Dear Commons Community,

Two weeks ago I blogged about the book, Amazing Grace by Jonathon Kozol.  I have just finished another book by Kozol entitled, Savage Inequalities.  Published in 1991, Kozol exposes the devastating inequity in the education of the poor in cities such as Chicago, San Antonio, and New York.  Kozol adds personal accounts and interviews with students, teachers, and principals to describe the “savage inequalities” in segregated American schools.  In New York City, for instance, he compares schools in the same district (District 10) that includes well-funded schools in affluent Riverdale and impoverished schools in the South Bronx. In one section, he describes the deteriorated and dangerous physical facilities at Morris High School, the oldest high school in the Bronx.

The story of education in poor inner cities has been told many times.  Systemic solutions have been rare although there are many examples of inner-city schools that have overcome their poverty and even have become beacons for good education.  In my graduate classes in school leadership, I always try to inspire my students and future education leaders, to do the best they can in their individual schools and not let “the system” keep them down.  Change and improvement are possible.

Below is a review that appeared in The New York Times on September 25, 1991.

Tony

—————————————————————————————

Books of The Times; Shortchanging the Nation’s Children

Savage Inequalities by Jonathon Kozol

By Herbert Mitgang

Sept. 25, 1991

The schoolchildren who speak to Jonathan Kozol in his accusatory new book, “Savage Inequalities,” know something that President Bush, the self-proclaimed education President, apparently does not know and that William J. Bennett, President Ronald Reagan’s abrasive Secretary of Education, either excused or ignored. These children are getting second-rate educations in third-rate schools, and the Government isn’t doing much about it. Minority youngsters living in the devastated zones of urban America are fully aware that they attend unequal schools, read unequal textbooks and lead separate and unequal lives.

Thirty-seven years ago, the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education found that segregated education was unconstitutional because it was “inherently unequal.” But Mr. Kozol says that the situation today is closer to the one that was addressed in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson, in which the court accepted segregated schools for black people, stipulating only that they be equal to those open to white students. The Brown decision supposedly overturned Plessy, but in his most damning statement, the author declares that in practice it really has not.

“Liberal critics of the Reagan era sometimes note that social policy in the United States, to the extent that it concerns black children and poor children, has been turned back several decades,” Mr. Kozol writes. “But this assertion, which is accurate as a description of some setbacks in the areas of housing, health and welfare, is not adequate to speak about the present-day reality in public education. In public schooling, social policy has been turned back almost 100 years.”

The strongest indictment of the Government’s insensitivity and parsimony in “Savage Inequalities” is heard in the voices of the children and their teachers. To metropolitan newspaper readers, many of the facts in Mr. Kozol’s book will not be too surprising. Education writers have been reporting the plight of the poor in deprived inner-city schools for years; in fact, the author credits several newspapers, including The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Detroit Free Press, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times and The New York Times for much of his information.

Mr. Kozol’s major contribution is to pull the strands together and show that neighborhood school problems are part of a national crisis in education. In 1988 he set off on a two-year journey, visiting schools and speaking to children in 30 neighborhoods from New York to San Antonio and from Illinois to Washington, D.C. Wherever possible, he also met with children in their homes, linking poverty and impoverished schools.

“What startled me most — although it puzzles me that I was not prepared for this — was the remarkable degree of racial segregation that persisted almost everywhere,” he writes. “Like most Americans, I knew that segregation was still common in the public schools, but I did not know how much it had intensified.”

Mr. Kozol exposes lemons in American educational faciliies in the same way that Ralph Nader attacked Detroit automobile makers a quarter of a century ago. Like Mr. Nader, Mr. Kozol has also followed a straight-arrow course in his thinking and writing. His earlier books, “On Being a Teacher,” “Illiterate America” and “Death at an Early Age,” can be read as prologues to “Savage Inequalities.”

He points out the obvious: Money is at the root of better schools, facilities and teachers. He deplores Mr. Bennett’s statement to taxpayers in 1988, when he said: “If the citizens of Chicago [ want to ] put more money in, then they are free to do so. But you will not buy your way to better performance.”

