Dear Commons Community,

Donald Trump finally found a sports event at the Alabama/LSU football game where fans actually cheered for him .  However,  Trump’s visit was greeted by the Trump Baby Blimp that was slashed and deflated by a crazed Donald Trump fan. As reported by various news media.

“A ranting Donald Trump supporter was arrested Saturday after the Trump Baby Blimp in an Alabama protest was slashed and deflated.

The attack occurred shortly before kickoff at the Alabama-Louisiana State University football game, which the president attended, in Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. 

Hoyt Hutchinson, 32, was charged with felony first-degree criminal mischief, The Tuscaloosa News reported.

The facebook page of a Hoyt Hutchinson in Tuscaloosa who appeared to be the same man arrested included a video in which he vowed to “make a scene” … “get rowdy” and “pop” that balloon. “Y’all watch the news,” he said. “You got any balls you’re welcome to join me,” he added. “I’m shaking, I’m so mad right now.“

“Officers observed Hoyt Deau Hutchinson, age 32 of Tuscaloosa, AL, cut into the ‘Baby Trump’ balloon, and then attempt to flee the area,” said a statement from the Tuscaloosa police. “Officers apprehended the suspect and took him into custody on a charge of Criminal Mischief First Degree. Hoyt was transported to Tuscaloosa County Jail where he was held on a $2,500 bond.”

Protester Robert Kennedy, who brought the balloon to Tuscaloosa, told The Associated Press that he has frequently accompanied Baby Trump to demonstrations and has never witnessed a similar attack. “It’s rare to get that kind of anger,” he said.

Jim Girvan, an organizer of the balloon protests, told AP that Hutchinson cut an 8-foot-long slash in the back of the blimp.

The 20-foot-high balloon was also slashed at an appearance in London during the Trump family’s state visit there in June.”

Tony

Dear Commons  Community,

Maureen Dowd in her New York Times column this morning, focuses on a potential presidential election between Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump.  As David Axelrod said recently:  “All across America, people are clutching their Big Gulps.”  Dowd comments that it would be undeniably entertaining to have a stinging face-off between a couple of rich, caustic New Yorkers who have skyscrapers known by their names blocks apart.  Here is an excerpt from her column:

“Little Michael,” as Trump calls Bloomberg, versus the Big Fraud, as Bloomberg thinks of Trump. Maybe they could just conduct the whole campaign at Hudson Yards.

One is a real deal maker who cares about public policy and one is a fake deal maker who only cares about himself. One self-made billionaire who’s good at business would mock the so-called billionaire and bankruptcy king who needed a constant cash flow from daddy Fred. One is in the media business and one denounces the press as degenerates, lowlifes and enemies of the people. One is a genuine philanthropist and one was just ordered to pay $2 million in damages after admitting money raised by his charitable foundation was used in part for his presidential bid and to settle business debts. One is totally controlling and one is totally out of control. One rants about trans fats and one gorges on them.

Both of these salesmen can be charming or thin-skinned and arrogant. Both have politically fluid histories. Both have their feet to thank for keeping them out of Vietnam; Bloomberg had flat feet and Trump (supposedly) had bone spurs. Both have been accused of having a sexist streak, even though they supported Hillary Clinton at times and have voiced appreciation for smart women. And both men have talked openly about their love of beautiful women…

…Trump didn’t waste any time trashing a possible new opponent, focusing on looks, as usual. Mr. Rogers said that making people feel less than they are was the greatest evil, but for Trump, it’s the most fun.

“He doesn’t have the magic to do well,” the president said of Bloomberg as he left the White House Friday morning for a trip to Georgia, adding, “Little Michael will fail.”

While it is true that “kinetic TV personality” are not words you would connect to Bloomberg, the media mogul does know how to go for the jugular. Remember his Philly smackdown at the Democratic convention?

In 2015, when Bloomberg the company reported that Trump was worth only $2.9 billion, Trump was hot under the Brioni collar. He suggested that Bloomberg the man had encouraged his reporters to write a lower number because he was jealous that Trump was running for president and, referring to the Bloomberg financial data terminals, scoffed: “I wouldn’t have one of their little screens.”

