C.E.O. Sam Altman.

Dear Commons Community,

Mira Murati, the chief technology officer, and two others are leaving OpenAI as C.E.O. Sam Altman works to transform it into a for-profit company.

Joining Ms. Murati are OpenAI’s chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and vice president of research, Barret Zoph. As reported by The New York Times.

OpenAI is controlled by the board of a nonprofit organization that Mr. Altman and his co-founders created in late 2015 to oversee the start-up’s technologies.

While becoming a for-profit company is not expected to happen until next year, OpenAI is in talks for a new round of investment that could value the company at as much as $150 billion, a huge leap from its last round at $80 billion. The United Arab Emirates’ technology investment firm, MGX, is among the potential investors, which also include Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple and Tiger Global, three people familiar with the conversations said.

OpenAI is seeking cash because its costs far outpace its revenue, the three people said. It annually collects more than $3 billion in sales while spending about $7 billion.

After years of public conflict between management and some of its top researchers, OpenAI is trying to look more like a more traditional tech company that can be a leader in the industry’s drive toward artificial intelligence.

But Wednesday’s executive departures followed months of similar exits by other OpenAI leaders. And they bookend a turbulent year for the company, which included the surprise ouster of Mr. Altman as chief executive and his reinstatement five days later.

Ms. Murati, who had joined OpenAI in 2018, was appointed to lead the company after Mr. Altman’s removal, but rejected the role just two days later. She has remained one of the public faces of the start-up, making frequent public appearances to discuss its technology.

A spokeswoman for OpenAI declined to comment beyond what the executives posted online.

In a reply to Ms. Murati on X, Mr. Altman thanked her for her years at the company and said he would provide more information on the leadership transition in the coming days.

“It’s hard to overstate how much Mira has meant to OpenAI, our mission, and to us all personally,” he wrote.

Late Wednesday, Mr. Altman said on social media that the departures of Mr. McGrew and Mr. Zoph were unrelated to the resignation of Ms. Murati but that “it made sense to now do this all at once, so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership.”

OpenAI’s move to for-profit status will be watched closely especially in terms of major cash infusions which will cement its leadership position in AI development.

Tony

US vice-president Harris meets with Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy in Washington
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Dear Commons Community,

Kamala Harris denounced the Trump position of  ending Russia’s war against Ukraine as “proposals of surrender” as the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington to present his own “victory plan”.

Addressing Zelenskyy at the White House, Harris said that “some in my country” would pressure Ukraine to accept a peace deal in which it surrendered its sovereign territory and neutrality in order to make peace with Vladimir Putin. As reported by The Guardian and The Associated Press.

“These proposals are the same as those of Putin, and let us be clear, they are not proposals for peace,” she said. “Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”

While she did not mention Donald Trump or JD Vance by name, those terms for peace closely resemble ones laid out by the Republican vice-presidential nominee in an interview earlier this month.

Zelenskyy had publicly denounced Vance as “too radical” after those remarks, sparking a conflict with Trump allies that has culminated with accusations of election interference and Republican calls for Ukraine to fire its ambassador to Washington.

In an apparent U-turn late on Thursday, Trump told reporters he would meet Zelenskyy at Trump Tower in New York today.

When asked if Ukraine should give up territory, Trump was non-committal, saying: “Let’s get some peace … We need peace. We need to stop the death and destruction.”

Harris’s remarks came after Zelenskyy met Joe Biden at the White House for the formal presentation of Zelenskyy’s high-stakes proposal, which he has said can end the war with Russia with additional American aid.

The White House issued a short statement after the meeting, saying that the “two leaders discussed the diplomatic, economic, and military aspects of President Zelenskyy’s plan and tasked their teams to engage in intensive consultations regarding next steps”.

“President Biden is determined to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win,” the statement said.

Zelenskyy has kept the details of the plan secret, but US officials have said it includes additional American aid to prevent a Ukrainian rout on the battlefield and “provide the [Ukrainian] people with the assurance that their future is part of the west”.

Zelenskyy faces an uphill battle in securing support for the plan, because of caution among senior officials in the Biden administration about providing Russia with a pretext to escalate the conflict further, and the looming November presidential elections that could lead to a re-election of Donald Trump.