The author disputes the former Education Secretary in a group of tables that compare school spending in the Chicago area, the New York City area and New Jersey. These statistics tell stories about predominantly black and white student enrollments. For instance, Manhasset on Long Island’s gold coast spends about $15,000 per pupil, while New York City spends about $7,300. What does money buy? New textbooks, a reduction in the size of classes, school counselors, special education and of course, better-paid teachers.

The human story in “Savage Inequalities” is particularly heartbreaking. The author tells about the dental problems of schoolchildren in the poor school districts:

“Bleeding gums, impacted teeth and rotting teeth are routine matters for the children I have interviewed in the South Bronx. Children get used to feeling constant pain. They go to sleep with it. They go to school with it. Sometimes their teachers are alarmed and try to get them to a clinic. But it’s all so slow and heavily encumbered with red tape and waiting lists and missing, lost or canceled welfare cards, that dental care is often long delayed. Children live for months with pain that grown-ups would find unendurable.”

One predominantly black school district in East St. Louis, Mr. Kozol reports, is described by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “America’s Soweto.” After reading the strong evidence in “Savage Inequalities” about similar struggling ghetto districts all over the United States, the thought occurs that these schools might find a more sympathetic reception in Washington if they applied for help under some foreign aid program as an underdeveloped third world country, preferably one with oil.

Trump attends a meeting with healthcare companies Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, November 6, 2025.  REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst© provided by AlterNet.

Dear Commons Community,

With Trump asleep at the wheel, the Consumer Confidence Index dropped sharply in November, as disillusioned Americans indicated unease in the his economy amid rising prices, steady inflation, tariffs, increasing unemployment, and surging layoffs that are making finding a job more difficult.

The Consumer Confidence Index dropped 6.8 points to its lowest level since April, and consumer expectations “tumbled,” CNBC reported yesterday.

“Consumers were notably more pessimistic about business conditions six months from now,” said Dana Peterson, the Conference Board’s chief economist. “Mid-2026 expectations for labor market conditions remained decidedly negative, and expectations for increased household incomes shrunk dramatically, after six months of strongly positive readings.”

Now, just six percent of workers say that jobs are “plentiful,” down from 28.6% one month ago.

“Consumers’ write-in responses pertaining to factors affecting the economy continued to be led by references to prices and inflation, tariffs and trade, and politics, with increased mentions of the federal government shutdown,” Peterson also said in a statement, according to Bloomberg News.

The news comes just as another indicator of a weakening jobs market shows that “private companies shed an average 13,500 jobs over the past four weeks,” CNBC noted, citing data from payrolls processing firm ADP.

“That’s an acceleration from the 2,500 jobs a week lost in the last update a week ago,” CNBC also reported.

Other data also suggest a troubled economy.

“Government figures out earlier yesterday showed retail sales moderated in September after several robust months,” Bloomberg added.

“As for November, the Conference Board’s report showed buying plans for big-ticket items, including cars and major appliances, declined. Home-buying plans also fell.”

Alex Jacquez, Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative and a former Biden White House official, summed up his thoughts on the current situation:

“Good news: fewer people think we’re headed toward a recession. Bad news: more people think we’re already in one.”

Thank you, Trump!

Tony

James Comey and Letitia James

Dear Commons Community,

A federal judge yesterday dismissed the prosecutions against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, dealing a blow to President Trump’s retribution campaign against political foes. The judge ruled that the cases were invalid because the prosecutor who brought the charges, interim US attorney Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed. Trump selected Halligan for the role after forcing out the existing US attorney who resisted bringing the cases and pleaded with Attorney General Pam Bondi to make them happen. Bondi said that the Justice Department will take “all available legal action,” including an “immediate appeal,” to address the decision.

Justice served for now.  I am sure that Trump and company will appeal although I heard yesterday on CNN that Comey’s case will face a statute of limitations.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) did not hold back and used an absolutely blistering description of Trump (see video below) during a Democratic hearing on the Trump administration’s immigration raids.

“This is an important press conference that is being held to let you know what we’re all doing resisting this lowdown, dirty, no good, filthy president of the United States of America,” Waters said yesterday, prompting what appeared to be audible astonishment from those nearby at the event in Los Angeles.

“Let me just say this,” the congresswoman continued. “They are targeting our leadership both in the Latino community and in the Black community and while they’re targeting them and following them, I’m on the street and I’m following ICE and I’m targeting ICE.

