Dear Commons Community,

New York Magazine has a clever cover for tomorrow’s edition that shows President Trump being squashed by a giant peach with the caption “Impeachment Season Begins”.

Yes!

Tony

Marie Yovanovitch

Dear Commons Community,

Former ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, a longtime diplomat who had served six presidents, testified before Congress yesterday in a closed session.  She did provide a written statement.

As reported by The New York Times and other media:

“How and why Ms. Yovanovitch was removed from her job has emerged as a major focus of the impeachment inquiry being conducted by House Democrats. And in nearly nine hours of testimony behind closed doors on Capitol Hill on Friday, Ms. Yovanovitch said she was told after her recall that President Trump had lost trust in her and had been seeking her ouster since summer 2018 — even though, one of her bosses told her, she had “done nothing wrong.”

Her version of events added a new dimension to the tale of the campaign against her. It apparently began with a business proposition being pursued in Ukraine by two Americans who, according to an indictment against them unsealed on Thursday, wanted her gone, and who would later become partners with the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani in digging up political dirt in Ukraine for Mr. Trump.

From there it became part of the effort by Mr. Giuliani to undercut the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and push for damaging information about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a possible Democratic challenger to Mr. Trump in 2020.

In her prepared testimony to House investigators, Ms. Yovanovitch, 60, offered no new details about how Mr. Giuliani’s campaign against her was communicated to the president or how Mr. Trump communicated his demand that she be ordered home. But her opening remarks, provided to The New York Times, amounted to a scathing indictment to Congress of how the Trump administration’s foreign policy intersected with business and political considerations.

Americans abroad in search of personal gain or private influence — especially in a country like Ukraine with a long history of corruption and people eager to exploit them — threatened to undermine the work of loyal diplomats and the foreign policy goals of the United States, she said.

Her removal, she said, was a case in point.

“Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the president, I was nevertheless incredulous that the U.S. government chose to remove an ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives,” she said.

She seems like a class act who would have difficulty functioning in Trump’s cesspool of cronies.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Speculation was rampant yesterday that President Trump was getting ready to sever his ties with Rudy Giuliani.  As reported by USA Today:

“President Donald Trump sought Friday to distance himself from attorney Rudy Giuliani, even casting doubts about whether the former New York mayor is still his lawyer.

Asked whether Giuliani remained his personal attorney, Trump said: “I don’t know.”

“I haven’t spoken to Rudy,” Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House for a political rally in Louisiana. “I spoke to him yesterday, briefly. He’s a very good attorney and he has been my attorney, yeah sure.”

Giuliani told USA TODAY shortly afterward that he’s still Trump’s lawyer. “He hasn’t told me otherwise,” he said.

Giuliani has emerged as a central figure in the Ukraine scandal that has led to an impeachment inquiry against Trump over efforts to push Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential frontrunner.

Trump’s remarks followed the arrest late Wednesday of two of Giuliani’s associates, Ukranian-born business partners Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, at Dulles International Airport. The two were arrested by FBI agents and charged with in connection with alleged schemes to funnel foreign money to U.S. political campaigns.

Prosecutors say Parnas and  Fruman helped Giuliani meet a Ukrainian prosecutor in the effort to gather dirt on Biden and his son Hunter, who once had business interests in Ukraine. Federal officials said Parnas and Fruman were arrested as they prepared to board an international flight with one-way tickets.

On Thursday, shortly after the arrests were announced, Trump denied knowing the two Ukrainian business partners, dismissing a photograph that showed him with one of the men at the White House.

Giuliani said he doesn’t know if people in Trump’s orbit are trying to get him removed.

Trump should throw Giuliani under the bus.  He has become a laughing stock during his interviews on cable news shows.  And his latest imbroglio with Parnas and Fruman should be the last straw.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

It was a sad day for the news media yesterday when Shep Smith announced his resignation from Fox News.  He was one of the very few journalists at the Rupert Murdoch own news network who refused to pander to Donald Trump’s lies and egregious behavior.  According to most reporting, his resignation stunned colleagues. As reported by The New York Times:

“A member of the network’s founding staff in 1996, Mr. Smith became increasingly conspicuous at Fox News for his skepticism on President Trump. “Why is it lie after lie after lie?” Mr. Smith asked during a 2017 newscast; this summer, he deemed the president’s attacks on minority female lawmakers as “misleading and xenophobic.”

