition, Maxwell denied having given anyone a massage, specifically denied having given Minor Victim-2 a massage and said, "I wasn't aware that (Epstein) was having sexual activities with anyone when I was with him other than myself."
Asked whether Epstein had a "scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages," she replied: "I don't know what you're talking about."
CNN's Erica Orden contributed to this report.
Ghislaine Maxwell case: ‘extremely personal’ documents to be unsealed
New York judge orders documents unsealed after Maxwell’s lawyers had tried to keep them secret
Ghislaine Maxwell in New York in 2013. Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters
An extensive collection of “extremely personal” documents in civil litigation against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell can be unsealed, a Manhattan federal court judge ruled on Thursday.
The documents relate to Maxwell’s deposition in this litigation, as well as her early 2015 correspondence with her longterm associate, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell was arrested earlier this month and charged over her alleged involvement with Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors. Maxwell pleaded not guilty on 14 July, and remains in jail while awaiting trial.
In the civil lawsuits, Maxwell’s lawyers had pushed to keep these records secret, claiming previously “this series of pleadings concerns [attempts] to compel Ms Maxwell to answer intrusive questions about her sex life” that are “extremely personal, confidential and subject to considerable abuse by the media”.
The Manhattan federal court judge ruled on Thursday that they could be unsealed, though Maxwell’s attorneys plan to appeal the decision.
“The court finds that the countervailing interests identified fail to rebut the presumption of public access,” judge Loretta Preska said during a telephone proceeding. “Accordingly, those papers shall be unsealed.”
The decision over these records stems from Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 civil lawsuit against Maxwell. Giuffre has alleged that Maxwell recruited her to work as Epstein’s masseuse at 15 years old, when she worked as a locker-room attendant in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in south Florida.
In this litigation, which has been settled, Giuffre alleged Maxwell had defamed her by saying that she was a liar in accusing Epstein and Maxwell of sexual misconduct.
Following Preska’s decision, one of Maxwell’s attorneys asked for two weeks to appeal this decision, given the new criminal case.
Preska said Maxwell’s team had one week to file the appeal motion, and asked to be informed if the appeals court didn’t rule within one week. She asked the attorneys to nonetheless continue working on preparing these papers for the release in the interim.
A large tranche of documents in this lawsuit was also released last August; they contained both sensational claims and denials that world leaders were involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking.
They were released shortly after Epstein’s arrest last July for sex trafficking. Epstein killed himself in prison in August.
More Sunlight Pours Into Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein Sagas
Ghislaine Maxwell arrives at Epsom Racecourse on June 5, 1991. (Chris Ison/PA via AP, File)
MANHATTAN (CN) — A year after a dam of secrecy burst over the sex-trafficking case of the now-deceased Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge Thursday ordered the release of another torrent of files.
The soon-to-be-public documents come from a 2015 lawsuit against Epstein’s accused accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, whose depositions in that case form the basis of two now-pending perjury charges against her.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska tore through a bid to have the files kept sealed because Maxwell considers them either untrustworthy, embarrassing or an interference with her criminal investigation.
“Ms. Maxwell proffers little more than her ipsi dixit,” U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said, using the Latin phrase meaning her say-so. “She provides no specifics as to these conclusions.”
The public may soon have a chance to see Maxwell’s deposition that prosecutors contend show her lying under oath.
“In her first deposition, which is among the documents being considered on this motion, Ms. Maxwell refused to testify as to any consensual adult behavior and generally disclaimed any knowledge of underage activity,” Preska noted, describing what appears to be the same testimony quoted in her federal indictment.
“In the context of this case, especially its allegations of sex trafficking of young girls, the court finds that any minor embarrassment or annoyance resulting from disclosure of Ms. Maxwell’s mostly non-testimony about behavior that has been widely reported in the press is far outweighed by the presumption of public access,” the judge added.
Other eyebrow-raising documents slated for release include Epstein’s correspondence with Maxwell and the deposition of one of their most prominent accusers: Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose lawsuit five years ago alleged that Maxwell groomed her to be Epstein’s “sex slave.”
Giuffre claims that Epstein passed her off to his rich and powerful friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, financier Glenn Dubin, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel and former Senator George Mitchell. The men have denied the allegations, and prosecutors formally began the process seeking the British government’s help to question the prince.
