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Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Monica Crowley educational qualification: Charting the path from political science graduate to ambassador
Monica Crowley's journey from a political science student to the ambassador and chief of protocol of the United States reflects a blend of rigorous academic achievement and a dynamic career in politics and media. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now With a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Colgate University and a Ph.D. in international relations from Columbia University, Crowley has built an impressive educational foundation that has underpinned her extensive public service and media career. Crowley, born on September 19, 1968, at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and raised in Warren Township, New Jersey, graduated from Watchung Hills Regional High School in 1986. Her academic credentials include not only a doctorate but also two master's degrees, which further demonstrate her dedication to understanding international affairs and political science at a high level. Academic foundation and early career beginnings Crowley's academic journey began with her undergraduate studies at Colgate University, where she earned her BA in political science. She then pursued advanced studies at Columbia University, where she completed her Ph.D. in international relations in 2000. Although Columbia's internal investigation found "localized instances of plagiarism" in her dissertation, it did not reach the level of research misconduct, a conclusion that helped her continue her career in public service. Her academic background helped launch a career that bridged media and politics. At 22, Crowley worked as a research assistant to former president Richard Nixon, assisting with his last two books and later publishing two books about Nixon herself. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Her ability to combine scholarly insight with political analysis made her a sought-after commentator. Media prominence and government service In the mid-1990s, Crowley began writing columns for the New York Post and contributed to several prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, The Washington Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She became a familiar face on television, working as a Fox News political and foreign affairs analyst from 1996 to 2017, with occasional roles on MSNBC. Her government career gained prominence when she served as assistant secretary for public affairs at the US Department of the Treasury. For her outstanding work, she was awarded the Alexander Hamilton Award, the department's highest honor. President Donald J. Trump officially nominated Crowley to be the ambassador, assistant secretary of state, and chief of protocol of the United States, a role she was sworn into with great honor. In an Instagram post, Crowley expressed her gratitude: 'I am deeply humbled to be nominated by President Donald J. Trump to serve as Ambassador, Assistant Secretary of State, and Chief of Protocol of the United States of America. It was the honor of my life to serve in his first administration — and it will be an even greater honor to represent America in his second' (monicacrowley_ Instagram). Navigating challenges and future roles Crowley's career has not been without controversy. In 2017, reports of plagiarism in her 2012 book and her doctoral dissertation emerged. While these allegations sparked debate and led to her withdrawal from a National Security Council position, Crowley has denied intentional wrongdoing. The Trump administration defended her, calling the accusations a 'politically motivated attack.' Despite these challenges, Crowley's appointment as ambassador and chief of protocol highlights her resilience and the administration's confidence in her capabilities. She is expected to represent the US at major upcoming events, including America's 250th birthday in 2026, the FIFA World Cup in 2026, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Monica Crowley's educational qualifications have laid a strong foundation for her influential role in US politics and diplomacy, underscoring how academic rigor combined with practical experience can shape a career dedicated to public service.
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Who is Monica Crowley? Trump's new chief of protocol
Monica Crowley was officially sworn in as ambassador and chief of protocol of the United States by the Senate on May 30. Crowley was officially nominated to this position last year, December, 2024 by the US President 's administration. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Expressing her excitement, she shared the news on X, I'm so honored to be CONFIRMED by the Senate to serve as Ambassador and Chief of Protocol of the United States!" "Deeply grateful to President Trump & the Senate for the privilege of representing our great country at home & abroad. Excited to get back to work for the greatest President and for America!", she added. Previously, she has served as Ambassador, Assistant Secretary of State, and Chief of Protocol of the United States of America. Who is Monica Crowley? Crowley was born in Arizona. She is one of 'The New York Times best-selling author' for her books, "What The (Bleep) Just Happened?" and "The Happy Warrior's Guide to the Great American Comeback". She holds a dual Master's degree from Colgate University and also has a doctorate in International Relations from Columbia University. She has served as assistant secretary of the treasury for public affairs during President Trump's first term in office. She has received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the highest honor given by the department for her exceptional service. A high-profile TV and radio personality, she served as a popular television anchor and political and foreign affairs analyst for the Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, ABC News, NBC News, and other national networks. She is also the host of podcast series, " The Monica Crowley Podcast". Earlier in her career, she served as the foreign policy assistant to former US President Richard Nixon from 1990 until his death in 1994, as reported by Richard Nixon foundation. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now She also wrote two bestsellers sharing her experiences working with Nixon, "Nixon Off the Record" and "Nixon in Winter". She has contributed for many national publications, including The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. She has been a guest-lecturer at Yale, Columbia, Rutgers and MIT universities.