His pointed comments, closer in tone to that of CNN anchors like Anderson Cooper than of Fox News mainstays like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, irked Mr. Trump, who had taken to taunting Mr. Smith on Twitter as the network’s “lowest-rated anchor.” Other Fox News personalities were also unimpressed: Last month, Mr. Carlson openly mocked Mr. Smith on-air, a rare moment of intramural discord bursting into public view.

The internal tensions had frustrated Mr. Smith, 55, who was dismayed at the disconnect between some of the pro-Trump cheerleading in prime-time and the reporting produced by the network’s newsroom, according to two people close to the anchor who requested anonymity to share his private observations. Mr. Smith had been considering an exit from Fox News for several weeks, the people said.

On Friday, in public at least, all parties played down any difficulties.

“I’ve worked with the most talented, dedicated and focused professionals I’ve ever known,” Mr. Smith said on his farewell newscast. “I’ll miss them and our time together greatly.”

In a farewell statement, Jay Wallace, the network’s president and executive editor, called the anchor’s exit “especially difficult.”

Smith last words last night were:  “Even in our currently polarized nation, it’s my hope that the facts will win the day. That the truth will always matter. That journalism and journalists will thrive. I’m Shepard Smith, Fox News, New York.”

He will be missed.

Tony

Dear Commons,

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed for his  efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation and for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.  As reported by the BBC.

“After becoming prime minister in April 2018, Mr Ahmed introduced massive liberalizing reforms to Ethiopia, shaking up what was an extremely tightly controlled nation.

He freed thousands of opposition activists from jail and allowed exiled dissidents to return home. Most importantly, he signed a peace deal with Ethiopia’s neighbour Eritrea, ending a two-decade conflict.

But his reforms also lifted the lid on Ethiopia’s ethnic tensions, and the resulting violence forced some 2.5 million people from their homes.

Since taking power, Ahmed has also championed the role of women in politics. He appointed women to half of his country’s 20 ministerial posts in government, including the country’s first female defense minister.”

Most deserving!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Arkansas Board of Education yesterday stripped the collective bargaining power of the Little Rock teachers’ union, sparking fears of a strike even as the panel backed off a plan that critics said would be a return to a racially divided system 62 years after the integration of Central High School.  As reported by the Associated Press.

“A packed auditorium chanted “shame” at the board as it adjourned after abruptly passing a proposal to no longer recognize the Little Rock Education Association as the district’s bargaining agent when the union’s contract expires Oct. 31. The move came shortly after the panel voted to return local control of Little Rock’s schools to a board that will be elected in November 2020.

The 23,000-student district has been under state control since January 2015, when it was taken over because of low test scores at several schools.

The head of the teachers’ union said its membership will likely meet next week to discuss the next moves and didn’t rule out the possibility of a strike. Little Rock’s schools are out on Friday.

“I’m disappointed with the decisions they made today,” Little Rock Education Association President Teresa Knapp Gordon said after the votes. “They demonstrated their incompetence and they showed that they have not listened to the voices of the people who have told them over and over what they want.”

The new plan for the district’s future control scraps categories the board approved last month, which would have put several predominantly minority schools under “different leadership” than the local board. Critics of the state’s plan have compared it to the 1957 crisis over Little Rock Central’s integration, arguing that it effectively creates two school districts with several majority-minority schools still under some form of state control. Scores of people gathered Wednesday night at Central High for a vigil urging the state to return the full district to local control.

Many details remain unclear, as with the previous plan. The new proposal calls for a memorandum of understanding on the state’s role in the schools.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to accomplish the goals that we want, the goals we want to for students, under (the previous) framework,” said Chad Pekron, who proposed the new plan. “Therefore, I think the best thing we need to do under the circumstances is return the district to unified, local control under a framework of significant and agreed-upon levels for state support for the schools that really need it.

Local control supporters said the union move undermines the effort to give Little Rock residents a say in their schools.

“Let candidates run on it and let the people have a say,” Ali Noland, a parent in the district, said after the vote.

Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott, the city’s first popularly elected black mayor, on Monday urged the state to return the district to local control and said any major decisions, including those pertaining to the union, should be left to the board elected next year. Scott proposed putting the district under a board appointed by the city and state from January until the new school board is elected in November 2020.

Little Rock is the only district in the state that has a collective bargaining agreement with a teachers’ union, and the association says 70 percent of teachers are members. Gov. Asa Hutchinson had not said whether he supported the push to no longer recognize the union, but the proposal came from a former adviser to the Republican governor. Hutchinson has appointed eight of the board’s nine members. Supporters of ending the union’s recognition have said more teachers will be represented by the district setting up a personnel policies committee made up of teachers that would officer advice on salaries and other issues.