Before the meeting, Biden announced more than $8 billion in military assistance to Kyiv, calling it a “surge in security assistance for Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war”.

The aid includes the provision of a medium-range “glide bomb” munition fired from fighter jets that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike Russian troops and supply lines at safer distances.

The allocation included $5.5bn from the Ukraine security assistance initiative fund by the end of the year, as well as an additional $2.4bn in security assistance via the Department of Defense.

The package includes additional Patriot air defense batteries and missiles, unmanned aerial systems, and measures to strengthen Ukraine’s defense industrial base, Biden said. The US will also expand training for additional F-16 fighter pilots, with an extra 18 pilots to be trained next year.

But Biden was not expected to grant a key Ukrainian request that has been supported by the UK – permission to use arms such as long-range Atacms ballistic missiles to strike targets deeper inside Russia – due to fears of escalating the conflict with Russia.

“There is no announcement that I would expect [on that],” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters before the meeting.

Zelenskyy said in a social media post: “We will use this assistance in the most effective and transparent way possible to achieve our main common goal: a victorious Ukraine, a just and lasting peace, and transatlantic security.”

Biden also announced that he would convene a high-level meeting of the Ukraine defense contact group to coordinate aid to Ukraine among more than 50 allies as he enters the lame-duck period of his final three months in office.

US media have reported that the Biden administration and European allies have been skeptical of Zelenskyy’s plan to achieve victory, which is understood to need to secure maximal support from the west before potential negotiations with Russia.

“I’m unimpressed. There’s not much new there,” a senior official told the Wall Street Journal.

Zelenskyy had said the plan included decisions that can be taken “solely” by the United States and “is based on decisions that should take place from October through December” – meaning the end of Biden’s term in office.

Zelenskyy, in an interview with the New Yorker published this week, said he believed Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war” and criticized Vance for describing a vision for peace that included Ukraine ceding territories currently occupied by Russia.

Before the meetings, Zelenskyy met members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

Trump’s surrender would put all of Europe in danger of Russian incursions.  Then again Trump would do anything to ingratiate himself with Putin!

Tony

Eric Adams.  Photograph: Kent J Edwards/Reuters.

Dear Commons Community,

Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal criminal charges, according to people with knowledge of the matter, and will be the first mayor in modern New York City history to be charged while in office.

The indictment is sealed, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams, a Democrat, will face or when he will surrender to the authorities. Federal prosecutors were expected to announce the details of the indictment today.

In a speech recorded at his official residence, Adams said he would remain in office, describing any charges he may face as “entirely false, based on lies.”  As reported by The New York Times and The Associated Press.

“I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said. “I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit.”

It was not immediately clear what laws Adams is accused of breaking or when he might have to appear in court.

Federal investigators had seized Adams’ electronic devices nearly a year ago as part of an investigation focused, at least partly, on campaign contributions and Adams’ interactions with the Turkish government. Because the charges were sealed, it was unknown whether they dealt with those same matters.

It marks a stunning turn for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the city’s second Black mayor on a campaign that stressed his working class roots and commitment to public safety. But as Adams has made reducing crime a cornerstone of his administration, he has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations honing in on his top aides and his own campaign.

In the last two weeks alone, the leaders he appointed to oversee the country’s largest police force and largest schools system have announced their resignations.

Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office. If he were to resign, he would be replaced by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who would then schedule a special election.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office. Hochul spokesperson, Avi Small, issued a statement late Wednesday that said “Governor Hochul is aware of these concerning news reports and is monitoring the situation. It would be premature to comment further until the matter is confirmed by law enforcement.”

The indictment comes against the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly, which has brought dozens of world leaders to New York, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The federal investigations into Adams administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of his chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.

At the time, Adams insisted he followed the law and said he would be “shocked” if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally. Days later, FBI agents seized the mayor’s phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan.

Then on Sept. 4, federal investigators seized electronic devices from the city’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, deputy mayor of public safety, first deputy mayor and other trusted confidantes of Adams both in and out of City Hall.

Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the investigations, but people familiar with elements of the cases described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments.

A week after the searches, the city’s police commissioner, Edward Caban, announced his resignation. Yesterday, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced he would retire at the end of the year.

Adams himself insisted he would keep doing the city’s business and allow the investigations to run their course.

Over the summer, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Adams, his campaign arm and City Hall, requesting information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.

Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president. He was elected as mayor in November 2021 — a victory he has repeatedly said was ordained by God.

But after more than two years in office, Adams’ popularity has declined. While the city has seen an increase in jobs and a drop in certain categories of crime, the administration has struggled with an influx of tens of thousands of international migrants who overwhelmed the city’s homeless shelters.

There has also been a steady drip of accusations and a swirl of suspicion around people close to the mayor.

In addition to the sprawling inquiries launched by Manhattan prosecutors, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are investigating another one of Adams’ close aides, Winnie Greco, who had raised thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the city’s Chinese American communities and later became his director of Asian affairs. Greco hasn’t commented publicly on the FBI searches of her properties and continues to work for the city.

When agents seized electronic devices from Caban, the former police commissioner, in early September, they also visited his twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who runs a nightlife consulting business.

Agents also took devices from the schools chancellor; his brother Philip Banks, formerly a top NYPD chief who is now deputy mayor for public safety; their brother Terence Banks, who ran a consulting firm that promised to connect businesses to government stakeholders; and from First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who is David Banks’ domestic partner.

All denied any wrongdoing.

While those investigations churned, federal authorities also searched the homes of newly named interim police commissioner, Thomas Donlan, and seized materials unrelated to his police work. Donlon confirmed the search and said it involved materials that had been in his possession for 20 years.

In his speech last night, Adams appeared to cite that search as proof of overreach by federal investigators.

Hours before the charges were announced, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on Adams to resign, the first nationally prominent Democrat to do so. Adams reacted with scorn, dismissing Ocasio-Cortez as self-righteous.

Adams, who is expecting a tough primary election next year, faced additional calls to resign once the indictment became public last night, including from many of his declared or expected Democratic challengers in the mayoral race.

Sad day for the Big Apple!

Tony

CUNY, including City College above, has been a hub of pro-Palestinian activism for years.  Credit…Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times.

Dear Commons Community,

An independent third-party review of antisemitism and discrimination at the City University of New York called for a total overhaul of the system’s policies related to antisemitism and the creation of a center to address antisemitism and other forms of discrimination.

Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the independent evaluation of CUNY’s “policies and procedures” last October, as anti-Israel activities rocked CUNY campuses in the weeks after Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7.

Protests and turmoil over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, along with allegations of antisemitism, have continued across the CUNY system’s 25 campuses over the past year, restarting as its 225,000 students returned to campus in recent weeks. Dozens of students were arrested at pro-Palestinian encampments last spring, and Hillel events have faced protests.

Judge Jonathan Lippman, a former chief judge of New York State and a CUNY graduate, headed the evaluation and is the lead author of the report, which was published on Tuesday, with assistance from his law firm, Latham & Watkins. It recommends far-reaching changes, which Hochul has ordered CUNY to implement.  As reported by NY Jewish Week and The New York Times.

“CUNY’s current system of handling complaints regarding antisemitism, discrimination, and retaliation is ineffective and needs to be completely overhauled,” the report said. “CUNY’s current policies and procedures are in many respects outdated and potential sources of confusion.”

The report paints a picture of inept and muddled handling of antisemitism on CUNY campuses, partially due to the sprawling, decentralized structure of the university system, the nation’s largest urban college network. The colleges have significant autonomy from the central CUNY administration.

Many Jewish students feel unsafe on campus, the report said, even as it praised CUNY’s leadership for its good-faith efforts to ensure safety and combat discrimination.

“All leaders in the CUNY system uniformly take safety on their campuses very seriously,” the report said. But, it added, that commitment does not always translate into a comfortable environment for students, including Jews.

“We heard from many in the CUNY community that they do not feel safe on campus due to antisemitism and other forms of hate,” the report said.

In a letter to Hochul, Lippman cited recent “alarming” incidents, including the targeted harassment of incoming Jewish Baruch College students at a kosher restaurant earlier this month.

