Dear Commons Community,

Michelle Cottle reviews the House January 6^th Committee’s findings this morning in an opinion piece in The New York Times.  Entitled, “The Good, the Bad, and the Chicken,” she comments on those who made critical contributions to the Committee’s work such as Liz Cheney, Cassidy Hutchinson, and Caroline Edwards, one of the Capitol Police officers injured on Jan. 6.  She also comments on those such as Mike Flynn, Mark Meadows, and the “team Rudy wackadoos” who were at the heart of insurrection but have offered little to the Committee. Her best comment made be for the chicken, Senator Josh Hawley, who is seen running through the Capitol to escape the mob just hours after he flashed the crowd outside with a smarmy fist salute (see video above). I would add to the chicken list, Donald Trump who lied, cowered and hid in the White House for hours while the mob tried to destroy the Capital. He urged the insurrectionists on and then stood back and did nothing.

The entire piece is below.

Tony

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The New York Times

The Good, the Bad and the Chicken on Jan. 6

By Michelle Cottle

Ms. Cottle is a member of the editorial board.

July 22, 2022

Like any good season finale, the last scheduled public hearing of the Jan. 6 House committee sought to wrap up the action from previous episodes while dangling the promise of more drama yet to come.

“Dereliction of duty” was Thursday night’s theme — a damning yet discordantly antiseptic way to classify Donald Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, when he sat on his hands for more than three hours while a violent mob, whipped into a frenzy by his election-fraud lies, stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

Like previous hearings, this one had its share of jaw-dropping, head-smacking and stomach-churning tidbits. The outtake from Mr. Trump’s video remarks on Jan. 7, the day after the horror, in which he peevishly rejects the prepared line “this election is now over,” was pathetic. It was heartbreaking to hear that members of Vice President Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail, fearing for their lives during the riot, placed goodbye calls to loved ones. And it was hard not to take grim satisfaction in the video of Senator Josh Hawley running through the Capitol to escape the mob just hours after he flashed the crowd outside a smarmy fist salute. (The Twitterverse is having some fun with that one.)

It is through the accretion of such detailed episodes and accounts — vivid, personal and often painful — that Jan. 6 has come into focus. But all the witnesses and revelations can also be overwhelming, with each new hearing calling for a new ordering of the best, worst and most pathetic players in this whole sordid affair. Was John Eastman a more destructive influence than Rudy Giuliani? Who had the more harrowing tale of unhinged election deniers: Rusty Bowers or Gabriel Sherman? Was Jeffrey Clark the biggest tool in the entire administration?

Yet a smattering of people stood out, providing some of the more memorable lessons about how our democracy came so close to total meltdown — and about the risks we still face.

Among the most uplifting takeaways has been Liz Cheney’s display of public service. Yes, ideologically speaking, she is a Democrat’s nightmare, an in-your-face conservative who would ordinarily make for great fund-raising fodder. But when it comes to fighting for democracy, personal costs be damned, she has gone all in on the principle that protecting America from all enemies — be they foreign or Floridian — should trump political and policy disagreements. “I believe this is the most important thing I’ve ever done professionally,” she recently told my colleague Peter Baker, “and maybe the most important thing I ever do.” Fact check: True.

At the other end of the patriotic spectrum crouches Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff. From the accounts of his actions (or lack thereof) leading up to and including Jan. 6 — not to mention his ongoing silence — we have learned so much about what cynical, amoral, craven, butt-smooching venality looks like. One suspects that somewhere in Mr. Meadows’s attic hangs a portrait of him, his painted visage steadily rotting away.

Bill Stepien, the former Trump campaign manager, delivered a clarifying look at the self-delusion and rationalization indulged in by many who make deals with the devil. Mr. Stepien considers himself a member of “Team Normal,” the voices of sanity who sought to protect America from the Team Rudy wackadoos driving the insurrection train. More notably, Mr. Stepien is among those who enabled Mr. Trump’s poisonous nonsense until the freak show spun out of control enough to threaten them personally — either legally or physically — at which point they began quietly looking for the exits. Even post-insurrection, some of these folks can’t bring themselves to quit the former president, including Mr. Stepien, who has continued to do consulting work for Trump world.

Shaye Moss and her mother, “Lady Ruby” Freeman, poll workers in Georgia during the 2020 election, are reminders of the longer-term damage Mr. Trump’s lies have done to the electoral system. After Mr. Giuliani falsely accused the women of vote rigging, their lives were upended by unhinged Trump supporters. They have been subjected to death threats and racist harangues. Ms. Moss’s grandmother was beset at home by election deniers. “There is nowhere I feel safe,” Ms. Freeman told the committee. The women left their jobs with the Fulton County department of registration and elections — and they are not alone. Election workers have been quitting in droves, many citing the emotional strain of the threats and other fallout from 2020. This is no way to run a democracy.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Mr. Meadows and one of the hearing’s breakout stars, showed that courage has little to do with one’s title or power. Her willingness to tell the public what she saw and heard around the West Wing on Jan. 6 should shame the folks, like her former boss, who are still covering Mr. Trump’s backside. As Ms. Cheney pointedly noted of Ms. Hutchinson: “She knew all along that she would be attacked by President Trump and by the 50-, 60-, and 70-year-old men who hide themselves behind executive privilege.”