After the meeting, Hutchinson praised the board for making “tough” decisions.

“I’m confident the action to keep the LRSD unified will unite our efforts and balance the local support with state support,” he said in a statement. “This is an opportunity to partner with the district in a way that will continue state support along with the efforts of a locally elected school board, the private sector partners and the city.”

The board also voted to reinstate employee protections for teachers in the district it had waived in December.

Gordon said it was unclear whether the union’s members could strike or take any other action before the current contract expires. Little Rock Superintendent Michael Poore this week warned teachers that any work stoppage or misuse of sick leave could result in their firing.”

The Arkansas Board of Education’s actions will be followed closely over the next several days.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Daily News gave Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to President Donald Trump, a mocking makeover on this morning’s front page.  The newspaper depicted the former New York City Mayor and two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, as the slapstick comedy trio “The Three Stooges” – Moe, Larry, and Rudy.

It was also reported that Giuliani was planning to leave yesterday for Vienna, Austria, a day after two business associates who helped him with his dealings with Ukraine officials were arrested as they were headed to the same destination, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.   The Southern District of New York indicted the two Soviet-born Florida businessmen on federal campaign finance charges for allegedly channeling foreign money and making fraudulent straw donations in order to hide their political contributions and give in excess of campaign contribution limits to Trump and other Republican candidates.  Starting in 2016, Fruman and Parnas contributed at least $955,000 to Republican candidates, committees and super PACs.  The $325,000 contribution to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC, made in the name of Global Energy Producers LLC in 2018 was the largest contribution made by Fruman and Parnas. The indictment charges the two businessmen with illegally masking their identities by contributing to the super PAC through a shell corporation.

The Atlantic’s Elaina Plott reported that Giuliani told her he would not be able to meet Thursday evening for an interview because he was planning to fly to Vienna in the evening. Giuliani told that to the reporter around the same time that Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles International Airport while waiting to board a flight to Vienna with one-way international tickets Wednesday night. 

According to Plott, Giuliani texted her late yesterday declining to comment on why Parnas and Fruman were headed to Vienna, and why he was planning to be there 24 hours later.

In comments to the Journal, Giuliani said that while Parnas and Fruman were going to Vienna on issues “related to their business,” he was only going to meet with them when they returned to Washington.

As the Journal reported, the two men have introduced Giuliani to multiple current and former Ukrainian prosecutors to discuss his attempts at getting the country to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president about such an investigation is at the center of a House impeachment inquiry into him.

Separately, House Democrats leading the inquiry issued subpoenas on Thursday to Parnas and Fruman for documents related to their work with Giuliani. Before their arrest, the House requested that Parnas appear for a deposition on Thursday and Fruman on Friday; their counsel declined the request earlier this week.

Jay Sekulow, another of Trump’s personal lawyers, told reporters yesterday that Trump has nothing to do with the businessmen’s campaign finance schemes. Trump himself told reporters he doesn’t “know those gentlemen,” but that “it’s possible I have a picture with them.”

What a mess!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article this morning describing the future of campus libraries as one of codependence in which collections and services will be shared.  It suggests that each college building its own comprehensive collection will no longer be feasible.  Here is an excerpt:

“Librarians at universities in the Big Ten athletic conference wrote recently that they would work toward managing their separate collections “as if they were a single, shared” one. They said they must move away from a mind-set of independent libraries, motivated by self-interest, cooperating only sometimes.

Emerging in its place is a vision of a more codependent system in which research libraries pledge to preserve individual collection areas, allowing other institutions to allocate spending elsewhere. In a large, fully networked library system, users could more regularly get materials from other campuses, similar to an interlibrary loan, as individual collections would be more specialized and distinct. It’s an idea, long building, that acknowledges that the competition to acquire, acquire, acquire must change.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance’s statement, posted last month, is notable for its scope — its members’ collections represent 22 percent of North American print titles — and focus on prospective collections development.

“If it were to be fully realized, it could be more like the interdependence of the libraries of a single campus than it is like the libraries of separate institutions, which is a really radical and exciting, and in some ways overdue, proposition,” said Roger C. Schonfeld, director of Ithaka S+R’s libraries, scholarly communication, and museums program.

Outside of the Big Ten alliance, known as BTAA, groups nationwide are sounding similar notes. The Association of Research Libraries last month started a two-year task force on digital content, trying to provide “barrier-free access to information.” Two library groups endorsed BTAA statements on sharing resources and special collections. And at a spring meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information, a panel urged a more collaborative model.

