JULY

**14, 2020**

Meyerson on TAP

Trump, DeVos, Scalia, and the Depraved Indifference Presidency

To constitute depraved indifference
, the
defendant's conduct must be 'so wanton, so deficient in a moral
sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others,
and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that
which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime.

- Legal definition of "depraved indifference"

As the United States plunges ever deeper into the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Trump administration's response consists chiefly of denial of the
pandemic's severity and failure to develop policies to keep Americans
safe. Not just Trump himself but two of his Cabinet secretaries have
played central roles in what amounts to a national policy of depraved
indifference to the lives of their fellow citizens.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to insist that schools
reopen this September, though exceptions can be made, she says, for
local "flare-ups." She has also threatened to withhold federal funds
from school districts that don't reopen. In this, she is making policy
from Trump's insistence on restarting the economy, which he sees as
key to his re-election-even though our premature reopenings have
indisputably led to the resurgence of the disease.

DeVos's indifference doesn't end there. As American Federation of
Teachers President Randi Weingarten has pointed out, one would have
expected that Task #1 for the Department of Education during the past
four months would be to figure out how to safely reopen schools or how
best to teach students when physical schools are closed down. Surely,
the department would study what kind of safety precautions would work
best and provide the emergency funding that would enable school
districts (all of which are strapped for funds) to put those safeguards
in place. Instead, DeVos's department has not studied these problems
at all, much less provided the dedicated funds schools need to reopen
safely or develop better ways to teach remotely.

Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia is no slouch at depraved indifference,
either. Under Scalia's leadership, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration has issued no rules

for workplace safety during the pandemic, only nonenforceable
guidelines. As of June 9, the agency had proposed all of one fine-to a
nursing home, for $6,500-for violating its employees' safety. No
meatpacking plant has been told it must install safety devices or
distance its workers, despite the fact that thousands of meatpacking
workers have been infected and many have died. No business has been told
it must keep its employees at a specified distance from one another.

While Trump is plainly a sociopath, Scalia is merely a believer in the
sanctity of laissez-faire, and DeVos a sworn foe of public schools.
Though coming from different places, all are guilty of depraved
indifference to the deaths of their fellow Americans.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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Can We Create All the Money We Need?

Stephanie Kelton attempts to educate the public on a novel economic
theory. BY J.W. MASON

Trump's War on International Students

New ICE guidelines for international student visas may signal an
administration desperate to shut out as many immigrants as possible
before the clock runs out. BY MARCIA BROWN

The Government Gave Big Oil the Power to Prosecute Its Biggest Critic

A judge empowered a private law firm to criminally prosecute Chevron's
nemesis-and now the firm has admitted it worked directly for Chevron.
BY WALKER BRAGMAN & DAVID SIROTA

Biden's Buy America Plan and Trump's Sham Nationalism

This is what a serious industrial policy looks like, as opposed to
hollow words. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

Unsanitized: Again With the Closures

Also, the new Tax Day is almost here. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report
for Bastille Day, 2020. BY DAVID DAYEN

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