Caroline Edwards, one of the Capitol Police officers injured on Jan. 6, gave the lie to the Republican line of B.S. that the riot was just some overcaffeinated exercise in free speech. Not unless your idea of free speech involves law enforcement officers being tear-gassed and beaten and slip-sliding around in people’s blood. Mr. Trump’s lies are lethal. No one should forget that.

In a very brief, videotaped cameo, retired Gen. Mike Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser, provided a cautionary tale about what happens when a once respected public servant gets swallowed up by a conspiracy-mongering cult of personality. Short answer: nothing good. When a person reaches the point where he has to plead the Fifth to the question “Do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in the United States of America?” it is time for friends and family to stage an intervention.

We learned that, even inside the White House on Jan. 6, at least a few people managed to retain their sense of duty. Take Matthew Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, the former deputy White House press secretary, both of whom promptly resigned after the riot. Both were particularly appalled by Mr. Trump’s 2:24 p.m. tweet attacking Mr. Pence. As they saw it, a president who would further inflame an out-of-control mob already rampaging toward the Capitol was not someone they could continue serving.

There were a few generic lessons to be filed away for later use. For instance: Less is more when it comes to hearing from lawmakers. Big shout-out to whoever jettisoned the common practice of letting every committee member prattle on at every hearing. That genius deserves a bonus. And a medal. And should be put in charge of future hearings.

There were also super specific lessons, such as: Jared Kushner is exactly as smug, entitled, self-absorbed and supercilious as long suspected. Although, hopefully, the American people will have no further cause to think about Mr. Kushner. Ever.

The most important takeaway from these proceedings: Donald Trump is a menace to democracy. He bears responsibility for the tragedy of Jan. 6 and, worse, is still working to destroy public faith in America’s electoral system.

What we still don’t know is whether the American people, and Republicans more specifically, will let him get away with it all — whether they will choose to defend democracy or to defend this petty, vengeful, toxic political grifter. Because it cannot be both. For all the hearings’ lessons about past horrors, their scariest takeaway is how much future damage Mr. Trump is poised to do if left unchecked.

Ms. Cheney underscored this unnerving reality in her closing remarks: “Every American must consider this: Can a president who was willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”

This isn’t really a question so much as a warning.

Dear Commons Community,

The EDUCAUSE Review had a fine article earlier this week that brought us up-to-date on current progress in quantum computing.  Its development is ongoing with a number of major corporations investing significant resources into applications using this technology. The article concludes with a section on the implications for higher education (see below).

This is timely information on the part of EDUCAUSE.

Tony

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Excerpt from the EDUCAUSE Review

Quantum Computing: Current Progress and Future Directions

Authors:  Triniti Dungey, Yousef Abdelgaber, Chase Casto, Josh Mills and Yousef Fazea

Implications for Higher Education

The world of education is always looking for new opportunities to grow and prosper. Many higher education institutions have begun extensive research with quantum computing, exploiting the unique properties of quantum physics to usher in a new age of technology including computers capable of currently impossible calculations, ultra-secure quantum networking, and exotic new quantum materials.

• Researchers at the University of Oxford are interested in quantum research because of its enormous potential in fields such as healthcare, finance, and security. The university is regarded worldwide as a pioneer in the field of quantum science. The University of Oxford and the University of York demonstrated the first working pure state nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computer.
• Researchers at Harvard University have established a community group—the Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering—with the goal of making significant strides in the fields of science and engineering related to quantum computers and their applications. According to the research conducted by the group, the “second quantum revolution” will expand on the first one, which was responsible for the development of global communication, technologies such as GPS avigation, and medical breakthroughs such as magnetic resonance imaging.
• Researchers at the Department of Physics of the University of Maryland, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences are part of the Joint Quantum Institute, “dedicated to the goals of controlling and exploiting quantum systems.”
• Researchers at MIT have built a quantum computer and are investigating areas such as quantum algorithms and complexity, quantum information theory, measurement and control, and applications and connections.
• Researchers at the University of California Berkeley Center for Quantum Computation and Information are working on fundamental quantum algorithms, cryptography, information theory, quantum control, and the experimentation of quantum computers and quantum devices.
• Researchers at the University of Chicago Quantum Exchange are focusing on developing new approaches to understanding and utilizing the laws of quantum mechanics. The CQE encourages collaborations, joint projects, and information exchange among research groups and partner institutions.
• Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China are exploring quantum optics and quantum information. Main areas of interest include quantum foundation, free-space and fiber-based quantum communications, superconducting quantum computing, ultra-cold atom quantum simulation, and quantum metrology theories and theories-related concepts.

