Dear Commons Community,

Google is taking its next big step in artificial intelligence by adding interactive capabilities to its search engine.  As reported by The New York Times.

Google became the gateway to the internet by perfecting its search engine. For two decades, it surfaced 10 blue links that gave people access to the information they were looking for.

But after a quarter century, the tech giant is betting that the future of search will be artificial intelligence. Yesterday, Google said it was introducing a new feature in its search engine called A.I. Mode. The tool will function like a chatbot, allowing people to start a query, ask follow-up questions and use the company’s A.I. system to deliver comprehensive answers.

“It’s a total reimagining of search,” said Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, in a press briefing ahead of the company’s annual conference for software developers. In tests of the feature, he said, people dramatically “changed the nature of how they are interacting with search.”

The feature headlined a list of new A.I. abilities, including more personalized and automated email replies and a shopping tool to automatically purchase clothing after it’s put on sale.

With the introduction of A.I. Mode, Google is essentially trying to disrupt its traditional search business before upstart A.I. competitors can disrupt it. The search giant has been nervous about that possibility since declaring a “code red” two years ago after the arrival of ChatGPT, a chatbot from OpenAI that ignited a race to add generative A.I. into tech products.

But Google has been hesitant to fully embrace A.I. because it has so much to lose. The company’s search business generated nearly $200 billion last year, more than half of its total sales. And the bedrock of that business has been how it has reliably provided people with the best answers to questions.

Though they are a technical leap, A.I. systems have one big shortcoming: They are prone to giving incorrect answers, like recommending people eat rocks, which one of Google’s A.I. systems did last year.

A.I. might have already begun to cut into Google’s popularity as the default for finding digital information. During testimony in a Justice Department antitrust case against Google this month, one of Apple’s top executives, Eddy Cue, said Google search traffic had declined for the first time in 22 years because more people were using artificial intelligence. Google said afterward that it continued to “see overall query growth” in search.

“They hesitated on this for a long time because they didn’t think the quality was good or know how to monetize it,” said Pete Meyers, the principal innovation architect at Moz, a software company focused on search engine optimization that tracks changes to Google Search. “Now they’re doing what they think they have to do to compete, and it’s uncomfortable.”

A.I. Mode, which launched in the United States on Tuesday, won’t serve ads initially. Google is holding an event for marketers and advertisers on Wednesday where it could unveil more.

The A.I. transition comes amid mounting antitrust pressures to break up Google’s business. Over the past two years, Google has lost a string of antitrust cases after being found to have a monopoly over its app store, search engine and advertising technology. The U.S. government argued this month that the company should have to give competing search engines and A.I. companies access to its data on what users search for and click on.

Google’s new A.I. features are also bound to deepen tensions between Google and web publishers who are concerned about traffic. Chatbots often lift information from websites and deliver it directly to people, upending the traditional search model that has sent people across the web to find material.

The company has sought to downplay publishers’ concerns that A.I. will disrupt their businesses. Mr. Pichai said A.I. Overviews, a feature the company introduced last year to generate summaries above traditional search results, has increased the number of searches people do and often leads people to spend more time on suggested websites.

It was only a matter of time before Google would go all into A.I.

Tony

Michael Moore

Dear Commons Community,

My colleague, Patsy Moskal, sent this  to me this morning.  It is so true!

Tony

———————————————————————–

Here is a great post from the film director Michael Moore:

“This morning I have been pondering a nearly forgotten lesson I learned in high school music. Sometimes in band or choir, music requires players or singers to hold a note longer than they actually can hold a note. In those cases, we were taught to mindfully stagger when we took a breath so the sound appeared uninterrupted. Everyone got to breathe, and the music stayed strong and vibrant.

Yesterday, I read an article that suggested the administration’s litany of bad executive orders (more expected on LGBTQ next week) is a way of giving us “protest fatigue” – we will literally lose our will to continue the fight in the face of the onslaught of negative action. Let’s remember MUSIC.

Take a breath. The rest of the chorus will sing. The rest of the band will play. Rejoin so others can breathe. Together, we can sustain a very long, beautiful song for a very, very long time. You don’t have to do it all, but you must add your voice to the song. With special love to all the musicians and music teachers in my life.”