“Not only did the protestors cruelly taunt the students about the murder of six hostages by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, but the protesters also appear to have threatened the students with violence, and used antisemitic tropes in the process,” Lippman said. “It is truly saddening that students just beginning their college education were subject to such blatant hate.”

“Incidents such as this must never be tolerated at CUNY,” he said.

CUNY’s chancellor, Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, condemned the incident at the time and vowed an investigation.

CUNY is one of several universities to have commissioned and published reports on campus antisemitism after a year of protests over the war and as bigotry against Jewish students has vaulted into the national spotlight. A report last month on antisemitism at Columbia University, 20 blocks south of CUNY’s City College, said Jewish students there faced “crushing” discrimination.

Alleged antisemitism at CUNY predates Oct. 7. Some Jewish faculty sued their union in 2022 for discrimination, and city lawmakers have pressured CUNY to take action on antisemitism. Federal investigators have also probed antisemitism allegations at Brooklyn College. In 2022, in response to complaints about antisemitism, the university system announced a series of measures to address the issue.

The report sought to clarify two thorny and related issues that universities across the country have confronted when addressing protests over the Gaza war: the limits of free speech protections and when anti-Zionism crosses the line into antisemitism. On free speech, the report acknowledged that the law is complex but said categories of speech that are not protected include some forms of incitement, threats, defamation, obscenity, and “fighting words,” such as personal abuse.

On the question of Zionism, the report said the CUNY system should “recognize,” but not necessarily formally adopt, a popular but controversial definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Some universities have employed the IHRA definition as part of their anti-discrimination policies, but it has drawn opposition because it defines some criticism of Israel as antisemitism. CUNY’s administration has previously called the IHRA definition a “vital resource.”

“For many Jewish people, Zionism is part of their Jewish identity and shared ancestry. For that reason, when dealing with speech related to the State of Israel, understanding what is protected free speech and what constitutes antisemitism is critical,” the report said.

CUNY told the New York Jewish Week that it “welcomed” the report and “will work to implement” Lippman’s recommendations.

“Amid a rising tide of antisemitism nationwide, CUNY has already taken critical steps to combat hate and discrimination,” Rodríguez said in a statement. “Recognizing there is more to do, we look forward to working on implementing Judge Lippman’s recommendations to redouble our efforts and build on our progress to create a more inclusive campus environment for students, faculty and staff.”

The team of investigators spent 10 months conducting more than 200 interviews and meeting with more than 300 people, including students, college presidents and deans. The investigators visited 13 out of the 25 CUNY campuses, representing a cross-section of the system. It also reviewed applicable laws, such as First Amendment protections, and CUNY policies.

The schools the team visited included some of the most prominent in the system, such as Baruch, Brooklyn College, City College and the CUNY School of Law, all of which have grappled with antisemitism allegations in recent years.

The team did not limit its discussions to antisemitism, but sought information about CUNY’s policies related to other forms of discrimination. It proposed changes to combat all forms of hatred.

The report recommended 13 actions CUNY should take, including creating the center to address antisemitism and other discrimination, promoting civil discourse, monitoring compliance across the system, and creating a more “centralized presence” to deal with hatred.

The report said CUNY’s sprawling structure creates problems because each college has autonomy in dealing with discrimination, creating inconsistencies in the responses. The location and demographics at each school also affect how antisemitism and discrimination are experienced. For example, schools in Manhattan are often squeezed into multi-story buildings with few entrances, making students more vulnerable to protests at those entrances. Schools with large populations of both Jewish and Muslim students had more reported discrimination complaints.

The report said the school system should also revamp its online portal for complaints, which it said is is largely ineffective because it does not provide any feedback to complainants and clashes with reporting procedures at some CUNY schools. CUNY set up the portal in January 2023 as part of a response to antisemitism, which the report said “appears to have had the best of intentions.”

“The discrimination and retaliation portal has failed,” the report said, adding that its categories were unclear and that because anyone could submit complaints, including those unaffiliated with CUNY, administrators felt overburdened by the number of reports. The portal also cannot run queries to identify trends across campuses, or even at a single school.