Told recently that Ivanka Trump felt betrayed by his speech at the Democratic convention, because she considered him a good friend, Bloomberg did some scoffing of his own, saying that they had never been close.

Whenever I talked to Bloomberg over the years about running, it was clear he wanted to and felt he would do a great job as Nanny in Chief. But all the polls he commissioned made him think it was not feasible. He didn’t want to run against Hillary, and at first he didn’t see a path to run this time. But watching Biden implode and Mayor Pete climb and seeing the gazillion-dollar Medicare-for-all plan of Warren — whom Bloomberg thought had a shot as recently as the fall — all combined to tempt him toward a 2020 race.

As The Times’s Michael Grynbaum tweeted, slyly summing up the Gotham derby: “How many New York City personalities can one country handle?”

But then, Trump hasn’t been too friendly to New York lately. He changed his primary residency to Palm Beach, and on Friday, when he was asked about the fine on his foundation, he barked, “New York is a corrupt state.”

And he should know.”

Zing! Zing!

Tony

Donald Trump and His Children – All Board Members of His Fraudulent Foundation

Dear Commons Community,

On Thursday, a New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $2 million in damages after he admitted that his now-defunct Donald J. Trump Foundation largely benefited Donald J. Trump and no one else.  In a stipulation, Trump  essentially agreed that the foundation was what the New York attorney general’s office said it was when it filed suit last year — a piggy bank to pay bills and fund political spending.

Reporting by The Washington Post, which led to the New York State attorney general’s investigation of the foundation, found that the foundation could not provide evidence that it gave anything to veterans groups until a reporter started asking about it, months after the fund-raiser.

When Mr. Trump was not treating the foundation like an arm of his campaign, he used it to pay off some of his business’s legal obligations, according to Thursday’s settlement. (Although, shortly after his election, Mr. Trump did agree not to use the foundation to pay any of the $25 million settlement awarded to victims of his fraudulent Trump University.)

He also used foundation money to buy a $10,000 portrait of himself, which he displayed at one of his hotels. Below is a New York Times editorial reviewing the sleaziness of Trump and his foundation which  had his three children Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric as Board members.

Tony

——————————————————————————————————————–

The New York Times

No Charitable Thought for Donald Trump

Fined $2 million after admitting his foundation was his piggy bank, the president shows he always comes first.

By The Editorial Board

Nov. 8, 2019

On Monday, President Trump will kick off the 100th New York City Veterans Day Parade, at which he is likely to boast, as is his wont, of his devotion to the men and women who have served in the military.

But a legal settlement announced on Thursday reveals that for Donald Trump, personal interest outranks even the needs of veterans. Under the agreement, a New York judge ordered the president to pay $2 million in damages after Mr. Trump admitted that his now-defunct Donald J. Trump Foundation largely benefited Donald J. Trump.

In a stipulation, he essentially agreed that the foundation was what the New York attorney general’s office said it was when it filed suit last year — a piggy bank to pay bills and fund political spending. It’s an interesting admission as the House seems ready to accuse him of using the Pentagon budget for his own political ends.

The president acknowledged in the settlement that his 2016 campaign controlled the $2.8 million the foundation had raised at a fund-raiser for veterans in Iowa in January 2016, only days before the state’s presidential nominating caucuses. The fund-raiser was used, in the words of the judge, “to further Mr. Trump’s political campaign.”

Reporting by The Washington Post, which led to the New York State attorney general’s investigation of the foundation, found that the foundation could not provide evidence that it gave anything to veterans groups until a reporter started asking about it, months after the fund-raiser.

When Mr. Trump was not treating the foundation like an arm of his campaign, he used it to pay off some of his business’s legal obligations, according to Thursday’s settlement. (Although, shortly after his election, Mr. Trump did agree not to use the foundation to pay any of the $25 million settlement awarded to victims of his fraudulent Trump University.)

He also used foundation money to buy a $10,000 portrait of himself, which he displayed at one of his hotels.

