A group of former government officials, scholars, and activists have joined together to act as an informal “Shadow Cabinet,” for the express purpose of exposing and debunking Trump’s errors, mistaken policies, and alternative facts.
I am pleased to share with you that I was invited to be the Shadow Secretary of Education.
Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School is the Shadow Attorney General.
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Laor, is the Shadow Secretary of Labor.
Laura D. Tyson, former head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, will be the cabinet member for treasury and trade.
To learn about the other members, follow @ShadowingTrump on Twitter.
Shadow Attorney General Tribe tweeted this morning: “Trump’s silence on Kansas or any other white supremacist attack speaks louder than his tweets.”
For more, follow @ShadowingTrump
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The best election news yet! Diane Ravitch as Secretary of Education!
I nominate Samantha Power as Secretary of State.
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Wow, what a great idea. Congratulations! Can I become a shadow citizen of this shadow government?
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I like it. Another good idea we should take from parliamentary government.
Now please don’t bloat the virtual shadow bureaucracy with waste, fraud and abuse! 😉
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Sounds good ON PAPER, but no true progressive supports imperialism, which has been the U.S. foreign policy since at least 1898.
Bloated budgets for Empire make social safety net spending impossible, as Trump is about to demonstrate.
Will any of you on this “Shadow Cabinet” denounce the U.S. empire?
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Ed Ciaccio: At least my guess is no one here will want to steal other countries’ oil.
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Ed,
Don’t ask the Shadow Secretary of Education. Ask the Shadow Secretary of State or Defense
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Congrats Diane..would that this far better government would come out of the shadows and take over our damaged country.
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We have to be alert and ready to stop misdeeds.
Who knows if Trump will last four years? Then we would have to deal with the evangelical Pence.
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Is there a Shadow Secretary of State?
Is there a Shadow President? I think that’s where a lot of points of difference would be highlighted.
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Only one label for all US foreign policy since 1898? Any distinctions between British colonialism and US imperialism?
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If we had stayed out of World War 2, all of Europe would be Nazi.
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Oh for pity’s sake, ED, ease up. It’s a virtual shadow cabinet. It’s a great idea to critique the abomination in the White House and all his abominable henchpersons.
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Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Shadowing the malignant narcissist in the White House and revealing his endless lies and misinformation.
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I don’t tweet. I hope the work of the shadow cabinet, and any interactions they wish to have with concerned citicizens, is not confined to chirps and peeps.
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Thank you Laura for this sane and productive comment. I neither tweet nor text and firmly believe this new shorthand is a detriment to society and creates too many dangerous misunderstandings. Communication is too vital to peace in families and in governments to use abbreviated characters.
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Congratulations, Diane. Great idea! Terrific people. 🙂 Thank you.
We need: “Plebiscite, a vote by the people of an entire country or district to decide on some issue, such as choice of a ruler or government, option for independence or annexation by another power, or a question of national policy.”
Bet the Dump is itching to diss this one . . . haha. He’s Humpty Dumpty.
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That reminds me, I have a double-dactyl on that:
Humpetty, Dumpetty,
Donald J Trumpetty
Debuted with Orders and
Tiff after tiff.
All the Republicans
Enthusiastically
Jumped on his wagon and
Plunged o’er the cliff.k
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Do you get a secret encoder/decoder ring?
How about a secret handshake?
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Do you need a shadow poet?
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A shadow poet laureate!
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Love that idea, Karen! SomeDAM Poet as shadow poet laureate!
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A great idea!
Write 140 characters and I will nominate you
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I’d be hard pressed to write a poem that was more than 140 characters.
I’ve never counted but I’d guess the vast majority are less than that.
I’d open a Twitter account but I think Twitter is for the birds.
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Actually, i’m not even sure what a poet laureate does, so shadowing one (and “correcting” their alt-poems?) might be kinda hard anyway.