Some of the policies have not been updated in almost a decade, meaning they are not in line with current laws against discrimination and harassment, the report said. Other recommendations included establishing a victim’s advocate program to assist victims of discrimination, coordinating with law enforcement to establish standard safety protocols, conducting more oversight of diversity officers, ensuring that policies adhere to anti-discrimination laws, holding faculty accountable for “violative conduct” and adopting a comprehensive policy on freedom of speech.

In its statement in response to the report, CUNY highlighted steps it has already taken to combat hatred, including training programs, deploying additional safety officers, meeting with Hillel representatives and providing guidance to campus leaders on protest rules. The school has also set up a Jewish advisory council, partnered with the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and started the 2024 school year with a “campus unity campaign.”

CUNY’s leadership offered “steadfast cooperation” and assistance to the independent review, the report said, but it added that some faculty and student groups refused to speak and encouraged others against cooperation. Participation was voluntary and mostly confidential.

The report was not all critical — CUNY’s leadership, both at its central administration and at the individual school level, all “take safety on their campuses very seriously,” it said. Campus security and law enforcement coordinate their activities, the report said, resulting in few incidents of physical violence. CUNY faculty, however, need to “take more decisive action to stop antisemitism,” including by advancing dialogue between those with differing viewpoints, the report said.

“The overwhelming majority of students, faculty and staff are behaving appropriately at CUNY and are a credit to the institution,” it said. Still, it noted that many students do not feel safe due to protests, doxxing and other issues. Social media also worsens antisemitism by promulgating hate speech against students, it said.

Hochul said that after reviewing Lippman’s report, she directed CUNY to implement his 13 recommendations, and that the report should serve as a guide for all colleges in the state.

“Hate on campus has surged nationwide over the past year, and we needed a candid review of how best to protect our students,” Hochul said in a statement shared with the New York Jewish Week. “My expectation is that CUNY will enact these recommendations, and they have already taken initial steps to address the Judge’s findings.”

Let’s hope so!

Tony

David C. Banks

Dear Commons Community,

David C. Banks, the chancellor of New York City’s public school system, announced late on Tuesday that he would resign from his post at the end of December.

The announcement came just weeks after federal agents seized Mr. Banks’s phone as part of a bribery investigation involving his brothers and fiancée — and it promised to roil not just the nation’s largest school system but also a mayoral administration already reeling from at least four separate federal corruption inquiries.

The schools chancellor’s resignation is the fourth in less than two weeks among top officials in Mayor Eric Adams’s administration, following the resignations of the police commissioner and the city’s top lawyer and a statement from the health commissioner saying he would leave office at the end of the year.

Of those officials, Mr. Banks is by far the closest to the mayor, who recently said that he has known the chancellor; his younger brother, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety; and the rest of the Banks family for decades and would continue to have a relationship with them.  As reported by The New York Times.

And the announcement of the chancellor’s departure caught his subordinates off guard. It landed just three weeks into the new school year, and occurred as his Education Department was still scrambling to address students’ flagging academic performance and behavioral and mental health concerns that were lingering aftereffects of the pandemic.

Melissa Aviles-Ramos, one of the chancellor’s top deputies, is expected to be named the next chancellor as soon as Wednesday, according to three people with knowledge of the appointment. It is not immediately clear whether Ms. Aviles-Ramos, who previously served as Mr. Banks’s chief of staff, would serve on an interim or permanent basis.

The resignation announcement was an abrupt turnaround for a man who has said since at least the mid-1990s that the schools chancellorship was the job he wanted more than any other.

But outside the Education Department, his past several weeks have been filled with turmoil.

On. Sept. 4, the day before classes were to begin for New York City’s 900,000 public-school students, the chancellor’s phone was seized around dawn by federal agents conducting a bribery and corruption investigation that is focused at least in part on a consulting firm run by Mr. Banks’s youngest brother, Terence Banks.

David Banks’s fiancée, Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor, also had her phone seized when federal agents appeared at their door. And his brother Philip also had his phone taken by federal agents.

That investigation was separate from the other three inquiries swirling around the Adams administration, which include an investigation into whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.