Courtesy of Sophie Park—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Dear Commons Community,

Ella Stapleton, a senior at Northeastern University filed a formal complaint and demanded a tuition refund after discovering her professor was using AI tools to generate notes. The professor later admitted to using several AI platforms and acknowledged the need for transparency. The incident highlights growing student concerns over professors using AI, a reversal of earlier concerns from professors worried that students would use the technology to cheat.

Stapleton, who graduated from Northeastern University this year, grew suspicious of her business professor’s lecture notes when she spotted telltale signs of AI generation, including a stray “ChatGPT” citation tucked into the bibliography, recurrent typos that mirrored machine outputs, and images depicting figures with extra limbs.

“He’s telling us not to use it, and then he’s using it himself,” Stapleton said in an interview with the New York Times.

Stapleton lodged a formal complaint with Northeastern’s business school over the incident, focused on her professor’s undisclosed use of AI alongside broader concerns about his teaching approach—and demanded a tuition refund for that course. The claim amounted to just over $8,000.

After a series of meetings, Northeastern ultimately decided to reject the senior’s claim.

The professor behind the notes, Rick Arrowood, acknowledged he used various AI tools—including ChatGPT, the Perplexity AI search engine, and an AI presentation generator called Gamma—in an interview with The New York Times.

“In hindsight…I wish I would have looked at it more closely,” he told the outlet, adding that he now believes that professors ought to give careful thought to integrating AI and be transparent with students about when and how they use it.

“If my experience can be something people can learn from,” he told the NYT, “then, OK, that’s my happy spot.”

Renata Nyul, Vice President for Communications, Northeastern University, told Fortune: “Northeastern embraces the use of artificial intelligence to enhance all aspects of its teaching, research, and operations. The university provides an abundance of resources to support the appropriate use of AI and continues to update and enforce relevant policies enterprise-wide.”

Colleges often restrict the use of AI on campus

Many schools either outright ban or put restrictions on the use of AI. Students were some of the early adopters of ChatGPT after its release in late 2022, quickly finding they could complete essays and assignments in seconds. The widespread use of the tech created a distrust between students and teachers as professors struggled to identify and punish the use of AI in work.

Now the tables have somewhat turned. Students have been taking to sites including Rate My Professors to complain about their lecturers use or overuse of AI. They also argue that it undermines the fees they pay to be taught by human experts rather than technology they could use for free.

According to Northeastern’s AI policy, any faculty or student must “provide appropriate attribution when using an AI System to generate content that is included in a scholarly publication, or submitted to anybody, publication or other organization that requires attribution of content authorship.”

The policy also states that those who use the technology must: “Regularly check the AI System’s output for accuracy and appropriateness for the required purpose, and revise/update the output as appropriate.”

Most interesting situation.  It is my sense that teachers increasingly are using AI for their lessons.  If they have not already done so, colleges and schools would do well to develop and publicize policies for AI use by faculty.

Tony

Zyrex Construction Robot

Dear Commons Community,

“We’re not just building another robot — we’re engineering the future of construction,” RIC Robotics founder Ziyou Xu said of what the company claims is the world’s first AI-powered giant construction bot.

“With the 20-foot tall, Zyrex, we’re addressing the industry’s labor shortages with powerful robotics capable of performing skilled work at scale (see video below).

The robot, designed to initially be cognitive and ultimately fully autonomous, is able to execute complex and delicate tasks such as welding, assembling, trimming, carpentry and 3-D printing across commercial and industrial job sites, according to the California-based company. A working prototype is expected in early 2026, marking a significant leap forward in the evolution of construction robotics.

Leveraging LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and visual sensors and powered by VLA (Vision-Language-Action) AI models, Zyrex will be deployed in dynamic job site environments with human monitoring, RIC said.

Despite its size and capabilities, Zyrex is relatively inexpensive. Monthly leasing options start at less than $20,000. By comparison, some giant robots cost more than $2 million.

A global shortage of construction labor, coupled with dangers of the profession — it recorded the most fatal injuries among all industry sectors in 2023 with 1,075 fatalities — have put a premium on automated alternatives. This year, the U.S. is short more than 439,000 skilled construction workers to meet industry demand and avoid further escalation in labor costs, says the Associated Builders and Contractors. [In China, the government and private industry are working overtime to ramp up manufacturing automation through AI and robotics amid a major labor shortage.]

Ziyou Xu said it is rolling out its construction bot in two phases: Human-assisted AI model training, followed by full autonomy.

