Wednesday Night #2260

These are parlous times.
While there are many world events of great concern, none is more serious than the Trump regime’s daily contributions to the disintegration of the US democratic institutions.
In Letters from an American July 7, 2025 Heather Cox Richardson details the chilling situation in Los Angeles
“At about 10:30 this morning local time, heavily armed masked agents in trucks, armored vehicles, a helicopter, on foot, and on horseback, accompanied by a gun mounted on a truck raided the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. Journalist Mel Buer reported that agents from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the National Guard, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brought what she called a “massive federal presence.”
Fox News Channel personnel were embedded with the raiders and broadcast throughout the operation, suggesting that it was designed for the media as a show of force to intimidate opponents.” …
What effect will Elon Musk’s new party have? Experience says not much: H. Elon Perot -Another angry billionaire wants his own political party.
If you’re old enough, you’ve seen this movie: An eccentric billionaire, full of bile and nursing grudges against the incumbent Republican president, wants to create a third major political party and shake up the system.
In 1992, the billionaire was H. Ross Perot, and his vehicle for attacking the incumbent president, George H. W. Bush, was something called the Reform Party
See also The Courts Won’t Save Democracy From Trump
George Conway on Trump, the rule of law, and why the legal system is failing By David Frum

U.S. Environment – natural disasters
A national reckoning
As the U.S. absorbs the terrible news from Texas and blame assignment begins (Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic and deadly flooding), Robert Reich highlights that the US government “is no longer able to protect us from real hazards, such as flash floods, because it’s shifting funds to fake hazards, such as a non-existent immigrant crime wave. [FEMA] has been stripped down so much it can barely respond to emergencies, yet it’s funding detention centers such as Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades.”
With the news that Trump Approves Major Disaster Declaration for Texas, might we be witnessing the beginning of another TACO moment?
Reminder “The president has said he would like to see FEMA largely eliminated after this year’s hurricane season, which winds down at the end of November, and shift more disaster management away from the federal government. What Trump’s FEMA Cuts Mean for Hurricane Season
We are also watching the news from North Carolina and hoping AG Jeff Jackson will keep us informed of developments.

Trump, Trade & Tariffs
The madness continues. Every day there is a new imposition with increasing lack of any logical underpinning. See How reliant is the US on copper imports and who will tariffs hurt?

We paid a lot of attention to -and applauded- the Canada-hosted G7 -mainly because there was no repeat of Trump’s Charlevoix tantrums- even though not a lot came out of the meeting. But the Brazil-hosted BRICS Summit has provoked a drastic response from Donald Trump who has declared a tariff war on Brazil and prompted Deutsche Welle to ask Why is Donald Trump so afraid of BRICS ? We hope that when Sandy returns from her impromptu trip to Argentina and Brazil, she will bring us some commentary.

Other wandering Wednesday Nighters include Judy Roberts, who has survived the Paris heatwave and is now in Newfoundland, and Peter Frise, who writes that they have enjoyed their trip to the UK including Kirkwall in the Orkneys where he “spent a day or two looking at Scapa Flow – the huge RN anchorage in WW-1 and -2 and of course the site of the “Grand Scuttle” of 74 (!!!) ships of the interned German High Seas fleet in June 1919.” After a visit in
in Christchurch near Bournemouth, they come home this weekend.
Ever mindful of keeping WN on its collective toes, Peter sends along a link (https://youtu.be/iQPQJUdKPec?si=pZOOLWms0eBY_9mO) to Australian defense policy and economics analyst “Perun” with the comment that “His style is in my view, somewhat sub-optimal as he simply puts up very wordy slides to accompany his witty and informative voiceover (which often contains extended vocabulary – but of course, he is an Australian). The problem is that the font on his slides is often too small to be read – but oh well. Perun’s latest missive is on the the new 5% NATO spending target and as usual, I learned a good deal from it.”

For Québécois and Québécoises, the next important elections are municipal on 2 November.
Sometime Wednesday Nighter Marina Brzeski has written a most persuasive article Municipal office: Why run? Who can? in the May 6 edition of the Westmount Independent (p.10) enjoining citizens to actively participate in elections and reduce/eliminate acclamation of candidates – to coin a phrase, “apathy is boring”
Lawyer Lynne Casgrain throws hat in ring for mayor of Westmount
Lynne Casgrain, a lawyer and former ombudsperson of the McGill University Health Centre, has become the first person to declare she’ll run for mayor of Westmount in the Nov. 2 municipal election. Her announcement Tuesday fills a void left by current mayor Christina Smith, who said in January she won’t seek re-election. Casgrain’s candidacy also suggests that Westmount’s controversial redevelopment plan for its southeast sector bordering downtown Montreal will become a key ballot box issue.
We are absolutely delighted that our good friend Lynne Casgrain has been persuaded by Peter Trent to run for Mayor of Westmount and we encourage Wednesday Nighters to actively support her candidacy.