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
As Trumps monetize presidency, profits outstrip protests
(News Analysis) When Hillary Clinton was first lady, a furor erupted over reports that she had once made $100,000 from a $1,000 investment in cattle futures. Even though it had happened a dozen years before her husband became president, it became a scandal that lasted weeks and forced the White House to initiate a review. Thirty-one years later, after dinner at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Jeff Bezos agreed to finance a promotional film about first lady Melania Trump that will reportedly put $28 million directly in her pocket -- 280 times the Clinton lucre and in this case from a person with a vested interest in policies set by her husband's government. Scandal? Furor? Washington moved on while barely taking notice. The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and is opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone. Just last week, Qatar handed over a luxury jet meant for Trump's use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office. Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined. And Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in -- not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Trump personally. By conventional Washington standards, according to students of official graft, the still-young Trump administration is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate and other famous scandals. 'I've been watching and writing about corruption for 50 years, and my head is still spinning,' said Michael Johnston, a professor emeritus at Colgate University and author of multiple books on corruption in the United States. Yet a mark of how much Trump has transformed Washington since his return to power is the normalization of moneymaking schemes that once would have generated endless political blowback, televised hearings, official investigations and damage control. The death of outrage in the Trump era, or at least the dearth of outrage, exemplifies how far the president has moved the lines of accepted behavior in Washington. Trump, the first convicted felon elected president, has erased ethical boundaries and dismantled the instruments of accountability that constrained his predecessors. There will be no official investigations because Trump has made sure of it. He has fired government inspectors general and ethics watchdogs, installed partisan loyalists to run the Justice Department, FBI and regulatory agencies and dominated a Republican-controlled Congress unwilling to hold hearings. As a result, while Democrats and other critics of Trump are increasingly trying to focus attention on the president's activities, they have had a hard time gaining any traction without the usual mechanisms of official review. And at a time when Trump provokes a major news story every day or even every hour -- more tariffs on allies, more retribution against enemies, more defiance of court orders -- rarely does a single action stay in the headlines long enough to shape the national conversation. Paul Rosenzweig, who was a senior counsel to Ken Starr's investigation of President Bill Clinton and later served in the George W. Bush administration, said the lack of uproar over Trump's ethical norm-busting has made him wonder whether longstanding assumptions about public desire for honest government were wrong all along. 'Either the general public never cared about this,' he said, or 'the public did care about it but no longer does.' He concluded that the answer is that '80%, the public never cared' and '20%, we are overwhelmed and exhausted.' 'Outrage hasn't died,' Rosenzweig added. 'It was always just a figment of elite imagination.' The White House has defended Trump's actions, brushing off questions about ethical considerations by saying that he was so rich that he did not need more money. 'The president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws that are applicable to the president,' said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. 'The American public believes it is absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency. This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly.' But saying that he is abiding by all conflict of interest laws that are applicable to the president is meaningless since, as Trump himself has long noted, conflict of interest laws are not applicable to the president. Moreover, he has not given it all up; in fact, he is still making money from his private business interests run by his sons, and independent estimates indicate that he has hardly sacrificed financially by entering politics. Forbes estimated Trump's net worth at $5.1 billion in March, a full $1.2 billion higher than the year before and the highest it has ever been in the magazine's rankings. The president's sons scoff at the idea that they should limit their business activities, which directly benefit their father. Donald Trump Jr. has said that the family restrained itself during his father's first term only to be criticized anyway, so it made no sense to hold back anymore. 'They're going to hit you no matter what,' he said last week at a business forum in Qatar. 'So we're just going to play the game.' There have been some burgeoning signs of public pushback in recent days. The gift of the Qatar plane seemed to break through to the general audience in a way that other episodes have not. A Harvard/CAPS Harris poll released last week found that 62% of Americans thought the gift 'raises ethical concerns about corruption,' and even some prominent right-wing Trump supporters like Ben Shapiro and Laura Loomer voiced objections. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who campaigned with Trump last year, expressed misgivings this week during a podcast with Shawn Ryan, a right-wing influencer, who mentioned all of the Trump family business deals that seemed to coincide with the president's recent trip to the Middle East. 'That stuff kind of worries me,' Ryan said. 