“We are documenting everything. We are resisting,” she said. “And I want to tell you, you are seeing the biggest coming together of the Black and brown community that we’ve seen in this city ever.”

The protests against the raids “must continue,” Waters urged. “You must not stop. I’m protesting. I’ve been to 11 of them. I stay on the street, in the alleys, wherever I need to be. We’re not afraid, but we’re smart.”

The hearing heard from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, other lawmakers and community members who shared stories of how the Trump administration-ordered raids have devastated their lives and how they are attempting to combat them.

Double ouch!

Tony

Waters: This is an important press conference that is being held to let you know what we're all doing: resisting this lowdown dirty no good filthy president pic.twitter.com/E81ocrgYsO

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 25, 2025

Dear Commons Community,

Visitors at a small zoo in southern China started noticing something odd the moment they walked up to the panda enclosure. The animals were friendly in a way pandas never are, wagging their tails and trotting over to the fence as if they recognized every guest. The more they barked and panted, the clearer it became that something didn’t add up. Within hours, videos (see video sample below) spread online and everyone wanted the same answer: what exactly were people looking at?  As reported by Always Pets.

The Viral Reveal

The Shanwei zoo, located in Guangdong province, became the center of online entertainment after a visitor posted footage on Douyin. The animals behind the bars resembled pandas at first glance, thanks to clean black patches and fluffy white coats. Then the cameras caught details that changed the mood. One of the animals panted loudly while resting on a rock. Another wandered across the enclosure with a tail far longer than any panda would have.

Once the clips hit more than a million shares, commenters had jokes ready. Many pointed out that the startled animals were behaving exactly like Chow Chows, the thick-coated breed native to northern China. A viral photo later confirmed it. The two animals were labeled in a sign that read painted dogs, and the zoo’s management admitted the truth. They had taken Chow Chows and dyed them to look like pandas. They also said they never tried to hide it, noting their full name included Strange Animals and Cute Pets Paradise.

Why The Zoo Did It

According to interviews with local media, the zoo explained that the dogs had become a major draw. They said painting the animals fit their theme and added that visitors loved the novelty once they understood the idea. This wasn’t their first attempt at unusual exhibits, and the painted dogs were presented as part of a larger collection of quirky attractions.

But this explanation didn’t satisfy everyone. Some guests said they expected real pandas, and a few demanded refunds for what they saw as false advertising. The zoo insisted its signs were clear and that the dogs were treated safely. They compared the dye to regular hair coloring, telling reporters that people dye their own hair, so dogs could handle it too.

A Recurring Controversy

This incident didn’t surprise longtime zoo watchers, who remembered similar scandals in other parts of China. In early 2024, a zoo in Jiangsu province admitted to painting two Chow Chows after first claiming they were a rare type of panda dog.

That response drew a swift backlash, especially after visitors complained the animals looked uncomfortable. Animal-welfare concerns surfaced again this time. Chow Chows have thick coats and sensitive skin, and critics argued that any unnecessary coloring posed a risk.

This story taps into a bigger pattern happening in multiple zoos. When budgets are tight and competition for visitors grows, some venues try creative shortcuts. That creativity can slide straight into controversy when public expectations don’t match the reveal. In this case, curiosity won, the internet had a field day, and the Chow Chows earned a strange moment of global fame, even if they never asked for it.

You don’t see this type of news story everyday!

Tony

,,

Creator: Cloudytees.

Dear Commons Community,

Maureen Dowd in her column yesterday entitled, “Piggy Gets Polite”, brings down the “solipsistic” Trump for degrading American values.  She starts off referring to his recent exchange with Catherine Lucey, a Bloomberg News reporter, during which he tells her   “Quiet! Quiet, piggy”. Dowd provides other examples of his behavior that “shock beyond the pale.” 

She concludes:

“In emails Democrats released, Jeffrey Epstein wrote that “Trump had spent hours at my house” with one of the victims and that he believed Trump knew more than he had acknowledged, and called Trump “evil beyond belief”. You know you’re in trouble when someone evil beyond belief calls you evil beyond belief.

Below is Dowd’s entire column.

Tony

The New York Times

Maureen Dowd

Piggy Gets Polite

November 23, 2025

The solipsistic Trump, with the parasitic tech emperors and the internet itself, is degrading American values, making honor and integrity seem anachronistic.