One broad implication for higher education is that quantum computing will open up new careers for the students of tomorrow. In addition, this technology will allow for a precise prediction of the job market growth overall and of the demand for skilled and knowledgeable workers in all fields. In the near future, the power of quantum computing will be unleashed on machine learning. In education, quantum-driven algorithms will make informed decisions on student learning and deficits, just as quantum computing is expected to revolutionize medical triage and diagnosis. Also, quantum computing will power a new era in individual learning, knowledge, and achievement. This will occur through the timely processing of huge amounts of student data, where quantum computers may eventually possess the ability to take control of designing programs that can adapt to students’ unique achievements and abilities as well as backfilling specific areas where students might need help. These aspects of quantum computing are essential to achieving the goal of truly personalized learning.

Gaining access to any of the world’s relatively few physical quantum computers is possible via the cloud. These computers include the 20+ IBM Quantum System One installations currently in the United States, Germany, and Japan, with more planned in the United States, South Korea, and Canada. Anyone with an internet connection can log in to a quantum computer and become educated on the fundamental of quantum programming. For example, IBM offers a variety of quantum-focused education programs including access to quantum computers, teaching support, summer schools, and hackathons. The IBM Quantum Educators and Researchers programs and Qubit by Qubit’s “Introduction to Quantum Computing” are just two examples of the quantum computing resources that are accessible to both educators and students.

Such initiatives are absolutely necessary. Colleges and universities worldwide need to collaborate in order to close the current knowledge gap in quantum education and to prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Dear Commons Community,

The House Jan. 6 committee ended its set of summer hearings with its most detailed focus yet on the investigation’s main target: former President Donald Trump.

The panel on Thursday examined Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, as hundreds of his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol, guiding viewers minute-by-minute through the deadly afternoon to show how long it took for the former president to call off the rioters. The panel focused on 187 minutes that day, between the end of Trump’s speech calling for supporters to march to the Capitol at 1:10 p.m. and a video he released at 4:17 p.m. telling the rioters they were “very special” but they had to go home.

Trump was “the only person in the world who could call off the mob,” but he refused to do so for several hours, said the committee’s chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, who participated in the hearing remotely due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. “He could not be moved.” Here are major taeaways from the hearing courtesy of the Associated Press.

THE WHITE HOUSE DINING ROOM

The panel emphasized where Trump was as the violence unfolded — in a White House dining room, sitting at the head of the table, watching the violent breach of the Capitol on Fox News. He retreated to the dining room at 1:25 p.m., according to Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., one of two members who led the hearing. That was after some rioters had already breached barriers around the Capitol — and after Trump had been told about the violence within 15 minutes of returning to the White House.

Fox News was showing live shots of the rioters pushing past police, Luria said, showing excerpts of the coverage.

In video testimony played at the hearing, former White House aides talked about their frantic efforts to get the president to tell his supporters to turn around. Pat Cipollone, Trump’s top White House lawyer, told the panel that multiple aides — including Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump — advised the president to say something. “People need to be told” to leave, Cipollone recalled telling the president, urging Trump to make a public announcement. “Fast.”

Trump “could not be moved,” Thompson said, “to rise from his dining room table and walk the few steps down the White House hallway into the press briefing room where cameras were anxiously and desperately waiting to carry his message to the armed and violent mob savagely beating and killing law enforcement officers.”

NO CALLS FOR HELP

As he sat in the White House, Trump made no efforts to call for increased law enforcement assistance at the Capitol. Witnesses confirmed that Trump did not call the defense secretary, the homeland security secretary or the attorney general.

The committee played audio of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reacting with surprise to the former president’s reaction to the attack. “You’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing Zero?” Milley said.

As Trump declined to call for help, Vice President Mike Pence was hiding in the Capitol, just feet away from rioters who were about to breach the Senate chamber. The committee played audio from an unidentified White House security official who said Pence’s Secret Service agents “started to fear for their own lives” at the Capitol and called family members in case they didn’t survive.

Shortly afterward, at 2:24 p.m., Trump tweeted that Pence didn’t have the “courage” to block or delay the election results as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

“He put a target on his own vice president’s back,” said Luria.

FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDES

Matt Pottinger, who was Trump’s deputy national security adviser at the time, and Sarah Matthews, then the deputy press secretary, testified at the hearing. Both resigned from their White House jobs immediately after the insurrection.

Both Pottinger and Matthews told the committee of their disgust at Trump’s tweet about Pence.