The company’s latest construction robot builds on its current 3-D construction robot, RIC-PRIMUS. The latter model includes a high-speed, automation and battery-powered mobile platform with a large-scale reach of up to 32 feet.

An earlier RIC model, RIC-M1 Pro, successfully 3-D-printed two Walmart Inc. warehouse extensions, one in Alabama and another in Tennessee, with 200 more planned nationally. The warehouse 5,000-square-foot, 16.5-foot-tall warehouse in Alabama was completed in a week, three weeks ahead of schedule, saving 75% in time and 80% in skilled labor, according to RIC Robotics.

Wow!

Tony

Nicusor Dan exits a voting booth in Fagaras, Romania, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduard Vinatoru)

,

Dear Commons Community,

Pro-European Union candidate Nicusor Dan yesterday won Romania’s presidential runoff against a hard-right nationalist who modeled his campaign after U.S. President Donald Trump. The victory marked a major turnaround in a tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice for the former Eastern Bloc country between East or West.  As reported by The Associated Press.

The race pitted front-runner George Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, against Dan, the incumbent mayor of Bucharest. It was held months after the cancelation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.

With more than 99% of polling stations reporting, Dan was ahead with 53.9%, while Simion trailed at 46.1%, according to official data. In the first-round vote on May 4, Simion won almost twice as many votes as Dan, and many local surveys predicted he would secure the presidency.

But in a swing that appeared to be a repudiation of Simion’s skeptical approach to the EU, which Romania joined in 2007, Dan picked up almost 900,000 more votes to solidly defeat his opponent in the final round.

On Sunday evening, thousands gathered outside Dan’s headquarters near Bucharest City Hall to await the final results, chanting “Nicusor!” Each time his lead widened as more results came in, the crowd, many waving the flags of Europe, would erupt in cheers.

Once it was clear he had secured a victory, Dan gave an emotional speech from an outdoor stage where he thanked his supporters, and reached out to Simion’s backers with a message of national unity.

“What you have done as a society in these past weeks has been extraordinary,” he said. “Our full respect for those who had a different choice today, and for those who made a different choice in the first round. We have a Romania to build together, regardless of political choices.”

High turnout drives win for Dan

Final electoral data showed a 64% voter turnout — a sharp increase from the first round on May 4 where 53% of eligible voters cast a ballot. About 1.64 million Romanians abroad participated in the vote, some 660,000 more than in the first round.

The high turnout was believed to have benefited Dan who, shortly after 11 p.m. local time, emerged onto the balcony of his headquarters and waved to his thousands of supporters who had gathered along the length of a boulevard in central Bucharest, eliciting an ecstatic roar from the crowd.

At the raucous rally, Ruxandra Gheorghiu, 23, told The Associated Press that she had been considering leaving Romania, but that with Dan’s victory, “I feel like everything is going to be fine.”

“I was so scared that our European course is near the end. … We are still in Europe and we are not fighting for this right,” she said. “I cannot explain the feeling right now.”

Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician who rose to prominence as a civic activist fighting against illegal real estate projects, founded the reformist Save Romania Union party in 2016 but later left, and ran independently on a pro-EU ticket reaffirming Western ties, support for Ukraine and fiscal reform.

After the election Sunday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sent her “warmest congratulations” to Dan and noted that Romanians “turned out massively” to vote.

“They have chosen the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe,” she said in a post on X. “Together let’s deliver on that promise.”

What’s going on in Romania?

Romania’s political landscape was upended last year when a top court voided the previous election in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow denied.

Simion capitalized on the furor over the annulment of that election and, after coming fourth in last year’s canceled race, allied with Georgescu, who was banned in March from running in the election redo.

Simion then surged to front-runner in the May 4 first round after becoming the standard-bearer for the hard right, and promised to appoint Georgescu prime minister if he secured the presidency.

Years of endemic corruption and growing anger toward Romania’s political establishment have fueled a surge in support for anti-establishment and hard-right figures, reflecting a broader pattern across Europe. Both Simion and Dan have made their political careers railing against Romania’s old political class.

Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, told the AP that the election results showed that Romanians “rejected hate and reactionary politics and embraced the pro-western direction” for their country, which has played a major logistical role in delivering Western assistance to neighboring Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“It is a win for the optimistic Romania, but there is a large part of voters that are really upset with the direction of the country,” he said. “Romania comes out of this election very divided, with a totally new political landscape, where older political parties are challenged to adapt to a new reality.”

