This just gets weirder by the minute. Are we living in the same world with these people?
Gary Naeraert is the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP was founded and largely funded by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to influence policy and law in Michigan with the aim of promoting charter schools and the elimination of traditional public schools. The group consists of a PAC, a foundation, a 501(c)(3) group, and a 501(c)(4) group.
While giving testimony before a Senate Education Committee meeting yesterday, Naeyaert revealed that he likes to “shake” indecisive women, including his wife. It was an astonishing moment.
You can watch the video of his testimony.
Apparently he is frustrated with “the head of the State School Reform Office, Natasha Baker, a Snyder appointee.”
He wants to know why they can’t close more schools faster, and she just gives him excuses.
“I had heard of the challenges and difficulty of doing a turnaround,” Naeyaert testified. “Like, we don’t have the qualified teachers ready to work. Second, we can’t do a charter because that would make it look like we were favoring charters over traditional schools. We can’t close them because there’s nowhere to go.”
“This is — you know, I wanted to shake her, like I like to shake my wife when — every option in front of you is, you know, not possible?” Naeyaert continued, his voice cracking with emotion. “They’re all equally unattractive to you, like when I ask her where to go to dinner, she says anywhere. I say Steak-n-Shake, and she says, ‘Not Steak-n-Shake.’”
I wonder if he will get a chance to give her a good “shaking.” I wonder if she will press charges.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To be clear, he likes to shake his wife, and he merely wanted to shake another woman like he shakes his wife (which he likes to do).
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I got that!
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If he’s doing that shaking to babies and small children who frustrate him and his whims, then he should be arrested and surely is damaging their brains. Seems like the people are all completely crazy.
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And he apparently thought it was perfectly okay to say this while giving testimony?
Oy! What century is he living in?
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21st!
BCE that is!
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Gary Naeraert wants to shake the head of the State School Reform Office, Natasha Baker, like he shakes his wife. He likes to go to Steak-n-Shake. There’s a pattern here.
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I want to shake him up a bit. You know, like how hard we shake the ketchup bottle, upside down, when the ketchup won’t come out.
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OK, so here’s another new low in general creepiness in our culture. Who are these people, and who on earth thought it a good idea to give them power and influence?
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In his case, Betsy DeVos.
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To answer your question: Betsy DeVos.
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Yeah, I guess you’re right Duane; and her money is what gives her power and influence, I guess.
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Yep, all that hard earned money, eh! She might have busted a nail or slipped a heel working so hard.
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Exactly!
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He has made himself a public figure so there is no reason any of us cannot send a message to him telling him that people like him is why we don’t trust the thrust of the charter movement: it seems to be run by and for people who favor reinstating a 19th century view of women, marriage, sex, children, education, Blacks, immigrants, military force, policing, contraception, religion, government, the press, colonialism, racism, imperialism, male prerogatives, female roles, and a few other slimy things.
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Exactly, pbarret.
Back to the past.
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He’s just dancing to the old early Bill Haley and the Comets song:
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“I say Steak-n-Shake, and she says, ‘Not Steak-n-Shake” So flustering, it’s like logical checkmate.
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These are weird people for sure!!!!
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AggggH!
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You gotta love the internet age. There was a time when the testimony of Neanderthals like this– even before the Senate Ed Committee– would be seen only by CSPAN junkies. Now everybody not only gets to see it on youtube, but find out the speaker is head of a group funded by our Secy of Ed!
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That he thought it appropriate to say such a thing while giving testimony is unbelievable.
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that he hasn’t, and probably won’t, lose his job is surreal — much like sitting back to allow a man who brags of physically grabbing women he does not know to run our country
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This behavior, as well as Trump grabbing women without their consent, would be considered rape in Sweden.
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That guy is a real jerk and he definitely should not be in charge of any organization.
Where did he learn his management skills – did he even go to college?
His “no excuses” policies are not appropriate where children are concerned. I can imagine him on the Titanic shaking the captain because the ship was sinking and ending up in the water was not an acceptable option.
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Focusing on this phrase as a literal desire for violence does a dis-service to the image. This is a metaphor for waking someone up to reality. I have often used the same image to describe what I wished to do to parents who think their children are perfect. I recall one who declared that her child could not have committed the atrocity of which he was accused. Her logic was that he had declared his love for Christ in front of the church, ergo he could not have done the thing. Yes, I wanted to shake her. Wake her from her logical slumber.
The image is used so often that it nudged my entrepreneurial side a bit. We need to develop a shaking machine. There are far too many who slumber in the grey dawn of complete misunderstanding. Make no mistake, this is a challenge for the engineers. Shaking can harm small children, so we will need child restraint devices for these machines. Will people submit to shaking by people with whom they disagree? Who has the right to shake. Do people have a right to shake their children if their religion requires it? Can we develop a vaccine that provides an immunity to the effects of shaking? Will the machine play “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” or “Wind that Shakes the Barley”? Will this lead to a revival of the Shaker Religion?
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