Pottinger said he was “disturbed and worried to see that the president was attacking Vice President Pence for doing his constitutional duty,” which he said was “the opposite of what we needed at that moment.”

“That was the moment I decided I was going to resign,” Pottinger said.

Matthews said the tweet was “essentially him giving the green light to those people,” and said Trump’s supporters “truly latch on to every word and every tweet.”

She also described a debate within the press office about whether the violence should be condemned — and her frustration that such a debate was even happening, and that they were debating the politics of a tweet.

Matthews said she pointed to the television. “Do you think it looks like we are effing winning? Because I don’t think it does,” she said.

Matt Pottinger, who was Trump’s deputy national security adviser at the time, and Sarah Matthews, then the deputy press secretary, testified at the hearing.

DESPERATE TEXTS

The committee showed some of the texts that were sent to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as White House aides tried to get the president to act. Meadows turned the texts over to the panel before he stopped cooperating.

“This is one you go to the mattresses on,” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, texted Meadows. “They will try to f— his entire legacy on this if it gets worse.”

“Mark, he needs to stop this, now,” texted Mick Mulvaney, Meadows’ former GOP House colleague and the former director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” texted Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham.

FINALLY, A VIDEO MESSAGE

As some of the worst of the fighting at the Capitol was still underway, and had been going on for hours, Trump put out the video at 4:17 p.m.

The committee showed video of Trump filming the statement, and a copy of the script that he ignored. “I am asking you to leave the Capitol Hill region NOW and go home in a peaceful way,” the script said.

But the president did not actually say that, instead repeating baseless claims of voter fraud without condemning the violence. “So go home. We love you. You’re very special,” Trump ended up saying. “I know how you feel.”

In video testimony, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said he got there as the filming ended, and “I think he was basically retiring for the day.”

The committee showed video from the Capitol siege at that exact moment — rioters trying to violently push through the main doors, battering officers who had been fighting for hours. Police radio traffic relayed, “Another officer unconscious.”

THE NEXT DAY

The committee showed never-before-seen outtakes of a speech prepared for Trump on Jan. 7 in which he was supposed to say the election was over. But he bristled at that line, telling a roomful of supporters, “I don’t want to say the election is over.”

In the outtakes, Trump was visibly angry — at one point hitting his hand on the podium — as he worked through the prepared remarks, with his daughter Ivanka and others heard chiming in with suggestions.

In the final video, Trump condemns the violence and says: “Congress has certified the results, and new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”

‘WE HAVE CONSIDERABLY MORE TO DO’

At the beginning of the hearing, Thompson and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s Republican vice chair, announced that the panel would “reconvene” in September to continue laying out their findings.

“Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break,” Cheney said of the committee’s probe. “We have considerably more to do. We have far more evidence to share with the American people and more to gather.”

All of the major networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, AND CNN) aired the hearings last night except Fox News.  That is because the folks at Fox cannot stand the truth!.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City, ended his campaign for Congress on Tuesday, saying that voters were clearly “looking for another option” and that his time in electoral politics was over.

Mr. de Blasio had jumped into the race for the open, safely Democratic seat in late May, hoping to revive his career after eight years as mayor and several months in the political wilderness. There was no better path, he reasoned, than the newly drawn House seat, which covers parts of Lower Manhattan and the section of brownstone Brooklyn that constitutes his political home.

But as he crisscrossed the district — touting his universal prekindergarten program and sometimes campaigning in gym shorts — Mr. de Blasio struggled to overcome low approval numbers from his days as mayor. Polls, including one commissioned by his campaign, showed him performing poorly in a crowded field of a dozen other Democrats, and he watched as one-time allies and donors gave their support to younger rivals.

In an unusually candid video posted to his Twitter account Tuesday afternoon announcing his decision, Mr. de Blasio, 61, grappled openly with his unpopularity and unspecified “mistakes.”

“I’ve listened really carefully to people,” he said. “And it’s clear to me when it comes to this congressional district, people are looking for another option, and I respect that.”

As reported by The New York Times:

Mr. de Blasio, who ran a disastrous campaign for president in 2020 and waffled over whether to run for governor this year, said that he would take time to recalibrate his approach after the reception he got on the campaign trail — but added, with an air of finality, that it was “time for me to leave electoral politics.”

He joins an unbroken line of New York City mayors, stretching back to the 19th century, who have struggled to win higher or even a parallel office after their time in City Hall.

“I’m also recognizing I made mistakes,” Mr. de Blasio said. “I want to do better in the future. I want to learn from those mistakes. It’s been a humbling experience sometimes, but it’s been a healthy experience.”

Neal Kwatra, a strategist for Mr. de Blasio, said that the former mayor reached the decision to quit late Monday after private polling commissioned by the campaign showed an exceedingly rocky path ahead. Because the new district was only made final by state courts in May, candidates in the race, including Mr. de Blasio, had a very short runway to introduce or reintroduce themselves to voters.

