Anthony Picciano

Nicolle Wallace
Dear Commons Community,

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace commented last night that Donald Trump and his re-election campaign team are nervous about the selection of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as […]

Dear Commons Community,

I have just finished reading Andrea Wulf’s book entitled, The Invention of Nature:  Alexander von Humboldt’s New World.  It is an engaging biography of someone who I had heard about […]

Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a sobering piece this morning begging the question whether the pandemic will force many colleges and universities to abandon the tenure […]

Dear Commons Community,
As a follow-up to my posting yesterday on whether colleges will shut down big time football programs this fall, two of the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful football conferences a […]

Dear Commons Community,

A big issue for many colleges this fall is whether or not to allow team sports such as football to go on.  It is both a health issue as well as an economic issue.  For co […]

Ben Sasse
Dear Commons Community,  

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) snapped back at an imperious attack by President Donald Trump yesterday, angrily reminding him that “America doesn’t have kings.”

Trump accuse […]

First Day of School at Georgia’s North Paulding High School – Students in Hallway and Some without Masks
Dear Commons Community,

Schools across America are slowly reopening for the fall, with some students […]

Dear Commons Community,

Nobel Prize Laureate Paul Krugman declared President Trump’s executive orders the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy.  In a tweet (see above) and an interview with CNN, Krugman so […]

Geraldine Ferraro with Walter Mondale as he announced that he had chosen her as his vice presidential running mate in 1984.     Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Dear Commons Community,

It is exp […]

Dear Commons Community,

President Donald Trump signed four executive actions that included deferring payroll taxes that provide funding for both Social Security and Medicare.  While Trump characterized the […]

Dear Commons Community,

New York state schools can bring children back to classrooms for the start of the school year, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday, citing success in battling the coronavirus […]

Dear Commons Community,

Jerry Falwell Jr., president and chancellor of Liberty University, is taking an “indefinite leave absence from his roles” at the school, the University’s Board of Trustees annou […]

Dear Commons Community,

If you are still looking for some fun summer reading, I would recommend For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose.  […]

Dear Commons Community,

I was without power for a little more than two days after Isaias finished its work here in the New York City Metropolitan area.  More than two million households were left without […]

Dear Commons Community,

Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, ending World War II.  The video above shows the Japanese commemorating the day.  We all join them in h […]

Dear Commons Community,

The Online Learning Consortium will be offering a free webinar for parents of young adults who will be learning online this coming semester. Below is the description of the […]

Dear Commons Community,

A new course-sharing initiative from the Big Ten Academic Alliance is aimed at offering students more educational opportunities during the pandemic. Beginning this fa […]

Dear Commons Community,

I just finished reading Mary Trump’s memoir, Too Much and Never Enough,  about her dysfunctional family.  It is a short book that one can easily get through during one rainy w […]