A grift this shameless was bound to collapse under its own weight. In December, the foundation agreed to dissolve and to distribute its remaining assets to charity — under court supervision, of course.

Justice Saliann Scarpulla of State Supreme Court in Manhattan put multiple restrictions on any future involvement by Mr. Trump in charities. In addition, his three oldest children — Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric, all of whom were foundation officers — agreed to undergo training to help them avoid similar missteps going forward.

Despite his admissions of misconduct, Mr. Trump made clear who he thought was the victim in the case — himself.

“I am the only person I know, perhaps the only person in history, who can give money to charity ($19M), charge no expense, and be attacked by the political hacks in New York State,” he tweeted Thursday evening in a statement about the settlement. Of course, a foundation with no employees, according to the attorney general, and a board that rarely met was unlikely to have many expenses.

He then rolled smoothly into an attack on the three New York attorneys general who pursued the case over the past three years.

In closing, he characterized the $2 million in damages that he has been ordered to pay as a contribution that he is “happy” to donate to worthy groups.

To be sure, $2 million seems unlikely to break the president’s bank. It is, however, a rare instance in which someone is finally holding Mr. Trump accountable for his misbehavior.

More than that, he has been compelled to publicly admit to having misled the public — and all those veterans for whom he professes to hold such respect.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Dear Commons Community,

Tomorrow celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated East Germany and West Germany.  It became the physical embodiment of the “Iron Curtain” which the Soviet Unionwas said to have created between East and West Europe.  In addition to news footage from November 9, 1989, the video above includes an interview with Jane Curry, a political science professor, at Santa Clara University.  She recalls well the original tensions between East and West and rightly credits Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet President, for his role in bringing down the Wall.  Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost (“openness”)  were critical in moving East Germany to tear down the wall and open up their country to the rest of the world.

Tony

Michael Bloomberg

Dear Commons Community,

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, is opening the door to a 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Bloomberg, who initially ruled out a 2020 run, could dramatically reshape the Democratic contest with less than three months before primary voting begins. As reported by the Associated Press.

“The 77-year-old has spent the past few weeks talking with prominent Democrats about the state of the 2020 field, expressing concerns about the steadiness of former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign and the rise of liberal Sen. Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren, according to people with knowledge of those discussions. In recent days, he took steps to keep his options open, including moving to get on the primary ballot in Alabama ahead of the state’s today’s filing deadline.

In a statement yesterday, Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson said the former mayor believes Trump “represents an unprecedented threat to our nation” and must be defeated.

“But Mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well positioned to do that,” Wolfson said.

Bloomberg’s moves come as the Democratic race enters a crucial phase. Biden’s front-runner status has been vigorously challenged by Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who are flush with cash from small-dollar donors. But both are viewed by some Democrats as too liberal to win in a general election faceoff with Trump.

Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent who registered as a Democrat last year, has flirted with a presidential run before but ultimately backed down, including in 2016. He endorsed Hillary Clinton in that race and, in a speech at the Democratic Party convention, pummeled Trump as a con who has oversold his business successes.

Bloomberg plunged his efforts — and his money — into gun control advocacy and climate change initiatives. He again looked seriously at a presidential bid earlier this year, traveling to early voting states and conducting extensive polling, but decided not to run in part because of Biden’s perceived strength.

With immense personal wealth, Bloomberg could quickly build out a robust campaign operation across the country. Still, his advisers acknowledge that his late entry to the race could make competing in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, which have been blanketed by candidates for nearly a year, difficult. Instead, they previewed a strategy that would focus more heavily on the March 3 “Super Tuesday” contests, including in delegate-rich California.

Some Democrats were skeptical there would be a groundswell of interest in the former New York mayor.

“There are smart and influential people in the Democratic Party who think a candidate like Bloomberg is needed,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who advised Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “But there is zero evidence that rank-and-file voters in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire feel the same.”

