Wednesday Night #2226

As the days grow shorter, darkness envelops us physically -though you MUST check out the spectacular Beaver Supermoon rising at approximately 4:30 p.m.on Friday-  and mentally. The news of the Trump takeover of the U.S., the dim prospects for Climate COP29, the intransigence of Israel, the minimal prospects for resolution of Putin’s War now that North Korea has added considerable cannon fodder to the effort, and given the Trump team’s virtual indifference to the fate of Ukraine … there’s not much to cheer about.

We do, however, congratulate Marc and Jean Nicholson on the very successful opening of 1880 Hong Kong

Given the gloom and doom surrounding us, we revert to Conversations, a favorite WN topic: It is always good to be reminded of what makes for good conversation -and therefore successful Wednesday Nights.
Conversations are essential to our well-being. Psychologists are exploring the science of why they’re so powerful
Research suggests that asking questions that show you are listening can be one of the best ways to make a conversation click
In recent years, new theories and tools have started to unlock exciting insights about these critical social interactions, on everything from informal chats to political disagreements to negotiations between neighbors, businesses, and nations. Psychologists are using sophisticated approaches, such as natural language processing algorithms and a neuroimaging technique known as hyperscanning, where two or more brains are scanned simultaneously as they interact, to gain new perspectives. They’re also sharing those findings to help deepen everyday interactions between strangers, make disagreements more productive, and improve outcomes for mediators, suicide crisis negotiators, and more.
“People’s well-being is determined in large part by the quality of their social relationships, which rely heavily on conversations that they have with each other,” said Michael Kardas, PhD, an assistant professor of management at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business who has studied why people avoid deep conversations. “Going a little deeper in conversation, as well as learning to navigate disagreements, can create the kinds of connections that leave people feeling happier.”
Jaw, jaw is better than war, war.
Even the Minister of Labour, who has intervened in the lockouts at the four B.C. ports, the Port of Montreal and the Port of Quebec, believes that “Negotiated agreements are the best way forward.” It seems obvious that the three unions representing the Montreal and B.C. dock workers now challenging the federal government’s recent decisions to intervene in major labour disputes and their employers would have benefited from more conversation over the years.

Trump taps allies for Cabinet as GOP wins full control of Congress
President-elect (ugh!) Trump has begun to name his key appointees.
This will be a drawn-out process and we do not plan to publish each announcement, but warning: the first nominees are scary … Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy. And foreign policy hawk Marco Rubio to replace the urbane, dedicated, professional diplomat Antony Blinken.
The nominations trigger a different tipping point for many of us: Peter Frise (“Talk about putting the wolf in charge of the henhouse”) and Robert Reich share their horror/dismay over the news that Trump picks Matt Gaetz for attorney general
Robert Reich: Matt Gaetz as AG is laughable if it weren’t so horrific and dangerous
The nomination is really Trump’s loyalty test of Senate Republicans: If they go along, there’s nothing they won’t go along with.
Slate comments: No Matter How Bad You Think an Attorney General Matt Gaetz Would Be, He’ll Be Worse
Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department would destroy the agency, quite possibly forever.
Trump has picked evangelical Christian, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who says Israel has a rightful claim to the West Bank, to be ambassador to Israel. And on Wednesday, AP published Israel’s West Bank settlers hope Trump’s return will pave the way for major settlement expansion
The Huckabee appointment will NOT solve the international relations dilemma (neither the first nor the last) for the President-elect who  proclaims his great friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu, but also needs good relations with the Arab Middle East… As Bibi’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announces that the Trump win means ‘time has come’ to annex parts of West Bank, Saudi Arabia has initiated the global alliance to push for Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution and, on 11 November, hosted the Arab-Islamic Summit whose declaration highlighted the need to mobilize international support to impose an arms embargo on Israel and freeze its membership in the United Nations. Arab-Islamic Summit calls for ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon, freezing Israel’s UN membership, arms supply

Latest news about the role of the pervasive and persistently annoying Elon Musk
Trump says Musk, Ramaswamy will form outside group to advise White House on government efficiency.
According to Politico Playbook, “The bigger picture, however, is how Musk is starting to wear out his welcome with some in Trump’s orbit. After initially making a huge splash with his endorsement, some insiders now say he’s become almost a comical distraction, hanging around Mar-a-Lago, sidling into high-level transition meetings and giving unsolicited feedback on Trump’s personnel decisions. “Elon is getting a little big for his britches,” one insider tells Playbook.