“It was clear we were dealing with something much bigger than any one issue or dynamic,” Mr. Kwatra said.

Mr. de Blasio did not immediately endorse another candidate in the closely watched race. Given his unpopularity, though, there was little to indicate his former rivals wanted his public backing ahead of the Aug. 23 Democratic primary.

For instance, Alyssa Cass, a spokeswoman for one of them, Carlina Rivera, said that Ms. Rivera “looks forward to earning his vote but will not be seeking his endorsement.”

In addition to Ms. Rivera, a Manhattan city councilwoman, other leading candidates include Representative Mondaire Jones, who moved to the district this summer from suburban Westchester; Assemblywomen Yuh-Line Niou of Manhattan and Jo Anne Simon of Brooklyn; Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who helped build the impeachment case against Donald J. Trump; and Elizabeth Holtzman, the former congresswoman, district attorney and city comptroller.

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The contest has grown increasingly fractious, with the latest sign coming Tuesday afternoon in the aftermath of remarks Mr. Goldman made in an interview with Hamodia, the Orthodox Jewish news organization.

Mr. Goldman initially said he would support limiting abortion past the point of fetal viability, after roughly 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy, unless the life of the mother was in danger — a position roughly consistent with New York State law. But after conferring with an aide, he changed his answer to say he did not support any abortion limits.

Abortion had already become a major issue in the race in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade last month. With few ideological divisions among them, Mr. Goldman’s opponents quickly took the comments as an opening to attack him as hostile to women’s rights and too conservative.

“American women are living a waking nightmare right now, literally bleeding out, because of the fatal ignorance of people like Dan Goldman,” Ms. Niou said.

Ms. Holtzman, who came out of political retirement because of the court’s actions around abortion, called on Mr. Goldman to drop out of the race. “Congress has enough lukewarm Democrats who won’t fight like hell to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law,” she said.

In a statement, Mr. Goldman said he misspoke and that he believed “the decision to have an abortion is a health care decision that needs to be made between a woman and her doctor.”

Ms. Rivera, meanwhile, was in her own hot water over recent comments to the same publication in which she appeared to say that she would be open to allowing certain businesses to be exempt from anti-discrimination laws for religious reasons. Ms. Cass later clarified that Ms. Rivera thought she was answering a different question and supported no such exemption.

As for Mr. de Blasio, he did not say what he would do next. In an interview in May, he said that before jumping into the race he had planned to do television political commentary and potentially teach.

He still faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding debts related to previous campaigns, including money owed to the city. He had $450,000 in his congressional campaign account at the end of June, according to federal campaign filings, and could try to use some of those funds to pay off creditors.

“The law may be sufficiently porous to allow a transfer to pay off his presidential campaign debts,” said Jerry H.​ Goldfeder, a Democratic election lawyer in New York. “But the ethical course would be to return contributions to those who supported his congressional campaign.”

Debts and all, there was little sympathy for Mr. de Blasio on Tuesday, particularly among those who tangled with him while mayor.

“The former mayor was a divisive force in the city at a time when we needed a leader who could unite us,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group. “Apparently the voters in District 10 did not want to give him another bully pulpit from which to rail against those who disagree with his political ideology.”

We wish him good luck in his future endeavors!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The French economist, Thomas Piketty, has a new book entitled, A Brief History of Equality, that is a fine addition to his earlier publications such as Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Capital and Ideology. Unlike his earlier tomes that exceeded well over a thousand pages, this book is a mere 275 pages.  In A Brief History…,  he guides us through two centuries of the growth of capitalism, revolutions, slavery, colonialism, wars and the building of the welfare state.  While inequality is still present in the world society, Piketty shows through a display of socioeconomic indicators, that humanity has moved fitfully toward a more just distribution of income and assets, a reduction of racial and gender inequalities, and greater access to health care, education, and the rights of citizenship. Piketty also cautions that these indicators, “and statistics in general, are nothing more than imperfect, temporary, and fragile constructions.”  Piketty predicts that the world’s current period of “hypercapitalism is doomed” and will  be replaced.  How, with what,  and when is difficult to determine.

If you enjoyed Piketty’s earlier work, you will like A Brief History of Equality,

Nicholas Lemann, who teaches at the Columbia Journalism School, wrote a review that appeared in the New York Times (see below).

Tony

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The New York Times Book Review

Thomas Piketty’s Radical Plan to Redistribute Wealth

By Nicholas Lemann

April 19, 2022

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EQUALITY
By Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty begins his latest book by genially mentioning the entreaties he gets to write something short — previous books have been around 1,000 pages long — and ends it by expressing the hope that he has given “citizens,” rather than economists, new weapons in the battle against inequality, which is his master subject. This shouldn’t be taken for a sign that “A Brief History of Equality” is consciously simplified. It isn’t centered on a new economic finding, like that in “Capital in the Twentieth Century,” where Piketty reported that the return to capital exceeds the rate of economic growth. But neither is it written in a tone of patient explanation. It’s useful as an opportunity for readers to see Piketty bring his larger argument about the origins of inequality and his program for fighting it into high relief.