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It just occurred to me I already wrote a poem about the Shadow
“The Shadow knows”
The Shadow knows ’bout Gulen schools
Gulen books and Gulen rules
The Shadow knows ’bout Gulen money
Gulen milk and Gulen honey
We don’t know, but the Shadow knows
‘Bout exiled Turks in the Poconos
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Love this! But post stuff here, as well, because I don’t do Twitter.
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Zorba, of course
Priorities!
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Whew!
Glad that was clarified!
😎
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Speaking of shadows
I was about to look at the first draft of Ohio’s ESSA plan, due at USDE in April…unless the office is vanished before the April deadline that 20 states are planning around.
Earlier in this Ohio process of planning, I learned that a person who is the “Gates representative in Ohio” had organized citizen surveys and twelve listening sessions around the state… a step that seemed to be in compliance with the USDE regulations for consulting with “stakeholders” in ESSA plans.
Well, the survey and the roundtables based on them completely pre-empted discussion of any topics not already determined to be important by the Gates person–e.g.,concerns from citizens and teachers, also superintendents and members of district boards of education. Among the many documents in Ohio’s plan (not yet sent along to USDE) is this dumbfounding document.
File it under who controls our schools?
“Philanthropy Ohio and our foundation members have prioritized state-level education policy since 2005 and have no plans to abandon it. Today, Ohio foundations invest over $300 million annually in education to ensure that all Ohioans have access to high-quality education opportunities. Although our philanthropic community is a critical piece of the state’s education policy landscape, it represents just a fraction of the investment when compared to the state’s $11 billion investment in P-20 education. And, in addition to providing financial support, funders are leaders and conveners in their communities around critical education topics.”
Well, I didn’t take the time to look at all of the details but I wonder if the influence of Philanthropy Ohio is totally out of proportion to their financial investments and their wisdom about policies. How do these self-proclaimed leaders and conveners determine their “critical topics” and their relevance to policy formation?
Talk about arrogance of the super rich. Read that first sentence again. No apparent need for a State Board of Education, legislative committees concerned with policy, and so on. I will do some more sleuthing on the Ohio ESSA plan and process, but I have other priorities at the moment. I am interested if any other states have engaged state-level philanthropies in addressing ESSA plans.
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“The Billionaire Sneak”
Take the ball and run
Before the game’s begun
Isn’t ESSA fun?
With billions under thumb?
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Gee whiz! Can you give me a link to this?
You are terrific, Laura!
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Let’s turn it into a real cabinet . Judging by the academic credentials of the members of your cabinet, President Warren would have to be the logical choice . The only problem
is nobody wants to wait for 2020. .
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“Who will shadow the Shadows?”
Who will follow the fellows
That luck in murky shallows?
Who will shadow the Shadows
That hide from Rachel Maddows?
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Should be “lurk in murky shallows”
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Interesting concept. Haven’t done the twitter thingy. . . yet.
But I can already hear the Trumpista’s howls of despair of “not being fair” to their righteous and exalted líder, the Salmon* Swamp Monster.
*That’s the color not the fish. I wouldn’t demean such a royal animal by associating it with THEDonald.
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Duane
From what I have been able to gather through observation, the basic idea of Twitter is to minimize the meaningful content with a maximum of 140 characters.
And I must say that I have witnessed many tweets that came pretty close to the absolute minimum of meaningful content: zero.
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SDP, True, but the #lastnightinsweden people made some telling points.
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Couldn’t be happier for you and for the country let’s get rid of Pearson and high state testing first!
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This is very, very cool. I suppose you could start by answering some of the confirmation hearing questions with forthright correctness. Diane, what would you do about grizzlies?
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Thank you!! I’ve become so exhausted trying to keep myself informed and trying to do my once-a-day-actions and feeling so completely ineffectual as one lone classroom teacher citizen. This plan sounds so smart and so purposeful and so hopeful. And protective. (Not to put too much pressure on all of you, but I also feel a teensy bit safer than I have for months.)
My praise may be premature. My hopes too inflated. But I think I may sleep better tonight than any night since November!
Keep up posted.
and thanks. truly.
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Too soon to sleep well. More, more, more Nukes.