The anguished (and sometimes appallingly self-righteous) analyses have not stopped since the results of the US election were first published. One of the most informative is Heather Cox Richardson’s November 8, 2024 in which she surveys several important columns that cover the breadth and depth of voters’ misinformation. “In Salon today, Amanda Marcotte noted that in states all across the country where voters backed Trump, they also voted for abortion rights, higher minimum wage, paid sick and family leave, and even to ban employers from forcing their employees to sit through right-wing or anti-union meetings. She points out that 12% of voters in Missouri voted both for abortion rights and for Trump.” … Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, who studies focus groups, told NPR, “When I ask voters in focus groups if they think Donald Trump is an authoritarian, the #1 response by far is, What is an authoritarian?”

Doug Sweet asks if we could take a moment to discuss the rise of misogynistic alpha males and how the Trump victory seems to have enabled them. Allison Hanes had a good column in today’s Gazette on the subject (After Trump’s victory, we can’t ignore the danger of male supremacy), which has a pretty hot local angle in the debate over whether TLMEP should have invited some of these “influencers” on its program. Given the sharp increase in support for repealing the 19th Amendment, the jaw-dropping popularity of the “your body, my choice” phrase searing its way through social media and the talk we heard toward the end of the campaign about how wives should be voting the way their husbands tell them (unless, of course, the husband was saying “vote Democrat”), this has well-nourished roots and now a greenhouse in which those roots can flourish. Remember, the ERA, first introduced more than 100 years ago, has never passed.

This from Peter Berezin (who will join us on the 27th): “One thing I rarely hear mentioned is that most trade these days is in intermediate goods. This means that higher tariffs will not only hurt consumers, but will raise costs on businesses too.
My latest report discusses the implications of a Trump presidency on trade, global growth, and asset markets”

The COP29 Climate Change Conference is underway in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Sadly, expectations are low given the Trump election, along with a number of other issues. See Four reasons next week’s COP29 might be meh

Amidst the plethora of commentaries and analyses of the failure of the Harris ticket to win the election and what happens next to the Democrats, the American citizenry, the USA, and the World, a new-to-us source: Rebecca Solnit, a Guardian US columnist and Climate advocate.  She does not exhibit the academic discipline (or restraint!) of historian Heather Cox Richardson, but her strongly voiced opinions, based more on emotions, may appeal at another level.
More to our taste is International Intrigue, designed by three U.S. former diplomats to -in their words- explore the intersection of Geopolitics, Business and Technology. Often irreverent, the daily newsletter manages to be enjoyable while being insightful.

(Canadian) Ministers urged to explain how they will prevent a surge in asylum seekers from U.S. after Trump election
Roula Eatrides, deputy chairperson of IRB’s refugee protection division, told the Commons immigration committee Thursday that it now takes 44 months for a refugee claim to be dealt with after being referred to the board. She said the IRB has a record backlog of about 250,000 cases.
On Wednesday, immigration lawyer (and former Wednesday Nighter)  Richard Kurland told The Globe and Mail that because asylum claims take so long to process, undocumented migrants facing deportation from the U.S. may try to find a safe haven and “buy time” in Canada, though he said few are likely to have their claims approved.

Family, dignitaries remember Murray Sinclair’s legacy, teachings at national ceremony
Mr. Sinclair is the first Indigenous person to be honoured with a national commemorative ceremony.
(Globe & Mail) A week full of ceremonies honouring Murray Sinclair, the late trailblazer known for advancing the rights of Indigenous peoples, culminated in the same way that much of his conversations began: with the necessary balm of laughter, like medicine despite the gravity of generations of pain.
As more than 1,500 mourners congregated Sunday at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Mr. Sinclair’s son Niigaan reminded the crowd that the ceremony was a joyous occasion. His father, he said, has already embarked on his journey to the spirit world, and now it’s time to celebrate the legacy of his lifetime of work. Murray Sinclair stood for truth, justice to the end
From the courthouse to the Senate, he challenged racism, championed Indigenous rights and sought reconciliation

Remembrance Day, November 11, always a solemn occasion, is marked by touching stories and stories of great valor. We were recently reminded by the death of John Kinsel Sr, of one story that has always fascinated us, that of the Navajo code talkers who helped the allies win WWII.

The Quebec Liberals (PLQ) gathered in Lévis for a policy convention last weekend. Five candidates for the leadership of the party were present and it appears that Pablo Rodriguez is in the lead, although the race has not yet officially started.