Much of the current discussion of inequality focuses on the period since 1980, when the benefits of growth began to go much more narrowly to the rich than they had before. Although Piketty hardly disputes this, he announces here that he has come to tell an optimistic story, of the world’s astounding progress toward equality. He does this by creating a much wider temporal frame, from 1780 to 2020, and by focusing on politics and measures of well-being as well as economics. Life expectancy has gone from 26 to 72 and, with the rise of compulsory state-provided education, the literacy rate from about 10 percent to 85 percent. Slavery and colonialism, once endemic, have been substantially abolished. Perhaps half of the population of the developed world is at least middle class, though before the 20th century there was no middle class to speak of. The right to vote, formerly restricted even in democracies to male property owners, is well on its way to becoming universal.

What caused this progress? Piketty has a straightforward answer: the advent of progressive taxes on income and wealth, and of the comprehensive welfare state. The taxes reduced inequality and paid for the welfare state, which has provided education, health care, old-age pensions and protection against severe deprivation. Our culture’s familiar assertions about how growth, innovation and entrepreneurship are connected with general prosperity stand completely outside Piketty’s account. Instead, he says, property owners have always used their excessive influence over government to create systems of “military and colonial domination” and environmental despoliation that made them even more wealthy than they were already. The idea that growth can solve the world’s economic woes is “totally insane.” Only a substantial weakening of property rights — a process that in the past included the abolition of slavery, but has many more steps to take — can do that.

Piketty writes as a citizen of the world, suspicious of nationalism, but his thinking strikes this American reader as noticeably European — indeed, specifically French. In the United States, when we think about the very rich, the people who usually come to mind are workaholic high earners in technology, finance and corporate executive suites. Piketty, who is more concerned with property than with earnings, thinks about rentiers, individuals who aren’t so different from the pre-revolutionary French nobility, except that they have converted their clout into financial assets rather than feudal land holdings.

Although Piketty favors much higher income tax rates (“virtually confiscatory tax rates have been an immense historical success”), policies that redistribute property rather than income are the heart of his program. These would include reparations for descendants of enslaved and colonized people, encouraging countries in the global south to tax the fortunes of nonresidents who do business there, cancellation of debts and a program he calls “inheritance for all,” in which wealth taxes would reduce large fortunes and provide everyone with a financial cushion. He would also take a large measure of control over corporations away from their managers and shareholders and give it to employees, and create “a system of egalitarian funding for political campaigns, the media and think tanks.” All this would amount to “a profound transformation of the world economic system.”

The name that Piketty gives to his program is participatory socialism. On economic issues it is considerably to the left of what American liberals are used to considering. (It’s another sign of Piketty’s Europeanness that he uses “liberal” to denote Ronald Reagan-style economic policies, and yet another that he is far more uncomfortable than the mainstream of the Democratic Party with long-running race-conscious policies aimed at helping minorities, lest they encourage “identitarian introversion.”) He is well aware that changes on the scale he is proposing never happen incrementally. Significant movement in the right direction, by his lights, has always required wars, revolutions, economic depressions and “political movements of great scope.”

Are such upheavals on their way? Piketty doesn’t make predictions, but he treats the current system of “hypercapitalism” as being obviously doomed. Other than socialism, the only real alternatives are authoritarianism, Chinese-style Communism or “reactionary projects” like ISIS. And political reform won’t be sunny: “The idea that there might be only winners is a dangerous and anesthetizing illusion that must be abandoned immediately.” He’s right that wholesale change on the order he considers necessary is rare, and usually associated with calamity. Incremental adjustments, however, happen constantly. Absent disaster, it seems possible, or even likely, that they will move economic policy in the direction Piketty would want — away from the market-friendliness of the late 20th century — though to an extent that he would consider pathetically inadequate. That may be happening already. If it is, his work, with its determination to move outside what had been the terms of the debate, is partly responsible.

Dear Commons Community,

After the coronavirus pandemic sent a jolt through the American education system, interrupting the learning of millions of children, a new report offers a glimmer of hope: By the end of the last school year, many students had returned to a normal pace of academic growth for the first time since the pandemic began.  Still, the pace was not nearly fast enough to have made up for steep pandemic losses.