The day began with U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who is presiding over Maxwell’s criminal case, denying a gag order requested by Maxwell’s attorneys against prosecutors and attorneys for the witnesses in her criminal case.
Rejecting the argument that Maxwell’s right to a fair trial was at risk, Judge Nathan reminded all of the attorneys that the court’s rules already prohibit anybody from making statements that could prejudice a jury.
“The court will ensure strict compliance with those rules and will ensure that the defendant’s right to a fair trial will be safeguarded,” Nathan wrote in a 1-page order.
Later that morning in a telephone conference, Preska unsealed dozens of files from the Giuffre v. Maxwell docket.
This photo of Jeffrey Epstein embracing Ghislaine Maxwell was included in the Maxwell’s federal indictment filed in New York. (Credit: SDNY via Courthouse News)
The Epstein conspiracy has been described as a pyramid scheme of sexual abuse, where underage girls were recruited to find others for the disgraced financier’s predation. The scale of the alleged crimes are reflected in references to documents related to “Doe #67” and “Doe # 151.”
Now mostly sealed or heavily redacted, those files largely concern briefings, depositions by Giuffre, Maxwell and others, and other court records to investigate the truth of those allegations. The documents were originally made secret following a settlement in 2017.
That New York-based court ordered sunlight one year ago for nearly 2,000 pages of files related to Epstein, Maxwell and their dozens of accusers. It took another year, and another criminal indictment, for the other shoe to drop.
Giving the parties a week to file the documents on the public record, Preska also allowed for a brief pause for Maxwell’s attorney Laura Menninger to seek a stay from the Second Circuit. Menninger plans to argue that Maxwell’s indictment since the open-records battle weighs against the presumption of public access.
The judge allowed the names of nonparties to remain sealed until those people have the opportunity to oppose disclosure.
Giuffre’s attorney Sigrid McCawley urged the judge to hold to her plan for quick transparency.
“We obviously believe that the material should be unsealed as quickly as possible,” she said.
Menninger noted that much has changed for her client Maxwell since this open-records case had begun.
“Since that time, Ms. Maxwell has been indicted and a trial has been scheduled for next July in another courtroom in the Southern District,” Menninger said.
“So, while we were not able to provide specifics necessarily with regard to what witnesses might be relevant to any such criminal trial, now we are in a vastly different position and certainly have great concerns about our client’s ability to seek and receive an impartial and fair trial and jury given the intense media scrutiny around anything that is unsealed or anything that happens in this or any of the related cases,” she added.
The attorneys have a week to put the files on the public record, barring any intervention on Maxwell’s behalf on appeal.
JPMorgan private bank managed at least $10million for Ghislaine Maxwell with the money handled by a team of several dozen relationship managers
Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, had $10 million managed by JPMorgan bank, it is claimed
Maxwell's financial details have long been a source of great interest Her attorneys insist that she is not hugely wealthy, owing to years of law suits
JPMorgan Chase private bank managed at least $10 million for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, it was reported on Wednesday.
The New York-based bank was also the long-time partner of Epstein, despite warnings from compliance officers in 2008 that he posed reputational damage to the institution.
Epstein, who had been charged with sex crimes and pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution, remained a JPMorgan client until 2013. He had banked there for over 15 years, The New York Times reported.
Epstein, who met Maxwell around 1991, and with whom he was initially romantically involved, died by suicide in August 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, pictured in 2005. The pair were initially romantically linked, with their relationship later becoming that of assistant and patron
Bloomberg News reported the detail of Maxwell's finances on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Maxwell's money was handled by a team that included several dozen relationship managers, advisers and others who specialize in closely held businesses, Bloomberg reported.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
A lawyer for Maxwell, 58, was not immediately available for comment.
Maxwell faces six criminal charges, including four related to transporting minors for illegal sexual acts, and two for perjury in depositions about her role in Epstein's abuses.
She has pleaded not guilty, and a tentative trial date has been set for July 2021.
If convicted, she faces 35 years in prison. Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in October 2016, around the time she sold her Manhattan home
Maxwell is spending the next year in jail in part because her 'opaque' finances led the judge overseeing the case to conclude she was an extraordinary flight risk.