In the lead-up to Sunday’s vote, Simion’s rhetoric had raised some concerns that he wouldn’t respect the outcome if he lost. In the early afternoon, he told reporters that his team was confident in a “landslide victory,” if the election was “free and fair.”

In the afternoon on election day, he repeated allegations of voting irregularities among Romanian citizens in neighboring Moldova and said that his party members would conduct a parallel vote count after polls closed.

However, Simion gave a statement on social media in the early hours on Monday acknowledging that “we lost the second round of the elections.”

“We cannot accuse significant tampering with the ballots,” he said. “We’ll continue to represent the sovereignist, patriotic, conservative movement in Romania, and we’ll continue to fight … for freedom, for God, for family and for our common ideas.”

The president is elected for a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in matters of national security and foreign policy. As winner of Sunday’s race, Dan will be charged with nominating a new prime minister after Marcel Ciolacu stepped down following the failure of his coalition’s candidate to advance to the runoff.

Congratulations President-Elect Dan!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Former President Joe Biden is battling an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer, his office announced yesterday, adding his condition is characterized by a “Gleason score of 9.”

His office also said Biden’s diagnosis included metastasis to the bone.

Biden’s cancer diagnosis comes after a small nodule was found in the former president’s prostate after “a routine physical exam” on Tuesday. The discovery of the nodule “necessitated further evaluation,” his spokesperson said at the time.

In February 2023 — while the now-82-year-old former president was serving in the White House — Biden had a lesion removed from his chest that was cancerous, according to the former White House physician. Additionally, before entering office, Biden had several non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery.

As the world reacts to Biden’s medical news, ABC News has broken down what his condition means and what possible treatments can be done.

What to know about prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that forms in the tissues of the prostate, the small gland in men’s prostate that produces semen, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

It is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the U.S., according to the federal health agency.

The NIH reports an estimated 313,780 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year — representing over 15% of all new cancer cases.

An estimated 35,770 deaths from prostate cancer will occur this year — representing 5.8% of all cancer deaths, according to the agency.

Prostate cancer has a five-year relative survival rate, meaning the percentage of people alive five years after diagnosis, is roughly 98%.

Generally, prostate cancer usually grows very slowly and finding and treating it before symptoms occur may not improve men’s health or help them live longer.

However, it is generally a more treatable type of cancer, even when it has spread further.

Roughly 12.9% of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime, according to the NIH. In 2022, there were an estimated 3.5 million men living with prostate cancer in the United States.

The median age of prostate cancer diagnosis is 68 years old, according to the agency, while the median age of prostate cancer death is 79.

While the agency reports rates for new prostate cancer cases have been rising an average 1.8% each year over from 2013 to 2022, death rates have been falling on average 0.6% each year over between 2014 and 2023.

What is a Gleason score?

The Gleason grading system, or Gleason score, refers to how likely the cancer is to advance and spread, but does not predict the outcome.

It’s way of describing prostate cancer based on how abnormal the cancer cells in a biopsy sample look under a microscope and how quickly they are likely to grow and spread, according to the NIH.

The Gleason score is calculated by adding together the two grades of cancer cells that make up the largest areas of the biopsied tissue sample, the NIH says.

The grading system usually ranges from 6 to 10.

Biden’s diagnosis of a Gleason score of 9 indicates his cancer is aggressive.

A score of 9 indicates that the cancer cells look very different from normal prostate cells and are likely to grow and spread rapidly. This places the cancer in Grade Group 5, the highest risk category, associated with a greater likelihood of metastasis and a more challenging prognosis. Yet, despite the cancer’s apparent aggressiveness, its hormone-sensitive nature offers a viable treatment pathway.

Possible treatment options

While Biden’s official treatment plan remains to be announced, possible options for the former president include hormone therapy, or androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which can reduce levels of male hormones that can fuel prostate cancer growth.

This approach can effectively slow disease progression and manage symptoms, even in advanced stages where the cancer has spread to the bones.

Regular monitoring of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels is crucial, as rising PSA levels can indicate cancer activity and help assess treatment effectiveness.

Surgery is typically not an option in cases like Biden’s, when the disease has spread to the bone and is not confined to the prostate.

