Wednesday Night #2321

Gloria Steinem R.I.P.
Among the countless tributes, Hillary Clinton’s Facebook post noted
“Over the decades, she became one of the architects of the entire structure of women’s equality
She pushed open doors not just for herself, but for literally millions of women behind her.
She wasn’t going to be an astronaut, but my goodness, she made it possible for Sally Ride to be an astronaut. She wasn’t going to play college sports, but she stood behind the women in Congress who passed Title IX and opened up opportunities in sports and academics for girls. And she wasn’t on the Supreme Court when Roe v. Wade was decided, but her voice and her activism was behind that advancement for women’s rights.”

Nothing but good news from our dear friend and colleague, Doug Sweet. For those who missed his Facebook post showing a gorgeous September 7th sunrise, he shared the news that granddaughter Ivy, a little sister for Ethan in Seattle, had arrived the day before.
On Wednesday (today) he wrote: “I’d like to toss this message of thanks to all who have offered such warm words of hope and encouragement over the last couple of weeks. It’s hard to believe they’re already talking about letting me go home as early as tomorrow or Friday! Things have gone well from a medical standpoint, despite a setback or two, but there’s no question a lot of progress has been made in the course of this week. I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the lovely messages that accompanied the arrival of granddaughter Ivy. All are well, and we can’t wait to get out there to help care for her bigger brother and get to know her. I hope to see you all soon in an upcoming Wednesday Night.”
And late breaking news: “Feeding tube out; strong possibility of home by tomorrow!!!!!”

It has always seemed to us that the year begins in September -Labor Day serving as an unofficial New Year’s Eve- no doubt dating back to academic years when the mood was always highly anticipatory as we said farewell to summer friends and pastimes and headed off to embrace new undertakings, challenges and often new friends. As the days grow noticeably shorter, the cooler, dryer air is slightly effervescent and the light changes along with the color of the leaves. There is a new energy to undertake new projects after summer holidays and lassitude.
For the first time that we can remember, the seasonal happy anticipation has been replaced by a sense of foreboding. The destruction of every element of good government and governance in the U.S.by Trump and his MAGA acolytes is partly to blame; the unfettered and increasingly alarming leaps in the power of AI; trade wars, tariffs and the deterioration of a relatively congenial multilateralism of western nations with at least some sense of responsibility for the health of the earth and less fortunate nations. Guardrails have been demolished.
How to Survive in a World Without Rules (See Long reads)
Self-help is becoming more vital in a vicious world., writes Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger distinguished professor of global affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He elaborates “Now, all around the world, rules are in retreat. Aggression and conquest are surging; economic coercion and predation are rampant. Respect for international law and organizations is cratering; arms control is in decline. Great powers are reviving dreams of empire; the United States is tempted to seek narrow national aggrandizement at the cost of world order. And as global norms falter, strong leaders are shredding political constraints and institutions at home.”
In her essay A New World Order Is Coming. We Aren’t Ready, historian Margaret MacMillan cautions
“This is a world of increasing unpredictability in which we are left, to a much greater extent than we expected, at the whims of our leaders, who are less bound by external frameworks and feel freer to make it up as they go along. We should be choosing those decision makers more carefully than ever — just when electorates seem less inclined to do so. … Those of us who live in relatively stable and well-ordered societies would like to believe, like Voltaire’s absurd Dr. Pangloss, who stumbles from one disaster to another, that “all is for the best.” We might grumble about the economy or the prospect of another far-off war or listen approvingly to radical voices from either end of the political spectrum, but we don’t expect our world to be turned upside down.”

AI, Chatbots, Society & Technology
Following the great enthusiastic embrace of all things ChatBot and AI, many are having sober second thoughts
Bill Gates published a nearly 6,000-word essay on his personal website laying out his concerns about A.I. and offering solutions, such as new taxes and bans . He is the latest in a string of tech luminaries to call out the risks of A.I. as the industry spends trillions of dollars on new data centers, and as young A.I. companies edge toward some of the largest initial public offerings in history.
Politico’s nightly Forecast newsletter headlines It’s the end of the world as we know it quoting Jacob Coxon’s message “I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives”

World leaders – It is increasingly evident that Donald Trump is delusional, and that the US Constitution and related governance structures are incapable of reining him in. Whether it is the prolonged war with Iran, the struggle over the Strait of Hormuz and the related complications of Middle East alliances, or the irrational trade and tariff war with Canada, the vain (in both senses) attempts to mediate Putin’s War with Ukraine, or the relationships with Bibi’s Israel, he cannot be stopped. There are no guardrails that he acknowledges. We can only pray that the midterms bring dominance of the Democrats in both Houses – and even then, can they stop him?
Bob Rae cautions: Read his lips!
Why we should take Donald Trump seriously – His face and voice are everywhere by design. His every move, shout, and social media outburst is amplified, the endless stream of bile, insults and toxicity all part of the plan.
Our temptation may be to shut ourselves off, to find a quieter, saner place where we can detach from the interminable ranting— but we do not have the luxury to ignore this. We have to deal with it, because in very real and substantive ways, U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to wear us down, beat us up, twist the knife and turn the screw.
Like it or not, what Trump thinks and does matters. His are not the ravings of a madman; they are the basis of policy. While his views are not shared by all his fellow citizens, Trump is still the president of the most powerful country on the planet, which happens to be our next-door neighbour. And he is convinced that the only path to American prosperity and dominance is “Only America First.”