'At a basic level, the defense argument is that she cannot remember off the top of her head just how many millions of dollars she has,' said Alison Moe, Assistant U.S. Attorney, at Maxwell's bail hearing last week.
DEUTSCHE BANK FINED OVER TIES TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN
New York regulators on July 7 fined Deutsche Bank $150 million and criticized the lender for 'mistakes and sloppiness' in its relationship with accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Authorities said Deutsche Bank's 'significant compliance failures' allowed Epstein to conduct hundreds of transactions totaling millions of dollars that should have prompted additional scrutiny.
The New York State Department of Financial Services said Deutsche Bank failed to detect 'many subsequent suspicious transactions' conducted by the late multimillionaire, who died in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The prosecutor said Maxwell's claims to have less than $1 million in the bank and no monthly income was 'implausible.'
She said the government was aware of a Swiss trust benefiting Maxwell that held over $4 million last month and in which a relative served as trustee.
Evidence of great wealth on Maxwell's part, especially if the money came from Epstein, could bolster prosecutors' depiction of her as fully complicit in his crimes.
Her lawyers have so far suggested Maxwell, 58, is less wealthy than many believe and sought to distance her from Epstein's private-jet and private-island lifestyle.
At the bail hearing, prosecutors said they had identified more than 15 different bank accounts associated with Maxwell from 2016 to the present, with balances ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to more than $20 million.
She sold a Manhattan townhouse for $15 million in 2016 and still has one in London that she offered as a bail guarantee.
According to prosecutors, a New Hampshire estate where she was arrested on July 2 was actually purchased by Maxwell for $1 million in cash using a limited liability company.
At the hearing, Maxwell's lawyer Mark Cohen insisted that the prosecution's depiction of her as an extraordinarily wealthy woman posing extreme flight risk was wrong, and particularly rejected their allegations that she was 'associated' with 15 accounts.
'No detail, no explanation to the court, just more dirt,' Cohen said.
'Well, she has three bank accounts that she disclosed.' JPMorgan's headquarters, on Park Avenue in New York City
He said it was possible there were other accounts related to a now-defunct non-profit that Maxwell formerly ran that they were willing to track down if the court deemed it important.
Cohen also said proceeds from Maxwell's Manhattan townhouse sale have already been depleted due to various liabilities and expenses, including 'extensive, substantial litigation.'
Maxwell in 2017 settled for undisclosed terms a defamation suit by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts-Giuffre and is now paying four lawyers to defend her against criminal charges.
In March, Maxwell sued Epstein's estate to cover her legal costs, claiming he had always pledged to provide her with financial assistance
After President Donald Trump sent well wishes to former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces charges for recruiting, grooming and ultimately sexually abusing minors as young as 14 as Epstein's alleged accomplice, a former business partner of Epstein's says Trump and Maxwell "knew each other well." CNN's Pamela Brown reports.
Kayleigh McEnany Absurdly Spins Trump Wishing Ghislaine Maxwell Well ‘STRANGE ANSWER’After practically ignoring the subject for two days, Fox News finally broached Trump's well-wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell during a Thursday interview with the press secretary.
After practically ignoring President Donald Trump oddly wishing an accused sex trafficker “well,” Fox News finally broached the subject Thursday morning in an interview with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
While reviving his daily coronavirus briefings in an attempt to reverse his sagging approval ratings on the pandemic, Trump was asked on Tuesday if he felt longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell would “turn in powerful men” following her arrest.
“I don't know, I haven't really been following it too much,” the president replied. “I just wish her well, frankly. I've met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
More than 24 hours later, Fox anchor Bret Baier brought up the president’s well-wishes to McEnany, noting how Maxwell was charged with recruiting and sexually abusing underage girls.
“That raises some eyebrows, Kayleigh,” Baier added.
“What the president was noting is that the last person who was charged in this case ended up dead in a jail cell and the president wants justice to be served for the victims in this case and he prefers this to play out in a courtroom,” McEnany replied, referencing Epstein’s apparent jail-cell suicide.
Trump, by the way, made no mention of Epstein or the circumstances around his death or custody in prison.
After McEnany confirmed she has spoken to the president about his Maxwell remarks, Baier noted that “a lot of people were saying it just seemed a strange answer,” prompting the spokeswoman to characterize Trump as a heroic figure in regards to Epstein.