Following the former president’s diagnosis, the American Cancer Society released a statement, saying, “This news is a reminder about the tragic impact of prostate cancer in the U.S.”

“Early detection is key, and we are concerned given the 5% year-over-year increase in diagnosis of men with more advanced disease. We can and must do more to prevent late-stage diagnosis and death from prostate cancer,” the ACS said.

Former President Barack Obama responded to news of former President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis by expressing confidence in his former vice president’s “trademark resolve and grace.”

He also pointed to the work Biden has done to advance cancer research.

“Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family,” Obama wrote in a post on X.

“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace,” he continued.

“We pray for a fast and full recovery,” he added.

In God’s hands!

Tony

Photo/Yuki Iwamura)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dear C0mmons Community,

A Mexican navy sailing ship on a global tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York last night, snapping its three masts, killing two crew members and leaving some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help.  As reported by The Associated Press.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage but at least 19 people aboard the ship needed medical treatment.

Two of the four people who suffered serious injuries later died, Adams announced on social media early this morning.

The cause of the collision was under investigation.

In a scene captured in multiple eyewitness videos, the ship, called the Cuauhtemoc, could be seen traveling swiftly in reverse toward the bridge near the Brooklyn side of the East River. Then, its three masts struck the bridge’s span and snapped, one by one, as the ship kept moving.

Videos showed heavy traffic on the span at the time of the 8:20 p.m. collision. No one on the bridge was reported injured.

The vessel, which was flying a giant Mexican flag and had 277 people aboard, then drifted into a pier on the riverbank as onlookers scrambled away.

Sailors could be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts but, remarkably, no one fell into the water, officials said.

Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz told The Associated Press they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge.

“We saw someone dangling, and I couldn’t tell if it was just blurry or my eyes, and we were able to zoom in on our phone and there was someone dangling from the harness from the top for like at least like 15 minutes before they were able to rescue them,” Katz said.

Just before the collision, Nick Corso, 23, took his phone out to capture the backdrop of the ship and the bridge against a sunset, Instead, he heard what sounded like the loud snapping of a “big twig.” Several more snaps followed.

People in his vicinity began running and “pandemonium” erupted aboard the ship, he said. He later saw a handful of people dangling from a mast.

“I didn’t know what to think, I was like, is this a movie?” he said.

The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc was an academy training vessel. It said a total of 22 people were injured, 19 of whom needed medical treatment.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum regretted the loss of the two crew members.

“Our solidarity and support go out to their families,” Sheinbaum said on X.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (490-meter) main span supported by two masonry towers. More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross every day, according to the city’s transportation department. Its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

Traffic was halted after the collision but was allowed to resume after an inspection, city officials said.

It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. New York Police Department Special Operations Chief Wilson Aramboles said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.

He said an initial report was that the pilot of the ship had lost power due to a mechanical problem, though officials cautioned that information was preliminary. Videos show a tugboat was close to the Cuauhtemoc at the time of the crash.

The Cuauhtemoc — about 297 feet long and 40 feet wide (90.5 meters long and 12 meters wide), according to the Mexican navy — sailed for the first time in 1982.

The vessel’s main mast has a height of 160 feet (48.9 meters), according to the Mexican government.

As midnight approached, the broken boat was moved slowly up the East River, going under and past the Manhattan Bridge, aided by a series of tugboats, before docking at a pier. Onlookers continued to gather on the waterfront to watch the spectacle.

Each year the Cuauhtemoc sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training. This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6, the navy said.

It arrived in New York City on May 13, where visitors were welcome for several days, the Mexican consulate said. The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations over 254 days, 170 of them at sea.

Tony

Credit. NBC News.

Dear Commons Community,

Maureen Dowd has a column this morning entitled, “The Tragedy of Joe Biden.”  Playing off the new book, Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, she reviews Biden’s Shakespearean fall.  Here is the introduction.

“The denouement of Joe Biden is unbearably sad.

The Irishman who could spend 45 minutes answering one question lost his gift of gab. The father who saw two of his children die and two spin into addiction wilted under the ongoing stress, especially when Hunter Biden — “my only living son,” as Joe called him — got tangled in the legal system.

The gregarious pol, who loved chatting up lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, ended up barricaded in his Rehoboth, Del., house with Covid, furious at everyone, proclaiming his oldest friends disloyal naysayers. He was fuming at nearly everyone except Jill, Hunter and the cordon sanitaire of aides who had fueled his delusions that he could be re-elected despite his feeble and often incoherent state at 81.