Neither Mr. Banks nor anyone else has been accused of wrongdoing in the investigations, and it was not clear whether prosecutors would file charges at all.

At a recent news conference, he maintained that he had done nothing wrong.

“I have always lived my life with integrity,” Mr. Banks said. “Every day.”

We wish him luck!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin yesterday explained why Donald Trump — in light of what she described as his “creepy” promise to be a “protector” of women if he wins back the White House — may come to regret not picking a woman as his running mate.  As reported by The Huffington Post and CNN.

The former president, who a jury in May found liable for the sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, at a rally yesterday said of women: “I want to be your protector as president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, ‘Oh, he wants to be their protector.’ Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector.”

“I started laughing and thinking it was creepy,” Griffin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper of her immediate response.

But then “thinking more about it,” Griffin said, she felt it was “very infantilizing.”

“Talking about women as though we’re weak, we’re meek, we need a protector, we need a defender and we just sit around thinking about abortions all day, it just underscores a fundamental lack of understanding for why a demographic that represents half of the country is one that he is struggling so profoundly with,” she explained.

Griffin predicted of Trump: “If he loses this election [he] is going to look back and think that one of the worst decisions he made was not having a female on the ticket who actually knows how to speak to living, breathing, normal women about issues that matter to them.”

Instead, Trump chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance — who has drawn ire with his “childless cat ladies” comments, among many others.

“Yes, reproductive rights do matter, access to IVF, to the whole suite of care that women care about, whether it be abortion or so on,” said Griffin. “But economics and national security are also women’s issues, and just the way he is talking about them is not the way to sway voters in the middle.”

Watch Griffin’s commentary below.

Tony

"It underscores a fundamental lack of understanding for why a demographic that represents half of the country is one that he is struggling so profoundly with": @AlyssaFarah @DavidAxelrod @JamalSimmons @Mowers discuss Trump casting himself as a "protector" of women. pic.twitter.com/OHOQUOi64Y

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) September 25, 2024

Juan Williams and Kellanne Conway.  Courtesy of Fox News.

Dear Commons Community,

Fox News’ political analyst Juan Williams on Yesterday called out former Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway — to her face, live on the air — for her spin on what was purportedly Donald Trump’s speech on what he plans to do with the economy.

Conway claimed the former president “got very granular” with his lengthy address in Georgia and argued it was “a challenge” to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to “stop talking in generics and be more granular.”

Williams, though, wasn’t having it.

“You know, Kellyanne said he got granular. I’m still waiting for the grain here, the granular pieces, because, to me, this was a speech in which he’s trying to set out a new policy, I guess […] but all I heard from him was attacks on Harris, ‘Comrade Kamala.’ For an hour and a half, ‘Kamala is a communist.’”

Conway, who during Trump’s presidency displayed her penchant for “alternative facts,” pushed back, saying: “Come on, Juan. You have the text in front of you. Don’t say that.”

Williams was undeterred.

“This was pretty much just an ad hominem personal attack,” he said. “It made for like a rally-like atmosphere. It was a brash promise he’s making to make everything better, he says, ‘It’ll be so easy.’ But the reality is, even as he attacks Harris, he ignores the fact the U.S. economy right now is growing even after COVID. It’s the best on the globe. Manufacturing fell to its lowest under Trump.”

Williams said he didn’t hear any new policies from Trump, and that it was just the same old schtick from the ex-POTUS.

Conway told Williams, “I just can’t sit here and abide these lies.”

To which Williams fired back, “It’s not a lie. It’s the absolute truth.”

Watch the exchange below courtesy of Fox News and Raw Story.

Well worth viewing!

Tony

Donald Trump and Recip Taqyyip  Erdogan. Photo by Peter Nicholls via Getty Image.

Dear Commons Community,

I am currently reading Nexus:  A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Harari that examines the flow and importance of information throughout human existence.  Similar to Harari’s best-seller, Sapiens, this is a long, sweeping treatment of its subject matter. 

