Hope.
And we all got a jolt of it on Tuesday when the Democrats won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia by big fat luscious margins against Donald Trump’s Republicans.
Those whumping majorities were a breath of life for Americans and the rest of us who rage against gestures such as ICE agents in Chicago forbidding the Latino immigrants they’ve caged from taking communion during a Catholic Mass.
Normally brow-beaten columnists whispered about the end of the Trump-based coalitionof women, immigrants and young white men. Podcasts spoke of a Democratic majority in both houses come the 2028 mid-terms (assuming there are mid-terms). Even Barack Obama grew a smile.
The good news is that the sense of Trump’s dreadful inevitability was broken. One sunrise doesn’t make an endless summer; but it’s a start, and hope can carry you a very long way.
But that wasn’t the best political news last week: that came from the people of New York City who elected a foreign-born, democratic socialist South Asian Muslim-American to be its Mayor.
If you don’t know who Zohran Mamdani is, or have a hard time even pronouncing his name, take time now to learn more about him – not just because he’s different in every possible way a human being can be from the U.S. President – and especially his age of 34 – but because he’s the absolute avatar for “the other” in white male Protestant America today.
Mamdani was born in India, emigrated to Uganda, then Idi Amin kicked his family out, then landed in America as a boy of seven. His dad Mahmood Mamdani, still teaches politics and anthropology at Columbia, and his mom, Mira Nair, is one of the world’s most popular filmmakers, whose first feature, Salaam Bombay!, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Oscars, and who directed Denzel Washington in Mississippi Masala.
He’s good-looking, married to a very independent woman, ferociously articulate, and a natural optimist, which is a quality he’ll need in the months to come as the slings and arrows pour down on him.
He’s also thought to be antisemitic, calling the Palestinian cause “central to my identity.”This is not a good look for the leader of the city with more Jews than any place outside Israel. On the other hand, he’s also said this about Jews and himself and New York.
On the third hand, and make no mistake, we live in a three-handed world, his very first action since winning on Tuesday – his action, not his words – was to appoint the five members of his transition team who will help him prepare for January 1 when he takes office.
They all look very qualified to me.
So let’s see how this goes. At the very least, Donald Trump doesn’t have a clear field any more.
Meanwhile…
1. Go dark: How to remember Remembrance Day. It’s on Tuesday and for the first time ever, screens will go dark all across the country.
2. “Don’t Zoom your Ferrari.” Sound advice from Singaporean politician Lee Hsien Loong, to new immigrants to the city state. Here are his full remarks given last week at Chatham House in London .
Also, sound advice from a distant corner, the world of whistle-blowing. And how social movements change, from a scene to a mop.
3. Not their first gay rodeo. NBC News profiled the 50th anniversary of the International Gay Rodeo Association at its signature event, the World Gay Rodeo held last month in Reno, Nevada.
4. Our top soldier apologizes for racism in Canada’s military. General Jennie Carignan offers a different kind of truth and reconciliation in admitting “our institution caused harm to countless people it was meant to support and respect.”
5. Serious people unpack a smaller tomorrow. First, the Financial Times’ Martin Wolf on the coming fall of the American economy. Next, Anna Krylov boycotts Nature for abandoning its science agenda for a social justice one. Next, Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson discuss if Canada’s at a tipping point, on Steve Paikin’s new podcast. Finally, the new Carney budget. Columnist Paul Wells had two takes on it; both discouraging, but sane.
6. The blood is visible from space. The slaughter in Sudan is so awful that the media may be forced to give up its ageless trope of treating Sudan as a single seamless hellhole. It’s not.
7. “Does it look like it was filmed on a potato?” – That’s what you should ask before watching any video to determine if it’s real or AI. This, for example, is AI.
Also, are you crazy!? Only if the DSM says so.
8. Niche, but nice. Two concerts of interest. Violinist Moshe Hammer brings hisfarewell tour to Hugh’s Room Live on Friday Nov. 14 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets here. And the Nashville newgrass group The Arcadian Wild, who’ve spawned 50 million Spotify streams and 325,000 monthly listeners, plays at DrakeUnderground in the Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen St. West in Toronto on Wednesday, November 12.
9. Despite everything, Canada…still has the world’s 10th largest economy.…is rich as Croesus in natural resources, and we rank 8th in terms of Nobel Prize winners. But we’vefallen precipitously in quality of life. Oh, and here’s how we would rank as the 51st state.And as a member of the EU.
And speaking of Nobel Prizes, here’s how not to win one.
10. Reasons for hope. Here’s a guaranteed weight-gain program. And crosswalks cars stop for. And websites for free books. And operatic quick-change artists. And cool UK accents. And it’s time to create your family’s code word. Plus the comedy wildlife awards.Plus, who does Nigel Farage remind you of? And finally, a great newsletter on how, when you get knocked down, you should get up.
11. What I’m reading. Rogers v. Rogers, by Globe and Mail business reporterAlexandra Posadzki. Last week it won Business Book of the Year and is being adapted for the stage by Crow’s Theatre. (It’s almost sold out before it opens next month.) Posadzki weaves the dry rules of ‘governance’ into a real-life season of Succession, and because nearly every Canadian does something with “Rogers”, we feel we’re part of its story and fate.
Speaking of book awards, The Baillie Gifford Prize, “for the best non-fiction book in the English language”, was given this week to the Australian novelist and journalist Helen Garner for her diaries which are called How to End a Story. Now in its 26th year, the Baillie Giffords have been won by three Canadians: Margaret MacMillan in 2002 for Paris 1919, Wade Davis in 2012 for Into the Silence, and John Vaillant in 2023 for Fire Weather.