'Well, it seems like corruption, yeah,' Carlson agreed. But while several dozen demonstrators protested outside Trump's golf club the other night, Democrats are split about how much to focus on Trump's profitmaking, with some preferring to concentrate on economic issues. Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., has been leading the charge the other direction, making floor speeches and leading news conference denouncing what he calls 'brazen corruption.' 'It is unlikely he is going to be held accountable through traditional means,' Murphy said in an interview. 'There are going to be no special counsels; there's going to be no DOJ action. And so it's really just about public mobilization and politics. If Republicans keep paying a price for the corruption by losing special elections throughout the next year, maybe that causes them to rethink their complicity.' Trump had long promised to 'drain the swamp' in Washington after years of corruption by other politicians. When he first ran for president in 2016, he excoriated the Clintons for taking money from Saudi Arabia and other Middle East monarchies with an obvious interest in currying favor in case Hillary Clinton won the presidency. But that money went to the Clinton Foundation for philanthropic purposes. The money Trump's family is now bringing in from the Middle East is going into their personal accounts through a variety of ventures that The New York Times has documented. Johnston said the Trumps represent 'an absolute outlier case, not just in monetary terms' but also 'in terms of their brazen disregard' for past standards. 'While we might disagree as to the merits of policy, the president and figures in the executive branch are expected to serve the public good, not themselves,' he said. Trump made a nod at those standards in his first term by saying he would restrict his family business from doing deals overseas. But since then, he has been convicted of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records and held liable in civil court for fraud while the Supreme Court has conferred immunity on him for official acts. In his second term, Trump has dispensed with self-imposed ethical limits. 'He's not trying to give the appearance that he's doing the right thing anymore,' said Fred Wertheimer, founder of Democracy 21 and a longtime advocate for government ethics. 'There's nothing in the history of America that approaches the use of the presidency for massive personal gain. Nothing.' Congressional Republicans spent years investigating Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, for trading on his family name to make millions of dollars, even labeling the clan the 'Biden Crime Family.' But while Hunter Biden's cash flow was a tiny fraction of that of Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Jared Kushner, Republicans have shown no appetite for looking into the current presidential family's finances. 'The American public has had to inure itself to the corruption of Donald Trump and his presidency because the president and his Republican Party have given the American public no choice in the matter,' said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former appeals court judge who has become a critic of Trump. Trump evinces no concern that people funneling money into his family coffers have interests in government policies. Some of the crypto investors who attended his dinner Thursday night acknowledged that they were using the opportunity to press him on regulation of the industry. According to a video obtained by the Times, he reciprocated by promising guests that he would not be as hard on them as the Biden administration was. One guest at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, that night was Justin Sun, a Chinese billionaire who became one of the largest holders of the $TRUMP memecoin after buying more than $40 million, earning him a spot in an even more exclusive private VIP reception with the president before the dinner. The Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023 accused Sun of fraud, but after Trump took over the agency put its lawsuit on hold even as it dropped other crypto investigations. As for Bezos and Qatar, each has reason to get on Trump's good side. In his first term, Trump, peeved at coverage in The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, repeatedly pushed aides to punish Bezos' main company, Amazon, by drastically increasing its U.S. Postal Service shipping rates and denying it a multibillion-dollar Pentagon contract. Trump also had denounced Qatar as a 'funder of terrorism' and isolated it diplomatically. He has not targeted either Bezos or Qatar in his second term. The president has not hesitated either to install allies with conflict issues in positions of power. He tapped a close associate of Elon Musk as the administrator of NASA, which provides Musk's SpaceX with billions of dollars in contracts. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously worked as a lobbyist for Qatar, signed off on the legality of Qatar's airplane gift. Zach Witkoff, a founder of the Trump family crypto firm World Liberty Financial, and son of Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy, announced a $2 billion deal in the United Arab Emirates, just a couple of weeks before his father and Trump traveled there for a presidential visit. Wertheimer said the accumulation of so many conflicts puts Trump on the all-time list of presidential graft. 'He's got the first 10 places on that,' he said. 'He's in the hall of fame of ripping off the presidency for personal gain.' But he said the public would eventually grow upset. 'I think that's going to catch up with him. It's going to take some time, but it's going to catch up with him.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Meet the man behind the NFL schedule, on the verge of his retirement