And, saddest of all, the man known for his decency, empathy, humility and patriotic spirit was poisoned by power, losing the ability to see that, in clinging to his office, he was hurting the party and country he had served for over half a century. And hurting himself, ensuring a shellacking in the history books.

It is the oldest story in tragedy: hubris.”

Poor Joe and poor America for letting his “hubris” allowing someone like Trump back into the White House.

The entire column is below.

Tony

——————————–

May 17, 2025

The New York Times

The Tragedy of Joe Biden

By Maureen Dowd

Opinion Columnist, reporting from Washington

The denouement of Joe Biden is unbearably sad.

The Irishman who could spend 45 minutes answering one question lost his gift of gab. The father who saw two of his children die and two spin into addiction wilted under the ongoing stress, especially when Hunter Biden — “my only living son,” as Joe called him — got tangled in the legal system.

The gregarious pol, who loved chatting up lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, ended up barricaded in his Rehoboth, Del., house with Covid, furious at everyone, proclaiming his oldest friends disloyal naysayers. He was fuming at nearly everyone except Jill, Hunter and the cordon sanitaire of aides who had fueled his delusions that he could be re-elected despite his feeble and often incoherent state at 81.

And, saddest of all, the man known for his decency, empathy, humility and patriotic spirit was poisoned by power, losing the ability to see that, in clinging to his office, he was hurting the party and country he had served for over half a century. And hurting himself, ensuring a shellacking in the history books.

It is the oldest story in tragedy: hubris.

If presidents get reduced to their essence, Joe Biden’s is a chip on his shoulder.

He did not want to hear from former President Barack Obama that he should pass the torch to someone younger, so Obama tried to work obliquely through others to ease him out. Biden saw Obama as the one who pushed him aside in 2015 for Hillary Clinton, a fellow member of the elite world of Ivy Leaguers, a world Biden always felt was sniffy toward him.

Obama gave Biden a consolation prize in 2017, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, when Joe wanted a different piece of metal: Excalibur. Biden’s chip grew larger.

By the end, when he was bubble-wrapped in 2024, he trusted only his family and his closest aides. And they protected him with a damaging chimera. Sugarcoated interpretations of polls that were not reflected elsewhere. Extreme efforts to redesign the presidency to adapt to his ever more fragile state. Trashing Robert Hur for telling the truth. Refusing to do the cognitive testing that might have established a diagnosis.

“The public should be informed of the whole truth. Not selective truth,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, an internist and cardiologist at George Washington University Hospital who has been a White House medical consultant for the last four administrations, told Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson for their compelling new book about Biden’s Shakespearean fall, “Original Sin.”

“Selective truth” sounds disturbingly like “alternative facts,” as Kellyanne Conway called Donald Trump’s modus vivendi. Tapper and Thompson show how Biden and his inner circle created an alternate universe that they tried to sell to the media and the public — the sort of corrosive mirage of unreality that Trump excels at building.

It was painful and infuriating to watch, and it’s painful and infuriating to read about. The nadir, of course, was Biden’s cascade of caesurae at the debate. It was not, as his advisers insisted, merely a bad night. It was a stunning display of a steep mental decline.

Witnesses behind the scenes told me they were dismayed from the start, when Biden showed up less than a half-hour before the debate started. He didn’t want to do a walk-through and test the equipment. He already seemed out of it, even though his large staff contingent seemed — to some CNN folks — oddly sanguine.

It was not just Joe and Jill who wanted to hang on to power, with all the perks and trips and, for Jill, glamorous Vogue covers. It was also their advisers, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Anthony Bernal, Ron Klain and Annie Tomasini. The “palace guard,” as Chuck Schumer derisively dubbed top Biden advisers, slid from sycophancy to solipsism.

The more Biden was out of it, the more his hours and responsibilities were curtailed, the more of a vacuum there was at the top, the more power the advisers had. They treated his alarming deterioration like a political vulnerability, something to be concealed, not a matter of concern to all Americans, something we had a right to know.

It took the Democrats far too long to acknowledge and push back against what Americans could see with their own eyes. Democratic pooh-bahs and lawmakers were silent when they should have been screaming — as the Republicans are now with Trump’s egregious assaults on the Constitution, his cringey grifting, his crazed revenge moves against anyone who has crossed him, and his loony Truth Social screeds attacking Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift.