At this rate, elementary school students may need at least three years to catch up to where they would have been had the pandemic not happened, and middle school students may need five years or more, according to the report released on yesterday by NWEA, a nonprofit organization that provides academic assessments to schools. Researchers examined the results of math and reading assessments for more than eight million students in approximately 25,000 schools. The report’s key findings were as follows:

• Initial signs of academic rebounding were evident in 2021–22, with reading and math
achievement gains paralleling pre-pandemic trends in many grades; rebounding
appeared stronger in math and among younger students.
• There were signs of rebounding across all school poverty levels; however, low-poverty
schools have less ground to make up and thus will likely recover faster.
• Despite some signs of rebounding, student achievement at the end of the 2021–22
school year remains lower than in a typical year, with larger declines in math (5 to 10
percentile points) than reading (2 to 4 percentile points). Modest improvements are
evident among elementary students. Middle school achievement declines appear to
be mostly unchanged.
• Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) students remain
disproportionately impacted.

Recovery is expected to take the longest for groups that were most affected by the pandemic, including low-income students and Black, Hispanic and Native American students. Research has found that extended remote learning was a primary driver of lost learning, widening racial and economic gaps during the pandemic. High-poverty schools tended to spend more time learning remotely, as did Black and Hispanic students.

Interesting results!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Mike Pence and Donald Trump  will hold dueling rallies in Arizona on Friday as they stump for rival candidates who offer dramatically different visions of the Republican Party in a critical battleground state. Days later, they will once again cross paths as they deliver major speeches on the same day in Washington.

The encounters mark a more confrontational phase in the fraught relationship between the former running mates and once close confidantes who could soon find themselves competing against one another in the 2024 GOP presidential primary if they both ultimately choose to run.  As reported by the Associated Press.

“I think this is a continuation of the larger message that Pence is trying to embody here, which is the Republican Party should look to the future,” said Scott Jennings, a longtime party strategist. “This is going to be the existential question for the Republican Party: Are we going to listen to a slightly different view than Donald Trump’s? Right now, the standard-bearer for this is Mike Pence.”

That description marks a striking turnaround for Pence, who spent his four years in the White House as Trump’s most loyal defender. But Trump turned on his vice president when Pence refused to go along with his unconstitutional efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, putting Pence in the crosshairs of a violent mob on Jan. 6.

Now Pence, who has repeatedly defended his actions that day, is taking a more active effort to shape the future of the party. This week, Pence endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson in Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary, pitting himself against Trump, who has endorsed Kari Lake, a former newscaster who has embraced Trump’s election lies.

“As Arizona Democrats pursue the reckless Biden-Harris agenda, Karrin Taylor Robson is the only candidate for Governor that will keep Arizona’s border secure and streets safe, empower parents and create great schools, and promote conservative values,” Pence said in a statement announcing his decision.

Pence backed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a top Trump target who easily defeated the former president’s hand-picked challenger this spring. But Pence’s Arizona move showed a willingness to weigh in on a closer and open race in alliance with the state’s outgoing GOP governor, Doug Ducey, who also rebuffed Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

Pence is planning to campaign with Robson in Phoenix and southern Arizona Friday — the same day that Trump is set to headline a rally for Lake that was rescheduled after the death of his first wife, Ivana Trump.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on the events.

Trump and Pence will again cross paths next week as the former president returns to the nation’s capital for the first time since leaving the White House. Pence will address the conservative Heritage Foundation on Monday evening and will speak at the Young America’s Foundation’s annual National Conservative Student Conference on Tuesday morning. That afternoon, Trump will headline a two-day summit organized by the America First Policy Institute.

Pence will use his speech before the Heritage Foundation to highlight the policy agenda he released earlier and talk about the future of the party, according to aides. The remarks are expected to offer an implicit contrast with Trump, who has spent much of his energy since leaving office on relitigating the 2020 election.

Pence has urged Republicans to move on, even as he continues to tout the accomplishments of what he often describes as the Trump-Pence administration.

Pence’s efforts come as Trump is preparing to launch a third campaign for the White House as soon as this summer while he faces a flurry of investigations into his efforts to cling to power. That includes the House Jan. 6 committee, which on Thursday will hold another prime-time hearing, this time spotlighting Trump’s refusal to call off the angry mob that stormed the Capitol and sent Pence and other lawmakers into hiding.

While polls show Trump remains the overwhelming favorite in a hypothetical GOP primary, Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff and a top adviser, argued that even if Trump does announce a run, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be on the ballot two years from now.

“As the committee winds down, I’m sure he’s looking for a reset that brings attention back on him. And an announcement does not necessarily mean a commitment at the end of that process to continue forward,” said Short. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the president enjoys being the center of attention. And the announcement puts even additional media focus on him.”

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to slam Pence for refusing to go along with his scheme to remain in power. At a gathering of Evangelical Christians in Nashville, Tennessee, last month, Trump again said Pence “did not have the courage to act,” drawing applause.

When it comes to a potential race, Trump does not see Pence as a threat, according to allies, who are much more consumed with Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor is increasingly seen by conservatives as a natural and younger successor to Trump’s MAGA movement who can channel the same anger, but with less baggage.