Still, some moments shock beyond the pale. Whatever the pale is any more.

On Air Force One recently, Trump cut off Catherine Lucey, a Bloomberg News journalist pressing him about the release of Epstein files that could further implicate Trump in the lurid mess. Stabbing his finger at her face, the president of the United States snapped at Lucey: “Quiet! Quiet, piggy.”

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt later preposterously said, “The president being frank and open and honest to your faces, rather than hiding behind your backs, is, frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration.”

It was nauseating, if not surprising. Trump loves to call people who annoy him “pigs” and “dogs,” and in the case of his inamorata Stormy Daniels, “horseface”.

It was misogynistic, but Trump bullies both men and women, attacking their looks and character and hurling nasty, intensely personal epithets and nicknames. He mocked Chris Christie, once an ally, as “a fat pig,” “a slob” and “sloppy.”

When I interviewed him decades ago in his more appropriate incarnation as a flashy developer hogging attention in New York, he would rate the looks of supermodels and actors, dropping snap judgments like “Sadly, Heidi Klum is no longer a 10.” Sometimes he sent me pictures of female journalists from newspapers, commenting with a Sharpie scrawl on who he thought looked good or bad.

Politicians were never insult comics before Trump. But in the 2016 primaries he learned that sneering deflected from substance.

Trump followed up his “Quiet, piggy” moment by berating another female journalist, Mary Bruce of ABC News, who asked Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, during his appearance with the president, about his culpability in the dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. US intelligence said that the crown prince gave the order.

“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump chided Bruce. When she later asked why Trump was waiting for Congress to release the Epstein files when he could do it unilaterally, he called her question “a horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question.” He said that Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, should look into revoking ABC’s broadcast license.

Trump even defamed Khashoggi, saying that a lot of people didn’t like him and noting cavalierly that “things happen.”

Yes, Things Happen when you have no morals and your family is doing lucrative business deals with the Saudis.

By contrast, Trump was his most charming self Friday in his “fascist vs socialist” meeting with New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. He had blasted Mamdani earlier as a “communist” and “Jew Hater” and threatened to withhold federal funding for New York and send in troops. But by the end of their Oval Office news conference, the two were so lovey-dovey, a Fox News anchor warned that JD Vance might have to move over for Mamdani. And Trump, who once warned that wealthy New Yorkers and businesses would flee if the democratic socialist were elected, dramatically flipped, saying he would feel very comfortable moving back to Gotham under this mayor.

It just proved that Trump admires charismatic winners more than he cares about ideology – or consistency. Mamdani was prepared, focusing on their common ground while flattering Trump by noting his election statistics and hometown roots, and avoiding Dear Leader fawning. He strategically embraced Trump as he touted the affordability issue, which the billionaire president loved. Seeing Americans restive at his fixation on foreign conflicts, Trump is feigning a newfound interest in grocery prices.

The president was so taken with Mamdani, he even jovially told him, in response to a Fox News reporter’s question, to go ahead and repeat his campaign claim that Trump is “a fascist”. Trump also defended Mamdani from the incendiary falsehood of Elise Stefanik, the Republican who’s running for governor of New York, that the Muslim mayor-elect is a “jihadist.”)

Stefanik, a Trump henchwoman, broke away from the president on this issue, doubling down and posting Friday evening that Mamdani is “Kathy Hochul’s jihadist”.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see this genial Trump very much these days. He’s mean when he’s cornered, like the snapping turtle I had as a pet when I was a child. Republicans got creamed in the recent elections. To extend the porcine metaphor, Trump’s polls are dropping, to use a Dave Barry phrase, “like a pig out of a helicopter”.

The president, ordinarily a master at recasting reality, had to give up his ludicrous attempt to paint the Epstein files as a Democratic hoax. Labelling Marjorie Taylor Greene, his former acolyte who now says she identifies with the Epstein victims, a “traitor” backfired.

Friday night, Greene announced in a social media post that she was leaving Congress and said she didn’t want to face a “hateful” primary stirred by Trump.

“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men,” she wrote, “should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for.”

She said, “I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”

And Trump’s jeering post about Rep Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill to get the files released, wasn’t well received. Trump mocked Massie, a widower, for marrying again 16 months after his wife died. “Boy, that was quick!” This coming from the man who went straight from cheating with Marla Maples during his Ivana marriage to marrying her at the Plaza a year later.