Bloomberg would pose an immediate ideological challenge to Biden, who is running as a moderate and hopes to appeal to independents and Republicans who have soured on Trump. But the billionaire media mogul with deep Wall Street ties could also energize supporters of Warren and Sanders, who have railed against income inequality and have vowed to ratchet up taxes on the wealthiest Americans.

“He’s a literal billionaire entering the race to keep the progressives from winning,” said Rebecca Katz, a New York-based liberal Democratic strategist. “He is the foil.”

Warren on Thursday tweeted: “Welcome to the race, @MikeBloomberg!” and linked to her campaign website, saying he would find there “policy plans that will make a huge difference for working people and which are very popular.”

Bloomberg would face other challenges as well, particularly scrutiny of his three terms as mayor. He has defended the New York Police Department’s use of the controversial stop-and-frisk policy that has been criticized as targeting African Americans and Hispanics. Black voters in particular are one of the most powerful constituencies in Democratic politics.

Bloomberg will have to move quickly in the coming days and weeks to get on the ballot in many of the primary states, including Alabama. New Hampshire’s filing deadline is Nov. 15.

In Arkansas, another Super Tuesday state, a Democratic Party spokesman said a person representing a “mystery candidate” reached out Thursday afternoon asking about the requirements to join the ballot. Reed Brewer, communications director for the Arkansas Democrats, said he walked the individual through the process — which simply requires filing documentation with both the state party and secretary of state, as well as paying a $2,500 fee — and was assured that the fee would be “no problem” for the mystery candidate.

There is no filing requirement for a candidate to run in the Iowa caucuses, which are a series of Democratic Party meetings, not state-run elections. It means a candidate can enter the race for the Feb. 3 leadoff contest at any time.”

I think that Bloomberg was a good mayor  and did an exceptional job in steering New York out of the Great Recession.  He also has been a very strong supporter of gun control, climate change, and the environment.  However, in addition to his rocky relationship with African Americans and Hispanics as mentioned in the AP article, his other problem was that he appointed the likes of Joel Klein and Cathie Black as chancellors of the public school system, both of whom  were not up to the job.  Klein completely polarized the system, was hated by teachers and created a toxic environment for the years he served.  Black resigned after several months in the position.  Bloomberg has also been a strong supporter of charter schools. This will make the NEA and AFT cautious in their support of him.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Five years after Michigan switched Flint’s water supply to the contaminated Flint River from Lake Huron, the city’s lead crisis has migrated from its homes to its schools, where neurological and behavioral problems — real or feared — among students are threatening to overwhelm the education system.  As reported by The New York Times:

“The contamination of this long-struggling city’s water exposed nearly 30,000 schoolchildren to a neurotoxin known to have detrimental effects on children’s developing brains and nervous systems. Requests for special education or behavioral interventions began rising four years ago, when the water contamination became public, bolstering a class-action lawsuit that demanded more resources for Flint’s children.

That lawsuit forced the state to establish the $3 million Neurodevelopmental Center of Excellence, which began screening students. The screenings then confirmed a range of disabilities, which have prompted still more requests for intervention.

The percentage of the city’s students who qualify for special education services has nearly doubled, to 28 percent, from 15 percent the year the lead crisis began, and the city’s screening center has received more than 1,300 referrals since December 2018. The results: About 70 percent of the students evaluated have required school accommodations for issues like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as A.D.H.D.; dyslexia; or mild intellectual impairment, said Katherine Burrell, the associate director of the center.

Medical experts say there is no way to prove that the lead has caused new disabilities. Pediatricians here caution against overdiagnosing children as irreparably brain damaged, if only to avoid stigmatizing an entire city. The State Department of Education, in battling the class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the New Jersey-based Education Law Center, enlisted an expert who testified that the real public health crisis was not the lead-contaminated water but the paranoia of parents, students and teachers exposed to it.

But Dr. Burrell said that proving the cause of the students’ problems was not the point. Many of the problems uncovered by the lead testing could certainly have existed before.

And school officials said the problems would almost certainly get worse because there was no safe level of lead exposure.