Peter Berezin will be with us next week. In anticipation, you may wish to read The End of America’s Exorbitant Privilege
Since his return to office, US President Donald Trump has been systematically destroying markets’ faith in the dollar and the US economy. If he refuses to heed their warnings, as seems likely, the US should brace for a dollar and bond-market crisis in the run-up to next year’s midterm elections.

US-Israel-Gaza
Trump says “very good chance” of Gaza ceasefire this week or next , but at what cost to the Gazans?
However, late afternoon news on Wednesday suggests that Gaza truce talks reportedly stall despite second Netanyahu-Trump meeting
Shameless pandering: Netanyahu presents Trump with letter nominating him for Nobel Peace Prize
(The Hill) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday presented President Trump with a letter nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize after Trump pushed for a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
Netanyahu visited the White House on Monday, marking the first face-to-face meeting with Trump since the president ordered U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, a decision made in coordination with Israel’s bombing of key Iranian nuclear sites.

Great thanks to Jeremy Kinsman for pointing out CBC correspondent Alex Panetta’s Stepping off the Trump treadmill: farewell to Washington with the comments: “For the last ten years or so, I have followed avidly a journalist in CBC’s Washington Bureau who has filed every couple of weeks on the website the most insightful, accurate, analyses of the biggest political and security issues going on in Washington and in the craziness of America of any reporter out there and I read them all. He is unimpressed by appearances and acutely observant, perhaps in a way an American writer can’t be as naturally.” (See long reads below)

David Frum: Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine
Interview with former ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, who is now running for the Democratic nomination to retake the seat in Michigan’s Seventh District that Elissa Slotkin vacated to run for the Senate. The seat was lost by current state Democratic Party Chair, Curtis Hertel to a Trump republican.
NB She is Byron Haskins‘ new across-the-street neighbor in Michigan. He thinks a lot of people will be behind Brink to take that seat back.
Byron writes that he has already corresponded with her husband, who worked for USAID, and will probably be getting together in Michigan for a chat later this month. Stay tuned!

Varia
The Bayeux Tapestry, the 11th-century artwork depicting the Norman conquest of England, will be displayed in the UK for the first time in almost 1,000 years. Officials announced on Tuesday that the treasured medieval tapestry will be on loan from France and is expected to arrive at the British Museum next year, where it will feature in a blockbuster exhibition from September 2026 to July 2027. The fragile 230-foot cloth depicts the events leading up to the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. The artwork was believed to have been commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux and has been displayed in various locations across France, including most recently at the Musée de Bayeux in Normandy.
Revenge is sweet
Former Librarian of Congress, fired by Trump, vows to improve public information in new Mellon role
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation exclusively told The Associated Press that Carla Hayden will join the humanities grantmaker Monday as a senior fellow whose duties will include advising on efforts to advance public knowledge through libraries and archives.
The year-long post places Hayden back at the center of the very debates over American culture that surrounded her dismissal. The White House ousted Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to hold the title, after she was accused of promoting “radical” literary material by a conservative advocacy group seeking to squash Trump opposition within the federal government.
Haiti’s renowned Hotel Oloffson is burned down by gangs
Gothic gingerbread building in Port-au-Prince hosted illustrious parties and guests including Mick Jagger
…It also served as inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene’s 1966 novel The Comedians, set in Haiti under the brutal dictatorship of François Duvalier, best known as Papa Doc.
The Honourable Catherine McKenna announces the publication of her book Run Like A Girl on 23 September
From Olympic dreams to the frontlines of politics and climate action, Run Like A Girl charts McKenna’s personal and political journey. Preorder at Sutherland House Publishing

For your calendar
15-16 October
Kyle Matthews advises The Montreal Institute for Global Security will host the Montreal International Security Summit 2025 in collaboration with partners including the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Canada, the NATO Association of Canada, and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Long reads
Texas Hill Country Is Underwater, and America’s Emergency Lifeline Is Fraying
By MaryAnn Tierney [who] has worked in emergency management for over 25 years, and was acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
The uncomfortable truth is this: With each passing day, the federal government is becoming less prepared to face the next big disaster. And as the risk grows, the ability to deliver on its vital disaster response mission is shrinking.
A very long (with many worthwhile links) and entertaining reflection on CBC’s Alex Panetta’s 12 years in D.C., and the country he got to know — the one beyond the news.
Stepping off the Trump treadmill: A CBC correspondent bids farewell to Washington
“I was blessed to criss-cross this country and talk to people thousands of kilometres apart — literally and figuratively. People who, if seated together, might barely last a minute chatting politics without arguing. But they shared a willingness to talk to me, and, by extension, to you.”