Howard Katz had just finished his presentation to NFL coaches and general managers, explaining how he and his team make the league's schedule. 'Have you ever done that presentation before?' a coach asked him. 'Yes, but not to this audience,' Katz replied. 'You should never do it again.' 'Seriously? … Why?' Advertisement 'I always thought the scheduling process was completely random,' the coach said. 'It bothers me to know there's a small group of people who have that much control over destiny.' For two decades, Katz has been at the center of each year's NFL schedule. Coaches and networks lobby him for perks and complain about grievances. He's the unknown planner behind every NFL fan's fall Sundays. The schedule-making process spans from January to May, refining endless possibilities in an infinite pattern of give-and-take. 'The same thing over and over again, expecting a different result,' Katz said during a recent phone call. 'That's what we do for months.' After the 2025 schedule is unveiled Wednesday, Katz, 75, will retire from being the league's senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations. Sports were always a part of Katz's life, but he never pictured a career in the industry. At Colgate University, Katz was the sports editor of the school newspaper and sports director at the radio station, where he did play-by-play for the football, basketball and baseball teams. After graduating in 1971, Katz was offered a job as a production assistant at ABC Sports. 'I didn't know what it entailed, but it seemed pretty cool,' he said. For the next year, he worked for various sporting events, including 'Monday Night Football' and the 1972 Munich Olympics. 'I figured I'd do that for a year or so, and then I'd go to law school,' Katz said. 'But I never got to law school.' Various production opportunities followed, including stops at ESPN, where he helped launch ESPN2, among other initiatives, and a return to ABC Sports as president. In 2003, Katz landed with the NFL. Within a year, his role running the business side of NFL Films merged into leading the league's broadcast department. Advertisement Katz's background in the television business brought a new perspective to the scheduling process, particularly as the NFL grew into one of the country's most lucrative television products. In 2023, the league began an 11-season media rights agreement with Amazon Prime Video, ESPN, NBC, Fox and CBS worth $110 billion, nearly double the value of its previous contracts. Partnerships with Netflix for Christmas Day games and Peacock, the streaming service of NBC, followed. And, as reported last week by The Athletic, Google's YouTube has emerged as a favorite to stream its first NFL game on Friday of opening week. In the schedule-making room, Katz's biggest impact was meshing team needs with broadcast desires, vice president of broadcast planning Mike North said. '(Katz was) really the one that pulled everything together. He was the right guy at the right time as we transitioned from a couple of guys in a room with a pegboard to managing what ended up being $100 billion worth of media,' North said. 'The reason (broadcasters) pay the money now, quite honestly, is because Howard showed them they're going to have an opportunity to get their priorities met as well as taking care of our teams.' When Katz started, he and his team used one or two computers to assist the scheduling process. Now, there are anywhere from 200 to 300 computers at their disposal. The team trains the computers to think the way they do, inputting rules to reflect their wants. For example, they input a rule to avoid three-game road trips, and the computers formulate schedules that follow the criteria as closely as possible. Each morning, Katz evaluates the computers' suggestions, highlights the positives, inputs new rules to correct the negatives and begins the process again. But it still boils down to human input. Advertisement There's no shortage of factors that impact each year's schedule. There are international and holiday games. Schedule-making begins in earnest after the Super Bowl, but notable trades and selections in the NFL Draft can result in last-minute adjustments. They receive personal requests, like teams asking to schedule around weddings, bar mitzvahs or previously planned vacations. There are situational hurdles like avoiding overlap with certain cities' MLB home games or concerts, which is probably the most difficult, Katz said. There are special circumstances, too. Katz remembers, in 2015, having to avoid an Eagles home game on the same weekend the Pope visited Philadelphia. Or, in 2020, spending the entire summer planning for every what-if amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if it required moving a Ravens-Steelers game to a Wednesday, the league finished that season with zero cancellations, which Katz considers his most remarkable accomplishment. 'It's funny, usually at the March annual meeting, coaches, general managers, owners, will all be lobbying for something, whether it's more prime-time games, 'Don't send me here after this game,'' Katz said. 'And then by the May meeting, after the schedules come out, I'm hearing from everybody about what they liked or what they didn't like. 'People aren't bashful about that.' Listening to requests and balancing them against what's best for the NFL is at the core of Katz's work. He has seen the DNA of the schedule change. At one point, he and his team felt strongly about putting more division games late in the season. In 2010, the league began drawing up only divisional games in the final week of the regular season. 'That was a central moment in the scheduling process,' Katz said. 'Once we did it, we said, 'This really works. We should never go back.'' Advertisement More changes could be on the way, too. Commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed interest in expanding to an 18-game season, which would further complicate the scheduling puzzle. 'As a fan, I love it. If I can swap out a preseason weekend for another regular-season weekend, and if we do end up adding a second bye for every team, you're talking 20 weeks of NFL football instead of 18,' North said. 