“This president is the president that banned Jeffrey Epstein from coming to Mar-a-Lago,” she exclaimed. “This president was always on top of this, ahead of this, noting this, banning this man from his property long before this case was even being played out in a court of law.”
Prior to an apparent falling out with Epstein in 2004, which appears to have been over a real-estate competition, Trump hung out socially with the late financier for years. As recently as 2002, Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy” whom he had known for 15 years. The two of them threw a 1992 party at Mar-a-Lago that featured a guest list of Epstein, Trump, and 28 “calendar girls.”
Following Trump’s newsmaking Maxwell well-wishes, which raised eyebrows across the media and were covered extensively on other networks, Fox News went into near radio silence on his comments.
Prior to Baier’s question, the only mention on Fox appeared to be liberal pundit Jessica Tarlov quickly injecting the well-wishes into a panel discussion.
And on social media, Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera—a close friend of the president’s—took to Twitter to call Trump “brave” for wishing Maxwell the best. That came on the heels of Rivera lambasting a judge for denying Maxwell bail, claiming the judge was “chickening out” and caving to a woke “mob.”
‘Put Palestine back on the map,’ demands Madonna July 22, 2020 American pop superstar Madonna in France on 26 July 2017
[Venturelli/Getty Images for LDC Foundation
July 22, 2020 at 2:48 pm
American singer, songwriter and actress Madonna expressed solidarity with Palestine over the weekend in a series of Instagram posts protesting against the removal of the occupied Palestinian territories from Google maps, social media users have said. Madonna’s solidarity with Palestine coincided with the launch of a petition calling on Google to explain its decision, which more than a million people have signed.
The petition denounces Google for the fact that its decision makes it “complicit in the Israeli government’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine.” Israel, established on Palestinian land, is clearly designated, but Palestine does not appear on Google maps. “Why not?” the petitioners asked.
Images circulating on social media show Madonna sharing an image of the the map in question with Palestine missing, with a comment: “Google and Apple have officially removed Palestine from their maps”. She has more than 15 million followers on Instagram. MEMO could not verify the authenticity of the screenshots and has not heard back from Madonna’s team regarding the pictures.
In a second post, the singer expressed her strongest ever solidarity with the Palestinian cause. The 61 year old demanded “Put Palestine back on the map” before adding, “#IStandWithPalestine”.
A third post showed an image of Angela Davis alongside a quote from the icon of the American Civil Rights movement: “Black solidarity with Palestine allows us to understand the nature of contemporary racism more deeply.”
Davis spoke recently about why the Palestinian cause is so central to the Black Lives Matter movement. She recalled how Palestinian activists had long supported Black Americans’ struggle against racism, and that when she was falsely imprisoned in 1970 the solidarity from Palestine was a major source of comfort for her.
In the past, Madonna has not been as forthcoming with her support for the Palestinian cause. In 2019 she refused to boycott the Eurovision song contest, which was held in Israel. “I’ll never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda nor will I stop speaking out against violations of human rights wherever in the world they may be,” she said in a statement at the time.
Israel soldiers destroy Palestinian coronavirus testing centre
July 20, 2020 at 3:44 pm | Published in: Israel, Middle East, News, Palestine COVID-19 tests are being carried out at the Central Laboratory of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the city of Ramallah, West Bank on March 16, 2020. The total number of coronavirus cases in West Bank climbed to 39. [Issam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency]
July 20, 2020
Israeli soldiers demolished a Palestinian security checkpoint used to test for coronavirus in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa news agency.
The checkpoint was set up by Palestinian security forces at the entrance to the occupied West Bank city of Jenin to prevent the spread of the virus.
A total of 468 new coronavirus cases and three deaths from the disease were recorded in the occupied Palestinian territories over the past 24 hours, confirmed the Ministry of Health today, leaving the active cases at 8,360 and total deaths at 65.
It added that 40 patients are currently in intensive care units, including three placed on respirators, with no reports of recoveries.
Israeli forces also injured a Palestinian man at the Jenin refugee camp, reported Wafa.
Local sources said soldiers stormed Jenin and its refugee camp early this morning to arrest activists. Occupation forces shot at Palestinians in the area, according to the reports, injuring one person in the leg.