Maligning members of his own party raised questions about why he was so desperate to hide the files of a child molester who was once his pal; the two bonded over their leering predilection for young women.

In a rare show of rebellion, republicans refused to bend the knee and pretend that it was okay to shield a sexual pervert and give his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, treats in prison and pardon dreams just because Trump didn’t want the details of his involvement with Epstein to surface.

In emails Democrats released, Epstein wrote that “Trump had spent hours at my house” with one of the victims and that he believed Trump knew more than he had acknowledged, and called Trump “evil beyond belief”. You know you’re in trouble when someone evil beyond belief calls you evil beyond belief.

 Elon Musk. Win McNamee—(Getty Images)

Dear Commons Community,

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been disbanded with eight months left in its charter, according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director, Scott Kupor.  As reported by Reuters and Time.

Kupor told Reuters that DOGE—the sweeping cost-cutting effort led by billionaire Elon Musk that dominated the first months of  Trump’s second term—“doesn’t exist,” adding that most of the office’s functions have been absorbed by OPM, the federal government’s human resources agency.

Kupor said that DOGE is no longer the “centralized entity” it once was when Trump appointed Musk to lead the agency in January, the news agency reported on Sunday.

Later Sunday, Kupor appeared to take issue with the Reuters story, without challenging any of its facts.

“The truth is: DOGE may not have centralized leadership under the [U.S. DOGE Service] But, the principles of DOGE remain alive and well: de-regulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen,” Kupor wrote on X.

He added that the OPM and the Office of Management and Budget would “institutionalize” the changes made by DOGE.

Musk’s collaboration with the Trump Administration drew scrutiny for the access he was granted throughout the government in his role as a “special advisor,” and the wide-ranging impact of the cuts made to everything from foreign aid to Social Security.

Musk and his team quickly began cutting federal grants, mass-firing federal workers, shuttering entire agencies, and canceling contracts. He positioned his staff throughout government agencies, seeking access to sensitive data in the name of making the government more “efficient.”

For months, Musk reiterated his overarching goal of reducing the deficit by $1 trillion by September 30, before a very public feud with Trump over his “One Big Beautiful Bill” led to a public breakdown in ties.

Musk’s exit had long been expected. As a special government employee, he had a 130-day contract that expired on Friday, May 30.

By the time he departed, Musk had not come close to achieving the $1 trillion savings he had projected. DOGE’s website claims it has saved $214 billion at the federal level, but multiple reports show the department inflated, rewrote, or overstated these savings.

The White House did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.

Since Musk’s departure from government, dozens of staffers—including the core leadership team—have followed the Tesla CEO out the door. In October, 45 staffers were still employed at DOGE, and the office remained open during the government shutdown, according to a memo released at the time.

Many of those who remained have since taken on new roles across different departments within the executive branch. Some high-profile staffers joined Trump’s new National Design Studio, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia. Others have taken roles as chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, as an official overseeing foreign assistance at the State Department, and as chief of the Office of Naval Research.

Some of DOGE’s initiatives, including the government-wide hiring freeze, have also ended, according to Kupor’s interview with Reuters.

Good riddance to DOGE.  All it accomplished was disruption.

Tony

 The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, also known as the Yarlung Zangbo Grand canyon, is the world’s deepest!

Dear Commons Community,

China beginnng construction of what will be the world’s largest hydropower dam, stoking concerns about displacement of communities in Tibet and environmental impacts downstream in India and Bangladesh.

The dam, which will be located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, could generate three times more energy than the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest hydropower plant.  As reported by the BBC.

Chinese state media has described the development as “a safe project that prioritizes ecological protection”, saying it will boost local prosperity and contribute to Beijing’s climate neutrality goals.

Human rights groups and experts, however, have raised concerns about the development’s knock-on effects.

Among them are fears that the construction of the dam – first announced in late-2020 – could displace local communities, as well as significantly alter the natural landscape and damage local ecosystems, which are among the richest and most diverse on the Tibetan Plateau.

China has built several dams in Tibetan areas – a contentious subject in a region tightly controlled by Beijing ever since it was annexed in the 1950s.