“What the research says is that as they get older, and the cognitive demands get harder, we will start to see the demands get higher, and the resources aren’t going to be there,” said Lisa A. Hagel, the superintendent of the Genesee Intermediate School District, the county that includes Flint.

Long before Flint’s water system was contaminated, its schools exemplified the struggles of urban districts — as its tax base shrank, its student population drifted to charter schools and its core public schools were left with a small but troubled and impoverished student body.

In the 1960s, the city enrolled nearly 50,000 students in more than 50 buildings. Today, it educates 4,500 students on 11 campuses. A 2017 report found that 55 percent of Flint’s students attended charter schools — the second-highest charter enrollment in the country.

When the lead crisis began unfolding in 2014, the tiny school district had a $21 million budget deficit that required it to cut more than 200 staff members, including special education teachers. It was transferring millions of dollars from its operating budget to pay for special education, and in violation of federal law, it was segregating special education students from their peers for most of the school day. Flint’s teachers were and are among the lowest paid in Genesee County, though a new contract has pushed starting salaries to $35,339 a year, from $32,000 in 2014.

In the 2013-2014 school year, 15.5 percent of the district’s special education students dropped out of high school, compared with 8.63 percent statewide. In 2014-2015, 13 percent of special education students in the school system were suspended or expelled for more than 10 days — more than five times the statewide rate.

Then came the lead crisis. The class-action lawsuit, filed in 2016, accused the city, the county and the Michigan Department of Education of ignoring dismal outcomes that have worsened after Flint’s children were exposed to lead.

“We have a school district where all that’s left are damaged kids who are being exposed to other damaged kids, and it’s causing more damage,” said Stephanie Pascal, who has taught in Flint for 23 years.”

This is a travesty for the schools and its students.

Tony

Inside a Chinese Internet Cafe

Dear Commons Community,

China has adopted a new set of rules that limit playing video games to 90 minutes a day and no playing after 10 p.m. As reported by Reuters and The New York Times:

“The Chinese government has released new rules aimed at curbing video game addiction among young people, a problem that top officials believe is to blame for a rise in nearsightedness and poor academic performance across a broad swath of society.

The regulations, announced by the National Press and Publication Administration on Tuesday, ban users younger than 18 from playing games between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. They are not permitted to play more than 90 minutes on weekdays and three hours on weekends and holidays.

The limits are the government’s latest attempt to rein in China’s online gaming industry, one of the world’s largest, which generates more than $33 billion in annual revenue and draws hundreds of millions of users.

Under President Xi Jinping, officials in China have taken a more forceful approach in regulating large technology companies and pushing them to help spread cultural values advanced by the ruling Communist Party.

Video games have become a popular target. The state-run media has likened some games to “poison,” and the government has blocked sales of some titles on the grounds that they are too violent.

Mr. Xi spoke publicly last year about the scourge of poor eyesight among children, putting more pressure on officials to act.

The National Press and Publication Administration said that minors would be required to use real names and identification numbers when they logged on to play. The rules also limit how much young people can spend on purchases made through apps, like virtual weapons, clothes and pets. Those purchases are now capped at $28 to $57 a month, depending on age.

Chinese officials said the regulations were meant to combat addiction.

“These problems affect the physical and mental health of minors, as well as their normal learning and living,” the National Press and Publication Administration said in a statement that was published by Xinhua, the official news agency.

Analysts said the regulations had been largely anticipated by the industry and were unlikely to hurt revenue. Many of the biggest technology companies, including Tencent and Netease, have already imposed limits on younger users.

Young gamers are also likely to find ways around the regulations, such as using a parent’s phone and identification number.

“There are always going to be loopholes,” said Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, a research and consulting firm.

But Mr. Ahmad added that China was now one of the most heavily regulated video game markets in the world, and that technology companies in the country and abroad would be forced to follow the government’s policy announcements more closely.

“I think compared to the West, it’s very extreme,” he said. “Publishers and developers need to be very aware of the content of the games they are developing for the market.”

The rules were greeted skeptically by some parents and gamers.”