Meanwhile, the victory of the far-right AfD in Germany is significant and it is expected that aftershocks will ripple across Germany, with two more state elections this month. As might be expected, Trump had to stir the pot with the effect that German chancellor Friedrich Merz cancelled a planned phone call with him on Wednesday, hours after Trump publicly celebrated the win by AfD to ‘make Germany great again’.
Another disquieting note is the reaction to the death and funeral of Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic. (Mladic’s funeral: Were no lessons learned?)

Israel
We applaud the actions of UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband with respect to the sanctions on West Bank illegal settlements
(‘It’s a good start’: prominent Israelis welcome UK sanctions on illegal settlements), but Bibi and the government of Israel will take little notice and continue their genocidal actions as the October elections loom. What to make of the claim that Netanyahu was personally alerted by the president of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a large-scale offensive against Israel a week before its 7 October 2023 attack, but did not act on the warning, according to a book by Haaretz reporters? Of course the Israeli PM says the allegation is ‘absolute lie’. Do we believe him any more than we do Trump?

What of Quebec elections? It appears that Mme Fréchette is effectively shedding the mantle of the Legault CAQ and may well succeed in achieving a minority government. We can only recommend that you follow Eric Grenier’s The Writ, an always reliable voice.
Quebec race settling in ahead of second full week of the campaign
The early movement in the polls has subsided, but the campaign remains a knife-fight.
Andrew Caddell devotes this week’s column to Anglophones on the sidelines in the Quebec election
“I am far from my home in Kamouraska, Que., but aware of the events in the shambolic provincial election campaign. Having drilled down into the role of the election in the current national existential crisis/trade war, I will drill further to a subset of the Oct. 5 election: the involvement of Quebec’s English-speaking community.
This isn’t to inflate their importance: despite being 1.6 million people (more than the respective populations of six provinces and territories), they are mostly clustered on the island of Montreal, where there are 27 seats, of which a dozen count substantial numbers of anglophones.”
… “Christine Fréchette, offered to “change the tone” of her party’s relationship with Anglo Quebecers when she became leader in April. Unfortunately, she didn’t change the substance.
“Proof of that came recently when it was disclosed French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge and Commissioner of the French Language Benoît Dubreuil refused to allow Élections Québec an exemption to issue bilingual voter information cards. Instead, the cards will include a QR code for English speakers.”
… “anglophones are orphans in this election. There will be three French leaders’ debates, but none in English, even though non-francophones have specific concerns related to language, health, education, and government services. The election information contretemps is a microcosm of the discrimination dating back to the passage of Bill 96. One would expect this egregious treatment might engender a backlash, but the one party supporting Anglo interests, the Canadian Party/Parti Canadien, is struggling for attention”

Finally, a positive note!
Map of the world
It may have escaped your attention that the UN has voted to officially retire the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the 2018 Equal Earth design which more accurately reflects the true size of continents such as Africa.
There have been many prominent attempts over the years to solve the problem of accurately representing the surface of a sphere on a flat rectangle, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.
The “Correct the Map” resolution adopted by the General Assembly aims to fix the discrepancy with the Mercator map, in which the African continent is shown as being of similar size to Greenland – even though it is in reality about 14 times larger.
The Equal Earth projection better represents the true sizes of landmasses – but comes with problems of its own. “…it sacrifices the straight lines that made the Mercator projection perfect for navigating with – and it cannot be used for measuring the true distance between different places.” What different world maps get right – and what they get wrong
West Wing fans may remember (and if they do not, see Long reads/videos for a refresher) that CJ and Josh were exposed to the inaccuracies of the Mercator view of the world

Long reads/videos
How to Survive in a World Without Rules
Our world is at risk of becoming a gangster’s paradise, in which rules matter far less than they once did—and raw power matters more.

A New World Order Is Coming. We Aren’t Ready

The National | Trump rapidly escalates Canada-U.S. trade war
U.S. President Donald Trump rapidly intensifies the trade war against Canada with new tariffs and complete import bans on some products. Canadian consumers feel the bite in prices
At Issue Canada faces more U.S. trade war escalation
With Canada’s $28 billion tit-for-tat counter-tariffs sparking further U.S. tariffs and outright bans on some Canadian products, the At Issue panel breaks down Canada’s strategy, what it might do next, and what all the trade chaos means for politics and national unity.

Gloria Steinem, Personification of the Women’s Movement, Dies at 92
She challenged sexist assumptions, helping women develop a sense of self-worth and gain a measure of equality at work, at home and in society at large.

UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale
Mercator vs Peters projection map (“West Wing” Season 2 Episode 16) video