Jennings, meanwhile, praised Pence for being willing to stand up to Trump when so many others in the party still refuse to cross him.

“What Mike Pence is doing is extremely valuable. And whether he is a viable candidate for present, I don’t know. But he’s certainly earned the right to make the case for a post-Trump future,” said Jennings.

“He may end up being John the Baptist to someone else,” he added. “Headless but remembered well.”

Run Pence Run!

Tony

Betsy DeVos

Dear Commons Community,

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos believes that the department she once led should be abolished.

DeVos, who spent four years as the Education secretary during the Trump administration, made the remarks at the inaugural Moms for Liberty summit on Saturday, according to the Florida Phoenix.

“I personally think the Department of Education should not exist,” DeVos told the mostly conservative crowd in Tampa, Fla.

DeVos was a leading proponent of “education freedom” during her time in office, promoting vouchers to allow families to choose their children’s school.

In a speech in 2020, she said, “I fight against anyone who would have government be the parent to everyone.”

Moms for Liberty is a conservative group that rose to national prominence for its objection to children wearing face masks at school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The local news outlet also reported that summit attendees were given tips on how to recruit, promote and endorse conservative school board candidates.

DeVos is not the first conservative figure to suggest nixing the federal agency charged with overseeing schools. A group of GOP House members backed a bill last year seeking sought to abolish the Department of Education.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced the bill in February 2021 with co-sponsors including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

“Schools should be accountable,” Massie said in a statement at the time. “Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”

DeVos’s remarks come as schools have become a battleground for politicized culture wars, with Democrats and Republicans battling over issues such as critical race theory, LGBTQ rights and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) campaigned on a pledge to give parents a louder voice in schools, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) drew national blowback with his signing of a bill barring teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

DeVos was possibly the least effective Secretary of Education since the Department was created in 1979.  She lacked an understanding of even the most basic education policies.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The City University of New York is distributing $3.1 million to pay the summer session tuition and fees of about 3,700 student-parents, underscoring the University’s commitment to supporting the needs of thousands of its students who are raising children.

“We recognize the extraordinary effort that it takes for student-parents to balance coursework with the responsibilities of raising their children, particularly during the summer months,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “We always support our students who are most in need, and this is just one way we ensure that as many New Yorkers as possible are able to pursue a college education.”  As announced by CUNY.

The funds are the latest disbursement from the Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund, established in the spring of 2020, before federal stimulus funds were available to college students, to address the extraordinary hardships that CUNY students and their families were facing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Since its launch, the fund has disbursed almost $10 million to support more than 17,500 students in need, including single parents, undocumented students, international students, students with disabilities and students from foster care.

For student-parent Penelope Rodriguez, the latest funds covered the cost of a summer course she’s taking at the New York City College of Technology in pursuit of a degree in marketing. “I was thrilled to learn of my selection for this honor, and I am deeply appreciative of your support, as I am a struggling unemployed mother,” Rodriguez wrote to the Chancellor. “The financial assistance you provided will be of great help to me in paying my educational expenses, and it will allow me to concentrate more of my time on studying.”

Rodriguez, the mother of a 4-year-old boy, hopes to open a nonprofit organization for children with autism since she struggled for months to access resources for her son’s special needs.

More than 10% of CUNY’s undergraduate students are parents. The $3.1 million in funds are just the latest efforts to help those students.

Good move by the Chancellor!

Tony

Mehmet Oz

Dear Commons Community,

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in his adopted state of Pennsylvania, admits his campaign has struggled to raise money and he says it’s because Democrats are “clever” while Republicans mow their lawns.

Oz spoke to Fox News host Laura Ingraham yesterday, who pointed out the vast disparity in fundraising between him and his opponent, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

According to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Fetterman has out-raised Oz nine to one, $9.9 million to Oz’s $1.1 million. And while Oz has also loaned $2.2 million to his campaign, Fetterman has five times more cash on hand.

Asked why, Oz replied:

“The Democrats have very cleverly taken all of these issues that have come up over the summer ― the Dodd decision, the concerns about guns ― and they’ve used these as excuses to raise money from the Democratic loyalists. Interestingly, when Republicans get mad, we go out and mow the lawn. Democrats, when they get mad, donate money to their party.”

Then, Oz urged everyone to donate to him while claiming he doesn’t need much money anyway because he’s the better candidate:

Fetterman has been trolling Oz over the fact that he’s lived in New Jersey until very recently ― even voting in the Garden State in 2020, per Politico. He’s also painted Oz as a wealthy celebrity who’s out-of-touch with everyday Pennsylvanians, with one video showing several of the mansions Oz owns around the world.

But Oz told Ingraham he’s the real populist in the race.

Really?

Tony