What do the massacre of civilians by a for-profit company hired by the government and using

taxpayer money on poorly managed schools teaching creationism and Scientology have in common?

Blood. Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater, and Betsy DeVos, our Secretary of Education,

may be the most powerful siblings in America. This is the story of America's very own Lannisters, with out the incest.

Who is? Excuse me. I don't want to yell that by another teacher this episode. Who are

Betsy DeVos and Eric Prince?

This is Who Is? From Now This, a podcast where we explore the stories and backstories

of the most powerful people in Washington and beyond.

The people molding our world and determining our destiny, told through interviews

with folks who've known or have followed them for years. This week, we're telling another story

about money and power, and how money can buy power, no matter what the qualifications of the

big spender.

You know that little mirror in your car on the sun visor flips down with a little light

that lights up so you can see if you got mustard in your eyebrows again?

It could be said that the profits from the invention of that contraption contributed to the failure of the war in Iraq and the destruction of the entire Michigan education system.

It was invented by engineers at a company called Prince Corporation, an auto parts firm in Michigan, headed by a man named Edgar Prince.

The business was huge, supplying the automobile industry with the pieces needed to make

the vehicles that zoom around and create the climate crisis.

And it made the Prince family really, really rich.

Betsy Prince got her start in the world of political donations in Michigan when she married

Dick DeVos,

who would become CEO of Amway.

...