Activists have previously told the BBC that the dams are the latest example of Beijing’s exploitation of Tibetans and their land. Mainly-Buddhist Tibet has seen waves of crackdowns over the years, in which thousands are believed to have been killed.

In the case of the Yarlung Tsangpo dam, Chinese authorities have stressed that the project would not have major environmental impact – but they have not indicated how many people it would displace. The Three Gorges hydropower dam required the resettlement of 1.4 million people.

Reports indicate that the colossal development would require at least four 20km-long tunnels to be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain, diverting the flow of the Yarlung Tsangpo, Tibet’s longest river.

Experts and officials have also flagged concerns that the dam would empower China to control or divert the flow of the trans-border river, which flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and onwards into Bangladesh.

A 2020 report published by the Lowy Institute, an Australian-based think tank, noted that “control over these rivers [in the Tibetan Plateau] effectively gives China a chokehold on India’s economy”.

Shortly after China announced its plans for the Yarlung Tsangpo dam project in 2020, a senior Indian government official told Reuters that India’s government was exploring the development of a large hydropower dam and reservoir “to mitigate the adverse impact of the Chinese dam projects”.

China’s foreign ministry has previously responded to India’s concerns around the proposed dam, saying in 2020 that China has a “legitimate right” to dam the river and has considered downstream impacts.

China has constructed multiple hydropower stations along the course of the Yarlung Tsangpo over the past decade in a bid to harness the river’s power as a source of renewable energy. Flowing through the deepest canyon on Earth, one section of the river falls 2,000 metres within a short span of just 50 km, offering huge potential for generating hydropower.

The river’s dramatic topography, however, also poses major engineering challenges – and this latest dam is by far China’s largest and most ambitious to date.

The site of the development is located along an earthquake-prone tectonic plate boundary. Chinese researchers have also previously flagged concerns that such extensive excavation and construction in the steep and narrow gorge would increase the frequency of landslides.

“Earthquake-induced landslides and mud-rock flows are often uncontrollable and will also pose a huge threat to the project,” a senior engineer from Sichuan provincial geological bureau said in 2022.

The project could cost more than a trillion yuan according to estimates by the Chongyi Water Resources bureau.

Tony

Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)

Dear Commons Community,

Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed Trump’s proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war as rewarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and as detrimental to U.S. interests.  As reported by The Hill.

The 28-point plan, which was quietly hammered out between Washington and Moscow, to end the conflict in eastern Europe contains several nonstarters for Ukraine, including placing the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea under “de facto” Russian control and recognized by the U.S.

The proposal, which U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll discussed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday in Kyiv, would cut down the size of Ukraine’s army and forbid NATO troops from being stationed in Ukraine, preventing the prospects of having a European peacekeeping force.

“This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace. Ukraine should not be forced to give up its lands to one of the world’s most flagrant war criminals in Vladimir Putin,” Wicker said in a statement Friday. “The size and disposition of Ukraine’s armed forces is a sovereign choice for its government and people.”

“And any assurances provided to Putin should not reward his malign behavior or undermine the security of the United States or allies,” Wicker added. “In particular, any suggestion that we can pursue arms control with a serial liar and killer like Putin should be treated with great skepticism.”

The proposal would not warrant any major concessions from the Kremlin, aside from directing $100 billion in frozen Russian assets toward Ukraine’s reconstruction. The deal would lead to Russia’s full return to the global economy and all sanctions being erased.

“Putin has spent the entire year trying to play Trump for a fool. If Administration officials are more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace, then the President ought to find new advisors,” McConnell said in a statement Friday.

“Rewarding Russian butchery would be disastrous to America’s interests,” added McConnell, who has criticized the president’s approach to brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. “And a capitulation like Biden’s abandonment of Afghanistan would be catastrophic to a legacy of peace through strength.”

Zelensky did not reject the proposal, but he emphasized on Friday that Ukraine faces a tough choice of preserving its sovereign rights or risking losing support from the U.S.

“Currently, the pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest. Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner,” Zelensky said in a speech Friday, adding that he spoke with Driscoll and Vice President Vance that day about the proposal.

Trump signaled Friday that he is giving Kyiv until Thursday to agree to the proposed peace plan.