Tony

Jeff Sessions

Dear Commons Community,

Jeff Sessions, the former senator from Alabama, who was President Trump’s attorney general for two years,  plans to announce today that he will enter the race to reclaim his old seat in 2020. Trump could not stand that Sessions did the honorable thing by recusing himself from the Mueller Russian investigation.  As reported by The New York Times:

“Mr. Sessions has remained largely out of the public eye, and has been effectively exiled from Republican politics, since he was forced out of the Trump administration last November. He had repeatedly clashed with the president over his decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Mr. Trump relentlessly attacked Mr. Sessions both in public and in private, calling him “scared stiff” and his leadership “a total joke,” among other insults, ultimately forcing him to resign. By choosing to run for office now, Mr. Sessions risks reigniting attacks from his former boss, who could undermine his standing among the Republican voters he needs to win next year’s crowded primary election on March 3.

Mr. Trump, for his part, continues to blame Mr. Sessions for the two-year Russia probe, and last weekend he repeatedly denounced Mr. Sessions, saying he was a “jerk” and making it clear Mr. Sessions would not have his support, according to a person briefed on the discussions…

…The race is likely to be one of the most closely watched of the 2020 cycle, and not only because of the lingering tension between Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions. Many Republicans are bracing for the possibility that Roy S. Moore, the former Alabama chief justice accused of fondling teenage girls in his 30s, could once again become the nominee.

Alabama Republicans nominated Mr. Moore in the 2017 special election to fill the seat Mr. Sessions had held for 20 years before becoming attorney general. But after several women came forward, claiming Mr. Moore had abused them when they were underage, his campaign unraveled. He lost to Doug Jones, who became the first Democrat in a generation to win a Senate seat in Alabama.

News of Mr. Sessions’s decision to run startled and dismayed national Republicans, who had hoped that he would step aside to avoid the possibility of being vilified by Mr. Trump — and to spare them the headache of a nationalized race in a state they hope to win back.

Mr. Jones is one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the Senate, and Republicans have been counting on retaking his seat. Without it, their path to retaining their 53-to-47 majority in the chamber is more challenging.”

The Alabama Senate primary and the election will be closely watched indeed.

Tony

David Zupko

Dear Commons Community,

David Zupko has been a college administrator for two and a half decades, working at Loyola, at the University of Chicago, and as deputy registrar at Yale University.

Along the way, Zupko met his wife, Julia, a fellow administrator. When she took a job running career development for the Schwarzman Scholars Program, a new international college at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, Zupko and their daughters, Natalia and Josephine, came along — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the family. He originally expected to be a trailing spouse, focused on helping his children acclimate to life in China. After being hired initially for some spot work, in June he was named associate dean in the office of international affairs. He’s believed to be the first foreigner to be appointed to such a prominent post at a major Chinese university since institutions there reopened following the Cultural Revolution.  In comparing American and Chinese colleges, Zupko told The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“I keep getting questions about the differences, but really there are a lot of similarities. A difference is that you don’t see the kind of partying on campus. Students study here [Tsinghua University], and they study a lot. There isn’t this transformation that happens on Friday night or Saturday night that you see on U.S. campuses. But there are so many familiar things: You have a registrar, you have the idea of the provost. You have faculty councils and course evaluation and all these things that are familiar in the U.S. I think that’s allowed me to be successful here.

Chinese culture places tremendous importance on education. This is well known, but I didn’t really know what that meant until I came here. The idea that education is closely tied to societal contribution directly connects institutions to national goals. The link between history and societal value, and how these fundamentally define knowledge acquisition, helps shape the emerging model of higher education in China. In practice this leads to frequent re-evaluation of educational effectiveness, strengthening of programs, and a certain responsiveness to the goals of the country. I fully acknowledge my bias toward education, but given the deeply held value of education here, if you want to start to understand China, study how China educates its young people.”

I made two extended trips to Chinese universities in 2001 and 2006 and concur completely with Mr. Zupko.  Chinese students are incredibly serious.  At daybreak, you can see them studying on their campuses, reading and memorizing material.

Tony