“We need to think more coherently and in a more coordinated fashion about how we collectively keep the scholarly record,” said Wendy P. Lougee, dean of libraries at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and chair of the BTAA’s group for library deans and directors.

James L. Hilton, speaking last year at the University of Texas at Austin, described what once was the status quo for libraries. In an analog world, he said at an event on the future of campus libraries, universities could operate independently, without considering what peer institutions were doing.

No more, as the sheer number of digital materials soars and library users expect to be able to use most anything at any time, said Hilton, dean of libraries at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He predicted that in a decade or two, just a few dozen research libraries would commit themselves to full preservation, collection, and curation. The others would rely on those campuses. He called the strategy one of “sticky interdependence.”

Over the next fifteen years, it is inevitable that colleges will be consolidating many of their operations whether library, administration, and even instruction.  For my take on the future, please see an article I wrote and published last month entitled, Artificial Intelligence and the Academy’s Loss of Purpose.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I just finished reading If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years by Christopher Benfey.   I was a bit of a Kipling fan but did not know he spent ten years living in Vermont in 1890s during which he wrote, The Jungle Book and Captains Courageous, both of which I read when I was a teenager.  Later as an adult and with a more critical perspective, I came to understand that some of his work was supportive of colonial power and intrusion.  Benfey makes a case that Kipling has a complicated history that needs a careful analysis.  Here are several brief comments about the book from amazon.com.  

“Benfey eloquently argues not only that Kipling’s engagement with the United States made him the writer he became, but that he lavishly returned the favor. . . Benfey reminds us of our debt to a category-demolishing, globe-striding man who indeed contained multitudes, the author of an immortal ode to equanimity.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Benfey tells it well, catching nuances that some biographers have missed. He argues that Kipling was profoundly altered by his experience of America, and that America, in turn, was altered by its experience of Kipling.” — The New Yorker

“These years were joyous and then dire ones for Kipling, and Mr. Benfey recounts it all with a fine touch.” — The Wall Street Journal 

“[Benfey] draws on correspondence, memoirs and ‘patterns of suggestion and implication’ in poems, essays and stories to assess the impact of Kipling’s decadelong sojourn in the United States on his literary legacy.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Mount Holyoke professor and Amherst resident Christopher Benfey’s focused and illuminating new biography of Kipling, If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years (Penguin), looks at the decade Kipling spent in New England, calling these years “the key creative period in his entire career.” Kipling’s literary luminance was unparalleled (he won the Nobel Prize in 1907 at age 41); but with the rise of post-colonialism, Kipling’s reputation began to shift, and he fell out of favor, understood as ‘a jingoist of Bard of Empire, a man on the wrong side of history.’ Benfey, whose award-winning A Summer of Hummingbirds (Penguin) looked at the intersection of Dickinson, Twain, Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade, steers his attention here on the ways in which the United States impacted the author, and the ways the author impacted the United States, arguing that Kipling’s influence spanned literature and politics, and altered perceptions of masculinity and the supernatural. Benfey does a masterful job detangling a complex figure.” — Boston Globe
 
“Rudyard Kipling is considered a British literary icon, but between 1889 and 1899, he lived in the United States. His time in America deeply shaped his writing. Kipling’s attitudes toward race and empire have complicated his legacy, but Christopher Benfey points to the continuing relevance of an Englishman who was also a fan of America.”—Christian Science Monitor, “10 Best Books of July”

I enjoyed the book immensely and at 220 pages, finished it in less than a week.  The last chapter where Benfey ties one of Kipling’s poems to the Vietnam War was most interesting.

I highly recommend it!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirmed yesterday that Russian operatives engaged in a widespread social media campaign to improve Donald Trump’s chances in the race.  As reported by The New York Times.

“The committee backed up the conclusions of the intelligence community, the special counsel and researchers that Russia mounted a broad campaign to interfere in the election. A Russian troll farm central to the election campaign supported “Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin,” the committee said.

The panel said Congress should consider new disclosure requirements for political ads online, which unlike television or radio ads do not need to carry information about who paid for them. A bill introduced in 2017 by the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, to put into effect new rules for online ads has failed to gain much momentum.

The report is nonetheless the latest call for lawmakers to reconsider the lax system of regulations that governs Silicon Valley, as Americans have learned more about the way platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can be used to make money off users’ personal information and to spread disinformation…

…“The committee recommends that the executive branch should, in the run-up to the 2020 election, reinforce with the public the danger of attempted foreign interference in the 2020 election,” the panel said.