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“Never Enough Nukes”
More and more and more and more
Nukes to reach to Heaven’s door
Russia must be burned to ash
A thousand times, or even glass
But of course, the Russians will
Pummel us with nukes as well
Leaving naught but holes and sand
Craters in a barren land
Though it might seem really MAD
Annihilation ain’t so bad
“Better dead than in a bed”
As a wise old man once said
Kidding aside, I’d sooner listen to what another wise old man — physicist Freeman Dyson – has said.
Dyson –a giant of twentieth century physics — has been thinking about MAD and advising the US government on nuclear and other defense related issues for over half a century.
“There are still more than 20,000 nuclear weapons. The United States has about 10,000 and the Russians have about 15,000. There are various other small players but it’s basically us and the Russians. It’s enough weapons to destroy us both easily. And there is still a huge chance that some stupidity happens and that they all get shot out. I still think it’s a far greater threat than anything else we have to face. People have more or less forgotten about it. I think it’s high time we had a new campaign to get rid of them. It’s not hopeless. There is a wonderful precedent with Richard Nixon’s renouncing biological weapons unilaterally” — Freeman Dyson, 2008 interview for Discover Magazine
That was in 2008 and the numbers have been reduced some by both countries since then (Russia now has 7000 and the US 6800) but that is still more than enough to annihilate both countries many times over — to say nothing of make the rest of the earth essentially uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.
So, Harlan, please explain why we need “more, more, more nukes” and also please explain what makes your position more credible than that of experts like Freeman Dyson.
Thanks in advance.
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For once we agree, Harlan! And…looks like we may get more–Pentagon budget increasing, EPA, Education, HHS, NEA & everything else needed by American people budgets decreasing.
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Dearest Dr. Ravitch:
Realistically, we can only see a shadow when there is a light that shine on an object. In other word, citizens can only see the alternative facts or all lies from government when there is a group of altruistic, reliable, accountable, and intelligent veteran educators and politicians who will be THE light to shine on the alternative facts or all lies from the current government.
The better light we have, the better shadow citizens can acknowledge. This will yield the better mutual understanding and the best unity among people in a diversity society in America.
May God bless you with strength, endurance, and health to keep up with the new NON-PAYING-DUTY, “the Shadow Secretary of Education.”
Very respectfully yours,
May.
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Ditto, spirt-sister! You nailed it!
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Thank you my dearest spirit-sister, Susie. I love you and admire your tolerance, endurance to the injustice to you and to your “stellar” professional teaching career.
God will always bless you with strength, courage, wisdom and health to be the voice for many unheard educators who are too busy with their FAMILY’s living survival to have time to deal with the injustice.
I hope that your loved ones will stand with you and all friends and retirees will stand by you through thick and thin, through bad time and good time.
Lots of love and tons of respect for your dedication to the welfare of the teaching professional career.
Your spirit sister, May
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Love the idea though I can’t help feeling that you and your colleagues are actually the light and Trump etc… are the shadows, or more accurately, something at the very bottom of the ocean. Trump is like one of those very odd looking fish that lives in the depths of the deep sea trenches -cold, oily, immersed in permanent night. Trump’s bizarro, upside down, right is wrong, fiction is truth world. Best of luck to you all!
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Followed! Looks very promising. Andrew Bacevich for Secretary of Defense is an inspired choice.
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Cross posted tis at Oped news : https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Good-News-A-Group-of-Prog-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_Education_Government_Trump-Cabinet-170228-121.html#comment647701
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A cabinet in exile has merit and potential for gathering the best peer reviewd research and creating action plans that transcend the tired, two-party system. I implore you to include George Lakoff in the Shadow Cabinet.
George Lakoff has retired as Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is now Director of the Center for the Neural Mind & Society (cnms.berkeley.edu).
https://georgelakoff.com/
https://georgelakoff.com/2016/12/15/how-to-help-trump/
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Diane, you might want to check out the Justice Democrats: https://justicedemocrats.com/
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This is great news! Thank you for accepting.
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