“Well, we have, you know, I’ve had a lot of deadlines, but if things are working well, you tend to extend the deadlines,” Trump said during his interview with Fox News Radio. “But Thursday is, we think, an appropriate time.”

Later on Friday, during his meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D), the president indicated that Zelensky will eventually either have to accept a version of a peace proposal or continue fighting Russia.

“He’ll have to like it, and if he doesn’t like it, they’ll just have to keep fighting, I guess,” the president told reporters. “At some point, he’s going to have to accept something.”

The proposal has received a frosty reception from Europe and other staunch Ukraine supporters, while Putin said he believes that it “could form the basis for a final peace settlement.”

Turmp’s peace plan is essentially an admission for Ukraine that it lost the war!

Tony

Texas Governor John Connally is in the foreground as John F Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy sit in the back seat minutes before JFK was assassinated.

Dear Commons Community,

On this day in history Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy — the 35th president of the United States — was assassinated while riding in an open-car motorcade in downtown Dallas, Texas.

The shocking event of 60 years ago happened near the end of JFK’s third year as president.

Riding in the same car as Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy was Texas Gov. John B. Connally, as well as Connally’s wife, Nellie Connally.

That same day, the suspect in the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president that day as well as the stunned nation absorbed the blow of so suddenly and violently losing its elected president.

Crowds of excited people lined the streets of Dallas and waved to the Kennedys that day, as the JFK Library’s website notes of the president’s campaign event — one of several — that day in Texas.

“The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza,” the website also details.

“Bullets struck the president’s neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was shot in his back.”

Right after the shooting, “the car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away,” the JFK Library’s website also notes.

“But little could be done for the president. A Catholic priest was summoned to administer the last rites, and at 1:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead.”

Gov. Connally had been seriously wounded but later recovered.

“The president’s body was brought to Love Field and placed on Air Force One,” the website also notes.

“Before the plane took off, a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson stood in the tight, crowded compartment and took the oath of office, administered by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Hughes.”

The time was 2:38 p.m.

Bob Huffaker, a former reporter at KRLD Radio in Dallas, was an eyewitness to the shooting, according to Reuters.

“It looked as though the entire city had turned up,” said Huffaker about that day in November. “It was really great. Dallas had shown that it really loved that president.”

Another eyewitness, Hugh Aynesworth, a former reporter for the Dallas Morning News, said, “Then I heard what I thought was a motorcycle backfiring, only it wasn’t — it was the first shot, and then in a few seconds, another shot and a third,” also according to Reuters.

Said the famed Walter Cronkite of CBS News that day during an on-camera news bulletin that broke into the then-in-progress “As The World Turns” soap opera on the network: “From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.”

Less than an hour before that, however, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald, “a recently hired employee at the Texas School Book Depository,” the JFK Library’s website says.

“He was being held for the assassination of President Kennedy and the fatal shooting, shortly afterward, of Patrolman J. D. Tippit on a Dallas street.”

Then, on Sunday morning, Nov. 24, “Oswald was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to the county jail. Viewers across America watching the live television coverage suddenly saw a man aim a pistol and fire at point-blank range.”

Adds the website of the caught-on-camera crime, “The assailant was identified as Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. Oswald died two hours later at Parkland Hospital.”

That same day, President Kennedy’s “flag-draped casket was moved from the White House to the Capitol on a caisson drawn by six [gray] horses, accompanied by one riderless black horse,” the library also notes.

“Crowds lined Pennsylvania Avenue and many wept openly as the caisson passed.”

“During the 21 hours that the president’s body lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda, about 250,000 people filed by to pay their respects.”

On Monday, Nov. 25, 1963, Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

“The funeral was attended by heads of state and representatives from more than 100 countries, with untold millions more watching on television. Afterward, at the grave site, Mrs. Kennedy and her husband’s brothers, Robert and Edward, lit an eternal flame.”

Any American alive at the time and watching can likely still recall one of the “most indelible images of the day”: the salute by a young child to his father (John F. Kennedy Jr. was only three years old at the time), plus “daughter Caroline kneeling next to her mother at the president’s bier, and the extraordinary grace and dignity shown by Jacqueline Kennedy,” writes the JFK library’s website.

Many unanswered questions remain to this day about Kennedy’s assassination.

I remember the day and hour as if it was yesterday.

Our country was never the same!

Tony