'As a member of the scheduling team, it's daunting.' Katz's work earned him induction into the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame in 2014, and he was the 2022 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. At this year's annual league meeting, Goodell recognized Katz in front of team executives, who gave him a standing ovation. 'It really means a lot to me, because I put my heart and soul into this,' Katz said. 'To know that whatever I did was appreciated goes a long way.' The future for Katz is still being decided. He grew up a New York Giants fan but has spent the last 23 years impartial. He took his grandchild to Super Bowl LIX, which made the 9-year-old an Eagles fan, but most of his other grandchildren took on the family's Giants fandom, with one New York Jets rebel. Katz plans to find another hobby soon. His retirement wasn't sudden, and the scheduling team has slowly been preparing for this transition over the past few years. Executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder now leads the scheduling team. Nonetheless, North feels confident that if they have to call Katz up with questions, he'll answer. But first, it's time for Katz's final reveal. 'There are an incredible number of really strong games (on the 2025 schedule); games that Howard would say 'Sounds like a football game,'' North said. 'And so we've got an opportunity here. Yes, we're spreading ourselves a little more thin, adding in streaming partners, more days of the week, Christmas, Black Friday, Friday night in Week 1 and more international games. 'There are definitely more mouths to feed, but it feels like we've got a real buffet on our hands for the 272 (matchups) this year.' (Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; photo: Bobby Bank / Getty Images)
Epoch Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
A Curricular Solution to the Crisis of Civic Illiteracy
Commentary John and Abigail Adams envisioned an America with a school in every neighborhood and a well-informed citizenry that was adept in languages, literature, and music, as well as science, history, and religion. Their vision was practical until the ages recast it, little by little. Then sometime between Joseph McCarthy and Joan Baez, the status quo of the educational system came undone. Students who had been accustomed to a traditional 50/50 split between the humanities and the sciences were capsized academically by the surprise Sputnik launch in 1957. The U.S.'s race to space sent higher education into a tizzy, becoming fixated on improving science education above all. In the succeeding seven decades, resources have consistently risen for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), which has been to our benefit. But this has come at an unnecessary cost: the humanities have been downplayed, devalued, and dodged. That uneven ratio has bestowed an unfortunate historic illiteracy on three generations. Most people, for example, do not know the philosophical roots of the Declaration of Independence, their rights as laid out in the Constitution, or the civic virtues their teachers should have taught them. For these three reasons, many Americans do not vote in local, state, or national elections. Even amid this crisis of civic illiteracy, only about 18 percent of colleges and universities nationwide Related Stories 4/13/2025 3/19/2025 According to That gap in Columbia's history major requirements is deeply troubling, though it at least has a Contemporary Civilization requirement in its signature core curriculum for undergraduates that addresses founding documents and key concepts of United States government. Meanwhile, at Colgate University, which has no such option in its general education requirements, 'Students choose one of two pathways to graduate with a B.A. in history. Both require nine courses. The Field of Focus (FoF) Pathway requires one history workshop, seven electives….. The FoF Pathway allows students to devise individualized, intellectually coherent specializations. Possible fields of focus include environmental history, gender and sexuality, and race and racism.' This reorientation away from the study of American history—even as a point of reference for students who are focusing their studies on other parts of the world—is now the norm in the American academy. In the 2020–21 academic year, 18 of the top 25 public universities did not have a wide-ranging American history requirement for students seeking a B.A. in history in the major or core curriculum, nor did 24 of the 25 best national schools. Even the legendary linchpins of the liberal arts—Amherst, Swarthmore, Vassar, Smith, Williams, and Pomona—fared poorly: 21 out of 25 colleges examined did not have an American history requirement. The consequences of forgoing the study of American history have a powerful effect on the population. Much of what is not learned—or stays uncorrected—turns into the misinformation that is so damaging in a free and democratic society. When 8th graders were In 2015, 10 percent of college graduates In 2019, ACTA In 2024, an ACTA survey of college students showed that fewer than half identified ideas like 'free markets' and 'rule of law' as core principles of American civic life. The survey also found that 60 percent of American college students failed to identify term lengths for members of Congress. A shocking 68 percent did not know that Congress is the branch that holds the power to declare war. Seventy-one percent did not know when 18-year-olds gained the right to vote. All of these results were based on multiple-choice questions. All the respondents had to do was select the correct option out of four possibilities. The late Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2001 to 2009, admonished, 'Unlike a monarchy, a democracy is not automatically self-perpetuating. History and values have to be renewed from generation to generation.' Our failure to educate future citizens for informed civic participation compromises the country. Institutions need to take ACTA's findings to heart and, starting with their requirements for the history major, embrace their obligation to address the crisis in civic education. From Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
