Our blog poet wrote a poem about DFER (Democrats for Education Reform). DFER is a group of wealthy hedge fund managers who may or may not be Democrats, but who are committed to charter schools, test-based evaluation of teachers, high-stakes testing, merit pay, and Teach for America.
The Dream DFERed (with apologies o Langston Hughes)
What happens to a dream DFERed?
Does it disrupt
Like a test in a school?
Or fester like a Common Core–
Or techy tool?
Does it stink like stale pee?
Or rust and fade away-
like Michelle Rhee?
Maybe it just doubles down
like a billionaire
Or does it drown?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I usually don’t chuckle in public about “pee” jokes, but what a rhyme scheme! 🙂
If you would prefer
Does it die
like a diseased tree?
Of rust and face away
Like Michelle Rhee
But I still think stale pee is apt for this case
Hopefully we won’t ever see a Rheepeet of her.
I like Pee with Rhee.
I agree that pee
Is appropriate for Rhee
That is, as a rhyme. I would never wish urine on anyone in a literal sense. Perhaps on one’s ideas…
Does it smack of larceny?
Does it kill democracy?
“I usually don’t chuckle in public about “pee” jokes,”
Who was joking?
I found it humorous and completely fitting. Her “contributions” to education rank right up there with dog urine (and yes, I mean “rank” in every sense of the word).
I hereby nominate SomeDAMPoet for the office of Chief Bard of the Resistance, the Counter-Rheeformation. Who else is more qualified to wear the red cloak?
I second the nomination.
All in favor say, “Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole.” (This is a name of a village in Wales.)
Aye! Or, Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole
When’s the vote? I know to whom my vote will go!
What happens to a Democratic Party DFERed?
Does it lose the White House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court?
Or lose governorships and state legislatures?
Or lose city councils and even school boards?
Does it call the working/middle class and AOC a “public whatever”?
Or risk having a 21st century constitutional convention that will overturn the Bill of Rights and what’s left of the New Deal, and completely annihilate the labor movement?
Or let billionaires privatize every function of government even when the Democrats do manage to win the occasional election?
Maybe it just folds into the Republican Party
Like an oligarchy
Or does it run away with the military-industrial complex and let everything explode?
Well said, LeftCoast!
Try
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Miracles
You hit it out of the park, Poet.
Observations on a Certain Lack of Humor among Education Deformers: A Not-so-desultory Philipic
The sometimes earthy SomeDAM
Elicits boundless mirth
And with his terra dactyls
Reveals Deformers’ dearth
Of humor and humanity
And decency and sanity,
Their shriveled, data-driven hearts
And talking points from Hannity.
Deformers are not funny.
Deformers are not sage,
And we can count on SomeDAM
To laugh them off the stage.
“Does it stink like stale pee
or like Michelle Rhee?”
Hey Bob- is that Wales village where the Danube steamship Company captain lives? You know, the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän?
LMAO!