In Chapter Five, Harari discusses the control of information in government and analyzes democracies versus dictatorships. He observes that dictators become adept at using elections to gain power and then impose tyrannical positions.  He mentions Adolf Hitler, who was popularly elected and subsequently became a ruthless Fuhrer. Also mentioned is President of Turkey  Recip Taqyyip  Erdogan,  who Harari quotes as saying:

“Democracy is like a tram. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off.”

Donald Trump has referred to Erdogan as someone he admires.  Trump has also said that if elected president, he will be a dictator for one day. 

Make no mistake, Trump and Erdogan are the same birds of a feather!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

School districts in California will have to create new rules restricting student smartphone use under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed yesterday.

The legislation makes California the latest state to try to curb student phone access in an effort to minimize distractions in the classroom and address the mental health impacts of social media on children. Florida, Louisiana, Indiana and several other states have passed laws aimed at restricting student phone use at school.  As reported by The Associated Press.

“This new law will help students focus on academics, social development, and the world in front of them, not their screens, when they’re in school,” Newsom said in a statement.

But some critics of phone restriction policies say the burden should not fall on teachers to enforce them. Others worry the rules will make it harder for students to seek help if there is an emergency or argue that decisions on phone bans should be left up to individual districts or schools.

“We support those districts that have already acted independently to implement restrictions because, after a review of the needs of their stakeholders, they determined that made the most sense for their communities with regards to safety, school culture and academic achievement,” said Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association. “We simply oppose the mandate.”

The law requires districts to pass rules by July 1, 2026, to limit or ban students from using smartphones on campus or while students are under the supervision of school staff. Districts will have to update their policies every five years after that.

The move comes after Newsom signed a law in 2019 authorizing school districts to restrict student phone access. In June, he announced plans to take on the issue again after the U.S. surgeon general called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms and their effects on young people.

The governor then sent letters to districts last month, urging them to limit student device use on campus. That came on a day that the board for the second-largest school district in the country, Los Angeles Unified, voted to ban student phone use during the school day beginning in January.

Assemblymember Josh Hoover, a Republican representing Folsom, introduced the bill with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are also parents.

Phones are restricted where Hoover’s children — ages 15, 12 and 10 — attend school. Many of the students don’t always like the policy, which is in part a reflection of how addictive phones can be, he said.

“Anytime you’re talking about interrupting that addiction, it’s certainly going to be hard for students sometimes,” Hoover said. “But I think overall they understand why it’s important, why it helps them focus better on their classes and why it actually helps them have better social interaction with their peers face to face when they’re at school.”

Some parents have raised concerns that school cellphone bans could cut them off from their children if there is an emergency. Those fears were highlighted after a shooting at a Georgia high school left four dead and nine injured this month.

The 2019 law authorizing districts to restrict student phone access makes exceptions for emergencies, and the new law doesn’t change that. Some proponents of school phone restrictions say it’s better to have phones off in an active shooter situation, so that they don’t ring and reveal a student’s location.

Teachers have reported seeing students more engaged since the Santa Barbara Unified School District began fully implementing a ban on student phone use in class during the 2023-24 school year, Assistant Superintendent ShaKenya Edison said.

Nick Melvoin, a Los Angeles Unified board member who introduced the district’s resolution, said passing the policies at the district or state level can help prevent students from feeling like they’re missing out on what’s going on on social media.

Before student cellphone use was banned during the school day at Sutter Middle School in Folsom, students had been seen recording fights, filming TikTok challenges and spending lunchtime looking at online content, Principal Tarik McFall said. The rule has “totally changed the culture” of the school so that students spend more time talking to one another, he said.

“To have them put away, to have them power off and that be a practice, it has been a great thing,” McFall said.

Teachers have become more reliant in recent years on technology as a learning tool for students, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, said Mara Harvey, a social studies teacher at Discovery High School in the Natomas Unified School District.

The district, which is in Sacramento, provides students in the first through 12th grades with a Chromebook, where they can access online textbooks and Google Classroom, a platform where teachers share class materials. But if a student forgets their Chromebook at home, their smartphone becomes “the next viable choice for them to access the curriculum,” Harvey said.

Many other states will follow California in imposing restrictions on cellphone use in schools.

Tony

Liz Cheney

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