Two people were arrested before the soldiers left the city and the checkpoint was destroyed.
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, Israeli authorities continue to abuse the most vulnerable Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, as part of decades-long attempts to drive them out of the area, and to similarly mistreat Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
According to B’Tselem, last month saw a spike in Israeli demolitions, which left 151 Palestinians, including 84 minors, homeless – despite the danger of remaining without shelter during a pandemic.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is having a tough time defending her convoluted vision for getting the country’s children back into the classroom this fall.
DeVos appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning, encouraging children and teachers alike to enter classrooms daily come September, despite the growing case count and the death toll from covid-19 in the United States. When asked if the nation’s schools should follow the Centers for Disease Control’s guidelines on school reopenings, DeVos did what she does best: Dodged the question supplying a frozen smile instead.
“Dr. Redfield [CDC Director] has clearly said that these are recommendations and every situation is going to look slightly different,” DeVos said. “And the key for education leaders... they can figure out what is going to be right for their specific situation.”
The CDC guidelines include deploying new layouts to schools, erecting physical barriers and sneeze guards, discouraging the use of shared objects, thorough disinfectant plans, updated ventilation and water systems, the closure of communal spaces like playgrounds and cafeterias, and more. President Trump derided the CDC’s outline as too “tough” and costly. But DeVos is confident that the CDC’s plan is easy enough for schools to follow, as long as it’s approached as a suggestion rather than a set of hard and fast rules.
“I know for a fact that there are many schools that have been working hard to put together a plan for moving ahead,” DeVos said, adding that she doesn’t want to hear what schools can’t do, but rather what they can do.
CNN’s Dana Bash pressed DeVos repeatedly during the nearly 20-minute long interview as to whether the CDC’s recommendations are actually feasible, especially for those living in covid-19 hotspots. Cases of the fatal virus continue to rise in a majority of states, most notably Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California
DeVos was not deterred, not even when presented with the example of a Christian summer camp in Missouri that was forced to shut down after 41 campers and staffers contracted covid-19. (Currently, 82 cases are linked to the camp).
“It really is a matter of paying attention to good hygiene, following the guidelines around making sure we’re washing hands, wearing masks when appropriate, staying apart at a bit of a distance socially, and doing the things that are common sense approaches,” DeVos said.
Relying on children constantly washing their hands as a means to protect their peers, school faculty, and the families of everyone in the school system is an astronomical burden. But even if every child frequently washed their hands and wore safety equipment, the physical space necessary to separate hundreds or thousands of children so that they’re six feet apart at all times is simply unfeasible for most districts.
This is why Fairfax County in Virginia is suggesting that children learn in the classroom for two days a week and remotely for the rest. School Superintendent Scott Brabrand told CNN that the average amount of space between those within a Fairfax County public school is eight inches. He also said the school system is the size of five Pentagons and that, “You would need another five Pentagons of space to be able to safely accommodate all of the students in Fairfax County Public Schools.”
But DeVos believes this is a cop-out. During a press conference last week, she said the county’s move, “would fail America’s students, and it would fail taxpayers who pay high taxes for their education.” And on State of the Union, DeVos insisted that Fairfax County’s plan was “not valid” and not considered full-time learning, which is incorrect.
Of course, DeVos isn’t interested in narratives about schooling that isn’t done in the classroom, often roping in the struggle of working parents and education starved children as a justification for opening schools. Throughout the embarrassing State of the Union interview, DeVos tried to imply that opposition to school re-openings is opposition to children learning in general. No one wants students to fall behind, and teachers, parents, and students alike are all well aware of the egregious limitations of remote learning, especially for those of lower-income. But that doesn’t negate the dangers posed to resuming classroom instruction in many states that do not have covid-19 under control.
On Sunday, Florida shattered the U.S. covid-19 record by reporting the highest single-day number of new cases since the beginning of the pandemic: A whopping 15,300 new cases, just as Disneyworld re-opens in Orlando, the Republican National Committee revs up for its convention in Jacksonville, and Governor Ron DeSantis compares school re-openings to Floridians grabbing fast food.
“We spent months saying that there were certain things that were essential — that included fast food restaurants, it included Walmart, it included Home Depot,” DeSantis said on Thursday. “If fast food and Walmart and Home Depot... if all that is essential, then educating our kids is absolutely essential.”