Congratulations again to Julien Feldman and all members of the Joe Ortona team on their election, Joe Ortona re-elected EMSB Chair; candidates sweep all 10 seats
The EMSB Council swearing-in ceremony takes place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday 13 November.

From outer space to the House of Commons, get to know Marc Garneau (audio)
(CBC radio) In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first Canadian astronaut to go to space. The former politician, engineer and astronaut talks about overcoming the fear of space travel, and his new found love for cooking in The Next Chapter’s version of the Proust Questionnaire.

In case you missed Peter Trent‘s Anglos aren’t to blame for Montreal’s anglicization – Premier François Legault should be wagging his finger at his linguistic compatriots who have abandoned the island of Montreal. As usual, well reasoned, and supported by census figures.

Varia
News source for global development stories

First ferret babies born from a clone bring new hope for their species (Follow link to see picture)
Black-footed ferrets Sibert and Red Cloud are the 1st offspring of a cloned endangered animal

Robert Reich: What will YOU do?
Acknowledging what we are up against
The Republicans soon to be in control of Congress are more MAGA, less principled, and more intimidated by Trump than the Republicans who had control when Trump took office in 2017. There are no Liz Cheneys in the House, no Mitt Romneys in the Senate. Republican senators seeking to become the majority leader are already competing to please Trump, promising immediate confirmation of his appointments.
The Republican Party as a whole has now been effectively purged of people willing to stand up to Trump.

They’re all good boys and girls, but only some can be service dogs
Not every puppy can grow up to be a “working” dog.
It takes a certain temperament, specific cognitive skills and months of formal instruction. And at least half the dogs in training to be workers fail, which costs time and money and adds to the wait for service animals, experts say.
…canine behavioral scientists are trying to change that. They are studying puppies in hopes of developing a behavior model that can predict the likelihood a dog will successfully complete training and enter the canine workforce.

These Elephants Can Use Hoses to Shower—and Even ‘Sabotage’ Each Other, Study Suggests
Mary, a 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, is the “queen of showering,” but her companion Anchali seems to have figured out how to exploit that habit to play pranks

The Leaf Blowers Will Not Go Quietly
Scores of US cities are trying to muffle the seasonal din of gas-powered leaf blowers. But the new regulations and fines are generating resistance, too.
Leaf blowers aren’t just yard equipment. Over the last decade or so, they’ve become political lightning rods and culture war weapons. James Fallows of The Atlantic famously led a years-long crusade against the “Leaf Blower Menace” in Washington, DC, and pundits regularly re-litigate the case against — and sometimes for — “America’s most hated appliance.” On TikTok, there’s a popular compilation of Cate Blanchett’s multiple rants over leaf blowers. Every autumn, Reddit threads, neighborhood Facebook groups and NextDoor feeds are buffeted by fierce gusts of leaf blower discourse. The online rage hit new levels in early days of Covid-19, as millions worked from home and found a fresh perspective on neighborhood-scale nuisances.
… Depending on which side of the lawn you’re standing on, those campaigning against leaf blowers can be viewed as either champions of the environment or the pinnacle of privileged NIMBYism. And with more towns and cities restricting the use of gas-powered blowers and encouraging their replacement with a new generation of electric alternatives, some state-level conservative lawmakers have worked to fend off what they portray as nanny-state overreach: Republican-backed bills launched recently in Florida and Georgia seek to prevent local governments from enacting bans.

Long reads
COP29: What is the latest science on climate change?
This year’s U.N. climate summit – COP29 – is being held during yet another record-breaking year of higher global temperatures, adding pressure to negotiations aimed at curbing climate change.

Iran and Saudi Arabia pursue cautious rapprochement
…improved Iranian-Saudi relations could contribute to the region’s long-term stability and that Tehran has understood that rapprochement is in the interests of all parties.
After decades of rivalry, Iran and Saudi Arabia have understood that it is in their mutual interest to normalize their relations.

How the climate crisis threatens the Panama Canal – and the country’s future
The region has spent over a year in drought, the third worst since the canal opened in 1914, forcing the authorities to restrict the number and size of vessels crossing the continent, creating today’s waterborne traffic jam.

Misinformation Decided the US Election
Polling data show that Donald Trump’s supporters were deeply misinformed about most of the campaign’s defining issues. Only if this is attributable to bad actors exploiting a broken information ecosystem, rather than an electoral majority that chooses to be misinformed, can there be hope of a healthier politics in America.