The Bidens and their allies still try to prove Biden is all there. He has done interviews on “The View” with Jill, and the BBC on his own, acting as though what happened was not a shocking tableau of duplicity.

“President Joe Biden got out of bed the day after the 2024 election convinced that he had been wronged,” Tapper and Thompson write. “The elites, the Democratic officials, the media, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama — they shouldn’t have pushed him out of the race.” The polls said he could have beaten Trump, Biden felt, and his team had always doubted Kamala Harris’s abilities.

But the polls Biden kept counting on never existed — except in Bidenworld’s gauzy alternate universe.

Dear Commons Community,

Moody’s yesterday downgraded the U.S. credit rating, citing rising debt and interest payments that outpace those of similarly rated sovereigns, in a move that marks the end of an era as Moody’s was the last major agency to maintain a triple-A rating for U.S. sovereign debt.

The downgrade to “Aa1” from “Aaa” follows a change in the outlook on the sovereign in 2023 due to wider fiscal deficit and higher interest payments, and comes as the U.S. Congress debates tax and spending plans that could deepen the U.S. fiscal hole.  As reported by Reuters.

“Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs,” Moody’s said on Friday, as it changed its outlook on the U.S. to “stable” from “negative.”

Since his return to the White House on January 20, President Donald Trump has pledged to balance the U.S. budget while his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has repeatedly said the current administration aims to lower U.S. government funding costs.

The administration’s mix of revenue-generating tariffs and spending cuts through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has highlighted a keen awareness of the risks posed by mounting government debt, which, if unchecked, could trigger a bond market rout and hinder the administration’s ability to pursue its agenda.

“Moody’s downgrade of the United States’ credit rating should be a wake-up call to Trump and Congressional Republicans to end their reckless pursuit of their deficit-busting tax giveaway,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement on Friday. “Sadly, I am not holding my breath.”

Stephen Moore, former senior economic advisor to Trump and an economist at Heritage Foundation, however, called the move “outrageous”. “If a US backed government bond isn’t triple A asset then what is?,” he said.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump is pushing lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Congress to pass a bill extending the 2017 tax cuts that were his signature first-term legislative achievement, a move that nonpartisan analysts say will add trillions to the federal government’s $36.2 trillion in debt.

The downgrade came as the tax bill failed to clear a key procedural hurdle on Friday, as hardline Republicans demanding deeper spending cuts blocked the measure in a rare political setback for the Republican president in Congress.

Moody’s said the fiscal proposals under considerations were unlikely to lead to a sustained, multi-year reduction in deficits, and it estimated the federal debt burden would rise to about 134% of GDP by 2035, compared with 98% in 2024.

The cut follows a downgrade by rival Fitch, which in August 2023 also cut the U.S. sovereign rating by one notch, citing expected fiscal deterioration and repeated down-to-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills.

Fitch was the second major rating agency to strip the United States of its top triple-A rating, after Standard & Poor’s did so after the 2011 debt ceiling crisis.

“The downgrade is a wake-up call for Republicans. They have got to come up with a credible budget agreement that puts the deficit on a downward trajectory,” said Brian Bethune, Economics Professor at Boston College.

MARKET FRAGILITY

Investors use credit ratings to assess the risk profile of companies and governments when they raise financing in debt capital markets. Generally, the lower a borrower’s rating, the higher its financing costs.

“The downgrade of the US credit rating by Moody’s is a continuation of a long trend of fiscal irresponsibility that will eventually lead to higher borrowing costs for the public and private sector in the United States,” said Spencer Hakimian, chief executive at Tolou Capital Management, a hedge fund.

Long-dated Treasury yields – which rise when bond prices decline – could go higher on the back of the downgrade, said Hakimian, barring news on the economic front that could increase safe-haven demand for Treasuries.

The downgrade follows heightened uncertainty in U.S. financial markets as Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on key trade partners has over the past few weeks sparked investor fears of higher price pressures and a sharp economic slowdown.

“This news comes at a time when the markets are very vulnerable and so we are likely to see a reaction,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors.