This is the asinine logic driving school re-openings in a state that is experiencing a catastrophic covid-19 outbreak, and it’s being validated DeVos, the nation’s education secretary. She even lauded the reopening plan of Miami-Dade County on State of the Union, even though an internal CDC document notes that Florida’s school districts have some of the nation’s most “noticeable gaps” in safe reopening strategies.
From the New York Times:
In a “talking points” section, the material is critical of “noticeable gaps” in all of the K-12 reopening plans it reviewed, though it identified Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma and Minnesota as having the most detailed.
“While many jurisdictions and districts mention symptom screening, very few include information as to the response or course of action they would take if student/faculty/staff are found to have symptoms, nor have they clearly identified which symptoms they will include in their screening,” the talking points say. “In addition, few plans include information regarding school closure in the event of positive tests in the school community.”
This, of course, is of no consequence to DeVos, who couldn’t even answer whether or not she had a plan for what should happen if a school experiences a covid-19 outbreak. For DeVos, repeatedly stating that every school district will have different needs was a sufficient answer.
“You are arguing over and over that they should handle this on a local level, but at the same time, as the Secretary of Education, you are trying to push them to do a one-size-fits-all approach which is to go back and re-open schools,” Bash said. “You can’t have it both ways.”
Bash continued to push DeVos, mining for situations in which remote learning would be deemed acceptable. For example: A covid-19 flare-up in a school district. What, then, would DeVos recommend?
A visibly irritated DeVos retorted, “If there’s a short term flare up for a few days, that’s a different situation than planning for an entire school year in anticipation for something that hasn’t happened. Kids have gotta be back in school, they gotta be back in the classroom.”
Given that DeVos described a covid-19 outbreaks as an event that dissipates in a few days, it’s clear that her grasp on the gravity of the pandemic is worse than elementary: It’s irresponsible.
In response to a clip of DeVos’s State of the Union appearance, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley tweeted, “I wouldn’t trust [DeVos] to care for a house plant let alone my child.”
Frankly, a house plant would make for a better Secretary of Education than DeVos at this point.
In Jezebel’s newest series Rummaging Through the Attic, we interview nonfiction authors whose books explore fascinating moments, characters, and stories in history. For this episode we spoke with Marcia Chatelain, author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, a nonfiction work that uncovers the historical relationship between McDonald’s and the fight for civil rights in America.
In early June of this year, the McDonald’s Corporation posted a short video on Twitter that listed the names of several Black victims of police brutality and culminated in the statement, “Black lives matter.” It was introduced with the words, “They were one of us.” Companies engaging in activism as an attempt to seem more in-line with their consumer base than they perhaps actually are isn’tanythingnew. But what many don’t know about McDonald’s specifically is that its ties to Black communities—whether problematic or beneficial—can be dated all the way back to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Speaking on the white flight phenomenon of the ’50s and ’60s, professor Marcia Chatelain says, “When people think about white flight in America, they often think of housing ... But people often don’t think about economic white flight, and that is the process in which white business owners close their businesses in predominantly black neighborhoods and move to the suburbs. Therefore, taking with them jobs and important tax revenue.” One response to this was to invest in the idea of Black capitalism. “Black capitalism is the ideology that if African-Americans build businesses and their wealth, they will be able to leverage their power for political and social equality.” As white McDonald’s franchise owners closed up shop, McDonald’s looked to members of the Black community to take over those locations, as well as open new ones.
In Franchise, the rise of Black McDonald’s operators is just one part of the relationship between McDonald’s and Black America. “I not only look at McDonald’s as a business in Black neighborhoods,” Chatelain says, “but I also look at the cultural work of McDonald’s, whether it’s sponsoring Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday content, or sponsoring the American Double Dutch League, or developing products that they believed would attract African-American diners.” Chatelain explains how McDonald’s and its Black franchisee owners were pivotal in creating the template on how to market to African-Americans. “The ways that the Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich was advertised using Black vernacular and slang, McDonald’s was doing very similar stuff in the 1970s.”
When asked what a follow-up to Franchise would be called, Chatelain paused. “Does the Hamburglar Really Believe That Black Lives Matter? An Analysis of Fast Food Companies in the Age of George Floyd.”
