The rebranding of ‘Lake America’ is Trump’s desperate attempt to distract us. Ignore Iran, the Epstein files, and your wallet – not to mention Trump’s plummeting approval ratings

Arwa Mahdawi 

As well as being a distraction, this pathetic maneuver is supposed to be a middle finger to Canada.’ Photograph: Al Drago/Pool/Al Drago - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

 The Week in Patriarchy

 Donald Trump 

Sat 29 Aug 2026

Don’t mention the war! Or the economy, for that matter. Or the Epstein files. Or Natalie Harp. Or “affordability”, which, as Donald Trump recently said at a rally, is a word that was “never used” by the media before he took office. Best not to talk about anything that affects ordinary people or embarrasses the president, really. Instead, let’s all rejoice in Trump’s latest triumph: renaming Lake Ontario, which is shared by Canada and the US, as Lake America.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to America-fy the lake’s name on US maps and documents, which is an excellent use of time and resources. I suppose we can at least be thankful that the president, who is trying to slap his own name on everything from airports to the Kennedy Center, didn’t decree that the body of water be called Lake Trump.

This is not an isolated embarrassment: the Lake Ontario name change follows the president’s rebranding of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year. “We have a gulf and we have a lake – now all we need is an ocean. Maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific,” Trump told reporters.

Give it a few more months of the disastrous war in Iran and a bruised Trump may well make good on that threat: the man will do anything to distract from his failings.

As well as being a distraction, this pathetic maneuver is supposed to be a middle finger to Canada. Trade negotiations between the US and Canada recently collapsed, with the Trump administration imposing a 50% tariff on some goods and the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, promising a “dollar for dollar” response. One suspects that Trump thinks Lake Ontario is named after the Canadian province it borders. Ergo he reckons a unilateral name change is a good way of showing the US’s northern neighbour who is boss.

However, as Carney was forced to point out on social media, the name Lake Ontario has been used for more than 400 years and comes from the Indigenous Wendat/Huron word Ontari’io, meaning: “The lake is beautiful, the lake is big.” It predates both the Confederation of Canada and the US Declaration of Independence.

A US president ordering the name change of a Great Lake in order to antagonize one of its closest allies would have been headline news for weeks in a normal timeline. Now it’s just another Thursday. Still, this is more than a silly stunt that both Canada and the governor of New York have made clear they are going to ignore. It’s a glaring demonstration of just how desperate, isolated and out of ideas Trump is... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/29/lake-america-trump-approval-ratings   

Israel has killed at least 100 Palestinians in Gaza in the last two weeks

This is more than 10 months into a “ceasefire”

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies here, there- and everywhere]

Zohran Mamdani is rewriting the political rules around support for Israel. If support for Israel is no longer de rigueur in New York, it may soon not be obligatory in Washington. That is good news for Palestinians - by Kenneth Roth in The Guardian

‘The political shift on Israel that Mamdani’s victory represents should be a wake-up call for the Netanyahu government.’ Photograph: Lev Radin/Shutterstock

 Kenneth Roth

Thu 27 Nov 2025 06.00 EST

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be quaking in his boots at the decisive victory of Zohran Mamdani in the 4 November New York City mayoral election. Not because of absurd allegations of antisemitism for which there is no evidence, but because Mamdani has broken the longstanding taboo for successful New York candidates against criticizing the Israeli government. And he has only reinforced his approach in the month since his election.

New York has the largest Jewish population in the United States – and the second-largest of any city in the world after Tel Aviv. The longstanding assumption was that many Jewish voters prioritized the defense of the Israeli government over other issues, so criticism of Israel would set them against a politician.

Mamdani blew that assumption out of the water. During the campaign he spoke accurately and openly about the genocide that Israel was committing in Gaza. He insisted that all residents of Israel should have equal rights. He said he would arrest Netanyahu were he to show up in New York. Yet one-third of New York’s Jewish voters cast a ballot for him. As did many others.

Some Jews may have been uncomfortable with Mamdani’s criticism of Israel but liked other aspects of his candidacy, such as his relentless focus on affordability. Others, myself included, were attracted by his candor on such an important issue as Israel. Many were also probably appalled by the efforts of Mamdani’s principal opponent, Andrew Cuomo, to tar Mamdani with fact-free allegations of antisemitism.

Mamdani has only continued his openness on Israel since the election... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/27/zohran-mamdani-israel-us-support

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]