Further evidence that Trump’s policies do damage to the US economy!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Knicks played one of the best games in their history by defeating the Boston Celtics – 119-81- last night at Madison Square Garden to advance to the NBA East Championship Series.  Knick coach Tom Thibodeau deserves a lot of credit for having his team ready to play. All aspects (offense, defense, intangibles) of the Knick game were super.  Six Knicks scored in double figures and Josh Hart had a triple double (double figures is points, rebounds and assists). Hart with a bandage on his head and a big black eye sustained in Game 5 of the series against the Celtics looked and played like a warrior. 

It was also a big night for New York sports as crowds mobbed outside Madison Square Garden to cheer on their team.  Dozens of celebrities and former Knick players were in the front row seats of the game.  The Empire State Building was lit up in Knick blue and orange to honor the team.

Congratulations Knicks!

Below is a summary courtesy of ESPN.

Tony

——————————————————

Knicks oust Celtics as playoff run marches into East finals

Heading into Friday night’s Game 6, it would have been understandable for there to be questions about the New York Knicks‘ ability to shut the door on the Boston Celtics.

After all, the Knicks suffered a 22-point Game 3 defeat after a pair of improbable 20-point road comeback victories, with captain Jalen Brunson acknowledging New York might have gone into that contest “subconsciously satisfied” because of its unexpected series lead. Similarly, when the Knicks took a 3-1 series lead into Boston for Game 5 after Jayson Tatum‘s Achilles rupture, they faltered badly in that closeout opportunity and were routed by the short-handed Celtics.

It all raised the possibility of a high-pressure Game 7 in Boston if the Knicks couldn’t handle business Friday night.

But New York emphatically quashed that question — and the defending champion Celtics’ slim chances of a repeat — in a thorough 119-81 victory to win the second-round series at Madison Square Garden and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000. The Knicks will host the Indiana Pacers, who knocked them out of last year’s playoffs in Game 7 of the conference semifinals, starting Wednesday night in New York.

Knicks fans, euphoric over the win, poured into the streets surrounding the Garden, with some climbing light poles and standing on top of taxi stands along Eighth Avenue.

After a 25-point shellacking in Game 5, the Knicks’ 38-point win marked the largest margin of victory in franchise postseason history.

“We watched the film, and we were kind of disgusted with our communication, our effort and our sense of urgency,” Josh Hart said of Gams 5 after finishing Game 6 with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. “That was something we knew we had to fix.”

Coach Tom Thibodeau and multiple players repeatedly said New York had yet to piece together a playoff game with solid defensive effort, focus and ball movement for 48 minutes. But the Knicks brought it all Friday.

Asked if this was his team’s best postseason showing, Thibodeau thought for a moment before answering.

“Probably,” he said. “I thought from start to finish that we were terrific.”

No stretch of the game stood out more than the second quarter, when New York outscored Boston 38-17 and took a 27-point lead at the half.

In one of the defining plays of that quarter, Celtics guard Derrick White stepped in front of a pass from OG Anunoby and dribbled to the other end of the floor for what figured to be a layup. But Knicks guard Deuce McBride chased down White and pinned his shot against the backboard, sending the Garden into a frenzy.

With the crowd still on its feet because of the block, Hart grabbed the loose ball and began a fast break, eventually hitting a floater while getting fouled by Boston’s Jrue Holiday. Hart hit the free throw to cap the five-point swing for the Knicks in a game where the Celtics — without Tatum, and with Kristaps Porzingis again struggling physically — had no margin for error.

That didn’t stop Jaylen Brown and his Boston teammates from making miscues. The Celtics had six turnovers in the second quarter — matching their six field goals during that period — and gave up 15 offensive rebounds in the game. Brown, Boston’s high scorer with 20 points, fouled out late in the third quarter and was serenaded to Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack” by the Garden crowd as he walked to the Celtics’ bench to end his season.

Four New York players — Brunson, Hart, Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns — finished with at least 20 points.

During the team’s postgame news conference, four of the starters answered questions together — perhaps to signify the collective win.

They were asked whether they understood the joy they injected into the city, and if they were aware of how long it had been since the club had gotten this far. And after a while, when the players continued to answer the questions in a straightforward manner, they fielded one about whether it was too soon for them to show a sense of accomplishment.

“I just think there’s still more to go. We’re not done,” said forward Mikal Bridges, who joined the team after being traded from the Brooklyn Nets during the offseason. “We played hard and handled business, but the season’s not over yet.”